Simple Man Politics

Well here is a new one for the record books if it is true. Apparently the party of the people under our new Community Organizer in Chief is supposed to be attempting to silence free speech. I would really like to tell you that I find this accusation to be absolutely ridiculous, but at this point and time I cannot because there appears to be some legitimacy and truth in the accusation.

For starters the White House has in recent days advertised a new email address for people to report fraudulent claims about the proposed healthcare reform bill that Obama wants and that Democrats in both houses of congress seem more than willing to push through. Of course they want everyone to think that the fraudulent claims are made by those who oppose the bill or the Democrats.

The Democrats are also getting ready to load up their town hall meetings with organizations who support them. This is in an effort to crush and silence the grass roots movements that have been organizing against them and their healthcare bill publically. All the while the Dem’s continue to claim that the town hall opposition is being organized by the GOP, insurance companies, and the like.

This is not the only time that the left has attempted to silence free speech and the right to assembly. They have recently attempted to attack free speech from the right in the form of The Fairness Doctrine as well. This would silence the right wing media machine in the form of talk radio from getting their message out to conservative listeners. It might also do damage to news outlets such as Fox News.

Another new and favorite tactic now being used by the loony left is the baseless accusations that all the town hall protesters are acting like Nazi’s and carrying symbols such as swastikas to their healthcare town hall meetings. The White House has even gone so far as to delegitimize the protesters at the town halls who are in an uproar by saying that those in opposition are showing manufactured outrage.

The truth of the matter is that with all of the other insane spending that has been done in the name of the tax payer people have just had enough. You really can’t blame them when nobody who is trying to pass this healthcare reform bill has even read it. If you will remember the same thing happened with the budget bill. Let’s face it there is only so much Democratic Party ineptitude the American people will stand for.

All of the current polling and facts even point to the reality that the healthcare bill has virtually no traction or support among the American people, or at least those who pay taxes and vote. Before there can even be any support for this bill there are a lot of serious questions that the people want answered, but they haven’t been yet.

I will tell you what I believe. I believe in the 1st amendment. I believe in freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to public assembly. I also don’t believe in restricting either sides point of view either. I also believe that telling anyone what they can say publicly or privately is censorship as in denying anyone the right to assemble. I for one will exercise my 1st amendment rights as often as I want.

That is all for this subject on Simple Man Politics right now, but we will reserve the right to address this issue anytime it comes up. I hope you all have an awesome weekend and I will be back again next week my friends, CIAO4NOW!!!!!

Welcome to the Friday edition of Simple Man Politics. I have been waiting for suggestions from all of you my readers as to what I should write about on Friday's. This is an attempt to get all of you involved. It is also an attempt to explore ideas and spark debate. However since I have had no suggestions for this Friday's post I have decided to write about the Fairness Doctrine.

The Fairness Doctrine was a US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) policy. The policy required those who hold broadcast licenses to two things. One it required them to present controversial issues that were considered important publicly and two to do so honestly. The Fairness Doctrine was introduced to the US in 1949 and was abolished in 1987.

The reason that the Fairness Doctrine was abolished by the FCC in a 4-0 vote in the Syracuse Peace Council was because they found that the enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine by the government with regard to content programming restricted the journalistic freedom of broadcasters. This decision was upheld by the Appeals Court for the DC District in 1989.

In 1987 the Democrat controlled congress attempted to codify the Fairness Doctrine but then President Ronald Reagan vetoed the legislation. In 1991 the Democrat controlled congress attempted to revive the legislation but under threat of veto by President George H. W. Bush the movement died.

There is now some support for re instituting the Fairness Doctrine. People like Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Congressperson Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)just to name three are very interested in bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. The reason for that is their stated belief that commentators should have to offer opposing points of political view. they also believe that the Fairness Doctrine should be applied to websites, bloggers, cable TV, and satellite radio. Basically anyone or anything that offers political commentary like me.

there is opposition to the Fairness Doctrine as well. many prominent libertarians and conservatives oppose the Fairness Doctrine saying that it is an attempt by the Democrats who hate the success of conservative talk radio and have nothing but contempt for conservative commentators. The opposition also says that the Fairness Doctrine could include government dictated content policy, which means telling broadcasters and commentators what they can and cannot say. The opposition forces against the Fairness Doctrine will also tell you that media scarcity, liberal viewpoints being stymied at the corporate level, and public interests are all myths. it is important to note at this time that the Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama is against reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

The liberal democrats have the 3 major broadcasting companies ABC, NBC, and CBS firmly ensconced in their back pockets as well as MSNBC and CNN on cable outlets. They also have a host of Internet and print outlets that cater to their Socialist, Marxist, liberal ideology. The real reason they want the Fairness Doctrine back is to use it as a club to attack the right wing conservative broadcasters and commentators because they are consistently more successful at getting their message out in the venues they choose to occupy.

Fox news destroys its competition daily in the ratings war, with people like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity leading the way over there. In talk radio you have personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, and Dr. Michael Savage who constantly attack the left on the issues with facts that are indisputable and as a result the left cannot successfully defend themselves. The conservative print media is just as effective with publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, and Roll call on the front lines in the print war.

I personally believe that the Fairness Doctrine is a bad piece of legislation that may have been necessary at its inception but has no place in our current media culture. From one end of the media spectrum to the other you can find political points of view from both sides of the political arena. This attempt to resuscitate the Fairness doctrine is the lefts chance to destroy all of it's opposition while it is in power in both houses of Congress. They will not brook any successful opposition to them if they can help it. I believe that this is because they fear the truth.

That is all for today and this week my friends. I will see you all again on Monday. Have a fabulous weekend CIAO4NOW!!!!!