Never willing to let the free market decide what is best for them, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that not only would Mike Pence’s Broadcaster Freedom Bill get a vote, but she personally hopes to control/limit free speech via a revival of the Fairness Doctrine:

At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor yesterday, I asked Pelosi if Pence failed to get the required signatures on a discharge petition to get his anti-Fairness Doctrine bill out of committee, would she permit the Pence measure to get a floor vote this year.

“No,” the Speaker replied, without hesitation. She added that “the interest in my caucus is the reverse” and that New York Democratic Rep. “Louise Slaughter has been active behind this [revival of the Fairness Doctrine] for a while now.”

Pelosi pointed out that, after it returns from its Fourth of July recess, the House will only meet for another three weeks in July and three weeks in the fall. There are a lot of bills it has to deal with before adjournment, she said, such as FISA and an energy bill.

“So I don’t see it [the Pence bill] coming to the floor,” Pelosi said.

“Do you personally support revival of the ‘Fairness Doctrine?’” I asked.

“Yes,” the speaker replied, without hesitation.

Once again the Marxists in the Democrat party are trying to control the way we live. There is no reason for a Fairness Doctrine, other than to silence the opposition. The Fairness Doctrine will not add more liberal voices to the radio, but it will remove the conservative ones, as radio station owners seek to avoid fines for not broadcasting shows that fail to bring in listeners.

This is nothing more than an attempt to control the debate.

Glenn Beck covered this well:

The United Nations has finally realized that there is something amiss in Zimbabwe. I guess all it took was cutting off the feet and hands of the opposition party’s wife before burning her alive for them to say, “Hey, this isn’t fair.”

In a statement, the 15-member body said a free and fair presidential run-off vote on Friday would be “impossible”.

Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said he would leave the Dutch embassy in Harare over the next 48 hours.

The Movement for Democratic Change leader took refuge there on Sunday night after pulling out of the poll saying he did not want more bloodshed.

He told Dutch radio on Tuesday that the Netherlands ambassador had received assurances from the Zimbabwean government about his safety.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said Friday’s election should be delayed, but Zimbabwe’s UN envoy insisted it would go ahead.

The people of Zimbabwe don’t need an election and they don’t need UN peace keepers coming in and raping their children. They need a Second Amendment and a large shipment of weapons. Or at least on really good sniper.

They need a revolution.

With the Supreme Court about to hand down a decision on the D.C. gun ban, and the Brady Campaign already accepting defeat, the nanny state gun grabbers are already gearing up to infrindge on your Second Amendment rights. They will outlaw handguns, not by banning handguns. THey know that will not fly.

But assault weapons…that they could pull off. It’s what they classify as an “assault weapon” that needs review:

The gun control groups recognize that Americans are tired of handgun bans that don’t work, as seen in cities like Chicago and D.C. So instead of fighting to ban ordinary guns like handguns, the gun groups are now trying to get these ordinary guns classified as “assault weapons,” so that it easier to ban them. For example, nobody would think of an ordinary handgun such as the Springfield XD as an “assault weapon,” but the bans on “assault weapons” extend to cover this and many other handguns.

How, you ask? Simple: The bans on so called “assault weapons” define a magazine with the capacity to hold more than 10 rounds as a “high capacity assault weapon feeding device.” Then, ordinary guns such as the Springfield XD, or even the guns that have been around for over 100 years and won the wild west, are suddenly classified as “assault weapons.” Since such a definition defies common sense, most people don’t know that their ordinary handgun, or antique lever action rifle is now an “assault weapon” until they are arrested and jailed.

In Des Moines, some pagan has painted religious symbols on his fence that has raised the hackles on his neighbors. He says it is art, his neighbors say it’s graffiti:

The first challenge is defining graffiti. The city’s ordinance defines it as “any inscription, drawing, picture, letter, number, symbol or other written communication sprayed, painted or in some manner inscribed on street, sidewalk, building or wall surfaces not intended primarily for such use.”

That is broad enough to mean just about anything the city wants it to mean, giving it the power to order the removal of just about anything it believes is offensive. The U.S. Supreme Court has taken a dim view of such censorship when it comes to individual expression at one’s own private residence. As the court said in a 1994 Missouri case: “A special respect for individual liberty in the home has long been a part of our culture and our law; … that principle has special resonance when the government seeks to constrain a person’s ability to speak there.”

The symbols on MacPebbles’ fence, which he describes as images of his pagan religion, raise additional First Amendment questions of religious freedom. Would the city prosecute MacPebbles if he painted a Star of David or a crucifix on his fence? City officials may not consider unorthodox religious symbols as legitimate, but the courts are not likely to be so dismissive.

The article is really useless without pictures, but I found a news article with pics. Here’s one:

HOLLY MCQUEEN/THE REGISTER

Now, that looks like graffiti, but if the owner did it himself, and wants it there, is it graffiti?

The city has told him to remove it, but he says:

“Those are religious symbols; they’re not mean or obnoxious in any way,” said Ryle MacPebbles who lives in the 2000 block of Southeast Sixth Street. “I just don’t like them telling me my religion isn’t anything.

“When they start making it personal with my religion, I’m sorry, we’ll take it to court,” said MacPebbles, a member of the American Pagan Church.

So, while he has a point, so do his neighbors. His decorations are unsightly, regardless of the symbolism. If you want to decorate your residence with religious symbols, at least try to make it attractive. Is there something about paganism that says you have to use black spraypaint?

Get some real decorations, Ryle. Be considerate of your neighbors. But, at the same time, the government shouldn’t make him remove them. They are not overtly offensive, just unattractive.

Your thoughts?

Nicaraguan Reverend Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann seems to be a perfect fit for this group:

D’Escoto served as foreign minister of Nicaragua during the Sandinista dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in the 1980s and is known for his extreme, stridently anti-American views.

In a June 2004 radio interview with Democracy Now, the Los Angeles-born Roman Catholic priest referred to former President Reagan as “the butcher of my people”, who was “responsible for the deaths of some 50,000 Nicaraguans,” and a leader who was “possessed by demons.” According to D’Escoto the United States was “the greatest enemy of the right of self-determination of peoples” and declared Americans to be “the most ignorant people around the world.”

D’Escoto was the pick of the 33-nation Latin American and Caribbean group within the UN. Under the system of regional rotation the bloc was able to put forward its own candidate for the presidency of the General Assembly (which controls the UN budget) without challenge from the rest of the world. He will take office at the next Assembly meeting in September, succeeding the low-key former foreign minister of Macedonia, Srgjan Kerim.

The UN budget is $4.2 billion for ‘08-’09. America’s portion of that budget adds up to around 23% of the total budget. That comes out to just a little over $966,000,000. Almost a billion American dollars, in the control of an organization that becomes more anti-American every day.

Isn’t it time to leave the United Nations?

Two evangelical Christians were handing out pamphlets in a predominantly Muslim area when an officer of the “law”stopped by to have a chat. After discovering they were Americans, ranting about President Bush and the Iraq war, the kind police officer then threatened them with arrest:

The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a “hate crime” and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that “no-go areas” for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year.

Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, both full-time evangelical ministers, have launched legal action against West Midlands Police, claiming the officer infringed their right to profess their religion.

Mr Abraham said: “I couldn’t believe this was happening in Britain. The Bishop of Rochester was criticised by the Church of England recently when he said there were no-go areas in Britain but he was right; there are certainly no-go areas for Christians who want to share the gospel.”

The West Midlands police refused to apologize for the officer’s behavior, but they did say he was going through “training in understanding hate crime and communication.”

A new style of censorship is being considered by the Federal Communications Commission. The left understands the stigma attached to the “Fairness Doctrine,” so rather than try to reestablish it, they are taking another route to achieve the same goal:

In a 2007 report, an ultra-liberal think tank known as The Center for American Progress issued a report called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio.” Jim Boulet of English First says its agenda was to cleverly recast the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” by using the term “localism.”

“In 2007, they issued a report in which they bragged that if they could get more women and minorities to own stations, there’d be fewer stations carrying programs like Rush Limbaugh. What the regulations also do is we create a board of censors, really, who the radio station would have to meet with four times a year to listen to all their complaints — and if they weren’t satisfied, the radio station could lose its license,” Boulet points out.

What they can’t stop with the “Fairness” Doctrine, they will stop with affirmative action in broadcasting.

One of the proposed regulations would require racial and sexual quotas for station ownership, and another would require that all “licensees should convene and consult with permanent advisory boards.” Boulet says he knows what that will mean.

“These boards are going to be made up of people like the [Council on] American-Islamic Relations, The National Council of La Raza – all a bunch of professional grievance mongers who will never be satisfied until programs like Rush Limbaugh are no longer on the air,” Boulet explains.

According to Boulet, the review process is expected to end on June 11, at which time the FCC will decide what to do.

There is an alternative. We preach active citizenry here, and one way of making your voice heard is via petition. There is a petition to tell the FCC what you think about this. It is at Keeprushontheair.com.

It is incredible they are even considering these things. As one Freeper said, “What part of the First Amendment, is so complicated?”

This is a good look at the liberal Democrat Candidate for President of the United States. It is thirteen minutes long, but it is worth it.

Hat Tip: Humbled Infidel

Great work, libs. This guy couldn’t have done this without you:

The U.S. military is confirming that a former Guantanamo detainee from Kuwait carried out a recent suicide attack in northern Iraq.

A spokesman for U.S. military’s Central Command told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul.

These guys are not in Gitmo because they were singing too loud in church, you know. Allahpundit at Hot Air says:

I can’t find any explanation for why he was turned over to Kuwait. Possibly because he was wanted there on charges of fundraising for Al Qaeda (and ultimately duly acquitted, natch) or possibly as a goodwill gesture from Uncle Sam to the international community, to prove that we’re willing to let jihadist cretins go even when they promise to go right back to doing what they do.

Respect to JammieWearingFool, who wrote:

I hope our friends at the ACLU rest comfortably tonight, knowing their efforts sprung this maggot so he could go back to doing what he was meant to do: murder innocent people.

The blood is on their hands.

Exactly.

Barack Obama, who is working around the clock to become the next commander-in-chief of every American Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine recently accepted fifty thousand dollars from Code Pink leader Jodie Evans.

Jodie Evans, a Code Pink leader, gathered at least $50,000 from friends and associates and donated it to Obama’s presidential campaign, according to information compiled by the nonpartisan watchdog group, Public Citizen.

…

The donations have raised questions about Obama’s association with the more radical elements of his base. Code Pink has harassed, vandalized and impeded military recruiters across the United States in a campaign it calls “counter-recruitment.” The group also gave $600,000 to the families of Iraqi terrorists in Fallujah, whom it called “insurgents” fighting for their homes. [Human Events]

So they give money to the families of terrorists, and they give money to Barack Obama. If the lack of experience, the racist spiritual adviser, and the complete lack of a platform with any substance weren’t enough, I think taking money from the morons at Code Pink would cause me not to vote for Obama.

Obama should have refused to accept the money. Instead, he is receiving support from an anti-military organization who believes that our military is no more than a machine for mass murder.

Added Bonus!

Here’s a short video from The Daily Show that is both funny and informative.

The plot in Berkeley continues to thicken. The Daily Californian is reporting that a group of students are trying to get the same permits that “Code Pink” currently has. This should be interesting to watch.

The Berkeley College Republicans are looking to get the same permit privileges that anti-war group Code Pink use to protest outside the Marine recruiting center in Downtown Berkeley.

Working with Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the group is asking for sound waiver permits and a parking spot reservation outside the center on Wednesdays from 12 to 4 p.m., the same time Code Pink protests outside the center, said Kimberly Wagner, activism chair for the Berkeley College Republicans.

“(Code Pink’s) claim is that they’re protecting free speech,” she said. “I kind of don’t feel they are, they are inhibiting the recruitment center in general. It’s important that they are not unopposed, that there are people willing to fight them. Even though it’s Berkeley, the liberal center of America, there will be people (opposed).”

All American Blogger applauds the Berkeley College Republicans. It’s sad that the city council of Berkeley is allowing the liberal wingnuts from Code Pink to harass our Marines. Let’s see if they will allow the same freedom to speak to these conservative students that they have allowed to the liberal protesters.

In 1990, a small, round faced Canadian described a scenario to a reporter. He envisioned a small group of world leaders concluding that the rich countries were the “principle risk to the Earth.” This group then created a plan to get the rich countries to “sign an agreement reducing their impact on the environment.” When the rich countries refused, the group decided “the only hope for the planet” was for the industrialized civilizations to collapse. He pondered, “Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”

Two years later, he helped lay the foundation for the Kyoto Protocol at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro. His name is Maurice Strong, and he would love to see America collapse. (more…)

Remember when Israel blew the crap out of a non-descript building in Syria and nobody said anything about it? Well, that’s a bit of exaggeration. There were rumors at first, then Syria came out and admitted it. Now video surfaces of North Koreans helping out around the facility:

A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.

The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel’s decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.

Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core’s design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows “remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon,” a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video “very, very damning.”

Of course, Syria is denying it all, saying that we shouldn’t trust the U.S. government more than the North Koreans and the Syrians. Personally, I’ll stick with the CIA on this one.

A passage from this article that really sticks out to me is here:

U.S. officials said that Israel shared the video with the United States before the Sept. 6 bombing, after Bush administration officials expressed skepticism last spring that the facility, visible by satellite since 2001, was a nuclear reactor built with North Korea’s assistance. Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal that it has never declared.

But beginning today, intelligence officials will tell members of the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign relations committees that the Syrian facility was not yet fully operational and that there was no uranium for the reactor and no indication of fuel capability, according to U.S. officials and intelligence sources.

The first sentence makes sense, in that we are explaining how we saw the video. But then the second seems like some kind of anti-Israel texual Tourettes statement. I mean, it really doesn’t belong there. It’s like they had to get it in the story, but didn’t know where to put it, so they just jammed it in there and then they go right back to the story.

What does it even have to do with the fact that North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor? Nothing.

It seems, however, that the Iraq War is having a positive influence on the region:

Syria’s top envoy to Washington said the CIA briefings were meant to undermine diplomatic efforts with North Korea, not to confront Syria. Why, Moustapha said, are “they repeating the same lies and fabrications when they were planning to attack Iraq? The reason is simple: It’s about North Korea, not Syria. The neoconservative elements are having the upper hand.”

He added, “We do not want to plan to acquire nuclear technology as we understand the reality of this world and have seen what the U.S. did to Iraq even when it did not have a nuclear program. So we are not going to give them a pretext to attack Syria.”

Good call, Moustapha. Now let’s talk about Hezbollah.

Muslim “scientists” called for the world to abandon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Instead, it is time to switch to “Mecca Time” (insert obligatory MC Hammer reference here):

The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice.

One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca’s was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed.

Yes, instead, the entire Earth should be set to Islam’s most holy site. There’s not really anything more to this, is there?

But wait folks, there’s more. Because Mecca Time comes with a free Mecca Watch:

The watch is said to rotate anti-clockwise and is supposed to help Muslims determine the direction of Mecca from any point on Earth.

That’s right folks! The new Mecca watch runs backwards. That’s pretty telling, isn’t it? It will be very helpful when we turn our watches to Mecca time.

Step one, turn your clock back 1400 years.

I didn’t say it. Someone much more of an authority on the subject of journalism said it. In defending the doctoring of the most famous photo from World War II, “Managing Editor Richard Stengel said the cover art was part of the publication’s global warming advocacy…”

He continued:

Stengel defied the traditional notion that journalists should be unbiased. “I didn’t go to journalism school,” Stengel said. “But this notion that journalism is objective, or must be objective is something that has always bothered me – because the notion about objectivity is in some ways a fantasy. I don’t know that there is as such a thing as objectivity.”

Stengel supported his claim by stating the role of journalists is not to ask questions, but answer them.

So, newspapers are not there to ask questions, but to answer them. There is a word for that.

He went on to say that journalists just make up standards as they go along.

“I don’t even know what rules there have been all along in journalism,” Stengel said. “There are rules we kind of observed by tradition, but it’s not like you know the legal code or the being a doctor with the way you treat people. We sort of make it up as we go along and I think that is what will continue to happen.”

Stengel’s position ignores principles set down in the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. The “standards of practice” that Stengel’s standpoint might have violated include:

• Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
• Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.

Hat Tip: BMI and Free Republic