Señor Jehuda, aka "El Blogo de Liberto", is an attorney and media professional with a background in TV marketing and production, copywriting, independent filmmaking, and spontaneously speaking perfect Spanish. A proud Texan who recently escaped from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, he spends far too much time thinking about movies - especially since his job requires it. Jehuda is also a contributor at YesButHowever.com and PJ Lifestyle.
Wyblog: NJ Assembly votes to ban photographing children in public.
For crying out loud. You’d figure New Jersey would have more urgent matters on which to focus. Or a more sensible approach to their concerns.
If you’re a photographer, you should know your rights.
Professor Douglass: College lecturer Don Giljum is out of a job over his pro-violence instruction at the University of Missouri.
But he resigned under union pressure, so no First Amendment issue (evidently)…
Actually, it should be legal nationwide, but sometimes Dhimmitude gets in the way: Koran-burning bus driver Derek Fenton to get his job back.
Punk who encouraged murder of South Park creators gets 25 years in prison.
Feds mistakenly shut down 84,000 websites for 6 days.
Bonus damage: the sites were smeared as child porn distributors in the process.
Your tax dollars at work…
UPDATE: Related: TSA Screeners at JFK Admit to Stealing $160,000 From Passengers.
We let them touch us and on top of that they steal from us???
On the e-pages of Counterpunch. And – naturally – he calls for a Stalinist solution to the “civility” problem.
I’d actually visited Counterpunch‘s website before, by coincidence, while Googling something or other. It reminded me of the radical literature you would find here and there around Greenwich Village, back in my college days.
Note that the title of the publication is not very civil at all. But then, I doubt Counterpunch is as interested in civility as it is in censorship. Which is probably the reason why they’re publishing Fidel’s thoughts on the matter in the first place…
CBS Poll: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated.
The Left is going to need a bigger Sorosphere…
THR: “The NPR Board of Directors announced today that it has completed its review into the facts and circumstances leading to the termination of NPR’s contract with senior news analyst Juan Williams.”
The results? Ellen Weiss, the executive who fired Juan Williams over his comments about Muslim terrorists on The O’Reilly Factor has “stepped down”. CEO Vivia Schiller got punished, too, though she’ll be keeping her job.
Evidently, the whole Williams kerfuffle brought unwanted attention to NPR that it could afford to do without. Heads had to roll.
How much you wanna bet that Schiller’s biggest sin in the Board’s eyes was to suggest that NPR could survive defunding by Congress?
The Hill: Homeland Security “seizes” website domain names.
Next time you hear a Hollywood figure brag about how Hollywood brings about social change, ask them how they like this sort of change. Because this is – in large part – the federal government doing the bidding of big media companies.
Whatever happened to sending a cease and desist letter with your own attorney?
Gawker sure is lucky it reached an understanding with Harper Collins attorneys over Sarah Palin’s book content, isn’t it?
I expect the Electronic Frontier Foundation – at the least – to challenge these new DHS powers in court soon.
(Fill in your own ‘They told me that if I voted for McCain’™ line here)
UPDATE: Related content at Instapundit: Copyright infringement is a weapon of mass bottom line destruction, Prof! Isn’t it obvious?
Seriously now, this is an old-fashioned case of elites looking out for each other, but they’re usually a little more subtle about it. Ask General Electric (the owners of MSNBC). They know.
…Senator Jay Rockefeller, for these memorable words: “There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse.”
I think I have an idea of where that bug exactly is.
I’d like to believe the above was said in a moment of exasperation, but coming from Senator Rockefeller, you have to take it seriously whenever he talks about shutting down media outlets:
Regardless, it was a stupid thing to say. The Senator must know that the FCC does not have any such power. First of all, both Fox and MSNBC are cable channels. They don’t need the venerable FCC broadcast license to transmit their content. Second, the FCC can’t pull the plug on any station on the basis of the opinions expressed therein. Freedom of Speech and so on.
Third, how a muzzled press would favor our political discourse is beyond me. On the other hand, it’s easy to see how it would favor many a legislator on the Hill…
Miami-Dade Police’s “Terrorist Awareness Guide” turns photographers into suspected terrorists.
The system works!
Via the Institute for Justice: California commission exploring how to regulate tweets and texts.
“Not whether…but how.”
…the elites and their lackeys would seek to stifle expression…and they were right: CNN Host Calls for Crackdown on ‘Bloggers’ in Wake of Sherrod Incident. “But there are huge first amendment rights that come into play here – freedom of speech and all that.”
And all that…
An inspirational song and accompanying music video at TOM (based on a true story).
OK, I seriously expect Quincy Jones and his lawyers to make a big deal about this, a la Don Henley.
THR, Esq.: ” A federal judge has tentatively ruled that California senatorial candidate Chuck DeVore violated rocker Don Henley’s copyrights on two songs when he used them as the basis for campaign commercials posted on YouTube.”
No word on whether an appeal is in the works. More than one politician has been sued on similar grounds.
Could PolitiZoid be next or is their use distinguishable because it’s not for advertising purposes? Stay tuned…
Ace: Gadsden Flag now officially offensive.
I would respond by flying this flag
Or you could do this and scare the offended away.
UPDATE: Bad link. Just fixed. Sorry about that!
Michigan legislator proposes law to license journalists.
Most ridiculous part about this story? The legislator is a Republican trying to “provoke public discussion”. Way to go, dummy!
Elena Kagan, however, probably approves.
Free speech rights be damned…
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day: A photo-essay by El Marco.
UPDATE: A particularly delicious post-modern approach to the subject.
WaPo: White House’s new video blog shows Obama administration “as it would like to be seen”.
This development is not without irony. I thought POTUS had just warned us that we have too much media as it is. Now I understand: Obama meant there is too much media out there…that he doesn’t control.
But why bother? Do they expect to get a bigger audience than their unofficial spokespersons in the mainstream media…or than their nemesis Fox News?
OTB: The self-annihilation of a man of the arts: “Illiberalism is no surprise to anyone who’s paid a modicum of attention to Ebert’s political digressions of late. But insipid ‘teabagger’ jokes and paint-by-numbers leftism aren’t even worth remarking upon. This is something altogether different. The word ‘disgust’ comes to mind.”
Read the whole thing™.
Roger Ebert grew up as a Pre-Vatican II Catholic and came of age in the late 60′s, so I understand where his political sensibilities originate. But his position on the Live Oak High School American Flag “controversy” is knee-jerk political correctness devoid of thought, (More …)
Hot Air: Reporters surprised to find White House is thin-skinned and controlling.
Evidently, they’ve forgotten everything about the Obama campaign’s sophisticated bullying operation consisting of “truth squad” prosecutors and lawsuits against TV stations.
You know, really sophisticated. Unlike a rube.
Stanley Fish discusses U.S. v. Stevens at the NYT.
Thanks to Dr. Fiancee for alerting me to this piece. Dr. Fiancee blogs about crime and national security news here. Be nice and pay her blog a visit.
Hear, hear. Well said, Mr. Stewart. And yes, both pieces of headgear in the picture are my hats.
(Photo courtesy of my crummy cellphone camera)
…we’d have a secretive presidency that would avoid the rightful scrutiny of the People and the Press…and – for the second time this month – they were right!
H/T: Instapundit, where there are more related links.
Radical Islamic website tells South Park creators to mind their p’s and q’s.
I don’t know what’s funnier – the South Park episode in question or the website’s disclaimer: “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say those radicals have the best in-house counsel Jihad can buy…
At Sense of Events, where Donald Sensing digs deeper into the relevant law (which I didn’t when discussing the topic yesterday).
Via Instapundit, where there’s more related content.
MAF: Anti-war activist tries to silence mother of Iraq war hero, requests her arrest.
You’re most definitely in the wrong country, Ms. Activist…
UPDATE: Related content at Gateway Pundit. Looks like arrests are happening, just not at conservative events.
Film Studies for Free: Jafar Panahi was arrested and imprisoned for making a movie perceived as “anti-state”.
Anti-Coulter heckler is a Canadian government employee.
It’s unclear to me whether this is a sort of meta-Heckler’s Veto, though. Freedom of expression in Canada – like in most of the world – is more narrowly defined than it is in the U.S.A, but I suspect that the heckler had the right as an individual to express her opposition to Coulter under Canadian law, even if she worked for the Canadian government.
And I suspect the situation wouldn’t be much different under U.S. law. Even with the expansive freedom of speech rights we have in the USA (maybe because of them) hecklers present a unique problem, since the First Amendment protects individuals from the government, but not from the public.
Pro-choice groups urge CBS to dump ad featuring Florida Gator Tom Tebow and his mom. The reason: Tom’s mom did not abort him after doctors recommended she did.
“Opponents fear the ad will convey an anti-abortion message to viewers.”
Yes. It would seem that is the problem.
Why doesn’t Planned Parenthood get its own ad? Don’t have the cash?
Or do they fear the uproar that would result? What’s the big deal? Can’t handle it?
BigJournalism: McCain-Feingold gutted by Supreme Court!
Looks like corporations, which are owned by people like you and me – even if run by executives and officers for the benefit of its owners – can now spend on political ads as much as labor unions. This is a huge blow for the Democratic party; and one that was long overdue. A level-playing field, at last.
Mediaite needs a legal consultant. Or at least Glynnis MacNicol does, because she’s jumping to conclusions about Glenn Beck’s legal rights in that “parody” website matter; and basically misreporting the whole event.
An arbitration is not a lawsuit, as Glynnis refers to the proceeding. And the World Intellectual Property Organization panel that arbitrated the dispute is not a court of law, so it has no jurisdiction over claims of defamation or even the power to decide Constitutional rights to free expression. The panel – thus – did not “rule” that a certain internet domain name was protected under the First Amendment. Again, the panel has no such powers. But, that’s not what the panel did here anyway. I read the decision. Maybe Glynnis did too, but she got it all wrong. (More …)
The Powers That Be: Rush has no place in the NFL, but look who does: Felons!
But of course! In Obama’s America, disfavored points-of-view carry more stigma than crime itself.
You can’t say you weren’t warned: Gleichschaltung!
Advertising Age: The FTC’s new blog rules are a legal non-starter.
Watch out, everybody! The White House is “taking the gloves off” in its never-ending battle with…a cable news network?
The administration’s champion in this epic fight is White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who unimaginatively communicated the conclusion below on this weekend’s broadcast of Reliable Sources:
“What I think is fair to say about Fox…is that it really is more of a wing of the Republican party…let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN is…I’m talking about the overall programming.”
I suppose she says the above intending to discredit Fox, what with the decline of the GOP and all (a decline Obama is working hard to reverse); but mostly out of frustration with the Constitution’s Free Speech Clause, and the fact that Fox News is the most watched cable news network in America (even at 3AM, when Fox isn’t airing any news whatsoever, but their competition is).
That aside, what I think is safe to say about Dunn is that she is really more of an enabler of ACORN, and thus shouldn’t even be working in the White House or relied on by the American People to communicate anything. Why? Because the SEIU – which we could say is one and the same with ACORN – is a client of Squier Knapp Dunn Communications’, the PR firm Dunn co-owns:
And then there’s the question of what is Squier’s and – by extension – Dunn’s connection to Rod Blagojevich? But that’s for another post.
Dunn is right about one thing (even a broken clock…): Fox News is nothing like CNN. But that’s a feature, not a bug.
UPDATE: Hot Air has video.
AP: FTC rules that bloggers must disclose any compensation received for writing product reviews. “Penalties include up to $11,000 in fines per violation.”
It may sound fair, but invariably there’s a Free Speech issue at work here. And a lot will hinge on whether a product review is looked at as commercial speech or not.
I wonder if these new FTC rules apply to movie reviews as well. Movies are products, after all. Would these new rules prevent something like this from happening?
WaPo: White House not sure how to fight back.
Note how an aide in the article is quoted as remarking that racism is not at the heart of the many attacks against the White House.
They know it doesn’t poll well, so that what they say. But they must like the meme’s potential chilling effect. Otherwise, Obama would give a whole prime-time speech on this view – and its dangers – himself.
UPDATE: POWIP: Adding fuel to the outrage.
