Time to repost the Hangman poem. The last bastion of freedom are the truth telling blogs. The oligarchs will stop at nothing to crush dissent and silence the truth. Their wealth and power depends upon them using their control of the system to censor, subvert and use propaganda to control the masses. Know your enemy.
Guest Post by Jesse
US Government Officials Said To Be Working On ‘Media-Leak’ Legislation To Impose Censorship
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
In case you had not seen this, it is on the news wire from United Press International.
It seems that if this legislation is real, and is enacted, and that is a big IF, then all a government bureaucrat will have to do is to refuse to permit disclosure on topics that it considers to be too important for even the media to know. And they will be able to exercise a rather effective censorship over a compliant press.
But I think we can be confident that the government of any political party, or any future President, can be trusted to never abuse this power to gag the Press to cover up their mistakes, scandals, or extra-constitutional activities.
We will have to trust them. Because we won’t know if they are abusing that power because the information that they are will be .. classified.
Perhaps a secret independent court can be set up to review their decisions. All of its decisions will be, of course, classified.
I wonder if the students at Georgetown understood the implications of what their privileged ears were hearing, or if they even cared.
Audacious oligarchy, indeed.
UPI
NSA chief hints at ‘media-leak’ legislation
By Aileen Graef
March. 5, 2014Journalists and press freedom have taken a hit from the government since Edward Snowden leaked NSA documents to the Guardian, Washington Post, and New York Times.
WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) — National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander was speaking at Georgetown University when he hinted that government officials were working on “media-leak legislation” that would presumably restrict the press from publishing any documents regarding national security that the government doesn’t approve for disclosure.
The NSA director said that the U.K. was right in detaining David Miranda, partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald who first published the Snowden files at the Guardian, on terrorism charges and seizing all of his files. Alexander said the actions were justified in the interests of national security.
“Journalists have no standing with national security issues,” said Alexander. “They don’t know how to weigh the fact of what they’re giving out and saying, is it in the nation’s interest to divulge this. My personal opinion: These leaks have caused grave, significant, and irreversible damage to our nation and to our allies. It will take us years to recover.”
He went on to say that they are making headway on “media-leak legislation.” No one knows exactly what this legislation is, but it will more than likely face resistance from journalists who would like to see full freedom of the press maintained under the First Amendment.
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First mainstream, then the blogs.
The fascists tried to put FCC “monitors” in the news rooms, to control what was on the news. Public outrage put an end to that (for now).
They are already attacking blogs, vis-a-vis their control over Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Anyone with a half a brain and any knowledge of Admin’s struggles can see what is coming. It’s soft fascism now, controlling content with withholding ads etc. Then will come the outright hard fascism as they shut down blogs, because they violated some law, one of millions on the books. It’s show up like “copyright violation” or stealing others intellectual content. The DHS has an entire department devoted to this. When blogs go dark, we’re pretty well finished. What other medium spans the entire nation and disseminates truth, with the ability to organize people? But not to worry, all the liberal progressive sites will still be brainwashing people.
“These leaks have caused grave, significant, and irreversible damage to our nation and to our allies.”
No, the leaks didn’t cause the damage. The ACTIONS you took, in surveilling our allies, their leaders, their top businessmen, that is what caused grave, significant and irreversible damage. Telling the truth about it did not.
In a country where the NSA feels the need to track everything every citizen does or says, the issue of “national security” means pitting the people against their own government. So when that government decides to prevent the media from disseminating information in the interest of “national security,” it’s because they don’t want The People to know. Likely because it’s against those very citizens. Welcome to totalitarianism.
And anyone who thinks that will change with conservatives in power instead of liberal progressives is kidding only themselves. They are both pro-totalitarian rule.
The government continuously declaring that bringing their atrocities and wrongdoings to light is the danger, reminds me of my nephew whom used to say, “Aunt Teresa got me in trouble.”
Not, “I did something wrong and am in trouble,” but chose to absolve himself of the wrongdoing by blaming me for the punishment.
Seems the government and 4 years olds have much in common.
Fubar, simply, beautifully, audaciously, Fubar.
All we can do is continue to point out the hypocrisy and terror until the day they shut it down.
Makes me wish I would’ve won that old mimeograph machine at an auction. We may be returning to flyers secretly passed amongst friends.
What a freaked out time we are living through.
And so it begins, the courts going after people that make online comments…..
In the city of brotherly love, home of independence hall (and Admin), let the fascism reign!
Philadelphia Judge Issues Ruling That Could Give Anonymous Online Commenters Second Thoughts
March 5, 2014
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia judge has ordered philly.com to reveal the name of an anonymous commenter, in a defamation suit brought by electricians’ union leader John Dougherty.
An attorney in the case says it could have a broad impact on incendiary online comments and those users, sometimes called “trolls,” who post them anonymously.
The anonymous defendant in the suit, disguised by the nonsense name “fbpdplt,” called Dougherty a name in the comments section of an article on the website, one of the properties in the media group that also owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
The website is not a party to the suit but it received a subpoena, more than a year ago, for information on the commenter. Its attorney, Eli Segal, says, “the company went to Court to make sure that the defendant received notice and an opportunity to be heard.”
The commenter remained anonymous but was represented in court by Phil Blackman, who argued that identifying his client would violate his, or her, First Ammendment right to speak anonymously.
Dougherty’s attorney, Joe Podraza, argued the comment was defamation, not protected by either the federal or state constitution.
Common Please Judge Jacqueline Allen ruled in Dougherty’s favor, in a decision that Podraza says “has been a long time coming.”
“I think the court is sending a strong message to those who abuse the internet by defaming others and think they can get away with it by acting anonymously,” he told KYWnewsradio.
“The court is strongly saying that anonymity does not mean immunity under defamation law.”
Podraza says the ruling should provide protection from defamation for all citizens.
“Hopefully, it will send a strong message to people to be more responsible when they’re posting comments, particularly when they’re attempting to do so in an anonymous capacity.”
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/03/05/philadelphia-judge-issues-ruling-that-could-give-anonymous-online-commenters-second-thoughts/
“There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths …. he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed… For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.”
———— Job 24:13
Lie # 1,263
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As soon as the blogs go dark, the rest will follow shortly – then you know shits getting real.
With everyone’s face buried in a piece of iCrap, will anyone even notice?
I_S
People, we’re already living in a half-assed Fascist state. Except for blogs like this one, ZH, Jesse, PCR, and a few others, all the media is tightly controlled, and we have “secret” courts, “secret” EO’s, Black Ops, Black budgets, secrecy on top of secrecy. And had it not been for Snowden sacrificing his future to bring us documentation, the NSA would still be spewing the “conspiracy theory” that they spy on everyone in every way.
I keep waiting for us to arrive at critical mass, but, just like a mirage, that day seems to never come.