Kagan, Socialism & Free Speech

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, wrote in her Princeton senior thesis, titled, “To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933”, “In our own times, a coherent socialist movement is nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism’s glories than of socialism’s greatness. Conformity overrides dissent; the desire to conserve has overwhelmed the urge to alter. Such a state of affairs cries out for explanation. Why, in a society by no means perfect, has a radical party never attained the status of a major political force? Why, in particular, did the socialist movement never become an alternative to the nation’s established parties?”

“Through its own internal feuding, then, the SP exhausted itself forever and further reduced labor radicalism in New York to the position of marginality and insignificance from which it has never recovered. The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America. Radicals have often succumbed to the devastating bane of sectarianism; it is easier, after all, to fight one’s fellows than it is to battle an entrenched and powerful foe. Yet if the history of Local New York shows anything, it is that American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.”

Now it goes without saying that our Constitution was not designed with socialism in mind as the government of choice for America. Some will argue that the young Kagan was simply involved in an academic discussion and that it is not necessarily an accurate reflection of her personal politics. If that’s true, why was this in a recent filing signed by Kagan in her current role as Solicitor General…

“Whether a given category of speech enjoys First Amendment protection depends upon a categorical balancing of the value of the speech against its societal costs.”

Read that again – it appears to suggest that free speech is subject to its’ value. The value of speech itself is a subjective matter depending on who is listening. More from Kagan…

In 1993, Kagan wrote an article for the University of Chicago Law Review , in which she said , “I take it as a given that we live in a society marred by racial and gender inequality, that certain forms of speech perpetuate and promote this inequality, and that the uncoerced disappearance  of such speech would be cause for great elation.”

As recently as September, Kagan argued that Congress has the constitutional right to forbid companies from engaging in political speech such as publishing pamphlets that advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for federal office.

The court ruled 5-4 against Kagan (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) and her contention the government could limit political speech by corporations. In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “The government urges us in this case to uphold a direct prohibition on political speech. It asks us to embrace a theory of the First Amendment that would allow censorship not only of television and radio broadcasts, but of pamphlets, posters, the Internet, and virtually any other medium that corporations and unions might find useful in expressing their views on matters of public concern. Its theory, if accepted, would empower the government to prohibit newspapers from running editorials or opinion pieces supporting or opposing candidates for office, so long as the newspapers were owned by corporations — as the major ones are. First Amendment rights could be confined to individuals, subverting the vibrant public discourse that is at the foundation of our democracy.”

Justice Kennedy, in the majority opinion added that Kagan was defending a law that represents an attempt to use “censorship to control thought”, saying “This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”

So I ask you with all the talk of “net neutrality”, new FCC regulations to create diversity, newspaper bailouts and the regulatory tricks the administration is fond of – can we really afford a Supreme Court Justice who wants to manipulate the Constitution?

Kagan’s views on free speech are frightening. The idea that free speech become subject to government regulation is unconscionable and un-American. This violates the fundamental premise of the First Amendment, that all speech should be protected.

The thought of creating an unholy alliance between Ms. Kagan and the always frightening Regulatory Czar, Cass Sunstein should be enough to rally every conservative, republican and American in Congress to oppose her confirmation. Remember, Sunstein in a white paper of his own called “Conspiracy Theories” said the government should have the right to censor political views that it felt were inappropriate, damaging or misleading.

Quoting Sunstein on page 20 of his paper, “We could imagine circumstances in which a conspiracy theory became so pervasive, and so dangerous, that censorship would be thinkable.” His solutions include: A government ban on conspiracy theories and considering some type of government penalties such as a tax or fine on individuals who disseminate such theories.

The issues that must be raised at these confirmation hearings center on – who is Elena Kagan and what are her beliefs/ideals? How will they affect her rulings? Does she believe in the Constitution and will she support it? Is she a person who you want defending your rights and the Constitution? Or will she just be another tool in the box of those trying to “fundamentally transform America”?

So America, it is time to ask, how much control should the government have? This is not what the founding fathers had in mind. The government we see evolving before us is not part of any of the blue prints they left us! Our way of life, our freedom, our liberties and our sovereignty are at risk! It is time to stand up and fight back!

Wake up America! Restore the Republic, Reject the Agenda of the Progressive Left!

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”   – Winston Churchill 

“I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing”. –Ronald Reagan 

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same”. – Ronald Reagan 

Sources used for this blog:

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/pdfs/07-08/08-769_Petitioner.pdf 

http://kaganwatch.com/docs/kagan_thesis.pdf

Quotes on America by the Founders and other real Americans (Part 2)

Below is part 2 of a compilation of inspiring quotes about our nation, liberty and our national values. They put the challenges and rewards of a free Republic into perspective. It is fascinating how many of these could have been written in the last year… 

“If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” – Samuel Adams  

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln 

“If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” – Noah Webster 

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” – Daniel Webster  

On God and Country … 

“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” – Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation  

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” – Patrick Henry 

“Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.” – Benjamin Franklin  

“Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.” – Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence 

“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –  John Adams 

“Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God?  Thomas Jefferson 

On War and Freedom … 

“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War” –  George Washington

“Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.”- Benjamin Franklin 

“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy” – George Washington 

“Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it.”-  John Adams 

“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.” – John Adams 

“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.” – Benjamin Franklin  

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.” – President James Madison 

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever” – John Adams 

On Banks … 

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Thomas Jefferson 

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.  Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”    Thomas Jefferson 

On Free Speech… 

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter” – George Washington 

“Without Freedom of thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of speech” – Benjamin Franklin 

“In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech” – Benjamin Franklin  

On the Right to Bear Arms …

 “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man”  – Thomas Jefferson 

“Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust their people with arms” – James Madison 

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms . . .” – Samuel Adams 

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.” – Noah Webster 

On Patriotism …

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.” – Theodore Roosevelt 

“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.” – Thomas Paine  

“We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts–not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” –
Abraham Lincoln  

On Foreign Policy … 

“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world” – George Washington 

“We do not need to import any foreign economic ideas or any foreign government. We had better stick to the American brand of government, the American brand of equality, and the American brand of wages. America had better stay American” – Calvin Coolidge 

Wake up, America! It is time to return to our national values and reclaim our birthright. It is time to take back the unalienable rights granted us in the Declaration of Independence; Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. As we are taught by history through the words of our founders – we are a nation built on the Constitution and the principles of Christianity and we must regain our moral compass to restore our country.  

In the words of Washington, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” 

And Jefferson, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”  

Restore the Republic, Reject the Agenda of the Progressive Left!

Ronald Reagan – A Time for Choosing

The first video is from a televised Campaign Address for the Goldwater Presidential Campaign – 10/27/64, but if you close your eyes (and inflate all the numbers) you’d swear that President Reagan was still here with us and talking about the present. In the second video the President explains the dangers of socialized medicine. The threats to our national sovereignty, liberty and freedom are the same; proving the more things change the more they stay the same. These are important lessons and instructive in their content. Once again we find ourselves on the brink of a historic moment.

As the title of his speech suggests it is “a time for choosing!” We need to decide if we are going to stand by and passively watch a radical far left administration put us on a path to socialism. We have a choice but will we exercise it? Will we fight for the freedom that generations of brave Americans have defended or will we keep telling ourselves that “it can’t happen here?”

There are several major issues that will be decided in the next few months: Healthcare Reform, Cap and Trade and the Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty to name a few. These are all permanent game changers for America. If you love this country; our freedom, our liberty and the American way of life – this is your wake up call! We are running out of time.

Our freedom, liberty and sovereignty are at risk of being lost. It can happen in, even in America, when we take too much for granted. It is time for every citizen to defend America by engaging in their civic responsibility to participate in the democratic process and make their voice heard.

Restore the Republic, Reject Socialism and the Agenda of the Progressive Left!

“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin”. – Ronld Reagan

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free”. – Ronald Reagan

Free speech under attack! A Must read!

The attack on free speech and a free market media is now in high gear. This will be a challenge for us to fight because the administration can attack using an effective combination of legislation and regulation but we must fight back!  Considering the sorry state of the media, alternate media such as cable news, talk radio and the internet are the life line of conservative communications.

Ever heard of Free Press? Until recently I hadn’t either. Here is a blurb from their “About Us” page of their web site:

“Free Press: Reform media. Transform democracy.”

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, quality journalism, and universal access to communications.

Look at the above statement carefully. Do you see the recurring theme of this administration? (Transform, Organize, Diversity & Public)

Free Press has three main units; Free Press, Save the Internet and Save the News.

Next we may have the administration’s mission statement for attacking the First Amendment – Free Speech!

Free Press’s executive director Josh Silver wrote a position paper called “Public Media’s Moment” which spells out to President Obama how to take advantage of the opportunity to reshape our national communications structure: “The growing crisis facing commercial journalism and public media’s unique ability to address it… makes such reform all the more urgent… you have a rare opportunity to achieve real change and reinvent public media.” Adding: “Just as the economic crisis has put an end to free market fundamentalism, so too should the failure of commercial media to adequately serve the public interest end the myth that government has no role in fulfilling society’s information needs.”

Remember this is the Rahm Emmanuel White House that lives the creed “never let a crisis go to waste”.

The issues Free Press works on:

Media Ownership

Public Media

The Future of the Internet (Net Neutrality)

Quality Journalism

Civil Rights and Media Justice

Building the Media Reform Movement

For more visit the following links:

http://www.freepress.net/

http://www.savetheinternet.com/index.php

And now for their scariest sub-group of all; SaveTheNews.org Here is “What we stand for” from their website:

The crisis facing journalism does not call for a bailout, but for a far-reaching national journalism strategy to save the news. The national journalism strategy must be aggressive but carefully planned, bold but targeted. And it must not be guided by profit-seeking or nostalgia, but rather by core public interest principles.

We need to explore how the federal government can best support the future of investigative journalism, beat reporting and quality news in America. This is not about newspapers, it is about newsrooms. It is not about protecting old institutions, it is about serving local communities. 

We understand that the future of this industry will likely consist of a diverse collection of models, and we recognize the need for experimentation and innovation now and in the future.

Based on our analysis, we have identified five promising policies that should be the top priorities for policymakers:

NEW OWNERSHIP STRUCTURES. Encouraging the establishment of nonprofit and low-profit news organizations through tax exempt (“501(c)(3)”) and low-profit limited liability company (“L3C”) models.

NEW INCENTIVES. Creating tax incentives and revising bankruptcy laws to encourage local, diverse, nonprofit, low-profit and employee ownership.

JOURNALISM JOBS PROGRAM. Funding training and retraining for novice and veteran journalists in multimedia and investigative reporting.

R&D FUND FOR JOURNALISM INNOVATION. Investing in innovative projects and experimenting to identify and nurture new models.

NEW PUBLIC MEDIA. Transforming public broadcasting into a world-class noncommercial news operation using new technology and focused on community service.

We make no claims that these models, alone or collectively, will automatically provide a panacea to the crisis in journalism. However, we believe that these alternatives are worth further consideration, study and action. All of these models, to varying degrees, attempt to circumvent market failure with structural alternatives that seek to democratize media. Furthermore, they all could be accomplished via specific policy interventions and are politically viable, though formidable challenges exist. Most importantly, we hope that by highlighting these options, we can begin a truly public conversation about what the future of journalism should look like and point policymakers and regulators toward an agenda that will save the news and serve the public good.

http://www.savethenews.org/

As scary as each of the individual points are consider this statement: We need to explore how the federal government can best support the future of investigative journalism, beat reporting and quality news in America. Is the hair on the back of your neck standing up yet?

Now think back to the comment’s of the FCC’s resident Commie Mark Lloyd, its’ newly appointed Diversity Officer:

In his 2006 book, Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America, Lloyd called for making private broadcasting companies pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs. These funds would be given to public broadcasting outlets to allow them the same funding to support their operations as a private company would have. In other words, corporate redistribution of wealth. Money is not the only thing that Lloyd wants redistributed, he wants to “regulate much of the programming on these stations to make sure they focused on ‘diverse views’ and government activities.” Hmmm, ‘diverse views’ and government activities.” He is a fan of Hugo Chavez and his state run media so… I wonder what he means by “government activities”?

Let’s not forget that this is a White House that refuses any interaction with Fox News and has all but made them an official enemy of the administration. In fact they have demonstrated that they will go after anyone that dares to question or challenge their agenda. Think – Fox, Chamber of Commerce and health insurance companies.

Are you sensing a theme? How about social reengineering through media control? I say it every post and I’ll say it again now, this is another threat to YOUR American way of life!

This is government moving toward policies that control the media, the internet and free speech. These policies will redistribute wealth and control all the messaging.

Radio and the internet are the primary tools for exchange of conservative ideas and conversation. We can not let them take our voices away. We must fight back and stand up for our rights. Liberty and freedom are ours to lose if we don’t get involved; in the end we will only have ourselves to blame if we do nothing.

Restore the Republic, Reject State Run Media and the loss of free Speech!

“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” ~Alexis de Tocqueville