Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

When Andrew Breitbart said these words:

“It’s not your business model that sucks, it’s you that sucks.”

he was referring to the media method of not doing it’s job.

And today at Politico we have an excellent example:

Three former allies of the National Tea Party Convention are planning a guerrilla press conference near the convention hall Saturday afternoon to highlight what they contend are the organizers’ efforts to hijack the tea party movement.

Three! Count ’em Three! And the story that three people are protesting the tea party convention gets how many comments on the Politico site?

353

But hey, we are the mainstream media, we report on what is actually going on! Jim Hoff comments further:

The media reported that a group of a National Tea Party Convention counter-protesters were going to flock to the Opryland Hotel for a showdown.

But only 4 people showed up.

The mainstream media, of course, swarmed them.

Of course they swarmed them, of course in comments they are declaring the tea parties irrelevant, of course they are attacking Palin saying that she is the beginning of the end for tea parties.

The problem is that all of these things can only work if they are the gatekeepers of information, and that title no longer exists. In fact when a MSNBC and a CNN viewer is able to watch a Palin speech and Q & A unfiltered it makes it a lot harder for their commentators to spin it…

I know what you think you heard but here is what you ACTUALLY heard…

Sorry media, not only do you suck but under 24 hours after it was said you decided to prove it.

9:03 p.m. Breitbart introducing her CNN & MSNBC ignoring him

9:05 p.m. Calls out the vets and salutes them.

9:07 p.m. “CSPAN you might not be welcome at the Heathcare negotiations but you are welcome at the Tea Party convention.” ZING!

9:08 p.m. Gives a shout out to Scott Brown, in many ways he represents what this movement is all about. Talks about the Dems passing blame about the loss in Mass.

9:09 p.m. “They won’t blame their agenda and that’s what got them into this mess.”

9:10 p.m. Democrats own this. When you have supermajorites one would think that went without saying but nobody in the media seemed to want to say it. “If this can happen in Massachusetts it can happen anywhere.”

9:11 p.m. “Competitive primaries are democracy in action.” Shades of Mayor Wong. “May the best ideas win.”

9:13 p.m. “Don’t let any one leader define the movement.” I’m sure the media will laugh at that considering her speech. She calls the soul of the movement the American people.

Hasn’t she read Jacob Weisberg? The people are the problem

9:15 p.m “On Christmas day the system did not work.”

9:16 p.m. “There are questions we would like to have asked this terrorist before he lawyered up.” CNN and MSNBC made a big mistake broadcasting this. They will have to unspin this stuff to people who would not hear this straight.

9:18 p.m. “We need a commander-in-chief not a professor of law.” This is really gotta hurt.

9:20 p.m. Questions the administration lack of support for Iranian dissidents.

9:21 p.m. Gives president Obama credit for following advice of the generals, seems to be a bit hesitant in her speech at times.

9:22 p.m. Robert Stacy Smittyis live blogging too.

9:23 p.m. Take a lesson from JFK all your problems are not the fault of your predecessor. Ouch.

9:24 p.m. The bailouts have become a slush fund, asks were are the consequences for the bad choices of Wall Street, that is one thing that Obama might echo.

9:26 p.m. Borrowed printed up made up dollars, we can’t sustain the programs funded by them. “It’s tough to tell people no in tough times.”

9:27 p.m. “how’s that hopey changy thing working out for ya?” , hits Joe “nobody messes with Joe” Biden , “they held that transparency meeting behind closed doors.”

9:29 p.m. Mentions the phantom districts and the overruns. “The list of broken promises is long.”

9:31 p.m. Reminds us of the promise of having bills online 5 days before being voted on. “We are drowning in debt and many of us have had enough.” This has to be the first time a lot of the viewers on MSNBC have heard any of this stuff.

9:32 p.m. “We’re stealing opportunities from our children.”

9:34 p.m. Calls for lower taxes for small business, this part is republican boiler plate. “They need to get government out of the way.”

9:35 p.m. Take the reset button from Putin and give it to congress on healthcare. Talks about allowing insurance over state lines and tort reforms.

9:37 p.m. We need all of the above on energy, give Obama a shout out on Nuke power but wants more than words. Attacks Cap and “tax”.

9:38 p.m. How can we best serve?…I had the honor of the lifetime in 2008… they want us to keep on fighting…We don’t need a leader like we’re a bunch of sheep.”

9:39 p.m. Gives a shout out to Stupak, “When we can work together we will.”

9:41 p.m. “The constitution provides the best roadmap for the most perfect union.” That is a tee shirt.

9:42 p.m. Says we shouldn’t have to apologize for our troops who are a force for good. Heads just exploded at MSNBC. Calls for civility.

9:45 p.m. “There is nothing wrong with American that we can’t fix as Americans.”, “Government working for the people is what this movement is all about.”

Just over 40 minutes. Ed on MSNBC calls it an “interesting” speech, Bob Shrum calls her a “Merchant of hate with a smile.” It’s going to be hard to sell that to people who actually heard this.

Palin Q & A. Didn’t know that was coming.

Q: How do you see the future of the 3rd party movement? “The republican party would be smart to absorb as much of the movement as possible.” That’s what normally happens to 3rd parties.

Q: What do you want to see from candidates here? A: Limited gov. Mentions we won’t agree on everything but the basics are important.

Q: What are the top 3 things to be done when he have a conservative congress? A: “Reign in spending and develop our resources (Green heads exploding now), not being afraid to go back to our roots as a God fearing nation not being afraid of saying we don’t have all the answers as fallible men and women. (MSM & Allahpundit heads exploding again) Don’t be afraid to proclaim their alliance with their creator.

9:53 p.m. “Who cares what the lamestream media says about us!” That’s going to stick.

9:55 p.m. “It’s cool to see blue dog dems peeking in under the tent of the movement.” Says they will come out of the closet as believers in conservatism.

9:56 p.m. Q: What is the Palin plan? A: “Support those who understand the foundation of our country.”, and echo’s Reagan’s “We win, they lose.”

9:58 p.m. I don’t think she knows CNN & MSNBC are carrying this.

9:59 p.m. She will endorse and campaign for candidates during this election.

10:01 p.m. “Don’t fake it.”, it builds distrust. Avoid promises you will not keep. MSNBC cuts away. CNN stays with it misses something key about her speaking fee happy to give it back. MSNBC is in full attack mode with Neil Boratz as their counter voice but attacks her for speaking up for life, of course he does..

CNN is replaying it or at lest seems to be doing so.

Pat Condell is a fellow who doesn’t believe in any God and has harsh words for religion across the board. He is also a champion for free speech.

His latest on the Wilders trial is a must watch.

As you can guess I disagree with him on religion but I respect him very much for putting himself out there. When you can get people from three different faiths (counting myself) to embed the video of a world famous atheist then you know that you are doing something right.

They attack anything that facilitates the uncensored passing of information among people they rule:

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced that he now considers Twitter messages and social networking as terrorist threats. He is quoted in this Spanish-language news report as calling for more state control over the internet.

via who else but Glenn.

Meanwhile on the China Google front my favorite Free Speech Diva continues to speak up concerning China. And she describers her dream speech on the subject:

My dream speech would be about how the Internet poses a challenge to all governments and most companies (except those companies like Google whose business is built around that challenge). I would call on all governments to work together with citizens, companies and each other to build a globally interconnected, free and open network that enhances the lives of everybody on the planet, enables commerce and innovation by big and small players alike, makes everybody richer and freer, and improves all governments’ relations with their citizens by making government more transparent, efficient, and thus more credible and legitimate.

I would quote Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in 1759: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

The speech would remind us all that all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that American democracy was built on this assumption. The Internet empowers governments and law enforcement agencies as well as citizens, upstart candidates, and dissidents.

Somebody ought to write a book about that. If you care about free speech then you should be reading Rebecca MacKinnon.

Sean Penn
could not be reached for comment.