 |
|
| Censorship |
|
| "There
ought to be limits to freedom."-George Bush, 1999 |
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| Bush
criticizes Web site as malicious |
| Saying
"there ought to be limits to freedom," Gov. George
W. Bush has filed a legal complaint against the owners of a
Web site that lampoons his White House bid. |
| |
| Presidential
contender's reaction to parody Web site backfires |
| The
parody George W. Bush Web site has gotten 6,451,466 hits during
the first 25 days of May, thanks in part to the story's front-page
treatment by The New York Times online edition, Exley said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the real George W. Bush Web site has gotten about
30,000 hits in May, according to Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker. |
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| "If
this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier,
just so long as I'm the dictator."
George W. Bush-December 18, 2000 |
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| If
I Were a Dictator... by GEORGE W. BUSH |
| George
W. Bush has stated he'd prefer to be a dictator at least three
times |
| |
| Bill
Of Rights |
| This
is to remind readers of the inalienable rights set forth by
the Founding Fathers |
| |
| “Free-Speech
Zone” The administration quarantines dissent. |
| On
Dec. 6, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft informed the Senate
Judiciary Committee, “To those who scare peace-loving people
with phantoms of lost liberty … your tactics only aid terrorists,
for they erode our national unity and … give ammunition
to America’s enemies.” Some commentators feared that
Ashcroft’s statement, which was vetted beforehand by top
lawyers at the Justice Department, signaled that this White
House would take a far more hostile view towards opponents than
did recent presidents. And indeed, some Bush administration
policies indicate that Ashcroft’s comment was not a mere
throwaway line. |
| |
| Listening
to Our Inner Ashcroft |
| As
soon as President Bush declared War on Terrorism, culture warriors
rushed to their customary battle stations. From satellites hovering
in space, a few right-wingers survey the landscape, ready to
aim their laser rays and zap any peaceniks who dare to undermine
the war effort with their defeatism and moral relativity. |
| |
| Cheney
Attacks First Amendment |
| An
Internet lampoon of Vice President Dick Cheney's wife is no
laughing matter at the White House, which has asked a satirist
to remove pictures of her -- complete with red clown noses --
from his Web site. |
| |
| Bush
Clamping Down On Presidential Papers |
| The
Bush White House has drafted an executive order that would usher
in a new era of secrecy for presidential records and allow an
incumbent president to withhold a former president's papers
even if the former president wanted to make them public. |
| |
| SUMMARY
OF THE BUSH EXECUTIVE ORDER ON THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT-PDF |
| The
Presidential Records Act was passed in 1978 to make Presidential
records the property of the public and to assure that these
records are released to the public in a timely manner. On November
1, 2001, however, President Bush issued Executive Order 13233
which significantly curtails the disclosure of Presidential
records under the Presidential Records Act. Under the new executive
order, former Presidents are given virtually unlimited discretion
to withhold their records indefinitely. |
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| YOU
HAVE NO RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT |
| Put
bluntly, you have no right to remain silent. What you have,
instead, is a right not to be criminally prosecuted on the basis
of your coerced statements. If the government is correct, then
the language of the Miranda warnings is wrong. |
| |
| Treating
dissent as treason |
| The
Center for American Progress has coined the term Intimigate
to describe "the well established pattern ... that the
Bush Administration has summarily fired, intimidated and defamed
anyone who has had the courage to tell the truth about Iraq." |
| |
| In
patriotic time, dissent is muted |
| "Hard
times for the first amendment tend to come at very hard times
for the country," Mr. Abrams said. "When we feel threatened,
when we feel at peril, the First Amendment or First Amendment
values are sometimes subordinated to other interests."
|
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| Clear
Channel Worldwide |
| Following
the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Clear Channel program
directors issued a list of "potentially offensive songs"
that it suggested stations not play. Many reports referred to
the list as a "ban" on the songs, which included all
Rage Against The Machine songs, the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy"
(which includes the line "Time to get paid, blow up like
the World Trade"), John Lennon's "Imagine," Metallica's
"Seek and Destroy," AC/DC's "Safe in New York,"
Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," Peter, Paul and Mary's
"Leaving on a Jet Plane," and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great
Balls of Fire," and "The Drifters' On Broadway." |
| |
| Michael
Moore |
| |
| Report-Disney
Blocking Anti-Bush Documentary |
| Oscar-winning
filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary linking President Bush
with powerful Saudi families, including that of Osama bin Laden,
is stirring up controversy even before its release. |
| |
| REPUBLICAN
STRATEGIST BEHIND EFFORTS TO INTIMIDATE THEATRE OWNERS ABOUT
MICHAEL MOORE FILM |
| Michael
Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 is due to hit theatres on June 25th.
But that hasn't stopped a campaign from being launched to intimidate
theatre owners into not booking the film: |
| |
| Conservatives
launch pre-emptive strike against documentary critical of Bush
'Fahrenheit 9/11' called propaganda |
| The
California-based organization, called Move America Forward,
is headed by former GOP Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian and aided
by Melanie Morgan, a talk show host on KSFO 560 AM, both of
whom had high-profile roles in support of last year's recall
election of former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. |
| |
| Republican
dirty tricksters join the Motion Picture Association of America
to stop Americans from seeing Michael Moore’s new movie,
“Fahrenheit 9/11.” |
| The
award winning movie Fahrenheit 9/11 exposes financial connections
between President George W. Bush’s family, its associates,
and prominent Saudi Arabian families including that of Osama
bin Laden. The latter is blamed for masterminding the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC.
The movie also exposes the Bush administration’s role in
evacuating Osama bin Laden's relatives from the US immediately
after the September 11 attacks. |
| |
| Valerie
Plame (Joseph Wilson's Wife) |
| |
| Time-line
of Valerie Plame Leak |
| As
the Justice Department opens a special investigation into who
leaked the classified identity of a CIA operative, the White
House pledges to cooperate and Democrats voice their angst.
The operative is the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson,
who debunked claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from
Niger. |
| |
| Valerie
Plame |
| Articles
and Time-line |
| |
| Bush
Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name |
| Witnesses
told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about,
and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's
name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband,
a critic of administration policy in Iraq. |
| |
| Cheney's
Staff Focus of Probe |
| Federal
law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard
evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of
Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful
exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation,
which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department
official said. |
| |
| Cheney
Chief-of-Staff Named as Spy-gate Leaker |
| MSNBC'S
Buchanan & Press scored a major scoop on Wednesday, all
but unmasking the high government official who "outed"
a CIA operative via a July 14 column by Robert Novak. Larry
Johnson, a former CIA analyst who worked with Valerie Plame,
the reported agent, all but identified "Scooter" Libby
as the government official who outed her – and at least
one other in the Vice President's office. |
| |
| Cheney
staff accused of role in CIA leak |
| In
new book, Joseph Wilson names administration officials who may
have leaked wife's job. |
| |
| Bush,
Cheney Indictments in Plame Case Looming |
| Based
upon recent developments, it appears that long-standing plans
and preparations leading to indictments and impeachment of Bush,
Cheney and even some senior cabinet members have been accelerated,
possibly with the intent of removing or replacing the entire
Bush regime prior to the Republican National Convention this
August. |
| |
| Reporter
Held in Contempt in CIA Leak Case-By CURT ANDERSON |
| A
federal judge held a reporter for Time magazine in contempt
of court Monday for refusing to testify before a grand jury
investigating the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer. |
| |
| A
National Catastrophe |
| The
outing of Valerie Plame in the column of Robert Novak has now
led to the resignation of Jim Pavitt from the CIA. Mr. Pavitt
was Valerie Plame’s superior. His work has been devastated
by this catastrophic security leak, and he has apparently chosen
to resign as a result. The announcement of his retirement is
the tip of an iceberg of national disaster. |
| |
| The
CIA leak-Robert Novak |
| The
leak now under Justice Department investigation is described
by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's
Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. |
| |
| A
Strange Encounter with Robert Novak |
| Late
on Tuesday afternoon, July 8, six days before Robert Novak’s
article about Valerie and me, a friend showed up at my office
with a strange and disturbing tale. He had been walking down
Pennsylvania Avenue toward my office near the White House when
he came upon Novak, who, my friend assumed, was en route to
the George Washington University auditorium for the daily taping
of CNN’s Crossfire. He asked Novak if he could walk a block
or two with him, as they were headed in the same direction;
Novak acquiesced. |
| |
| Bill
Maher |
| |
| In
patriotic time, dissent is muted |
| One
of the most visible examples of this burgeoning debate involved
a scuffle between the White House and Bill Maher, host of the
late-night talk show "Politically Incorrect." Last
week, Mr. Maher said that the hijackers were not cowards but
that it was cowardly for the United States to launch cruise
missiles on targets thousands of miles away. |
| |
| Politically
Correct After All |
| The
boys at NewsMax backpedal on their war against Bill Maher after
finally figuring out they agree with him. |
| |
| Dixie
Chicks |
| |
| Political
controversy |
| A
controversy has arisen regarding exactly who was responsible
for launching the boycott of their music and the extent their
fans supported the boycott. Some critics of the boycott, such
as Michael Moore, claim the boycott was not a product of large
numbers of fans angry at their comments but an organized plot
by Bush supporting radio chain executives and the Republican
party leadership. |
| |
| Music,
money and war: Dixie Chicks vs. Clear Channel |
| Like
the rest of us poor and peace-loving people, the Chicks are
under attack for their principled honesty. When lead singer
Natalie Maines said to a packed and roaring crowd at a London
concert, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed that the
president of the United States is from Texas,” it was fated
that the Chicks would be prime targets for a pro-war assault. |
| |
| Chicks
defiant with interview, nude cover |
| On
the eve of their U.S. tour, the Dixie Chicks -- who raised a
ruckus last month with lead singer Natalie Maines' comments
about President Bush and the war in Iraq -- have blasted back
with both barrels. |
| |
| Colorado
disc jockeys suspended for protesting Dixie Chicks’ ban |
| As
part of the ongoing vendetta against the country music group
Dixie Chicks, two disc jockeys were suspended from a Colorado
Springs, Colorado radio station for locking themselves in the
studio while they took listener requests for the band’s
music. DJs Dave Moore and Jeff Singer were suspended May 5 for
violating a boycott imposed by the management of KKCS 102 FM. |
| |
| Crux
Of The Dixie Chicks Situation |
| This
situation just goes to show that it was the Music Programming
layer of the system, not the listener layer, that pulled the
Dixie Chicks from station playlists over Natalie's statements.
That's the issue here: programmers took it upon themselves to
censor the Chicks before listeners had a chance to say anything.
That's where the McCarthyism parallel kicks in. The Chicks got
blacklisted by a few key people within a Monopolized Media:
not by infuriated listeners. |
| |
| The
Truth About The Dixie Chicks Ban |
| Experienced
Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear
Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because
the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush.
The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks, whose name
may be familiar to readers of this column. When Mr. Bush was
governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University
of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear
Channel's chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr.
Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university's endowment under
the management of companies with strong Republican Party or
Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers
in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire. |
| |
| Radio
Under Fire Over Free-Speech Clampdown |
| Natalie
Maines' controversial comments about President Bush are echoing
ever louder in Congress and starting to rattle windows in the
radio industry. |
| |
| Cumulus
Media |
| Cumulus
Media is a radio chain that recently has organized pro-war rallies
and banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists, after Natalie
Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President
Bush for the preemptive war on Iraq. |
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