Below is today’s column in USA Today (the print version is a bit shorter). The column looks at the effort of President Barack Obama and his congressional allies to get citizens to give up privacy as they did protections of the free press, due process, and international legal principles on earlier scandals. It is truly the final measure of devotion demanded in what has become a virtual cult of personality.
Category: Politics
One of the most distressing things to watch in Turkey as the Islamic government tears down decades of secular traditions has been the destruction of the free press. Given the recent attack on the free press by the Obama Administration, Turkey is an example of how the media can be chilled into silence. As protests have raged in the streets of major cities in one of the most important movements in the country’s history, the story has been virtually blacked out in the Turkish media, which is fearful of insulting the government of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. With the collapse of the free press in Turkey, however, one man took an extraordinary and novel stand: the host of a popular Turkish game show. Ali Ihsan Varol, the star of the Bloomberg TV quiz show “Kelime Oyunu,” or “The Word Game,” arranged for questions that had answers reflecting the violence from “gas mask” to “Twitter” to “dictator.” In the crushing silence on Turkish television, the show has caused quite a stir and hopefully brought well-deserved shame to Turkish journalists.
Continue reading “Turkish Game Show Host Defies Media Blackout Of Protests In His Own Unique Way”
Submitted by Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
There is a new bill passed by the New York State Senate that relates to many of the blogs and discussions we have had here through the years. This bill would make it a felony to “annoy” a police officer acting in the course of his duties. While I can understand that directly interfering with a police officer in the middle of his duties should not be done, we have seen through the years that the police broadly interpret what is “interference” to include what is obviously a person exercising their First Amendment rights, such as responding negatively to a police officers actions or videotaping them. I find this law another distressing example of how far we are going in the direction of a police state, since as we have seen in our many blogs and discussions here it will be abused time and again. I will have several links at the bottom to illustrate some of the issues dealing with purported “police interference on the Jonathan Turley Blog alone. Continue reading “Don’t “Annoy” Your Local Police Or Else”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
It’s been so long that I can’t really remember when I first started thinking about and supporting freedom of speech. Perhaps it was when I was eight and went to the local library to borrow Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”. I was told I could only borrow books from the children’s section. At the time I didn’t see that as a First Amendment Issue, because I still hadn’t learned about the Constitution. However, as the “Fifties” progressed and the issue of banning books and movies heated up, my social studies education caught up with my natural predilections and I became a full supporter of the idea of the rights of free speech, free press and everyone’s right to access information. During the “Fifties” movies were regularly cut down so as not to offend groups such as The Catholic League. The novels of some of the great authors of the Twentieth Century, such as James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, William Burroughs and Henry Miller were banned in the U.S. as pornography and their shipments confiscated at our borders. Those of us, like myself, who are old enough to have lived through those times understand that the meaning we give to the First Amendment now, was not the same as it was for the first 160 years (or so) of our country. The lesson of this is that in the courts and with the ever changing political scene , we must ever be vigilant to protect our right as a people to say, read and write what we please, providing it doesn’t cause real danger to others. The catch of course in my last sentence, is what exactly “real danger” is and then what too should be the limits of using freedom of speech as a defense? Continue reading “The First Amendment and Catch 22”
Attorney General Eric Holder recently told intelligence community lawyers that he wants them to continue the Administration’s crackdown on leakers and media sources despite calls for his termination and the controversy on the attack on the free press. The message is clear: there will be no quarter given those who disclose classified information. Well not everyone. This week it was revealed that former CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed classified information to “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Mark Boal. According to an inspector general report, the disclosure of the name of the Navy SEAL unit that carried out the Osama bin Laden raid and the unit’s ground commander at a 2011 ceremony. Some of the information was marked as “top secret.”
We have previously discussed the striking similarity between religious extremists in the Islamic and Jewish faiths. This week we have yet another example after a group of ultra-Orthodox men on a “modesty patrol” attacked a car carrying ultra-Orthodox women who were viewed as dress immodestly. We have previously seen the work of such immodest patrols as well as vigilantes on buses and prayer areas.
Yoga appears to be the new menace these days with Catholic priests and Muslim clerics (here and here) warning of its satanic appeal. Now, E.W. Jackson, a Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia, is campaigning against the practice yoga and meditation as making people vulnerable to Satan.
As expected, in facing yet another attack on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, Democratic members are choosing personality over principle. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., CA) has come out to assure the public that it is a good thing that the Administration is spying on them and encourage them to accept such surveillance as the new normal. In the meantime, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, Ga), insists that the surveillance must be fine because “to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information.” Of course, it has been secret and just last February the Administration succeeded in blocking an effort of dozens of citizens and groups challenging such surveillance programs before the Supreme Court.
Continue reading “Learning To Love The Matrix: Feinstein Defends Warrantless Surveillance of All Citizens”
While the media in the United States (with some notable exceptions) have been criticized for relatively soft coverage of attacks on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, the British press appears to be filling the gap. The Guardian is reporting on a massive surveillance program by the Obama Administration where the government has ordered Verizon (and presumably other carriers) to turn over all calls made within the United States and calls between the United States and other countries. The surveillance was conducted under an order from our controversial secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and demanded by the Justice Department and the FBI. The Administration has confirmed the existence of the program — another blow to civil liberties under Attorney General Eric Holder and this president. It also adds another area where Obama officials appear less than candid with Congress. [Update: USA Today first revealed aspects of this program in 2006]
Continue reading “Obama Administration Confirms Massive Surveillance Program Of U.S. Citizens”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., shocked many yesterday when he went public to muse over the question of whether bloggers “deserve First Amendment protection? These are the issues of our times.” Actually, it may be a question for Lindsey Graham but it is not a question of our time. Bloggers are clearly entitled to first amendment rights as are other citizens. Graham appears to be trying to raise the question of whether they are entitled to protections accorded journalists under a federal shield law.
For those who believe that Attorney General Eric Holder is in any way repentant for the crackdown on journalists and whistleblowers, think again. If you recall, while Obama sacked the head of the IRS for its scandal, he only sent Holder to a confab with the media. After Holder insisted on the meeting being off the record, principled media organizations refused to attend. Holder proceeded to propose meaningless changes that actually would allow the very same investigation of reporters. Now, Holder has given a speech and his people made sure to leak it to the media. Holder told top lawyers in the Administration to continue their scorched earth campaign against leakers. This Administration has surpassed even Nixon in its pursuit of people who speak to the media and Holder wanted people to know that it will continue unabated.
There have long been complaints about the temperament and civility of Judge Edith Jones of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Indeed, when I clerked on that court, Jones was rather infamous for her run-ins with colleagues and others. Jones has been criticized for her extremely conservative views and, more importantly, her perceived intolerance (and hostility) for opposing views and colleagues. This includes telling another judge to “shut up” in oral argument. Now, she is facing a formal complaint over a Federalist Society speech given at the University of Pennsylvania where she allegedly said that certain racial groups are predisposed to crime and that defenses like mental competence and actual innocence are “red herrings” among other bizarre claims.
There are some obvious answers about the cause of the epidemic of rapes in India. There is the religious and culture treatment of woman in traditional areas. There is hostility of police to rape victims. However, the municipal council in Mumbai sees the cause elsewhere . . . lingerie mannequins. The council voted overwhelmingly to ban the ceramic vixens to prevent rape in the city.
Continue reading “India Leaders Face Rape Crisis . . . By Banning Lingerie Mannequins”
The crackdown on free speech continued this week under President Mohammed Morsi (left) with a conviction of Ahmed Douma for insulting the leader. It is only one of a variety of cases against Egyptian journalists, bloggers, and others charged criminally for their criticism of Morsi and the imposition of authoritarian measures and Islamic laws in the country.
Continue reading “Egyptian Activist Convicted Of Insulting President Mohammed Morsi”
We previously discussed the bizarre case of Heath Campbell, who ran into a bit of trouble when he tried to get a store to prepare a birthday cake for his son Adolph Hitler Campbell. It turns out that the parents gave all of their kids Nazi-related names. After the “mein cake” controversy, the state appears to have placed the couple under investigation and then took away their children. The New Jersey neo-Nazi is now fighting to get back his kids. He did it however in a curious way — he and his new fascist Frau showed up in full Nazi uniforms to court. This raises a significant free speech issue. Most of us view this Nazi obsession to be weird and unbalanced. However, it is also a form of political expression. While the state insists that there is a history of violence in the family (including an “anonymous complaint”), there have been no details of the extent of this history. Should this bizarre conduct and hateful belief system be considered on the custody question.