politicalpartypoop.com

I’m not gonna dwell on this too much because most of you could care less, but when people tell me that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans I cringe because anybody who tells me that simply is not paying attention.

Yes I understand the illusions put forth by certain individuals from each party confuse the masses and sometimes blurs that line between the two parties. Like a liberal putting a moderate face on an issue to appease his or her constituents or a camouflaged “conservative” who is really a closet gay liberal *coughCraigcough* because he comes from redneck land and they don’t take too kindly to “dem homo sexual types.”

But this is the kind of things that matter to me, dangerous people like Rep. Henry Waxman. Ignore this kind of lunacy at your own peril.
Say you don’t give a fuck because there are more important things, but to say that this behavior is ok or acceptable then this country is more fucked up than I thought.

from Rush

Rep. Henry Waxman has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows, and to call in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to discuss the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine.’

‘Limbaugh isn’t the only one who needs to be made uncomfortable about what he says on the radio,’ says a House leadership source. ‘We don’t have as big a megaphone as these guys, but this [is] all political, and we’ll do what we can to gain the advantage. If we can take them off their game for a while, it will help our folks out there on the campaign trail.’”

So what does this mean? It means that Henry Waxman, who runs the government oversight committee, has officially, or is going to, begin investigations of me and Hannity and Levin.He is going to have his staff, paid for with your tax dollars, listen to these programs and review transcripts and report back to him. For what? Irregularities that they might hear on this program? What do we have here, folks? Henry Waxman believes that Congress, and his committee in particular, has, as its jurisdiction, the control of content of the airwaves in this country? He wants to use his position — he wants to use the Democrat Party and the power of government — to control speech content. Now, we’ve had people throwing the word “patriotism” around here. Forget the word “patriotism.”

 Have you ever heard of anything as un-American as this? These are the same people who are trying to destroy Bush’s spy program to catch terrorists in the act before they commit the act, as “spying on innocent Americans.” It’s unfair; it’s violating civil rights. They want all these ex-White House officials to come up and talk about this. Yet the very same people, Waxman and his bunch, have instructed the “investigators on his staff” to monitor this program. The Constitution prohibits this. It specifically prohibits this. You know, I honestly believe Henry Waxman would be just as comfortable as a hack member of the Venezuelan parliament working side by side with Hugo Chavez. It’s a puppet operation down there, the parliament is.

More here: Dem Thuggery Directed Toward Talk Radio

This is political hardball being played at the street level. The Democrat controlled Congress is putting conservative talk radio hosts on notice that unless they mute their criticism, they may very well find themselves out of a job sometime soon.

Article Link

The Democrat Party senior leadership is feeling a Rush. Rush Limbaugh, that is. Late last week, DNC Chair Howard Dean, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin and Senatorial Committee chair, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi all signed off in some form or another direct mail fundraising plans that will feature Limbaugh for their national party.”‘Don’t let Limbaugh smear true patriotism,’ that’s the theme,” says a DNC staffer. “We’re not going to let Limbaugh determine what soldiers can talk and what soldiers can not.”

Bad grammar and ill-informed opinions aside, the DNC hopes to raise millions of dollars of Limbaugh. “If we can’t silence him, we should at least make some money to make his life more miserable in a Democratic-controlled Washington in 2008,” says a Senate Democrat leadership aide.

Others on the Democrat side are pushing ahead with other plans. Rep. Henry Waxman has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows, and to call in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to discuss the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”

“Limbaugh isn’t the only one who needs to be made uncomfortable about what he says on the radio,” says a House leadership source. “We don’t have as big a megaphone as these guys, but this all political, and we’ll do what we can to gain the advantage. If we can take them off their game for a while, it will help our folks out there on the campaign trail.”

By Fred Thompson - Townhall.com

Yesterday was a good day. Talk radio, along with the blogs, helped block an immigration bill that the American people overwhelmingly opposed. Then, a congressman, who is also an ex-radio talk show host, managed to get a “yes” vote on language in a House bill that could permanently stop those who want to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine.

We’ve been hearing threats to use the obsolete Fairness Doctrine to go after talk radio ever since the left-leaning talk radio network, Air America, failed. Ironically, I think Air America might have had a shot if its target audience hadn’t already been served so well by many in the mainstream media. But regardless, giving the government veto power over radio stations’ programming decisions is wrong. I don’t think forcing the one sector of the media where conservatives have a clear voice to provide equal time to liberals is the American way. At the very least, it has a chilling effect on station owners.

I understand how the left feels though. For most of my life, the big broadcast television networks and almost all the major newspapers and magazines presented only one side of a lot of issues. Talk radio is a relatively small part of a bigger media picture, but I imagine it aggravates the new congressional majority to hear their opposition’s arguments without the old filters.

I would remind them, though, that a few Republicans were elected even when the entire mainstream media was painting us as heartless Neanderthals. I would also remind the current congressional leadership that they managed to win the last election despite talk radio.

Americans are smart enough to recognize news that’s biased — even when journalists pretend they’re not. New polls show that more than seven in 10 people recognize that the news comes with an agenda. So maybe we should welcome a new Fairness Doctrine. We could start by requiring that every broadcast television news show be co-anchored by both a liberal and conservative; and all major newspaper staff be evenly divided.

Not much chance of that happening. Nor should it in a free country — but I’ll tell you something that those who want to control the media apparently don’t know. Everyday, more people are listening to streaming radio on the Web and downloading podcasts. Some popular talk shows skip radio altogether and go straight to the Internet. You can even hear talk shows on Web-enabled telephones if you want, and that will get much easier and cheaper quickly.

If the current stars of talk were pushed off the radio dial, they’d get their audiences anyway. The era of controllable media is over, and nothing will ever bring it back.

From Michelle Malkin dot com

Fairness Doctrine Watch: The Dem campaign continues
Update: Rep. Pence leads challenge to beat back threat…bill added

You know, it’s really funny. Last week, when I noted that the left-wing Center for American Progress report on talk radio was a clever part of the Dem campaign to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine, the nutroots scoffed. Fairness Doctrine? Who said anything about the Fairness Doctrine?

Who did?

Dennis Kucinich did.

Dianne Feinstein did.

Now, John Kerry has.

Drudge posted Kerry’s remarks on YouTube. The video notes say Kerry made the remarks to WNYC talk host Brian Lehrer (no date).

Read it all at Michelle Malkin dot com