Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

Centre refuses to host Steyn lecture on free speech

Adam McDowell, National Post · Friday, Oct. 22, 2010

Organizers of an upcoming talk by conservative writer Mark Steyn planned for London, Ont., say they were muzzled by a local city-owned convention centre.

A trio of bloggers who run the site StrictlyRight.com inquired on Monday about booking a Nov. 1 speech for Mr. Steyn at the London Convention Centre. The group announced on Thursday that it had received a phone call from the centre saying it would not be allowed to make the booking. The Convention Centre said it was a business decision, but organizers of the speech said they were told otherwise.

"The reason offered by the LCC [in a Tuesday morning phone call] was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn't want to alienate their Muslim clients. It's interesting to note that the LCC is owned by the City of London, and is therefore a government operation," wrote Strictly Right's Andrew Lawton at the website.

Lori Da Silva, general manager of the Convention Centre, said the bloggers approached the centre last Thursday but didn't submit a required "client profile" - basically, financial and other information the centre would need to bill them for the room.


That amounts to censorship at a city-owned facility, Lawton countered.


City manager Jeff Fielding said the centre is free to do what it wants since it operates arms-length from city hall.


"The Convention Centre has its own board and its own administration and is free to make its own business decisions," he said.

"I am sitting here as a suspect because I have spoken... nothing but the truth"

Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders goes on trial

Geert Wilders: "I am sitting here as a suspect because I have spoken... nothing but the truth"

The Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has gone on trial in Amsterdam accused of inciting hatred against Muslims.

Mr Wilders, whose statements have included comparing the Koran with Hitler's Mein Kampf, told the court freedom of expression was on trial.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of a year in jail.

Mr Wilders' Freedom Party is the third biggest in the Netherlands after June elections, and is expected to play a key role in the next parliament.

Prosecutors have brought five charges of inciting hatred and discrimination, and the trial will scrutinise statements he made between 2006 and 2008.

In one such statement, in an editorial for the De Volkskrant newspaper, he wrote: "I've had enough of Islam in the Netherlands; let not one more Muslim immigrate.

"I've had enough of the Koran in the Netherlands: Forbid that fascist book."

Opines BBC Ananlyst Geraldine Coughlin:

Geert Wilders is defending his right to freedom of speech, which lies at the heart of the Dutch constitution. He believes he's said nothing offensive. He says his trial is a political process.


And he says it will not deter him from his mission, which is to stop the "Islamisation" of the Netherlands.


This trial is setting a precedent - judges said that in a democratic system, it is in the general interest to draw a clear line on the limits of hate speech.


And it comes at a time when Geert Wilders occupies a more crucial role, and enjoys a higher-profile, than ever. He is set to become a shadow partner in the next coalition government - giving tacit support to a minority cabinet.

Why Governor Christie SHOULD Eliminate NJN,...

Two words: Equal Time.

It is well-known that the umbrella of publicly-operated and/or state-run television channels known as PBS is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and, absent such benign fare as cooking and travelogue shows, broadcasts with a definitive leftist slant.

Which begs the question: where's the publicly-funded media with a conservative point-of-view? That's right, gentle readers, it DOESN'T exist.  And FOX doesn't count!

In a country hell-bent on spreading our American ideals, such as equality and fair play, our own government turns a blind eye when it comes to doling out money to support "public television;" that is, television that doesn't rely on commercial revenue, but rather donations from viewers for financial support.

And who stands to lose the most from Christie's plan? Yup, unions. Unions, as we know, are the very backbone of today's Democratic-cum-Socialist Party.

Howard Blumenthal, paid $154,000 a year to head New Jersey Network and its nonprofit foundation, will return full-time to MiND TV, a non-commercial Philadelphia station, according to a press release from NJN.


He was hired last year after he outlined a plan to turn the network from a drain on taxpayers to a privately run, non-profit standout in public broadcasting. But his vision did not sit well with the stations' unionized employees, who said the plan would cost them their jobs and put potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer assets under private control.

 So I say "YES" to Governor Christie's plan to privatize NJN.  Let the big-business types have a piece of it!  Maybe they'll finally get a chance to rebut the never-ending stream of tree-hugging, corporation-bashing that comes with your annual PBS subscription!

**THAT'S MY OPINION AND YOU'RE ENTITLED TO IT!!**

Blame Canada!

Canadians accused of U.S. flag desecration

Two Canadian men may face charges of flag desecration and vandalism in California over a controversial display of Olympic pride.

Police in La Quinta say the men are accused of taking down the American banner and replacing it with a Canadian flag after Canada beat the U.S. in the men's gold-medal hockey match at the Vancouver Olympics.

The U.S. flag had been on display on a mountain and was maintained by a private citizen in honour of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The flag was found damaged.

A complaint has been sent to the district attorney's office, police said. The men could face up to a year in jail if convicted.

Police identified the Canadians as Ryan Smith, 25, and Matt Siefert, 26. Both are said to be residents of the state.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/04/20/olympic-flag-hockey-us-desecration.html?ref=rss#ixzz0lertVeq9

Obama Wins! (And I am Kicked Off the Blogosphere!)

Gentle readers,
Hopefully, you'll still be able to read this before Google's executioner takes a swipe at my neck!

Yesterday morning, I received an e-mail from Google, the parent company of Blogger (my blog's platform) stating that my blog was to be shutdown due to "violations" of their user policies.

To wit:

Your blog, "Bitter American," with the Blogspot URL of "trekmedic251," has been found to be in violation of the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) of Blogger, a Google corporate entity, under section 4, part 1, article 10: under EULA agreement, the registrant shall not incur, within a 12 month rolling period, a number of abuse reports exceeding the threshhold therein enumerated under section 1, part 21, article 13. The result of such a violation is the termination of contract between Blogger, a Google corporate entity and the party or parties identified as agreeing to the EULA at the time of the creation of said account. The party has been identified as the registrant utilizing the e-mail account of ejangiolillo1@verizon.net.

The termination of your account will occur within the next 24-48 hours. If you disagree with the decision to terminate your EULA priviledges, you must contact us at +8884664541 no later than 6pm PDT on March 30, 2010 (Note: the e-mail wasn't sent to me until March 31st!!)

Friends, I can only surmise that my blog, along with those of other right-minded individuals, has been the target of a coordinated attack by Obamaphiles, Nutroots, Kos-mo-nuts and Huff-and-Puff adherents!

I'm going to try and save the HTML code to migrate over to another host, but in the meantime, continue the good fight, stop the Obamessiah before he shreds the First Amendment once and for all, and drop a few teabags in the Potomac for me!

Forever faithful in what America was and can be again,

Ed "Bitter American" Angiolillo!!

In Russia, Kenny is Not Dead, Just Has "a Bad Cold."

Uproar after Russian TV edits "South Park"
Friday, July 10, 2009 | 10:12 AM

MOSCOW - July 10, 2009 -- A Russian TV channel has cut a segment of the ribald U.S. cartoon comedy "South Park" that appeared to mock Vladimir Putin, a news agency reported.

The channel "2X2" cut material from the show that aired Tuesday, portraying Putin as a greedy and desperate leader, Novy Region reported Thursday. The decision prompted criticism and furious discussion on Russia blogs.

It was unclear whether the decision, involving an episode that originally aired in the United States in 2005, was made by channel executives or regulators. Channel executives could not be reached for comment Friday.

A spokesman with Russia's broadcast regulator, Rosskomnadzor, said he knew nothing of the incident. (Schu-u-lt-z-z-z!)

"We have never interfered with editorial decisions," Yevgeny Strelchik said.

The channel has been threatened with closure at least twice before for broadcasting what material regulators deem extremist. The network received warnings from the government last year for "promoting immorality and violence" and again in September 2008 for "overt propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia."

Religious groups have also sought to have the station's license revoked.

The Soviet collapse loosened the reins on news and information, and open mocking of government officials - Kremlin or otherwise - was popular in the 1990s. Under Putin's presidency, however, there's been a noticeable shift away from biting satire.

The channel NTV was forced to pull its satirical puppet show "Kukly" in 2002 after the Kremlin objected to the excessive lampooning of Putin.

Putin, who is now prime minister, has been instrumental in returning economic stability to Russia but critics say that his methods, which leave little room for public dissent, border on authoritarian.

Internet publications and blogs are among the last outlets for unfettered commentary and satire in Russian, and commentators on Russia's most popular blogging service, Live Journal, vented their anger after news of the "South Park" censorship leaked out.

"Congratulations, Vladimir Vladimirovich," wrote one blogger, manhater-1138, referring to Putin by his name and his patryonimc. "You have become pornography."

Oleg Kuvaev, a blogger and online animated filmmaker, said on his Web site that the decision would only attract more attention to the channel.

"It's stupid to cut things this way, because the result is reverse - a mediocre scene attracts more interest," he wrote.

I'm Ba-a-a-a-ack!

For those who didn't know, I was locked out of my blog by Google (the owners of Blogger.com) while they "investigated" claims that my site was a spam blog.

Obviously, they were wrong,...

Surprisingly, they missed my largely-ignored side blog Republican SpyGlass.

And I'm not the first one Google's gone after. Check out this rogue's list of Obama-supporting Google squelching free speech.

Officially, This Didn't Happen

Because CNN didn't give it 24x7 coverage,....

Thank God SOMEONE did:

UNC probes Tancredo speech protest

DENVER — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has launched an investigation into a rowdy student protest that prevented former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, from delivering a speech Tuesday night on campus.

University Chancellor Holden Thorp said the investigation by the school's Department of Public Safety could result in criminal charges. The Division of Student Affairs is also probing the incident, he said, and that students could face Honor Court proceedings as a result.

The state's leading newspapers, including the Charlotte News & Observer, published articles harshly critical of the university's handling of the incident.

"Free speech, which has had its ups and downs on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus over the years, suffered an embarrassing setback Tuesday night," the paper said in an editorial Thursday. ("Captain Obvious? Phone call for you on line 2!")

Mr. Tancredo "was forced to leave without completing his speech at Bingham Hall. The university is left to pick up the pieces, if it can, of its reputation as a place where free speech is welcomed."

Mr. Tancredo was scheduled to speak on the topic of in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, but shortly after taking the stage he was shouted down by protesters. They unfurled a banner in front of him reading "No Dialogue With Hate," blocking his view of the audience.

All Talk, No Action

CNN, 1st cable-news outlet, is 3d in ratings

By David Bauder
Associated Press

NEW YORK - CNN is poised to finish March third in the prime-time weeknight cable news ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the first time this has ever happened for the channel that pioneered the genre nearly three decades ago.

CNN says its overall business is healthy and it is not straying from its straight news path. But it has been suffering more audience erosion than its rivals since the peak days of the presidential election, further proof that the opinionated prime-time shows on Fox and MSNBC have greater audience loyalty. (Actually, its proof that when you lie for a living, people will stop paying attention to you - BA)

CNN's weekday prime-time ratings are relatively flat compared to last year during the primary campaign, up 1 percent from March 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox's ratings have jumped 30 percent and MSNBC, the new No. 2, is up 24 percent. The biggest growth in cable news is for CNN's partner, HLN, formerly Headline News, which is up 62 percent.

Fox remains on a mountain above its two closest competitors, with its prime-time audience in March more than that of MSNBC and CNN combined. The O'Reilly Factor has done particularly well, keeping more of its postelection audience than anything else on CNN and MSNBC.

Through Wednesday, Fox was averaging 2.73 million prime-time viewers in March. MSNBC had 1.16 million and CNN had 1.14 million. The March ratings period ends Friday, and it's doubtful CNN will be able to overcome MSNBC.


Aw-w-w-w,..poor Rachel MadCow and Campbell Brown-Noser,...

Wow! The First Amendment DOES Apply to Conservapublicans!

69% Say Merry Christmas, but Few Offended by Happy Holidays
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Americans generally say “Merry Christmas” to greet people at this time of year, but 71% are not offended by others who say “Happy Holidays.”

The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 19% typically use the “Happy Holidays” greeting and 23% are offended by it.

While few are offended by casual greeting, retailers must negotiate a trickier path during the holiday season. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Americans would avoid stores where employees are told not to say “Merry Christmas” and the signs say “Happy Holidays.” Fifty-two percent (52%) would not avoid those stores while 12% are not sure. Americans over 50 are evenly divided as to whether they would avoid such a store while younger adults are less likely to do so.

There are no substantive differences between men and women on the Christmas questions.

Overall, these figures suggest a nation where Christmas matters but so does an acceptance of others.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say Merry Christmas and less likely to shop at stores that don’t.

Conservatives and Their Toys

The TrekMedic at the Constitution Center, exercising his First Amendment rights, on what I want from our Chief Executive:




Unfortunately, lousy phone camera wouldn't let me focus on the fact that all of this was created under the picture of President Ronald !

This is Ridiculous!

Why schools need to be taken away from the government's control:

Virginia Teachers Union Sparks Outrage With 'Obama Blue Day'
NEW YORK: Virginia Republicans are in uproar over state teachers union's effort to get educators to show their support for Barack Obama during school hours.

Virginia Republicans are in an uproar after the state teacher's union sent an e-mail to its members encouraging them to wear blue-colored shirts to school to show their support for Barack Obama.

State Republicans are calling it an undisguised attempt to influence students' political views.

The Virginia Education Association sponsored "Obama Blue Day" on Tuesday. In an e-mail sent last week, it urged teachers to participate by dressing in blue.

"There are people out there not yet registered. You teach some of them," the Sept. 25 e-mail reads. "Others, including our members, remain on the fence! Its time for us to come together, voice our unity, because we make a difference!"

"Let's make Obama Blue Day a day of Action!" the e-mail continues. "Barack the vote!"

In a statement released to FOXNews.com Thursday, VEA President Kitty Boitnott defended the e-mail, saying that it called for teachers to wear blue shirts, but not ones that mentioned a candidate.

The invitation was not intended to "encourage teachers to use their classrooms for partisan political purposes," Boitnott said.

"The e-mail did not encourage teachers to talk with students about voting for any specific candidate, although it did suggest that teachers can encourage eligible students to register to vote. There certainly is nothing wrong with encouraging students who are 18 years of age or older to register to vote."

But many state Republicans are miffed by the plan, which they characterize as an obvious attempt by the teachers union to encourage young, impressionable voters to cast their ballots for Obama.

"It's a breach of public trust on many levels," Virginia Republican Party Communications Director Gerry Scimeca told FOXNews.com.

Scimeca, who described the VEA as a "very political organization," said the school environment is "a completely inappropriate place for teachers or education staff to be politicking on behalf of any candidate. Parents send their kids to school to get a bipartisan education."

The controversy surrounding the VEA's "Obama Blue Day" is not the only clash between partisan politics and education this election season.

The teachers union in New York has also come under fire for distributing thousands of Obama campaign buttons to its members, prompting a backlash from education officials and parents.

"Schools are not a place for politics and not a place for staff to wear political buttons," New York Department of Education spokeswoman Ann Forte told FOXNews.com.

"We don't want a school or school staff advocating for any political position or candidate to students and we don't want students feeling intimidated because they might hold a different belief or support a different candidate than their teachers," she said.

232 Years Ago Today,.....

Gentle readers,
over 3 centuries ago, people left various lands ruled by the hereditary nobles of Europe to settle on the fertile grounds of "The New World."

Some came to expand their lords' empires, some to escape the very same lords' oppressions and discriminations based on race, religion, or creed.

232 years ago today, the fruits borne of those seeds and on this fertile soil we call "America" sat down and listed a series of grievences against one such noble, King George III of England.

On July 4th, 1776, landed gentleman of the Colonies told King George that we no longer wanted to be part of his Empire. We no longer wanted to serve him at his whim. We wanted to start a new country, full of new ideas and dreams and based on ideals not welcome in most of Europe.

Over the ensuing decades and centuries, we've had our fits and starts. Those who watched HBO's excellent "John Adams" know that this separation was not easy, nor as altrusitic as it sounds. It was bloody and messy and at times seemed doomed to fail. We've been slapped in the face, kicked in the shins and knees in the balls.

And we've never looked back.

We went to war with our own countrymen over the fate of a portion of our population.

And we never looked back.

We endured hardship and scandal and peace and prosperity.

We've amended the law of our land - a document that has NEVER been discounted and re-written, as we still see in some lands - to keep pace with the changing world in which we live.

232 years ago today, we created a new kind of republic, full of hopes, dreams and ideals never spoken of before.

And we've never looked back.

Happy Birthday, America!

Carlin George, Peace in Rest!

Counterculture Comedian George Carlin Dies at 71
Monday, June 23, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Some People Are Stupid. Stuff. People I Can Do Without.

George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday at 71, leaves behind not only a series of memorable routines, but a legal legacy: His most celebrated monologue, a frantic, informed riff on those infamous seven words, led to a Supreme Court decision on broadcasting offensive language.

The counterculture hero's jokes also targeted things such as misplaced shame, religious hypocrisy and linguistic quirks — why, he once asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

The TrekMedic is heartbroken:

My idol has passed away. Carlin's humor was the basis for much of my Star Yecch!-related material.

No matter what he said, it always struck a nerve or enlightened some kernel of the truth with everyone.

Some of his best works (NSFW) can be found here!

The I-Man Strikes Back!!

Report: With $40 Million of Lost Salary at Stake, Imus Hires Legal Pit Bull to Battle CBS

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Ousted shock-jock Don Imus, whose on-air remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team ignited a media storm and national debate about race, gender and free speech on public airwaves, appears ready to talk some expensive trash at his former employer.

With about $40 million left on his contract with CBS Radio -- whose boss Les Moonves fired the I-Man on April 12 -- Imus has decided to hire Martin Garbus, a New York-based attorney at the law firm Davis & Gilbert, who is widely recognized as one of the country's most able First Amendment lawyers, Fortune reports.

Click here to read complete Fortune report.

At issue, Fortune reports, is whether language in Imus' contract encouraged him and his producers to be irreverent and engage in character attacks.

The language, a source told Fortune, was part of a five-year agreement that went into effect in 2006, and that paid Imus close to $10 million a year. The contract stipulates that Imus be given a warning before being fired for doing what he made a career out of: making off-color jokes.

Garbus successfully represented comedian Lenny Bruce against criminal charges on First Amendment grounds, and the writer Robert Sam Anson in a lawsuit filed by Walt Disney trying to halt the publication of a book critical of the media giant.

But in Imus' case, his free speech rights are tempered by the fact that he said what he said on the public airwaves, which are subject to Federal Communications Commission regulations about what is appropriate content.

Meanwhile, Imus plans to retreat to his ranch in New Mexico for the summer before deciding whether to make another go of it on the radio, Fortune reports.


The TrekMedic ponders:

1. Wither the ACLU? Oh, yeah,...it isn't so much that Imus is a conservative (he's far from it), but in defending Imus, the ACLU would be put in a position of biting the hands (Sharpton, Jackson et al) that feed.
2. Imus was a knucklehead. He got paid by CBS to be a knucklehead, even when he crossed the line, such as in this case. All things being equal, and in the MSM world it ain't, why hasn't Rosie O'Donnell ever gotten throw under the bus in a similar manner (And, no, its not because her girth would damage the aforementioned bus!)
3. CBS wouldn't have fired Imus, had they not caved into the political pressure of those harbingers of hate, the Revs. Sharpton and Jackson, ministers of the First Christian Church of "Do as I Say, Not as I Do."

Fight on, Imus!