Dem’s Try to Use FCC to Censor Anti-Obamacare Ads

Michael Schaus / Townhall Columnist

 

What do Democrats do when a hard-hitting anti-Obamacare ad threatens the electoral prospects of a Democrat Congressman?

Well… You unleash the lawyers. With any luck, you might even be able to use the weight of the FCC to muscle local stations into denying the ad any air time. Because, obviously, using government regulatory agencies to strong arm broadcasters into censoring political advertisements, is a tactic in total compliance with the intent of the First Amendment.

Julia Boonstra is currently suffering from Leukemia. And, until the implementation of Obamacare, she had insurance coverage that provided her with desired benefits. In fact, she was happy. Her condition was improving. Her treatments were working, and she was not driving herself into bankruptcy fighting a horrendous form of cancer… Then came Obamacare.

As is explained in the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) ad – aimed at Democrat Gary Peters – Julia was among the millions of Americans who saw their insurance evaporate as Obamacare implementation lumbered forward. And while she’s been able to retain the same doctor as before, her new Obamacare insurance has left her with an unpredictable schedule of out-of-pocket costs. In short: She liked her plan – she wasn’t able to keep her plan – and now she’s stuck with inadequate insurance that threatens her financial stability. Julia is now worse off (financially and physically) thanks to the President’s boondoggled web of regulation known affectionately as “Obamacare.”

But why allow little things (like Julia, the cancer survivor, losing her preferred healthcare) to interfere with the election of Democrats? Michigan Democrats, who support Gary Peters, have filed paperwork to get the ad pulled from the air. They’ve even threatened to have the FCC pull the broadcast licenses of any station that decides to air the ad.

Lawyers for the Democrat Representative have claimed that the ad is “misleading” and “deceptive”; and therefore could violate broadcaster’s obligation to the FCC and general public. Yep… Michigan Dems are willing to use the FCC to censor a cancer victim… Oh, but it gets better:

The lawyer’s basis for claiming the ad is “deceptive” and “misleading” is a Washington Post article on Julia’s story. (Ya know, the same Washington Post that said Obamacare would be a boost to the economy, and would not lead to reduced work hours... Clearly the WaPo needs to fact check their own stuff before tearing apart AFP.)

In the ad, Julia claims that she lost her health coverage due to Obamacare… Well, she did. She also claims that her out of pocket costs have since skyrocketed, because… Well… They have. And she also claims that this is a direct result of Obamacare… Yeah. Because it is.

The Washington Post, however, decided to give Julia’s story 2 Pinocchio’s (indicating it was “misleading”) because in the end she might not end up with any greater amount of financial hardship….

Of course, what the Washington Post (and Michigan Democrats) seem to be missing is that Julia was lied to by advocates of Obamacare. She doesn’t like her new insurance. (And who would? It has unpredictable monthly costs, as opposed to her old plan that was set at an affordable – and comprehensive – monthly amount.) She liked her old plan. But, because some Democrats in DC decided that this new plan would be better for Julia, that’s what she’s stuck with.

Something as personal, and private, as the purchasing of health insurance is no longer in her control. Her choices, her preferences, her personal interests are no longer important. Obamacare is an affront to liberty on the most basic level. Suddenly, Julia found that her concerns were no longer important.

The only thing that mattered was what Obamacare said she could, or could not, have in regards to healthcare.

And, as if stripping a Leukemia patient of their preferred healthcare system wasn’t enough, Democrats in Michigan are now looking to silence her story. The fundamental message conveyed by Julia’s Obamacare-induced drama is being censored by the same nannycrats who forced her into a sub-par insurance plan in the first place. (Oh, and before any Democrat says “but this new plan will actually be better for her”: Maybe that’s a decision she should be allowed to make for herself.) Heck, they even threatened to get the FCC involved – which isn’t that farfetched in a world where the IRS targets only conservative 501(c)4’s for audits.
 
So… Now the Democrats are going to go around threatening to strip broadcasters of their FCC license if they air ads that Democrats consider to be “misleading”? Don’t such authoritarian dreams of control give any other Americans a chill? Think of the irony: Democrats in Michigan are unleashing lawyers to censor the backlash created by Democrat lies.

And that may be the most poignant point to be made: The only reason Julia is part of an AFP ad (as opposed to happily living her life in anonymity) is because the President, Democrats, and Representative Gary Peters, lied when they said she could keep her plan if she liked it…

In other words: Democrats are hoping to pull the ad – because it makes a perfectly valid point.

Here's the ad... Now judge for yourself:
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2014/02/24/dems-try-to-use-fcc-to-censor-antiobamacare-ads-n1799597/page/full

What's a Million Jobs More or Less When There's So Many Jobs Being Created?

John Ransom/ Townhall Columnist

Remember: We actually pay people to report on stuff like this.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), while not exactly non-partisan, doesn’t always see eye to eye with either party in D.C.

Yes, sometimes the effects of proposed Democrat economic policies are so obvious that even the CBO is forced to agree with Republicans.

The CBO just reported that the Democrats plan to raise the minimum wage would cost between 500,00 to a million jobs. Initially.

No. Duh.

At least that many jobs; really, probably more.

“The CBO analysts said their estimate of employment losses was approximate,” says Fox News.

“They said the actual impact could range from a very slight employment reduction to a loss of one million workers.”

These are the same economic clowns who put that bright red nose on Obamacare telling us all that it would balance the budget, bring peace to the Middle East, and provide free birth control for Sandra Fluke.

Getting past the fact that I personally know of at least seven people who have told me they’d privately pay for Fluke’s birth control if it meant she’d never become part of a breeding pair, the clowns were recently forced to update their Obamacare estimates saying, well, gee guys: Obamacare is going to cost a lot of jobs.

How many? 2.5 million. Initially.

“Initially” is a big point with any Obama policy.

Because it always seems that those “initial” estimates by the CBO of the economic consequences of an Obama policy are much rosier than the reality.

With current unemployed, plus those who have dropped out of the workforce, plus the jobs killed by Keystone inaction, plus Obamacare job casualties, plus the war on energy like coal, there are between 6 and 8 million people without jobs, who in other circumstances might have work as of now.

And the reality of any Obama policy is usually postponed until after Obama’s out of office.

You think things are bad now?

Don’t worry, you’ll clean up later, when that number hits 10-15 million people.

After he leaves.

Who's the clown in charge of this economy anyway?

“The report was released as the Democrat-controlled Senate,” writes Fox, “prepares to debate an Obama-backed proposal to gradually increase the $7.25 hourly minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016.”

So we have the satisfaction of knowing that at a time when the private sector is struggling to create jobs, Obama will guarantee it will get harder for them rather than easier.

Again. And Again. And Again.

And make no mistake: for all the benefit this will give some people, there are real people who will lose their jobs as a consequence. Small businesses will shutdown, with devastating consequences to owners and employees. Some small businesses won’t start at all as a result because owners will have a tougher time making the financing work with increased wage costs.

“This is a slippery slope that could absolutely cause me to shut down and force me into bankruptcy,” Charlene Conway owner of Carousel Family Fun Centers in Fairhaven and Whitman, Mass. told the New York Times.

“I’m not going to pay a 14-year-old $9 an hour with no experience, maturity or work ethic,” she said.

“What this does is eliminate the opportunity for young people to get started in the work force,” with her now hiring older people instead of young people for jobs.

Is it worth it for gains many say are illusory or at least questionable?

“Hundreds of thousands of low-skill workers are trying to find a job but can’t,” Michael Strain, a labor economist with the American Enterprise Institute, writes at NRO. “Is it really the right time to raise the cost of hiring and make it harder for businesses to hire them? Some studies say a higher minimum wage will lower employment; some say employment will remain unchanged. Shouldn’t we err on the side of caution?”

Caution? For Obama?

Why in the world would he ever exercise caution?

He won’t have to clean up after himself.

He never does.

Remember: We pay him to do stuff like this.

U.S. imam says in Iran’s state-run press that 9/11 was “pretext” for U.S. to “declare open warfare on Islam and Muslims”

Robert Spencer  / Jihad Watch

 

Imam Musa wants to establish an Islamic State of America by 2050 and has called Iran’s Khamenei the “best leader in the world.” Nor is this the first time he has spread paranoid fantasies about “Islamophobia” in the Iranian press. But was even he able to keep a straight face when claiming that the U.S. government was waging “open warfare on Islam and Muslims”? The U.S. Muslim establishment plays the victimhood game very skillfully, but even they don’t make such wild claims.

“Top Ameican [sic] Imam: 9/11 used as ‘pretext’ to attack Muslims,” from Iran’s state-controlled Ahlul Bayt News Agency, February 23:

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – The September 11 attacks in the United States were used by the US government as a “pretext” to “declare open warfare on Islam and Muslims,” an American activist says.

“It’s totally illegal what the government is doing,” said Abdul Alim Musa, the director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, D.C., criticizing a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit alleging the New York City Police Department illegally spied on Muslim Americans in New Jersey.

On Thursday, the court in Newark in the state of New Jersey ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to show that the NYPD’s intelligence unit had discriminated against Muslims by spying on mosques and other locations in the state.

The 2012 lawsuit was the first to challenge the NYPD’s spying operations against Muslim groups and individuals in the US. It had accused the police of spying on Muslims at several mosques, restaurants and schools since 2002.

“My belief is it’s a waste of time for Muslims to use all of their energy seeking justice in the United States courts,” Musa told Press TV on Saturday. “The United States court system is totally controlled by American Zionism and they’re not going to allow Muslims to gain any justice in that court system.”

Musa also said American Muslims and “the whole world is tired of US spying” after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden released thousands of classified documents on NSA global spying programs.

Op-ed:
The debut of Right Side Patriots
By: Diane Sori
  

Hi guys...sometimes even in the midst of all the chaos that Barack HUSSEIN Obama has caused our side does win a few small battles, and winning one such battle involves getting our conservatives voices heard on a larger scale. 

Our conservative message is important for all to hear for America is changing and NOT for the better.  A progressive liberal agenda has overtaken simple common sense as our once centrist country now leans so far to the left that the left can shake hands with the right...and this must end for we must return to the law of our land...the U.S. Constitution...if America is to survive as we conservatives know and love her.

Many media outlets have been utilized by our side to help spread that message even as roadblocks are placed in our path.  We post on Facebook NOT letting the Facebook gods, as I call them, stop us even when we're thrown in Facebook jail...as they love to play their childish games of timeouts, bannings, and other assorted nonsense.  And while we do post on the alternative venues, sadly, their numbers combined do NOT have the reach of Facebook.  And some of us do have our own blogs where we are free to post as we see fit without Facebook or alternative venue constraints.

And so the truth in the form of the written word does get out...slowly...ever so slowly...but now the time has come as the all-important November mid-term election draws near to blast our message out to as many people as possible all across America and also to freedom lovers throughout the world.   

And herein lies the power of radio.

To that effect Craig Andresen from The National Patriot http://www.thenationalpatriot.com/ and me from The Patriot Factor http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/ have now joined forces as we have been asked to co-host our very own radio show. 

Called Right Side Patriots, we are a TEApublican ...YES...a TEApublican Conservative radio talk show debuting this Wednesday on CPR Worldwide Media.  We will be a NO holds barred, politically incorrect take on today's political landscape both here in America and abroad.  The LIVE show will broadcast every Wednesday from 2-4pm EST and CPR will rebroadcast the show Wednesday's at midnight EST as well as over the weekend.

Our first guest will be Bill Finlay...known far and wide as Wild Bill for America... America's leading "'Liberalologist' who is working to cure liberalism in our lifetime." And as National Director of Wild Bill's TEA Teams USA I can assure you this will be one great debut show.

And so while this new opportunity...and it is a BIG one for both Craig and I...will take-up a certain amount of our time, please know that NOTHING will change as far as our Facebook postings, our blog postings, our admin duties or anything else for that matter as Craig and I are dedicated patriots determined to help set our country right again even if it means working 24/7, 365...for our country means that much to us.

We will put up the link that can hook you directly into our show and we will take 'live' calls through skype as the show is in progress.  We will post all the pertinent info on Wednesday morning. Also, Craig and I have put up a Community page on Facebook called Right Side Patriots https://www.facebook.com/rightsidepatriots where you can contact us directly and can post what's on your minds.  We hope you will go to the page and click 'like.'

Looking forward to getting our TEApublican message out and hope you will all join us for this exciting ride.