Constitution

FCC and Your Listening Choices

This entry was posted in Constitution Culture FCC Libertarianism Regulation on by

Inspired by a particularly gross talk show episode the FCC is looking to envigorate their efforts “to crackdown on indecency in broadcasting“:

The agency not only warned Infinity that it might lose its license if it does not clean up its act, but announced that any broadcaster who runs afoul of the vague indecency standard will face “strong enforcement actions, including the potential initiation of revocation proceedings.”

Given apparent ongoing congressional intent to oversee our reading and listening habits I suspect we will not be able to look to congress to properly slap the FCC as it has done regarding the media ownership issue. So this FCC behaviour is likely to end up in the courts hopefully it will be tossed out with the trash.

Florida Voting Rights

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Election 2004 Politics US Politics on by

Good news from Florida:

Florida agreed to help restore voting rights to nearly 125,000 convicted felons who didn’t get enough advice on how to regain their rights when they walked free, officials said Thursday.
….
Florida is one of eight states that deny ex-felons the right to vote unless they take steps to have their civil rights restored by the state.
The Department of Corrections had acknowledged that offenders released between 1992 and 2001 did not get proper help on having their rights restored.
The system drew international attention during the bitter dispute over the 2000 presidential election, when some Florida voters claimed they weren’t allowed to cast ballots because they were mistaken for convicted felons.

Since Florida appears to have a long history of abusing the civil rights of ex felons this will have to be closely monitored to assure that Florida officials do not find another way to continue their historic practices.
Of course, none of this has an impact on the 2000 election…..
Via Daily Legal News Wire.

More Impeachment, or Maybe Not

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Election 2004 Politics on by

There is growing grass roots support* for impeachment and some of the Democratic contenders are hinting at it:

On the stump in New Hampshire last week, Democratic presidential contender and former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Bob Graham said that if George W. Bush made false statements that led the nation into war, there were grounds to impeach him.

James Ridgeway, in this Village Voice piece argues that it is unlikely that Bush will be impeached.

(more…)

The Iraq Pitch and the Patriot Act

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Iraq Judiciary Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

William Rasberry doesn’t want us to be blinded by uraniumgate:

The flap over how the falsehood about uranium purchases from Niger made it into the president’s State of the Union message should not obscure what for me is the most troubling fact: Key members of the Bush administration, convinced in their hearts that America needed to destroy Saddam Hussein, thought it reasonable to exaggerate the threat and deliberately stretch the facts in order to sell the American people on that necessity.

Read his column to see why he thinks this is a pattern of behaviour.
Via Talkleft.