One more step closer to Fascism. Let's call it what it is.
Today a documentary film crew was not just ejected from a House of Representatives committee hearing on so-called "fracking", but were actually arrested on orders from House Rethugs.
Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated exposé of the gas industry, Gasland, along with his crew was taken in custody because the Rethugs on the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment didn't want them filming the hearing.
This is a shocking break, not only with congressional precedent but also the First Amendment to the US Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Emphasis added]In the immortal words of Gold Hat, the bandido in the classic The Treasure of Sierra Madre, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!" [See Stinking Badges for more.]
Fascism exists where you find it. Suppression and control of the media is one of the hallmarks of Fascism.
I report, you decide.
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4 Comments:
I wonder if there is actually going to be a court case for Mr. Fox? Or was he arrested just to get him out of the congressional hearing room? I can't imagine he could be convicted of filming a hearing without also showing a an intentional disruption of the hearing on his part, and then the charge should be for the disruption, not for the filming. What prompted the arrest in the first place? There must have been others in the room with cameras.
Thanks, anon. As usual, there has to be more to this than meets the eye. Or maybe not, since now the Rethugs are pretty up front with their authoritarian ways and their desperately slavering pandering to Big Oil and the über-capitalist ethos.
--The F Man
For those that have the service, Net flix now has this movie "gasland" on DVD, I dropped the DVD service and await it to be available on line.
There were plenty of code words in rawmoneys statement. He said he is appealing to the real americans, the middle class. The poor are not real americans. This is the GOP's language to try to peel the middle class off the social contract, its class warefare, the middle class should worry about their suburban homes, the upcoming prom or the mall. It should not worry about the poor, they have all they need. And I'll fix the safety net, this means give me the scissors, lets tidy it up to protect the millionaires low tax rate. This is class warfare from the reichwing wordsmiths.
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