March 2009  

We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and CID/HOA board of directors and report the facts!

Shut Down The Red County Mr. Graves! - Pelosi’s Shut Up Rule

First we hear of local governance enacting  Shut Up Rules, allegedly for efficiency purposes.  Then  OC Supervisor Pat Bates declaring that the CCW issue is dead, followed by Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens statements that she does not agree that her restrictive CCW policies infringe on Second Amendment Rights.   Of course, last week we got treated to a  recently released Orange County Grand Jury report esigned to stifle public discourse anent the CCW and the Second Amendment.

All this pales in comparison when you consider House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Shut Up Rule designed to silence forums such as the Red County. 

Last Friday, the Senate introduced its own version
of the Free Flow of Information Act, a follow-up to the House's action
two days before.  At issue here is the question of what exactly
constitutes a journalist.  Both versions would provide limited
protection against subpoenas for journalists, and both version contain
certain exceptions.  

Both versions are in agreement as to the scope of  journalism as:

"the regular gathering, preparing, collecting,
photography, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of
news or information that concerns local, national, or international
events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the
public."

However, Pelosi's Shut Up version adds sever restrictions, which in essence, could shut down forums such as this one:

"for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood
or for substantial financial gain and includes a supervisor, employer,
parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of such covered person."

In essence, if journalism is a hobby or a public service passion, or if
you are a freelancer without a boss or a blogger, then the government
reserves the right to force you to tell them where you got any
information you post in this forum

	Comments.  Comments (59) .

8AF

What's the problem. Journalists demand open goverment and access claiming the "people's right to know." Why shouldn't the people also be able to demand the sources from a journalist?

Jubal

Why should they, 8AF?

But why should we be surprised at your answer? Fascism is an ideology of the Left, after all.

CotoBlogzz

There is no problem here - the basic question is, how do you hold the public sector accountable? Particularly when it does not want to? There are tools designed for such purposes, such as the PRA - but guess what? If the official simply refuses to turn over documents, says like videos that may revela nefarious actions, what is the public to do,

If you have a better way to hold the public sector accountable, let me know. Heck, if you have some inside information, let me know - I promise I will not tell anyone!

8AF

Wow!! That's quite a response. Why should the demand for openness only go in one direction?

Is that not a legit question?

Jubal

Tell you what, 8AF: would you like me to volunteer your IP address to any government official who requests it?

8AF

Go ahead. I have nothing to hide. I'm not the one who making accusations hiding behind anonymous sources.

Gustavo Arellano

Matt, you gotta stop with the name-calling! I'm from the Left, and I wholeheartedly support bloggers in their quest for protection from subpoenas and other such intrusions. Coto: what petition do folks who want to let Pelosi have it sign, or number to call?

Jubal

I didn't call 8AF a name. I made an absolutely valid observation about where, on the political spectrum, fascism finds its true home.

CotoBlogzz

To find your local representative, visit: http://www.votesmart.org/, click on "for journalists" - I would start flooding Ms. Pelosis' snail mail and Blackberry.

DanChmielewski

Matt -- The government likely already has his IP address; you remember that silly Patriot Act being passed and all. Did we forget about the whole government/domestic spying stuff the Bushies did already? Love the mock outrage here.

CotoBlogzz

Your political persuasion lenses seem to be more obfuscated that those of the OCSD: You are mixing apples with pineapples and coming up with crab apples.

Even when the incoming administration promised to have the most ethical team in history, with zero tolerance for lobbyist, the rhetoric did not match the actions.

Closer to home, the Public Request Acts is being used to mean Purely Recycled Answers.

So, if you have better tools to get to the truth, you will survive in the natzification of America.

DanChmielewski

Natzification? Are you sure that is the word you want to use? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Na...

The last administration was the ones closer to facism -- strong nationalism, a hated enemy, control of corporate media, no respect for rule of law.....

CotoBlogzz

Yes - that is the word I want to use. If you want something from Karl Marx: "The state of affairs in the future Communist society will make it possible to do one thing in today, another tomorrow, to go shooting in the morning and fishing in the afternoon and in the evening look after the cattle, to indulge in criticism after dinner, just as the fancy takes me" - Unless of course the AG/the Sheriff take away your guns, and or Pelosi's Shut Up rule passes.

What part of the obfuscation did you not understand:

" Even when the incoming administration promised to have the most ethical team in history, with zero tolerance for lobbyist, the rhetoric did not match the actions.

Closer to home, the Public Request Acts is being used to mean Purely Recycled Answers.

So, if you have better tools to get to the truth, you will survive in the natzification of America."

DanChmielewski

You obviously didn't click on the link to the word definition.

CotoBlogzz

I do not make it a habit to use terms I do not understand, and hence while "clicking" on the link to find what the word natzification means to you, it is simply a waste of time for me.

Did you by the way also click on the term "obfuscation"?

Teresa_Trujillo

What in God's name makes you think the last administration controlled corporate media? The media message has been very liberal for the last 40 years. The GWB administration had little control over the mainstream media message.

Newspapers are dying all over the country because the readers are tired of getting fed the same liberal bent on stories. Why pay for the liberal view when you don't agree with the paper?

CotoBlogzz

Excellent Teresa- perhaps your response can also apply to the Fly's statements below?

DanChmielewski

Newspapers are not dying because of alledged liberal bent's; its more like the advent of CraigsList and CarsDirect.com, and the death of long term key advertisers like Circuit City and WaMu. Expensive acquisitions and masive debt are huritng newspaper chains now. For example, every division of Tribune Media, parent company of the LA Times, is profitable. In fact, nationally, more eyes are reading newspaper websites than ever before. Monetizing those readers for advertising is harder. What's hurting Tribune right now (and the Register) is massive debt associated with their acquisition of certain properties and a declining ad market due to the Internet and the recession.

Corporate media is more than newspapers; networks like Fox, Talk Radio, et al...the media is only as liberal as their conservative corporate owners allow them to be. When President Bush invited leading conservative talk show hosts to the Wgite House, I thought "how convenient, they are getting their talking poins all at the same time.

To blame a decline in media on poliical points of view is laughable.

CotoBlogzz

I am not a gambling person. However, I am sure that the OC Register having to outsource some of its work to India, the LA Times owner having to file for bankruptcy and other major newspapers having to fold, is not a laughing matter to the people who used to make a living through what used to be known as journalism.

Can you find a plausible explanation for such drastic change - that is, using the theory of attribution, where should the blame lie?

Teresa_Trujillo

No, I blame it on simple market economics. Liberal talk radio failed to find enough advertising support to fund their message machine. Who wants to advertise to liberals? They don't want to spend their money on goods and services, because they want to spend others' tax dollars on supporting the welfare state.

Core readers would not have left newspapers for other advertising sources if they really liked the delivery wrapper "news coverage" for the advertising product. Advertising rates are based on readership.

SHERMAN TANK

Always remember: Bush never signed NAFTA.

Dan's got nothing

Anyone notice Dan C. never has an actual defense for Obama? He just tries to pin everything on Bush.

CotoBlogzz

The key to effective obfuscation is to wallow in the never never nebulosities of open ended possibilities chock full of neoplasms

DanChmielewski

I reviewed this post again and don't see where I have to defend the president on anything. Did I miss something here?

CotoBlogzz

All you have to do now is die, pay taxes, be intimidated, ridiculed, fork over your gun permit and reveal your sources. Other than that, you are just fine.

SHERMAN TANK

There is NO defense for Obama. He's won the lottery and is now on a four-year holiday camp at taxpayer expense. Only he's got traveling partners now, the Clintons.

The Fly

Cotoblogzz, what makes you think you have any "journalistic" protections. Are you a bonafide journalist with a press credential?

You and I have both been granded publishing and editorial rights by Red County/OC Blog; that means that Scott & Matt allow us to express our views on items WE think are interesting or worthy of public disclosure. We have our First Amendment Rights as citizens, however we do not have the additonal rights (read that as protections) that are granted bonafide journalists. Now, Matt can keep our IP Addresses confidential to simple inquiring minds, but should he receive a Federal Subpoena seeking this information, I suspect we are toast.

I tend to agree with DanChmielewski that the Patriot Act has, to a considerable degree, diluted our protections.

CotoBlogzz

At a time when traditional journalism has been declared dead and the profession has gone through a great number of Plaxico Burris's impersonations - that is, by its own Detroit-like actions have taken its toll financially, and otherwise, the substantive question is: How do you hold the public sector accountable? For example, right now, Sacramento should be able to simply abolish 80% of government agencies and or bureaucracies, such as the CLRC and the redundant commission on redundancy and make a major dent in the budget problem.

However, in part because the press does not ask substantive questions, the public remains under control

So, if you buy, Pelosi's Shut Up restrictions:

"for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain and includes a supervisor, employer, parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of such covered person."

You can bet that the promised most ethical administration in history, will simply be history.

SHERMAN TANK

There is nothing Patriotic about the Patriot Act. It has not only destroyed (not diluted) our protections, it has served to hold law abiding citizens hostage to rule by wannabees...just look at what's happened in Los Angeles with that dumb Mayor. Perfect example. Ya can't get anything accomplished anymore if it involves the government.

Teresa_Trujillo

I see bloggers as the modern Pamphleteers. Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin shaped the new world with their words. Words are more powerful than guns and swords over history.

We bloggers disseminate information using the internet instead of a printed leaflet, but our information, opinions, and writings are informative and timely. News and opinions travel at the speed of light instead of the speed of a courier on horseback.

Apparently Speaker Pelosi would prefer we whisper in dark corners about the tyranny of the governing regime. I hate to dissapoint the speaker, but I have no intent on quieting the debate just because she doesn't like what she reads online.

Obama promised a transparent government. The White House website would list bills for public review for five days prior to signing. But, the biggest spending bill in the history of our government didn't even get a read-through by the legislators, let alone the voting public. This was at the direction of Pelosi and Reid.

Maybe they've confused the concepts of tansparency with those of opacity.

DanChmielewski

The Patriot Act went through at light speed too; but critics were called unpatriotic.

CotoBlogzz

Therefore you agree with the Shut Up Rule - right? or is this another vacuous alternative you are proposing?

DanChmielewski

Well, as someone with a journalism degree who has worked as a reporter, I like the idea of a federal shield law for journalists and will note the differences between the House version and Senate verisons of the bill will be worked out in committee.

But its interesting you bring up the ShutUp rule without mentioning that the Bush administration jailed Judtih Miller of the NY Times for not revealing sources related to the leak of a covert CIA operative, especially since she never wrote about the topic.

I think provisions about who is a professional journalist or not is designed to keep someone like Jeff Gannon from being given access to a presidential news conference.

CotoBlogzz

I thought the question was rather simple for a person with a journalism degree: Do you agree with Pelosi's Shut Up rule or not.

Trusting that a committee of politicians will work out the fundamental differences is how the natzification process starts.

Teresa_Trujillo

Just for the record.

A Federal Grand Jury sent Judith Miller to jail for contempt of court, not the Bush Administration. A jury of Judith Miller's peers, not a member of the Bush Administration. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald called her to testify in the Valerie Plame case. It was an attempt by the Bush administration to identify who leakedthe name of a covert CIA agent to the press. When it was all said and done, a State Department official was the source, not a member of the White House staff.

Can't place the blame on the administration for this one.

DanChmielewski

Yeah, the Bush administration did a hell of a job outing those evildoers in their own administration -- Libby, Rove, et al. Nice goal post move.

Teresa_Trujillo

The internet wasn't as sophosticated seven years ago as it has become in the last few years. A president who harnessed the internet to raise enough money to raise more money for his campaign than several countries national budgets, a president who has employed the best minds in internet protocols and marketing, a predident who promised "the most transparent government the world has known," has yet to post legislative links on the White House website.

CotoBlogzz

Also remember that most of this money was on purpose "untraceable" - that is, seems like the Shut Up rules are meant only for the critics, or as a tool for the natzification of the country.

DanChmielewski

"The internet wasn't as sophosticated seven years ago"
That is not true; while there are new applications and technologies today that weren't around 7 years ago, to suggest that people were not using the Internet efffectively is inaccurate at best. Perhaps your personal Internet skills have improved in 7 years.

Additionally, you have no idea how much time and work it takes to completely upgrade a web site as with new content from one administration to the next. When a company acquires another one, a full intergasted web site takes months. Obama has been president for 6 weeks.

CotoBlogzz

Your journalism assertions are weak, Yet your technology ones are even weaker - are you familiar with the term the Deep Web? Are you Faimilar with Web 3.0, or even Web 2.0, or even the Semantic Web, cloud pr pervasive computing?

Stick to journalism - may not be a living but will not sound as bad.

DanChmielewski

I have worked in technology marketing & PR for 20 years and have several Web 2.0 clients; I find your arguments to be the weak ones.

CotoBlogzz

Pity the fools! – My dog spent more than 30 dog-years in the garage – yet, it never turned into a Beamer!

Teresa_Trujillo

Obama's critics have been called much worse than unpatriotic. We are unpatriotic racists. Calling someone a racisit is a simple term that says "debate over."

CotoBlogzz

And of course if you listen to the AG, not discussing race is cowardly. Discussing race in the context of performance and personal accountability is considered racist - so your Shut Up example - as in "debate over" is a propos.

Do you suppose that the folks mocking Governor Jindal using ethnic distortions are merely following the AG's call?

DanChmielewski

"Barack The Magic Negro" CDs, mayors sending emails with watermelon patches on the White House front lawn, nah, that's not racist. But so much for respecting the office if not the man like lefties were told to do for Bush. I didn't inject race into this discussion. You did that all by yourself.

CotoBlogzz

Your journalism degree does not seem to be of much help. The premise of this piece is: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Shut Up Rule is designed to silence forums such as the Red County"

The discussion has focused on whether one support the premise or no. However, you seem to regularly offer vacuous alternatives - is that what you were taught in journalism school?

DanChmielewski

Conservatives see things in black and white; libeals see shades of gray. No, I don't believe the House version of the bill will silence forums like Red County. Is that clear enough for you?

CotoBlogzz

Talk about circular reasoning - first the question is not about consequences, as much as it is about whether you agree with the restrictions imposed by Pelosi or not - for a very slow and detailed explanation, Click HERE.

Secondly, your assesment about perception as a function of political persuasion is weak. For the record, I am a registered Independent.

Teresa_Trujillo

"but critics were called unpatriotic"

Teresa_Trujillo

Dan, have you forgot these facts:

"Barack the Magic Negro" was the title of an opinion peice in the Los Angeles Times before Paul Shanklin recorded a parody of "Puff the Magic Dragon." The phrase originated at the second largest (liberal) newspaper in the country--not from a right wing blogger or conservative radio talk show host.

I bet if you asked 100 suburban soccer moms you would find that a very large percentage of them don't know that watermelon is anything other than a tasty fruit they serve their children because it is a healthy alternative to candy and junk food.

SHERMAN TANK

Beg to differ. They are not modern Pamphleteers, they are modern "Whisperers." BIG difference.

Teresa_Trujillo

Whisperers take form and shape when they are forced from the mainstream. Then the whispers are more powerful than the written word.

CotoBlogzz

And herein lies one of the major reasons why journalism is dead, and now we can all see the implications - where mainstream media is as trustworthy as a Chicago politician

But perhaps as DanChmielewski, there is a link where someone can click to read mainstream media asking the current aminstraiton where all the pork is going?

SHERMAN TANK

Come on Coto! "Journalism" isn't dead--the "freedom" to be a journalist is dead.

CotoBlogzz

Interesting challnge - Let's see, when major so-called journalists for months, follow the Chosen One , even to Germany and the most substantive question they can collectively mount is whether the is comfortable or not, I would say that if journalism is not dead, it should be - or. at least is should be on life support.

The freedom issue is also interesting. As Joseph Ratzinger may sy: Freedom is viewed as the greater good, where even political action has to demonstrate that it furthers freedom, takin precedence over every otehr moral value - as in the freedom to legally murder infants and the such.

OC Blog #1 Fan!!

I'm curious: why is this Nancy Pelosi's "Shut Up Bill"? H.R. 985 was introduced by two Dems and two Reps, and Pelosi appears nowhere in the list of co-sponsors.

(I would think that a journalist would want to get the facts straight ...)

CotoBlogzz

Did you see Rham Emanuels' characterization of bi-partisanship when the Stimulus Package was passed with the support of three republicans?

Would you feel better if the piece contained the names of all the legislators who blindly followed Pelosi' lead - after all she is the Speaker - is she not?, Or perhaps if it was titled: "YaVoll herr commandant"!

Now about the journalist part, which definition would you prefer? - Wait, do not tell me, since you are an OC Blog fan, you are all for Disarm, Intimidate, Ridicule, and Obfuscate  - right?

SHERMAN TANK

For the simple reason that EVERYTHING Pelosi does or has her hands in, has the effect of shutting up those who disagree with her. Frankly, she is dangerous, and that is aside from her being an utter moron.

8AF

Woo Hoo. The conspiraracy

Crime and Vandalism In Coto de Caza at All Time High - The President’s letter contained in the  October 2008 CZ Master association newsletter asserts that “With the kids back in school, incidents of vandalism have dropped 80%.  There were a lot more vandalism incidents this summer compared to last year for the same period”

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