CNN tries to use heavy handed tactics to keep embarrassing clip of reporter off YouTube

Wow, what liberals will not to to cover their own backsides and make themselves look good. I blogged a little about this last week, about the CNN reporter who basically tried to make the Tea-Party protesters look like a bunch of Fox News devotees. Anyhow, well, a little clip of her being confronted by one of the persons at the Tea-Party was posted by the Blog, named “Founding Bloggers”, and was posted to YouTube. Well, CNN comes along and files a trademark infringement complaint and it gets yanked.

Patterico, who hates me with the heat of a thousand hells; picks it up:

I’m sick of people knocking embarrassing videos off YouTube with bogus copyright violation claims.

The latest culprit is CNN, a network that was recently embarrassed by a video of reporter Susan Roesgen cutting off tea-party protestors in Chicago, and assailing them with silly liberal talking points. The blog Founding Bloggers showed up on scene and caught her in further arguments with angry citizens who noted her biased coverage. I posted the Founding Bloggers video on Thursday.

[……..]

And if they take that one down, well, I happen to have my own copy sitting around here somewhere. I have posted it on YouTube as well.

They’ll probably take our copies down, too. If they do, I’ll look for other sites to upload it to, or perhaps try to embed it here on the blog. And I may take Ben Sheffner’s advice and file a DMCA counternotice. If CNN wants to sue me, we can make this a test case.

In the meantime, I encourage every reader with a YouTube account to upload this video to YouTube. I encourage every blogger reading this to embed this same video to your own site.

We have to stop these thugs from reading fair use out of the law whenever they’re embarrassed.

A man by the name of Ben Sheffner from the Blog “Copyrights and Campaigns“, offers this legal advice:

CNN does own copyright in its own news footage and, as a general matter, has the right to demand its removal from YouTube. However, as to this particular video, I think Founding Bloggers has a very strong fair use defense. The purpose for Founding Bloggers’ posting of the CNN footage is crystal clear: to comment on and criticize CNN’s reporting on the “Tea Party.” Such a use is right in the heartland of the fair use doctrine; the statute specifically mentions “criticism, comment, [and] news reporting” as protected uses that are “not an infringement of copyright.” 17 U.S.C. § 107. To quickly run through the four fair use factors as they apply here: 1) the use is transformative (for critical comment); 2) the CNN footage is factual, not fictional, and was previously broadcast; 3) the amount used is small in relation to the whole CNN broadcast; and 4) any effect on the market is minuscule (and if fewer people watch CNN because this video causes them to think less of its coverage, that’s simply not cognizable harm). Many fair use cases are difficult, close calls–but, given the facts as I know them, this is an easy one.

In others, CNN is full of it, and that if Patterico wants to file a lawsuit or in this case, a counter-suit, it would be an easy win. Me and Patterico have not always seen eye to eye on some things in the past. But I am with him on this one here; what CNN is doing here, is nothing more than outright fascism, controlling the message, controlling their image and trying to wipe out any sort of negative message out about their company. As far as I am concerned this is the exact thing that Hitler did in Nazi Germany in the 1940’s. He jailed and usually killed anyone that spoke out against him. The Communists did this as well. As does North Korea and Iran. So, I think CNN needs to back away from the censorship deal, because this could very well blow up in their faces. I mean, they are already being murdered in the ratings by Fox News and MSNBC as well and this sure is not going to help.

I wish Patterico all the best of luck in this one. Because I think that the MSM needs to be sent a message, and that message is that you cannot totally control your so called “Image” to the point of trying to make true reality disappear.

Update: Welcome Freeper readers, and thanks to Lori for linking! 😀

D'oh! President Obama gets a book from Chevez that slams the US

The Jokes write themselves people….. Via Jack Tapper:

At President Obama’s meeting with the heads of South American countries this morning, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood, walked over to him, and presented him with a copy of “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano.

Obama politely posed for a photograph with Chavez, shook his hand, and accepted the gift.

The book, first published in Spanish in 1971, offers a critique of the consequences of 500 years of European and U.S. colonization of Latin America.

APTOPIX CB Trinidad Americas Summit Obama
More Hope and Change? (and Communism?)

Galeano writes that while the era of “lodes of gold” and “mountains of silver” has passed, “our region still works as a menial laborer. It continues to exist at the service of others’ needs, as a source of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them.”

At another point in the book, Galeano writes: “Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others.”

The book also criticizes the U.S. for “spreading and imposing family planning. … In Latin America it is more hygienic and effective to kill future guerillas in the womb that in the mountains or the streets.

First he shakes hands with this idiot and now he gets a book from a Communist, that basically insults America and our values system, and basically capitalism in general; and he takes it and smiles. The book, from what I have read is basically a book full of Anti American sentiment and is filled with marxist rantings. In fact, the book, when it was first published, was banned in Uruguay and Chile. What does that tell you?

I tell ya folks, this President is going to give we Conservatives material to write with for many years to come. That is, if Obama and his marxist do not shut down blogs altogether for fear of his Administration being criticized.

So much for that talking point!

I guess President Bambi Teleprompter will have to change his script again:

There’s no dispute that thousands of handguns, military style rifles and other firearms are purchased in the U.S. and end up in the hands of Mexican criminals each year. It’s relatively easy to buy such guns legally in Texas and other border states and to smuggle them across.

But is it true as President Obama said, that “More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States?” No, it’s not.

The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. We can find no hard data on the total number of guns actually “recovered in Mexico,” but U.S. and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns than it submits for tracing. Therefore, the percentage of guns “recovered” and traced to U.S. sources necessarily is less than 90 percent.

Furthermore, the 90 percent figure is based on a badly biased sample of all Mexican crime guns. Law enforcement officials say Mexico asks the U.S. to trace only those guns with serial numbers or other markings that indicate they are likely to have come though the U.S.

Fox News has put the percentage at only 17 percent, but we find that to be based on a mistaken assumption that throws its figure way off. We can’t offer a precise calculation because we know of no hard information on the total number of guns Mexican officials have recovered. But if a rough figure given by Mexico’s attorney general is accurate, then the actual percentage of all Mexican crime guns traced to U.S. sources is probably less than half what the president claims, and more than double what Fox news has reported.

via FactCheck.org: Counting Mexico’s Guns.

Leave it to a group of people, who actually have held position, say longer than a year; unlike our feckless President, to poke a huge hole in the Liberal MeMe that all the guns in Mexico and are coming from America. Interestingly enough, Fox News got disproved as well. Considering who owns them, I am not surprised at all. The truth of the matter is, and no one will say this; but I will. Most of those guns are coming Russia’s black market, and then are being shipped down through Mexico’s open borders.

So, it looks like the Liberal Democrats are going to have to find someone else to blame for Mexico’s gun problem and not us “Right Wing Extremists”, that the DHS just loves talking about. 😀

You are known by the company you keep

I think this says it all right here folks, this one via Fox News:

President Obama shook hands with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez on Friday at the opening of the Summit of the Americas being held this weekend in Trinidad and Tobago.

Photos released by the Venezuelan government show Obama clasping Chavez’s hand and smiling broadly, and Venezuela

Hope and Change?!?!
Hope and Change?!?!

quoted Chavez as saying, “I’d like to be your friend,” while noting that he shook President Bush’s hand eight years ago with the same hand. Obama reportedly expressed thanks.

A senior White House official said the encounter came before the summit’s opening ceremonies during a meeting with the heads of state. Obama talked to many of the 25 or so leaders who were there at the time. At one point, he walked across the room and introduced himself to Chavez.

The official wouldn’t directly confirm Venezuela’s version of the encounter but didn’t dispute it. Chavez spoke in English, the official said.

Earlier Friday, Dan Restrepo, the president’s top Western Hemisphere adviser on the National Security Council, had told FOX News Obama might cross paths with Chavez.

“A chance encounter if it occurs,” Restrepo said, in describing such a meeting. “Let’s put the animosities behind us. Let’s not have old arguments.

“Let’s not have tired ideological arguments. Let’s get down to figuring out how we can advance things that are in our national interest. Things that matter to the United States that should matter to Venezuela. Putting the arguments and ideologies of the past aside and working on pragmatic solutions to real problems that face our countries today,” he said.

As far as I am concerned, he may as well been shaking hands with Karl Marx. It is the same thing. Chavez is a known Communist, and Obama is a known Socialist. You are who you hang around. Two birds flock together.  We were warned in the election that Barack Obama was nothing more than a radical left candidate and now, he’s proven it. On top of this, he is wanting to basically normalize relations with Cuba; a known Communist country as well.

What’s next, an ambassador to Al-Qaeda in Washington D.C.? I mean, you laugh or scoff at my words? But when does the slippery slope end? When do we say, enough is enough? How can someone; who has been charged with upholding and defending our Constitution, make allies with people like this? America is about to learn a cold, hard lesson, of why you do not elect people, based upon a personality.

I fear for our Nation, greatly. 🙁

A very thought provoking article

One more here, before I saunter off to bed.

William N. Grigg has a very interesting article of what our Republic is becoming.

Money Quote:

Transfixed by the demonic evil of Islamic terrorism, intoxicated by a sense of vindictive righteousness, the Republican Right eagerly collaborated in the effort to mow down legal protections for those designated enemies of the state. With the frustrated puzzlement of dimwitted children they now find themselves naked and shivering in the ill winds so memorably described by More.

For a long time, conservatives have extracted much undeserved pleasure from the aphorism that “A law-and-order conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged.” Now they’re given an opportunity to learn the truth of its counterpart: “A civil libertarian is a law-and-order conservative who suffered an ass-beating at the hands of the police.” Perhaps this lesson could be learned — but, given the propensity of conservatives to miss the obvious and resist admissions of error, I’m not optimistic.

Man is he ever right. It’s a sad state of affairs here in America. 🙁

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.

(H/T to Freedom’s Phoenix)


The Obligtory Obama Released the torture memos posting

Yes, I know about it.  Go make a video for a few hours and the world does the 360 and starts talking about something else.

I hate to be the one that says, “I told you so!”  But…

I did. I knew Obama would not prosecute anyone. Why? Because he knew that he would be hurting those who are keeping us safe. Well, are supposed to be anyhow.

Yes, I know what they did was wrong. Yes, I know the crap that they did was borderline crazy. Yes, I know they should be, but they won’t be, because President Obama fears the backlash. The problem with this, is that Obama will be castigated by the far left, and by many Libertarians that were stupid enough to vote for him, for not going through with the prosecutions.

Basically Obama said this:

The Department of Justice will today release certain memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005 as part of an ongoing court case. These memos speak to techniques that were used in the interrogation of terrorism suspects during that period, and their release is required by the rule of law.

My judgment on the content of these memos is a matter of record. In one of my very first acts as President, I prohibited the use of these interrogation techniques by the United States because they undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer. Enlisting our values in the protection of our people makes us stronger and more secure. A democracy as resilient as ours must reject the false choice between our security and our ideals, and that is why these methods of interrogation are already a thing of the past.

But that is not what compelled the release of these legal documents today. While I believe strongly in transparency and accountability, I also believe that in a dangerous world, the United States must sometimes carry out intelligence operations and protect information that is classified for purposes of national security. I have already fought for that principle in court and will do so again in the future. However, after consulting with the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and others, I believe that exceptional circumstances surround these memos and require their release.

First, the interrogation techniques described in these memos have already been widely reported. Second, the previous Administration publicly acknowledged portions of the program – and some of the practices – associated with these memos. Third, I have already ended the techniques described in the memos through an Executive Order. Therefore, withholding these memos would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time. This could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past, and fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States.

In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution. The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world. Their accomplishments are unsung and their names unknown, but because of their sacrifices, every single American is safer. We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs.

Going forward, it is my strong belief that the United States has a solemn duty to vigorously maintain the classified nature of certain activities and information related to national security. This is an extraordinarily important responsibility of the presidency, and it is one that I will carry out assertively irrespective of any political concern. Consequently, the exceptional circumstances surrounding these memos should not be viewed as an erosion of the strong legal basis for maintaining the classified nature of secret activities. I will always do whatever is necessary to protect the national security of the United States.

This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past. Our national greatness is embedded in America’s ability to right its course in concert with our core values, and to move forward with confidence. That is why we must resist the forces that divide us, and instead come together on behalf of our common future.

The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again. – Via NYT

The major backlash has already started, and it will interesting to follow.

Why I did not go to the Tea-Party Protests

As most of you know by now, there are a great number of “Tea-Party” Protests around the Country.  Well, count this writer among those who will not be attending.  I will explain to as why.  The first reason why I will not be wasting my money, gas, and personal time is this; these tea parties are the Neo-Conservative and Media establishment cashing in on a sacred Libertarian Principle.  That principle is low or no taxes.

Now while I believe it is commendable that the Conservative movement is slowly moving away from the big Government nonsense of the Neo-Conservative stupor of the George W. Bush Administration.  I cannot help but think that possibly the Conservative establishment and the Conservative media establishment is simply cashing in on the supposed populist outrage of the Obama Administration’s devaluing the dollar by the massive bailouts.

Another reason is that I just have an overwhelming feeling of “Why Bother?”  I mean, the Democrats are in the majority, in fact, eventually they will be seating their last senator and will have a super majority.  The Obama Administration, it seems, is not interested in what we Conservatives or Libertarians think about what he is doing.  So, why waste one’s breath, time and gas assembling?  I mean, the Liberal Establishment already takes a morbid pleasure in painting people like you and me as a bunch of fringe element extremists, my question is, why give them more ammo?  It just does not make any sense to me.  Perhaps I am a tad bit cynical, but it seems to me that our time would be better spend rebuilding our movement from the ground up, rather than going out and demonstrating over something that we cannot honestly stop.

Again, I believe the idea of the American people speaking out against what they feel is wrong, is great.  I feel that our time could be better spent doing something more productive and substantive, than cashing in on base and animal-like instincts.  While some might think that, I am overly cynical and to an extent, I am.  However, I prefer to see myself as a realist.

Next time someone tries to tell you that Liberals are not fascists, Show 'em this.

This is absolutely disgusting:

CHAPEL HILL — UNC-CH police released pepper spray and threatened to use a Taser on student protesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo opposing in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.

Hundreds of protesters converged on Bingham Hall, shouting profanities and accusations of racism while Tancredo and the student who introduced him tried to speak. Minutes into the speech, a protester pounded a window of the classroom until the glass shattered, prompting Tancredo to flee and campus police to shut down the event.

Tancredo was brought to campus by a UNC chapter of Youth for Western Civilization, a national organization of students who oppose mass immigration, multiculturalism and affirmative action.

Before the event, campus security removed two women who delayed Tancredo’s speech by stretching a 12-foot banner across the front of the classroom. It read, “No dialogue with hate.”

Police escorted the women into the hallway, amid more than 30 protesters who clashed with the officers trying to keep them out of the overcrowded classroom. After police released pepper spray and threatened the crowd with a Taser, the protesters gathered outside Bingham Hall.

Police spokesman Randy Young said the pepper spray was “broadcast” to clear the hallway. He said officers’ use of force was under investigation by the department.

Inside the classroom, several student protesters screamed curses at Tancredo and Riley Matheson, president of the UNC-Chapel Hill chapter of Youth for Western Civilization.

“This is the free speech crowd, right?” Tancredo joked.

via Protest stops Tancredo’s UNC speech – Immigration – News & Observer.

I think if the police acted more like the guard did at Kent State, we would not have the problems we’re having today. These Liberal fascists are a disgrace to America. Yet the DHS released a report, calling we Conservatives terrorists? What about these people? Are they not terrorising this campus?

You see now, why I left the fascist Democrats? 😡

Those are OBAMA’S people folks, those people voted for Obama, a radical President, with radical followers.

Others: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Moonbattery, Gateway Pundit, Clayton Cramer’s BLOG, Daily Pundit and AmSpecBlog

(Via Memeorandum)

The left says that the Tea Parties are just angry white protesters

I normally do not send traffic to idiots like this, but this one caught my eye.

Over at the Marxist Liberal Crooks and Liars; Barack Hussein Obama’s water carrier, John Amato yowls:

To Reynolds “real Americans” kind of look like him and smell like him. That’s true Americana. Can you imagine if Tom Daschle, Paul Begala, James Carville and the late Paul Wellstone twittered and blogged and wrote op-eds for the NY Times, while Nancy Pelosi appeared on CNN and put out the call to arms as the Situation Room, Countdown, Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper promised everyone air time on their shows if they make sure to come on down to “the protests” they will be covering live, up close and in person? And it was funded by millions of dollars of the richest of the rich?

Lou Dobbs mocked the criticism of the tea baggers, saying that special-interest groups started war protests just like the New Santellis. Does he really believe that Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove are considered “grassroots” activists?

So typical, when the left is loosing the battle, they do what most Liberals do. They play the race card. Gee,  I was not aware that race hustling Al “Interloper” Sharpton was looking for help.

Doug Powers, who’s also tangling with some moronic liberal as well, counters this stupidity:

Not by name or inference. As a matter of fact, I went out of my way to point out that these problems have been perpetuated by both parties, but these kinds of knee-jerk pinheads see what they want to see. If racism doesn’t exist, they’ll see to it that it does by the time they’re finished — all in the name of ending racism.

I’m also racist because I wrote that Detroit has gone down the toilet thanks to the same liberal policies, both state and federal, that are being rolled out on a national level, and I compared the city to Bangladesh (which made me racist against “South Indian Immigrants” — I kid you not).

So, for the Detroit comparison I’ll go ahead and offer a sincere apology… to Bangladesh.

Who’s the racist here, anyway? Tubman’s the one who runs with the assumption that Detroit was ruined by blacks. I never wrote that or even implied it, because I don’t believe that to be the case — it was ruined by liberals with the same philosophies as Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow, Jennifer Granholm, David Bonior, et al — all of whom, by the way, are currently un-black.

I could not have put it better. Even now, Detroit’s school system is failing, the biggest arena in Detroit; Cobo Arena is facing closure, because a group of race hustlers on the Detroit city council resent the fact that some white people from the suburbs want a stake in running the Arena, in return for paying off some of Arena’s debts. Not to mention the decay of the neighborhoods; the businesses that have left that city, because of the corrupt Government in that city. Is it a black thing? Not necessarily. It just happens that the Liberals running that cesspool of a city ARE black. But when anyone, like a white man, like me, brings that up; we are smeared as racist bigots.

This is why anyone, that had any sort of money, left that city. Like my parents and myself. Because of the lack of police protection. You call the police or dial 911. You’re lucky if they show up, maybe four hours later. This is why two detectives; Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers were basically lynched by a racist black Mayor, Coleman A. Young, for essentially doing their jobs. Malice Green was a crackhead who refused to show those two fine officers what was in his hand, he basically attacked them, which resulted him getting busted in the head. The Liberal media in Detroit basically convicted those two men. They’re out of jail, after basically getting a new trial. But it basically shows you that absolutely insane mentality that has taken over that cesspool of a city.

Then there is the personal aspect of it. My Cousin, Michael Hill was shot and killed in cold blood, by two black and one Mexican corrupt Detroit cops. To be fair, my cousin was doing something incredibly dumb, he was selling a handgun to a friend, over in the Delray district of southwest Detroit and he test fired the gun into the ground. Some idiot neighbor heard the gunshots and called the police. That is when all hell broke loose, the police showed up, my cousin, who had a probation rap on his record, tried to flee, but couldn’t jump the wooden fence behind the house. Those cops came in with guns blazing, he had something in his hand; a beer bottle…. and the police thought it was the gun, they gunned him down and basically allowed him to die, in the backyard of that house. I will be the first to admit, Michael should not have run, nor should have he been testing that gun, in the city. But he was gunned down like an animal.

The real kicker? You think the liberal media, back in 1990’s, touched that story an exposed the Detroit police for the corrupt department that it is? Are you kidding? They did not want anything to do with it! Want to know why? Because my cousin was white and the cops doing the shooting were black and mexican, that’s why! Not one of the Liberal media outlets in the Detroit area covered the true story. Just the bullshit story given by the police, when the shooting happened. My cousin was portrayed by the liberal media as some crazy person who tried to have a shootout with the police. (Thank you WXYZ-TV and Bill Bonds…) That’s because the story did not fit the agenda of the liberal narrative. Which is so typical of the Liberal media.

So, Doug, I know how you feel man, we’re both just sane people in a world gone insane with liberal socialism.

I smell dissension in the air…

I do not normally surf the lefty Blogs often, but when I do, I find gems like this:

Tobacco tax affects mentally ill

By Peggy O’Farrell • pofarrell@enquirer.com • April 12, 2009

In general, Robert Anthenelli is a fan of cigarette tax increases.

When Kentucky doubled its tobacco tax earlier this month, Anthenelli, director of the TriState Tobacco and Alcohol Research Center at the University of Cincinnati, praised the move, believing it would push some current smokers to quit and keep some youth from starting.

But the tax increases burden one group not usually high on anyone’s radar: The seriously mentally ill.

“These tax increases have unintended consequences, especially for the seriously mentally ill, people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder,” Anthenelli said. “They smoke at rates three to four times the general population, and they can ill-afford the tax increase. They’re mostly on fixed incomes.”

Anthenelli said that with their degree of addiction they’re going to be most adversely affected by these kinds of tax increases.

If you really want people to quit put the money in smoking cessation and improvement in quality of life for the poor. This is just an easy out tax because Obama decided to let Bush’s tax cut expire on its own. It is really cowardly. I really wouldn’t have voted if I had known he would do this.

via Open Left.

Hmmmmm… What about actually wanting to improve the health of the mentally ill, by forcing them to stop smoking by increasing the amount that they have to pay. Sooner of later, either they’ll hopefully figure it out or their caretakers would explain to them, that if they don’t quit they will go broke.

Besides all that, whatever happened to the liberal idea of the state controlling every aspect of everyone’s life. Could it be that there is dissension in the ranks of Hope and Change? Wow. Color me shocked! 😮

Besides that whole idea of improvement of quality of life; what the hell do they want, a fluffy pillow??!? Listen, I’ve been out of work since 2005, because in a time of desperation and because I thought it was a really cool idea at the time. I took advantage of the Liberal Democrats Social programs and you want to know what it did for me??!?! Nothing! That’s right, not a DAMNED THING!  So, I sit here, and I blog, because there’s no fucking jobs around here, because of the Democrats stupid bullshit of taxing small business and because of the fucking housing crisis and Wall Street’s meltdown. So, don’t hand me no stupid fucking bullshit about improvement of the quality of life for some idiot fucking mental midget okay? ‘Cause I ain’t fucking buying it. I say, if they cannot afford to buy the damn smokes, let ’em quit cold turkey, LIKE I HAD TO, WHEN I RAN OUT OF MONEY!

Them liberals man, I’ll tell ya! 🙄 fucking leeches, all they are… Gimmie Gimmie Gimme and a fluffy pillow to boot! 😡

Update: (fixed rather stupid typo… gotta slow down a little and write stuff properly…. Yeeesh…)