[VIDEO] It's back: FEC says regulating Internet, Google, Facebook under its 'purview'

After backing down amid concerns she wanted to regulate political speech, and even new sites like the Drudge Report, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission has renewed talk about targeting campaign and political activities on the internet.

Ann M. Ravel, discussing election regulation during a speech in New York, suggested it was time to produce "thoughtful policy" targeting internet political activity. She also expressed frustration that her last bid was met with "threatening misogynist responses to me."

She was speaking at a day-long conference hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and the Committee for Economic Development when she was asked about regulating the internet, Google and Facebook.

Ravel said that it would be under the "purview" of the FEC to oversee internet political activities such as fundraising and donations.

Her speech was just posted on YouTube.

Under current rules, the FEC regulates paid campaign ads on the internet just like they do on TV. However, videos or other social media posted for free are not regulated.

When the Democrats on the FEC first raised the possibility of regulations, opponents feared they were going to target conservative groups, activities and news sites. A proposal to delve into the issue died in a 3-3 vote.

Republican Commissioner Lee E. Goodman, the previous chairman,warned that regulations would silence voices on the internet and that sites with a political bent, even in the media, could face rules requiring them to disclose donors and finances.

But in answering the question this week, Ravel indicated she wants to pursue regulations. "It would be under the purview of the FEC to look at some of the issues that arise in new media and the impact of new media, in particular with respect to disclosure and ensuring that there is no corporate contributions, for example excessive contributions or contributions to a particular candidates for example," she said.

Via: Washington Examiner

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FEC chair warns that conservative media like Drudge Report and Sean Hannity face regulation --- like PACs

Government officials, reacting to the growing voice of conservative news outlets, especially on the internet, are angling to curtail the media's exemption from federal election laws governing political organizations, a potentially chilling intervention that the chairman of theFederal Election Commission is vowing to fight.

“I think that there are impulses in the government every day to second guess and look into the editorial decisions of conservative publishers,” warned Federal Election Commission Chairman Lee E. Goodman in an interview.

“The right has begun to break the left’s media monopoly, particularly through new media outlets like the internet, and I sense that some on the left are starting to rethink the breadth of the media exemption and internet communications,” he added.

Noting the success of sites like the Drudge Report, Goodman said that protecting conservative media, especially those on the internet, “matters to me because I see the future going to the democratization of media largely through the internet. They can compete with the big boys now, and I have seen storm clouds that the second you start to regulate them. There is at least the possibility or indeed proclivity for selective enforcement, so we need to keep the media free and the internet free.”

All media has long benefited from an exemption from FEC rules, thereby allowing outlets to pick favorites in elections and promote them without any limits or disclosure requirements like political action committees.

But Goodman cited several examples where the FEC has considered regulating conservative media, including Sean Hannity's radio show and Citizens United's movie division. Those efforts to lift the media exemption died in split votes at the politically evenly divided board, often with Democrats seeking regulation.

Liberals over the years have also pushed for a change in the Federal Communications Commission's "fairness doctrine" to cut of conservative voices, and retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has delighted Democrats recently with a proposed Constitutional amendment that some say could force the media to stop endorsing candidates or promoting issues.

“The picking and choosing has started to occur,” said Goodman. “There are some in this building that think we can actually regulate” media, added Goodman, a Republican whose chairmanship lasts through December. And if that occurs, he said, “then I am concerned about disparate treatment of conservative media.”

He added, “Truth be told, I want conservative media to have the same exemption as all other media.”

Via: Washington Examiner

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[VIDEO] THIS 2009 WHITE HOUSE VIDEO ABOUT OBAMA’S HEALTH CARE VOW MIGHT MAKE THE PRESIDENT PRETTY UNCOMFORTABLE RIGHT NOW

Here’s something that could prove embarrassing for the White House: The Obama administration in a 2009 “fact check” video worked hard to refute specific claims that consumers could lose their private insurance due to Obamacare and said anyone saying so is “twisting” the president’s words.

Obviously, as news of millions of private health care insurance cancellations continues to grab headlines, the 2009 YouTube video would seem to add to the administration’s already damaged credibility on the issue.

In the “fact check” video, Linda Douglass — the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office — works hard to refute critics who said certain private health insurance plans would be cancelled, even saying they were were “twisting” the president’s word.

“(N)othing can be farther from the truth,” Douglass says, specifically pointing to a headline on the Drudge Report. “You know the people who always try to scare people whenever you try to bring them health insurance reform are at it again.”

Image source screen grab.

“(T)hey’re taking sentences and phrases out of context, and they’re cobbling them together to leave a very false impression,” she said, adding that Obama’s critics have been “cherry-picking” his speeches.

The video then tries to reassure the public that any such elimination is untrue, even playing a July 28, 2009 video of Obama saying the following: “Here’s a guarantee that I made: If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor.”

But that’s not all!

An Aug. 4, 2009 post on the official White House blog stated: “For the record, the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them.”

Via: The Blaze

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U.S. denies premeditation report in Libya attack

A U.S. official told POLITICO: “There's no intelligence indicating that the attack in Benghazi was premeditated.”

The newspaper, The Independent, plastered its cover with the headline, “Revealed: inside story of US envoy’s assassination,” and reported inside: “The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach … American officials believe the attack was planned."

The article continued: "According to senior diplomatic sources, the U.S. State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and ‘lockdown’, under which movement is severely restricted."

Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, emailed: “This is absolutely wrong. We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”

(Also on POLITICO: Top lawmakers briefed on Libya attack)

The Drudge Report gave the story banner, red-type, siren treatment, with a photo of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “PAPER: U.S. WARNED OF EMBASSY ATTACK BUT DID NOTHING.”

Via: Politico

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The Obamas Already Preparing for Move to Hawaii in January 2013: Hyde Park neighbors talking about Chicago house being sold soon

UPDATE:  Just found out that the asking price of the house they are looking at is most likely $35 million.  Bobby Titcomb, the Hawaiian native who brings Obama “fish and poi” (that’s code for “weed and coke”) to the White House is most likely involved in the purchase of the estate on Oahu that the Obamas will most likely be moving into in January.  Possibly watching Titcomb’s movements will give more clues as to which house, exactly, Obama will move to in January 2013.

UPDATE #2:  Found it!  Here’s the only property that matches all the clues we’ve been given.  It is on the market for $35 million, which matches what Mrs. Robinson has been saying about the “$35 million house she’d be living in soon”.  This estate was also featured on TV’s remake of Hawaii 5-O recently. Do you see how that’s a little in-joke that Obama would like…the “O” in the show’s name, like the “O” he’s used as his personal emblem since 2008?  A man who named his dog BO, after his own initials, would love to own a house that was featured in an “O” show, like after his last name.  This is a photo of the house as featured on TV and in Honolulu Magazine so you can see a little inside.  The link above has more pics of the house that Barack Obama will soon be living in as an ex-president.

UPDATE #3 – Weird coincidence, but Drudge Report is right now running stories about the shootings that happen just blocks from the Obamas’ house here in Chicago in the area of Hyde Park. The whole city has gotten MUCH more dangerous in the last four years.  This jives with what Mrs. Robinson told friends here in Chicago about her not moving back to Chicago and about the Obama’s Hyde Park house going on the market soon.

Via: Hill Buzz

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