First Amendment Under Attack: 18 Examples Of How They Are Coming For Our Free Speech 1. The American Dream Tuesday, December 20, 2011 In the United States today, the First Amendment is under attack like never before. Technological innovations such as the Internet have made it possible for average Americans to communicate directly with one another in ways that completely bypass the mainstream media, and this is making the elite very uncomfortable. They have decided that they better come after our free speech before it is too late. Right now, free speech in America is being chipped away at it in thousands of different ways. On the one hand, you have the disciples of “political correctness” that want to make all forms of speech that are “offensive” to anyone against the law. On the other hand, you have those that are obsessed with “national security” that want to ban all speech that is critical of the U.S. government or the U.S. military. These twin forces are constantly seeking to push the First Amendment into a smaller and smaller box. If you say the wrong thing in America today, your website might be shut down, you could be suspended from school, you may find yourself out of a job and there is now even a possibility that you could be arrested and shipped off to Guantanamo Bay without a trial. Usually those that are targeted for their speech are those that the “establishment” does not like. That would include free thinkers, political activists, libertarians, true conservatives and Christians. Instead of seeing the value in allowing everyone to say what they think, we are being taught in America today that there is speech that is “acceptable” and speech that is “not acceptable”. If we allow this attack on the First Amendment to continue, eventually we will wake up in a country where our freedom of speech is totally gone. The following are 18 examples of how the elite are coming for our free speech….
#1 Two bills currently going through Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, would give the U.S. government the ability to shut down literally millions of websites. These bills are incredibly dangerous and if they are passed they could change the way that the Internet operates forever. The following is from a piece that Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently authored about these new bills…. “Imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States. Two bills currently making their way through congress — SOPA and PIPA — give the U.S. government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial)” Any website that posts “infringing material” could be instantly shut down under these news laws. For example, if one “infringing video” was posted on YouTube, the entire site could be taken down forever and permanently erased from Google in a matter of days. That is how serious these new bills are as Brin noted later on in his piece…. “While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don’t believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.” Can you imagine a world where there is no more YouTube, no more Facebook and no more Twitter? That is what we could be looking at. Sadly, many in the U.S. Congress seem absolutely obsessed with censoring the Internet. U.S. Senator Chris Dodd once said the following…. “When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites” U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman has gone even farther. Just check out what he once said….
“Right now, China – the government – can disconnect parts of its internet in a case of war. We need to have that here too” Not only that, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman also recently asked Google to install a “terrorist button” on all Blogger.com blogs so that readers can easily flag “terrorist content” for authorities. The Internet is under attack from Washington D.C., and if you love the Internet you need to say something while you still can. Please contact your representatives in Congress and tell them that they must vote against these bills. #2 Politicians all over the United States are using law enforcement authorities to shut down free speech that they do not like. For example, during a recent meeting of the Pensacola City Council, a priest was nearly arrested after he calmly said some things that members of the city council did not like. If you have not seen this video of the incident yet, you should really check it out. #3 The First Amendment is especially under attack in our public schools. For example, one group of high school athletes was recently suspended for “Tebowing” in the hallways of their school. #4 The U.S. government is now encouraging children to spy on their parentsas part of the “war on terror”. If a school official hears that a parent has said the “wrong thing” at home, that parent could potentially get labeled as a “potential terrorist”. #5 Even though tens of millions of Americans have found the information and products sold by Kevin Trudeau to be incredibly helpful, the FTC has mercilessly gone after him. They have done everything that they can to shut him up and now he is being ordered to pay a ridiculous financial penalty of 37.6 million dollars. #6 Hillary Clinton recently said that certain “political, cultural, and religious beliefs” are obstacles to promoting alternative lifestyles around the world and therefore must not be tolerated…. “Now, raising this issue, I know, is sensitive for many people and that the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT people rest on deeply held personal, political, cultural, and religious beliefs”
#7 Some U.S. courts have ruled that it is unconstitutional to use the name of “Jesus Christ” during any official government meeting. The following comes from a recent WorldNetDaily article…. But the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are standing by their victory in a U.S. circuit court decision that states even “a solitary reference to Jesus Christ” in invocations before the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners’ meetings could do “violence to the pluralistic and inclusive values that are a defining feature of American public life.” #8 In North Carolina last year, a pastor was dismissed from his chaplain duties for praying in the name of Jesus. #9 Down in Texas, the Department of Veteran Affairs actually tried to ban prayers that include the words “God” or “Jesus” during funeral services for veterans. #10 Being able to engage in peaceful protests is one of the most important rights that the First Amendment protects. But in recent years that right has been under attack like never before. In a recent article I detailed some of the violence that law enforcement authorities have used against protesters in 2011…. In recent weeks, we have seen law enforcement authorities brutally dragging female protesters to the ground by their hair. We have also seen them use pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang stun grenades against protesters. If this is how protesters are going to be dealt with from now in America, then we have completely lost the moral high ground. How will we ever get other nations to take us seriously when we criticize their brutality against protesters when we are so brutal ourselves? #11 As I have written about previously, the FBI is now systematically recording Internet talk radio programs all over the United States. This is going to cause many Internet talk radio hosts to watch what they are saying. After all, who wants a visit from the FBI? The following comes from a recent article by Mark Weaver of WMAL.com…. If you call a radio talk show and get on the air, you might be recorded by the FBI. The FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record as much radio news and talk programming as it can find on the Internet.
The FBI says it is not playing big brother by policing the airwaves, but rather seeking access to what airs as potential evidence. #12 In Wichita, Kansas last year, a Christian minister was handcuffed and hauled off to jail by police for sharing the gospel and handing out tracts to Muslims on a public sidewalk. #13 On June 18, 2010 two Christians decided that they would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John on a public sidewalk outside a public Islamic festival in Dearborn, Michigan and within three minutes 8 police officers surrounded them and placed them under arrest. #14 As I have written about 1. previously, a very revealing document obtained by Oath Keepers shows that the FBI is actually instructing store owners to report many new forms of “suspicious activity” to them. Apparently the FBI now believes that the definition of “suspicious activity” includes “radical theology” and making “extreme religious statements”. #15 Last year, a high school student in Southern California was suspended for two days because he had private conversations with his classmates during which he discussed Christianity. He was also banned from bringing his Bible to school ever again. #16 A Christian consultant was recently fired by Bank of America and by Cisco because they discovered a book that he had written that expressed Christian viewpoints about social issues. #17 Members of the U.S. Congress have been banned from saying “Merry Christmas” in any piece of congressional mail that is paid for by U.S. tax dollars. Even if you do not celebrate that holiday, you should still be outraged at that infringement of free speech. #18 Barack Obama recently signed a new law that officially designates the United States as part of the “battleground” on the war on terror. This new law allows the U.S. military to arrest American citizens if they are suspected of being “potential terrorists” and to detain them indefinitely without trial. So if the U.S. military comes and grabs your neighbor and ships him off to Guantanamo Bay, then this new law is probably to blame.
This new law is also going to have a huge chilling effect on free speech in America. I have personally been contacted by several people that I know in recent weeks that are changing their behavior because of laws that have recently been passed. It is not enough for the elite that they control Wall Street, most of the big corporations and the U.S. government. They also want to shut all the rest of us up and keep us from complaining about it. The elite literally want to control what we think and what we say. We live in a country where political correctness is way out of control and where bureaucrats are constantly trying to push our free speech into a smaller and smaller box. They are coming for our free speech my friends. If you love free speech, and if you love the Internet as it currently exists, then you need to stand up and say something right now. If we do not respond to these constant attacks on the First Amendment, then eventually we are going to lose it for good.
10 Ways the U.S. Gov’t Has Destroyed Its Own Declaration of Independence It is not a king this time who is exerting ownership over the land and its people, but it is a similar top-down tyrannical system that employs police state enforcers in much the same manner. In America, this tyranny has remained largely disguised behind pleasantries and a growing bureaucracy centered around Orwellian safety measures, but those days are over; the king (the tyranny) has
returned to make its move from the shadows out into the open square for public view. Its kid gloves have transformed to an iron fist, which always seems to herald the final phase. The Declaration of Independence has been inverted in 10 key ways: 1. The refusal to assent to law: He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. These are just a couple of excerpts from the beginning of the list of grievances that set the tone for a criticism of rule by federal force, rather than rule by local law. Currently, we have seen an official elimination of the 4th Amendment in Indiana, which is a clear precedent-setting ruling to say that the State now believes that it owns the property and person of its citizens. TSA groping and sexual harassment anywhere it deems fit, public school surveillance, and a plethora of other federal initiatives have created a top-down managed society promoted through federal grants. These agencies such as the TSA actually believe they rule supreme over the states and sovereign citizens. This is perhaps most pronounced in the federal intervention over the legalization of medical marijuana. We now have a textbook tyranny in America, which operates with two separate definitions of legality: impunity for those in control, and an everincreasing rule book whereby average citizens are likely to be in violation of something at any given time, and are stripped of their right of representative self-governance. 2. Imposition of bureaucratic rule: He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. Regulations and licenses coordinated between private companies and government have been handed down by political and corporate leadership, and have become de facto laws enforced by compromised judges. This has resulted in an almost impossible environment for entrepreneurial success.
Independence has been criminalized, most notably by food safety laws, which have stripped the rights of individual farmers and use of their private land. In fact, there is only one growth industry left: government. 3. Standing armies (military rule): He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: The militarization of local police has been going on since the advent of the War on Drugs. SWAT team raids are now common even on raw milk vendors and natural health practitioners. More than that, Army and Marines have been called to man checkpoints and have been called in for support in any situation deemed an “emergency.” TSA has groped and abused air travelers, and are rolling out to other modes of transportation with their VIPR teams. These actions are anathema to the Constitution of the United States in which the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 expressly prohibits military operations to be conducted on American soil. Naturally, this is why the National Defense Authorization Act has declared America to be a war zone, thus eradicating that illegal activity and allowing for the military to operate independently. 4. Economic warfare: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent. The policies of the American government have fully emboldened every other nation, except our own. The “trade” spoken of in the Declaration of Independence was based on concepts of free market trade, not free or fair trade. As a perfect example, one study by the Congressional Research Service identified 751 different types of barriers to
American exports worldwide. Current policies have built-in exploitation and a lowered standard of living that is unrewarding to American innovation and excellence. It is no mystery, then, why the entire world is becoming poorer. Hidden taxes plague independent small businesses and reward only the governments and mega corporations which benefit from specially written tax loopholes and foreign account holdings to help them pay nothing, while enforcers of the IRS have been unleashed in greater numbers against everyday citizens — soon they’ll even do your taxes for you, or enforce compliance through pre-crime measures. 5. Removal of trial by jury: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury This has been made complete by the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains provisions for American citizens to be detained in America indefinitely without formal charges or jury trial. 6. Permitting citizens to be detained outside America: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies. America has indeed enlarged the boundaries of its sovereign law and jurisprudence by declaring the entire world a war zone in which American citizens under suspicion of loosely defined terrorism can be sent to any other country for interrogation, torture, and detention. 7. Fundamentally altering the role of binding laws of government: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. Government encroachment on civil liberties is now pervasive and obvious. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights is effectively dead; our laws are subject to the interpretation of a selected Super Congress, thus eliminating proper representation; and the office of the president has been given dictatorial power. The fundamental structure of government and its laws has been upended. Peaceful protest against such incursions are being violently oppressed, and our right to free speech has come under attack whether in the physical domain, or the virtual domain of the
Internet. 8. Internal war on American citizens: He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. It should now be clear just how much the USA PATRIOT ACT, and its even worse brethren such as the National Defense Authorization Act have played in the incremental inversion of the Declaration of Independence. As someone recently lamented, “How can I have a Merry Christmas when my own government can kill me?” The U.S. Government has, and it will. The overseas killing of U.S. citizens by drones is something that is ready to come to American soil. The (il)legal framework is now in place, and the precedent has been set to use drones for domestic law enforcement. Meanwhile, other “free” military hardware is being handed out to local police nationwide to further militarize American neighborhoods. Furthermore, documents like the MIAC report of 2009, as well as many other leaked policy papers, are evidence that the federal government views its own citizens as the greatest threat of all. 9. Use of mercenary armies: He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. The behavior of mercenary groups like Blackwater used overseas, as well as paid security forces to protect large domestic corporations like BP during the Gulf Oil disaster are completing the works of “death, desolation, and tyranny” referenced above. They are held unaccountable for their war crimes and atrocities committed abroad, as well as on American soil, while employing foreigners as well. Additionally, public servants such as the NYPD have become more beholden to large banks that contribute to their retirement funds than they are to the people they swore to protect and serve. 10. Use of false flag terror He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us. It has been admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, as well as the latest Fast and Furious scandal, were both conducted expressly to bring America to war — whether foreign, or now the
domestic War on Drugs. This was done knowingly and premeditatedly to cause increasing strife and economic hardship to American citizens, and to enrich international banks and organizations. This is merely the latest in a long history of American false flag terror that has been used to drum up support for various political and corporate power grabs. This use of criminal acts to spread fear and contrived problems among civilian populations for political power and financial gain is the very definition of terrorism and warfare. In conclusion, we find it difficult to improve upon, or add anything to the summary of a document created expressly to declare a proper evaluation of the conditions which require immediate action by free people to protect themselves against tyrants. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. The Obama Deception http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw Fall of the Republic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU Republic vs Democracy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFXuGIpsdE0 Imagine This ... then research 'Blowback' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xznl3kqZpGM Make Mine Freedom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVh75ylAUXY Loose Change http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71aXlW4gFcg TerrorStorm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXgLhkv21Y Father Nathan Monk Almost Arrested at Pensacola City Council http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MApjMm-I9_E