Zach Vargo

Yesterday, President Obama threw the ceremonious first pitch at the 2009 All Star Game. This is a tradition dating back to 1910 when President Taft became the first president to throw the 1st pitch. Here is the video:

President Bush may have had the best pitch in presidential history, when throwing the first pitch after September 11, 2001. He threw a strike, but that could be because he used to own the Texas Rangers.

Well the Obama Administration is at it again, trying to force their ways down your throat. With the newest czar, Cass Sunstein, the administration is preparing to shut down all the lies spread around by bloggers and online news organizations. You may be kissing some more of your First Amendment rights away.

Cass Sunstein, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has been appointed as the head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. His claim to fame is his soon to be released book, “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done.” His is also known, and possibly appointed, because of his book, “Nudge,” which encourages the government to gently force people to become human beings. In “On Rumors,” Sunstein wrote, “that we are headed for a future in which people’s beliefs are a product of social networks working as echo chambers in which false rumors spread like wildfire.” He also wrote, “We hardly need to imagine a world, however, in which people and institutions are being harmed by the rapid spread of damaging falsehoods via the Internet.” And continued with, “We live in that world. What might be done to reduce the harm?”

So what does this mean for the blogging world? It means that if you spread falsehoods about the government, you will be asked to remove your blog. You are also responsible for the comments that are posted on your article. However, if you refuse to take down your blog, you can expect to be taken to court, which will determine the fate of your blog.

The real question that is brought up is what determines a false statement?   I guess the internet regulators will decide, and you have a chance to prove them wrong in court.  But is a false statement only going to be anything that denounces Obama, his administration, or any other Liberal politician/ activist?  How about the Alaskan blogger would started the rumors of why Gov. Palin decided to leave office?  She was incorrect, but would Sunstein have deemed that a false statement?

Many people fear that this is another method to suppress the “Republican Attack Machine,” or in layman’s terms: anyone who opposes the Liberals.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when the government is regulating that, then it has been taken too far.  How would you feel if you were only stating the facts, and the government deems it a lie because it made Obama look bad?  You better hope that the judge is on the same side as you. Conservatives may again be falling victim to the vicious attacks conducted by the Liberal “victims”.

Take my blog Sunstein, I DARE YOU.

Instead of targeting President Obama this time, they are attacking the publicity of Michael Jackson’s death.  The first one to speak out against the mass media coverage was Rep. Pete King of Long Island, NY.  I was reading other people’s blogs about Rep. King’s video and some of the comments are just amazing.  People are saying that King was a racist and a hateful person.  One person even exclaimed, “I guess PETER KING is JEALOUS since Michael Jackson is always on TV.”  Do people actually think before they write?  Rep. King was just tired of the media’s overzealous coverage of Michael Jackson.  How does that make him a racist? I know, he’s a Republican.

Before you go spewing about how Rep. King is a racist, first you must be educated with the word’s definition. I took the liberty for you all; it is “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”

Where in Senator King’s statement does he mention race? His description could be of a male or female, black, white or Hispanic person.

A day before New York Rep. Peter King called Michael Jackson a “pervert” unworthy of nonstop media coverage, the aunt of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan on the same day Jackson died asked why her nephew’s death went virtually unnoticed while the King of Pop got memorial shrines across the country. “Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media,” Martha Gillis wrote to the Washington Post. “Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?”

Like Rep. King is, I am tired of always hearing about Michael Jackson.  I will say that he was a talented and inspiring artist, and I still listen to his music.  His death is tragic, but it is time to move on.  The media moved on when Robert McNamara died, only really saying, “And today former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara died today at the age of 93.  He is famously known as the ‘Architect Of The Vietnam War.’  Coming up is more information on Michael Jackson…”  They did the same for Karl Malden and Ed McMahon.  Granted that they all died of old age, while Michael Jackson was only 50.

But if age is the factor of making Michael Jackson’s death a bigger deal, then how about Billy Mays.  Billy Mays was 50, I don’t hear anything about him.  He was a great pitchman, and when I think of advertising, Billy Mays usually pops up in my head.  However, when I think of great musicians, I don’t immediately think of Michael Jackson.  I can name a bunch of other artists who are significantly more talented than Michael Jackson.  I guess Billy Mays doesn’t get media coverage because he wasn’t accused of molesting children.

Rep. King was not being hateful or racist, he was just simply speaking out, exercising his 1st Amendment right.  He believes that the media should glorify the brave men and women who put their lives at risk everyday. MJ never served in the military, made millions because of his entertaining talent, spent foolishly, abused illegal drugs and was accused of child molestation and settled out of court. He also showed disregard towards his race by sanctioning the artificial insemination of his wife with white person’ sperm. So who is the racist? And the media portrays MJ as a hero? Perhaps that is one of the problems with America in that our role models are drug offenders and child molesters who have no clue about budgets and finance. We cut Rep. King down because is right?

It is time for the news networks to move on from the old and start covering something new. Isn’t that what the news is for? And if you want to still make a big deal about it, don’t worry he’ll be back. I will guarantee you his name will pop back up when the US government has to bail out California because they forked out millions for his memorial service.