Charles Schumer

LibertyWeek 63: Suing the Government into Honesty

by Richard Morrison on October 5, 2009

in CEI Projects, Features, Podcast, Zeitgeist

Your host Richard Morrison welcomes guest co-host Jeremy Lott and Editorial Director Ivan Osorio for Episode 63 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with CEI’s FOIA fight with the U.S. Treasury, 7-Eleven’s attempt to give consumers a big gulp of government and the solution to a jobless recovery. We then move on to union pension politics, Ireland’s regrettable embrace of EU hegemony and some scantily-clad Olympic News.

Castro Endorses Obama

by Hans Bader on November 4, 2008 · 5 comments

in Legal, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual

Fidel Castro has endorsed Obama. 

But liberal lawmakers want to curtail the ability of American citizens to endorse or criticize candidates on the radio.  Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is advocating a return to the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” which the Kennedy and Johnson administrations used to squelch their critics on talk radio.  Schumer likens conservative talk radio to pornography.  Other influential liberal Senators, like Dick Durbin (D-IL) are also calling for the reimposition of the “Fairness Doctrine.” 

Under the Fairness Doctrine, a radio station that carries a conservative broadcaster like Rush Limbaugh is ordered by the government to give equal time to those who disagree with him, even if they are so boring that no listener wishes to listen to them.  The effect is to discourage the radio station from permitting any discussion of controversial issues that might draw government scrutiny. 

(Rush Limbaugh has often criticized associates of Obama.  Recently, for example, he criticized a member of Obama’s “inner circle” who blames America for 9/11 and believes America is a racist country.  Limbaugh has also carried news that liberal newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times have concealed, like Obama’s statement to the San Francisco Chronicle that his proposed regulations would cause electric bills in the U.S. to “skyrocket” and bankrupt coal power plants).

Under the Fairness Doctrine, the person a radio station is forced to give equal time to could be a liberal talk radio host (even though there is little demand for liberal talk radio, as the failure of Air America shows).  But there is no guarantee that such a competing talk show host would exist, much less attract viewers.  As a result, the station could end up being forced to give free air time to a boring amateur blowhard who likes to hear himself talk (the sort of people who write letter after letter to their local paper, full of cliches and ad hominems), if it airs an entertaining (albeit ideological) broadcaster like Limbaugh.

Bailout Bill Drafted by Senator Dodd Is a Scam on Taxpayers to Bankroll Left-Wing Extremists

by Hans Bader on September 26, 2008 · 10 comments

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Legal, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk

The $700 billion bailout of the financial system just got worse, thanks to a rewrite by Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd.  If the government loses money on all the “bad debt” it’s buying, the taxpayers will pick up 100% of the tab.  But if markets rebound, or the government makes money on any of its individual purchases, taxpayers won’t keep the money.  Instead, at least 20 percent of it will go into a housing slush fund that will benefit the left-wing group ACORN, which pressured lenders to make the risky sub-prime mortgage loans that spawned the mortgage crisis.  (Even though housing subsidies and mandates caused the mortgage bubble in the first place).

ACORN practices widespread voter fraud to increase liberal turnout in elections, and is guilty of financial fraud and embezzlement, but it has avoided any punishment due to its links to liberal lawmakers like Senator Chris Dodd, Congressman Barney Frank, and Senator Charles Schumer.  ACORN is engaged in massive fraud in battleground states like Florida.  (Election rules are being shredded for partisan purposes in other battleground states like Virginia and Ohio).

Other welfare has been added to the bailout to appease liberal lawmakers — the very lawmakers who blocked any reform of the government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which encouraged the risky lending that spawned the financial crisis (Fannie Mae engaged in extensive accounting fraud to benefit its crooked former executives.  Yet they remain influential liberal powerbrokers).

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