Obama Bans Criticism Of Economic Stimulus Spending

And he’s doing it in the name of tighter controls on lobbying, but note that the new restrictions apply even to people who aren’t actually lobbyists:

A new White House policy on permissible lobbying on economic recovery and stimulus project has taken a decidedly anti-First Amendment turn. It’s a classic illustration of Big Government trying to control every aspect of a particular activity and in the process running up against civil liberty.
Check out this passage from a post on the White House blog by Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the President on Ethics and Government Reform (emphasis added):
“First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

Given that we have a government “of the people,” doesn’t the definition of “anyone else exerting influence on the process” include, you know, citizens? Speaking out? Criticizing? Sending letters? Making phone calls?
Isn’t the very definition of democratic, representative government one in which the people exert influence on the political process?
Maybe that’s not how it’s going to work on Obama’s world.

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  • http://www.kenmccracken.blogspot.com/ Ken McCracken

    See, the liberals were wise enough to preserve a portion of the hills from development so we could enjoy this wonderful jewel of nature.

    Conservatives would have covered it with McMansions and shit strip malls. Put gates in front of it to keep out all except the wealthy.

    Yeah, like the way that evil Republican Teddy Roosevelt put aside an entire corner of Wyoming to create Yellowstone Park?

  • http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

    I was told that men could expect prostate problems as they grew older, I just didn’t think it would be People’s Republic of Obama State problems!

  • robert108

    Obama’s fascist takeover continues…

    For ignorant little dino: Obama’s insane policies on domestic energy development, plus his massive increase in debt spending has weakened the dollar so much that he has doubled the oil price from the Bush low of $33/barrel. Thanks, Obama!

  • TomTom

    Yeah..Yeah..Muslim Barry. Nice try.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    Likwid, sounds like you need a time out or perhaps a girlfriend. Cold shower?

  • http://www.kenmccracken.blogspot.com/ Ken McCracken

    Oh yeah Dino, the dollar slides in response to Obama’s irresponsible monetary policies, and somehow that is Bush’s fault.

    Grape Kool-aid, am I right?

  • http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

    The precipitous decline in the economy has slowed or stopped.
    Obama did that. Having an engaged, intelligent leader with a plan did that. The stimulus spending is doing that.

    And it kills you people. Just drives you crazy that we haven’t descended into a hellpit of misery. Because you people feed off negatvity.

    Bullshit we lost more jobs and the economy shrank more last month, what news paper are you reading skippy. Not to mention Chairman OBAMA quadrupled the national debt in 4 months.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    Bullshit we lost more jobs and the economy shrank more last month, what news paper are you reading skippy. Not to mention Chairman OBAMA quadrupled the national debt in 4 months.

    The decline has slowed. And it’s still bush’s fault anyway. You’ll never change that truth.

    Only a constem would believe that Obama has taken the debt from $11 trillion to $44 trillion in 4 months without having passed a single budget or major piece of legislation. We’re still living under the bush budget.

    You people are so totally stupid.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    Not sure if they’re getting worse or not. Seems no worse than other places.

    There are no places that liberals “run” unilaterally. The state legislature here was controlled by republicans from 1990 to 2006. The governor was always a democrat in that time. One Senator was republican until the last election. There is only one republican congressman.

    You see, stem, the whole country, states, cities, counties, towns, villages, tribes, whatever, was subjected to an orgy of conservatism and conservative fiscal policies for over 30 years. Even the democrats bought into the supply-side, free market nonsense that was supposed to create Utopia but instead has failed beyond anyone’s worst fears. During that time, liberalism was, for all practical purposes, dead or at the least, dormant.

    And it still is. Obama, like Clinton before him, will keep trying to ride that middle road in order to please the moneyed and powerful. It’s a shame, really. He has the chance to do some major damage to the republicans and conservatives due to their horrendous failure. He still might.

    But liberalism, while now at least allowed in the room, is still not sitting at the table. If it was we’d be seeing Wall Street types being led off to prison camps in the desert to join Cheney and other republican criminals.

  • http://www.kenmccracken.blogspot.com/ Ken McCracken

    It’s laughable to even try and compare republicans of today to Teddy Roosevelt.

    LOL

    As if Teddy Roosevelt would be a Democrat today.

    He had a little bit too much testicular fortitude for your party, Dino.

  • ProudinNC

    Reckon this is why he needed an unconstitutionally appointed “cyber czar” to get the dissenters in line.

    Asshat. This will backfire like everything else he’s done. Unintended consequences is going to be the ruin of this one-term 0.

  • Old Retired Petty Officer

    I wonder if The American Communist Liberties Union will weigh in on this one. With luck, blogs and letters to the editor will deep things going for the right side.

  • http://www.rabidamerican.net/ Rabid American

    Buzz and his buddies are gonna be talking out of their other hole when the predictably violent backlash comes……. ;-)

    These Neo-Marxism supporting types are gonna learn to fear the very boot that they seek to use against their own countrymen.

    To the lefties, it’s always deemed to be “open debate” to bash the conservatives, but who will they ask to stand up for their rights when the boot comes down on them?

    When 9/11 happened, did they run to Alinsky to ask what to do? Did they, perhaps, request that we not pursue the source of the atrocity?

    Yet, as is now, when the dust began to settle and things became clear they turned on their own countrymen…….

    drip, drip, drip………

  • sayanything-4625

    Conservatives would have covered it with McMansions and shit strip malls. Put gates in front of it to keep out all except the wealthy.

    You don’t know any hunter’s do you? My club leases more land than your little park. We leave it in as close to a pristine environment as possible. We wanted to preserve land so we put OUR money where our mouth is, we didn’t rely on the Government to do it for us.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    Yeah, like the way that evil Republican Teddy Roosevelt put aside an entire corner of Wyoming to create Yellowstone Park?

    It’s laughable to even try and compare republicans of today to Teddy Roosevelt. What passes for a republican today is a short-sighted, ignorant, greedbag. People driven by nothing but selfishness and a single-minded obsession with money.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    Wow. The gall of this asshole.

    Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest…

    Kiss my ass, Norm Eisen. I’ll criticize whatever the fuck I wish to criticize and there’s not a god damn thing you or anybody else is going to do about it. You’re blowing hot air and you’re full of shit if you believe you can wipe out the 1st Amendment. Go pound salt, asshole.

  • 2Hotel9

    Notice that dinothefakehomo diverts the thread away from the fact that his boy Barri has just taken the opening move towards imprisoning Americans for speech and thought crimes against the State.

    Why is that, dinothefakehomo? Cause you are going to be one of Barri’s first targets. And once he has you in prison your free AIDS meds will stop. Cause Barri has already said that is the course his Socialzed Healthcare will take.

  • http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

    The rhetoric coming from the right is far worse.

    No one here has called for him to be executed or put in a gulag. We haven’t wished death on his wife and kids.

    Nope, you’re all alone. And you show the hate of the left.

  • pparets

    Conservatives would have covered it with McMansions

    Nah. The liberals would have covered it with Section 8 Housing and HIV/Methadone clinics.

    Have fun in the woods….

  • sayanything-4625

    Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye,

    I denounce the stimulus as a fraud and protest in the entire package in the strongest terms.

    Greg in Alabama

  • Buzz

    Grin and bare it bitches, you have 7 1/2 more years of it. At least. Maybe we will go the Chavez way and let him run forever.

  • http://www.kenmccracken.blogspot.com/ Ken McCracken

    Obama did that.

    Yes, yes he did.

  • http://www.rabidamerican.net/ Rabid American

    IMPEACH, NOW!!

    This Neo-Marxist man-child is imposing powers, not given to the Executive Branch, at an alarming pace…..

    You must ask yourself how long the Tea Party movement will be tolerated….

    drip, drip, drip……..

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    The precipitous decline in the economy has slowed or stopped.

    Obama did that. Having an engaged, intelligent leader with a plan did that. The stimulus spending is doing that.

    And it kills you people. Just drives you crazy that we haven’t descended into a hellpit of misery. Because you people feed off negatvity.

  • http://www.kenmccracken.blogspot.com/ Ken McCracken

    The precipitous decline in the economy has slowed or stopped.

    Heh, no it hasn’t.

    Sales of previously owned homes, which make up the bulk of the housing market, fell 1 percent last month to an annual rate of 4.89 million. That figure, which was slightly more than expected, represents yet another record low, although the report, put out by the National Association of Realtors, only dates to 1999.

    Oh, and this:

    Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in April (-539,000), and
    the unemployment rate rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Sta-
    tistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession
    began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job los-
    ses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector indus-
    tries. Overall, private-sector employment fell by 611,000.

    Here’s this:

    The US currency traded lower against major currencies following the release of some key data during New York morning deals on Friday. The greenback dropped to new multi-month lows against the euro, British pound and Swiss franc, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Canadian dollar.

    Hey Dino, do you drink the grape Kool-aid, or the strawberry Kool-aid?

  • brain trust

    Sieg Hiel mien dictator! No free speech allowed. Quadruple the nations debt in 4 short months(although it has seemed like an eternity since Jan. 20th), turn the printing presses loose on our currency, and turn us into a third world country with cap & trade and socialized health care. Lets add that 25% national sales tax on to the hyper inflation caused by the governments recklessness. We have a lot to look forward to.

  • exceller

    The stimulus is a wasteful boondoggle that will do nothing but stimulate government spending. It is not actually a stimulus at all, but a payoff to cronies.

    (how soon before some goons knock on my door?)

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    There are mixed signs on the economy. You stems cherry-pick the bad news to focus on out of desperation to diminish the president. Yet somehow you ignore the devastation brought on by 30 years of pursuing conservative fiscal policy.

    The stock market is up about 35% from the beating it took under bush. Unemployment increase has slowed. People feel better having dems in control after that horrendous failure of the republicans.

    Face it. You’re just bad people. No cooperation, no compromise, no rationality. We’ve all worked with assholes like the cons here. It’s ugly.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    Obama’s lying supporter who is droning on above hates America:

    No, seriously, I HATE this country and think it should disappear. No more united states. It’s the cause of most of the world’s problems. It’s like a cancer.

    Just split it up and let it lose its power. Done. Finished.

    DINO on January 13, 2009

    Draw your own conclusions.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    Well, seeing as how I’ve become the little lightning rod for your conservative freak out on this sunny Saturday, I think I’ll go walk my dog in the beautiful 5000 acre forest in the hills of Portland. See, the liberals were wise enough to preserve a portion of the hills from development so we could enjoy this wonderful jewel of nature.

    Conservatives would have covered it with McMansions and shit strip malls. Put gates in front of it to keep out all except the wealthy.

    CIao!

  • sc

    Dino – I just talked with my liberal brother in Portland OR and he says things are getting worse in Oregon. But since the liberals run Oregon, we may see 20% unemployment. By the way, are you employed??

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    When you people get backed into a corner and desperate, you trot out that old tirade like it’s some magic bullet.

    It’s not.

    The rhetoric coming from the right is far worse. Your disgust and hatred for where Obama is taking us is apparent. But, he was elected and now you get to sit there and watch much of your conservative revolution get crushed. We won’t go as far left as I’d prefer but I’ll take what I can get and enjoy seeing republicans play sore loser for the next 7.5 years while we push that pendelum to the left.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    Says all you need to know about Dino.

    Not really. He hates this country, is an Obama supporter and Democrat, has told us that gay man/child sexual relationships are a “rite of passage”, and believes that this nation should put all Republicans in death camps.

    THAT says all you need to know about the jackass.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    The America hater tries to make it about me.

    Whatever.

  • http://www.kenmccracken.blogspot.com/ Ken McCracken

    No, seriously, I HATE this country and think it should disappear. No more united states. It’s the cause of most of the world’s problems. It’s like a cancer.

    Just split it up and let it lose its power. Done. Finished.

    DINO on January 13, 2009

    Says all you need to know about Dino.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    The Obama supporting America hater is now promoting, yet again, the third world tactic of putting political opponents into “prison camps”.

    The true face of modern “liberalism” is anything but liberal.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    Anybody see tens of thousands of people in the street with Obama effigies hanging?

    Me neither.

    Remember that during the Bush years?

    Me too.

    Yet somehow, according to the Obama supporting America hater, “the rhetoric coming from the right is far worse”.

    Just more lies from the “liberal” left.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

    The steep decline has slowed. I know that disappoints you, but even if it hasn’t, it’s bush’s fault.

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