George Carlin FTW: FFC Says Curseword Crackdown Unconstitutional

WNYW/Ch. 5 anchor Ernie Anastos is caught on live television saying
"Keep f---ing that chicken" to weatherman Nick Gregory.

An appeals court ruling Tuesday declared the Federal Communications Commission's indecency rule unconstitutional.

The ruling, with provocative implications for evening TV. There's a chance this might loosen the tongues of pent up curse words the likes not seen since Howard Stern went from terrestrial radio to Satellite.

"The court says that dropping the F-bomb on prime time TV in front of kids is okay," said Dan Isepp of the Parents Television Council. "The door has been kicked down."

The group sided with the FCC and against six television stations, including FOX, ABC and CBS.

"I am shocked by such an anti-family decision," said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. "This decision gives them the unfettered ability to air whatever content they want."

Nothing would change for at least 45 days as the FCC decides whether to appeal and - if the Supreme Court takes it up - until the case is ultimately decided.

The ruling only applies to broadcast TV in prime time and not to cable television.

If it stands, the decision would end the policy of fining broadcasters for foul language put in place after Bono used the F-word on the January 2003 NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes Awards.

"The FCC's indecency policy is unconstitutional because it is impermissibly vague," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 32-page decision.

The ruling touched on everything from George Carlin's famous "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" to foul words by Nicole Richie on a Billboard Music Awards show - one of several cases that led to the decision. The decision was filled with words routinely bleeped out on television, from bulls--- to d---head.

Holy Shit.

Want to Read more?

Net Neutrality News

Court Rules Against F.C.C. in 'Net Neutrality' Case

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

Tuesday's ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a big victory for the Comcast Corporation, the nation's largest and most hated cable company. It had challenged the F.C.C.'s authority to impose so called "net neutrality" obligations.

What it means is that a company can do business the way it wants to. What different internet providers worried about was having their info flow turned off for them. That is, a user or provider who uses huge amounts of bandwidth could be denied, and that could kill business.

Google and other big providers wanted the courts to say that the FCC could control the flow and guarantee that everyone has as much bandwidth as they want.

But, instead, the court ruled that a company like Comcast has every right to decide what data it carries.

To further illustrate the ruling, in the case that was before the Court, Comcast had made the business decision that Bit Torrent users were utilizing an undue amount of a limited asset, bandwidth, and in order to protect it’s network and allow the majority of it’s users to be able to do things like check their email without having to worry about the network going down because some 21 year old is using Bit Torrent to download a bootleg copy of Robot Chicken.

Since it’s Comcast’s network, the court has decided that they should have the right to decide how it’s used and to take action to protect it’s property and it’s other customers.

This is a victory for liberty and free speech, I don't understand how any sane person could want to give the FCC more power to regulate the Internet in the first place. But, there will be downsides to this ruling - get ready for a tiered internet bill.

Die in a fire: The Fairness Doctrine

Taken from some other source: "The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using taxpayer dollars to impose the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters who feature conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

By a vote of 309-115, lawmakers amended the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill to bar the FCC from requiring broadcasters to balance conservative content with liberal programming such as Air America."

Wheeew. Say what you will about all the Conservative AM Radio programs and all those Liberal - er, ah, well - they've still got NPR, right? - anyhow...
This was one of those they're idiots, but they're not THAT stupid are they?

The fact this matter was taken as far as it was scares me more than wiretaping my phone and spying on me 24/7.

In fact, earlier today, they found a two car bombs on my route home. So I'm rather glad that I'm not blown up, and I have the chance to talk about it without some damn counter-point waving fingers in my face about it's somehow MY fault someone wanted to burn me up with nails and whatnot on Haymarket by way of an Iraqi style cruise missile. I'll take a little NSA over being dead, thank you.

Now back to music, baseball, and funny pictures.

When I read that Craig Biggio hit 3000 - I thought it meant he had BEEN hit 3000 times.

Maybe he can get a new helmet. One that fits now.