14

07/10

Free Speech Isn’t Free; Bloggers and Message Boards Could be Silenced Overnight (Updated)

01:45 by Administrator. Filed under: Whatever

by John Galt

July 14, 2010

Thanks to Barry Ritholz’s The Big Picture blog for this heads up on the story about ML Implode.com.

Article I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

from ConstitutionUS.com.

Of course there is also in very, very small print a portion added some time after 1913.

Article I, Subsection 132g

Lawyers for any financial institution, including those employed by or representing the Primary Dealers of the Federal Reserve and/or favorites of the political elites, with the ability  to contribute significant amounts of money or other benefits to the political coffers of any member of the judiciary system, political parties, and/or their relatives shall have rights which are deemed supreme to and shall supersede Article I as originally ratified.

I was not aware of this particular section of the United States Constitution until I was made aware of the ongoing saga of ML-Implode.com, one of my favorite blogs who originated the news stories about fraudulent mortgage lenders, collapsed mortgage lenders, and of course led the way with many of the stories about the destruction of the housing industry via creative financing and the crisis which followed. ML-Implode has been sued and sued and sued at the behest of some of these “lenders” and other financiers  thus the story today from their blog should send a shiver down the spine of every American who values the alternative press and free speech:

In Bizarre Ruling, Maryland Court Denies ML-Implode.com Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Downpayment Launderer

In what is sure to go down in free speech history as a gross error, if not a blatant miscarriage of justice, ML-Implode.com has been denied its motion for anti-SLAPP dismissal in the Maryland lawsuit, Russell vs. Krowne (et al.) (a-k-a Global Direct Sales and The Penobscot Indian Tribe vs. Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, Inc./ML-Implode.com).

That’s right. A lawsuit against a blogger who had what appears to be pretty darned good about documenting the facts before publishing any story,  will be allowed to proceed not to prove or disprove the facts behind the case, but to insure the “operation” in question continues and the voices that pointed out this “operation” and the activities in question are silenced forever.  Will the ACLU take up the cause? I think it is doubtful because the ACLU rarely involves itself in cases which might damage their ability to raise money from contributors or challenge the current political party’s power which they blatantly favor.

This is not the first case nor incident of a  problem like this and the attempts by powerful political and financial interests to silence dissent on the web and to destroy the lives of the parties involved, regardless of the facts.  Mike Morgan, an extremely well respected financial commentator and blogger leading up to the collapse in 2008-2009 created a website called “GoldmanSachs666.com” and was doing nothing more than  publishing links to stories and analysis from the mainstream media about the activities of the banking giant (which just so happens to be the largest Primary Dealer of the Fed and shareholder within the Federal Reserve “reportedly”). The website’s mission statement tells you the perspective he has approached the subject from since day 1:

This website has NOT been approved by Goldman Sachs. This website is about Goldman Sachs to demonstrate how destructive they are to our lives and the hopes and dreams of our children. -Mike Morgan

Needless to say he received numerous threatening pieces of correspondence about the subject matter he was posting which generated an interesting letter which can be viewed in this thread on the website:

Goldman Sachs v. Mike Morgan

Thankfully they backed down but not until creating a huge amount of stress in his life and sending the first of many chills throughout the blogosphere.

Why is this information on these two stories so chilling to the concept of free speech and blogging? The new method of silencing political opposition or shining the light of truth on questionable behavior in the private sector, aka, doing the job the mainstream media won’t do, is to file frivolous lawsuits to bankrupt the blogger or website thus obliterating the ability for investigative reporting or alternative news to be seen by the public.

Prepare for an onslaught my fellow bloggers, as the pending death of ML-Implode is just the beginning. The FCC’s new regulatory oversight authority over the internet thanks to Cass Sunstein and the willingness of  leftist allies who claim to support civil liberties to turn a blind eye will silence us sooner rather than later. This will lead to the death of freedom in our nation as the cockroaches will be able to operate in the dark, finishing the job started in the 1890′s by the Progressives in Wisconsin of re-writing and selectively editing the Constitution to fit into their twisted worldview.

Godspeed ML-Implode.

************* Updated 1415 UTC 7/14 ************

Check this related  story out also. The lawsuits are flying gang and we will be silenced, either via financial terrorism or government “iron boots” on our throats:

Landlord sues to learn who commented in blog

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