Cross Posted from The Pennsylvania Progressive:
The Berks County Democratic Party, under the leadership of Chair Tom Herman of SEIU, voted to stifle dissent, free speech and freedom of the press today. Engineered by the Chairman of the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee, they passed a resolution forcing me to change the name of my local blog or they will will sue me.
The local blog is written by three Democrats from Berks County and is called Berks Democrats. A disclaimer sits on the masthead notifying readers it is in no way affiliated with the Democratic Party. The very first article on the blog also specified and disclosed this information. They don’t have a legal leg to stand on, as exemplified by the President’s failure to stop a website called GWBush.com. Gee, if the President of the United States failed what makes Tom Caltagirone, John Ryan and Tom Herman think they can overturn settled and established internet case law and shut me down?
That’s what this is really all about: shutting down my local blog. They don’t like articles I’ve written about them. They can’t handle dissent and criticism so they decided to infringe my free speech and freedom of the press rights with a resolution threatening legal action.
What has become of the Democratic Party when it begins trying to stifle free speech rights? I’d like an answer to this question from Pennsylvania Chair T.J. Rooney and Howard Dean.
This isn’t just anyone doing this, it’s the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, his Judiciary Committee Legal Counsel, and others. These are all Democrats folks, chew on that for a few minutes then call the DNC (202-863-8000) and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party (717-920-8470) and ask them yourselves.
Did they ask you nicely to change the name before they did this?
No. The blog has been going since September and no one has said a word. I have a disclaimer on the masthead. That, of course, absolves me of any and all liability for any confusion.
is just as bad as the Hannity “right” is and they can be even more intelligent at the art of framing “debates” and banning dissenters.
I have no further use for the Democratic party after the galactic let down,non-impeachment.
It’s tough to continue speaking up for the Party when they take actions like these. I have phone calls in to both the DNC and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for official statements.
The Democratic Party in Pennsylvania is pretty awful. The thing they are able to get the most energetic about is getting Green presidential candidates disqualified from the general election.
I’m not from PA so I don’t know the ins and outs of party politics there, but that won’t stop me from throwing this out. Could it be, that the Berks County Democratic Party is trying to protect its “brand” rather than stifle your free speech rights? This seems to be more of a “copyright” or brand naming issue rather than a free speech issue. You may have an equal chance of winning in either case.
“protect its “brand””? How is the term Berks Democrats belong exclusively to the Berks County Democratic Committee? Doesn’t a person that wants to blog about Berks Democrats have just as much right to the name?
I am a member of the Berks County Democratic Committee, I attended the meeting in question and i was appalled at what some of my fellow Democrats were saying. One of their biggest arguments in support of the resolution, was that their should be some kind of limits to what is considered free speech. I find this kinda ironic considering the same county committee passed a resolution to impeach Bush and Cheney, yet they are following eerily in Bush’s footsteps. In 1999 Zack Exley created a website gwbush.com whose sole purpose was to attack Dubya. Bush was quoted at the time saying “there ought to be limits to freedom” in reference to the website. Needless to say Bush and his minions were unable to take down the website and the site mocked Dubya thru 2 presidential elections.
The really sad part of this whole affair, was the reason they picked to go after the website on Saturday. Was it because of vulgar statements on the site? Was it because of lies about our Democratic Candidates? No, it was because the website had the audacity to post information from campaign finance reports. Reports that among other things, reported that a State Rep and a State Committee Person gave money to Republicans running against Democrats. That was the horrifying posting that was on the site. It reported the truth!