Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Crackdown On Media Is Crackdown On People


"Ideas are more dangerous than guns. We wouldn't let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?" -- Josef Stalin

If anyone needed evidence this king lacks a democratic character, now he has tightened the screw on the media. This step takes confrontation to a whole new level. Tulsi Giri was right, it really is a choice between monarchy and democracy. I know where I stand. This step asks for underground pamphleteerig to bring down the monarchy itself.

Movement time is over. Now it is revolution time.

You don't hold dialogue with this regime. It is now a fight to the finish.

The king has invited a polarization that leads to an end of the monarchy.

The seven party alliance now needs to formally adopt Democratic Republic as its common slogan.

King promulgates media ordinance NepalNews .... In the new laws the authorities have been authorised to slap heavy amount of fine to publishers and editors if the published materials are found to be “helpful to terrorists”. The ordinance has also incorporated stricter provisions regarding publication or broadcasting of materials likely to create communal or religious disharmony...... According to The Kathmandu Post, there are provisions in the new ordinance to increase the penalty to editors and publishers - for publishing defamatory items - up to Rs.100,000 from Rs.10,000 while anyone publishing, translating or importing banned items will be subjected to a penalty of Rs.500,000.......

United We Blog is down. Looks like the media crackdown is already having major effects in terms of self-censorship.
In The News
  • What type of democracy do Koirala, Nepal want? Gorkhapatra
  • Poll announcement in Nepal may trigger fresh violence NewKerala.com .... "only a constituent assembly election can address these issues. Holding local elections instead is like putting medicine on your belly button when you have a headache." ....Ram Chandra Poudel: "When the country is in a political crisis, it is meaningless to hold municipal polls without resolving it first. If the government wants to hold polls, they should hold elections to parliament and a constituent assembly." ...... Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, said while it was committed to participating in the polls, it wanted the government to create a conducive atmosphere for major parliamentary parties to participate in them...... Surya Bahadur Thapa said his newly formed Rastriya Janashakti Party was still considering its participation. "Elections are meant for the parties," Thapa told IANS. "If they stay away, there is no point of holding polls."
  • Madhav Nepal Reiterates Poll-boycott Stance Himalayan Times, Nepal
  • Parties promise peaceful putsch after festivals Kathmandu Post ..... prepare for a firebrand action after Dashain and Tihar ..... planning to field hundreds of thousands of people on the streets and complete the peaceful putsch. Senior leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, and People's Front Nepal claimed that the post-festival movement would be decisive...... the NC will launch its nationwide awareness campaign immediately after Dashain. They will make aware people on a whole gamut of issues ranging from constituent assembly, role of political parties in democracy and the king's retrogressive activities...... party will deploy its central-level leaders in all 75 districts and they will sensitize people about the king's regression, revitalize party organization, and go strongly for pro-democracy movement..... campaign would monitor the Maoists' unilateral ceasefire. "It will be a test case for us to know whether the Maoists will really allow political parties to carry out their activities in local level" ...... CPN-UML, another large party in the seven-party alliance, has already launched a nationwide "Loktantra Awareness Campaign" for the next two months...... party has already deployed its central level leaders in all 75 districts for the campaign. "The party has set local level programs like meetings, interactions, and wall-paintings to sensitize people about democratic republicanism" ...... UML has already announced its nationwide protest programs on November 11, immediately after Tihar. Similarly the party has also called its nationwide cadres' gathering in Kathmandu on 14-15 November..... Amik Sherchan, chairman of Peoples' Front Nepal (PFN), said that his party had set a two-and-a-half month long awareness campaign at local levels.
  • Polls will increase confrontation: Nepal ....the seven-party alliance is holding an informal negotiation with the Maoists. "But the Maoists should first make their position clear about multi-party democratic system, human rights and peoples' sovereignty," he said. "I think the Maoists are now holding their internal meeting regarding these issues and the formal talk will take place after they come out with a decision" .... the parties were expecting harsher moves in the days to come. "New constitution may be introduced, political parties and unions could be banned," he said, adding, "But we are undeterred in our mission and will continue with our movement until democracy and peoples' sovereignty is restored." ..... "Autocratic governments always attack free press because it is the real voice of the people," Nepal said. "It is a clear example of the government's autocratic attitude" .... "If you keep quiet, autocrats throttle down, but once you protest, they withdraw"
  • Polls will only complicate problems: Parties
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

thoughts on protecting your freedoms (as we who believe the second ammendment of the US constitution means what it says). Again, this is SO APROPOS TO WHAT IS GOING ON IN NEPAL. listen, guys, the clock is ticking. it is time to stop being wimps. the writing is on the wall...it is THE PEOPLE OR THE MONARCHY. WHICH ONE DO YOU CHOOSE???

Second Amendment Rights

"...he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." -- Jesus Christ, Luke 22:36

"When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." -- Jesus Christ, Luke 11:21

"If the [political] opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves." -- Josef Stalin

"Ideas are more dangerous than guns. We wouldn't let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?" -- Josef Stalin

"The House passage of our bill is a victory for this country! Common sense wins out. I'm just so thrilled and excited. The sale of guns must stop. Halfway measures are not enough." -- Sarah Brady

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing." -- Adolph Hitler

"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." -- A.E. Van Vogt, "The Weapon Shops Of Isher", ASF December 1942

"Gun Control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters." -- Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

"Only an armed people can be the real bulwark of popular liberty." -- Vladimir Lenin

"A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie." -- Vladimir Lenin

"Every good Communist should know that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. The Communist party must control the guns" -- Mao Tse Tung

"Today's liberals wish to disarm us so they can run their evil and oppressive agenda on us. The fight against crime is just a convenient excuse to further their agenda. I don't know about you, but if you hear that Williams' guns have been taken, you'll know Williams is dead." -- Walter Williams, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

"I honestly think - and I am not an expert on the amendments - I think the only people in this nation who should be allowed to own guns are police officers. I don't care if you want to hunt, I don't care if you think it's your right. I say, 'Sorry. It is 1999, we have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun and if you do own a gun, I think you should go to prison.'" -- Rosie O'Donnell

"We did indeed know much about your preparedness. We knew that probably every second home in your country contained firearms. We knew that your country actually had state championships for private citizens shooting military rifles. We were not fools to set foot in such quicksand." -- A Japanese Admiral 15 years after VJ day on why Japan didn't invade the US mainland after Pearl Harbor.

"We need a federal law that bans all assault weapons, and if in fact you do need a handgun you should be subjected to at least the same restrictions -- and really stronger ones -- that exist for driving an automobile. The United States Congress needs to pass uniform licensing for everyone carrying a gun." -- New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, March 2, 1997

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them -- Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in -- I would have done it." -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, on CBS "60 Minutes"

"We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily - given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of hand guns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal." -- Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc., New Yorker Magazine, June 26, 1976, page 53.

"Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic - purely symbolic - move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation." -- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, April 5, 1996

"The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons - anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun - can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons." -- Violence Policy Center, on how best to sell the ban on so-called "assault weapons".

"If you want assault rifles, join the army. We have lots of them." -- Gen. Wesley Clark, Democrat Presidential Primary, 2004

"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA. Ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State." -- Heinrich Himmler 1936

"From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
Make him a member of the gentry, even if he is a commoner.
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
-- Henry V in William Shakespeare's Henry V.

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily lives, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." -- John F. Kennedy

"I say that the Second Amendment is, in order of importance, the first amendment. It is America's First Freedom, the one right that protects all the others. Among freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly, of redress of grievances, it is the first among equals. It alone offers the absolute capacity to live without fear. The right to keep and bear arms is the one right that allows "rights" to exist at all. Either you believe that, or you don't, and you must decide." -- Charlton Heston, in a 1997 speech at the National Press Club
* Credit for compiling some of these quotations goes to Dr. Walter E. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, HK91 Quote Library, Blue Letter Bible, and others.

10:52 AM

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