ObamaCare Pushing Librarians Out of Work; What Goes Around Comes Around

As a direct result of ObamaCare, librarians in Brevard County, FL, may be losing their hours:

• "Brevard County to Cut Back Hours for Some Part-Time Employees," by Bob Opsahl and Melonie Holt, WFTV 9, 23 July 2013 (hyperlink omitted):

  Brevard County has over 300 part-time workers, many of whom are in the library and parks systems.
  
  While officials don't necessarily want to reduce hours for those employees, they'll be forced to unless the county wants to pay for full-time health benefits.

Librarians had been ordered by the American Library Association [ALA] to push ObamaCare, that is until it cut back on the severity of its message to make it appear optional after librarian push back, as only I reported, and the self-arrogated censorship police voluntarily agreed to suppress President Obama's speech to #ALA2013 and the video has not yet been made available:

• "Librarians Refuse ALA Obamacare Push; Wanted: Video of President Obama Speech at ALA Conference; Lenny Kravitz's Message for Librarians," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 5 July 2013.

ObamaCare is a larger invasion of privacy than the National Security Agency [NSA] scandal:

• "Obamacare Data Hub a 'Honey Pot' for ID Thieves, Warn Critics," by Paul Bedard, The Washington Examiner, 22 July 2013.

• "Obamacare's Branch of the NSA; Community Organizers Will Use a Federal Data Hub to Sign Up People for Subsidies — and Even Ballots," by John Fund, National Review Online, 22 July 2013.
• "The NSA Programs and the Federal Data Hub," by Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review Online, 22 July 2013.

Although ObamaCare is a worse invader of privacy than the NSA, ALA is exhorting people to oppose NSA on privacy grounds:

• "Ask Your Representative to Vote YES on Amash Amendment," by Action Alert, American Library Association, 23 July 2013:

  On Wednesday, July 24, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Defense Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2397).
  
  Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has introduced an amendment to the bill that would stop funding for the NSA's warrantless surveillance programs.
  
  Please ask your Representative to vote YES on the Amash amendment.  This amendment is a strong vote against the NSA's warrantless surveillance programs and bulk metadata collection.
  
  Click "Call Now" for calling information and talking points.

• "Act Now: Support the Amash Amendment to Stop Funding NSA Surveillance," by Jazzy Wright, American Library Association, 23 July 2013.
• "Act Now: Support the Amash Amendment to Stop Funding NSA Surveillance," by Choose Privacy Week, American Library Association, 23 July 2013.   [In full disclosure, Choose Privacy Week has a single major donor who paid for and enabled the work the ALA does to give the impression ALA cares about privacy while promoting Open Society Institute messages the public would not otherwise accept.  That person is George Soros.  See "Know the ALA" for details.  The Choose Privacy Week site is basically a wholly owned subsidiary of the Open Society Institute, though it is not promoted as such.]
• "FTRF, ALA Join Efforts to Protect Privacy and Increase Transparency Around Surveillance," by American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, OIF Blog, 18 July 2013.

As to Brevard County, its library already bowed down to the ALA's demand to allow pornography into its public libraries:

• "NCAC Pushes Porn on Libraries; Fifty Shades of Grey Propaganda: Brevard Buckles, Harford Holds," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 13 June 2012.

Now it is bowing to the ALA again, this time on ObamaCare:

• "Local Libraries To Help Feds in ObamaCare Outreach," by Charles Parker, Brevard Times, 4 July 2013.

So librarian hours are being shrunk by ObamaCare, the so-named Affordable Care Act.  Not for Brevard County librarians it's not affordable.  They supported ALA's porn push and more recently ALA's ObamaCare push, and now they may lose work and medical benefits as a direct result.  Sad to say, but what goes around comes around.

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/07/ObamaCareHurtsLibrarians.html

Follow @SafeLibraries

ALA Enables Soros to Indoctrinate Children and Communities Nationwide in a Manner that Threatens Freedom of Speech

Open Society Institute logo.

The American Library Association is enabling noted "open society" advocate George Soros to indoctrinate or propagandize children, media, and communities nationwide in a manner that furthers Soros organizations's efforts to curtail freedom of speech:

"Today the American Library Association (ALA) unveils a new campaign to engage librarians, journalists, news ethicists and students across the country in a news literacy education project.  The campaign, 'News Know-How,' is supported by the Open Society Foundations."

Source:

• "The American Library Association Announces 'News Know-How' Campaign," by Macey Morales, American Libraries, 21 February 2012.

When I say "indoctrinate or propagandize," I mean it.  George Soros funded Media Matters for America [MMfA] has just been caught propagandizing America.  I mean control over major, well-known media individuals and outlets.  I mean writing the news as actually read on major network prime time news broadcasts.  I mean weekly coordination with political powers in control.  I mean having an enemies list of private individuals, politicians, and organizations, to hunt down, attack, then have removed from the airwaves.  Several media sources have lost their jobs as a result.  All this and more represents an unprecedented attack on the freedom of speech in the USA.

See for yourselves with these examples:

• "Media Matters Coup d'Etat," by Ethan Edwards, The Cypress Times, 21 February 2012:

  Media Matters For America is a registered non-profit organization whose stated purpose is primarily educational.  A recent series of reports in The Daily Caller, using tax returns, internal emails and memos from Media Matters, shows a far more sinister goal for the liberally-backed organization.

• "Brock Responds to Daily Caller's Media Matters Exposé, Sort Of," by Jeff Poor, The Daily Caller, 21 February 2012.
• "Media Matters Does Victory Lap Over Pat Buchanan's Exit," by Jeff Poor, The Daily Caller, 17 February 2012.
• "Inside Media Matters: David Brock's Enemies List," by Vince Coglianese, The Daily Caller, 13 February 2012.

The ALA, the self-arrogated national freedom of speech police, could care less about accepting major donations from and acting on behalf of the person responsible for this curtailment of free speech that has already seen several voices removed from the airwaves, like Don Imus.  It is this person, George Soros, who funded MMfA and its massive curtailment of freedom of speech and associated control of American news outlets and national indoctrination.

It is this person funding the ALA so it can help "librarians, journalists, news ethicists and students across the country" to learn about "nonpartisan, critical analysis of news and information." It is this person who has bankrolled the perpetration of the greatest suppression of free speech in American history who will guide "high school students, with public libraries as their 'newsroom,' [on] how to distinguish facts from opinions; how to check the source and validity of news and information and how to identify propaganda and misinformation."

By the way, the Girl Scouts of America still has not explained how MMfA got published in one of its booklets for girls, even though the author revealed that she submitted her writing with Snopes, not MMfA, and had never heard before of MMfA:

• "Author Denies Inserting Media Matters Reference into Girl Scouts Book," by Billy Hallowell, The Blaze, 3 January 2012.
• "Confessions of a 'Notorious Atheist Who Inflitrated the Girl Scouts,'" by Wendy Thomas Russell, WTR, 2 January 2012.
• "Girl Scouts Book Refers Readers to Liberal Group Media Matters to Clear Up 'Media Misinformation,'" by Billy Hallowell, The Blaze, 13 December 2011.

What a coincidence!  Soros-funded MMfA uses an American institution, the Girl Scouts, to promote MMfA as a source to clear up "media misinformation," while the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations uses another American institution, the American Library Association, to teach communities and students "how to identify propaganda and misinformation."

You getting this?  Does anyone want to speak up about this before it's too late and free speech becomes impossible through the sheer weight of unfettered indoctrination?

I have written before about George Soros's control over the ALA, and it is not pretty.  See:

• "Know the American Library Association; The ALA is Terrorist Friendly, Child Unfriendly, and Dishonest."

Noteworthy is that American Libraries, the ALA's monthly magazine, intentionally set this article in ALAnews, and only this one article, as the only one that will not allow people to add comments.  You will accept the Open Society Foundations's propagandizing "librarians, journalists, news ethicists and students across the country," and you will not be allowed to have any say whatsoever.  Remarkably, this run and hide strategy is the same one used by MMfA, also Soros funded!  See:

• "David Brock Explains It All," by Vince Coglianese, The Daily Caller, 21 February 2012.
• "PICKET: (VIDEO) Media Matters' David Brock Runs From Questions on Organization's War on Fox," by Kerry Picket, The Washington Times, 21 February 2012:

  Media Matters for America (MMFA) founder David Brock refused to talk to the Washington Times affiliated radio show America's Morning News on Tuesday morning about the series of stories The Daily Caller has been reporting on for the past week regarding his organization's aggressive plan to go after the Fox News Channel.
  
  According to the Media Matters documents obtained by the Daily Caller, part of the 2012 strategy was to treat the cable news channel like a political opponent and hire private investigators to look into the personal lives of Fox News employees who work both on the air and behind the scenes.
  
  The ultimate objective, according to the documents, for MMFA is to make the channel come off as an illegitimate news source to potential viewers who may have no opinion of Fox while pushing mainstream news outlets to treat the network as illegitimate as well.

Librarians, are any of you going to do something about this?  Communities, are you willing to learn about this so you can combat this?  Media members, do you realize what is happening to freedom of speech in the USA?

The American Library Association has become one more George Soros funded means to curtail freedom of speech in America.  The ALA may not see it that way, but huge amounts of money originating from Soros may have something to do with that. The ALA has lost all credibility on that issue that it ever may have had.

I call on the ALA to rethink its association with the greatest threat to American freedom of speech.

When the ALA tells your community about freedom of speech, such as in trying to stop local citizens or school boards from keeping children from reading inappropriate material, just keep this in mind.  The ALA has no credibility on freedom of speech while it is funded by and acting on behalf of the greatest threat to freedom of speech the USA has ever known, and in a manner designed to further spread freedom of speech abrogation.

"News Know-How" is really propaganda know-how.  Set a Google alert for it and watch as it creeps into your own communities.  Then speak out before it is too late.

NOTE ADDED 21 MARCH 2012:

Those wishing to learn about George Soros whose money the ALA so gleefully accepts should read:

• "George Soros -- the Rich Man Who is Hated Around the World," by Dan Gainor, FoxNews.com, 27 February 2012.

NOTE ADDED 28 JUNE 2012:

2011–2012 ALA CD#19.2

2012 ALA Annual Conference

ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee

Report to Council

2012 Annual Conference

Anaheim, CA

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) is pleased to present this update of its activities. 

....

PROJECTS

....

News Know-How

Under the leadership of Barbara Jones, OIF's latest initiative is the News Know-How program,

supported by a grant from the Open Society Institutes.  This grant brings together journalists, 

librarians, and high school students to discuss how to check facts and discern fact from opinion 

in the news—from newspapers to radio to social media.  News Know-how draws from librarians'

expertise in information literacy in general.  This summer and autumn there will be programs in 

Iowa, Chicago Public Library, Oak Park Public Library and Pratt Free Library (Baltimore).  For 

more information, contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom (oif@ala.org).

________________________________________ 

In closing, the Intellectual Freedom Committee thanks the division and chapter intellectual 

freedom committees, the Intellectual Freedom Round Table, the unit liaisons, and the OIF staff 

for their commitment, assistance, and hard work. 

Respectfully Submitted, 

ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee 

Pat Scales (Chair) 

Gladys Smiley Bell

Teresa Doherty

Barbara Fiehn 

Julius Jefferson

Jim Kuhn

Robin G. Shader

Barbara Stripling

Ma’lis Elizabeth Wendt

Kathleen Condon-Boettcher (intern)

Cynthia Mari Orozco (intern)

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ALA Opposes FISA; Joins Soros, ACLU, and PFAW to Restrict War on Terror

In another action that favors terrorists targeting Americans and has nothing to do with libraries, the American Library Association [ALA] has joined with George Soros, the ACLU, and People for the American Way to attempt to restrict the war on terror. Specifically, the ALA is opposing legislation by Senator Bond to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] to facilitate surveillance of overseas communications that is essential to stopping terrorist attacks.

What does this have to do with libraries?

Is this part of the political payoff for George Soros's giving $350,000 to the ALA just weeks ago? See "Soros, the ALA, and Terrorists."

Anyway, those are my opinions/questions. You be the judge:

Source: http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/alacoun/2008-06/msg00088.html

• From: "Emily Sheketoff"
• To:
• Cc:
• Subject: [alacoun] Sign On Letter on FISA
• Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:11:44 -0400

The following is a letter ALA signed onto about FISA

June 9, 2008

Re: Opposition to the FISA Legislation Proposed by Senator Bond

Dear Member of Congress:

As organizations that are deeply committed to both civil liberties and effective intelligence-gathering, we strongly urge you to oppose legislation recently outlined by Senator Bond to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This bill unreasonably and unnecessarily authorizes broad surveillance of Americans’ international communications without meaningful Fourth Amendment protections: no individualized warrant issued by a court, no determination of probable cause of wrongdoing, and no specification of the location or means of the surveillance.

Touted as a compromise to end an impasse between House and Senate versions of FISA legislation, the bill proposed by Senator Bond is far from a compromise. Its chief provisions are not significantly different from those contained in the bill passed by the Senate in February of this year (S. 2248). Like that measure, the "compromise" would threaten Americans' privacy by severely curtailing judicial review and failing to include other reasonable civil liberties protections that appear in the House-passed version of the legislation (H.R. 3773). Neither Sen. Bond nor the administration has made a persuasive case that these sweeping new powers are needed or that existing authorities are inadequate to ensure the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence-gathering activities.

In addition, this legislation would use the secret FISA court to rubber stamp a grant of immunity to telecommunications companies that assisted with unlawful warrantless surveillance.

The Bond proposal does incorporate a few improvements, including an audit of illegal warrantless surveillance and a provision reaffirming that FISA is the exclusive means by which foreign intelligence surveillance can lawfully be conducted in the United States. But these modest concessions do not offset the vast new unchecked surveillance powers the bill confers on the government.

Among the most important reasons to oppose this bill are the following:

􀂃 The bill would authorize massive warrantless surveillance. The bill allows the government to intentionally acquire millions of Americans’ international communications with no individualized warrant or determination of probable cause, so long as one party to a phone call or e-mail is believed to be located abroad and the purpose is to gather foreign intelligence.

􀂃 The bill would require no individualized warrant even when an American’s communications clearly are of interest to the government. The bill requires an individualized warrant only if and when the government decides to "target" a particular American by using the person’s phone number or e-mail address to select his or her communications for acquisition. While the legislation provides for judicial

Letter of June 9, 2008 Page 2

􀂃 review of targeting and other guidelines, the court procedures are inadequate to meet Fourth Amendment requirements.

􀂃 The bill would curtail effective judicial review of surveillance. While the bill contains provisions for FISA court review of targeting and other guidelines, those provisions do not provide a meaningful role for the court in ensuring that the government does not seize and data-mine the private communications of law-abiding Americans. Moreover, the bill contains an exception for "exigent circumstances" that could be misused to circumvent even the limited court review provided by the bill with respect to new surveillance programs.

􀂃 The bill would grant retroactive immunity for wrongdoing. The bill would give blanket immunity to companies that aided the government in conducting warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans. Like S. 2248, the bill would direct the court to dismiss privacy lawsuits against telecommunications providers if they received written assurances that the President had authorized the surveillance—assurances which in fact they received.

One change which makes the "compromise" worse than the Senate bill is a provision which would require the transfer of all of the lawsuits brought against the telecommunications providers from federal district court to the secret FISA court—a body whose only job for the past thirty years has been to approve FISA surveillance applications, not to try cases. This is not a compromise on immunity; it is the same old immunity dressed up to look like a judicial proceeding.

􀂃 The bill would not provide a reasonable sunset. The bill would authorize the government to conduct this massive surveillance for six years, just like the original Senate bill.

The proposed bill would grant unnecessary and unconstitutional powers to the Executive Branch. We urge you oppose it, and to vote against any legislation that contains the defects described above.

Thank you for considering our views.

American Civil Liberties Union

American Library Association

Arab-America Anti-Discrimination Committee

Association of Research Libraries

Bill of Rights Defense Committee Letter of June 9, 2008 Page 3

Center for American Progress Action Fund

Center for Democracy & Technology

Center for National Security Studies

Congressman Bob Barr, Liberty Strategies

Defending Dissent Foundation

Doug Bandow, Vice President for Policy, Citizen Outreach Project

DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Fairfax County Privacy Council

Friends Committee on National Legislation

League of Women Voters of the United States

Liberty Coalition

MAS Freedom

OMB Watch

Open Society Policy Center

OpenTheGovernment.org

People For the American Way

Privacy Lives

Republican Liberty Caucus

The Multiracial Activist

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation

---

• [alacoun] Sign On Letter on FISA, Emily Sheketoff, 06/10/2008

Soros, the ALA, and Terrorists

George Soros has given $350,000 to the American Library Association [ALA] to further "privacy rights." See the ALA's press release entitled, "Open Society Institute Gives American Library Association $350,000 Seed Grant for 21st Century Privacy Rights Institute," 21 May 2008.

I'm no George Soros expert, so can anyone please tell me if this represents a problem?

According to the editorial, "The Soros Threat to Democracy," Investor's Business Daily, 24 Sep 2007, George Soros wields great influence in a nontransparent way to harm American democracy in major ways, such as by assisting terrorists and illegals. For example, the article says the Open Society Institute "gave more cash to other left-wing lawyers who persuaded a Texas judge to block cell phone tracking of terrorists. They trumpeted this as a victory for civil liberties. Feel safer?" "[T]he public makes decisions about issues without understanding the special agendas of groups behind them. Without more transparency, it amounts to political manipulation." Please read the entire article--I am assuming the editorial board of IBD is a reliable source.

And now Soros is funding the ALA in the area of civil liberties.

Judith Krug, the de facto leader of the ALA, referred in the press release to "our nation's librarians" being "the front line of America's privacy wars." Is she implying that local community members are the enemy? She wants librarians to "lead Americans in a conversation about the importance of privacy to sustaining a democracy in the 21st century [sic]." This is the same women who decried a librarian's reporting to the police the presence of a 9/11 terrorist--I suppose it violated the terrorist's privacy and the ALA's efforts to "usher in legislative protections." For whom, the terrorists? See also "Librarians for Terror," by Lee Kaplan, FrontPage Magazine, 17 Aug 2004.

Given all of the above, and given both George Soros and Judith Krug appear to believe terrorists are entitled to privacy, though I am not making that statement, is the $350K infusion from Soros to the ALA for "privacy" any cause for concern?  Please explain.

It is okay to ask these questions in the interests of intellectual freedom, right?


NOTE ADDED 16 JANUARY 2011:

ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee Report to Council 2011

Midwinter Meeting San Diego, CA

Tuesday January 11, 2011

Choose Privacy Week

OIF is very pleased to announce that it has been awarded a two-year grant in the amount of $105,650 from the Open Society Institute (the Soros Foundation) for privacy programming.  OIF had previously received a 3-year, $350,000 grant from OSI that enabled the development of the first-ever Choose Privacy Week.  With the new grant, OIF will be shifting its focus to topics of government surveillance; privacy and young people; and privacy in the cultural context of immigrant and refugee communities’ use of libraries.  The grant will help OIF gain even greater traction with Choose Privacy Week and develop this annual event into an institution, similar to Banned Books Week.  The Open Society Institute has a strong interest in libraries’ role of informing their communities about privacy, and they have been very pleased with OIF’s work thus far.  Visit www.privacyrevolution.org to learn more about Choose Privacy Week and the resources OIF has developed to help libraries engage their users in a conversation on privacy.


NOTE ADDED 5 SEPTEMBER 2012:

The ALA's OIF and its George Soros-funded efforts to teach children nationwide Soros's "open society" political views via the ALA has now been given an award from "Consumer Action"—for "protecting consumers [and] immigrant communities" in a manner having nothing to do with librarianship, the mission of the ALA:

• "Consumer Action INSIDER - June 2012," by Consumer Action, Consumer Action, 31 May 2012:

  Consumer Action has chosen three honorees for its annual fundraising benefit and awards ceremony on Oct. 2 at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. ....
  
  At the event, Consumer Action will honor three distinguished awardees making major contributions to protect consumers. ....
  
  The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (ALA OIC) will receive our 2012 Consumer Excellence Award in the Community Organization category.  We honor the ALA OIF because of its outstanding efforts to educate consumers on their privacy rights via participation in privacy coalitions, Choose Privacy Week at local libraries and development of the Privacy Revolution (privacyrevolution.org) website.  For 2012 Choose Privacy Week the office made an excellent short video called "Vanishing Liberties," which focuses on the loss of privacy and civil liberties for immigrant communities.