The subjects of President Obama's three current scandals are not a surprise. Benghazi comes from a middle east foreign relations failure. The IRS scandal from using raw government power to intimidate opposition. The Associated Press and James Rosen incidents come from an attempt to control the press. For the short term, the IRS and Benghazi events are probably the most damaging to America. But the third is a First Amendment issue, an open attack of freedom of the press, and it has serious long-term implications. <br />
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The First Amendment is one of the cornerstones of Western Civilization, and especially important to the United States. Freedom of the Press was not a factor in ancient history. Freedom of the Press evolved in England with people like Locke, Milton, John Stuart Mill and others. Our founding fathers placed it in the First Amendment along with freedom of religion and freedom of speech. History shows the first thing a dictator seeks to control is any information flowing to his people. Lenin controlled information reaching the people through his political party, not the government. <br />
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Germany's Joseph Goebbels took thought control to a new level in World War II. He headed a department called the "Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda" to control all media, movies, and art. Today the press is owned or controlled in North Korea, Iran, Cuba, China, Syria and a number of others. For the Attorney General of the United States to "harass and intimidate" those who give us a free flow of information is dangerous, and if our American media and movie folks will not take him on, we-the-people must.<br />
