NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE? So we've had nearly 8 years of lefty assassination fantasies about George W. Bush, and Bill Ayers' bombing campaign is explained away as a consequence of him having just felt so strongly about social justice, but a few people yell things at McCain rallies and suddenly it's a sign that anger is out of control in American politics? It's nice of McCain to try to tamp that down, and James Taranto sounds a proper cautionary note -- but, please, can we also note the staggering level of hypocrisy here? (And that's before we get to the Obama campaign's thuggish tactics aimed at silencing critics.)
The Angry Left has gotten away with all sorts of beyond-the-pale behavior throughout the Bush Administration. The double standards involved -- particularly on the part of the press -- are what are feeding this anger. (Indeed, as Ann Althouse and John Leo have noted, the reporting on this very issue is dubious). So while asking for McCain supporters to chill a bit, can we also ask the press to start doing its job rather than openly shilling for a Democratic victory? Self-control is for everybody, if it's for anybody. . . .
We’re watching the press out-and-out lie in its reportage. We’re watching YouTube censor what may negatively impact their man. Networks will sell 1/2 chunks of airtime to the Obama campaign, but will not run an ad by his critics. Ann Althouse notes that basic accurate transcription appears to be beyond the press’ capability.
No wonder the GOP rank-and-file are edgy, and angry. They know what “free speech” is. They’ve been gritting their teeth and respecting the first amendment for the last 8 years, watching the opposition say outrageous, hateful, incite-ful things with impunity. They’ve watched and tolerated it because it is the right of every American to say what they want, and that right is paramount. The rank-and-file (for all they’re derided as “nazis”) tend to respect that.
The GOP base is watching the left declare, “free speech for me, but not for thee,” and now, they are getting pissed off.
My Li’l Bro Thom and I were discussing the strange events of the last week, with GOP crowds expressing their anger, and members of the press - who one would think appreciate the first amendment more than anyone else - calling for censure-ship. I’m not entirely sure if Mary Mitchell means “censured”, there, or “censored.” To censure is to “officially rebuke,” and to censor is to completely shut down. I suspect Mitchell - who famously wrote just last month, “Sarah Palin makes me sick. I hate that she was able to steal Barack Obama’s mojo just by showing up wearing rimless glasses and a skirt…” would like to see both.
Imagine that. A mojo so fragile it can be stolen by rimless glasses and a skirt.
Anyway, so Thom, who is still susceptible to media spin once in a while - remember, he’s center-left - was beginning to buy the “oh, no, the GOP crowds are out of control; they’re all a bunch of hot-heads calling for blood,” narrative that the press - feeling unloved - has latched on to this week, quite ignoring the fact that things are pretty ugly in the Canada elections, too, which surely has nothing to do with McCain/Palin.
I reminded him that a few random stupid idiots are no more representative of the GOP than are random idiots on the left - who broadcast the sound of gunfire when discussing the American President - representative of Democrats as a whole.
I agree with him that the GOP does not help itself when the crowds get unruly. These are pictures and soundbites the press will gobble up and spin, and the GOP - who has watched the press control the national narrative for 8 years - should know that.
But I also understand that the folks attending these McCain/Palin are finding some release after 8 years of frustration, watching the press spin any good news badly (think back to all of the times you read articles approximating the following: “Unemployment is 4.6% and the economy grew by 3% last quarter, but experts warn…” Or, “Experts expressed surprised at the good economic numbers…” Good news from Iraq has been embargoed; if the press could not report on American deaths and a gloomy outlook, they preferred not to write at all about the efforts of our troops - can you name a single Medal of Honor winner out of Iraq or Afghanistan? There have been stunning stories of real heroism coming out of these war fronts - mostly about young men and women from “heartland” America, but they’ve been all-but-ignored, rather than celebrated, because America was not supposed to feel good about any of it. And the fact that our shores have been safe for 7 years? Well, if the president had a D after his name, that might be laudable, but he doesn’t, so cares?
Now, the GOP is trying to shed some light on the clear and important connection between Barack Obama and the corrupt ACORN - whose activities are on the verge of discrediting the election in 11, or perhaps as many as 14 states - and even Thom notices that their effort is “seen mostly as ‘another right wing attempt to smear Obama.’” Because you know, when the truth is uncomfortable, it becomes a “smear.”
Well, of course it is being “seen as a smear” by the press and the Democrats. Just like protesters carrying pictures of a beheaded Dubya, or Keith Olbermann’s screaming are seen as acceptable expressions of free speech (which they are) while GOP anger is seen as “scary” and “inciteful” - which it is not.
Obama himself admits his links to ACORN:
“Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drives in Illinois, Acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”
The ACORN disgrace is not being “covered” right now. It’s being “spun.” The press - whose charge it is to report on events without prejudice - cannot bring itself to seriously look at the fact that ACORN has utterly corrupted voter registration in some states - in Pennsylvania, a former State Supreme Court Justice says she is “not confident we can get a fair election” in the state come November.”
I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty chilling. There is some indication that we’ve come to an end of our long and admirable history of peaceful transitions, decided by the electorate of the nation. What is happening, state-by-state in this election (and has been happening more and more each election cycle) is the gradual dissolution that right which we hold most dear: our right to self-determination. And it is happening, “from the inside,” as we see in Ohio, which - as I write this - has just received permission from the sixth circuit court of appeals to make voter fraud easier, instead of more difficult. There goes Ohio.
The press cannot bring itself to “call for censure” of Jennifer Brunner, the Secretary of State of Ohio who openly tried to disqualify many GOP absentee ballots on shifty grounds, and apparently enables voter fraud.
Judge George C. Smith of the U.S. District Court in Columbus said, “It is hard to imagine a public interest more compelling than safeguarding the legitimacy of the election of the president of the United States.”
Brunner, btw, is being advised by ACORN. Mary Mitchell is not calling for her “censure.”
Depend on it, if Brunner were a Republican, and if she were trying to insist on voter identification, and if a court were upholding her, you would know her name; the press would be calling for her head. Somehow, in the twisted logic of this diabolically disoriented age, asking people to prove their identity before they vote is a “suppressive” and “intimidating” thing.
The “scary” crowds at those GOP rallies are watching the fully untrustworthy press ignore or down-play activities that can shake the very foundation of our democratic freedoms; if the press is “afraid,” they should think about why the crowds are angry. As Rick Moran suggests, they should think about their culpability in the increasing ugliness we’re seeing on both sides. They should - perhaps - assuage the concerns of the right just a little, just a tad, by acting like real journalists instead of advocates and condemning thuggish electoral behavior, rather than ho-humming it.
But perhaps the press is too far gone in their hunger for the November Trifecta: the White House, the Congress, and (quickly) the SCOTUS all in the hands of the left. Not in the hands of normal, rational Democrats, mind you; in the hands of the speech-suppressing, infanticide-supporting, tax-raising, government-growing, no-drilling, no nuclear power far left, who - apparently - are disinterested in creating all those new jobs.
The GOP rank-and-file is watching the privileged and elite, rather comfortable and oh-so-sophisticated, “what is an outlet shop?” press - which does not even try to hide its disdain for middle America - do everything it can to advance an agenda that half the country is convinced will not serve it. They’re watching this same press - purportedly filled with smart, open-minded people - dismiss the reasoned reservations of half the nation over a spectacularly untried and ill-defined man of dubious association as either “ignorant” or “racist.”
The crowds know they are neither “ignorant” or “racist.” They know that you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his friends. They also know that the things they dislike in Barack Obama are the very things they disliked about the caucasian Al Gore and John Kerry: the philosophy of government solutions over marketplace, the elitist disdain for their own values, and the sense that too much power consolidated in one party and enabled by the complicit press is simply bad for the country.
The press tried to steamroller the American public into voting their man both in 2000, and again in 2004, but they were hobbled by Democrat candidates who were stiff and unlikeable. They finally have a candidate who is likable and they can’t believe that these stubborn people on the right are not falling in line and falling in love - as though the right might actually - gasp - have been voting its principles all this time.
But they’re determined to win, and so yes, they’re sacrificing their credibility to do so, because they know that if they get the November Trifecta, credibility won’t matter any more:
…with an Obama victory and a Democrat sweep, the press will - within a year or so - once again be “the only game in town.” And with no reason to do so, they will not even pay the barest lip-service to opposition opinion. Hell, they barely do, now. They will become the monolithic monopoly which acts as the trumpet for the Glorious Government of the People’s Republic of America - or, if you like, Pravda West.
Expect to see little actual reportage, but a lot of spin, about ACORN in the coming weeks. They’ll “spin” rather than report other stories as well. There is no way that - coming this close - the press is going is going to let this election slip through its fingers.
Quite honestly, I don’t know if either of these men is up to the challenges facing the next occupant of the White House. That’s enough doubt to carry going into this election. We should not have to also worry about whether the vote count in each state has been corrupted.
Meanwhile, AJ is looking at questions connected to Obama and Rezko that clearly won’t be answered before the election, and which the press will ignore, while they publish these bizarre polls. More here on Rezko and how he could hurt Obama if the press cared enough.
Glenn Reynolds has a little roundup of other bloggers who are writing about this curious doublestandard that finds lefty assassination fantasies unremarkable but righty anger “frightening.” Drama queens. And plants?
More: Angry left boos Sarah Palin and her 7 year old daughter, Piper
Related:
Gateway Pundit has been following ACORN for years: Obama’s legal career consisted of advising ACORN, more here.
2007: ACORN defendants plead guilty to voter registration fraud
2006: ACORN in Missouri
" I follow the Hillary-supporting PUMAs closely, and one wrote that she recognized a very vocal supporter of Obama (who she has seen at previous Democrat events, as she is a Democrat herself. This person “claimed” to be a Republican, and was saying some nasty things about Obama to incite the press to report how bitter the Republicans were. This is the rally version of astroturfing, to be sure.."
"Hmmmmm. “The November Trifecta,” as you put it. Could be. A minor thing might be the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine, shutting down talk radio, FOX News, and eventually most bloggers.'
Government accounting makes Enron accounting look wholesome. And this problem is huge, and under-appreciated. More on the problem in general here. And a report from California:
