Posted on 10/11/2008 12:18:30 AM PDT by neverdem
"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people's faces. They seem determined to shut people up.
That's what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Kurtz had been researching Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago -- papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.
Obama fans jammed WGN's phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg's example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.
Other Obama supporters have threatened critics with criminal prosecution. In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false." I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.
These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can't abide having citizens hear contrary views.
To their credit, some liberal old-timers -- like House Appropriations Chairman David Obey -- voted against the "fairness doctrine," in line with their longstanding support of free speech. But you can expect the "fairness doctrine" to get another vote if Barack Obama wins and Democrats increase their congressional majorities.
Corporate liberals have done their share in shutting down anti-liberal speech, too. "Saturday Night Live" ran a spoof of the financial crisis that skewered Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and liberal contributors Herbert and Marion Sandler, who sold toxic-waste-filled Golden West to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Kind of surprising, but not for long. The tape of the broadcast disappeared from NBC's Website and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Frank and the Sandlers. Evidently NBC and its parent, General Electric, don't want people to hear speech that attacks liberals.
Then there's the Democrats' "card check" legislation, which would abolish secret ballot elections in determining whether employees are represented by unions. The unions' strategy is obvious: Send a few thugs over to employees' homes -- we know where you live -- and get them to sign cards that will trigger a union victory without giving employers a chance to be heard.
Once upon a time, liberals prided themselves, with considerable reason, as the staunchest defenders of free speech. Union organizers in the 1930s and 1940s made the case that they should have access to employees to speak freely to them, and union leaders like George Meany and Walter Reuther were ardent defenders of the First Amendment.
Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.
Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.
Why am I thinking of Koestler's DARKNESS AT NOON? :(
How is silencing speech a good thing, Senator McCain?
Oh, wait, I'm talking to Sen. McCain-Feingold.
UGH!
McCain is selling the farm without asking for the price. This good guy bullshit on his part is wearing very thin.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1791/did-hitler-ban-gun-ownership
Don’t include SNL. They are surprisingly even handed for being out of NYC. Lorne Michaels is a decent guy.
Reagan would walk into a room full of people who hate him (liberals, Chrissy Matthews-Olberman sorts) and smile, not because he thought they liked him, but because HE DIDN'T CARE that they didn't like him.
McCain would walk into that same room and smile because he BELIEVED they really liked him.
If Reagan were to give that same response that McCain did about Obama, he'd say off-handedly "My opponent is a good man" but you'd know he didn't mean it, and he'd smile while people laughed--THEN he'd go in for the kill.
People talk about Reagan's seemingly benign, grandfatherly personality, but they forget he was stubborn when it came to the really important things (Russia, taxes).
McCain only does the first part (the nice guy stuff), and somehow thinks that makes him Reaganesque.
I carry a Para Ordnance P-12.
Someday, FR will save the world from a Dictator.
I don’t know where to go with this. Reagan always had balls. It is for sure and for certain McCain did at one point. When did McCain drop them?
The Keating Five thing. He couldn't stand the idea that his rep had been besmirched, so he did what many stupid Republicans have done--do what he thinks will make Democrats like him.
Chris Matthews adored McCain for a long time, and McCain ate it up.
Too many Republicans love being "liked" by the libs and the media. If I were a Senator, whenever one of those fools came near me I'd sick my dogs on them.
Unusual for Barone to write such a partisan type article. Usually he sticks to facts and figures.
We know McCain is wrong about our not having to fear an obama presidency. Is he blind to reality too, like so many Americans are? This is an issue he should be hammering. That Missouri incident was the worst. Sadly though I wonder, even if he brought this up face to face at the debate, would it get much traction? I really think most Americans refuse to believe our freedoms could be curtailed in this way. A lot would think it is just scare mongering, and the “news” media would confirm their feelings.
For some reason they do. But it is a Faustian deal. For myself I say what I think and don't give a crap what anyone else thinks. If McCain would take that track it would suit his purpose better.
But obama is such a dolt, I think if McCain brings this stuff up in context, Obama will just start babbling. He didn't WIN these debates, he just let McCain look scary. Obama gets flustered pretty easily. I think peppering him with these realities is all McCain can do.
I really like Barone. He seems to me to be intelligent and honest.
S&W .357 4” stainless
Many don't know freedom is being lost. They are brainwashed and don't have enough sense to see it. Uncle Sam (Uncle Obama) will take care of me. Freedom comes in with a roar. Slavery comes in with a whimper.
Cool.I have a mint condition model 19 Smith and Wesson. If the shit hits the fan you can't go wrong with a revolver. Sometimes I'm old school about these things. However I trust The Para. John Browning knew what he was doing with the 1911 A1.
I read this earlier and had the same thought.
-PJ
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