Sorry, Barry, But We Don’t Live In Missouri
About the Author: Born in Boston, I lived and worked in the D.C. area for a time, but have spent most of my life in Tennessee, where I graduated from the University of Tennessee. My political philosophy could best be described as eclectic, though mostly right of center. Read more from this author
As we reported yesterday and talked about throughout the day today, Barack Obama has been working with law enforcement in Missouri to try to fine and jail anyone who runs a “misleading” ad in the state. Lest this is the first you have heard of it and think I’ve been hitting the bottle on a Sunday night, here’s a link to the Missouri Governor’s angry press release over the situation.
Of course, this abuse of power is atrocious in itself, but add to that what sort of attacks Obama considers misleading, and it takes frightening to a whole new level. He doesn’t like it when you bring up that he’s voted for taxes or for gun control or for any other vote he was forced into making since he can’t cast a “Present” vote now that he is in the U.S. Senate. And, anyway, anything negative about him probably is misleading in some way, right?
Unfortunately for Barry, blogs don’t ‘live’ in Missouri. And even if they did, bloggers wouldn’t be intimidated by his police state tactics. Just to prove it, our crack team of researchers put together this investigative documentary:
Okay, so maybe that was a parody made by Ruben and Paul Garcia, who have graciously agreed to help us spread the good word with music and humor. But can we really say what Obama, if given the power of the presidency, might try to do with something like that? Can you really believe that he has no interest in supporting The Fairness Doctrine when he is already actively working to stifle free speech? Would this fall under his new “hate crimes” legislation?
And Missouri is not the only place where this is happening. In Virginia, Obama required the removal of signs at a rally on public property, and in Pennsylvania his campaign has been threatening television and radio stations to keep them from running a variety of ads, most recently from the NRA.
A quick check of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times came up with these stories on Obama’s dictator style attacks upon free speech:
——- insert story link here if one is ever written ——-
The control over the MSM is apparently complete. When you have the governor of a state send out a press release to deal with a presidential candidate who is abusively using law enforcement to stifle free speech and no one notices, what else can you say? Meanwhile, it’s up to bloggers and blog readers to try to spread the news.
Texas Pundit has a piece up, An Open Letter To Senator Obama, where he is trying to rile up the bloggers. And this is beginning to happen. Little Green Footballs has an article up, Obama Campaign Throws First Amendment Under the Bus, which begins, quite appropriately, “My jaw is officially on the floor.” And Hot Air has Missouri governor goes nuclear on Obama for using prosecutors on campaign “truth squad” which begins, “Oh, now. Would people really refrain from criticizing Obama just because they fear being, er, sent to prison for it?”
But if you only read one report about this, go to Faultine USA and read Obama’s ‘Truth Squad’ Threatens Freedom of Speech, which is the most comprehensive and chilling account of what is happening.
Will this story ever make it out of Missouri except on blogs? I’m beginning to wonder.
We’ll just have to make certain we’re sufficient.
Great post PZ!
Thanks, Mom.
Liberal fascism at its best, funny I get called a brownshirt because I won’t post moonbat comments at my site but I am not trying to shut down theirs like they are. Its also ironic Bush has not sicced the Feds on Kos, DU or HuffPo for all the slanderous crap that pours from them on a daily basis and Obama is not even Pres. yet and he is doing already.
That’s amazing, Goat. It’s like giving a serial murderer a nuclear device. The power he and the lib Congress will have over this country and liberty will be devastating.
It’s hard to believe that the New York Times decided against reporting Mr. Blunt’s press release. Nothing not even in Caucus blogs.
It was not reported either in the New York Post, which is surprising. Could be a problem with Mr. Blunt’s office.
I’d like to think that, BA. You could be right.
This is the transcendent issue of the campaign. Even flaming liberals should line up to defend free speech. Watch the NYT sink further in its ratings.
I wholeheartedly agree, Magdeburger Joe. How anyone can vote for this guy witht the tactics he’s used is beyond me.
I propose that we bring Joseph McCarthy back to life :twisted:
With a new and improved Joseph McCarthy, we can fight their Truth Squads with our Socialist/Communist witch hunts
Or Hitler. Since there was one of those before, it’s okay to have another one, right?
Bloomberg has an article on Obama’s “truth squad” tactics. It’s on RCP now, but here is the link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_woolner&sid=aPpNDefWKbi4
Unfortunately, besides the fact that it’s an online Bloomberg article, it also barely touches the surface of what is happening and covers what it does hit in nearly a quizzically amused sort of tone, placing part of the blame for the Obama assaults on “swiftboating”, which is merely a name for conservative political attacks. No one says that MoveOn.org “swiftboats”.
As far as raising the alarm goes, this is nearly a pat on the head and don’t-worry-go-back-to-sleep article. I’m afraid this may give an indication of how the media plans to handle this, though. A sort of mild slap on the wrist with a wink while carefully blaming someone other than Barry.
The Kansas City paper also wrote an article about it, but that’s not quite the national spotlight.
Obama totally PNWND Mac on foreign policy.
Mac’s strong suit!!!1! LOLZ!!
Well, only for folks like you who don’t understand foreign policy either.
Paul, what I don’t get is that Matt Blunt is the GOVERNOR of Missouri. Why a press release? It’s lame. Maybe under normal circumstances, but there’s a press blackout on news that would cast Obama in a negative light.
Blunt’s the GOVERNOR. If he doesn’t have the power to stop this himself and he thinks the first amendment is under attack in his state, why isn’t he filing a lawsuit?
btw, press blackout is also in play on Bracelet-gate and on Henry Kissinger’s rebuttal to Obama’s claims during the debate.
Scary times. maybe the thing to do is for bloggers to unite under the subject header First Amendment in Jeopardy–what the media ISN’T reporting. A uniform list with links to credible sources.
A press release from the Governor of Missouri is certainly a credible source. Ditto a press release from Henry Kissinger.
I also suggest that AOL members lean on AOL to keep it clean. Two weeks ago a group bee-yotched to AOL about a front page link to a political blogger whose comments section allowed the filthiest language you could ever imagine–kids should not be able to access anything like that from a front page AOL link. The link was taken down within ten minutes. AOL/Time Warner may be in the tank for Obama, but its MEMBERSHIP is center-right and money talks.
Seriously, we have to pull together on a uniform message, posted daily, under a uniform subject header. Strongly suggest getting together with Ed Morrissey, Caleb Howe, Mark Impomeni, Michelle Malkin, various PUMA sites, etc., and also contacting Hannity and Rush with any unreported story of the day that’s been posted to the blogs. Maybe even see if NRO, Weekly Standard, and WSJ would copy. RealClearPolitics also seems pretty even-handed about getting the news out.
Individual bloggers can also write their individual blog entries, as usual, but that uniform entry, in uniform language, under a uniform subject header, posted verbatim (no personal tweaks or embellishments) and taken viral, could have the impact of a news service wire story.
Worth a try?
I think those are great suggestions.
Damn good ideas, if you ask me.
Explain to people what Beau Biden did. Issuing an arrest warrant from his Delaware office for someone speaking st the Washington Dc Press Club. Someone needs to corner Joe Biden and ask him about that.
Checking. Thanks.
The person arrested is Larry Sinclair. There was a lot of efforts made to prevent him from speaking at the National Press Club. Here’s a link to the information:
http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/category/larry-sinclair-blog/
I’ve no real difficulty with this part of Sinclair’s story - the facts, not Sinclair’s spin. Somebody got him arrested on bogus charges to shut him up.
Of course, the fact that somebody wanted to shut him up does not mean that his allegations are true.
Paul:
Be cautious with Larry Sinclair’s stuff. Since he also “accused” Mr. Obama of being an accessory to murder, his stuff, understandbly so, does not remain long on reputable sites.
Citizenwells was - and is still perhaps - one of Sinclair’s surrogates, to use this term. I think he is now more interested in Berg’s application though, judging from an article of his which vanished this morning from ReaaderArticles.
Wrong I was. Here is the article, from RCP:
http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/obama-fannie-mae-family-cbc-2005-speech-ceo-explains-relationships-campaign-contributions-obama-number-two-recipient-franklin-raines-youtube-video-obama-and-democrat-friends-created-problems/
I have read it, and found nothing objectionable in it. I’m glad I was wrong on this one.
Sorry for the misinformation.
As I said, I didn’t really keep up with the Sinclair stuff. I just now saw where he’s accusing Obama of being associated with the death of the “gay” choir director at Wright’s church. :roll:
I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I suppose anything is possible, including that you are an alien implanted from a far away galaxy to help fascilitate discussion on political boards. But I’m not ready to run with either story at this point.
Somebody must have laced my coffee with something.
There was indeed a Citizenwells article which vanished this morning:
http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/obama-rezko-obama-indictment-philip-j-berg-lawsuit-obama-kenyan-obama-not-qualified-vault-colb-blagojevich-corruption-petition-to-impeach-expel-senator-obama-bar-application-constitutional/
The evidence that the article was on RCP can be found in the comments on it.
Thanks. Just hopped over there.
RCP ReaderArticles used to be suggested and read almost exclusively by Clinton supporters - talking to themselves. They seem to have been replaced by Republicans. This is not a criticism of your articles, which are good or excellent.
Watching the RCP reader articles is like being Bill Murray in Groudhog Day. It doesn’t matter if the same 10 second snippet has been posted 30 times. Somebody finds it and posts it again.
And I’m not necessarily excluding us as offenders in that deal.
What do you expect from a facists muslim.
The terrorist have won.