More Obama Administration Attacks on Free Speech

The Left isn't afraid to use the power of the government to bully its enemies. Witness the latest attack on that deadly enemy...Goldline:

Forget Goldman. New York Rep. Anthony Weiner has been shooting a bit lower in the finance food chain, going after gold dealers.

His latest target, the company Goldline, which has made its name profiting -- with the help of conservative talkers -- off fees for buying and selling gold against public anxiety.

Goldline is also a sponsor of the Glenn Beck program on the radio and television. As William Jacobson points out:

Why bother with a bit player like Goldline? Because Glenn Beck still is on the air despite a boycott which has succeeded in scaring away some advertisers, but not Goldline.

Goldline is a specific target of boycotts of Fox News and Beck, and has been for months...

We are in dangerous territory folks. The congressional power to investigate, and to pressure the executive branch to bring enforcement proceedings, is being used to support a partisan boycott and to stifle political dialogue.

Whatever your view of Beck, and of the Beck boycott, the government has no business acting as enforcer.

Jacobson is right; this is very dangerous and should be embarrassing to any real American. There's something particularly sinister about targetting a two-bit company because they advertise on a show critical of government policies. Very sinister.

Obama Signs Press Freedom Act Then Won't Take Questions

You can't make this stuff up.

There was some rich irony at the White House today -- President Obama signed the Press Freedom Act, and then promptly refused to take any questions.


The new law expands the State Department's annual human rights reports to include a description of press freedoms in each country. It seemed a good opportunity to showcase press freedom in this country.

Taking quesitons would require Teh One having to speak on the fly without blaming somebody else for everything that goes wrong with his administration. Can't have that.

I know it's getting stale, but can you imagine what would have happened had George W. Bush done this? Obama has ducked the press for months. He has mishandled the oil spill in the Gulf and the press has hardly whimpered. How much longer will they be willing to cover for him?

Obama Administration: Policing the Border Equals Forced Abortions

Just when I think the nuts in the Obama administration can't do worse, we get word that they are equating Arizona's immigration law with China's human rights abuses.

Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person's immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

Because requiring people to legally enter the country is every bit as big a human rights violation as forced abortion, speech and religious suppression, gulags and possibly harvesting organs for money. I'm so glad the America haters are running the government. It's really gonna make China like us.

More Free Speech: The First Anti-Obama Movie

Oh, there may have been something done before, but this is the first I've seen of one.

A New Jersey judge-cum-filmmaker has chosen to step down from the bench rather than abide by a dictum from state judicial authorities that he not publicize his satirical movie painting President Obama as a modern-day Faust...

The film is about a cocaine-snorting college student who makes a deal to deliver millions of souls to Satan. The main character, played by Del Vecchio, goes on to attend Harvard Law School, work as a community organizer and win the White House. The title's initials stand for "Occidental Births a Monster," a reference to the college Obama attended for a short time.

Not quite as stirring as an assassination fantasy, but a good start to exposing Democrats to the ridicule they thought appropriate for Republicans.

Preacher Arrested for Calling Homosexuality a Sin

My good friend Dana over at Common Sense Political Thought has often argued that once homosexual marriage is permitted throughout the U.S., the Catholic church (among others) will then be targeted if they won't perform weddings for gay couples in their churches. Leftwingers, naturally, pooh-pooh this as just so much fear-mongering, but when you read stories about what is happening elsewhere, you have to ask yourself if it wouldn't happen here, too.

Christian preacher arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin

Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.

The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.

Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act.

Regardless of how you feel about Christians quoting the Bible selectively, it seems to me that free speech allows a street preacher to, well, preach the Bible as he interprets it and let the listener make up his/her mind about the subject.

Couldn't happen here, right?

It's a Good Thing There Is No Liberal Hate Radio...

LIBTALKER: TIME TO DIE

Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck Targeted By Hate Rhetoric
I dunno if we could stand any more civility.

Olbermann Says Citizens United Is Worse than Dred Scott

Maybe Democrats have good reason to assume that democracy will disappear, since they can't succeed within the rules.

Here's a Good Explanation of Today's SCOTUS Decision

A Great Day for Free Speech

The Supreme Court rules that you can't discriminate against speakers just cuz you don't like the political message.

“When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought,” Justice Kennedy wrote. “This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”

Liberals dislike free speech. But free speech is good, especially when consumers reject liberal ideas.

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.
The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a "perfect storm" in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.

From Hot Air:

Brown wins, ObamaCare’s on life support, McCain/Feingold gets gut-punched by SCOTUS, now this. What happens tomorrow? Does Rupert Murdoch buy the Times or something?

It's a good week to be a conservative.

Democrat's Bad Behavior a "GOP Dirty Trick"

Now, I guess, reporters doing their job (asking uncomfortable questions) have mind control powers/

A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is describing the video above, which shows a Weekly Standard reporter getting pushed around by a DSCC consultant, Michael Meehan, as a "dirty trick" by "Washington Republicans."

DSCC spokesman Eric Schultz refused to go into detail about the incident, or to criticize Meehan, who confronted reporter John McCormack, in McCormack's telling, after the reporter followed candidate Martha Coakley down the street asking unwelcome questions.

Meehan is a veteran Democratic staffer, Bostonian, and Obama appointee to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. But friends said they found the video both inappropriate and out of character.

"It is no surprise that Washington Republicans are trying to use every dirty trick they have to throw the Coakley campaign off their stride, but we are determined to end this campaign talking about the issues that matter to voters, like creating jobs and lowering middle class taxes," said Schultz in a written statement.

We used to call guys who asked politicians "unwelcome questions" reporters, but that was sooo 2007, I guess.

Here's the video:


Kudos to McCormack for not allowing Coakley's thug to bully him. Somebody needs to give him (McCormack, not Meehan) a raise.

Is the photo of the incident a game changer?

Stupid Quote of the Day

Comes from News Writer:

Violence of any kind, perpetrated against anyone, is terrorism.

Really? Really?

I can think of lots of "violence" that News Writer wouldn't consider terrorism. Like, say, abortion.

But there are lots of other examples of violence that would not come under any person's definition of "terrorism." Burglary which ends in the death of the burglar, for instance, would be violent but not considered terrorism. Or a robbery of a convenience store. Or even a football game (soccer games in Europe can get pretty violent, too).

News Writer is trying very hard to create some giant terrorism umbrella to cover a whole bunch of murderers she finds personally offensive, such as abortion doctor killers and crackpots, in order to diminish the distinction between jihadis and general murderers. She also wants us to believe that it's racism that causes conservatives to notice jihadis are typically Muslims who want to kill bunches of civilians for Allah.

So – Maj. Nidal Hasan? Terrorist. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab? Terrorist. Zacarias Moussaoui? Terrorist. Khalid Sheikh Muhammed? Ramzi Binalshibh? Ramzi Yousef? Omar Khadr? Ayman al-Zawahiri? John Allen Muhammed? Terrorists, all. Jose Padilla? Er, foreign-sounding name (check), brown skin (check) – Terrorist! Barack Hussein Obama? Um, can I get back to you on that?

On the other hand — Jim David Atkisson? Crazy loner who thought liberals were the root of all evil so he opened fire on a Unitarian Church. James Von Brunn? Crazy white supremacist loner who opened fire in the Holocaust Museum. Scott Roeder? Crazy anti-abortion loner who shot Dr. George Tiller to death at his church. Michael Griffin? Crazy anti-abortion loner who killed Dr. David Gunn. Robert Poplawski? Crazy loner who was convinced President Obama was going to take his guns so he killed four police officers. Eric Robert Rudolf? Crazy loner who bombed a park during the Olympics, a gay bar and a women’s health clinic and then hid in the North Carolina mountains for years. Tim McVeigh? Crazy loner who blew up the federal building in OKC because he didn’t like the Democratic government. Warren “Gator” Taylor? Crazy loner who thought Obama was going to take his guns AND tax him to death, so he held a bunch of people hostage in a Virginia post office. Johnny Wicks? Crazy loner pissed off at the federal government about his Social Security claim so he opened fire at the Las Vegas federal courthouse. Glenn Beck? Crazy commentator who urges crazy loners to act on their crazy thoughts.

Shoot, News Writer isn't even bothering to distinguish between leftwing whackos (such as the Holocaust Museum killer) and rightwingers. Or between guys (they're always guys! Are we anti-male, too?) who kill people and radio hosts who "urge crazy loners to act on their crazy thoughts." No examples cited, notice.

I guess to News Writer, a guy putting a bomb in his undies and a radio commentator running a show are pretty much the same thing. Except, of course, that the second guy has a constitutional right to discuss whatever he wants to on his show. The first guy is a terrorist.

What's Sedition?

A friend of mine is really incensed about Rush Limbaugh saying he hoped those at West Point would 'detain' President Obama.

Of course, Media Matters only gives us 28 seconds of what Limbaugh said, so we don't know what the context was of this clip.

"How is this not sedition? Fortunately for the rest of us, our brothers and sisters in the armed forces love America more than Rush," said my friend.

I tried to explain what constitutes sedition, but I doubt I convinced him. But the incident made me wonder if my friend was equally incensed when Keith Olbermann accused President Bush of engaging in terrorism. Probably not.

That free speech is a tricky thing.

Google Won't Remove Offensive Michelle Obama Pic

Liberals need to recognize that free speech includes speech they dislike, which is why Google won't remove a picture that makes Michelle Obama look like a monkey.

"It's offensive to many people, but that alone is not a reason to remove it from our search index," Google Inc. spokesman Scott Rubin said Tuesday. "We have, in general, a bias toward free speech."

You can view the image here. And here are pictures you get when you Google George W. Bush monkey. But it's ok when you constantly compare a white guy to a monkey.

Of Course They're All Partisan

If Fox Is Partisan, It Is Not Alone

In audience surveys from August 2000 to March 2001, Fox News viewers tilted Republican by 44.6 percent to 36.1 percent. More narrowly — 41.4 percent to 39.4 percent — so did the audience for MSNBC. The audiences of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central leaned Democratic.

Four years later, amid the Iraq war and President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, the audience data had shifted. Fox News viewers had become 51 percent Republican and just 30.8 percent Democratic, while MSNBC viewers leaned Democratic by 41.7 percent to 40.4 percent. Viewers of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central grew slightly more Democratic.

By 2008-9, the network audiences tilted decisively, like Fox’s. CNN viewers were more Democratic by 50.4 percent to 28.7 percent; MSNBC viewers were 53.6 percent to 27.3 percent Democratic; Headline News’ 47.3 percent to 31.4 percent Democratic; CNBC’s 46.9 percent to 32.5 percent Democratic; and Comedy Central’s 47.1 to 28.8 percent Democratic.

The idea of an objective press is a 20th Century anomaly. From the beginnings of the U.S., the press was highly partisan, and it was that partisanship that was enshrined in the First Amendment idea of freedom of the press. The idea that it wasn't "news" because there was a slant was unprecedented.

In an age where more people have more access to news and opinion outlets and are better educated than at any time in our history, the pearl-clutchers are oh-so worried about disinformation. We should give people more credit for being able to figure out what's true and what isn't, what matters and what doesn't, and whether the immediate effects of this policy or that outweighs the longterm consequences of a particular action. The only people desperate to silence dissent are those desperately clinging to power.

As Advertisers Shun Glenn Beck...

Viewers flock to his show.

An advertising boycott against Fox News host Glenn Beck has succeeded in keeping most major sponsors from running commercials on his show even as the controversial commentator's viewership has grown.

Beck attracted 2.81 million viewers Monday, his third-largest audience since his show launched on Fox News in January, according to Nielsen Media Research data provided by the network.

If Fox News doesn't drop Beck, and hopefully, they won't, advertisers will come back.

Obama Official Linked to Glenn Beck Boycott

Put this in the creepy government censorship file.

A racially charged activist group called “Color of Change” founded by Van Jones, a special advisor to the Obama Administration, is trying to silence popular radio and Fox News personality Glenn Beck by calling for a boycott of Beck’s TV advertisers...

Now “Color of Change” has bullied at least five of Beck’s big advertisers -- SC Johnson, Progressive Insurance, Geico, Procter & Gamble and Nexus Lexis -- to pull their ads from Beck’s national cable program. Jones, the founder of “Color of Change,” was named Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality -- a key administrative post -- this past March.

White House officials using their non-profits to silence critics? Can't imagine if George W. Bush had done this.

Why Have Liberals Suddenly Discovered Hate Speech?

I'm trying to figure out why liberals never noticed hate speech over the last nine years when it was directed at conservatives. I mean, we've had movies and books fantasizing about the assassination of President George W. Bush, we've had protests, fake lynchings, interviews with leftwing lunatics and more, but nary a peep against those events.

Now we have Paul Krugman alternately wringing his hands and salivating at the prospect of violence against President Barack Obama. I say "salivating," because his hyperbolic rhetoric practically demands it.

Now, for the most part, the likes of Fox News and the R.N.C. haven’t directly incited violence, despite Bill O’Reilly’s declarations that “some” called Dr. Tiller “Tiller the Baby Killer,” that he had “blood on his hands,” and that he was a “guy operating a death mill.” But they have gone out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House.

William Jacobson notes that Krugman tries to blame the shooting of a Holocaust Museum guard on conservatives, even though the killer's hatred of conservatives and Fox News has been documented.

While Krugman places the blame on conservatives for the museum [and Tiller] shooter[s], Krugman fails to consider the implications of his own logic. Since Krugman has been one of the harshest critics of the Bush policies (as continued by the Obama administration), then using his own logic Krugman himself is "winding up" the next Islamist terrorist attack. Or maybe Krugman wound up the last Islamist attack, just days before the museum shooting, when a convert to Islam upset over U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan killed an Army recruiter.

Will Krugman accept the responsibility he seeks to impose on others? Don't count on it. The best thing about playing the "hate card" is that consistency is not required.

Many on the left have conveniently forgotten their own overheated rhetoric against the Bush administration. But if you are going to argue that every nut that kills somebody is Bill O'Reilly's responsibility, why not blame the guard's attack on Keith Olbermann or Amanda Marcotte?

No Freedom of Speech on Porkapalooza

Here.

Well? What did you expect from a guy who can't take criticism?

Shutting Down the Marketplace of Ideas?

Muslim Group Shuts Down Conservative Conference

The manager of a prominent Nashville hotel cancelled a contract with a conservative foundation to hold a conference this weekend on radical Islam, apparently after learning that the group would feature a keynote address by controversial Dutch parliamentarian and filmmaker, Geert Wilders.

Muslim groups succeeded in preventing Wilders from screening “Fitna,” his 15-minute movie on radical Islam, in the House of Lords this February, on claims it was insulting to Muslims, and dogged him during a recent U.S. tour as well.

Thomas A. Negri, managing director of Loew’s Vanderbilt Hotel and Office complex in Nashville, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he had taken the extraordinary step of cancelling the conference at the last minute “for the health, safety and well-being of our guests and employees.”...

In a written statement to the conference organizers, Negri said that the hotel had “not received any information related to a specific security threat concerning this event,” and declined to provide any justification for cancelling it at the last minute.

One of the conference organizers told Newsmax on Wednesday that the group was considering a lawsuit against Negri and the Loew’s hotel chain for “unlawful breach of contract.”

Negri also serves on the board of advisors of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, TIRRC, an activist group that states its mission “is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice” and “defend their rights.”

The group boasts of having helped to defeat an “English only” amendment this January that would have required all Nashville government communications to be in English.

They'll win the breach of contract claim, but the damage is done.

Tea Party Temper Tantrums

Liberals are having a cow over the Tax Day Tea Parties, and are trying to discredit them as political operations of Fox News.

Specifically, Fox News has in dozens of instances provided attendance and organizing information for future protests, such as protest dates, locations, and website URLs. Fox News websites have also posted information and publicity material for protests. Fox News hosts have repeatedly encouraged viewers to join them at several protests that they are attending and covering. Tea-party organizers have used the planned attendance of the Fox News hosts to promote their protests. Fox News has also aired numerous interviews with protest organizers. Moreover, Fox News contributors are listed as "Tea Party Sponsor[s]" on TaxDayTeaParty.com.

Wow! Who knew that news broadcasts would contain actual information about upcoming events. I mean, newspapers never publish such information. Neither do television stations. Or radio. And you'd never see leftwing blogs promoting events, right?

Secondly, Fox News carries many political commentary shows. These aren't news shows in the way the CBS Evening News is supposed to be a news program. They are shows around personalities who do interviews, give their opinions and offer endorsements of candidates and philosophies. To argue that "Fox News hots promote their protests" is ludicrous. But then, so is Media Matters.

As Dan Riehl notes, the reason the Left is working so hard to tar the tea parties as Fox News events is because they are deeply concerned that so many people aren't buying into the Obama plan to tax us into prosperity. Shame on real people for thinking their voices should be heard! Maybe it's time for liberals to create a new hate law against tax protests, too.

And via Michelle Malkin, the Tax and Spend Rap for the Tax Day Tea Parties:


More at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion.

Robert S. McCain points out the hypocrisy of leftwingers complaining of corporate sponsorship of protests. We have a word for liberal hypocrisy here: Democrisy.

UPDATE: Here's video of the Liberal Tea Party that didn't work so well: