"The Coming Obama Thugocracy"

[Arthur]

NRO writes:

The Coming Obama Thugocracy
Attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals.

By Michael Barone

‘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 Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the “fairness doctrine” on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view.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.

Shades of an impending thugocracy closer to home. Our local thugocrat is also a populist demagogue and, surprise-surprise, an ardent supporter of his American counterpart. We also know that Our Man has high standards of personal hygiene - he's sure to shower after adultery.

 

[Metal Gear!?]

Why are you creating a thread based on a National Review article? What is the point of picking up a random article from a right-wing site which aims to demonise and discredit their opponents? This is "Current Events" not "Republican Right-Wing Conspiracy and Slander Forum"

Don't bother replying if you're going to back anything you say up with a lovely extract from Fox News or something similar.

 

[pos(t)er]

Political speech or slander? I guess it depends on the glasses you're wearing.

 

[marine1]

We are heading for a turbulent time if Obam bam gets in. Rather the devil you know. Obam bam seems like a dangerous radical that is just playing the political game. Unfortunately people are so gullible.

 

[Metal Gear!?]

Political speech or slander? I guess it depends on the glasses you're wearing.

Well, I mean he's posting something from a site which doesn't pretend to be an objective or reliable source of information, it's a site with a clearly outlined agenda. Debate shouldn't be based around misleading articles such as the one used in this thread.

We are heading for a turbulent time if Obam bam gets in. Rather the devil you know. Obam bam seems like a dangerous radical that is just playing the political game. Unfortunately people are so gullible.

You are gullible if you label Obama as a 'radical' of any sort. Could you please explain to me, why you say you know McCain/Palin better than Obama/Biden?

 

[pos(t)er]

We are heading for a turbulent time if Obam bam gets in. Rather the devil you know. Obam bam seems like a dangerous radical that is just playing the political game. Unfortunately people are so gullible.

If they really fall for the rhetoric, they deserve it. But you and i both know there's a host of factors which have contributed to this outcome. As for radical, i'll just pretend you mean he has lots of energy.

 

[Alan]

Why are you creating a thread based on a National Review article? What is the point of picking up a random article from a right-wing site which aims to demonise and discredit their opponents? This is "Current Events" not "Republican Right-Wing Conspiracy and Slander Forum"

Don't bother replying if you're going to back anything you say up with a lovely extract from Fox News or something similar.

Seems you've never heard of a concept of "Freedom of speech"

Probably not, pathetic

A T.V station dared to not toe the line with Joe Biden and now they too have been "exiled". They going to bring in the "Fairness Doctrine" to censor everybody in a blanket of PC.

 

[marine1]

I never said that I know he is better. I trust the guy who has proved himself to his country time and time again. He has dedicated his life to his country. What has Obama done?
I watch him and dont trust him. Whats up with him rolling up his sleeves all the time? Does he really think the rest of the world are so stupid to believe this cr@p
Lets wait and see what happens 4 yrs into his term if he wins.
I think the world will be a dangerous place as he is going to side with the Arabs and that will start a conflict the world has never seen.

 

[Metal Gear!?]

Seems you've never heard of a concept of "Freedom of speech"

Probably not, pathetic

A T.V station dared to not toe the line with Joe Biden and now they too have been "exiled". They going to bring in the "Fairness Doctrine" to censor everybody in a blanket of PC.

Ahhh I was waiting for you to chip in with your pearls of wisdom, I notice most of your CE threads are based on Fox News articles, so that kinda shows your agenda doesn't it.

I never said that I know he is better. I trust the guy who has proved himself to his country time and time again. He has dedicated his life to his country. What has Obama done?
I watch him and dont trust him. Whats up with him rolling up his sleeves all the time? Does he really think the rest of the world are so stupid to believe this cr@p
Lets wait and see what happens 4 yrs into his term if he wins.
I think the world will be a dangerous place as he is going to side with the Arabs and that will start a conflict the world has never seen.

I don't even know where to start with a post like this. How has McCain "proved himself to his country time and time again" and "dedicated his life to his country" and Obama hasn't? Obama rolling up his sleeves is something no one else except you seems to have picked up on but fair enough, if it irritates you it irritates you. I personally think McCain has far more repulsive and false habits such as calling everyone "my friends" all the time. Your last sentence about Obama "siding with Arabs" has no basis in reality and therefore I will ignore it.

 

[Alan]

Ahhh I was waiting for you to chip in with your pearls of wisdom, I notice most of your CE threads are based on Fox News articles, so that kinda shows your agenda doesn't it.

ROFL and you have none

I never said that I know he is better. I trust the guy who has proved himself to his country time and time again. He has dedicated his life to his country. What has Obama done?
I watch him and dont trust him. Whats up with him rolling up his sleeves all the time? Does he really think the rest of the world are so stupid to believe this cr@p
Lets wait and see what happens 4 yrs into his term if he wins.
I think the world will be a dangerous place as he is going to side with the Arabs and that will start a conflict the world has never seen.

This is nothing new Marine. They all fell Mugabe too

 

[Metal Gear!?]

ROFL and you have none

I much prefer Obama to McCain but I don't go around making threads based on articles from extremely biased sites whose sole purpose is to distort the truth.

 

[icyrus]

Entertaining stuff! Gave me a good chuckle. Keep it coming.

 

[marine1]

I don't even know where to start with a post like this. How has McCain "proved himself to his country time and time again" and "dedicated his life to his country" and Obama hasn't? Obama rolling up his sleeves is something no one else except you seems to have picked up on but fair enough, if it irritates you it irritates you. I personally think McCain has far more repulsive and false habits such as calling everyone "my friends" all the time. Your last sentence about Obama "siding with Arabs" has no basis in reality and therefore I will ignore it.

You kidding right? Do you even know anything about him?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

"ohn Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 United States presidential election.
McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations."



He fought for his country.
Obama only has race to his name.
It is my opinion that he will side with the Arabs and this will may be the start of the end.

 

[pos(t)er]

Icyrus i'm thinking you're gonna miss this one when he's gone(which should be the moment Obama is declared president.) I have my own suspicions over who he is, tho.

 

[icyrus]

Icyrus i'm thinking you're gonna miss this one when he's gone(which should be the moment Obama is declared president.) I have my own suspicions over who he is, tho.

The world will remember George W Bush as the worst president in American history. A complete and utter disaster.

Thanks for the concern but I'll have my chuckles at this lot for a while yet.

 

[Metal Gear!?]

You kidding right? He fought for his country.
Obama only has race to his name.
It is my opinion that he will side with the Arabs and this will may be the start of the end.

So by "proving himself time and time again" you were referring to the fact that he served in the military? Obviously I knew he was a soldier, doesn't make your viewpoint any more valid. Why on earth would Obama be anything but completely dedicated to America, and want to act in its best interests?

Race is not in Obama's favour, it's the major factor hurting his chances. Race is the only thing which gives McCain any hope of winning the election against a vastly superior candidate.

 

[marine1]

Icyrus i'm thinking you're gonna miss this one when he's gone(which should be the moment Obama is declared president.) I have my own suspicions over who he is, tho.

? Huh?

 

[pos(t)er]

I was referring to Arthur. But then again its just as aptly suited for old GW.

 

[marine1]

Why on earth would Obama be anything but completely dedicated to America, and want to act in its best interests?

Are you for real? Do you think that any one of them do not have an agenda? Come on man, wake up. Everyone has an agenda in the end. I would just rather know for sure what it is.

 

[Metal Gear!?]

Are you for real? Do you think that any one of them do not have an agenda? Come on man, wake up. Everyone has an agenda in the end. I would just rather know for sure what it is.

So, according to you, Obama wants America to burn at the hands of Islamic extremists and he will do everything in his power to make sure this happens, for example, "siding with Arabs"?