RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Free Speech in the Era of Obama

• some Missouri sheriffs, prosecutors and law-enforcement officials have formed "Obama Truth Squads" charged with going after anyone who makes false or misleading claims about their candidate. Intended or not, the report gave the distinct impression that these elected officials -- including prosecutors from St. Louis, Dunklin, Lafayette, Cass, Clay, Ripley, Audrain and Jackson counties -- were going to "hold accountable" Obama critics who "violate ethics laws," but do nothing about McCain's opponents who do the same. Speaking as members of the Obama Truth Squad, the two top prosecutors said "they plan to respond immediately to any ads or statements that might violate Missouri ethics laws."
  
  THIS IS NOT THE first time the Obama camp has used similar tactics to try to silence the opposition. The campaign has twice called for the Justice Department to prosecute the American Issues Project for allegedly violating the Federal Election Campaign Act after it ran attack ads linking Obama to the 1970s domestic terrorist William Ayers. AIP's lawyers, for their part, say their group is a "qualified non-profit corporation" and thus within its legal rights. It is perhaps no coincidence that AIP's Martin is based in St. Louis.
  
  It's not just Republicans that have to fear for the First Amendment in the era of Obama. As the Politico reports:
  
  It's worth noting that this isn't the first time [Obama general counsel Bob] Bauer has called for criminal investigations and prosecutions into the donors to independent groups critical of Obama, including one supporting John Edwards and another supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton. His words did have the effect of scaring their donors and consultants, but haven't yet appeared to result in any prosecution.
  
  Meanwhile Missouri, which has voted for every presidential winner since 1960, remains too close to call. The question remains whether the Truth Squad's tactic of enlisting the mainstream media to publicize its goals worked to silence Obama critics, or whether it reinforced the idea that a Obama presidency would be a disaster for free speech.

• Conservative-friendly media better get ready. Should Barack Obama win the presidency and the Democrats control Congress, as now seems likely, they will launch a full-scale war to drive critics — especially on political talk radio — right out of legitimate public debate.
  
  A Democrat-controlled Washington will use sweeping new rules to shush conservative political speech. For starters, expect a real push to bring back the Fairness Doctrine.
  
  Obama, like congressional Democrats, also wants to regulate the Internet, the only other medium in which the right does well, via its influential bloggers.
  
  Not coincidentally, hampering the alternative media with new regulations would leave the liberal mainstream press, which still enjoys full First Amendment protections, comparatively empowered.

Why are people at Obama rallies doing a Hitler Salute?


Obama's sign of Progress



Obama's followers demonstrate the sign-of-progress salute



“Hitler’s hands as he speaks of the unity of the National Socialist and socialist ideas.”

• BONITA SPRINGS — Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott’s now infamous appearance at Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s public rally has caught the attention of federal officials. Scott is under federal investigation for wearing his uniform during the campaign stump, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel said on Tuesday.
  
  Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the OSC, said, “We are launching a formal investigation into Sheriff Scott today on the basis of possible violation of Hatch Act.”
  
  The Hatch Act of 1939 regulates how certain government employees use their official authority in their private lives. Guglielmi said the Sheriff’s Office would fall under the law’s provision if it receives federal funding, a near certainty.
  
  Scott potentially used his “official authority” to influence the outcome of an election, Guglielmi said. He could also face penalties for wearing his uniform or even driving his cruiser to the event.
  
  Scott on Tuesday said he hadn’t received official notice of the investigation, but if true, he expects to be exonerated.

• 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 once prided themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.
  
  Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Mr. Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims 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.

• we need to use major authoritarian measures against wingnuts and theocrats to save this country. That in particular includes deprogramming institutions and a Gitmo like camp to deal with the worst wingnuts. These people should be removed from general society and need to be shut up.
  
  I have believed this for years, but the behavior of the wingnuts at the McCain and Palin rallies further underscores the need to take harsh action against these people. Lincoln and FDR had to bend the Constitution at times, and I hope Obama has the guts to do so too to deal with these third rate creatures.

• A Kansas City lawyer and supporter of Barack Obama for president has filed suit in federal court, alleging that the Republican ticket has incited violence against the Democratic nominee.
  
  In her suit against Sen. John McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and campaign manager Rick Davis, Mary Kay Green said she has been injured by their campaign tactics and suffers “terror of the heart, anxiety and grave fear” for Obama’s life

Assume that Barack Obama wins the election, as polls show is increasingly likely. The following day, Vice President Cheney should be prevailed upon to resign. Using his powers to designate a successor under the 25th Amendment, President Bush should then appoint, and Congress should confirm, Obama as vice president (just as Richard Nixon appointed Gerald Ford vice president in 1973 when Spiro Agnew resigned). Bush himself should then resign, elevating Obama to the presidency - as Ford became president when Nixon resigned. Obama should then appoint Joe Biden as vice president.

With Congress's confirmation of Biden, the new administration would be in place, on the job, and ready to tackle the economic crisis - in November, not January. (The electoral college's official ratification of the election results in December would merely rubber-stamp the transition.)

The Constitution — it's so passé for the elite Obama crowd.

• This is the way our opponents operate now. Destroy anyone who stands in your way. Humiliate them. Make sure that anyone else who ever wants to skeptically question Barack Obama knows that every last bit of their dirty laundry will be aired for all the world to see. Bristol Palin, Trig Palin, — hey, it's all fair game. They've got to make an example of them. Show them that this sort of dangerous speech won't be allowed in the New America.