American Spectator:
  • 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.


I figure we'll need a separate thread to discuss all the efforts of Glorious Leader Obama to prosecute and silence his critics in the coming years...at least until this site gets shut down.