Barack And Michelle's "America The Beautiful" Not

Dear Mr. Obama...

"The Coming Liberal Thugocracy"

Monday, October 13, 2008

BARONE: "The Coming Liberal Thugocracy"

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 e-mails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Mr. Kurtz had been researching Mr. 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 e-mails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Mr. 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Obama's ties to Mr. 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 Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view.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 Web site and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Mr. 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 that 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 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.

• Michael Barone is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Mr. Obama, Do You Believe America is "Fundamentally Flawed" ?

This is the question that needs to be asked at the next debate....

Say it Ain't So... O', Say You Don't Believe Your Country Is Fundamentally Flawed

Monte Kuligowski

Sarah Palin is being attacked for “attacking Barack Obama’s character,” because she dares to inform millions of uninformed voters of Obama’s association with the unrepentant, anti-American terrorist, William Ayers.

Palin asserts that a man who “pals around with terrorists,” should not be a viable candidate for the office of president of the United States. Bill Ayers is a founder of the Weather Underground, a 1960s era terrorist organization that bombed several government buildings, including the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon and was cited for the death of a San Francisco police officer.

Ayers, whom otherwise could have been serving a life term in prison for his anti-American terrorist activities, got off on a legal technicality and currently is a tenured professor living in Chicago. Obama kicked off his run for state office in the 1990s at a fundraiser hosted by the unremorseful terrorist. The venue of the “meet-the-candidate event” was the home of Bill Ayers. The Obama campaign has admitted that Obama and Ayers maintain a “friendly” relationship.

The Obama campaign and his media friends dismiss Palin’s “attacks” as mere “smears” and “distractions,” from the issues. The issue of Obama’s character is more important than the “issues,” however, because if Obama’s character disqualifies him, the remaining “issues” are sort of irrelevant.

In response to bringing up a campaign-killing-topic of which the media had assumed was successfully set aside and buried earlier in the primaries, Palin said, “I think it's fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room.”

Obama responded tersely with the “I was an eight-year-old when Ayers was a terrorist,” remark and the media dutifully laid the matter to rest.

The problem for the Obama campaign and the media is that their defense of Obama is misplaced and weak.

"The real question, of course, is not whether they pal around, but, “Why did Obama kick off his political career in the home of an unrepentant, anti-American terrorist?”

The honest answer, of course, ends the presidential hopes of The One and therefore mustn’t be discussed.

Likewise, the fact that Obama was eight when Ayers terrorized Americans is pointless. In defense of Obama, Kuhnhenn says, “it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts.”
Palin, however, never suggested that Obama was associated with Ayers at the time of the bombings. It’s somewhat surreal to have to point out the obvious, but, again, the relevant point is that Obama was not an eight-year-old when he befriended the unremorseful, radical leftist and attended a political fundraiser in his home.

Bill Ayers types don’t sponsor John McCain types. And John McCain types don’t accept invitations from Bill Ayers types. Only radical leftists are comfortable in radical leftist environments. Birds of a feather roost together. Obama was comfortable in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s radical, anti-American church for 20 years and only left for political expediency. And, remember how Wright responded to Obama’s departure, noting that Obama was acting as a “politician;” which implied that though they shared the same worldview, he was free to communicate his, while Obama was not.

The common denominator with all of Obama’s radical associations is a shared political worldview. Whether considering Obama’s friendship with the Saul Alinsky disciples, Rashid Khalidi, Emil Jones, Jr., William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger or even his own wife, Michelle, the thread of leftist ideology runs through all. Upon connecting the dots what emerges is a shared belief that America is a fundamentally flawed country."

"One would expect the office of ACORN, the home of William Ayers and the church of Rev. Wright to be natural seedbeds to produce radical leftists, not future presidents.

Americans have a right to know the real Barack Hussein Obama. The media have a duty to report rather than criticizing those who dare to report.

If Americans nevertheless want to elect a man with Obama’s worldview, that is one thing, to willingly hide it is quite another."-end.