Associated Press Wants To Take Your Right To Free Speech

Read this post written by Steven R. Hurst from the Associated Press.

Now, let's pick it apart and point out the lies and half-truths that he is forgetting.

Vitriol and invective stain American political history, but falsehoods, half-truths and innuendo now spread with the speed of light across partisan airwaves and the Internet — the din drowning out the country’s moderate political center.

It sure does, but who else is vomiting these falsehoods, half-truths and innuendo? Well, here are some examples:

• Owned by Arianna Huffington, who's oil tycoon husband, Michael Huffington is a friend of the Bush's, posted an outright lie on March 14, 2009.

• MoveOn claimed that General Petraeus presented cherry-picked facts and misleading data to sell the idea that the surge is working.

• The two 30-second MoveOn TV ads "Dumping Billions" and "Red-Handed Defense", which was proven to be lies by FactCheck.org.

• What about Dan Rather's airing of fake documents in regards to George W. Bush's military service?

• How about the disgusting, doctored photo of Bush and Lieberman originally posted at the DailyKos? You'll have to scroll down a bit to see it.

Countless Internet blogs have taken on the administration of the first African-American president, claiming — falsely — that Barack Obama isn’t an American citizen, is a secret Muslim, is a socialist, wants to establish death panels to decide when elderly Americans would no longer receive medical care and be allowed to die. The list is long.

He is a socialist, to wit:

Socialist - One who advocates socialism

Socialism - A system of society or group living in which there is no private property and a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

Can you say GM, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? Sounds like socialism to me. And then there is the old race card. Yes, there are many bloggers, such as myself, who have taken on Barack Obama, as well as many other politicians on the left and the right. However, those bloggers that have decided to question his citizenship are in a group unto themselves; I certainly don't align myself with these people. As to death panels, maybe they should read HR 1, an article I wrote and Betsy McCaughey's article and maybe they might see that, indeed, there are death panels.

Most recently, a partisan furor blew up when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Republican national chairman Michael Steele set the tone, declaring that giving the prize to the U.S. commander in chief showed "how meaningless a once honorable and respected award has become."

Well, gee, maybe the "furor" has something to do with the fact that he was awarded the prize when he was two weeks into the presidency. Isn't it supposed to be awarded to those who have already made accomplishments or in the hopes that they do? Are you going to shout out that SNL should be shut down because they are of the same opinion? Of course, we all know what happens when your base turns on you.

Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, was not immune, nor was former President Bill Clinton. But today the volume of screeching partisanship is cleaving the American electorate, perhaps as deeply as at any time since the Civil War a century and a half ago.

To say that George W. Bush wasn't immune is an understatement. As for Bill Clinton, well, what do you expect? He did it to himself and it depends what is is.

"The environment is much more extreme today because of the level of public involvement, the level of incivility among both the political elite and the public," said Chris Dolan, a political scientist at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa.

How so? Because people are finally standing up to their representatives at town hall meetings? Or the tens of thousands of pissed off Americans marching on Washington, where ZERO arrests were made. Or, is Chris Dolan referring to the riots at the recent G20 meeting, where many people were arrested and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage was done? Which group is he referring to in regards to incivility?

At Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., Clyde Frazier said, "It is nasty and getting nastier." While he believes American history is littered with dirtier political periods and nastier claims among politicians, Frazier, also a political scientist, sees today’s climate partly the result of the "media culture. Vitriol seems to sell. If you are telling people the end of the world is at hand, they watch."

It sure is getting nastier, particularly when the left wing, fringe media has pumped millions into getting Obama elected and people, like Contessa Brewer, blatantly misuses video. Not to mention that the fringe media seems to be complicit in hiding, by not reporting, on issues that puts Obama in a negative light.

From the lectern at the White House briefing room, press secretary Robert Gibbs routinely bemoans what he sees as the negative slant on coverage of Obama by the conservative Fox News cable television outlet.

What does Baghdad Bob Gibbs expect when nobody can get real news from, what has turned into, state run media? A recent Pew research poll shows that FoxNews carried the most balanced news coverage of all others during the campaigns. As to a negative slant, he is referring to Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Yet, Baghdad Bob glosses over and omits other commentators on FoxNews that rarely mention the White House, such as Shepherd Smith.

While Americans once sought news from media outlets that aimed for objectivity, many are now turning to sources that reinforce their political viewpoints, including the conservative Fox News and the liberal MSNBC on cable television and the exploding blogosphere that ranges across the political spectrum.

I can't really argue this point. However, FoxNews being the only cable news outlet that reports both good and bad on the current administration, it's no wonder that they repeatedly beat the other news channels combined in the ratings. As the for the blogosphere, fear not because Net Neutrality is on its way.

The heated partisan atmosphere produced a staggering break with decorum last month when a member of the House of Representatives shouted out "You lie!" as Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress, extolling his efforts to overhaul the American health care system.

Which, as we now know, was correct. 'Nuff said.

Not long afterward Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., took the House floor to attack minority Republicans on health care, declaring, "The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick." A Republican congressman quickly drafted a call for Grayson’s reprimand, but the matter was later dropped.

What's fair is fair. Rep. Joe Wilson apologized repeatedly and Obama accepted, yet Queen Speaker dragged it out of him publicly and was reprimanded. What consequences did Grayson face?

Partisan political pundits took both events and ran with them, conservative Republicans praising Wilson’s courage as liberals voiced shock over his lack of respect. Grayson took praise and heat from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

That's what they do. It's called free speech, at least for now. If you don't like what you are hearing, tune into another station.

"Political animosity has become professionalized," said Frazier, specifically mentioning talk radio’s ultraconservative Rush Limbaugh, who openly calls for the failure of the Obama presidency. Fox News’ Glenn Beck says Obama is a racist.

That's because if any of Obama's policies get passed, this country will not be the great nation we are now. As it is, he is taking us down the path of economic suicide, started by democrats, continued by Bush and accelerated by Obama. As for Glenn beck calling Obama a racist, that's his opinion. What about those who called Bush a racist after hurricane Katrina?

The revival of bitter partisanship has built quickly and steadily since the nation united behind Bush in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. It was quickly discovered that his rationale for going to war in Iraq — claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — was untrue and the temporary unity dissolved.

Yet, nowhere does it mention that other nation's intelligence departments came to the same conclusion about WMDs in Iraq. Nor is it mentioned that MI-6 may have misled everyone into believing that Hussein had them. Why doesn't anyone care to give Bush props for standing up to the worthless United Nations and take action against a country, who's leader violated 17 sanctions? Now we know that Saddam Hussein lied about WMDs to keep Iran in check.

"It’s a hard thing to stop and it is escalating" each time Republicans or Democrats cede power in the capital, said Jack Holmes, political science professor at Hope College in Holland, Mich.

Did he ever stop to think that Americans are pissed off at our politicians and have decided to stand up to them? Did he forget that our politicians work for us, not the other way around?

Is there away out?

"At a certain point the public well demand an end, say ‘we want this to stop,’" said Holmes. "The public has to demand it and will start judging political leaders accordingly."

A signal moment arose when Obama came under attack from opponents when he planned an Internet address at the start of the school year to encourage students to work hard and stay in school. He was accused, before the very moderate and apolitical address, of wanting to indoctrinate pupils and students with his alleged "socialist" ideals. He left the doomsayers with red faces…

There sure is a way out and they are demanding it now. When our government officials, that we elect, call us Nazis, uncivil and astroturf, we have a problem. When our politicians start to see someone else take there place, then they'll get the message. Obama's original speech was in question and parents have a legitimate right to be concerned. What would have happened if George W. Bush had done something like that?

Maureen Dowd - The Ultimate in Race Hustling

Maureen Dowd's article in the New York Times goes to lend more credence that race hustling is alive and well; leave it to her to see something that isn't there. Of course this is par for the course with the mainstream media and its left leaning agenda, who spent millions to the Obama administration to get him elected.

Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst was quickly seized upon by the left wing media and Congressional members were quick to condemn the Congressman's heckling, calling for him to apologize. He has done this more than enough times and leave it people like Maureen Dowd to exacerbate the issue by bringing race into it.

Did she have the same "outrage" when Senator Harry Reid called President Bush a liar back in December 2004? As a matter of fact, let's revisit that event for the erudite, Maureen Dowd:

MR. RUSSERT: When the president talked about Yucca Mountain and moving the nation's nuclear waste there, you were very, very, very strong in your words. You said, "President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country."

Is that rhetoric appropriate?

SEN. REID: I don't know if that rhetoric is appropriate. That's how I feel, and that's how I felt. I think to take that issue, Tim, to take the most poisonous substance known to man, plutonium, and haul 70,000 tons of it across the highways and railways of this country, past schools and churches and people's businesses is wrong. It's something that is being forced upon this country by the utilities, and it's wrong. And we have to stop it. And people may not like what I said, but I said it, and I don't back off one bit.

h/t Brian Walsh

More, via Tim Grieve, from a 2005 Rolling Stone sit-down:

RS: You've called Bush a loser.

HR: And a liar.

RS: You apologized for the loser comment.

HR: But never for the liar, have I?

Did Obama lie? That's not the point, now is it? Due to the fact that doctors and health care providers do not have the means and are not allowed to check the legal residency status of anyone, then it becomes quite clear that illegal aliens will be covered on the legal American's taxpayer dime.

But, here is where Maureen Dowd sees the issue when she states:

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

Now how on earth does she see that in Rep. Wilson's outburst? It's quite simple, really. Maureen Dowd is a race baiter and a race hustler, who uses argumentum ad hominems to defend her disgusting and feigned "outrage". This is one of the points I alluded to in a previous article when I pointed out that Contessa Brewer, another race hustler, severley misused a video on one of her programs at MSNBC.

Maureen goes on with her rhetoric:

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

Let's not forget, Maureen, that there are many democrat anti-Semitics, some of whom used it in part of their platforms. Can you say Cynthia McKinney and James Moran, or have you conveniently forgotten that those two people blamed the Jews for the Iraq war and the other was defeated in a campaign?

My question for you, Maureen, is this:

When is Harry Reid going to apologize for calling President Bush a liar?

Propaganda worthy of Joseph Goebbels

Is the main stream media attempting to divert attention away from the health care debate by shouting racism? It seems so when you see their reportage.

Take a look at the CNN clip below:



Yet, according to that ever so unbiased Contessa Brewer, these protests are taking on a racial overtone, "But also there are questions whether this has a racial overtone. I mean here you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists."



I'm not sure if Contessa has an issue with color blindness, but, it would appear that the protester with the AR-15 slung over his shoulder is black. But that isn't the only thing the MSM missed. At a New Hampshire rally, a protester by the name of William Kostric was accosted by union thugs, that is until they saw what Mr. Kostric was carrying:



But what the ever so reliable MSM missed isn't what's bothering me. What has me perturbed is what the MSM is attempting to do by diverting attention away from the health care debate by ginning up non existent, right wing extremist racism when reporting on these protests. Of course, it's to be expected when a news corporation has billions of dollars invested in the Obama administration.

Recalling the incident that occurred on June 10, 2009, the left wing copy and paste media were beaming with joy when they reported that James W. von Brunn was a right wing extremist. However, with a little digging, it was soon discovered that von Brunn had a history of anti social behavior; as an example, he was sentenced in 1983 to more than four years in prison for attempting to kidnap the Federal Reserve Board after a guard found him outside of a board meeting with a gun, knife and sawed-off shotgun.

I'm no expert on history, but, wasn't it Abraham Lincoln, a conservative, who abolished slavery? Wasn't it the democrats that filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act? Is it Conservatives or democrats that supports Israel's right to exist and their sovereignty be recognized and protected?

Well, James von Brunn hated Jews, blacks and all other minorities. He was also a Holocaust denier. Considering that left wing extremists are constantly railing on Israel and the history of the KKK having democrat roots, it seems to me that von Brunn fits quite well into the left wing camp.

A Look Back At Recent History

Obama state run media outlets focusing on Americans voicing their concerns and outrage at town hall meetings, seem to forget the violent past when George W. Bush was president. So, let's take a look back at recent history.

Remember this during the RNC Convention?



Or what about these:








Or what about this:



Where was the condemnation from CNN, MSNBC and other state run media outlets during these protests, that more often than not turned violent? It was non existent. Yet, when protesters voice their outrage towards Obama, the state run media is all over it, claiming that they are well orchestrated mobs and nothing more than astroturf.

As an example of this media bias, the Washington Post headlined an article titled," Obama Faces 'Scare Tactics' Head-On":

Excerpt:

As the president spoke, demonstrators outside held posters declaring him a socialist and dubbing him "Obamahdinejad," in reference to Iran's president. People screamed into bullhorns to protest a bigger government role in health care. "Nobama Deathcare!" one sign read. A young girl held up a sign that said: "Obama Lies, Grandma Dies."

The New York Times, that bastion of media fairness, reported that a democratic congressman found that "an opponent of health care reform hanged him in effigy" and was confronted by "200 angry conservatives."

Did the effigy look anything like the image below?



And was the congressman's encounter with "200 angry conservatives" anything like the encounter former President Bush was confronted with in Portland, Oregon? Both news outlets were there during this protest, yet at no time was any coverage given to it.

So why all of the media outrage at these town hall protesters and posters depicting Obama as the Joker from the movie Dark Knight? Well, Rush Limbaugh doesn't call them state run media for no reason. News organizations, such as MSNBC, CNN, NBC, New York Times et al, have sunk millions of dollars into getting Obama in the Oval Office. So it should come as no surprise that they will report anything that can be deemed as a threat to their dear leader; consider how often Sarah Palin makes news on these pathetic excuses for journalistic media sources.

And let's not forget who owns MSNBC and NBC who, by the way is on Obama's Economic Advisory Board.

More Rhetorical Hypocrisy From Queen Pelosi

What does a politician do, particularly a liberal democrat, when they have their backs up against the wall? They start making accusations and resort to ad hominem attacks.

And it's not the first time Queen Pelosi has resorted to these bully type tactics, reminiscent of the goose stepping Gestapo during World War II. Recall the CIA flap when she accused them of lying to Congress and has repeatedly called Republicans un-American when they don't agree with any democrat policies. Oh, let's not forget what she said to describe anti-war protesters criticized by war supporters as unpatriotic.

In a USA Today op-ed column, Pelosi and Hoyer made these accusations in regards to American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights at town halls opposing health care reform.

"These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades," Pelosi said in the paper.

What facts would those be? Have you even read  HR 3200, Madame Speaker? Are you even aware that ACORN and SEIU thugs are coming to these town halls for the sole purpose of disrupting? Are you aware that one African American conservative was brutally beaten for no reason, other than exercising his Constitutional rights? He certainly wasn't carrying any swastika symbols.

So, it's like this: liberal protesters, like Code Pink and MoveOn, are exercising their rights. Republican and Conservative protesters are Nazi, un-American mobs. Sound about right, Mrs. Pelosi?

If You Can't Take the Heat, Get Out of the kitchen

Prior to his 140 plus days as a senator, President Obama was a community organizer and shouted for and was a staunch defender of free speech. Now that the heat's too hot in the kitchen, he doesn't get out, he quashes it.

“Go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. 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...”



So said the Organizer-in-Chief during the 2008 campaign, which seems to have been intended for his pals in ACORN and SEIU, not average Americans who are genuinely pissed. Conservatives don't have the protesting streak in their DNA; we would rather protest by civil means instead of getting into a shouting match in public. The problem is that the average American (Nazis according to Pelosi) is genuinely upset because some of them have read H.R. 3200 and see their current health care and insurance disappearing if this disaster gets passed in the fall.

We all know that the liberal left and progressives love to protest (which has been proven as fake), after all it's there national past time. Yet, when everyday American folks organize and sound off with their concerns and express their opposition, they are demonized, marginalized and humiliated by the expert organizer and his cronies, both in his administration and the state run media. It reminds me of a mob turf war.

House majority leader, Harry Reid labeled these Americans practicing their First Amendment rights as "loud, shrill voices...", Nancy Pelosi refers to them as Nazis that are "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care." Now that statement is manufactured, see the difference? And let's not forget Barbara Boxer's "well dressed..." comment.

And who is funding these Nazi, swastika bearing mobs? Why it's non other than FoxNews, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, et al.

Far be it from me, the average American, to make an observation, but, the Constitution is not just for ACORN, SEIU, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the like. By marginalizing and demonizing these genuinely pissed off Americans, the liberals and progressives are doing more damage to their cause than little old ladies and old veterans in these town hall meetings.

My advice to these people is to keep up the rhetoric and demonizing these people. Come 2010 and 2012 you libs and progressives will see REAL change.