"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is NO VICE... moderation in the pursuit of justice is NO VIRTUE."
Monday, October 27, 2008
REJECTING THE MEDIA KOOL-AID
THE FOX NEWS WATCH crew compare the relative lack of media reportage of those Joe Biden's recent and rather frightening remarks with the wall to wall coverage of Sarah Palin's new wardrobe during the same time frame as proof positive of media bias in this election. Note that three of the five talking heads are liberal types, but most agree that notions of non-bias are greatly exaggerated...
HERE IS A FOX NEWS REPORT coming on the heels of the SCOTUS ruling upholding recent regulations aimed at curbing voter fraud in the states of Indiana and Washington.
Let's revisit this revealing article by an unflappable Michelle Malkin, conservative pundit extraordinaire, exposing early in the August 29 issue of the New York Post on one of the basic fundamentals of the Obama campaign:
WHERE ARE ALL THE free-speech absolutists when you need them? Over the past month, left-wing partisans and Democratic lawyers have waged a brass-knuckled intimidation campaign against GOP donors, TV and radio stations and even an investigative journalist—who've all dared to question Barack Obama.
On Monday, the Obama campaign demanded that the Justice Department stop TV stations from airing a documented, accurate independent ad spotlighting Obama's longtime working relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Obama summoned his followers to bombard stations, many of them owned by conservative-leaning Sinclair Communications, with 93,000 e-mails to squelch the ad.
On Tuesday, the Obama campaign sent another letter to the Justice Department demanding investigation and prosecution of American Issues Project, the group that produced the Ayers ad, and Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who funded it.
On Wednesday, Obama exhorted his followers to sabotage the WGN radio show of veteran Chicago host (and University of Chicago professor) Milt Rosenberg. Why? Because he invited National Review writer Stanley Kurtz to discuss his investigative findings about Obama's ties to Ayers and the underwhelming results of their collaboration on a left-wing educational project sponsored by the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The "Obama Action Wire" gave Rosenberg's call-in line and talking points like this:
"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse. . . . It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves."
Behind the glowing, peaceful facade lies Barack "The Silencer" Obama and his silent enablers on the left. While mainstream journalists schmoozed with liberal celebrities in Denver, practiced yoga with left-wing bloggers and received massages at the Google convention tent near Barackopolis, Team Obama was on an ugly, aggressive warpath sanctioned by Mr. Civility.
While compassionate Obama prepared to stand before thousands of worshipers at Invesco Field, purporting to give voice to the voiceless, his Chicago-schooled campaign machine was working overtime to muzzle conservative critics. "We want it to stop," ordered one pro-Obama caller to WGN.
Welcome to the future: the politics of Hope and Change enforced by the missionaries of Search and Destroy. But as the chill wind blows, where are the valiant protectors of political dissent?
On Aug. 11, I called the American Civil Liberties Union national headquarters in New York for comment about the Chicago gangland tactics of a nonprofit called "Accountable America" that's spearheaded by a former operative of the Obama-endorsing MoveOn outfit.
"Accountable America" is trolling campaign-finance databases and targeting conservative donors with "warning" letters in a thuggish attempt to depress Republican fundraising. (The official registered agent of Accountable America is Laurence Gold, a high-powered attorney for the AFL-CIO who has testified before the Senate complaining about the use of campaign-finance laws to stifle the speech of union workers—a pet cause of the ACLU.)
The ACLU press office failed to respond to my initial call. On Aug. 13, I followed up through e-mail: "I called on Monday requesting a statement from the ACLU about Accountable America's intimidation campaign against GOP donors. What is the ACLU's position with regard to such efforts? Waiting for your statement."
ACLU press officer Pamela Bradshaw e-mailed back: "Michelle, My apologies that I cannot be of more assistance, but we don't have anyone available. Thanks, Pam."
My reply: "Pam—does this mean you don't have anyone available today, this week or for the foreseeable future?"
On Aug. 20, after a week of silence, I forwarded the message again to the ACLU press office. No response. So, I won't bother asking the ACLU's opinion of the latest wave of speech-squelching moves by the Obama campaign.
Don't say you haven't been warned. Fascism seems to be coming to our own American streets unless cooler heads prevail, and The Two-Fisted Quorum just doesn't think that this war of "real and perceived grievances" can be averted short of a massive but voluntary reorganization of American priorities because, unfortunately, it's also seems very clear that the once treasured cool and hip quotients festering in the fecund minds of the Left are the metastasizing problem here...
Report: Four score and seven (or a few million years) ago—an idea
of freedom took root in this American soil. Knowing life is crisis, punctuated by brief periods of solace,
we also know that after all is said and done, we shall never cheat infinity, nor extinguish the mark of a
single thought. Like this mathematical pun, strong and fiercely sought, we engage this nation, its myths,
its memories, its magnanimous messengers, and its monstrosities as we seek a more perfect union. But
as always in America, we must rebuke an enemy with both fists on the wheel driving for success and justice
for all. An enemy that is always changing is an enemy that never changes. We must engage that enemy on
the ancient battleground where art and politics beat each other up and few are they who seem the wiser.
We must reject roving wild-eyed policy now weakening our nation, to live again as one nation under truth,
both as strategy, and as reality on the ground, certain of the age in which we struggle and from which we
must engage the enemies that threaten our existence as a nation of liberty. A vigorous new morality must
replace the old farces found frothing along the same profane beachheads as those which defiled the hopes
of our ancestors. In renouncing our petty grievances must all stand together as one to rebuke our mortal
and spiritual enemies who care not for our struggles, and even less for our feelings. We are at war, people.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice...moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." —Barry Goldwater
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” —Johann Wolfgang Goethe
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." —George Orwell
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it
to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on
for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." —Ronald Reagan
"I have been made victorious through terror." —Muhammad, founder of Islam
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort,
to protect themselves against tyranny in government. —Thomas Jefferson
"Think about it folks. Capitalism is the most effective and purest form of Communism ever practiced." —Gabriel Thy
"Political language—and with variations this is true of all political parties,
from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful
and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." —George Orwell
"Exaggerated self-criticism would be a harmless luxury of civilization if there
were no enemy at the gate condemning democracy's very existence. But it
becomes dangerous when it portrays its mortal enemy as always being in the right.
Extravagant criticism is a good propaganda device in internal politics. But if it is
repeated often enough, it is finally believed. And where will the citizens of
democratic societies find reasons to resist the enemy outside if they are persuaded
from childhood that their civilization is merely an accumulation of failures and a monstrous imposture?" —Jean Francois Revel
“Never ascribe to malice that which may be ascribed to stupidity.” —Napoleon Bonaparte
"A communist is someone who reads Marx & Lenin. An anti-communist is someone who understands them." —Ronald Reagan
"The world is far more complex than the concentrated cool of some flippant rock star." —Dunaway Ka
