If you’re a lover of Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment, be very afraid of Barack Obama. The Obama campaign in Missouri has asked their fellow-travellers in law enforcement and attorney offices to aggressively pursue and to prosecute “…anyone who lies or runs a misleading TV ad during the presidential campaign. ” In American politics, I don’t make hyperbolic references to Stalinist or Nazi tactics, if at all. But in light of this directive from the Obama campaign, really, with what else can one compare this? Has the Obama campaign completely disregarded the First Amendment right to free political speech? Have they suddenly come up with their own Constitution?
Governor Blunt has released a statement regarding this travesty:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Contact: Jessica Robinson, 573-751-0290
Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement
JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.
“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.
“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.
“This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.
“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”
Apparently, to the detriment of Barack Obama, Saul Alinsky left out the chapter regarding freedom of political speech in his book, “Rules for Radicals.”
Another Canadian publication has come under attack for its opinions through the agency of the government-funded Canadian Human Rights Commissions (HRC). Closely following an uproar in the media against government-sponsored censorship via HRC against Maclean’s magazine and columnist Mark Steyn and an Alberta HRC judgment ordering Alberta news media to not publish any comments on homosexuality by a Christian pastor, Toronto’s Catholic Insight magazine has reported they stand accused in an HRC complaint of “targeting homosexuals”.
Catholic Insight is a Catholic political and cultural general interest magazine that regularly and accurately expounds orthodox Catholic teaching, based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, on homosexuality as well as harmful consequences to individual persons and society of the active homosexual “lifestyle”.
The magazine now reveals that Rob Wells, a homosexual activist associated with the Pride Centre of Edmonton, in February this year filed a nine-point complaint against Catholic Insight. Wells alleges that the magazine made “negative generalizations” about homosexuals; portrayed them as preying upon children, as dangerous and “devoid of any redeeming qualities and…innately evil”.
Catholic Insight (CI), however, bases its editorial policy very strictly on Catholic Church teaching which is at pains to separate what it says is the deviant behaviour and disordered inclination of homosexuality from the person.
In Canada, if you file a complaint against some one or some entity with the Human Rights Commission, your case is carried forward entirely at taxpayer expense - a huge incentive for activists to use the HRC as a tool of intimidation against persons or groups they find offensive for whatever reason. Boiled down, what Catholic Insight did was teach standard Catholic doctrine on the subject of homosexuality - and it now is on trial merely because of this expression of opinion. This is in Canada - but it is the sort of thing the political left wishes to bring here with their campaigns for “hate crimes” laws and changes to anti-discrimination laws to include “sexual orientation”.
Fundamentally, this is what we get when hatred is allowed the free use of lies to get its way - Rob Wells hates the Catholic Church because of the Church’s views on homosexual sex. Because of this unreasoning hatred, Wells wants to lash out at the Church - and his tool of choice is a lie. It is patently absurd for anyone to claim they feel threatened by Catholics stating the Catholic position on homosexuality. One might feel offended by it, but no on has a right to not be offended - Wells doesn’t feel threatened; and he knows he’s lying when he says otherwise. The Catholics under attack by Wells know he’s lying. The members of the Human Rights Commission know he’s lying. His friends and family know he’s lying. You, dear reader, know that he’s lying and, of course, I know he’s lying. But the farce will be maintained - everyone will proceed as if Wells weren’t lying. And in the by and by, we might see the Canadian HRC ruling in Wells favor because they, too, hate the Catholic Church and will use whatever comes to hand - even a transparant lie - to hammer the Church.
If anyone wonders why I fight so ardently against the left it is because of this - because of the hatred and dishonesty in service of hatred so prevalent on the left. The American left has been partially stymied in their attempts to make us a carbon copy of Canada and/or the EU, but it is what they want, and for the same reason - because they hate.
