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Posts Tagged ‘intimidation’

Obama Justice Department organized and promoted anti-Zimmerman protests

Posted by Richard on July 10, 2013

Wow. Just wow. Venezuela ain’t got nothin’ on us. We’ve truly become a banana republic (emphasis in original):

Document: DOJ Community Relations Service was deployed to Sanford, FL, “to provide technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old African American male.” 

Washington, D.C. – Judicial Watch announced today that has obtained documents in response to local, state, and federal records requests revealing that a little-known unit of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Community Relations Service (CRS), was deployed to Sanford, FL, following the Trayvon Martin shooting to help organize and manage rallies and protests against George Zimmerman.

JW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requested with the DOJ on April 24, 2012; 125 pages were received on May 30, 2012. JW administratively appealed the request on June 5, 2012, and received 222 pages more on March 6, 2013. According to the documents:

  • March 25 – 27, 2012, CRS spent $674.14 upon being “deployed to Sanford, FL, to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.”
  • March 25 – 28, 2012, CRS spent $1,142.84 “in Sanford, FL to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.
  • March 30 – April 1, 2012, CRS spent $892.55 in Sanford, FL “to provide support for protest deployment in Florida.”
  • March 30 – April 1, 2012, CRS spent an additional $751.60 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance to the City of Sanford, event organizers, and law enforcement agencies for the march and rally on March 31.”
  • April 3 – 12, 2012, CRS spent $1,307.40 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance, conciliation, and onsite mediation during demonstrations planned in Sanford.”
  • April 11-12, 2012, CRS spent $552.35 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17 year old African American male.” – expenses for employees to travel, eat, sleep?

No, the documents reveal that the employees were “Thomas Battles, Regional Director, and Mildred De Robles, Miami-Dade Coordinator and their co-workers at the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service,” so they were already stationed in the area, not “deployed” from Washington. The expenses (admittedly small potatoes as far as government expenditures go; but still …) were probably for things like meeting rooms, “working lunches,” and maybe sign printing.

Set up under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the DOJ’s CRS, the employees of which are required by law to “conduct their activities in confidence,” reportedly has greatly expanded its role under President Barack Obama. Though the agency claims to use “impartial mediation practices and conflict resolution procedures,” press reports along with the documents obtained by Judicial Watch suggest that the unit deployed to Sanford, FL, took an active role in working with those demanding the prosecution of Zimmerman.

On April 15, 2012, during the height of the protests, the Orlando Sentinel reported“They [the CRS] helped set up a meeting between the local NAACP and elected officials that led to the temporary resignation of police Chief Bill Lee according to Turner Clayton, Seminole County chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” The paper quoted the Rev. Valarie Houston, pastor of Allen Chapel AME Church, a focal point for protestors, as saying “They were there for us,” after a March 20 meeting with CRS agents.

Separately, in response to a Florida Sunshine Law request to the City of Sanford, Judicial Watch also obtained an audio recording of a “community meeting” held at Second Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford on April 19, 2012. The meeting, which led to the ouster of Sanford’s Police Chief Bill Lee, was scheduled after a group of college students calling themselves the “Dream Defenders” barricaded the entrance to the police department demanding Lee be fired.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, DOJ employees with the CRS had arranged a 40-mile police escort for the students from Daytona Beach to Sanford.

“These documents detail the extraordinary intervention by the Justice Department in the pressure campaign leading to the prosecution of George Zimmerman,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “My guess is that most Americans would rightly object to taxpayers paying government employees to help organize racially-charged demonstrations.”

I wonder if Department of Justice Community Relations Service employees will be “providing support” for the riots that many in the media are expecting when George is Zimmerman is (quite properly) acquitted.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Leftist death threats continue

Posted by Richard on April 2, 2011

The liberal talking heads continue to prattle on about the "extremism" of Tea Party members and their lack of "civility," while ignoring union thuggery and a plethora of leftist threats and intimidation.

In Wisconsin, the  teacher who threatened to kill 16 state senators and their families has finally been charged (but still not arrested):

Charges have been filed in an investigation of e-mailed death threats to Republican state Senators last month during the budget-repair debate — but oddly, no arrest has taken place. Prosecutors filed two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts against 26-year-old Katherine Windels of Cross Plains, Wisconsin, but only after the Wisconsin Department of Justice sent the district attorney a sharply-worded memo of its own, wondering why prosecutors hadn’t done anything with the referral. …

Windels claimed to have already constructed bombs. Yet the police investigators (undoubtedly members of a public employee union) to whom she confessed to making the threats a month ago did nothing. 

Gateway Pundit has more about Windels and links to yet more. 

In neighboring Michigan, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy had the temerity to send Freedom of Information Act requests to the labor studies departments of three universities for specific emails related to the collective bargaining issue in Wisconsin and Gov. Scott Walker. After various leftist "news" sources like Talking Points Memo, Rachel Maddow, and the New York Times publicized/criticized the requests, the center received "a deluge of hate mail and calls," including five messages containing death threats or bomb threats.

The center has contacted law enforcement. Good luck with that. I'm sure that, just as in the Wisconsin case, police officers who are members of public employee unions will investigate, discover that the alleged perps are on their side, and do nothing for as long as they can get away with it.

We have a serious problem, folks. The fiscal chickens are coming home to roost all across the country, and the generous pay, pensions, and benefits of public employees have become unsustainable. So we're going to see increasingly angry and confrontational battles in state after state pitting the public employee unions against the private citizens. The problem is that law enforcement, in most places, is in the hands of the public employee unions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

NBPP thuggery in Philly and Houston, fraud elsewhere

Posted by Richard on November 3, 2010

Nevada isn't the only place where Chavez-style tactics were used to influence the elections. The New Black Panther Party apparently repeated their thuggish 2008 voter intimidation tactics again this year in Philadelphia and expanded their theater of operations to Houston as well.

It's not just Las Vegas, Philly, and Houston. Disturbing stories of vote fraud, chicanery, and intimidation have come out of North Carolina and numerous other places as well. And this administration's Justice Department has made it clear that they're not interested in protecting the voting rights of anyone except those they look upon with favor.

Mark my words, it will only get worse in 2012. Democracy in America is under attack by people with the ideology, tactics, and goals of Venezuela's Chavistas. Before all you Republicans, constitutionalists, libertarians, and other freedom advocates get too giddy about the electoral turnaround that took place this year, think about all the places and ways that the will of the people was undermined, with varying degrees of success. And start seriously worrying about the next two years. If we don't act to ensure fair and free elections in the future, … 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Nevada is a banana republic

Posted by Richard on November 3, 2010

If Harry Reid manages to hang onto his seat, it may be because of Chavez-style politics like this. Contemptible and outrageous.

Just how much strong-arm pressure was there? This much: 

On Friday, Western Regional President Tom Jenkin sent out a follow-up email showing a total vote count for Harrah’s properties along with the percentages of employees who had voted at each property. Attached to the email was a spreadsheet showing employee names and at which property they worked. Supervisors were asked to fill in codes explaining why their employees had not yet voted.

The Harrah's employee who forwarded the emails asked not to be identified due to fear of reprisal. The employee said the pressure from upper management was "disturbing."

"We were asked to talk to people individually to find out why they had not yet voted and to fill in these spreadsheets explaining why," the employee said. "I did not feel comfortable doing that."

"It put me in a very awkward position," the employee added, saying the level of coordination between Harrah's upper management, the culinary union, and the Reid campaign was "disgusting."

Add to these thuggish tactics the earlier reports of voting machines controlled by SEIU technicians "pre-selecting" Harry Reid's name, and it's clear that Nevada is politically a banana republic, where instead of free and fair elections, they have a sham democracy.

A few years ago, Hugh Hewitt wrote a book called If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat. Although tonight is shaping up as a powerful nation-wide repudiation of the Socialist Democrat agenda, there are still many close races. And it's a pretty safe bet that the Socialist Democrats will win some of those — because they cheat. 

UPDATE: The cheater has won. Bummer.

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Obama Democrats embrace socialism and hate

Posted by Richard on November 1, 2010

On Friday, President Obama appeared at a rally in Charlottesville, VA, for Rep. Tom Perriello. Americans for Prosperity volunteers were on hand to offer free "Socialism Isn't Cool" bumper stickers to the Obama/Periello fans waiting to get in. They didn't have any takers. It seems that most (if not all) Obama/Periello fans think socialism IS cool. Watch the video.


[YouTube link]

(HT: Gateway Pundit)

The next day, there was a rally for Perriello's challenger, state Sen. Robert Hurt, and AFP volunteers putting up signs drew the ire of some Perriello supporters. To put it mildly. Watch the video.


[YouTube link]

(HT: Washington Examiner)

Socialism and hate — the defining values of the left today.

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Protecting the Black Panthers

Posted by Richard on July 1, 2010

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is investigating the Justice Department's dismissal of Voting Rights Act violation charges against the New Black Panthers — a dismissal that was ordered after the career attorneys at the DOJ Civil Rights Division's Voting Rights Section had already won. One of those career attorneys, J. Christian Adams, recently resigned and went public (emphasis added):

On the day President Obama was elected, armed men wearing the black berets and jackboots of the New Black Panther Party were stationed at the entrance to a polling place in Philadelphia. They brandished a weapon and intimidated voters and poll watchers. After the election, the Justice Department brought a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and those armed thugs. I and other Justice attorneys diligently pursued the case and obtained an entry of default after the defendants ignored the charges. Before a final judgment could be entered in May 2009, our superiors ordered us to dismiss the case.

The New Black Panther case was the simplest and most obvious violation of federal law I saw in my Justice Department career. Because of the corrupt nature of the dismissal, statements falsely characterizing the case and, most of all, indefensible orders for the career attorneys not to comply with lawful subpoenas investigating the dismissal, this month I resigned my position as a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney.

… 

The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Tom Perez, has testified repeatedly that the "facts and law" did not support this case. That claim is false. If the actions in Philadelphia do not constitute voter intimidation, it is hard to imagine what would, short of an actual outbreak of violence at the polls. Let's all hope this administration has not invited that outcome through the corrupt dismissal. 

Others have falsely claimed that no voters were affected. Not only did the evidence rebut this claim, but the law does not require a successful effort to intimidate; it punishes even the attempt. 

Read the whole thing. And if you wonder about Adams' claims about the evidence and testimony, you might want to look into it. Start by reading the affidavit of Bartle Bull (PDF), an attorney poll observer at the precinct in question. It's only three pages, and well worth your time. Mr. Bull helped secure the voting rights of blacks in Mississippi in the 1960s and worked on the Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Carter campaigns — not exactly a right-wing bigot.

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PayPal apologizes to Pam Gellar

Posted by Richard on June 16, 2010

Last Friday, PayPal suspended Pamela Gellar's Atlas Shrugs blog because it supposedly violated PayPal's terms of use: "PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance or the financial exploitation of a crime."

Gellar's crime? Apparently, it was soliciting donations to fund bus ads offering protection and support for people seeking to leave Islam. The punishment for "apostates" from Islam is death, and it's been meted out to many such apostates, including some in the U.S. There is a very legitimate need for such a service on basic humanitarian grounds.

PayPal's criteria for enforcing its terms of use seem to be rather lacking in coherence and consistency, as noted by PajamasMedia's Patrick Richardson

In the meantime, as PJM’s Richard Fernandez reported earlier, Revolution Muslim was still being served by PayPal. Revolution Muslim is a site which, among other things, called for the murder of South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit and has a picture of President Barak Obama as Adolf Hitler.

“I got called a hate site and yet Revolution Muslim threatens death to the Comedy Central producers and they still take PayPal,” she said. Geller added that the DVDs of Imam Anwar al Awlaki, a jihadist cleric who has been linked to Major Nidal Hasan, the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, are for sale on eBay and can be purchased using PayPal.

“If the real killers can take PayPal then what’s the point of the hate site designation?” Geller asked. Her two other sites were likewise restricted and faced termination of their PayPal accounts. Those sites are for her two nonprofit organizations, Stop the Islamization of America and the Freedom Defense Initiative.

On Monday, someone from PayPal called Gellar and told her it was all just a "misunderstanding," and that she was OK with them. But by then, she'd already decided that PayPal wasn't OK by her. She's now using the alternative GPal service, which "does not discriminate based on the nature of your transaction," donates a portion of your transactions to the charity of your choice, and apparently was started by 2nd Amendment supporters. 

Good for you, Pam! I have a PayPal account (don't use it all that much; mainly for online donations), but I'll open a GPal account and look for opportunities to use it instead of PayPal.

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Dissent = racism?

Posted by Richard on September 17, 2009

Jimmy Carter — America's worst president (so far), the man who helped Hugo Chavez steal an election, the vicious anti-Semite whose hateful and dishonest book about Israel has been endorsed by Osama bin Laden, the man who never met a left-wing dictator he didn't like — has declared that both Rep. Joe Wilson's heckle and the "overwhelming majority" of other criticisms of the President are rooted in racism.

And Carter is far from alone. That claim has been echoed by a growing number of Democratic politicians, Chris Matthews, ABC "News," NBC "News," Maureen Dowd, … the list is long.

So if the 55% of Americans (and 65% of doctors) who oppose government-controlled health care are overwhelmingly racist, how did a black man get elected President? If Republicans and conservatives are all racists, how is it possible that Obama got more Republican votes and conservative votes than John Kerry got? Did they only notice his skin color after the "stimulus" package, nationalization of the auto companies, massive spending increases, and attempt to take over health care?

The charge of racism has become the left's all-purpose weapon to stifle criticism and put their opponents on the defensive. But it's grown tiresome and annoying, and I think they've gone to that well once too often. According to a new Rasmussen poll, only 12% of voters agree that most opponents of government-controlled health care are racists. Even among Democrats, only 22% agree. Predictably, 88% of Republicans reject the idea, but significantly, so do 78% of those unaffiliated with either party.

I suspect the left's attempt to smear all opposition as racist will backfire. But in the meantime, it does serious harm to the public discourse in this country. They should be ashamed.

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More union thuggery

Posted by Richard on August 11, 2009

If it's the opponents of socialized medicine who are an angry mob, how come they're the ones who keep getting beaten? Via Gateway Pundit comes news of another assault by a union thug, this time in New Hampshire:

This is how Chicago-style politics are played out:

Obama: "They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun"
Obama to His Followers: "Get in Their Faces!"
Obama on ACORN Mobs: "I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I'm angry!"
Obama To His Mercenary Army: “Hit Back Twice As Hard”

A tea party protester was accosted by one of Obama's union thugs today.
He was just following orders.
GraniteGrok reported, Via Free Republic:

One of the Free Staters was accosted by either an SEIU or AFSCME union thug. The story, corroborated by several sources, is that the Free Stater said something that the Union thug did not like and hauled off and spit into his video camera and then kicked him in the groin.

The camera was running so hopefully it will surface soon. I have asked that if anyone knows the Free Stater to see if he would come over and talk with us.

At Confederate Yankee, a report about a union-sponsored health care town hall in North Carolina suggests that maybe the rank and file members aren't as sold on government-run health care as their leaders would like.

But inside the President's town hall meeting, everything was friendly and wonderful. Especially that adorable little girl asking Obama why the people outside had such mean things on their signs — the little girl that was a plant!

UPDATE: Speaking of plants, it looks like the guy with the "Obama as Hitler" poster was a plant, too. Before Rep. John Dingell's town hall meeting, he paraded the poster around for the media, providing "evidence" to back up Pelosi's absurd assertion. After the meeting, he was handing out Dingell flyers.

What are the odds that the swastika at the Georgia congressman's office was planted, too, a la the noose at Columbia University and numerous similarly faked incidents? I'd say they're pretty good.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Hundreds rallied for Gladney at St. Louis SEIU office

Posted by Richard on August 10, 2009

The St. Louis Tea Party held a rally at the local Service Employees International Union office Saturday protesting the beating and hospitalization of Kenneth Gladney by SEIU goons on Thursday. The Tea Party's Bill Hennessey reported (emphasis added):

Over 300 people gathered in front of SEIU Headquarters on Pershing Saturday to thank Ken Gladney for taking punishment for our freedom.  On Thursday, thugs in SEIU uniforms beat and kicked Gladney.  The thugs hate black men who wander off the liberal plantation to speak their minds.  That hatred put Gladney into a wheelchair.  Unable to speak due to pain, medication, and heat, Gladney’s attorney, David Brown, read from a hand-written statement Gladney had prepared the night before. 

According to witnesses, an African-American man wearing an SEIU uniform approached Gladney Thursday about 8:30 p.m. as Gladney showed his buttons and flags to the wife of a minister.  The SEIU thug said, “Why is a n***** handing out ‘Don’t tread on me’ flags,” before punching Gladney to the ground.  According to video taken at the scene by numerous witnesses, other SEIU thugs joined in to kick and beat Gladney.  “Don’t tread on me,” has become a rallying cry for the Tea Party Movement.

Gladney was at the rally in a wheelchair.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an excellent 3-minute video (top left of page) that includes an interview with Gladney, followed by another black Tea Party member giving a great verbal smackdown to a leftist. 

Rush Limbaugh asked the question today, "Why isn't Kenny Gladney … the new Rodney King?" The answer, of course, is that the mainstream media and the civil rights leadership don't give a rat's ass what happens to a conservative or libertarian black man. 

The contempt and loathing of the left for this man is very much on display at the YouTube video of Saturday's rally, with comments like this: 

TOO FUNNY… This idiot started a fight, got banged up, and guess what… HE HAS NO HEALTH INSURANCE!!!

Right folks- the moron is working to destroy a program that would have given him medical treatment — now he has to take up a collection to pay his medical bills. He's as dumb as the rest of his ignorant friends.

The SEIU guys should've put him out of his misery. 

And this: 

wait until the teamsters get ahold of his ass lmao 

Of course, there are bad people on both sides. According to Jeralyn Merritt (TalkLeft), a "progressive" leader's car was vandalized at the Rep. Perlmutter event Saturday. But while union thugs beating and kicking a man is apparently a source of humor for many on the left, some lout breaking car mirrors evokes outrage.

Merritt wanted to know "What rock did these people crawl out from under?" — implying that such behavior is characteristic of "these people" rather than a rare exception. And at least one of her commenters, cpinva, went stark raving bonkers (and drew no criticism or censure; this comment is rated "topical") (emphasis in original): 

what we have here is a junior version(s) of the infamous bier hall putsch, to be followed by a new kristalnacht against the "others". i suppose at some point, we can expect a right-wing night of the long knives as well.

I mentioned Godwin's Law the other day regarding Pelosi's "They're carrying swastikas" remark. If Godwin's Law were actually enforceable, that comment would have ended all further discussion of the subject at TalkLeft for a very long time.

UPDATE: According to Bill Hennessey, one of the people who was arrested for beating Gladney is an SEIU director, Baptist minister, and (gasp!) community organizer: 

Tea Party researchers have discovered some interesting news on one of the people arrested for beating Ken Gladney.

Elston K. McCowan is a former organizer – now the Public Service Director of SEIU Local 2000 – and board member of the Walbridge Community Education Center, and is a Baptist minister, has been a community organizer for more than 23 years, and now, he is running for Mayor of the City of St. Louis under the Green Party.

McCowan accused the Mayor of setting fire to his van . . . because that’s what big city mayors do in their spare time, I guess.  He also called Slay a racist.  And, on election night, McCowan thanked the family who voted for him.  It was quite touching, actually.

McCowan is not a rank-and-file, card-carrying union guy.  He is a director with SEIU. He IS the union.  He ISSUES the cards.  Andy Stern himself might as well have kicked Gladney.

I guess that means McCowan has Obama's favorite book, Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, in his library. 

HT: Sweetness & Light

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Dissent is no longer patriotic

Posted by Richard on August 6, 2009

Lanny Davis thinks the spontaneous chants of "Read the bill!" that have erupted at town hall meetings are "fascist" tactics, and he wants such dissidents photographed and investigated.

The White House has a dedicated email address for turning in people who say something "fishy" about its health care plan. As Sen. Cornyn observed, this looks like they're compiling an "enemies list" (emphasis added):

I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed "fishy" or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests.

By requesting that citizens send "fishy" emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House. You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.

I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program–and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.

The people who, with funding from George Soros, invented Astroturfing are trying to portray the ordinary citizens who attend Tea Parties and show up at town hall meetings as shills for the insurance industry. Barbara Boxer said she can tell they're not genuine because they're too well-dressed. I guess to be a genuine concerned citizen, you have to look like part of a Code Pink or MoveOn.org freak show. 

Meanwhile, the Prez himself is directing the troops to create a real top-down, manufactured, Astroturf response. No indication of how the mobilized army of volunteers will be dressed. 

Count on Nancy Pelosi to jump in with a shark-jumping comment reminding us that Godwin's Law still operates (emphasis added):

Interviewer: Do you think there's legitimate grassroot opposition going on here?

Pelosi: "I think they're Astroturf… You be the judge. "They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."

Remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism? When swastikas at protest rallies were all the rage? Don Surber remembers.

UPDATE: Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary who's made Scott McClellan appear competent, has assured us that Sen. Cornyn's concerns about those "fishy" emails are completely unfounded. Well, sort of

"Nobody is collecting names," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at today's the White House press briefing. "Nobody's keeping anybody's email."

Asked later by THE WEEKLY STANDARD if the White House is required by law to save all correspondence it receives, Gibbs acknowledged, "Obviously, the National Archives documents correspondence with the White House." Gibbs also said he didn't know how many emails the White House has yet received yet.

So remember: "Nobody is keeping anybody's email," except the federal government at the U.S. National Archives.

What a relief.

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The persecution of Joe the Plumber and related crimes

Posted by Richard on October 18, 2008

The efforts by the left during this campaign to stifle criticism and silence political speech have become increasingly disturbing. Last week, Michael Barone wrote a column citing a few examples and bemoaning what's happening:

Once upon a time, liberals prided themselves, with considerable reason, as the staunchest defenders of free speech. …

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 treatment of Samuel Joseph "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher has taken these efforts to a whole new level. He's been made an example of that's bound to intimidate and silence many others. You think anyone who can shed light on the Obama-Ayers relationship or spill the beans on Obama-Rezko will step forward after seeing what happens to a man who simply asked a question? 

Charlie Martin put it this way:

When it’s gotten to the point that someone who happens to ask him an uncomfortable question is pursued to this extent, his personal life exposed, his address published on the Internet, his job and livelihood at risk, it’s gone too far. These people are legitimately to be feared.

Martin also quoted an anonymous email posted at The Corner that summed up how he feels:

I don't know why I'm e-mailing you, except that I just need to vent to someone on The Corner. Pass this around to the others if you like — I bet I'm not the only one.

I really don't like McCain. I'll probably vote for him just as a vote for divided government. I'm far too libertarian in my leanings to be comfortable with McCain (or Obama, for that matter).

That said, the way the pro-Obama media and bloggers, and Obama himself, have responded to Joe has got me nearly shaking with rage. They are attempting to destroy a man — a private citizen — who had the audacity to ask The One a question. Mind you, Joe was on his front lawn playing football with his son when Obama strolled up to give him his hopenchange spiel. Obama approached Joe, not the other way around. And Joe asked Obama an honest question. And Obama gave him an honest — and very, very revealing — answer. Again, mind you, the embarassment was on Obama's end, not Joe's. It wasn't a gotcha question.

And yet, for that Joe is being pilloried, every aspect of his private and professional life being sorted through and exposed. To prove … what? What does that have to do with Obama's answer? What does Joe's situation have to do with Obama's philosophical answer — that he wants to "spread the wealth"? Obama's answer goes down the memory hole while the nation concentrates its fire on obliterating Joe the Plumber.

It's sickening, it's maddening and it's downright chilling.

Sorry for the length. But I am just SEETHING.

I couldn't agree more. It's outrageous and disgusting.

But it's business as usual for the Obama campaign and the radical leftists who now control the Democratic Party. Tonight, I visited Life's Better Ideas for the first time in a week and finally saw David's link to this HillBuzz post. If you think talk of an "Obama thugocracy" is just some cranky, paranoid right-wingers trying to make something out of nothing, you're wrong. There are plenty of centrist Democrats who are angry and disturbed by what's been happening during this campaign, and they're working to expose the truth:

If you haven’t been a regular here at HillBuzz, you might not know about Gigi Gaston’s documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced” on the caucus fraud deliberately orchestrated by the Obama campaign during the primaries. Voter intimidation, registration fraud, vandalism, threats of violence, you name it, Obama’s supporters did it. …

What’s happening here is something we have never seen before: centrist Clinton Democrats and Republicans are working together to expose the DNC and Obama campaign’s illegal activities and orchestrated, coordinated fraud. Both parties are working with federal agents to investigate ACORN, which has been funded with upwards of $800,000 in questionable donations from the Obama campaign (in what appears to be the expressed and explicit direction to engineer voter fraud in the general election). The tactics being employed now in the 15 states currently under investigation are the VERY SAME TACTICS we saw on the ground in Iowa, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Indiana, and other states working for Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

Read the whole thing.

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A pretty impressive plumber

Posted by Richard on October 16, 2008

Regarding Samuel Joseph "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, Scott at Conservatism Today got it about right:

Seriously. This guy is the epitome of American values, hard work and self-sufficiency – and the MSM is going to do everything in its power to destroy him. Just remember, they are destroying you at the same time. Favorite line: "I have parents, I don't need another set of parents called the government." Next favorite: "We are the greatest country in the world, stop apologizing for it."

Here's another great Joe the Plumber quote (from Marina Lee):

“It’s not right for someone to decide you made too much—that you’ve done too good and now we’re going to take some of it back…That’s just completely wrong.”

Here's some Joe the Plumber video. The first one (1:31) is from his home last night after the debate (via The Barton Bulletin).

 

This one (3:57) is from his press conference this morning.

 

Where do we order the "I support Joe the Plumber" t-shirts and bumper stickers? I wish McCain (and many other Republicans) sounded this good. 

A friend commented that many recent newsmakers (like Dodd, Frank, Pelosi, Obama …) have reminded her of Ayn Rand's villains, but that Joe reminded her of John Galt. That's a stretch. I suspect Joe is more of an Eddie Willers. But, damn, we need lots more Eddie Willers in the world. 

BTW, did you pooh-pooh Scott's remark above about the MSM going after Joe? The effort to dig up dirt on Joe is already well under way. Charlie Martin (emphasis added):

Okay, according to Jonathan Martin (no relation as far as I know), a Politico reporter has found a tax lien against Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who is apparently “Joe the Plumber.” For about $1200.

Now, the county webserver is being wiped out by people trying to look at that docket, so it’s a little hard to find out the whole story — like, was it paid? Was it part of a pending tax dispute? — but in the mean time, think about this for a minute. This guy had the temerity to actually argue with Obama over a point, and get attention — so now national political websites/newspapers are sending reporters to search his tax records?

I mean, at least it used to be campaign operatives doing this kind of thing.

Martin soon followed up with another example, and then another

Now, according to Allahpundit, they've dug up "paperwork irregularities" that may put Joe out of work. And Allahpundit wondered (emphasis added):

Should have known better than to ask a media darling a tough question before your affairs were in order, Joe. Exit question: The law’s the law and it is, after all, his own fault for not having the papers he needs. If, say, an illegal alien had asked McCain a tough question and some righty media source responded by bringing his status to light, would the left feel the same way?

Anyone who dares criticize Obama must be punished, and the press is eager to help. I feel sorry for Joe Wurzelbacher. The left and the mainstream media (but I repeat myself) are conducting an anal probing of this decent, hard-working man and won't rest until they destroy him. 

I'm going to keep my eyes open for a Joe Wurzelbacher legal defense fund. I suspect he'll need one, and if so, I'll help.

UPDATE: Another roundup of how they're trying to destroy Joe the Plumber. (HT: Instapundit)

UPDATE: Instapundit noted that "They've done more investigations into Joe the Plumber in 24 hours than they've done on Barack Obama in two years . . . ." Read the whole thing. This has quickly gotten disgusting.

UPDATE (10/18): CafePress has "I heart Joe the Plumber" shirts. (HT: Instapundit) But I don't want to "heart" Joe. I want to support Joe. Don't miss my new post about Joe and related matters.

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Silencing critics, part 2

Posted by Richard on September 26, 2008

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is even more aggressive than the Democrats about trying to intimidate and silence its critics. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in terrorist funding cases and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the mothership of Islamofascism.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the distribution in Sunday papers of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West (an excellent documentary; I contributed to the project and have recommended it many times). CAIR has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that this DVD distribution was a Zionist plot to help elect McCain. (That link is to Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch story. I prefer not to link to the CAIR press release or the PDF of the complaint, but you can get there via Jihad Watch if you want.)

CAIR claimed that the DVD was being distributed in "swing states." Um, yeah, like New York. And California.

Spencer observed:

This is a very revealing action for CAIR to take. It reveals in particular two key aspects of CAIR's mindset:

1. It shows that CAIR is fully aware that the jihad against Israel is an integral part of the global jihad, and is not just a struggle to recover Palestinian "stolen land." Thus a film that reveals the nature and goals of that global jihad — Obsession — benefits Israel.

2. It also shows that CAIR believes that John McCain will fight against the global jihad in a way that Barack Obama will not — and that it believes therefore the distribution of an anti-jihad film, which in a sane world would be welcomed by both the Left and the Right since the global jihad wishes to destroy and remake the West utterly, must be some partisan plot.

Um, Robert? Who doesn't believe that John McCain will fight against the global jihad in a way that Barack Obama will not?

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Demonizing and silencing gun owners

Posted by Richard on September 26, 2008

I wanted to post about this yesterday, but Blog-City was down for a long stretch. By now you've probably seen or heard about Rep. Alcee Hastings' smear of Gov. Sarah Palin. But in case you missed it, Hastings issued a warning to a National Jewish Democratic Council audience (emphasis added):

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.

Stripping moose — did he mean skinning? In any case, his point is clear: hunters and gun owners are all dangerous racist bigots who will do who-knows-what to minorities.  

When they're not demonizing gun owners, Democrats are trying to silence and intimidate them. For instance, last week Obama himself suggested that his supporters get more confrontational:

In an appearance in Nevada, anti-gun presidential candidate Barack Obama told his followers:
 
"I need you to 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," he said. 

"And if they tell you that, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.'  I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.'" (http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8999386&nav=168XYT17)

Barack Obama has gone beyond lying about his long anti-gun record.  Now he is inciting his followers to lie for him and to be aggressive and confrontational with anyone who will not buy his lies.

Now his campaign is threatening radio and TV stations that air NRA-ILA ads about Obama's anti-gun record (emphasis in original):

As a staunch advocate of the First Amendment, I have to say that this is one of the scariest things I’ve seen since . . . well, since the last time Democrats used thuggery to try to squelch free speech.

Here’s the rundown. NRA does commercial highlighting Obama’s anti-gun record. Biased “fact-checking” site falsely claims that the NRA is being deceitful. Obama’s lawyer sends thuggish letter to networks threatening to try to get their license pulled.

Dat’s a nice broadcasting license you got dere. Sure would be a shame if anything was ta happen to it.

Xrlq thoroughly dismembered the Obama campaign's letter to radio and TV stations. And the "falsely" link in the Patterico quote above is to the NRA's response (PDF) to the WaPo claims regarding the ad. This morning, Instapundit posted a roundup of related stuff, plus the NRA ad in question. It's much like the radio ads airing here in Colorado, and none of the claims made in it were unknown to me — Obama's anti-gun history is pretty clear, extensive, and well-documented.

UPDATE: Don't miss that Gateway Pundit link in Instapundit's roundup, or Gateway's link to the St. Louis C of CC Blog. Democratic prosecutors and sheriffs in Missouri are suggesting that anyone who utters "false criticisms" of Obama may be arrested and prosecuted. Unbelievable!

What's next? Brown-shirted Obama youths disrupting McCain rallies and breaking heads? 

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