Free Speech For Conservatives Under Attack

From Judicial Watch:

Free Speech for Conservatives Under Attack




You remember this quip from former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel during the financial crisis? “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Emanuel told The Wall Street Journal. Well look no further than the horrible shooting in Tucson, Arizona, to see this craven philosophy in action once again.



We are all horrified that the mentally disturbed individual named Jared Loughner opened fire at an event in Tucson, Arizona, last Saturday murdering six innocent people and leaving an additional 14 wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). (As of the writing of this Update, Rep. Giffords has thankfully begun to breathe on her own, and is evidently on the road to recovery. Our thoughts go out to Rep. Giffords and the other victims and their families. Judicial Watch takes special note of the murder that day of Judge John Roll, who by all accounts, was a fine American and jurist. He was killed in the line of duty, as he allegedly was visiting Giffords that day in order to express his concern about his court’s being overwhelmed by illegal immigration cases.)



Rep. Giffords is a politician, that’s true. But there was nothing overtly political about this shooting spree. Loughner had a long history of erratic and bizarre behavior. His rantings on the Internet indicate Loughner had a deeply troubled mind, but there was nothing to suggest the 22-year-old was making any rational political statements with his murderous attack. Sadly, he seemed to be in the grip of severe mental illness.



Mentally disturbed individuals do contact Judicial Watch with lunatic ideas and allegations. These individuals want us to do something about their thoughts being controlled by the CIA or about their thoughts being monitored by chips implanted in their bodies. My guess is that public officials receive similar calls all of the time. Most normal people would not see these obviously afflicted individuals as liberals or conservatives.



But the fact that Loughner’s motive was not political in nature did not stop liberals from seizing upon this “crisis” to bash conservatives and advance their own anti-freedom agenda.



While the nation was still grieving over the Tucson shootings, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders immediately fired off a fundraising appeal referencing the “tragedy in Arizona” and asking supporters to send money to help Sanders fight “right wing reactionaries.” (Sanders also took a shot at the Tea Party for good measure.) David Brock, of the left-wing organization Media Matters, instructed News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch to “rein in” or “fire” Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, who, in Brock’s mind, were somehow responsible for the Tucson shooting spree. The nation’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, stoked the flames further by suggesting that Loughner acted on his “political views.”



Liberal “Independent” Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee took the rhetoric a step further, announcing that he “intends to ban state employees from spending their state work time talking on talk radio.”



Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, “right wing reactionaries,” talk radio: Do you see where this is heading?



If not, I’ll let Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) spell it out for you. In an interview with the Columbia Post Dispatch, Clyburn explicitly used the shooting to make a new push for the Fairness Doctrine: “The shooting is cause for the country to rethink parameters on free speech,” Clyburn said from his office, just blocks from the South Carolina Statehouse. He wants standards put in place to guarantee balanced media coverage with a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, in addition to calling upon elected officials and media pundits to use “better judgment.”



Let me cut through Clyburn’s rhetoric and tell you what he means by “rethink the parameters of free speech.” What he means is no more free speech for conservatives. Period.



I watched Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) this week on MSNBC ominously use the word “incitement” to describe criticism of President Obama. I’m sure you’ve seen many other leading liberals blame conservatives for “incitement” in relation to the Tucson murders. These liberals don’t need to say, because it necessarily follows, that one can get arrested for such “incitement.”



It doesn’t matter that Loughner had no significant political links — conservative or liberal. (One of Loughner’s high school friends, Zach Osler, told ABC’s Good Morning America, “He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right.”)



CORRUPTION CHRONICLES

National Security Threatened By Global Warming Diseases

Bill To Let “Exemplary” Illegal Immigrants Become U.S. Citizens

Border Crossing Shut For Security Reasons To Reopen Unmanned

Free Govt. Marijuana Via “Compassionate” Drug Program

Millions Of Taxpayer Dollars Blown On Failed Clean Energy Co.

Feds Sue N.Y. For Millions In Medicaid Fraud

Border Patrol Agent Hides Illegal Immigrants, Drugs

Another $7 Mil For Environmental Justice

What matters to liberals is that they see an opportunity in this “crisis” to shape public perception and manipulate public opinion. That is straight out of Rahm Emanuel’s playbook.



The financial “crisis” yielded a government takeover of our nation’s financial sector. The healthcare “crisis” yielded a government takeover of our nation’s healthcare system.



What do you think liberals are going to do with this new “civility” crisis? They’d be happy to stage a government takeover of our nation’s media institutions so they can “adjust the parameters of free speech.”



You should take what Sarah Palin and others call the “blood libel” of conservatives seriously.



Another liberal politician wants to make illegal any words or symbols that can be interpreted as threatening a federal official.



I’m sure you’ve seen many a liberal politician or media figure over the last week saying that calling a politician “socialist” is out of bounds. Or that saying a government policy — such as Obamacare is “job-killing” — is incitement. Or that criticism of Big Government is responsible for any act of violence by a deranged individual who thinks his mind (and grammar) is controlled by the government. The logic of this leftist argument suggests that they (or the government) decide what in politics gets said and how it is said.



Too many in Washington think that not only are they above the law, but above any criticism. Don’t be fooled by any calls for “civility” by President Obama, his leftist political allies, or even Establishment-types in the Republican Party. The Left thinks it is necessarily uncivil to challenge the corruption endemic to Washington, DC. Calls for civility are a polite way of saying conservative critics of Washington should “shut up.” And too many liberals suggested this week that conservatives “shut up” or go to jail.



Your Judicial Watch will not back down in the face of this intimidation. Nor should you. You can be sure we will monitor, expose, and fight attempts by the Left to use the levers of government to trample our free speech rights in the wake of the Tucson attack.