Obama: All This Freedom of Speech is a Threat to Democracy
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing]
Thanks to DRJ, we get this clip of Obama denouncing the independent groups that engage in freedom of expression without disclosing their donor lists—as they are entitled to under the law. Real Clear Politics has a snicker at his reference to Star Wars, but what appalled me was the part where he said that such expression was a “threat to democracy.”
You know there was a time when the Supreme Court said that revealing the names of the members of an organization was harmful to freedom of speech. But now, the president thinks all that speech is a threat to democracy. Too much talking, too many people saying things he might not want them to say. Somehow our democracy is threatened if the wrong people speak.
Hey, why don’t you try this instead, Mr. President? Refute their arguments. If they are lying, tell us that. If they are using faulty logic, make the case. Rather than finding out who the messenger is, so you can kill that messenger, why don’t you just do that?
And don’t get me started on the hypocrisy of all of this (as revealed by Karl).
The right to debate should not be up for debate.
Update: This video from ReasonTv makes a valid point, sarcastically. This nation was literally founded on anonymous political speech.
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In related news, Justice Alito is not coming to this year’s SOTU/STFU. Honestly, I think it’s a mistake for any of the justices to attend, for any president. Last year’s silliness where the president deigned to chide them for what he considered their bad decision only drove that point home. Hopefully we will set a new tradition and none of them will show up, for any president, ever again.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
“You know there was a time when the Supreme Court said that revealing the names of the members of an organization was harmful to freedom of speech.”
It’s almost as if the words “NAACP vs. Alabama” represents just a legal holding to you, completely devoid of the context of state supported terrorism directed at black people and the organizations devoted to ending those regimes.
imdw (53b665) — 10/18/2010 @ 6:35 amTeh One’s campaign sure was not a fan of transparency, nor worried about the evil foreign dollars, when they disabled the security measures on their online donation system. When he was campaigning in Berlin, the rest of the world was good, like when he was a citizen of the world. Now, he is a xenophobe?
JD (f3543f) — 10/18/2010 @ 6:36 amI was told he was a constitutional scholar, a member in good standing of two elite educational institutions, post-racial, a lawyer-activist and a swell-ass good dude. He even got a Nobel for being himself.
Now he is sitting around arguing the merits of political free speech?
Whahahahahapppin?
PS If this POTUS does not make you profoundly “anti-intellectuals,” I dunno what does. And by intellectuals I reference snarky navel-gazers (left and right) who never miss-the-opportunity to ignore the bigger problems in order to argue small points.
javert (a8a9b2) — 10/18/2010 @ 6:55 amWell he was the one who spoke of ‘negative rights’
ian cormac (6709ab) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:00 aminstead of what the government can do for you, but
we need another word, because chutzpah just won’t cut it anymore
I don’t think we will see the majority of justices at the SOTU speech next year but the wise Latina will be there along with his old dean.
Mike K (568408) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:14 amHe really is becoming quite an embarrassment – not only for our country, but for himself. But he’ll never see it that way, for he has not one iota of introspection within his DNA. Watching the excreable Carter proclaim (for the umpteenth time) that he’s really the greatest president EVAH (and we’re still all idiots for thinking otherwise) gives us all an excellent preamble to how this one will conduct himself after his term in office is mercifully over. It won’t be a pretty sight.
Dmac (84da91) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:20 amDmac
Dialogue from the underappreciated classic “Top Secret!” In this scene an American rock star (played by Val Kilmer) meets an east german resistance fighter.
Rock Star: You’re an American.
Resistance fighter: That’s right. My uncle was born in America.
Rock Star: Really?
Resistance fighter: But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency.
I don’t know, it just seemed relevant…
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:35 amObama is a perfect snap shot of many extremely smart folks who are also schooled in the best of institutions.
He reminds me perfectly of people on Wall Street making millions who simply move money back and forth and then stand up dead serious proclaiming they “create wealth” by trading securities in the SECONDARY MARKET (not primary).
Or the lawyers who sit around torturing the law in order to get whatever outcome suits them regardless of whether the basic principles are being adhered too. Step up Foreclosure “fraud” lawyers.
All very bright.
javert (a8a9b2) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:42 amAll rightfully proud of what they have accomplished.
All completely devoid of any perspective.
Most narcissists.
None with an ounce of wisdom to their credit.
javert
> Or the lawyers who sit around torturing the law in order to get whatever outcome suits them regardless of whether the basic principles are being adhered too.
Hey! As a lawyer, i
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:52 amresembleresent those remarks.Jammie Wearing Fool this am is reporting Dims have received $1 Mil in foreign donations. Remind anyone of the hit last week on Chamber of Commerce?
O’Mamba will rush to plug the dike ahead of the leak but “it’s easier to clean the oil off the beach than skim it in the Gulf”.
Christie, campaigning for McMahon, is certain Ogabe will see the light following an 1894 ‘mass extinction’.
No way, no how. This is an egyptian co-pilot, flight-stick-full-forward-Allahu-Ahkbar-screaming plunge to the tarmac.
I say the odds are 60-40 he returns from Asia following his post-election-victory-lap junket.
gary gulrud (790d43) — 10/18/2010 @ 7:55 amThe President told us all we need to know about his position on Freedom of Speech, when – at the last State of the Union address –
AD-RtR/OS! (56f7fd) — 10/18/2010 @ 8:00 amhe publicly Bitch-Slapped the attending members of the Supreme Court over the Citizens United decision.
Class, Barry – you’ve got none of it!
That’s right … give us your donor lists so we can send our flying monkeys to your homes and places of business to harass and intimidate you into silence. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. How dare you oppose our will, you small insignificant peons!
(..and let’s change the name of that mountain from Olympus to Obama Mons … We have spoken, let it be written, let it be done)
** quasimodo shall rue the day when his spell checker no longer tries to correct the word “Obama” to “Alabama” **
quasimodo (4af144) — 10/18/2010 @ 8:03 amYesterday I watched the old 1950’s movie “The Fearmakers” which touches on this topic. Dana Andrews finds out a co-opted PR company is using cooked public opinion stats to promote politicians and front groups advocating nuclear disarmament to weaken America. There’s a scene where a congressman earnestly complains that while we have an FDA to stop people from selling adulterated foods, we have no laws to stop mysteriously-funded groups from disseminating false and “poisonous” political ideas, as if it would actually be a good idea to police the purity of political speech. The villains really are bad guys (murderers and forgers) but the upshot of the script is pretty creepy. It’s available for streaming for Netflix subscribers. Bonus: Mel Torme costars as a goggle-spectacled statistician.
gp (72be5d) — 10/18/2010 @ 8:20 amIt’s all a bunch of whining and a giant pile of steaming fecal matter from the left this election cycle. By most accounts, the right is outraising the left, hence the whining. The left has access to the same vehicles which do not require disclosure of donors and used them masterfully in 2008, which is why the charges are pure hypocritical crap and a distraction. The left has no message to run on except fear.
daleyrocks (940075) — 10/18/2010 @ 8:52 am#8, I am sorry to have to constantly single-out lawyers for their societal malfeasance but fact is the thickness of the phone book says it all when it comes down to it.
For all the discussion of “truth” that comes from the legal profession, most of it boils down to word fucking and whether you put the word alleged in front of everything or plead ignorance to facts or my favorite new lawyerly method is not to respond to truths. That way “technically” you never lie. You simply avoid the truth.
Sadly the profession of law has boiled down to a minstrel show and with it most lawyers while too smart to “lie” they are too shallow/greedy/stupid to admit their profession is rotting from the core.
The Constitution is being perverted by lawyers, not the people. To fix this requires eliminating as many legal licenses as possible.
… but as with accountants …. every new set of rules they create only further increases the need for them. How convenient.
javert (a8a9b2) — 10/18/2010 @ 8:55 amYou can twist anything around! For a classic laugh, check out Jonathan Last’s article “The Case for Empire:Everything you think you know about Star Wars is wrong”.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/248ipzbt.asp
It’s a hoot.
A Conservative Teacher (cb0de8) — 10/18/2010 @ 8:55 amI honestly don’t think that Obama and Axelrod understand the irony of their statements about requiring the Chamber of Commerce to prove that they aren’t guilty of the charges Obama and Axelrod came up with–threat to democracy? I’ll take the Chamber of Commerce over Obama and his squad of goons any day.
Rochf (ae9c58) — 10/18/2010 @ 9:50 amDrudge today is using four “crazy fanatic-eyed” Obama pics. Check it out.
gp (72be5d) — 10/18/2010 @ 10:02 amFunny business with Chicago absentee ballots
Neo (7830e6) — 10/18/2010 @ 10:28 amIn Chicago ? … no way
“Funny business with Chicago absentee ballots”
Why it’s just anonymous speech!
imdw (7b0243) — 10/18/2010 @ 12:40 pmBut he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency.
That’s hilarious, I had forgotten all about that little – noticed gem from Zuckerman/Abrahms. They truly were subversive conservatives.
Dmac (84da91) — 10/18/2010 @ 2:51 pmThe supremes presence was a traditional courtesy.Courtesys are traditionally reciprocal and were until obama gave some ghetto trash talking for cultural diversity.
DUNCE (b89258) — 10/18/2010 @ 3:43 pmI know my brother would agree with you here, but I’m not sure that’s accurate in all cases
Shanika Penez (c0997d) — 1/1/2011 @ 7:22 pmGood info, but I think there needs to be more details in the 3rd paragraph. Not everyone is going to understand exactly why…
Fred Stogner (3ab2aa) — 3/2/2011 @ 12:42 amWell who’s to say they’re wrong? Seems like a matter of opinion to me.
Ouida Parizek (850f89) — 3/19/2011 @ 3:06 pmI like your style. Have to say that the third paragraph is a must read for everyone who’s concerned.
Marianna Capitano (c7c21f) — 3/31/2011 @ 1:01 pmYeah it is a dangerous opinion.
DohBiden (984d23) — 3/31/2011 @ 1:25 pm