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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Democrat’s Newest Attack on Free Political Speech With Willing Assistance
by Media
June 22, 2012 | by Warner Todd Huston
What would you say if a Koch Brothers, right-wing effort was pushed on
Americans with the knowing assistance of National Public Radio — and big
money was paid to NPR for the effort? Would you say that this is an outrage,
that NPR’s use of public airwaves to push a right-wing policy idea is a
misuse of the journalist’s charge as well as our national airwaves? Well,
that is exactly what happened but with a left-wing idea, the policy of so-
called campaign-finance reform.
A whistleblower whose career was built on pushing left-wing, anti-free
speech campaign donation limitation laws recently blew the lid off the
subterfuge that backers of legislation like the disastrous McCain-Feingold
campaign-finance law perpetrated to get their way in Washington.
The whistleblower, Sean Treglia, reports that players in this tale of smoke
and mirrors were such left-wing foundations as the Pew Charitable Trusts and
the Carnegie Corporation, as well as magazines like the liberal The
American Prospect, and “news” organizations like National Public Radio.
Of course, it would be one thing if these liberal organizations, magazines
and news groups were pushing a left-wing ideal because they truly believed
such policies were the best medicine for our troubled political atmosphere,
but apparently mere altruistic advocacy is not what went on here. Big, big
money was given by these liberal groups to media outlets to help affect
these political goals.
A recent Volokh Conspiracy posting revealed the money trail as alleged by Mr
. Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, included
such payoffs as:
In September of 2000, less than two years before the passage of McCain-
Feingold, the liberal magazine The American Prospect put out a special issue
devoted to campaign-finance reform/the “Checkbook Democracy” issue was
paid for with a $132,000 check from the Carnegie Corporation
Since 1994, National Public Radio has accepted more than $1.2 million
from liberal foundations promoting campaign-finance reform
Radio and Television News Directors Foundation accepted $935,000 between
1995 and 2001 from liberal foundations promoting campaign-finance reform
Imagine if a right-wing policy idea was pushed with huge cash outlays to “
media” outlets!
All this is an effort to stamp out free political speech.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) has taken on this topic
warning us all that the left’s goal is no less than a gutting of the First
Amendment. In a speech he gave to the American Enterprise Institute, Senator
McConnell has called this campaign an urgent threat to political speech in
America.
The left is engaged in an effort to “control everything,” McConnell has
said. “They want the federal government to have the power to silence their
critics,” he insisted.
McConnell has been warning about the newest efforts of the left to impose
ever more disclosure laws, rules that they wish to wield as a weapon against
conservatives and Republicans who donate to political movements and
candidates. “Remember that contributions to our political campaigns are
already subject to disclosure,” he noted. “What they want to do is go
digging through the records of outside groups.”
Indeed, after McConnell made these remarks an Obama campaign lawyer filed a
complaint demanding that a conservative group be forced to reveal its donors
to Democrats.
Another new tactic of the left has been termed SWATing. McConnell also
mentioned this illicit, illegal tactic in his June 15 press release.
Noting that justice Thomas’ majority decision in Citizens United didn’t go
far enough to list the illegal activities of those attempting to silence
their opposition, McConnell explained how SWATing works.
Justice Thomas goes on to note that the advent of the Internet has made
these tactics even easier to pull off, and thus increases the likelihood
that the public will be discouraged from participating in the political
process. It’s a point that’s underscored by recent news reports of a
tactic known as Swatting, something Andrew Breitbart raised the alarm about
in one of his final interviews.
Here’s how it works. Somebody who knows how to hack into phones calls
911, ostensibly from your phone, and tells the police they just killed
somebody. Within minutes, the local SWAT team shows up at your house, guns
drawn, helicopters swirling overhead. And while this tactic is clearly
criminal and should be prosecuted aggressively, the goal is equally
reprehensible – namely to scare people who’ve dared to speak, write, or
otherwise support a cause that the Swatters don’t like.
But shadowy left-wing conspirators working behind the scenes aren’t the
only ones responsible for the attack on our First Amendment rights. High
profile Democrat leaders are also engaged in this anti-American effort, up
to and including President Obama.
Just last week, for instance, Obama’s chief adviser and campaign ramrod,
David Axelrod, announced that a main goal of a second Obama term would be to
upset Citizens United and that the President would work to make Super PACs
illegal.
Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) is pushing a Constitutional amendment to
affect just such a change. The amendment has found hearty support from
Senators such as Chuck Schumer (D, NY), Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) and Tom
Udall (D, NM). Lautenberg even outrageously said that “The Tea Party
Republicans… don’t deserve the freedoms that are in the Constitution!”
For his part, Udall attacked the Supreme Court saying, “This is the core
issue. All the things we believe in are not going to get done unless we face
down the Supreme Court. They have taken this over. And what we’re doing
with this constitutional amendment is we’re saying to them: ‘No longer.
You aren’t in charge of this anymore.’”
Indeed, the whole of the Democrat leadership have signed onto a plan to
amend the Constitution to eliminate our free political speech. Democrat
House members such as Keith Ellison (D, MN), Ted Deutch (D, FL), and Donna
Edwards (D, MD) have joined the call to alter the Constitution’s safeguards
of free political speech.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is giddy over the thought of such an
alteration to the law of the land. At an April press conference, Pelosi said
, “We have a clear agenda in this regard. Disclose, reform the system,
reducing the role of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid
it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge
amounts of money going to campaigns.”
As McConnell so aptly put it in his press release, “This dangerous alliance
threatens the character of America. And that’s why it is critically
important for all conservatives — and indeed all Americans — to stand up
and unite in defense of the freedom to organize around the causes we believe
in, and against any effort that would constrain our ability to do so.”
We’d all better start paying attention before it is too late. |
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