KMOV-TV in St. Louis, MO is reporting that Barack Obama and his campaign have enlisted various Democratic prosecutors, sheriffs, government officials and other law enforcement officers to target anyone running ads which malign or, in their perception, misrepresent Obama. These so-called “Truth Squads” (complete with jackboots?) are just another step in Obama’s goal of silencing any opposition. Other Obama tactics include, on more than one occasion, trying to silence authors who have written books critical of Obama (here’s to hoping the authors don’t need to hide like Salman Rushdie), telling his followers to confront and intimidate their neighbors and injecting race into the discussion as a means of distracting from Obama’s clear weaknesses. In a 1996 campaign for Illinois State Senate, Obama even succeeded in silencing opposition from his own Democratic Party members by finding ways to get them thrown off the primary ballot. He ended up unopposed and easily won.
This is NOT the time for good people to stay silent. History has shown what happens when people stay silent, when people blindly follow the mob… right off the cliff. The Democratic Party keeps saying it is progressive and liberal and open, but NOTHING about Obama’s tactics or those of his “netroot” sympathizers is in line with those ideals. Barack Obama has every right to speak out when he feels he has been maligned or misquoted — even if he does that exact same thing, perhaps even worse, to John McCain. What Barack Obama CANNOT do is censor, intimidate and otherwise try to silence anyone who disagrees with his “One People, One Nation, One Leader”-like mantra.
Fortunately, people ARE stepping up to challenge Obama’s Stalin-like attempts to silence his opposition. Below is a statement from Missouri Governor Matt Blunt:
“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.”
