A stench of police state tactics in Missouri
A most disturbing case has come up in Missouri of police and law officials in Jefferson County forming a "truth squad" for Barack Obama's campaign: they're threatening to prosecute any television station that runs ads about Obama that they deem untrue. A sign of what could come if Obama is elected. Watch this TV news report for more.
Fortunately, the Missouri governor, Matt Blunt, has issued a strong response to this (Hat tip: Power Line):
Update: the prosecutors are now backing down from this ghastly position of theirs (Hat tip: Town Hall). They would do well to just own up and apologize, and to seperate their job completely from politics.
Update: Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review (also via Power Line) reports that it's much worse than that.
Others on the subject include Webloggin, Hyscience, Hot Air, A Small Corner of Sanity, Free Mark Steyn, The Dan Lee Report, Sierra Faith, Pursuing Holiness, The Jawa Report, Stop the ACLU.
Fortunately, the Missouri governor, Matt Blunt, has issued a strong response to this (Hat tip: Power Line):
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.The left has certainly been saying nasty, false things about Sarah Palin, just about all of which have been debunked to date. The would-be lawmakers and campaign managers who attempted to silence free speech owe an apology to the public for what they've tried to do.
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.
Update: the prosecutors are now backing down from this ghastly position of theirs (Hat tip: Town Hall). They would do well to just own up and apologize, and to seperate their job completely from politics.
Update: Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review (also via Power Line) reports that it's much worse than that.
Others on the subject include Webloggin, Hyscience, Hot Air, A Small Corner of Sanity, Free Mark Steyn, The Dan Lee Report, Sierra Faith, Pursuing Holiness, The Jawa Report, Stop the ACLU.
Labels: political corruption, United States
