Sunday, August 9, 2009

Dissent is Patriotic? Not Under the Obama Administration

From Debra Saunders, "Dissent is Patriotic - Not":

Imagine it's four years ago and an aide to President George W. Bush posted a blog on the Whitehouse.gov Web site that bemoaned Internet criticism of the Iraq war, then continued: "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversations.

we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an e-mail or see something on the Web about anti-war protests that seem fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Substitute the words "health insurance reform" for "anti-war protests," and you get the exact wording of a blog posted by Macon Phillips, the White House director of new media, on Tuesday.

"I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his politics to the White House," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote in a letter to President Obama. "I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program."

No lie.

Now I don't think Obamaland was working on an "enemies list" - as some conservatives have charged. But I do want to note how deftly the left has abandoned its old rallying cry, "Dissent is patriotic" ...

I want to be clear: I want nothing to do with any protesters who carry swastikas, hang our leaders in effigy or show up to disrupt when a duly-elected official speaks. Over the years, I've seen too many signs depicting the president as a Nazi and too many extremists who think they are so right that they don't have to respect the free-speech rights of others.

The problem is: When anti-Bush protesters behaved badly, when Code Pinkers shouted and anti-war protesters brandished signs with swastikas, they did not rate nearly as much press scrutiny as the ObamaCare protesters. There seems to be the impression in my profession that comparisons of Bush with Hitler were to be expected, but not of Obama with Hitler. That's below the belt.
Below the belt ... that pretty much summarizes all the Democratic activities of late, from the White House down to the local union office. (Read the whole thing at the link.)

Cartoon Credit: Nate Beeler, "
In Defense of Dissent on Health Care Reform."

7 comments:

Doctor Biobrain said...

Gee, in MY reality, MoveOn.org got completely slammed because someone posted an ad which compared Bush to Hitler in a political ad contest they had, and they continued to get slammed even though they took the ad down almost immediately.

Here are a few articles posted in my reality:
The Washington Times
Jewish advocacy groups led an avalanche of sharp criticism yesterday against two potential television ads that compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler and were posted on a Web site run by MoveOn.org.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress said the ads were beyond the pale of political discussion. Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, called them "hate-mongering."

"Certainly myself, as an American and as a Jew, I'm disgusted by the casual use of Hitler by liberal Democrats and groups such as MoveOn.org," said Mr. Cantor, the House chief deputy majority whip.

"To compare any American president, much less George W. Bush, to Adolf Hitler, cheapens the sacrifice of millions of lives that have been lost by this country over its history and really denigrates the efforts by the American military," Mr. Cantor said.

Fox News
Republican groups and Jewish organizations expressed outrage over the ad, which has been removed from the MoveOn.org Web site. The Republican National Committee called on all nine Democratic candidates to condemn the ads.

RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie called the ad, "the worst and most vile form of political hate speech."
[....]
MoveOn.org spokesman Trevor Fitzgibbon said, "we had no idea the Hitler thing even existed."

Crosswalk.Com
The MoveOn.org ads comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler drew rebukes from Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe and liberal financier George Soros in January, but Sen. John Kerry never denounced the controversial ads at the time.

It took the Kerry campaign months to condemn the use of Hitler imagery in a political ad, yet an adviser to the Democrat presidential nominee suggested earlier this week that Kerry had been out in front with his condemnation.


So isn't that interesting? In your reality, nobody cared much if liberals made Bush-Hitler comparisons, while in my reality, it was a really huge deal that was all over the news for a long time. Even George Soros denounced the ads, while Kerry got attacked for supposedly not denouncing it soon enough.

Something else that happened in my reality is that police infiltrated peace groups and The Pentagon had a database tracking peace activists which they viewed as "threats." The database had over 1,500 "suspicious incidents" listed in a ten month period. And to be clear, they weren't tracking information being spread in emails, but actual meetings of peace activists; and included at least twenty references to actual people.

But I'm sure nothing like that happened in your reality, or you would have noticed. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. If only you'd remember it...

BeltainAmerica said...

Gee Moveon.org is so main stream no wonder Oberfuck and Rachel Madcow didn't condemn the leftist for their use of Hitler to Bush advertising.

And everyone in the country is sure to read a statement from a Jewish organization and I am sure it got the same coverage on the progressive news channels as Pelosi's statement did.

Your just full of useful examples arent you Biowastebrain.

Doctor Biobrain said...

BeltainAmerica - I'm not sure there was anything intelligible in your comment.

First off, almost EVERYONE condenmed the Bush-Hitler ads, including MoveOn.org.

And I remember quite distinctly when all the liberals were talking about it. And we were talking about how unfair it was that MoveOn was being smeared for an ad that they didn't create and which they immediately removed from their website. So your suggestion that we didn't hear about it is nonsense. Apparently, we heard about it more than you guys did.

And are you suggesting that the ADL is some unknown group that doesn't get noticed? Perhaps names like Eric Cantor, Ed Gillispe, George Soros, and John Kerry don't ring any bells with you either. It took me mere seconds to find this info and I could greatly expand the list of those who condemened the ads. The words Moveon Bush Hitler Ads get over half a million results in Google. As I said, they were widely condemned.

But hey, what should I expect from someone who imagines that puns like "Oberfuck" and "Madcow" are clever. You're still probably into fart jokes, too.

Anonymous said...

Trailer Trash Bill Warner Has Enlisted in the White House Internet Snitch Brigade

Ever since the White House announced the creation of its Internet Snitch Brigade (flag@whitehouse.gov), Americans were waiting for Insane P.I. Bill Warner to join it. And today it finally happened! In "ASSASSINATE BARACK OBAMA PLOTS INCREASE TO 10 RACIST RIGHT WING BLOGGERS FUEL WHITE SUPREMISTS (sic.) SECRET SERVICE SHUT EM DOWN by Bill Warner investigator," Warner writes:

"The US Secret Service so needs to investigate "Muslims Against Sharia by Khalim Massoud and Pamela Geller for her Anti-American racist activities on her website, which she operates out of her Manhattan NY apartment, and her incitement to hate by others and the possible murder of President Barack Obama.

Contact flag@whitehouse.gov and provide information for websites that promote hate and or attacks against the President of the United States Barack Obama.U.S.
Secret Service
New York City Office
335 Adams Street
32nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Telephone: (718) 840-1000"

After pretending to file various lawsuits and complaints with the FBI, USSS, County Court, etc. Insane P.I. Bill Warner decided to employ another tactic. He wants the Internet Snitch Brigade to do his dirty work, to defame people who dare to disagree with Warner's demented rants. Could this trailer trash be more of a Nazi?

http://insanepi.blogspot.com/

Thingumbobesquire said...

De. Ezekiel Emanuel, Obama's top advisor on the healthcare overhaul, says he opposes euthanasia. But when you read his actual writings it is clear that he thinks some lives have more value than others. For example, the elderly have less value because they have less years for productivity left. This logic is absolutely consistent with the idea of useless eaters propagated by Dr. Josef Mengele's Nazis. Now who is obfuscating whom?

Mark Harvey said...

Here is Sir Hillary on Dissent.

http://www.divshare.com/download/6369733-c93

Screw the leftists!

Doctor Biobrain said...

De. Ezekiel Emanuel, Obama's top advisor on the healthcare overhaul

Thingumbo - Your comment is a perfect example of the misinformation the Whitehouse is trying to combat. In reality, Emanuel ISN'T Obama's top advisor, but rather is one advisor of many. That is indisputable fact and anyone who suggests otherwise is wrong.

And that paper you mention was actually written by him and two others, and was written specifically for situations in which scarce medical resources need to be allocated; hence the title "Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions." But it wasn't meant to suggest that we SHOULD have scarce medical interventions, but rather, how to allocate resources when those situations arise. For example, if a liver can go to a young person or an old person, an ethical choice would be to give it to the young person, because they'll live longer. Or you could give it to the old person because they deserve it more. The purpose of that paper was to lay out the principles for making such decisions. And while you might not like to consider these sort of situations, that's his job as a bioethicist.

But in absolutely no case was that meant as an outline of any medical system he supports. Instead, it was a boring paper which would only be of interest to other bioethicists. Anyone who suggests otherwise is wrong.

Emanuel supports full healthcare coverage for everyone, which is more than you guys can say. As a reminder, you guys oppose Universal Healthcare, Medicare, and Medicaid. Were it up to you, more people would die. I find it hilarious that you guys are now pretending to be the bleeding hearts.