Obama: Thuggery You Can Believe In!

Barack Obama's legal team must've graduated from the University of Moscow in the 1940s (during Josef Stalin's time) as they have again tried to trample opponents' First Amendment rights:

According to Newsmax.com:

The Obama camp has been threatening television and radio stations to keep them from airing anti-Obama ads.

The latest target is the NRA and stations in Pennsylvania.

The Obama camp is particularly angry with an NRA ad entitled "Hunter" which lays out Obama's record on gun control.

Obama's campaign also earlier threatened stations airing the Bill Ayres ad by the American Issues Project along with stations who broadcast interviews with Obama critics Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso.

The National Rifle Association issued this statement:

Earlier this week, the National Rifle Association-PVF released a series of radio and television spots to educate gun owners and sportsmen about Barack Obama's longstanding anti-gun record. In response to the NRA-PVF ads, a clearly panicked Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) are doing everything they can to hide Obama's real record by mounting a coordinated assault on the First Amendment.

They have gone to desperate and outrageous lengths to try to silence your NRA by bullying media outlets with threats of lawsuits if they run NRA-PVF's ads. They have sent intimidating cease and desist letters to cable operators and television stations, threatening their FCC licenses if they run the ads.

Obama and the DNC have been using strong-arm tactics reminiscent of Chicago machine politics to try and cover up the truth and silence NRA by forcing the stations to assist them in hiding Obama's radical anti-gun record.

And now, Obama and the DNC have opened a new front in their assault on your First Amendment rights by calling on their followers to contact these station managers to demand that the stations not run NRA-PVF's ads.

NRA stands behind the accuracy of these ads, and NRA attorneys have responded to the Obama campaign's despicable and abusive attempt to trample on the First Amendment by sending a thorough rebuttal to station managers. This rebuttal clearly and conclusively refutes the Obama campaign's fallacious claims that the ads are inaccurate. For more information, and to see the letter, please click here.

To learn the truth about Barack Obama's anti-gun record, please visit http://www.GunBanObama.com This website is loaded with features and information that you, as a gun owner, need to know. This is a must-see website that you will want to pass along to anyone you know who loves freedom and supports the Second Amendment. While you're there, don't forget to take the "OMatch," compatibility quiz to see if you and Barack are a match.

Copyright 2008, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.

Definitely thuggery you can believe in!

More thuggery (Source: PowerLineBlog.com):

In Missouri, Obama has enlisted his allies in public office, including St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, to threaten criminal prosecution of any Missouri television station that runs ads about Obama that are untrue. Since every politician sincerely believes that all ads run by his opponents are untrue, the field of potential criminal exposure is broad indeed.

Missouri's Governor Matt Blunt responded strongly to Obama's attempted flaunting of the Constitution:

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.

What would Obama do if he became President and in control of the Justice Department?

UPDATE:

Mark Steyn at National Review Online weighs in:

Yes, we ban [Mark Steyn]

As Stanley Kurtz, Milt Rosenberg and David Freddoso can tell you, this pattern is well established: The Obama campaign's response to uncongenial allegations is not to rebut them but to use its muscle to squash the authors. This is especially true when it comes to attempts to lift the curtain however briefly on the Senator's mysterious past. The New York Times' general line on the Obama candidacy may approximate that of Bagehot on the British monarchy ("we must not let daylight in upon magic"), but the last time I checked that was not yet constitutionally enshrined.

Throughout my travails this last year with Canada's capricious, totalitarian "human rights" commissions, I have expressed my appreciation for America's First Amendment. Free societies do not criminalize opinion. What Obama is doing via pliable Missouri public officials is disgusting - and a revealng portent of what his Administration would do to its enemies*.

(*By "enemies", I mean Stan and David, of course. Ahmadinejad & Co will be sleeping soundly in their beds.)

UPDATE:

The Springfield, Missouri News-Leader is now reporting:

A St. Louis television reporter says a story he reported last week about Barack Obama's campaign forming a “truth squad” of prosecutors has been twisted out of context.

Republicans, including Gov. Matt Blunt, and conservative talk shows hosts have sought to portray Obama's use of prosecutors as campaign surrogates as a form of intimidation to squelch free speech.

But the KMOV reporter who first reported about two St. Louis County prosecutors joining the truth squad says "in the retelling of the story, it got out of control."

“If they think a group has put out a misleading ad, they’re basically going to call a press conference and say the ad is misleading," reporter John Mills told the News-Leader on Sunday. "I’m sure the Republicans would do the same thing."

In Mills’ Sept. 23 report, there is no mention by St. Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Attorney Jennifer Joyce that they would invoke their prosecutorial powers to stop any perceived mistruths from being spread about the Democratic presidential candidate.

Even though McCullough and Joyce never said they would invoke their powers, Republicans say just attaching their law enforcement titles to their names for political reasons gives off a perception of a police state.

“Prosecutors, because they can take away from somebody’s liberty, are held to a higher standard … because people are intimidated by them,” said Ed Martin, a St. Louis attorney and president of the American Issues Project.

In August, Martin’s organization aired a television ad in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia describing Obama’s longstanding relationship with William Ayers, an unrepentant 1960s domestic terrorist. While not disputing its facts, the Obama campaign has called for Martin's group to be prosecuted.

Frank Donatelli, deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, held a conference call with reporters Saturday morning while touring the state’s offices for GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

In an interview with the News-Leader, Donatelli admitted the Democratic prosecutors “haven’t specifically said” they would use their prosecutorial powers on Obama’s behalf.

“I don’t think you have to use the power. I think if you just call out somebody and you have the power, you’ve made your point,” Donatelli said. “It’s not that you have to prosecute a guy, but people think you might.”

Donatelli said prosecutors don’t normally join campaign truth squads because their mere presence as a campaign attack dog “has a chilling affect on people’s rights of free speech.”

Exactly! Why announce that prosecutors and sheriffs are a part of this "truth squad" then? Obviously, it is to intimidate Obama's opposition. Since the Obama campaign has already used thug tactics against Kurtz, Rosenberg, Freddoso and the NRA, a reasonable person is going to assume that the DAs, sheriffs and city attorneys on Obama's behalf would prosecute anyone who telecasts an "untrue" ad against Obama.

Plus, the station's original report said this:

Prosecutors and sheriffs from across Missouri have teamed up with something called the Barack Obama Truth Squad, announced KMOV’s News 4, at 6 p.m.

“The Barack Obama campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading TV ad during the presidential campaign,” News 4 reported.

Hello! They said, "asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone." If that doesn't mean prosecution, I don't know what else does!

I'm not buying their excuse. I wasn't born yesterday.