{"id":4223,"date":"2009-02-16T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4223"},"modified":"2012-01-06T14:13:35","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T20:13:35","slug":"countdown-to-the-obamanschluss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4223","title":{"rendered":"Countdown To The Obamanschluss<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

If a DC liberal pundit tells you you’re paranoid for worrying about your house being robbed, aim your gun at your door; there will be an armed burglar bursting in shortly.<\/p>\n

Anytime a liberal pundit, politician, apologist or powerbroker “guarantees” to keep hands off a liberty that might undercut the left in any way, they are lying.\u00a0 Every time.\u00a0 There are no exceptions. <\/em>To the left, civil liberties are not “rights endowed to us by our creator”; they are tools in the political toolbox, to be manipulated to the left’s singular advantage.
\nFor the past year, as conservatives warned that Obama (and\/or his followers, and\/or his masters in Congress) were aiming towardreimposing the “Fairness” Doctrine, the lefty peanut gallery tittered and tut-tutted; “you’re being paranoid!”, we were assured – ignorant, of course, of the fact that we conservatives have in our institutional memory many examples of the left’s casual outlook on civil liberties issues.<\/p>\n

We are right, of course:<\/a><\/p>\n

[Chris] Wallace asked [Obama minion David Axelrod] about an issue making the rounds on both conservative and liberal radio shows, where Democratic Congressional leaders (and even Bill Clinton) have recently weighed in.”Will you rule out reimposing the Fairness Doctrine?” asked Wallace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, remember; Obama was putatively “crystal-clear” on the subject last summer, when his press flak Michael Ortiz said “Sen. Obama does not support reimposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters.”<\/p>\n

Why would there be any need to fudge what was once – as the lefty peanut gallery has pointed out – a clear, definitive statement?<\/p>\n

Because Obama is no more about “clearness and definition”, to say nothing of honesty, than he is about “depth”:<\/p>\n

“I’m going to leave that issue to Julius Genachowski, our new head of the FCC, to, and the president, to discuss,” Axelrod said. “So I don’t have an answer for you now.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Um – why not?<\/p>\n

The One’s position seemed (we have been assured!) pretty clear before the election.\u00a0 Why not now?<\/p>\n

Lester Kinsolving, the conservative radio host, has twice asked Robert Gibbs about it in the briefing room, and each time, the press secretary didn’t reveal the administration’s position.Last week, I reached out to press office staffers in order to find out if the administration’s position is the same as in June, and have not yet received a response.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is,<\/em> unlike many political questions, an utterly black and white issue; “Do you support free speech?”\u00a0 You do, or you don’t.\u00a0 Last year – when Obama was trying to suck in <\/strike>reach out to “moderates” –\u00a0 he saw it as such, as well.\u00a0 No “Fairness” Doctrine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today?<\/p>\n

If Obama’s position on the Fairness Doctrine is the same as during the campaign — and I have no reason to believe it isn’t — stating that clearly would quickly silence a lot of conservative critics who assume the Democratic president is going to push to reinstate the defunct policy. Otherwise, the Fairness Doctrine chatter on the airwaves isn’t likely to die down.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I won’t rule out the idea that Obama wants to leave the question open.\u00a0 Knowing as he does that conservative talk radio is the most focused, effective opposition to his rule right now, and knowing that actually acting <\/em>to shut it down would tie his Administration downin endless litigation and justifiable accusations of overreach, it might be in The One’s interest to leave this issue out there, to serve as a stalking horse to occupy peoples’ attention.<\/p>\n

It’s equally likely that Nancy Pelosi has told The One “jump”, and Obama is still just wondering “off what?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a DC liberal pundit tells you you’re paranoid for worrying about your house being robbed, aim your gun at your door; there will be an armed burglar bursting in shortly. Anytime a liberal pundit, politician, apologist or powerbroker “guarantees” to keep hands off a liberty that might undercut the left in any way, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-4223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-talk-radio","tag-fairness-doctrine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25431,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4223\/revisions\/25431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}