Obama and free speach- Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missou

Gov. Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement


JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.


“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.”

 

If only we could bottle the nonstop Republican outrage and whining every day and use that power to fuel America or balance the budget...

 

So you approve of using partisan prosecutors to bring charges over political speech?

It's not like everything is not overly politicized already. Now we are going to have people prosecuted for political ads? Why not just repeal the First Amendment, since it seems to be another one of those pesky constitutional rights that "progressives" think has become outmoded.

 

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/politicians_lying_is_free_speech_/

 

There is no political speech charge.

Libel is not protected speech under the first amendment.

 

Bigdave, would like to get your thoughts on this:

If a politician changes his view, and one uses his original quote before the new view, would one be guilty of perpetrating an untruth?

In my previous link, it is stated politicians lying is protected speech. If a politician can lie, or even waver from his own voting record, then when is libel established? Here is the link again.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/politicians_lying_is_free_speech_/