It has always fascinated me how liberals and leftists, who are supposedly the most open-minded among us, tolerating and indeed celebrating every weird, whacked-out philosophy, religion or “lifestyle” are in fact the most close-minded and bigotted people around. They tolerate anyone who agrees with them, but use every means at their disposal to silence those who disagree. The libs are the opposite of what they claim to be.

Case in point: Very soon you are going to hear a lot of noise in the mainstream media about the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which is nothing more than a naked attempt to shut down political dissent in this country. This latest attempt to eviscerate the First Amendment is brought to you by the Democrats. They hate Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin (whom I used to work with at the White House), and others who artfully, cogently, skillfully dissent with the left.

But Democrats, like the odious Chuck Schumer and the useful idiot Maurice (Mo) Hinchey, are going to spin a yarn that would make Mark Twain’s jaw drop open in admiration of its audacity: With the full support of mainstream media, the liberal Dems are going to try to shut down talk radio and other conservative sources of political speech and dissent. And they’ll try to do it by telling you black is white and white is black. That is, they’ll say it’s not “fair” to have all these conservative views being aired on radio with no corresponding leftist views. Hello?! Can anyone say CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, et al? We get the standard leftist pap from them day and night! But that’s not enough for Chuck and Mo.

Brief history lesson: In the earliest days of our country pamphleteers wrote stirring and inspiring works (pamphlets) that helped ignite the American Revolution, notably Thomas Paine. In contrast to Paine, some pamphleteers wrote nasty, scurrilous accusations against political opponents. They were, to put it politely, downright lies. What we today would call “hate speech.” And yet, that’s EXACTLY why the First Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It was to protect all speech–even lies–and even the speech of those with whom you strongly disagree.

Why does the Constitution protect all speech, including lies? Because the Founders knew that sooner or later those who pedal such lies would be found out and their own dishonesty would blow back and hurt them. That is, they believed in something called truth–that in the end, truth would win out. They believed in people’s good common sense and ability to discern the truth from a lie. Our Founders saw free speech and liberty as one and the same. The opening words of the Constituion tell us that everyone has certain inalienable (can’t-take-them-away) rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Apparently not with Democrats in charge.

Professor Jacobson’s article gives us great insight into how inalienable rights become alienable when the libs come to town and rule (with an iron fist). Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Exercise your free speech now, before it’s too late.

Technorati Tags: Ithaca, Ithaca Common Council, William Jacobson, Cornell University, free speech, protected speech, Fairness Doctrine, pamphleteers, Thomas Paine, First Amendment, Chuck Schumer, Maurice Hinchey

Today, Mr. Hinchey, the man who wants to Stalin-like control the radio airwaves (with the “Fairness Doctrine”), is going to propose another good Marxist/Communist idea: Let’s cap gas prices at $2.49 a gallon (Hinchey to outline proposals to lower gasoline prices). Sound good to you? Please think about this for a minute.

We are a democratic republic. Our country was founded as a nation that empowers its citizens with freedom. That includes freedom in the marketplace. We call it capitalism–let the free market control prices and let private citizens own business enterprises–the “capital” of capitalism. Marxism (or Communism), on the other hand, centrally controls prices and ownership of capital. The State sets prices and controls how much of a good or service is available. Russia tried it for about 80 years and you can see what happened to them. Big-time failure.

So what does the good little Commie Hinchey want to do? Set price controls on gasoline. Guess what will happen in pretty short order if we set price controls on gas: (1) The supply will decrease because oil companies will sell it to countries that will pay more for it; (2) Gas in America will be rationed because a decreased supply means not enough to meet demand; (3) The American economy will enter a recession, possibly a depression, because people will stop buying and stop traveling; and (4) Hinchey and people like Congresswoman Maxine Waters (the female version of Hinchey, watch this clip of her from last week) will immediately move to nationalize the oil companies–that is, have the State take them over and run them.

Your guess is as good as mine…is Hinchey really a blithering idiot? Or a crazy-like-a-fox Communist? Hard to say. I prefer to think he’s stupid and doesn’t know it.

Why are oil prices so high? Simple: The enviro nutjob libs have prevented us from drilling in this country for years. They’ve also stopped expansion of nuclear power plants. We haven’t built a nuke plant in over 30 years! In short–we have higher demand and less supply. The population in America has gone up, our oil production has gone down, and places like China and India are buying more oil today than they ever have in the past. More demand + less supply = higher prices. It’s simple economics. The solution? Start drilling for oil in ANWR and off-shore, and build more nuclear power plants–NOW. We need more supply and we need it fast.

What we don’t need are Marxist solutions from people like Maurice Hinchey and Maxine Waters.

Technorati Tags: Maurice Hinchey, Maxine Waters, Marxism, capitalism, Communism, oil prices, nuclear power

Maurice Hinchey, who is unfortunately my Congressman, is such an utter and complete failure as a politician it’s beyond me how he continues to get re-elected time and again. I refer to him as the “Somewhat” Useful Idiot (definition here). I am convinced he’s not even aware of his own plight.

Case in point: He’s campaigning to eliminate free speech–particularly on radio–by resurrecting the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” No doubt with a Democrat President and Democrat Congress he may succeed. Another case in point: He’s actively trying to initiate impeachment hearings on President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Here’s the latest on that from the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Jan. 23:

Organizers of the Broome County for Impeachment Campaign delivered copies of “The Genius of Impeachment” by John Nichols to all 19 Broome County legislators today in an effort to have the Legislature urge Congress to begin an impeachment inquiry into President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Impeachment proponents want Broome County to become the third in New York’s 22nd Congressional District to pass a resolution, joining Tompkins and Ulster counties. The district is represented by Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, who supports an impeachment inquiry.

I think what’s happening is this: The “genius” Democrats in Washington get Hinchey all stoked and send him out there, and if he makes headway with these insidious ideas, great. But if Hinchey ultimately catches some political spears in the back and goes down–so what. No harm done. He’s expendable. Thing is, Hinchey doesn’t know he’s being set up!

Maybe I need to drop the first two words from my moniker.

Technorati Tags: Maurice Hinchey, Fairness Doctrine, impeachment, impeach Bush, Broome County