Posted on 08/07/2009 5:13:55 AM PDT by markomalley
Dissent, it turns out, is no longer patriotic. President Barack Obamas White House and his Democratic National Committee have unleashed an all-out assault on what they call angry, manufactured and lobbyist-funded lies about health care reform. Look closely and you realize thats how they classify all dissent.
Obama, when speaking at Notre Dame University last spring amid anti-abortion protests, said, When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe, thats when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.
But his record of dealing with actual dissent paints a different picture, one that suggests he has so much faith in his own good intentions and clever plans and so little skepticism about the power of government to do good that he sees all disagreement with his policies as condemnable.
David Freddoso has made a career off dishonest, extreme hatemongering, Obamas presidential campaign wrote about my friend and now Examiner colleague David Freddoso last September in an effort to get a radio host to drop him.
The campaign e-mail called Freddoso a card-carrying member of the right-wing smear machine and said his anti-Obama book (for which I was the editor) contained lies and smears about Barack Obama.
The one lie the campaign claimed to find in the book turned out to be completely correct that Obama voted to raise your [taxes] if your taxable income is greater than $32,500 a year. The Factcheck.org page the campaign cited actually proved Freddoso correct. The other lies they attacked were differences of interpretation.
The personal attack on Freddoso, filled with slurs and devoid of factual critiques, illuminates Obamas current crusade against the mobs, fishy e-mails and manufactured dissent against his plan for massive regulations, subsidies and new government programs in the health care industry.
The White House does have a point here: Some of the protests these days are out of line. Shouting down Congress members at town halls is not practicing democracy, its bullying. Claiming, contrary to all evidence, that Obama is not an American citizen is not debate, but close-minded inanity inanity possibly stemming from racism.
But Obama, through his White House, his campaign and his DNC, has lumped all dissenters in with the shouters and the birthers. Theres a political gain to this tactic, to be sure, but it certainly doesnt reflect the open-mindedness and fairness Obama was supposed to bring.
Linda Douglass, communications director for Obamas Office of Health Reform, said her job includes collecting disinformation about health care, and the White House asked Americans, If you get an e-mail or see something on the Web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
What counts as fishy? Is it only the e-mails falsely claiming reform mandates euthanasia, or is Obama also counting as disinformation the videos displaying his past advocacy of a single-payer plan and arguments that the plan amounts to taxpayer funding of abortions?
Obamas attack on Matt Drudge for posting those videos, the White Houses broad dismissal of town-hall protests as mobs of manufactured dissent and his DNCs intentional conflation of health care protesters with birthers suggests that anything rejecting the White Houses conclusions on health care counts as fishy, or worse, and must be reported to authorities.
Obamas White House and his DNC have repeatedly said special interests oppose reform because they profit from the status quo. (Obama doesnt name anyone, because, awkwardly, the drugmakers and health insurers are lobbying for reform and buying television ads supporting the general idea.)
But has Obama ever acknowledged that most of the people who oppose his proposed reform do so because they believe it economically harmful, wasteful, unconstitutional, immoral or damaging to families?
The DNC suggests that all town-hall dissidents are funded by K Street lobbyists. This is an odd line of attack coming from the DNC, considering the DNC and its House and Senate campaign committees have already brought in more than $1 million from lobbyists and $629,000 from the drug industry.
One could fairly call Obamas DNC a special-interest group funded by K Street lobbyists advancing policies for political gain that profit drugmakers and insurers but that might be deemed fishy.
"Obama, when speaking at Notre Dame University last spring amid anti-abortion protests, said, When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe, thats when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.
Obama was lecturing and sermonizing to Catholics at Notre Dame, who might be pro-life, to "open their hearts" to abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and his global depopulation agenda. There was no indication he meant for pro-abortion liberals to "open their hearts" to be tolerant of Catholics or pro-life conservatives. That line was not addressed to liberals, secular humanists, and atheists.
I fear the 2010 election will be a national repeat of the Minnesota senate race with ACORN stuffing ballot boxes to guarantee liberal candidates hold their Congressional seats. We are seeing a national expansion of Chicago style thug politics all resigned at keeping Obama and his cronies in power so they can drag the US kicking and screaming into socialism. God save our Republic.
A revolution is not a dinner party.
You have to understand the "progressive" mind.
They regarded 1981-2009 as an unfortunate, temporary setback. In their view, November 4, 2008 was the last battle - Yorktown, if you will - and they believe that now, they can do anything.
Correct.
I’m expting Glenn Beck to be assassinated any day now.
People should have seen this man was Think Skinned Narcissistic Teapot Dictator wanna be during the election, but the filter of the Media created a set of Rose-colored glasses that could not be circumvented.
Now we are being RULED by El Bamadente, the American Hugo Chavez.
“Is this truly from the SAN FRANCISCO examiner?! I thought it was a lot cooler when I walked the dog this morning: Hell is freezing over.”
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You beat me to it!! LOL!!!
Oh, so is not just me... I shared this thought w/wife just yesterday!
Things are ugly all around us.
Sad times indeed.
So does Glenn Beck. He went on about it for a while this morning.
Yeah? Well you’re a racist!
/sarcasm
Does Obama accept dissent? NO - HE OVERTLY REPRESSES IT.
This sad fact is obvious. For openers, look no further than Rahm Emanuel, acting head of the Chicago operation and currently holding the White House.
Reposted below for ref. Obama’s Playbook, short version:
* * *
HAVE YOU USED A RULE fOR RADICALS TODAY?
RED SOUTH
Posted on Wednesday, August 05, 2009 10:37:08 AM by RED SOUTH
Here it is, the liberals guide for political warfare as developed by Saul Alinsky. Read them , learn them and apply them daily. Beat the socialist with their own game!
RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)
RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)
RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)
RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)
RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
Violence is NEVER the answer. Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu and Rosa Parks all won because they were peaceful. But, Mr. Beck....watch your back...you are fighting the other side.
"Claiming, contrary to all evidence, that Obama is not an American citizen is not debate, but close-minded inanity inanity possibly stemming from racism."
I would pray that Obama is out of the White House within a year or America will not continue in any way resembling the country she has always been. This wicked and fraudulent Presidency is out for complete destruction. Heil Obama!! (Kick the bums out now) CO
I agree with you on how he cleared the field but he also had likely millions of illegal votes through Acorn. CO
BINGO. There is only ONE way now to get rid of this fraudulent thug - it will take the PEOPLE and the Military. Sad it’s come to this but as has been stated before: Elections have consequences. This last one has had and is having devestating consequences. And trust me, you DON’T WANT government run health care. CO
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