SILENCING PESKY OPPOSITION, PART 2

Norm Eisen, the Obamite Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, feels that criticism of the "stimulus" plan is inconceivable. He therefore intends to crush dissent by "all persons...exerting influence on the process." (h/t Ed Morrissey) That means you and me.

The full quote is here. (Did a screen capture in case it gets memory-holed.) Read it and weep, people:

“First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

“Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest—after competitive grant applications are submitted and before awards are made. Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits. To that end, comments (unless initiated by an agency official) must be in writing and will be posted on the Internet for every American to see.

“Third, we will continue to require immediate internet disclosure of all other communications with registered lobbyists. If registered lobbyists have conversations or meetings before an application is filed, a form must be completed and posted to each agency’s website documenting the contact.”

Next, the Obamites will surely be outlawing other forms of criticism, no matter how well founded. Do you object to cap-n-trade, the abomination that even members of The One Party (uh, I mean Democrats) recognize as a "great big tax" that has already proven ineffective in Europe? Obamite reeducation camp for you.

Norm, be happy! Together with The Telegraph, you're in the running for the 2009 PPPAPP, in the correct speech category!

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE GETS THE BETTER OF AN OBAMA SUPPORTER...

...and he is calling for his former idol's resignation. Check out a May 29 article by Ted Rall, who formerly called for a death sentence for George Bush in May 2008 (h/t JammieWearingFool).

Rall's summary of Obama's betrayals, stupidies, lies and other dangerous acts is remarkably complete. One quote from Rall's article says it all - for the rest, go to the article itself:

Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.

Trouble is, being a monster and having enough insight to remove oneself from power are two mutually exclusive things. His intent is to drag down into the abyss, though he and the Obamites see this as progress.

Progress, that is, for the elect few, but regression for the endless multitudes.

So the question remains, what do we do now?

PROSPERITY, SOCIALIST-STYLE

This picture from the "bad old days" (i.e. Communist Czechoslovakia) almost brought sentimental tears to my eyes. I remember people (including my mother) going out and standing in line for hours on the strength of a rumor (!) that such-and-such a store will have meat available. At times, people would start staking out their positions in front of the store in the wee hours and get relief from other family members, friends or neighbors in the early morning.



Just thought I would remind my fellow Americans what socialism is really all about...

SILENCING PESKY OPPOSITION

Obamites, take note! Here is a valuable lesson to be learned from the Brits, via Phil Hendren, aka Dizzy.

British Members of Parliament (MPs) have had their troubles of late, in no small measure due to The Telegraph’s recent revelations of widespread improprieties in MPs’ expense accounts. For the first time in 300 years, the Speaker of the House of Commons has resigned, and several other MPs are planning to stand down as well.

Let me say that politicians ought to be monitored closely, so in that, I am with The Telegraph. But perhaps I should also add that that a legislator’s resignation in the wake of revelations of bad behavior is a very good idea (mother Pelosi, brother Frank, childe Barack, clown prince Joey et al, take note!).

Then came trouble. (It always does...) Given the tendency of the media to ratchet up the pressure to insane levels, the situation soon turned into a witch hunt.

Then came more trouble – someone fired back. Nadine Dorries, a Mid Bedfordshire Tory, addressed the witch-hunt atmosphere in the blog portion of her website. Among others, she apparently voiced her concern that the merciless pressure might drive some MPs to suicide (has happened before, actually). She also reportedly alleged that The Telegraph might have a hidden agenda: smear MPs in the traditional parties, driving voters toward the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP).

Since Dorries’s website and blog are operated by The Telegraph Group, The Telegraph found it easy to answer MP Dorries’s allegations. They immediately shut down the blog portion of her website, citing their acceptable user policy.

That’s where The Telegraph and I part ways. The idea of shutting up someone who criticizes you is so monumentally stupid, so profoundly reactionary, so totalitarian in nature that anyone who does it is automatically gets entered in the running for my much sought-after annual Pol Pot Prize for Absolutely Progressive Procedures, or PPPAPP. (BTW, the PPPAPP is known the world over as the dictator’s Nobel/Pulitzer.)

But if silencing the opposition is your thing, this is how it’s done. So I say again: Obamites, take note and learn from The Telegraph!

DO AS I SAY...

Obama's do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hijinks have ample precedent, of course. All false messiahs I know of have suffered from that attitude. Here is just an example from one of his spiritual predecessors.



This a poster from the early Communist era in Czechoslovakia. It says: "Comrades, it's time to put an end to boozing."

Uncle Joe, to use Winston Churchill's nickname, was of course a boozer par excellence.

HOWL SEX FOR FREEDOM!

The British have this handy thing called an Antisocial Behavior Order (ASBO) that you can use to oppress anyone you wish. Wikipedia defines it as follows:

An anti-social behaviour order is an Order of the Court which tells an individual over 10 years old how they must not behave. Under 10s can be given a BASBO (for "baby ASBO"). An Order can contain only negative prohibitions. It cannot contain a positive obligation. To obtain an ASBO a two-stage test must be satisfied by the applicant authority (see s.1(1) Crime and Disorder Act 1998). The first is that the defendant has committed acts causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress (emphasis mine) within six months of the date of issue of the summons. The second is that an order is necessary to protect persons from further anti-social behaviour.

The neat thing is that you, the victim, get to define what is "harassment, alarm or distress." Just ask the hapless Britisher Caroline Cartwright who had once been slapped with an ASBO for being loud in bed (see Brendan O'Neill's May 11 article in Reason Online). Poor Caroline, having been loud in bed once too many times, was finally hauled off to a dungeon for "excessively noisy sex" because neighbors had complained and because of the ASBO in her dark past.

This, in spite of the ASBO law's provision that (Wikipedia again) "...each prohibited act must be an act preparatory to a criminal offence rather than the offence itself."

It is hard to see, from my perspective, how howling during sex is "preparatory to a criminal offense," but that's where the arbitrary "harassment, alarm or distress" business comes in. You say that it's preparatory to a criminal offense, therefore it is.

I cannot help but wonder if the Brits had learned this from our universities and HR departments, or vice versa. Either way, this is stupidity far down the slippery slope into Orwell's nightmares.

BRITISH DOCS DECIDE TO SPREAD GLOBAL WARMING PANIC, TOO

Just as the gentle zephyrs of reality have begun to blow out the cobwebs from the dank precincts of climate change temples, British medicos have decided to throw themselves into the fray and plug up the gaps against this noxious draft.

Louise Gray, the environment correspondent over at The Telegraph, reported on May 14 that a study conducted by the University College London and published in the Lancet had concluded that:

"…the problems caused by climate change such as food shortages, heat waves and increased threat of tropical diseases such as malaria will kill billions of people (emphasis mine)…”

that

"Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century"

and that

"Effects of climate change will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives of and well-being of billions of people at increased risk."

There is a litany of the usual horrors. Global temperatures will climb by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. People in poor countries will suffer the most but more prosperous ones will also be affected. There will be disease, starvation, mass migration, wars. There will also be – and somebody call out the social workers please! – a "psychosocial" effect on health, with patients requiring counseling over the fear of global warming and its effects.

The editor of the Lancet huffed that doctors have been "silent for too long about the importance of climate change to the future of health services.” He pointed out that the threat is urgent and immediate, and that it requires – you guessed it – “an unprecedented response by Government and international organizations." (Read: "give the Gore crowd a free hand to pursue their lunatic schemes, at your expense.")

Doctors around the world are being urged to become advocates by encouraging a "low carbon lifestyle," and world governments are enjoined to “cut emissions and invest in helping poorer countries to adapt to climate change so that deaths are minimised.”

Talk about a desperate move. One could quip that the dying beast of the enviro-fascism is at its most dangerous, digging ever deeper to find more devious ways to panic people into submission.

I do wish that the doctors, whom I (used to) respect greatly, had continued their silence and stuck to science which, all claims to the contrary, isn’t in. In fact, it’s not anywhere near us.

As the hapless Pen Hadow and his traveling gong show had just learned, to their dismay.