Musings On My Birthday

My brother Ray visited this weekend and on two different occassions isssues of public discourse resulted in his getting angry at me. Really really angry. Simply because I dared to disagree with him. It reminded me of the way that many progresssives react to the incredulous (to them) idea that conservatives or libertarians think they share the right to free speech progressives enjoy.


Dear Ray,

Since we are brothers I would like to be able to have a discussion with you that does not end in anger… a discussion that actually makes progress in seeing things from both sides even if we don’t agree. I have linked some articles below and made some comments that support how my views were formed. As a background to these comments, I want you to know that I read liberal blogs and liberal newspapers and watch CNN every single day. Many on the left never read anything that would take them out of their comfort zones of left wing opinion. That amazes me. How can you be sure you are even close to correct if you never stretch your mind to see the other guy’s side? Do you ever read right wing news sources or listen to Fox? (Sorry. Just a side note of curiosity. Back to the discussion.)

First, I hope you will note the efforts of Congressman Waxman to intimidate the CEOs of AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. for daring suggest their health care costs will increase as a result of Obamacare. That happened day before yesterday. Is Waxman not aware of the Sarbanes-Oxley rules about disclosure that force these revised profit forecasts? Does he think he can intimidate these people into violating Sarbanes-Oxley to support his view of Obamacare?

spectator.org/archives/2010/03/29/obama-in-rude-denial

Further there is a serious and ongoing threat to free speech rights for conservatives (and even libertarians like me) from progressives. This threat is well documented in the following article.

www.ottawacitizen.com/columnists/Confronting/2733468/story.html

Threats of violence (and even violence) in America are far more prevalent from the left than they have ever been from the right. No liberals, progressives or Democrats in recent memory have had a mob keep them from speaking. Yet it is a common experience for conservatives and libertarians to deal with left wing mobs that block them from speaking and threaten their safety. Why is the left so afraid of free speech?

Leading Democrats have written books fantasizing about the assassination of George W. Bush. Dick Cheney and Bush both were hanged in effigy during rallies by Democrats organized publicly to encourage someone to assassinate them. Yet no task force was ever put together by the FBI, nor did the Bush regime ever publish documents claiming that Democrats were un-American or traitors and terrorists as Obama has done against his opposition. The liberal press would have torn them apart. Yet the liberal press ignores what Obama is doing.

There are a large number of Americans who remember Miami, Waco and Ruby Ridge. They will never trust the FBI, ATF or DOJ… ever again. So when a report was produced by the Obama regime that specifically claimed terrorism was on the rise from right wing groups and that efforts needed to be put forth to stop the un-American activities of the TEA Party movement and its leaders (like me), it cannot be blithely discounted.

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/16/napolitano-stands-rightwing-extremism/

The Obama regime sees returning veterans, the TEA party movement and other right wing so-called extremists as the most serious terrorism focus they need to address, not foreigners or Muslims. In other words, people like me. Do you see me as a threat to America? Do you think returning veterans are a threat?

Last April when I organized the Edenton TEA Party, we were obstructed at every turn. You can see the results at this link.

www.edentonteaparty.com/

It was a very peaceful event, covered in the Weekly Standard by Mary Katherine Hamm as too “southern” (meaning polite) for most Americans. After the nationwide TEA Parties were held, Nancy Pelosi claimed that our events were organized by “Nazis” and that Nazi signs and symbols were “everywhere” (a lie). It is especially ironic since Nazis were socialists, not conservatives. Look at the pictures of our rally linked to on my web site and show me a sign that could be called a threat to peace. There are no Nazis or anyone like them coming to TEA Party events. They don’t see us as their kind of people. Were Pelosi’s lies not divisive?

After the 9/12 rally in Washington DC, the same effort was made again, to proclaim that we were a threat to national safety, called “terrorists” by Harry Reid, and only press efforts by conservative papers exposed the plans by the FBI and Homeland Security of a task force to investigate the leadership of the TEA Party Movement. Lots of negative press publicity put a stop to it… again just barely.

The below article is one that documents the latest plans being organized after the “Kill the Bill” rally in Washington which I supported.

canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21350

You called me paranoid for my response to the phone call about these efforts. However it is clear to me that illegal intimidation by the left occurs every single time we protest politically. The strategies of Saul Alinsky and Cloward-Piven to create a false impression of threats from the right so the left can destroy America cannot be ignored. Those strategies are well known. They are not made up by those on the right. They are serious proposals by people on the left, publicly embraced by Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. Anyone who dismisses them is naïve in the extreme. I was astonished that you said you had never heard of Cloward-Piven. Obama taught the technique to ACORN, as well as the Alinsky techniques. That has been reported going back to when he was a candidate. How could you miss it?

The Obama regime is looking for reasons to use police force to intimidate political opposition. Your failure to appreciate how prevalent it is, and how intentional it is, concerns me. I think Obama is far more of a threat to democracy than anyone who has ever been elected President, and the acts he has taken, quietly and without apparent awareness of many of his supporters, proves that.

The huge surge in opposition to the most divisive President in history is justified in my mind. It is not paranoia.

I know you don’t want my opinion of what is happening to the world, but I can sum it up with a simple statement. As a direct result of the naïve demagogue currently leading our nation, Tel Aviv and Washington are both destined to be the targets of nuclear bombs. This will happen sooner rather than some far distant later. The following article explains some of the Obama decisions that assure this.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Obama_s-U_S_-is-unprepared-for-disaster-89360027.html

The aftermath is likely to tear America apart.

If you actually read the above articles I think you will come away with a different perspective. Do you really think that the moderates in the Republican party would be so united with the conservatives if they were not frightened by what Obama is doing? Will you at least read the articles? Perhaps you would be a little more understanding and tolerant of how others see the world.

Or perhaps not.

Dean