Freedom of Speech Wins: Baltimore Politician Drops Lawsuit Against Blogger

-By Warner Todd Huston

Examiner blogger Adam Meister was doing what bloggers do, namely posting the info that “journalists” refuse to write about. In this case, back in March, Meister found that a Baltimore Councilwoman was living in a different district than she claimed she was living in. As a result, the politician tried to sue the blogger for his posts.

City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway filed a lawsuit demanding an idiotic $21 million in damages for Meister’s expose of her true primary residence. But this week Conaway abruptly dropped her suit against the blogger.

Through public records, blogger Meister discovered that Conaway lives in Randallstown and not Baltimore, the city she was elected to represent. Conaway has, though, claimed she lives in an extended-family household in Baltimore.

Meister disputed Councilwoman Conaway’s claim and he posted tax information where Conaway claimed for tax purposes that Randallstown, not Baltimore, was her primary residence.
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Freedom of Speech Wins: Baltimore Politician Drops Lawsuit Against Blogger”


Twitter Townhall: Another Case of Obama’s ‘For Thee But Not For Me’ Events

-By Warner Todd Huston

It was hailed as a technological first. President Obama was to hold the first “Twitter Townhall.” The truth is more like it was a desperate attempt by the Obama administration to appeal to the youth vote in which nearly every poll shows him losing ground.

The idea was that questions could be submitted by any American citizen via the Internet social media website Twitter. If you are not aware of what Twitter is, it is sort of like a phone texting service — but Internet-based. But on Twitter users are limited to 140 characters (including spaces) per message.

Anyway, getting to Obama’s “for thee but not for meism,” his first answer during the Twitter Townhall was 1,484 WORDS! So much for 140 characters! I guess cramped limitations are only good for the lowly people while he can indulge volumes of words when he wants to.

In fact, this is sort of an allegory for the way Obama treats the nation. He allows himself all sorts of luxuries, but the lowly people need to “sacrifice” and to be hampered and limited.

Amusingly, Obama probably didn’t expect one of his closest allies, Richard Trumka’s AFL-CIO, to needle him via Twitter, either.

Trumka’s AFL-CIO Twitter feed pointedly asked the prez, “Where are the jobs?”

Ouch.
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Twitter Townhall: Another Case of Obama’s ‘For Thee But Not For Me’ Events”


YouTube Launches New Congressional Townhall Channel

-By Warner Todd Huston

This week Youtube launched a new channel it is calling the “Youtube Townhall,” a new channel where members of congress are seen in short videos discussing the issues of the day.

Republican Senators Alexander, McCain, Moran, Lugar, Sessions, Isakson, and Hutchison have already uploaded videos to the channel and more are on the way. Republican Representatives Steve Chabot and Phil Gingrey have also added videos.

Interestingly, the identification of the members of Congress do not include party affiliation on the site.

Youtube’s description of its new site is as follows:
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YouTube Launches New Congressional Townhall Channel”


Big Brother Bubba’s Ministry of Internet Facts

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bill Clinton wants the government to “correct” what you say on the Internet, folks. Should the government listen to the former panderer-in-chief, we’ll go from Big Brother to Big Bubba on the ol’ Internet tubes.

Bubba is not happy with what he claims is the “misinformation” on the Internet and he wants the force of government to stop it all. Politico is reporting that Clinton makes the proposal in an upcoming CNBC interview saying, “It would be a legitimate thing to do.”

No, Bubba, it would not.
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Big Brother Bubba’s Ministry of Internet Facts”


Arianna Huffington Sued for Being Blog Slavemaster

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have to say my feelings swing wildly on this story. After all, I thrill to see these extremist, lefties slaving away for free while their boss makes millions upon millions of dollars off their backs. It’s just too funny. Yet… and yet, I too am a writer that does some work (and too much at that) for free and I fully understand the ire that some of Huffington’s digital plantation slaves feel. And apparently the ire over there has caused at least one guy to take Puffington Post to court. This week Jonathan Tasini filed a class-action lawsuit against HuffPo on behalf of the Puffington plantation’s blogger slaves.

Ever since Arianna Huffington merged her famous blog with AOL and was awarded control of its news services, some of her former bloggers began to get restless. With Arianna getting $315 million buckaroos in her pocket those writers that made her famous with their years of unpaid blogging began to think that they deserved to get a piece of the puffypie at long last…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Net Neutrality Supporters Admit, They Want Property Rights Eliminated

-By Warner Todd Huston

Oh, Net Neutrality sure sounds like a great idea. Why, Net Neutrality supporters only want what’s best for “the people,” right? They only want the Internet to be a playground for all, free of the influence of evil corporations, and they want fees to be reasonable for the lowly masses, right? Turns out, not so much. Fair pricing and open access is the least of what Net Neutrality supporters really care about.

The latest wrinkle in the saga of Net Neutrality pretty much proves that Net Neutrality supporters really don’t care much about a free and open Internet as formulated in most people’s minds, nor do they care if corporations offer the Internet in a “fair” manner. No, what Net Neutrality supporters want is the end of ownership of intellectual property. What they really think is that anything that appears on the Internet should be wholly free of any capitalist ends whatever. That includes anything you create, by the way. They aren’t just against those evil corporations. They are against anyone making money on the Internet. That means you too.
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Net Neutrality Supporters Admit, They Want Property Rights Eliminated”


Newest House Net Neutrality Bill Cuts FCC Out of Internet Authority

-By Warner Todd Huston

It looks like House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-Calif) is so desperate to get a Net Neutrality bill out of the House before the recess that he was willing to strip the FCC authority from it this week. For months he Federal Communications Commission has been angling to take power over the Internet and left-wing Net Neutrality supporters were keen to let them but with the clock running down Chairman Waxman took a different path.

Tech Dose Daily reports that the bill would prohibit the FCC from reclassifying broadband under title II of the Communications Act. But there is a two-year sunset clause that would open up the FCC to reapply for this undue power at a later date.

Waxman apparently hopes to get this version of the bill passed out of committee so that the House can pass the bill before the recess. He hopes then that the Senate can tackle its part of the bill during the upcoming lame duck session.
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Newest House Net Neutrality Bill Cuts FCC Out of Internet Authority”


BlogCon 2010

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pictured (left to right)= Robert Stacy McCain (The Other McCain), Joe Schoffstall (Media Research Center Employee), Cheryl Karounos Prater (PraterPost), Warner Todd Huston (PubliusForum), Stephen Green (VodkaPundit)

I am here at Blogcon 2010 at the Sheraton Crystal City in the environs of Washington D.C. The event is being sponsored by Freedom Works and spearheaded by the indefatigable Tabitha Hale.

This is the first time that I know of that some of the biggest names in center-right blogging have gotten together to mingle and meet. (With no attempt to be an extensive list and in no particular order) We have Stephen Kruiser, GatewayPundit’s Jim Hoft, Lee Doren, Mary Katherine Ham, Melissa Clouthier, John Hawkins, Matt Lewis, Jason Mattera, Steve Green, Scott Ott of Scrappleface…too many to name, really.
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BlogCon 2010″


A Guide to Political Blog Comments Posters

-By Warner Todd Huston

I want everyone to know that I love the comments posters on political blogs. OK, truth be known I love the ones that agree with me. The others, not so much. But I really can see the logic to those that say comments are the worst part of the Internet Tubes. 99% of the time the comments section add nothing but vitriol and pointless blather…. not to mention a dearth of grammar and spelling. While there’s the occasional really detailed and good comment that does add to the thread, the good ones are far and few between.

Heck, there’ve been many months when I’ve just shut down the comments section on my own blog due to spamming. Only recently have I turned it back on.

But whatever the propriety of a blog comments section, the sad fact is they are all the same on nearly every political blog. It’s probably just a reflection of human nature, but these comments sections are all so eerily similar as to cause one to wonder if comments sections everywhere are all written by the same few post-happy people.

This may be the same on all blogs, but it is at least true on political clogs. You tell me. Go to a political blog comments section and I’ll bet you’ll find these commenters:

The I Luv U Man

No matter what is posted as the main post, this commenter loves it and thinks it was written by the smartest person in the world. This commenter is SURE that this post is the smartest thing a human has ever written, that is until the next post comes up and then THAT post is just as brilliant.
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A Guide to Political Blog Comments Posters”


Bloggericide: Ohio Officials Charge Blogger With Campaign Violations

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, folks, this is bound to happen more and more as time rolls onward in this New Media world of ours. A blogger is in trouble with local Ohio officials who are trying to Shut him down using a badly applied campaign finance law all because he has been critical of county officials on his blog. That’s right, a county board is trying to silence the free political speech of a local Ohio blogger because he is critical of them.

The Geauga County Board of Elections has filed charges against the owner of the Geauga Constitutional Council blog, independent blogger Ed Corsi. The Board claims that Corsi’s pseudonymously published blog violates O.R.C. 3517.20(A)(2), a code meant to assure that political campaign publications, signs, and handouts have their source transparently identified.

The reason the Board is going after Corsi is because he publishes on his blog critical assessments and lists of local officials that he calls “R.I.N.O.S.” Board officials feel that because he does not affix his name to his blog posts he is violating the transparency rules.
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Bloggericide: Ohio Officials Charge Blogger With Campaign Violations”


Opposing ‘Net Neutrality’

-By Warner Todd Huston

While attending RightOnLine in Las Vegas last week we had the opportunity to attend several discussions of the ill advised plans that the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has for regulating and controlling the Internet.

I listened to a panel discussion and a stand alone speech on Net Neutrality and the plans the Obama administration has for the Internet will surely stifle the creativity and new business opportunities that are opening up all in the overused name of “fairness.”

Worse, these regulations are all being pushed through without act of Congress and under the guise of the FCC’s assumed powers to affect the Internet. These powers that the FCC imagines itself to have are not codified anywhere in law, but the FCC is moving ahead despite the gray areas. Like most of what Obama does, nothing as silly as “the law” will stop them from surging forward with yet another power grab.
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Opposing ‘Net Neutrality’”


Michigan To License Journalists?

-By Warner Todd Huston


This is the face of tyranny. A Michigan State Senator has introduced an Orwellian bill that would provide for the licensing of journalists. There is no doubt that this thing is aimed squarely at delegitimizing the New Media, silencing bloggers, and creating a protected class of state approved “journalists.”

State Senator Bruce Patterson is the braintrust behind this flouting of the U.S. Constitution and outrageously enough, this Patterson fellow claims to be a “constitutional lawyer.” Pair him with the “constitutional scholar” we have as president and we have a matched set of revisionists out to steal as much power for themselves as one can find in any tinpot dictatorship! Even more ridiculously, this mustachioed villain is a Michigan Republican, proving that this sort of megalomania infests both sides of the aisle.

So what is this licensing deal supposed to do for we, the stupid people not able to figure out what end is up with current events, anyway? According to Patterson we can’t get “good information” any more because of the proliferation of new sources of info. But not to worry, granny Patterson is here to save the day and he’ll selflessly take it upon himself to determine what news source is a “legitimate media source.” What could possibly go wrong, eh?
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Michigan To License Journalists?”


Sam Adams, Andrew Breitbart, and Me: The Third Annual Sammies Awards, a Report

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Sam Adams Alliance, a free-market think tank that specializes in encouraging new media, held its third annual Sammies awards in beautiful downtown Chicago last Friday, April 16. This year the event hosted a visit by the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund and featured a keynote address by media maven Andrew Breitbart. And somewhere in the back of the room was little old me, your humble correspondent, there to report on the events of the night.

The Sammies are given to outstanding bloggers, community activists and purveyors of traditional American freedoms all of whom come from humble beginnings. Whether a frustrated mom, a put-upon property owner, or a school teacher that started a blog that ended up holding governments to account, the Sammies awards are intended to encourage citizen journalism, citizen activism, and organizing to affect our governments.


The Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the Public Library

This year’s event was held in the Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the building that housed the Chicago Public Library. The diner was beautifully laid out right under the famous stained glass dome created for the building by Tiffany’s of New York in 1897. We gathered beneath this great glass dome that is the spectacular feature of the Preston Bradley Hall of the Cultural Center.
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Sam Adams, Andrew Breitbart, and Me: The Third Annual Sammies Awards, a Report”


Going to the Sam Adams Sammies Awards

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Sammies Awards are to be held in beautiful downtown Chicago, Illinois tonight. I’ll be attending and (hopefully) live blogging — if my wireless works down there, which it may not. And if they have a place to do it from… which they may not! But, regardless, I’ll have a full report on the event when I get back at the very least.

The 2010 Sammies Awards show in Chicago is tonight, April 16, 2010. Sam Adams Alliance will recognize six of the country’s finest free-market activists and government watchdogs, and feature Internet media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart as their special guest at this year’s awards show. They are also fortunate to have John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal, joining us at this year’s dinner. Hope to see you there!
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Going to the Sam Adams Sammies Awards”


Publius Forum at 106 in DBKP Top Conservative Blogs

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, I was gratified and a bit shocked that Publius Forum almost made it into the DBKP Top 100 Conservative Blogs this year.

I have to confess that I don’t put as much time into advertising Publius Forum as I should and I don’t take any paid for advertising for the site, so we definitely are not a money-making venture here. So, the fact that we’ve gotten to #106 by sheer word of mouth and natural hits is quite an achievement, I think.
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Publius Forum at 106 in DBKP Top Conservative Blogs”


Sam Adams Alliance: The Sammies April 16

Sam Adams Alliance is proud to announce that we will be hosting the Sammies April 16, 2010, at the Chicago Cultural Center with special guest Andrew Breitbart.

The last year has been one of the most active and visible for citizen leaders who support free markets and individual liberty. Join us for dinner, drinks, and conversation as we honor the very best at our third-annual awards show in downtown Chicago. Purchase your tickets today: http://thesammies.com/attend/.

WHAT: The Sammies
WHEN: Friday, April 16, 2010
WHERE: The Chicago Cultural Center / 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago, IL
WHO: Andrew Breitbart, and all of this year’s Sammies winners

PURCHASE TICKETS: http://bit.ly/csL0YQ


Cao Responds to Kelly Accusations of Links to Topinka/Paid Blogger Claim

-By Warner Todd Huston

There’s been a swirl of charges and counter charges with some of the operatives of several different campaigns here that we’ve only had a few posts about — mostly because I think these charges are tangential to the actual issues. It basically concerns charges made by the William Kelly for Comptroller campaign that operatives of the Dodge campaign are actually working for Topinka in a sort of typical Chicago dirty tricks campaign effort. These charges have been returned by the Dodge folks that it is in reality Kelly who is the false front candidate.

On Jan. 25 I posted D2s Prove Jim Dodge Dirty Tricks in IL Comptroller Race written by Tom Mannis of Chicago News Bench because it was a pretty good summation of the charges from his camp (he’s a Kelly man). Right after that 62nd District candidate Paul Mitchel responded to the claims. I posted that address the very same day.

Lynn has also responded to the Kelly camp’s claims (she’s a Dodge supporter) on her blog, Cao’s Blog and I think her voice should also be heard here. Among other things, she disputes that she makes money from Jack Roeser and that she’s a “paid blogger.”
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Cao Responds to Kelly Accusations of Links to Topinka/Paid Blogger Claim”


Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new book about the Tea Party movement — and a movement it really is — will soon be hitting the shelves. “A New American Tea Party” penned by John M. O’Hara, one of the many folks that helped bring us some of those protests in early 2009, is a book that hopes that the reader will come away understanding and appreciating the Tea Party movement as a truly grassroots happening, a spontaneous outpouring of interest backed by true red, white and blue American ideals.

Author O’Hara, himself an early Tea Party organizer in Washington D.C. and the Chicago area, answers several questions with the book: what sparked the Tea Parties; is the name “Tea Party” itself a proper sobriquet; what do they mean; what does the future hold; and how do you make more?

The first thing one might notice is that O’Hara writes in a crisp, conversational style with short subchapters. This makes it ideal for reading bits at a time. This is not a dense treatment and I think his style makes the book very accessible to people of all ages — without talking down to the young or dumbing it down for the more advanced reader.
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Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?”


Liberal Website Wants ‘Teabaggers’ to ‘Die’

-By Warner Todd Huston

The profane, but popular lefty site named “Wonkette” decided that it wants conservatives to die. Either that or it wants homosexuals that indulge a certain sexual practice to die, it’s a bit hard to tell.

In a post outrageously headlined “Teabaggers To Feign Death In Senate Offices, Because Of Whatever,” the Wonkette crew snarks that “teabaggers” will appear in the Senate and will “pretend to die, because they’re pussies, and won’t die for real.”

Now, there is a bit of confusion here, as you can readily see. None who are going to the Senate to protest the anti-American Obamacare policies that the Senate is trying to push through are “teabaggers.” They may be Tea Party goers, Tea Partiers, or Tea Partyists, but none of them are “teabaggers.” As many of you already know, a “teabagger” is someone that indulges in some crazy homosexual sex practice. Most assuredly no one going to D.C. for this protest will be under any apprehension that they will be doing so to highlight any aberrant sexual practice. Maybe an aberrant taxing practice, but not any aberrant sex practice.

So, we have that whole confusing terminology thing going on here.
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Liberal Website Wants ‘Teabaggers’ to ‘Die’”


Publius Forum at Lucky 13 on Illinois Top Blogs

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s the end of the year and that means LISTS! Over at Illinois Observer, David Ormsby has assembled the rankings of the top 50 Illinois websites and Publius Forum shows up at number 13 on that list.

Seeing as how we few, we unlucky few conservatives in Illinois live in a bloo, bloo state, it is not surprising that most of the sites are lib sites. But there are some great conservative sites represented in the list, as well.

Here are the conservative/libertarian blogs as they appear ranked (the number to the right is the Alexia ranking):
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Publius Forum at Lucky 13 on Illinois Top Blogs”


Apple App Store Says Mad Magazine Artist too Mean for Approval

-By Warner Todd Huston

I always knew that Mad Magazine was filled with ner-do-wells that will rot your brain and turn you into a big meanie. My teachers in school all told me so… and they were teachers so they must’ve been right. Now the Apple iPhone App store has finally seen the light of reason on this truism, too. Well, if the App Store didn’t deny Mad Magazine exactly, it did lower they kabosh on one of its nasty, mean-spirited artists, Tom Richmond, by denying his iPhone App registration. Serves him right, the troublemaker.

The good name of Apple computers will not be sullied by the rottenness, and all around anarchy of this no-account, Richmond, that’s for sure. And to assure that Apple will always stand for truth, justice and the American way, Richmond’s crummy little iPhone App has been denied. Take that forces of un-Americanness!

So, what was Richmond’s apostasy, you might wonder? Well, last year cartoonist Tom Richmond was asked to help with the graphic display of a proposed iPhone App that would connect the user with information on their representatives in Congress. It was to monstrously be titled the “Bobble Rep” App. The idea is that you’d key in the name of a congressman into your iPhone and his contact info would pop up on the screen. You’d get a little cartoon illustration of the congressman, his phone number, address and website.

“And,” You might ask? “So blinking what,” you might blurt out? Well, any casual look at these ultra mean, highly objectionable cartoons depicting a few of those well-born and delicate members of Congress will disabuse you of the notion that this iPhone App is anything but born of the devil.

Behold more of the blasphemy:
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Apple App Store Says Mad Magazine Artist too Mean for Approval”


Clueless Arizona GOP Heavies Demonizing Bloggers?

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Ken Marrero over at Blue Collar Muse has posted an interesting if not entirely infuriating story about GOP officials coming down on other officials and certain county employees for having the gall to talk to those eeeevil Arizona bloggers that have been doggedly reporting the corruption stories of county officials.

GOP officials of Maricopa County have been in a bit of trouble recently having been accused of wasteful spending, power grabs and criminal investigations. Marrero even notes that there is a Twitter feed used to needle these officials called CorruptAZSupes.

The barbs have been coming fast and furious and County Manager David Smith has decided to try and stop the bleeding. So, did Smith decide to clean up the Supervisor’s office? Nope. He’s decided to attack Republicans that have talked to the press and the bloggers. Classic shooting the messenger mistake.
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Clueless Arizona GOP Heavies Demonizing Bloggers?”


Why FCC proposed net neutrality regs are unconstitutional

-By Scott Cleland

My NPR Online op-ed, “Net Neutrality Regulations Compromise Freedoms” makes the case why the FCC Chairman’s proposed net neutrality regulations are likely unconstitutional in multiple dimensions.

If you like the op-ed, please click on the “Recommend” check button above the title or at the end of the piece because that will keep the op-ed posted longer than otherwise:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113297709

My proposed title, which was supplanted for space concerns, was: “Taking Freedom From Some Takes Freedom From All.”

Below is the text of my NPR Online op-ed:
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Why FCC proposed net neutrality regs are unconstitutional”


Healthcare Conference Call With Representatives Shadegg and Rodgers

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today at 4:30PM eastern a blogger conference call was held by Representatives John Shadegg (R, AZ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R, WA). The subject we spoke about was that of House Republican’s ideas and problems on healthcare reform issues in both the Senate and the House. The following are my notes of the call, any direct quotes are in quote marks but the rest is my summation of what was said.

The call opened with a welcome from Cathy McMorris Rodgers who introduced herself and Rep. Shadegg. Rodgers talked of the situation in the House and reminded us that 44 House Democrats said they’d vote no on the bill if it has public option and 57 said they’ll vote no if it doesn’t have the public option so the Democrats might not have the votes to pass H.B. 3200.

Shadegg reminded us that the CBO score on the Senate bill was made on 10 years of taxes being taken by the federal government but with only 7 years of coverage afforded, so it’s no wonder the bill sounds like it is paid for. Shadegg also warned of the political monkeying that is going on with the Baucus bill in the Senate. He mentioned that Harry Reid is down in the polls back home so he tried to slip through a sleight of hand way for four favored states to get special Medicaid provisions (including Nev., Oregon, Mich.) forcing the other 46 states to pick up the tab. This was Reid’s attempt to find success in his upcoming elections in Nevada.
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Healthcare Conference Call With Representatives Shadegg and Rodgers”


Lefty Outrage at ‘Conservative’ Article Misses Key Fact, Writer Isn’t Conservative

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left is in an uproar today. They got their panties in a bunch over a piece that ran on the conservative newsblog NewsMax.com where it was suggested that Obama’s irresponsible actions as president could result in a military coup that would “restore” the Constitution.

Not completely without reason, many lefty blogs have lost their tiny little minds over this article. The piece was written by NewsMax blog contributor John L. Perry and talked of a “bloodless coup” where “Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars.” Perry wondered if some “patriotic general” might confront the president (or a president of the future) and demand that he allow the military a shared power in government or face a military overthrow.

It was all speculation and phrased as a question, not asserted as fact or presented as imminent, of course. But this sort of over-the-top foolishness really does not add to the national debate, I have to agree. So, the lefty sites that railed against this NewsMax.com piece were right on that base level.

NewsMax.com has since removed the article and issued a statement that Perry is an unpaid member of NewsMax.

But there is one tiny, little, bitty fact about this story and its author that every single one of these lefty sites that are railing about this story have left out.

The fact of the matter is that John L. Perry is not a conservative. In fact his bio page says that he’s worked for Jimmy Carter, a Democrat governor of Florida and other Democrat Party institutions.
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Lefty Outrage at ‘Conservative’ Article Misses Key Fact, Writer Isn’t Conservative”