The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Screaming Out Loud

8.25.04 @ 12:01AM

INDEPENDENTS' DAY
Re: George Neumayr's Gag Orders:

Thank God for the Swift Boat ads. Without this 527 we would have to rely on both political parties and the media for information on the events surrounding John Kerry. Bush and Kerry of course would not have brought it up. That would leave us with the media. Most of the media on this subject has followed the lead of the NYT and Washington Post. These two papers in turn have followed the lead of the latest Democratic talking points memo. These past few days we find that multiple eyewitness accounts of Kerry's actions in Vietnam aren't credible according to the media's high journalistic standards. Yet Democratic accusations that Bush is behind the Swift Boat ads are taken as fact because a donor to his campaign has also donated to that 527. It truly is a scary thought to think that soon most political dialogue might very well be left to the media and both major political parties.
-- Sean Conness
The Colony, Texas

This is a dreadful situation. The crazies now run the asylum. Or maybe Big Brother finally arrives? The Founding Fathers would be ashamed and furious. We all should be -- and we ought to take action.

This First Amendment gag rule, which some predicted McCain-Feingold would be, insults the memory of any soldier who gave his or her life, or was wounded, maybe crippled, for the Republic. They did so, so we could forfeit one of our most cherished freedoms? One that's envied the world round?

It's disturbing now to see the Bush and Kerry camps wanting to quench the outside-the-campaign ads. Kerry I understand; Bush, no.

But it's even more alarming and frightening to see the mainstream media support that. But, hey, what's to be expected from them these days?

Last Thursday, when the New York Times awoke from its slumber about the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth and their allegations against Sen. Kerry, it scorched alternate and free news outlets for even reporting the news. "The assault is gaining attention, with Internet and cable television zealots debating combat minutiae and even whether Mr. Kerry enacted wartime events with his political future in mind or held secret meetings with Communists."

We need more zealots, tens of millions of them, who'll demand our Constitution be liberated and given back to us. That is, if free speech and redress of grievances aren't further criminalized.

But even if they are, how can we allow more erosion of our rights without doing something?
-- C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, West Virginia

The saddest aspect of all re: McCain-Feingold is its evidence of John McCain having sold his soul to...John McCain. In pandering to the benefit of the conventional media -- an entity whose utility is in a historic freefall -- McCain simply hoped to extend his visibility and cachet in a place where Liberals Rule. Without his canny ability to play opposites against each other as an "Independent" (i.e. "Sellout") Republican, McCain would scarcely receive even a Dennis Kucinich's worth of a mention anywhere in the press. One thinks that the saddest aspect of all this is the sense that somewhere in the night of his own personal Hell at the Hanoi Hilton, an extraordinary and courageous young man vowed never to be left powerless again. Never. No Matter What. Thus, as mindless and constitutionally destructive as McCain-Feingold may be, it is only symptomatic of the Tragedy of John McCain. For his world does not envision Mr. McCain, or Lt. McCain, or Alderman McCain, Mayor McCain, Senator McCain, President McCain, Dictator McCain, King McCain, Master of the Universe McCain or even McCain Almighty. It sees only McCAIN!!!!.
-- Gene Wright
Laguna Niguel, California

Much thanks for raising the First Amendment issue. Keep punching.

I see that President Bush has asked the Swifties to pull their ad. Their response should be to politely tell Bush to go straight to Hades, on First-Amendment grounds among others. It's not about Bush, it's about Kerry. If a tenth of what the Swifties are saying is true, we have a serious character issue (not a re-dredging of long-forgotten Vietnam as some have tried to dismiss it). If half of what they're saying is true, we've got a raving sociopath who wants to be president.

I'm not even a Bush fan, but Kerry terrifies me.
-- John Ortmann
Fort Collins, Colorado

People complain about the Patriot Act but they are missing the forest for the trees.

The entire Bill of Rights has been under attack for many years. The War on Drugs allows law enforcement to seize property without due process and in many states citizens are required to put up a bond before they are granted the opportunity to prove their innocence. All the different Wars on Crime are eroding our rights faster, more methodically and more permanently than any emergency war time suspension of civil liberties. Can anyone say eminent domain? Many states use this to steal private property and then give it or resell it to another private individual or company. And this is all in the name of exacting higher tax revenues.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
John McCain, Mainstream Media, Television, Sports, Constitution, Law, Founding Fathers, Military, NATO