Like what Jewel said, I stopped thinking that Glenn was trying to make any “points” that I had to backtrack on. I just read the links if I found the snippet or comments about it interesting.

Glenn sort of only reports the news. If you go there for Glenn’s views, then yeah, you’ll have problems.

And are obviously racists.

How true!

Is America ready to try Cook County Machine politics throughout the United States?

The unfortunately named link is one I hesitate to place here, but it’s the only full copy of the letter I can find, so with apologies, here it is:

http://www.thebitchgirls.us/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/obama.pdf

The two critical paragraphs, where there is legal language, and it leaps off the page at you, are (I have to type it in here myself as the pdf can’t seem to be cut-and-pasted) :

Unlike federal candidates, independent political organizations do not have a “right to command the use of broadcast facilities.” See CBD v DNC, 412 U.S. 94, 113 (1973). Because you need not air this advertisement, your station bears responsibility for its content when you do grant access. See Felix v. Westinghouse Radio Statins, 186 F.2d 1, 6 (3rd Cir.), cert. denied, 313 U.S. 909 (1950)

Moreover, you have a duty “to protect the public from false, misleading, or deceptive advertising.” Licensee Responsibility With Respect to the Broadcast of False, Misleading or Deceptive Advertising, 74 F.C.C.2d 623 (1961). Failure to prevent the airing of “false and misleading advertising” may be “probative of an underlying abdication of licensee responsibility.” Cosmopolitan Broad. Corp. v FCC, 581 F.2d 917,927 (D.C. Cir. 1978)

Now I’m no lawyer, and Book can tell us a lot more, but this seems highly threatening to me. What do you all think? If I were the TV station manager receiving this letter, I’d certainly see a threat.

I’ve seen the NRA ads in question. They’re no more deceptive than many other ads over the last few weeks that have inundated the airwaves. If I could make one point about factcheck.org’s analysis of the ads:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/nra_targets_obama.html

Factcheck takes several Obama quotes and uses them to claim that the NRA ads are false. Well, at the above link, here are some parts of these Obama quotes:

“While a complete ban on handguns is not politically practicable, I believe reasonable restrictions on the sale and possession of handguns are necessary to protect the public safety.”

“And by the way, here’s another thing you’ve got to understand. Even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn’t get it done. I don’t have the votes in Congress.”

These are non-denial denials, aren’t they? If he has a principled position, why not simply spell that out? Perhaps because his principled position is what the NRA says it is. In each case he says that he doesn’t have the political power to enforce the goal. It’s reasonable to assume that if he gained that power, he would enforce the goal, isn’t it?

There’s plenty more at that site on many other claims beyond these. In most cases, the NRA position seems to be quite reasonable. At least as reasonable as the claims made in many other political ads!

The First Amendment’s Free Speech clause is beloved by both conservatives and liberals alike. Obama’s use of the law – as a government agent – to force TV stations to withdraw the ads is a clear example of government censorship. Democrats will be flooding the streets in protest of this outrageous and blatant government censorship attempt… any day now they’ll be in the streets… any day now… right?

McCain’s campaign has never once threatened censorship, no matter how outrageous the ad. Obama’s team engages in censorship tactics with some frequency. One team talks the talk AND walks the walk when it comes to loving America, loving liberty and freedom, and in particular loving Freedom Of Speech in the beloved and sacred First Amendment. It’s not the Obama campaign.