The Reticulator

It’s a good thing we have a First Amendment to protect us from Senator Debbie Stabenow’s ideas about “accountability” and “responsibility.”

SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW (D-MI): I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it’s called the Fairness Standard, whether it’s called something else — I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves. I mean, our new president has talked rightly about accountability and transparency. You know, that we all have to step up and be responsible. And, I think in this case, there needs to be some accountability and standards put in place.

She doesn’t need to go looking for some other phrase than Fairness Doctrine. There is already one in the dictionary: censorship.

Accountability, responsibility, and standards in speech: Those are things that are prohibited by the First Amendment. Transparency we already have.

Maybe if she didn’t have such a crappy ideology that won’t stand up to scrutiny, she wouldn’t feel such a need to stifle the speech of dissidents.

Michelle Malkin says there is bipartisan talk of a bailout for the newspaper business in Connecticut. No, really. Yes, there have been spoofs about the need for newspaper bailouts, but in this case they really mean it.

What next? Bailouts for mainline Christian churches whose fat endowments are getting skinny? All in the spirit of the same First Amendment that covers the church as well as the press?

I wonder what these people think about the principle that there is no such thing as federal aid without federal control. But who knows, maybe that’s exactly what they want.

Republicans at The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard are putting a lot of energy into bashing conservatives who refuse to support John McCain. According to Newsweek, there’s a semi-organized effort to work over those conservatives.

Here’s an idea, though. What if for every hour these Republicans put into bashing and hectoring McCain’s conservative opponents, they match it with an hour spent convincing McCain to support the First Amendment, starting with a repeal of McCain-Feingold?

That would be a force to be reckoned with.

In the latest issue of The Weekly Standard, Jonathan V. Last told of an incident that almost made me want to vote for Barak Obama. It was an instance of a Liberal actually being liberal. When is the last time that happened?

The Clintons would have snarled about right-wingers as a justification for refusing to answer their questions. But Obama tried to engage anti-abortion protestors in a dialog. And he reprimanded his supporters who tried to shout them down: “Let me say just this, though. Those people got organized to do that.   And that is part of the American tradition we are proud of. And that’s hard, too–standing in the midst of people who don’t agree with you and letting your voice be heard.”

Jonathan Last in his blog at First Things later expressed disappointment that Obama hasn’t modified his position on abortion. His subsequent words show him to be just as doctrinaire on that topic as any other Democrat. But I still think Obama deserved his praise. He was willing to listen and was liberal on the topic of free speech, at least. These days when the First Amendment is under assault by the Democrats (campaign finance regulation, fairness doctrine) it’s a rarity for something like this to happen. I had almost forgotten what it’s like for a politician to say things like Obama did.