Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

My latest article for the Examiner A Tale of Two Groups is now online. It is a comparison of two different Boston protests a peek:

One group saluted troops, bringing a Gold Star Mother on stage.

The other wrapped people in trash bags representing body bags and protested in front of a military recruitment center.

Read the whole thing and if you’ve missed any of my previous Examiner articles you can find them here. Remember every click on these articles has the effect of a few cents to DaTipJar, so share them with your friends, in fact share them with your enemies maybe they’ll become friends.

The first being the murder of a young college girl in Virginia.

George Huguely, 22, of Chevy Chase had been the starting quarterback, an honor roll student and a lacrosse all-American at the renowned Landon School.

Yeardley Love, 22, of Baltimore County had been a four-year member of the lacrosse and field hockey teams at Notre Dame Prep in Baltimore.

At some point, they had a romantic relationship. But early Monday, Love was found dead inside her apartment, and a few hours later, Huguely was charged in her death.

This is a horrible thing and our hearts rightly go out to her family and community.

The second despicable thing is Norah O’Donnell report that just showed on MSNBC.

O’Donnell when reporting on the Murder brings up the Duke LaCross case and mentions a letter where the accused murder wrote how those players were treated unfairly.

The only even remote connection between the two cases was the fact that the girl was a lacrosse player and the falsely accused Duke players were also lacrosse players. Update: Apparently the girl’s killer played lacrosse too.

For O’Donnell to bring this up to suggest that Huguely’s support of the falsely accused Duke players has any connection to this and to include it in her report is a journalist disgrace. To use this murder to try to score a cheap political point is disgusting and says a lot about O’Donnell. None of it honorable.

I would hope that MSNBC refutes O’Donnell and she considers an apology. As the report took place on Morning Joe I’ll tweet him to see what they say.

Update: The producers and editors of that story owe an apology too.

Update 2: Legal insurrection finds some slightly less despicable but misleading reporting. Ironically both reporters mentioned are regulars on Morning Joe too.

Apparently a federal Judge decided these people were safe enough to let go before trial:

“The United States is correct that it need not wait until people are killed before it arrests conspirators,” US District Judge Victoria Roberts said in her ruling.

“But, the defendants are also correct: Their right to engage in hate-filled, venomous speech, is a right that deserves First Amendment protection.”

She said federal prosecutors failed to persuade her that the defendants must be jailed until trial, the Detroit Free News reports.

Why did the judge come to this conclusion? Might have been something to do with this:

An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn’t recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers.

Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled.

“I share the frustrations of the defense team … that she doesn’t know anything,” U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn’t reviewed her notes recently and couldn’t remember specific details of the case.

It will be interesting to see how this comes out and to contrast the arrest and restrictions on these people while Younus Abdullah Muhammad remains free.

I see two different batches of creeps here yet one is in jail and one is not. Funny old thing isn’t it?

It would be in the headline rotation of ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, Headline News, PBS and BET.

But it is instead the lionized “immigration” marches so it will not make the news:

Close to 20 businesses were damaged after what started as a peaceful immigrants’ rights march in downtown Santa Cruz turned violent, requiring police to call other agencies for help, authorities said.

Police spokesman Zach Friend said an estimated 250 people started marching through the city around 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

It was a harmonious but “unpermitted and unsanctioned event,” he said, until some in the crowd started breaking windows and spraying paint on retail shops that line the downtown corridor.

In other words the crowd was peaceful until it wasn’t.

We hear the left telling us how dangerous Tea Party members are, what will they say about their own?

I think it would be very interesting to call up congressmen who commented on the dangers of the tea party rallies to see what they have to say about events in Santa Cruz.