First Amendment
May 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Eric Holder doesn’t need to be as creative as Cole Porter in expressing regrets. He’s got Daniel Klaidman doing public relations for him in the risible Daily Beast article “Holder’s regrets and repairs.” Klaidman gives a source close to Holder anonymity in order to deliver a limp noodle such as this: As one of Holder’s advisers put it, the message was: “Look we get it. We understand why this is
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May 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I have greatly admired the work of James Rosen over the years. He seems to me a classic old-fashioned reporter, as the events of the past week have strongly suggested. And while working his day job at Fox News, he also wrote an intensely interesting biography cum history, The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. Rosen’s biography of Mitchell was unjustly neglected upon its publication in 2008.
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May 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
President Obama’s response to criticism over his Justice Department’s seizure, without notice or the opportunity for a hearing, of phone records from the Associated Press and emails in Fox reporter James Rosen’s personal account has been surpassingly strange. Whenever he has addressed the issue, he has cited his own support for a media shield law as if that were somehow exculpatory. Thus, in today’s national security speech he said: I’m
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May 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday the Washington Post broke an explosive story: as part of a leak investigation, the Department of Justice obtained access to Fox News reporter James Rosen’s email account, without giving notice of such access to Rosen, Fox or anyone else: When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving
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May 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
According to Eric Holder, Eric Holder is no more responsible for the investigation of the Associated Press than Barack Obama is for events in Benghazi according to Barack Obama. That was Holder’s theme in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, which I first read about yesterday in a post by Allahpundit at Hot Air. Looking around for a narrative account of Holder’s testimony this morning, I find the liberal
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December 15, 2012 — John Hinderaker
In the wake of yesterday’s mass murder at Sandy Hook elementary school, calls for government to “do something” are everywhere. President Obama says we must take “meaningful action” on gun violence. OK, but what action is that? He didn’t say. A logical starting point is to ask why mass murderers like Adam Lanza do it. Most of them don’t intend to survive; their murders are a form of suicide culminating
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November 26, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Liberal support for free speech has been waning for a long time, and at present it seems to be just about extinct. The latest evidence is a story in today’s New York Times about Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man who made the video that was falsely blamed for the Benghazi attack, and has languished in jail for the last two months as a result. One might think that the Times
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October 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I wrote yesterday about liberal attacks on employers who communicate with their employees about politics and about how particular policies would impact their businesses. I noted that in this respect, the Citizens United decision has been interpreted as leveling the playing field between companies and unions, which have been telling their members–both willing and unwilling members–how to vote for many years. I argued that most workers identify their own economic
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October 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Last June, Mitt Romney conducted a conference call with a group of small business owners, in the course of which he urged his listeners to talk to their employees about how political decisions can affect their companies: I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And
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September 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
A judge in New York has ruled that the city’s transportation authority cannot refuse to accept display ads in subway stations because they are “demeaning” to jihadists. The New York Post reports: A provocative ad that equates some Muslim radicals with savages is set to go up next week in the New York City subway system, just as violent protests in the Middle East over an anti-Islamic film ridiculing the
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September 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Reuters reports that the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will revive long-standing attempts to make insults against religions an international criminal offense. Now the timing is perfect, but why would anyone who supports freedom of speech want to join the cause? The OIC secretary-general discreetly explained that the “deliberate, motivated and systematic abuse of this freedom” were a danger to global security and stability. Ah, the anti-blasphemhy brigade is
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September 15, 2012 — John Hinderaker
In order to spare themselves the sort of critical scrutiny to which they are unaccustomed, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have fallen in with the absurd claim that violence has broken out in eleven Muslim countries, and terrorists armed with RPGs and (reportedly) mortars carried out a military operation to assassinate a U.S. ambassador, as a result of a 14-minute YouTube video. As always, Obama’s first priority is to point
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August 1, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Reader Chris E. reports from Peabody, Massachusetts: Figured you would like to see this photo – having lived in the South, I know Chick-fil-A very well. I don’t eat fast food often, but decided after reading your post to go the local store at the North Shore Mall in Peabody, MA. Needless to say, the line was at least 150 people deep – if you look at the attached photo,
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August 1, 2012 — John Hinderaker
If you can make it to a Chick-fil-A today, please do: it’s an opportunity to fight back against the anti-free speech movement. You can locate a Chick-fil-A restaurant near you here. You can also follow the action on Twitter, as people record their visits to Chick-fil-A and post photos of what I am sure will be crowded restaurants. And, by the way, Ted Cruz got a jump on Appreciation Day
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June 17, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I previewed Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s AEI address on threats to the First Amendment in “McConnell at the bridge” in advance of the speech on Friday. Senator McConnell’s office has now posted the text of the speech. The video is below. The American Glob’s Aleister G. breaks down the video with a timeline here. This is an important speech on an important subject. Please check it out.
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June 14, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has long been a supporter of the First Amendment rights of citizens in the face of what goes under the name of campaign finance reform. He knows what he is talking about and he has been a stalwart on the subject. Tomorrow he will be giving a major address at the American Enterprise Institute on “Growing Threats to the First Amendment” at 11:15 a.m. (Eastern).
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