The right-wing myth that President Obama is a socialist -- and, worse, an out-of-control socialist whose actions threatens to bring America to her knees -- is as nutty as the false rhetoric that the Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity-style talking heads use to spread their destructive propaganda. Still, there's no denying that rabid Republicans who apparently can't tell the difference between socialism and this republic's tradition of the leavening role of government in public affairs are making a dent. Their willingness to use any trick to sabotage the Obama health-reform initiative and his general agenda has fueled the anti-Obama tea-party movement and has obviously made a lot of believers feel free to spread the poison.
It's no surprise that the cable faux news entertainers sling such stinky sludge; they're paid many millions for their performances, no matter the harm. It's another thing altogether when a local legislator broadly distributes an e-mail that spreads a falsehood about gun control, attributes it to a president he calls "a socialist leader," and bemoans what Mr. Obama "and his gang of thugs are trying to do this country."
"We had better fear the government that fears our guns," state Rep. Richard Floyd warned in his e-mail to his GOP friends.
Mr. Floyd, to be sure, is free to hold and disseminate his political views. But when he accuses the president of a gun-control plan that doesn't exist and makes other false statements, he should be called to account. As a state legislator who presumably knows what he's talking about when he cites a specific bill, his credibility is on the line and he is accountable for his misuse of his influence as a public state official.
In his Nov. 11 e-mail, Rep. Floyd thanked his "friend Ed Warren and many others who are helping expose this (gun-control) bill," and he urged recipients of his missive to contact their federal lawmakers to oppose it. He referenced the bill noted in an accompanying e-mail which claimed that SB2099 would require gun owners to report all their guns on their IRS 1040 forms and pay a $50-per-gun tax.
The problem with that is that the bill he cited was inaccurately described (it didn't involve the IRS) and died for lack of co-sponsors not long after it was introduced nine years ago by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat. The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Affairs, in fact, has posted a notice on its website which calls the dead bill a "distraction" and urges NRA supporters to ignore it.
Another bill the e-mails referenced, H.R. 45, Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record Sale Act, the NRA Institute said, was introduced by U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., in January but stalled in the House Judiciary committee for lack of any co-sponsors. Neither bill, of course, posed a threat to the 2nd Amendment, nor is such a threat conceivable given the broad expansion of gun rights by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer.
As for the "gang of thugs" term, Mr. Floyd told this newspaper's Nashville correspondent Andy Sher that he considered that term applicable to the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman, and Attorney General Eric Holder, simply because of what he said was their Chicago-based political background. Yet Attorney General Holder, a native New Yorker and a distinguished former federal judge and prosecutor in Washington, made his mark partly by prosecuting two high-profile former Democratic congressmen, John Jenrette and Dan Rostenkowski. He was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan to serve on the bench of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Unlike Mr. Emanuel, Attorney General Holder has no background in Chicago.
Rep. Floyd's loose and unfounded descriptions about President Obama are similarly inaccurate. His administration's efforts to correct the colossal financial implosion that very nearly drove this country into Great Depression II does not mean the country now "owns the auto manufacturers (or) ...the banks," as Mr. Floyd claims. Indeed, the biggest investment banks that took the bulk of the rescue loans have now paid them back so their ceo's can continue to draw exorbitant multimillion dollar salaries. General Motors has indicated it will soon start repaying its loans.
And expanding access to affordable health care by imposing some long-needed rules on insurance companies would not make the government "own the health care system," as Mr. Floyd charges. It simply means an insurance option akin to Medicare might be made available to people who can't get a fair deal from private insurance companies. Which is why those companies and their donation-dependent Republican advocates are fighting it so hard.
Loosely slinging the false terms of a so-called "socialist" president and his reputed "gang of thugs" around and peddling a misrepresented and long-dead gun bill as a source of fright is unbecoming because it is all so wrong on the facts. Rep. Floyd embarrasses himself, and falsely misleads voters who believe in him, whe he hypes such nonsense.
You must be a completely adoring fan of Obama to write such an idiotic news piece. How could you support a president who has surrounded himself with such a gang of MARXISTS and COMMUNISTS? A president who never ran a business of any kind whose only claim to fame was working with ACORN and SEIU and attending Jeremiah Wright's church for several years. A president who had a confessed terrorist as one of his best friends. Do you not have the common sense to watch Fox news? Richard Floyd is only being honest and truthful in his comments. Long live Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Floyd and any other elected official or news anchor who has the intestinal fortitude to speak the truth about the gang of thugs. Your paper will soon be in financial ruin if you attack the good honest people in your ill advised articles.
Rep. Floyd's nasty nonsense
The right-wing myth that President Obama is a socialist -- and, worse, an out-of-control socialist whose actions threatens to bring America to her knees -- is as nutty as the false rhetoric that the Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity-style talking heads use to spread their destructive propaganda. initiative and his general agenda has fueled the anti-Obama tea-party movement and has obviously made a lot of believers feel free to spread the poison.
Sambad | On: November 18, 2009 at 2:58 p.m. Do you not have the common sense to watch Fox news? Your paper will soon be in financial ruin if you attack the good honest people in your ill advised articles.
Reply To agree with the Editorial and to rebut Sambad.
Above are two views from two people who are divided in their views concerning the different types of people whom they want to be their elected leaders.
The facts are, in the past, as we have voted for the different Parties, some administrations have destroyed the good that other administrations have done for the good of our country. Thereby, not following a comprehinsive plan for improving the Nation as a whole, but having isolated political agendas and leaving the Country with many unfinished critical issues being passed onto the next elected Party. We certainly cannot look at any administration and say, "they were perfect" because there is not anyway one group of people are going to please everyone else. The good part is that we are still standing at this particular period in time. Whither we are "standing strong," is debatable.
The main conflict the voters are having to deal with is separating the truth from the fiction when they need to make their right decisions.
Character and Judgment of people, another way of saying it:
What can we say about any person's character and judgment if they deliberately give out false information? Then what are their true opinions of the people receiving this false information? Also there is something to be said about the people's character and honesty who knowingly continue accepting and using false information just for the purpose of winning whatever it is they are trying to win." Surely, there are not people who want to have their “life’s decisions” made on false information given to them by our elected leaders. The point is that there are differences in the honest mistakes made and those mistakes deliberately made by persons in producing false information for misleading the voters.
And Maureen Dowd, Tom Teepen, and Paul Krugman are paragons of courteous intelligence?
Sambad
Is this the same Fox NEws that in the Past month has had to post retractions for showing FALSE images of Events happening. One event on Hannity that had to be pointed out by John Stewart.
It's a sad day when a Comedian is able to spot a faux paux in the news that you call common sense.
The right wing myth that President Obama is a socialist...
Wow, this whole rant just starts out on the wrong foot.
Bigfoot = myth
Obama Socialism, well, start paying attention, and ye shall see.
AndrewLohr - I read Krugman every time I get a chance. I am fascinated by that guy. He won a Nobel Prize in economics, but the funny thing about him is, he is a Socialist Lefty Libby posing as a serious economist. Some of his writing is outright juvenile in its form and content.
Algore won the Nobel for [unproven] global warming and Dear Leader won it for something he hasn't yet achieved [sort of a "Nice try" award].
Which is a reflection on the Nobel Prizes...which are rapidly becoming irrelevant.
CHARACTER EQUALS COURAGE & GOOD SENSE By Carl A. Patton, FreedomJournal Press
We take our hat off to the editor of the Chattanooga Times. Surely no one can ever claim or accuse the Times of being dogmatic Republicans and tied to any one political philosophy. For many newspapers these days it takes intellectual courage to step away from the ill-founded rhetoric that comes with the Socialist claims of Obama’s presidency. From our analysis most of these people are ill advised regarding the definitive qualities of socialism.
With that said from our analysis the Chattanooga Times Free Press is one of the most outstanding newspapers in the southeast. In fact the Times Free Press can compete with any news paper in the country. Hopefully sometime in the near future we will see an investigative look at Black politics and Black leadership over time in Chattanooga. Since the Political Science Department at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are reluctant to look at this question maybe a progressive newspaper will.
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