Democrats' barriers to free speech

Efforts to silence climate change skeptics could backfire

by Jeff Stier The Washington Times

Democrats' grand plan for this election year doesn't seem to include free speech. The group that drafted the Democratic Party platform recently called for the Justice Department to prosecute energy companies that don't see eye-to-eye with Democrats on climate change.

Is that really a good idea? After all, if the government has the right to punish those who merely question climate change, then it also has the power to punish climate alarmists who falsely predicted the world would come to an end by now due to rising temperatures.  Put simply, the government could block free speech for anyone with an opinion the government deemed incorrect. Democrats should end their crusade before they start feeling the brunt of their own logic........Twenty state attorneys general (AG) nationwide have joined forces to investigate — and eventually prosecute — oil companies. The AGs allege that to maintain high profits, Big Oil has purposely misled investors and the public about the danger of climate changes.

Right- and libertarian-leaning policy centers — such as the Heartland Institute and Competitive Enterprise Institute — are also facing tough scrutiny. My employer, the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been targeted on the floor of the Senate. According to the green crusaders, we were all in cahoots with oil companies in their attempts to obscure the dangers of climate change....To Read More....

My Take - These ideolouges want full disclosure and full access to .....well..... whatever they deem necessary to destroy their political and ideological foes.  Okay....I'm willing to accept this whole scenario provided it works both ways.  All parties on both sides of this issue must make all their records available - as in their e-mails, financial dealings, donors, scientific research and who they've talked to about this.....and then we can all see who's lying - who's corrupt. 

Let go through a process of elimination and each side pick a person to start with, and then another until all they know, who they know, and what they've done has been sifted through.  

My first pick is Michael Mann! 

He initiated a SLAPP suit  against Dr. Tim Ball in Canada and lost because Ball responded to his suit with what's called in  Canada the "truth" defense, requiring everyone, including Mann, to turn over all of their records.  Mann refused.  He lost! 

He did the same thing here in the U.S. against the journalist  Mark Steyn and has thus far refused to turn over what Mann himself calls his "dirty laundry"....dragging this thing out for a couple of years now. 

So let's start with the big players on both sides, and when the dust settles and the corruption becomes obvious, and the liars are exposed - which ever side that may be - then let the law suits begin and the jail sentences long. 

Now unless there's some sort of corrupt collusion between these people and the global warming activists I'm sure all these AG's, politicians, scientists, ideologues and warming activists will excitedly agree to this arrangement....right?  

Okay....let's see a show of hands in support of my plan!  Because unless everyone....and I mean everyone...including the President and Vice President of the United States has skin in the game there's no deal.....and if this isn't the deal their willing to accept....then it's time those being attacked start filing FOI actions and lawsuits....and one more thing.  If they've exceded their official authority they need to be personally sued, jailed and disgraced just as was District Attorney Nifong in the fraudulent prosecution of the Duke University lacrosse players for his actions.