2005 January | Matt Margolis

Archive for January, 2005

« Previous Entries Next Entries »

Profanity Or Politics?

Tuesday, January 25th, 2005

I suspect the liberal blogs will jump on this story, which was linked by Drudge, with the headline “Officer Threatens To Arrest Woman For Anti-Bush Sticker”

The article itself is pretty ambiguous:

Some people are angry when they see Shasta Bates’ derogatory bumper sticker about President George W. Bush — but she didn’t think she’d be threatened with arrest because of it.

The Denver Police Department is investigating a sergeant who allegedly threatened to arrest the 26-year-old for displaying the bumper sticker.

Bates said she was told by the sergeant Tuesday that her bumper sticker was illegal because it was profane. She said he told her he’d arrest her if she didn’t remove it.

But City Attorney Cole Finegan said he doesn’t believe there’s any city ordinance against displaying a profane bumper sticker.

The article never explained what the bumper sticker said. I looked into it and found another story that did—and gave more insight into the story:

About 11 a.m., Shasta Bates, 26, was standing in the shopping center store in the 800 block of South Monaco Parkway when a man walked in and started arguing with her about a bumper sticker on the back of her truck that had “F— Bush” in white letters on a black background.

“He was saying it was very sick and wrong and you shouldn’t be doing that,” Bates said. “He was very offended by it. I said, ‘You didn’t have to take it so personally.’ ”

The two argued for a few minutes, and then the man walked out of the store and stood behind Bates’ truck. A few minutes later, the man flagged down police Sgt. Michael Karasek, who was patrolling the area.

It is also worth noting that the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Ted Halaby, said that while he feels the bumper stickers message is distasteful, he “also realizes that it’s probably protected under the First Amendment.”

“There are all sorts of derogatory bumper stickers that seem to be covered under the First Amendment,” he said, “whether or not you find them personally distasteful.”

The liberal bloggers will jump to the conclusion that this was political. The bumper sticker in question wasn’t merely an anti-Bush bumper that read “Anybody But Bush” or “ReDefeat Bush” but included language that would get a radio talk show host fired for using on the air, that is considered inappropriate for network television. The bottom line is the bumper sticker did include profanity, and had actually offended people. I’m not saying the officer was right, I just believe the issue here is not the crushing of dissent, but really is about appropriate forms of dissent.

University of Oregon BANS Supporting Our Troops

Monday, January 24th, 2005

Go to GOP Bloggers for more information…

Kevin McCullough will be discussing this issue on the air today on his radio show.

UPDATE: Click here to listen to Kevin using RealPlayer.

UPDATE: Bloggers unite to support our troops! Place one of these yellow ribbons on your blog:

“Abortion Really Wasn’t An Issue In the Last Election.”

Sunday, January 23rd, 2005

How long do we have to listen to liberals ponder over how and why they lost the election last November? Now the pro-abortion groups are in denial about the popularity of their cause.

Before the November elections, Karen White of the pro-abortion political action committee Emily’s List, admitted abortion wasn’t resonating with women voters.

Now that there is a chance the Democratic Party could select a pro-life advocate as its next chairman, she’s changing her tune.

In July, White told the Christian Science Monitor newspaper what recent polls show: abortion is not an issue that drives women voters nor is it their top priority.

However, in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor this week, White “chides Democrats who say abortion was an issue that contributed to John Kerry’s loss in November and gains in the House and Senate for pro-life advocates.”

Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation, agrees, saying, “Abortion really wasn’t an issue in the last election.”

It seems to me that these pro-abortion groups will do and say anything to keep themselves from seeing that support for abortion is decreasing.

Gregoire Gives Democrats’ Response To Bush’s Radio Address

Sunday, January 23rd, 2005

Washington Democrat Christine Gregoire, was chosen to give the Democrats’ resonse to Bush’s weekly radio address yesterday. The Democratic Governors’ Association was clearly pouring salt on the still open wounds of Washington state’s unresolved election.

Gregoire is still very much a disputed governor… perhaps the Democratic Governors’ Association could have picked someone to read off the cookie-cutter Democratic Party talking points this week.

My belief is that picking Gregoire was as intentional as it was symbolic. The first Democrat to respond to Bush’s radio address at the start of his second term, for the Democrat’s, this was probably their way of introducing Gregoire to a national audience, trying to pass her off as the legitimate governor of Washington—despite mountains of evidence that she may not be.

The court battles still go on in Washington. If I was a voter from that state, I’d feel pretty insulted.