Michelle Malkin has been following this case from the beginning, so I’ll send you there for the background. Basically, Team Obama is calling for the DoJ to prosecute the right’s version of George Soros, Harold Simmons. Simmons is a Dallas billionaire that’s critical of Obama, helping to fund the Obama/Ayers ad that premiered last week.
The American Issues Project, the group responsible for the critical ad, issued the following response to Obama’s attempt at censorship.
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American Issues Project Calls Obama Campaign Efforts to Prosecute Political Opponents “Bullying” and “Censorship”
AIP Responds to Second DOJ Letter from
Obama Campaign Demanding Donor Prosecution
Washington, DC – August 26, 2008 – The Barack Obama campaign has now sent a second letter to the Department of Justice calling for the prosecution of one of American Issues Project’s donors for his role in funding a political advertisement in full compliance with all election laws.
“Having failed in its attempts to get our legal, factual and fully-supported ad off the air, Barack Obama’s campaign now wants to put our donors in prison for exercising their right to free speech,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Project’s president. “These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail.”
In addition to two letters sent to the Department of Justice asking the government to investigate American Issues Project, its officers, board of directors, and donors, the Obama campaign has been contacting stations running American Issues Project’s ad in an unsuccessful attempt to compel them to pull the spot. With no success on either front, the campaign has also begun running its own ad in response. Notably, this ad fails to dispute a single fact in the American Issues Project’s initial ad.
American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 organization, similar in structure to NARAL and the League of Conservation Voters, two liberal organizations that have claimed status as “qualified nonprofit corporations” for two decades. In accordance with federal law, American Issues Project only solicits and accepts contributions from individuals and not from any business corporation. The FEC also sets out specific regulations for the activities of a qualified nonprofit corporation, which American Issues Project follows.
The American Issues Project’s ad began airing Thursday, August 21, and will continue through the Democratic Convention. An electronic version of the ad and full documentation of all statements made are available at American Issues Project’s website: www.americanissuesproject.org.
About American Issues Project
American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 organization representing a coalition of conservative activists committed to raising important issues that deserve deeper examination given their impact on policy and politics. In accordance with federal law, American Issues Project only solicits and accepts contributions from individuals and not from any business corporation. For more information, visit: www.americanissuesproject.org.
23. October 2008 at 3:53 am
I am testing the limits of my free speech in Durham, NC by peacefully standing on a busy corner surrounded by banks and holding up pro-McCain and anti-Obama signs. So far no authority has asked me to leave or even to obtain a permit. The drivers have been both insulting and congratulatory. I wonder if in a few years, if Obama wins, I will be able to do this. I really have my doubts. I know we all have gripes about the system, but at least here in America we can stand on a street corner and protest. If we are not very careful, this right and many others may evaporate. Obama grew up in a foreign country and had many foreign influences. I am not sure he completely gets the value of the freedoms our ancestors died for and which we strive to maintain. If God forbid he does win, we must teach him to respect our American values and hold his feet to the fire about freedom, justice and equality for all people including whites. Obama is very Eurocentric and that bothers me. Europe may have deep seated hostilities towards America since, after all, she threw many of us out of her land as so much white trash. Then we came over here and became bigger and tougher than our cold-hearted mother. Europe knows her sins as well as former slave-owners know the sins of their fathers and mothers. America’s slave system began in Europe and the jewels of her empires were built on the backs of the oppressed. Now she tries to act holier than thou, but we know the truth. She threw us out, we Irish and Scots, we Poles and Slavs, we Gypsies and poor common English, we poor Germans who only wanted to pray to our own God, we Italians and Greeks, we poor French and Swedes and many others. We were foisted onto a hostile climate facing wild natives and forged a path across swamps and through forests and across the wild Appalachian mountain ranges and hot, dry deserts and endless cold western mountains and onto the beaches of California. Along the way we buried dead babies and old grandparents and gunfighters with their boots still on. Then we turned and built the impossible – railroads and industries and magnificant universities and shining churches and stirring music and the world’s greatest movies. Now after all this Europe wants to send their nannies to tell us how to raise our kids and send their money to influence our elections. Europe, get the plank out of your own eye before you attempt to get the splinter out of ours. We don’t need your socialism. We don’t need your thought control. Your dark sarcasm in the classroom. Europe, leave our kids alone. Hey, Europe, leave our kids alone. All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall!