Oh, wait, you don't have to imagine! (being a response in kind to hawkfist)
Metro State Prof Investigated For Palin AssignmentBy Shaun Boyd
CBS-4 Denver
DENVER (CBS4) ― Metro State College is investigating a professor who asked students to write an essay critical of Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. One student said the instructor singled out Republican students in the class and allowed others to ridicule them.
"I was shocked, I was holy cow, this is just an open door for him to discuss politics with us," said Jana Barber, a student in the class.
Barber shared the first class assignment with CBS4. Instructor Andrew Hallam asked students to write an essay to contradict what he called the 'fairy tale image of Palin' presented at the Republican National Convention.
"What the faculty's responsibility is to provide opportunity for critical thinking and civic engagement so bringing something of relevancy into the classroom was the faculty's goal," said Cathy Lucas, spokeswoman for Metro State. "Should he have broadened it and included all the political figures, yes."
Metro State officials are investigating claims of bias, harassment and bullying.
Hallam declined an interview with CBS4. He has revised the assignment.
Students may now write about any of the candidates.
Why, the next thing we know, someone will be trying to shut down debate... Oh, wait, that's already happened too:
They hope people don't notice how they've changed the ground rulesby Jim Treacher
In today's Chicago Tribune, the Obama camp responds to nitpicky concerns about their attempts to shut down radio shows that might say things they don't like, via their "Obama Action Wires":
"The Action Wire serves as a means of arming our supporters with the facts to take on those who spread lies about Barack Obama and respond forcefully with the truth, whether it's an author passing off fiction as biography, a Web site spreading baseless conspiracy theories or a TV station airing an ad that makes demonstrably false claims," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.
Having listened to the previous Milt Rosenberg show with Stanley Kurtz that got "Action-Wired" (which is available here), I can tell you what this translates to:
"We'll provide a page of talking points for you to spout at the host and his guest. Just read it from your screen. Unfortunately, we're unable to provide you with the necessary brainpower to keep up when the host asks you to explain the reasoning behind 'your' opinion, or poses any other question that isn't found in our script.
"But that isn't the point anyway. We just want to tie up their phone lines with thousands of angry calls, both to intimidate them and to prevent people with legitimate questions from getting through. Yes We Can... Shout Down All Blasphemers."
This is not free speech. This is not "people expressing their opinion." This is people expressing Obama's opinion. This is a powerful politician arrogantly abusing that power to try to silence his critics, without even bothering to hide behind Media Matters or Kos, because he knows he can get away with it. This is wrong.
As far as I know, the only precedent in presidential politics is the buffoonish antics of Lyndon LaRouche followers. And I don't think even he ever put out a "LaRouche Action Wire." Probably because he didn't think of it first. Not to mention that he's never had a chance in hell of winning.
What if you have some vague notion that Obama is in any way a good candidate, but you don't like talking on the phone? Well, you can just hack his opponents' e-mail accounts. We are the vermin we've been waiting for.
P.S. But of course I could be wrong, and Jesse Taylor provides a thoughtful, measured, well-informed rebuttal. Here's one of the things he(?) rightly points out I've said:
So, apparently, any time someone calls and registers their displeasure with something, it’s actually a violation of other people's first amendment rights.
It's probably my fault for being unclear. What I was trying to say is that when the callers are registering their displeasure at the behest of a presidential campaign, and they're unable to defend their assertions when they get knocked off the talking points they're reading from the candidate's official website, and the station is getting thousands of such identical calls... I know it's fascist of me, but that seems a bit odd.
P.P.S. Although upon further reflection, it's unfair to say that all those Obama supporters were reading their script directly from his website. Some of them might have printed it off.
P.P.P.S. I'm informed by a reliable source that the RethugliKKKan$ do it too. They target specific media outlets that say unapproved things about their presidential candidates, call them evil liars, and swarm their phone lines. The callers are totally at sea when they're forced to go off-script. They do that all the time. The reason we haven't heard about it, presumably, is because the right-wing media is in the pocket of the Rechimplicker Party. I'm also told that the wingnuts have cornered the market on astroturfing, which must be news to David Axelrod.
Reeks of brownshirt (a phenomenon of the Left, as inconvenient fact would have it) tactics to this observer.