{"id":5291,"date":"2010-05-27T11:20:02","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T18:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=5291"},"modified":"2010-05-28T08:31:18","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T15:31:18","slug":"don%e2%80%99t-be-a-chicken-stand-up-for-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/don%e2%80%99t-be-a-chicken-stand-up-for-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t be a Chicken – Stand Up for Free Speech!"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Chuck Muth)<\/em> – At the annual Conservative Leadership Conference that my organization, Citizen Outreach Foundation, hosted last weekend, political pundit Jon Ralston, on a panel discussing media bias, asked the audience how many people thought we were living in a socialist country today. Only a smattering of hands went into the air.<\/p>\n

After the panel, I suggested to Jon that had he asked how many people thought the country was moving in a socialist direction, the hand-pumping would have been darned near unanimous.<\/p>\n

The most prominent evidence today, of course, is ObamaCare. However, the never-ending assault on free speech in this country, especially political speech, has been nothing short of frightening \u2013 including right here in Nevada.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Ross Miller actually went to a judge requesting that the court ban a TV commercial which did nothing more than communicate positive information about Brian Sandoval, a Republican candidate for governor. Nothing in the ad was false, misleading or even negative. Nor did it call for the election or defeat of any candidate.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the beef?<\/p>\n

Well, according to Miller the group of citizens behind the ad didn\u2019t properly \u201cregister\u201d with his Ministry of Truth. In Millerland, the right to free speech is fine\u2026.as long as you get the government\u2019s permission first.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t dress up like a chicken.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. In one of the most bizarre dictates by a government apparatchik in recent memory, Ross Miller issued a statewide decree this week banning citizens from wearing chicken suits near election sites! <\/p>\n

Our Minister of Truth claims a state law prohibiting \u201cany badge, button or insigne which is designed or tends to aid or promote the success or defeat of any political party, candidate or ballot question\u201d within 100 feet of a polling location also applies to wearing a chicken suit. Which is clucking ridiculous.<\/p>\n

The Constitution, which still applies in Nevada (for now anyway), clearly states that the government \u201cshall make no law\u2026abridging the freedom of speech\u2026or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.\u201d There\u2019s simply no amendment to the First Amendment which says, \u201c\u2026unless those people are dressed up like giant chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n

For as long and Americans have enjoyed the God-given right of free speech, the government has been trying to curtail it. It started with the Alien and Sedition Acts and continues today with McCain-Feingold. And now, thanks to Ross Miller, we have \u201cCheckpoint Chicken\u201d outposts in front of polling locations.<\/p>\n

To their great credit, and in the finest American tradition, some Nevada voters have been showing up to vote in chicken costumes anyway, literally \u201cflipping the bird\u201d to our Secretary of State-Controlled Speech. They understand what Ross Miller clearly doesn\u2019t:<\/p>\n

The danger to freedom isn\u2019t speech; it\u2019s the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Chuck Muth) – At the annual Conservative Leadership Conference that my organization, Citizen Outreach Foundation, hosted last weekend, political pundit Jon Ralston, on a panel discussing media bias, asked the audience how many people thought we were living in a socialist country today. Only a smattering of hands went into the air. After the panel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5299,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions\/5299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}