Sarah Palin Agrees that Dr. Laura's 1st Amendment Rights Were Silenced

35 Comments

Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 19, 2010 @10:35 am

To wingloons like Palin and Schlessinger, the First Amendment guarantees the right of bullies not to have anyone hit them back.
MadRocketScientist • Aug 19, 2010 @11:29 am

It’s strange to me that these folks who argue about how clear the language in the 2nd Amendment is can’t seem to understand the 1st.

Touche'!

It is one (of many) of the annoying traits of the irrational right.
PEBKAC • Aug 19, 2010 @11:32 am

Well, very few people on either side of the isle can accurately "count to 10" (to say nothing of counting to 14) if we are perfectly honest about this. Most people cherry pick. The meaning of all the amendments in abundantly clear to ~anyone~ willing to do a little research and be intellectually honest about things (ie not let emotional quibbles, or personal biases get in the way of logic).

To put it bluntly, Palin, Laura, almost all elected officials, most judges, and a disturbing proportion of "we the people" are not in the above "~anyone~".
kmc • Aug 19, 2010 @11:40 am

Ahh, free market forces at work. (Oh, wait, was this one of those times we weren't supposed to like those? My poor little brain gets so mixed up. I try not to listen to it too much.)
jdub • Aug 19, 2010 @11:54 am

Groan. I finally agree with Ezra.
This particular line of thought about the First Amendment used to be fairly confined to entertainment types (cf. Dixie Chicks, other, generally liberal celebrities.) I can't say I'm surprised, unfortunately, that this particular "logic" is spreading.

To answer kmc – no, this is one of the more salutary effects of market economics. Please don't pick these two dimwits as representative of libertarian or conservative economic of philosophical ideas.
jdub • Aug 19, 2010 @11:55 am

In other words, please try not to pick the low-hanging fruitcakes.
Oskar • Aug 19, 2010 @11:59 am

I like "shitbird" better than "asshat", but maybe that's just me.

Also, a short message for Governor Palin: you're a grown woman, not a teenager. Start writing your twitter-posts like a sane person would. "ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"? Seriously?
Chris • Aug 19, 2010 @12:02 pm

I think that's the new Prince single.
Dwight Brown • Aug 19, 2010 @12:25 pm

"I think that’s the new Prince single."

Actually, Chris, the new single from The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince is "I Kant Spel 4 U".
John David Galt • Aug 19, 2010 @1:06 pm

Yes, Ms. Palin, some of your opponents were vicious liars. But you showed that you can't take the heat, so you don't belong in politics.

As for Dr. Laura, I have a certain amount of sympathy. This kind of thing doesn't happen to left-wing pundits no matter how extreme they get; and they own all but one of the major networks. (Yes, Air America failed in the market but that was not an explicit reaction to anything they said.) It's unfair that only one end of the political spectrum gets to have its feelings of outrage mean anything.

Still, the marketplace had the right to pull the plug on her operation.

Maybe she should stay home — as she's always telling other women to do — and start a blog.
Ezra • Aug 19, 2010 @1:23 pm

Oskar, Asshat is sort of our pet term around here. I actually don't use it much, but for this case it just felt right.

And, who is John Galt kidding? A commenter before you already brought up the Dixie Chicks, who would tend to disagree with your assertion that only the monolithic Left can damage an outspoken person's commerce.
Chris • Aug 19, 2010 @2:20 pm

JDG, would you care to point to an equivalent left-wing on-air tirade full of racial slurs that provoked no outrage?
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 19, 2010 @2:34 pm

As for Dr. Laura, I have a certain amount of sympathy.

Really? Why?
Old Geezer • Aug 19, 2010 @2:49 pm

I have always thought that it should be a capital crime to claim a Constitutional right without, a) having read the Constitution, and b) understanding what it says.
Patrick • Aug 19, 2010 @2:52 pm

We'll need a lot of gravediggers if that ever comes to pass.
Matt Raft • Aug 19, 2010 @3:24 pm

Ezra, this is one your best posts. Thank you. Now, when do you go on your traveling legal education tour across America? This kind of confusion–i.e., self-serving, unjustified reliance on the Constitution–will continue until middle school and high school kids are taught the basics of Constitutional law.
Ezra • Aug 19, 2010 @3:46 pm

I assure you Matt, I'm the comic relief/token Liberal/boardgame geek around here, not the attorney. Though I do work with lots of attorneys, I have no knowledge of Con Law what so ever. Heh, my ignorance is my greatest strength (or at least that's what I tell myself!) Trust me, I'll be back to knee jerk discussions of how ridiculously undertaxed the US is soon enough.
John David Galt • Aug 19, 2010 @4:42 pm

JDG, would you care to point to an equivalent left-wing on-air tirade full of racial slurs that provoked no outrage?

"Provoked no outrage", no. "Didn't hurt the pundit's career" — Rev. Wright's "God Damn America" speech comes to mind first; then the whole panel of ABC's "The View" calling the Tea Partiers racist. (The only real racists left in the US are people who "play the race card.") Geraldo, when he had a talk show, also got away with racial stuff that no rightist would.
sth_txs • Aug 19, 2010 @8:18 pm

I don't think her rights were infringed, but I understood her point very clearly. The asshats those labeling her racist and such. I'm not a diehard fan and don't listen much to talk radio, but I found nothing offensive about the exchange. If blacks are that offended by the 'n' word, then stop using it.
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 19, 2010 @10:22 pm

The only real racists left in the US are people who “play the race card.”

So the people who use racist slurs, call the president a "darkie", and post on Stormfront are….unreal racists? Virtual racists? Liberals in deep cover?

Rush Limbaugh says wildly bigoted things all the time and it doesn't hurt his ratings. The difference is he's smart enough to cloak it as 'entertainment', instead of pretending to be a straight shooter as Dr. Laura did. Of course, it didn't help that her whole rant was idiotic, and in response not to Al Sharpton, but to a black woman who called asking for advice because her dumbass husband did nothing while his friends and family insulted her.
Adam Jacob Muller • Aug 19, 2010 @11:19 pm

Whats ironic is that I found other comments she made much more offensive than her saying the N-word. Especially since she wasn't calling anyone that. But her comments about "don't NAACP me" and her comment that the caller shouldn't have "marry out of your race" really belies her racism.

I said, on HBO, listening to black comics, you hear "nigger, nigger, nigger." I didn't call anybody a nigger

She's right, but also quite obviously said with racist intentions due to the other things she said.
Chris • Aug 20, 2010 @6:50 am

Seriously? You're going with a reverand who has no media platform and was not being broadcasted and the cast of "The View" as your examples of "left-wing pundits"? The ones that you believe control all but one of the networks? You're not even a good crank.
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 20, 2010 @7:38 am

sth_txs: because some black people use the word "nigger" to one another, you see nothing racist about Dr. Laura's little tantrum? I'd like you to meet Mr. Galt upthread a bit.
DMG • Aug 20, 2010 @10:39 am

JDG is fucking hilarious.

He is a spoof, right?
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 20, 2010 @10:46 am

DMG, you know the Internet rule: any sufficiently crazy wingnut is indistinguishable from a troll, and vice versa.
Patrick • Aug 20, 2010 @11:39 am

Kindly do not refer to other commenters as "wingnuts," "moonbats," "lunatics," "freakazoids," "latent serial killers who lack only the willpower and the opportunity," or "trolls".

We'll dish out that sort of abuse if it's warranted.
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 20, 2010 @1:26 pm

Fair enough, and to be clear, I wasn't passively-aggressively suggesting whatshisname is a troll or a nut – although I absolutely understand why it could reasonably interpreted as such.
Fred Z • Aug 20, 2010 @4:00 pm

The transcript is at http://www.examiner.com/progressive-in-portland/racial-politics-dr-laura-schlesinger-s-n-word-rant-transcript-audio.

Schlesinger used the word first, to her caller, a black woman, complaining of treatment by her white husband's family.

"CALLER: How about the N-word? So, the N-word's been thrown around –
SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nig*er, nig*er, nig*er."

Later:

"CALLER: So it's OK to say "nig*er"?
SCHLESSINGER: — and not enough sense of humor.
CALLER: It's OK to say that word?
SCHLESSINGER: It depends how it's said.
CALLER: Is it OK to say that word? Is it ever OK to say that word?
SCHLESSINGER: It's — it depends how it's said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it's OK.
CALLER: But you're not black. They're not black. My husband is white.
SCHLESSINGER: Oh, I see. So, a word is restricted to race. Got it. Can't do much about that.
CALLER: I can't believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the "nig*er" word, and I hope everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: I didn't spew out the "nig*er" word.
CALLER: You said, "Nig*er, nig*er, nig*er."
SCHLESSINGER: Right, I said that's what you hear.
CALLER: Everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: Yes, they did.
CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: They did, and I'll say it again –
CALLER: So what makes it OK for you to say the word?
SCHLESSINGER: — nig*er, nig*er, nig*er is what you hear on HB –'

Und so weiter.

I am incredulous that:
-Dr. Laura ever got listened to by anybody. She is shrill and stupid.
-Anyone thinks she said anything wrong – this time. Her stopped clock moment arrived and she was bang on right.
-she apologized. Why do lefties demand and get apologies when people tell the truth?
-she thinks her rights to free speech were abridged
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 20, 2010 @4:41 pm

Her stopped clock moment arrived and she was bang on right.

How so?
Fred Z • Aug 21, 2010 @9:07 am

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nig*er, nig*er, nig*er.”
…
“CALLER: So it’s OK to say “nig*er”?
…
SCHLESSINGER: It depends how it’s said."

Chris Rock, a black person, understands the difference between niggers and black people. Why can he use the word very offensively in that comedy routine?

My adopted son is "black". He often greets my other son, "white", with "Whassup, my nigger?"

All of you overly sensitive babies, white, black or purple, need to grow up.
Base of the Pillar • Aug 21, 2010 @9:37 am

I can't imagine dropping the n-bomb but then again, I do see some truth in the entire matter of its usage. The relationship between two people and the intent of its delivery defines whether its a pejorative or an ironic greeting of comrades. As an example, while I don't use that n-word, I went to a school with a good sized Asian population and we would regularly speak lovingly to our friends using standard Asian slurs. Same with Italian friends. Or Irish or Polish. Our use of the terms within our friendships completely disarmed the words to us in that context. I didn't throw the terms at strangers to put them down, however.

So, the words themselves aren't and shouldn't be verboten, it's the usage that matters. Such should be the way we judge the speakers.
Imaginary Lawyer • Aug 21, 2010 @11:31 am

Why can he use the word very offensively in that comedy routine?

Who cares? The caller did not ring up Dr. Laura to debate whether the n-word can be properly used by anybody and if so, how. She called up because others were making racist comments to her and her husband ignored this. Dr. Laura chose to use this to go on an irrelevant, stupid tangent about Obama voters and black comedians.

I don't see why this is so hard to grasp unless you're trying very hard not to.
Montana • Aug 23, 2010 @12:51 pm

I am so happy that the ugly (inside and out) crazy old gym teacher reaped what she had sowed. She could have gotten her argument across by saying “N word” and not using the word and by not saying "don't NAACP me" but like Michael Richards AKA “Cosmo Kramer”,she ends up the the trash heap of history, a history of her own making. I am so happy that the free market AKA sponsors started to pull their ads (I guess they were exercising their free speach) and she finally realized that she was just another “run of the mill gabby” and her days were numbered. She realized that she was not as smart as she thought she was, finally!

The problem with Palin is the same when she mistakenly referred to Ronald Reagan Eureka College, being in California and we all know its in Illinois, same thing, she does not fact check anything she is going to say. She is soooo Palin!
Passer-By • Aug 30, 2010 @9:57 pm

Yeah, I'll remember that the next time a couple of guys with nightsticks stand in front of my polling place and call me a "cracker". Even though congress made no law abridging their freedom of speech, I'm sure they'll suffer the negative consequences of their actions — oh, wait — the charges were dropped because they weren't crackers…
Patrick • Aug 31, 2010 @4:00 am

That's all well and good Passer-By, but I doubt you live in Philadelphia, and I doubt you've ever been intimidated by an epithet-spewing stick-wielder at a polling place, and I know that you're confused by the First Amendment too.

Or you wouldn't have written such a ridiculous comment.