Senate Democrats are going to put on a show today. It won't be a good show. You won't find it the slightest bit entertaining. But it will be scripted, with various Democrats essentially becoming actors and saying what they've been told to say - all in the course of assailing just about every conservative organization in America.
But there's more to it than that. Democrats want to make the activities of these groups criminal, and they think their fetish over global warming provides them at least with the pretense they need to have the FBI harass them, while they send the SEC to do the same with private-sector companies who likewise question the oh-so-settled "science" of global warming.
Nineteen Senate Democrats will attack specific organizations in what they are calling a “web of denial,” according to a schedule of floor speeches circulated by Emily Enderle, a top environmental policy adviser to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.), who is spearheading the effort.
Internal emails about the effort obtained by the Free Beacon reveal a highly coordinated plan between members of Congress and environmental activist groups to fuel a public relations and legal offensive against fossil fuel companies and groups they support.
Enderle’s email also included graphics and suggested tweets to use “as guides as you craft digital content.”
According to her email, Whitehouse and his allies, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), have crafted a schedule for floor speeches on Monday and Tuesday that assigns each participating Senator at least one group to go after by name.
Most of the groups have already been targeted by state Democratic officials that have undertaken a coordinated legal campaign against oil giant ExxonMobil since last year. Many were named in subpoenas sent to the company by state attorneys general as part of that effort.
Whitehouse has been a leading proponent of federal racketeering charges against Exxon and other oil companies over allegedly fraudulent statements to shareholders about the financial impact of climate change.
Here's how Whitehouse intends to criminalize ExxonMobil's statements questioning global warming: Because ExxonMobil is a publicly traded company, he is going to claim that statements made to shareholders that express doubts about global warming are "fraudulent," and thus covered by SEC regulations that govern very carefully what can and can't be said in official corporate communiques.
If you've ever read any information put out by a publicly traded company, you know it's replete and caveats and legal disclaimers, precisely because they know that one wrong move will bring SEC lawyers to their door for a most unpleasant visit. This is where Whitehouse sees his opportunity. Even if it's almost impossible to prove that global warming doubts amount to "fraud" or "false statements" (as opposed to what they are, which is a matter of opinion), he knows he doesn't have to prove it to be able to legally harass them.
And in the meantime, 18 of his Senate colleagues are going to give him cover today by turning free speech by conservative advocacy groups into a "web of denial" that makes the groups in their minds accomplices of a crime.
This got me thinking about how there's almost no kind of organization that really has free speech anymore. Publicly traded companies can't say anything Democrat senators don't like, or they'll send the SEC after them alleging "fraud." Closely held, for-profit companies can engage in political speech at the moment, but only because of the Citizens United ruling that is the bane of liberals' existence, and will surely not be long for this world if either Obama or Hillary gets to name Antonin Scalia's successor. And nonprofit organizations who have tax exemptions will get hounded to hell and back by the IRS if they say anything the left doesn't like.
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So no, you can't be arrested merely for expressing an opinion. But Democrats have mastered all kinds of other ways of using the law make sure that if you say anything they don't want you to say, your life will become extremely complicated as a result. And the few pockets of free speech that remain, they're working furiously to close.
Of course, there's "prosecutorial discretion," so they might let you get away with any number of things if you say what they like you to say, or if your last name is Clinton. But the First Amendment is basically dead because politicians have found ways around it and the public either hasn't caught on or doesn't really think it's important. Today's scripted broadside on the Senate floor is designed to set the stage for more of this. Senators attacking American citizens merely for disagreeing with them is not just because they need something to talk about.
Watch what type of action they're advocating against these naughty groups who say bad things. And consider whether you would really have any practicable legal defense against these attacks if they ever happened to you.
Senate Democrats are going to put on a show today. It won't be a good show. You won't find it the slightest bit entertaining. But it will be scripted, with various Democrats essentially becoming actors and saying what they've been told to say - all in the course of assailing just about every conservative organization in America.
But there's more to it than that. Democrats want to make the activities of these groups criminal, and they think their fetish over global warming provides them at least with the pretense they need to have the FBI harass them, while they send the SEC to do the same with private-sector companies who likewise question the oh-so-settled "science" of global warming.
