More Quote of the Day Honorable Mentions, Part 47

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"Just dropped in to see what condition my sedition was in" Edition...

Roger F. Gay at Men's News Daily:

"It would likely take at least a one hour daily program to comment on all the stupidity pouring out of TV screens from MSNBC, but I’ll just do my part by commenting on the bit of idiocy that’s been raising eyebrows this week. Chris Matthews opened with a comment on Sarah Palin’s characterization of Obama policies as 'unamerican.' He said, 'those words are license words. They’re permission words.' Permission for what, you might ask? By coincidence (LOL!), Joe Klein had done some research before the show that fit right in. He had looked up the word 'sedition.' 'A lot of these statements,' Klein said, 'especially the ones coming from people like Glenn Beck and to a certain extent Sarah Palin rub right up close to being seditious.' Heilemann added Rush Limbaugh to the list... A more general and complete understanding of sedition links it directly with the established political order. Their view on what that means – standing as a thick metal wall protecting Barack Obama and the Democrats against political opposition – is typically twisted. The direct and established meaning is that sedition is an act against the United States and Constitutional order. Political opposition and use of direct language in expressing opposition to a particular set of politicians, policies, and acts is not sedition. It’s politics."

The Right Scoop:

"There can’t be anything more absurd than this... This is basically what totalitarian elites look like when you put them together. They hate dissent, so much so that they will call it whatever they want. These people are serious, but how they can be taken seriously is beyond me."

Donald Borsch Jr. at Political Inegrity Now:

"Progressive kool-aid drinker, Patrick Patterson, with the Modesto Progressive Examiner, has written [a] fine little piece about how Sarah Palin and FOX News should be prosecuted for sedition... We all know that when the liberal America-haters protest or threaten our Presidents, it is okay. But if your President is threatened by The Truth about his agenda and what it is really all about, you are obviously a horrible person who is seeking to usurp the government and eat the babies of your enemies."

Random Neural Firings:

"Thanks to Joe Klein, 'Sedition' has a fan page on Facebook [here]."

Noel at Cold Fury:

"The Press gets to decide your opinions are seditious–but they reserve the right to publish and broadcast all of their opinions, up to and including top secret classified material which is undoubtedly helpful to our enemies. Democrats killed the first Republican president we ever had–yet they’ve been lecturing us on sedition and civility ever since."

NEPAConservative at Annuit Coeptis:

"Perhaps the enlightened Joe Klein would like to look up the word diversity, it means a little more than skin color. Write that on a napkin Joe! He may also want to look up the words freedom of speech. He may also want to look in the mirror and see how he turned his head when progressives talked about the 'Bush Regime'. Only can a radical progressive like Joe Klein can make these ignorant and bone-headed statements. It is clear that Klein does not listen to Beck, Palin OR Limbaugh. Like most progressives, Klein has zero tolerance for diversity of opinion and freedom of speech. He most likely gets his news from progressive blogs like DailyKOS, rags like Time, and comedy shows like The Daily Show. When accuracy in reporting matters you can count on the liberal media to shape and create the news."

Bruce McCain at Q and O:

"Joe Klein joins Joan Walsh as charter members of 'history began on Jan. 2oth 2009' club... Speaking of gasbags, where the hell were you from 2000 on, Mr. Klein? Plenty of opportunities during those 8 years to be pointing the “sedition” finger. Why didn’t you?"

Gregory of Yardale at Moonbattery:

"Joe Klein, a columnist fluffer for a declining, little-read propaganda rag called Newsweek TIME, told MSNBC that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were 'potentially committing sedition' because of their criticisms of Chairman Zero and his regime. Klein, as it turns out, has a history of accusing anyone who criticizes Chairman Zero of sedition. You know, 'I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration!' I may be wrong, but I seem to remember hearing that somewhere before."

Matt Welch at Reason's Hit & Run blog:

"I am confident Klein's intellect is sufficiently razor-sharp to determine whether someone has crossed the legal threshold of sedition or not. And I would think that if you're a journalist playing the S-card–that is, if you're a free speech practitioner invoking one of the most notorious anti-free speech categories of law–you should at least have the basic stones to state definitively which of the people you disagree with should be locked up."

Bryan McAffee at Right Pundits:

"As Time-Warner continues to try and figure out why no one readers their fish wrapper of a magazine, they may want to check up on Joe Klein. The guy pretends to be objective and a real 'journalist' but in reality he’s just a hack for the left and he always has been... He’s now gone and accused both Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck of sedition... The left has been 'seditious' for about 8 years before Obama’s election.. when they held signs reading 'We support our troops when they shoot their officers'... It’s perfectly fine for the Times to print leaked CIA documents, publish the weak points in our troops armor or even name undercover agents whom worked under the Bush administration and they see no problem with that. Yet when media personal on the right complain about Obama and big government suddenly it’s sedition. It’s very clear that this is nothing but a continued attempt to shut down criticism against their beloved leader."

Jeff Poor at NewsBusters:

"Liberals are all too often eager to charge conservative personalities of using hyperbole to gain a political advantage, especially when it contradicts their world view - whether it's suggesting the Obama administration is taking the country down the path of socialism, fascism or any other -ism. However, it could be argued there's a different set of standards for those same people when they want to make strong charges."

Joseph Klein at the NewsReal Blog:

Time Magazine columnist Joe Klein never misses an opportunity to make a fool of himself... I suggest that next time Joe Klein do a more thorough research job and use a much larger napkin as a crib sheet. He might have discovered the discredited and short-lived Sedition Act, passed 22 years after the Declaration of Independence, which outlawed conspiracies 'to oppose any measure or measures of the government' and made it illegal for anyone to express 'any false, scandalous and malicious writing' against Congress or the president. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson opposed it... As president, Jefferson pardoned all who were convicted under the Sedition Act and helped pay their fines. The law was off the books by 1802... I’ll stick with Madison and Jefferson, who recognized the the right of the people to freely criticize their government. That applies to protecting Joe Klein and his leftist friends who railed against Bush for eight years or Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin who are railing against Obama’s big government policies today... Perhaps it is time for Joe Klein to lift his head out of his intellectual bog known as the Swampland blog. Perhaps he can then begin to understand that Beck, Palin and the Tea Party protestors embody what Jefferson and Madison’s concept of political dissent is all about."

JammieWearingFool:

"Mind-bending stupidity courtesy of Obama lapdog Joe Klein and some nitwit from New York magazine, who chimes in to add Rush Limbaugh to the list of seditious conspirators for using the word regime. Chris Matthews doesn't bother to point out he and his MSNBC co-hosts used that word plenty of times during the Bush administration, so I guess they're also guilty of sedition."

Mark Whittington at Associated Content:

"In using incendiary words like 'sedition' Joe Klein seems to be ignoring Bill Clinton's admonishment about watching what we say. While there is no possibility that the Obama administration would try to arrest critics like Palin or Beck for sedition, it would not be the first presidency to use the arms of the government, such as the IRS, to harass opponents. Both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon come to mind. Even more chilling, and we are using the logic of liberals who suggest, as Bill Clinton has done, that rhetoric can lead to violence, Joe Klein may be moving close to, no doubt unintentionally, inciting violence himself. Some unhinged person, and the Left is filled with such, might take Joe Klein's words as permission to do something both violent and tragic. Far fetched? Perhaps. But if Rush Limbaugh can cause Oklahoma City simply by criticizing the government, then maybe Joe Klein can cause something else by criticizing Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck."

Stacy Drake at The Cypress Times:

"White House lap-dog, pseudo-journalist Joe Klein is back at it. Unable to cope with any dissent or debate from private citizens against the almighty Obama administration, all criticism shall be deemed “sedition” by a man that just spent eight years criticizing a government run by the former Bush administration. Hypocrisy? Stupidity? How about both."

Pejman Yousefzadeh at The New Ledger:

"Someone teach Klein the definition of the word 'sedition.' Klein seems to think that just about everyone opposing the Obama Administration is engaging in seditious activity, but the overwhelming majority are doing nothing to stir up the country to rebellion against the established government of the United States. Rather, they are urging people to vote against Democrats this coming November. If that’s 'sedition,' then the principle of democratic republicanism itself is doomed. Fortunately, it is not sedition, and Joe Klein is just being his usual, hackish, misinformed self. Not a novel experience for him, of course."

Brian Goettl at Conservative Edge:

"I am still laughing at Time employee Joe Klein, who told Hard Boiled's Chris Mathews over the weekend, that the people speaking at Tea Parties were engaging in sedition. It reminded me of the classic scene from Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian.' Klein is the Pharisee in the video [here]."

Neoavatara:

"Now, we have Joe Klein, liberal idiot savant extraordinaire, chiming in... Why does anyone west of Manhattan take this fool seriously? Really? By that definition, Mr Klein repeatedly performed acts of sedition during the Bush Administration, correct? Is he willing to plead guilty now? There are plenty of other liberal examples of such foolishness in recent weeks... Liberals are losing their minds for one simple reason: they simply cannot integrate what is happening in middle America to what is happening in Washington. The liberal dream is occurring inside the beltway: an ever growing government, nationalized healthcare, more government intrusion into every corner of capitalism. Liberals have dreamed about this for decades. But in real America, people are angry. They are angry about unemployment, and failure of this President and Congress to address that need above all else. They are mad that their children’s and children’s children’s taxes are being spent, for no obvious gain. And yes, they are angry, because they see a government unreceptive to them. And liberals can’t understand the disconnect."

Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades HQ:

"Another day, another leftist exploring new ways to shut down debate. Racism, the reflexive bleat of the Left, hasn't stuck. How about accusing the other side of crimes that historically carried a death sentence?"

Allahpundit at Hot Air:

"This would qualify as mindless, paint-by-numbers received wisdom even on a lefty blog — and of course the hypocrisy, from Heilemann moronically barking about the loaded meaning of a word he himself has used numerous times, to Klein actually stooping to use a charge as loathed by free-speech advocates as sedition to indict Beck and Palin. This one’s got it all. Had Beck or Palin dropped the S-bomb on some lefty populist, it would be a five-alarm, all-hands-on-deck, left-wing media furor. Yet here’s Joe Klein, tossing it out almost playfully — and not for the first time — on Tingles’s weekly middlebrow talking points showcase, and no one bats an eye."

- JP