Texas Legislator Violates 1st Amendment
I’m not as concerned about the potential for governmental abuse of information as I am with actual government abuse of power. There are actual liberties being chiseled away by elected representative bodies, and when average citizens decide to speak up against it, they are physically removed from the legislative chamber.
While amateur constitutional scholars and Infowars cretins conflate “rights” with “being a dick to a cop and seeing what happens”, this woman is a victim of governmental restraint of political speech. Good for Sarah Slamen, aka @VictorianPrude, and shame on @SenJaneNelson.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTqh7xNdrqM&w=640&h=360]
Interviewed later by a Daily Kos user, Slamen wrote that she was never given a reason why she was expelled before her allotted speaking time had elapsed:
There was no explanation. Senator Jane Nelson tried to say I was being disrespectful but how would she know? I barely got to give the complete performance review of every member on the committee. Pointing out that Sen. Donna Campbell is an ophthalmologist is not disrespectful when she asserts in a state hearing that she should be THE expert on reproductive health. What was disrespectful was the parade of anti-choice zealots and misogynists who got up for 13 hours and called women murderers, killers, promiscuous, thoughtless, and selfish. Not a peep from committee chair Nelson on those.
Texas. Freedom and Liberty, but only if you’re a right-wing zealot.
Now that we have evidence showing the Texas right-wing zealots are no better than the left-wing New York progressives, it is time for all to make a rational choice to embrace libertarianism.
Libertarianism is conservatism on steroids, mixed in with eased drug laws to give it that crunchy, hippie granola vibe.
NO. THANKS.
I always thought libertarianism was that awkward confluence of conservative and liberal. That uncomfortable place where two sides that detest each other find common ground and then go take a shower.
Libertarianism is best described as the application of science and logic to politics.
If that’s what it was…I’d BE a Libertarian. It isn’t and I’m not—Weird Picture Mike!
Why is it that standing up for free speech (BoR Amendment 1) is heroic, but resisting an illegal police search (BoR Amendment 4) is being a “cretin” or a “dick”? While I don’t want to embrace libertarianism (too lenient with capitalist poison-for-profit schemes), the Bill of Rights is a good place for serious leftists and serious libertarians to come together against the Bush/Obama partisans of Rights-Lite.
Because DWI checkpoints are not violative of the 4th amendment. Because a cop asking you for a driver’s license while you’re driving a car is not violative of the 4th amendment. Because a cop asking you to roll your window down at a DWI checkpoint is not violative of the 4th amendment. Probably that’s why.
Nice lawyerly distraction, Alan, but you’ve chosen all the things that aren’t problematic. Neither is wearing a cop hat–that isn’t “violative of” the 4th amendment either. But an illegal search of a car, without probable cause, how about that one?
I’m not sure there was any illegal search. Also, probable cause isn’t the standard for all detentions or searches. In the end, the kid was allowed to go on his merry way.
Therein lies the problem, the legislatures and courts have destroyed the 4th Amendment and people buy that crap.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,
supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
There is nothing particularly controversial about this.
Sorry for the temporary thread hijack on FB Alan. I didn’t see all of the proceedings, but nobody should be removed from a public hearing unless their conduct initiates a riot. You have the right to be heard as a citizen as long as you are civil about it. The more civil you are on a hot issue IMO the better your message is heard.
BTW, Cops hold the power of the law. Many videos on YouTube these days on how citizens “Use their knowledge of the law” to try and make the cops overplay their hand. Those who work in the system, wearing a tin star or no, see these folks as “Being a Dick”. Most of them never got to be standing along the highway in front of a vehicle they just pulled over or stopping a person on the street, not knowing that through no fault of their own it might be the last thing they ever do. A big part of staying alive is doing the things to ensure officer safety. That includes searching vehicles for weapons, or doing pat-downs. The cop that tells you this isn’t scary every time is a liar. So if you want the cop to relax, Don’t be a Dick.
Let me begin by thanking Art Voice for providing me with occasional terrific entertainment. This is my constitutional right – to be entertained without paying an exorbitant fee and Art Voice periodically provides this in spades.
The idea that Alan Bedenko is a defender of free speech is the most hilarious thing I’ve heard in years. Alan makes this Sarah Slamen character look civil when he is successfully handed his own proverbial ass via free speech. Even his “friends” in WNY know from whence I speak. He is the most common of free speech pretenders in that he won’t crap in “his own backyard” – Art Voice. But watch out when “Alan the Pretender” ventures out to other websites. His true creepy nature rises up as if a vile villain out of a well drawn Skakespearean masterpiece. “Fie upon it foe about my brain”. Or lack thereof in Alan’s case. Shakespeare never created a bigger phony than Alan Bedenko. All you fools in WNY that continue to buy his BS, I feel for you.
It is ironic that Alan, would represent a strange character such as Ms. Slamen when his apparent career was spent repping the land owner class. But this simply demonstrates Alan’s obvious hypocrisy. Imagine what Ms. Slamen thinks of America’s greatest landords of today – Bank Of America, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase. He should justly be subjected to Ms. Slamen’s shrill, ignorant, banshee screed as this new New York resident would subject Alan to and then we would truly know Mr. Bedenko’s real feelings toward free speech. Alan, I beg you, please keep writing, especially in the area of activism as you are a classic NIMBY activist. After all, I need and deserve the terrific entertainment that you will predictably provide.
My favorite constitutional scholars are internet constitutional scholars.
There is no such right in the Constitution.
Why is it hilarious, given that the very existence of this blog is founded on the guarantee of free speech? The rest of that paragraph is nonsensical tripe, where you’re apparently attempting to make some sort of point, but never do.
What does that mean? Why is “his own backyard” surrounded by quotes?
What?
What?
What?
The only thing I can discern from the preceding paragraph is that you don’t understand what the 1st Amendment protects, like most ignorami.
My God, what horrors must have occurred in the Ostrowski home.
Alan,
Congrats a great writer hoist you by your own petard. You fell for the trap. Incidentally, I may have you served for assault and battery for forcing me to listen to this idiot while I respond to you – something that you would never put up with as you are a profound phony and hypocrite. What’s with all the whats?. A fool feigning ignorance? The problem is too many of your readers know from whence I speak. Your tolerance for shrill free speakers that attack YOU with said free speech is legendary in the negative, such that you make Al Qaeda look tolerant. And in this great reply I drew your true nature out. You couldn’t help yourself but drag others into the fray, thus proving my central point. I don’t have to mention the horrors of the Bedenko household. Their inferior product has exhibited itself for all the world to see. Right out of Hamlet – “If he but blench, I know my course”! Oh you blenched big time, as I was confident you would and the beautiful thing is free speech, that thing you falsely claim as your badge of honor, revealed your true character. Thank you Art Voice and thank you Alan. Wait, methinks I hear Ms. Slamen pounding on your door preparing to judge you on defending criminal bank behavior. Alan, don’t you dare interrupt her and send us all a copy of the tape? Thanks a ton. And do keep writing? Ms. Slamen and I will be there to judge you.
Sorry. I don’t speak “lunatic”.