Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Monday, January 31, 2011

The Constitution Was Written To Protect Corporations?

Megan McArdle tweets:

asymmetricinfo Megan McArdle
Progressive protesters demonstrate against conservatives' exercise of first amendment rights to peaceably assemble. http://bit.ly/fjHSvz
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Dear me, what on earth can be going on? What are those nasty progressives doing now to destroy the Constitution?

Twenty-five protesters were arrested in Rancho Mirage, California today, at a protest in front of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, site of the “Billionaire’s Caucus,” an annual meeting put on by the Koch Brothers and other corporate entities and conservative movement operators.

Riverside Sheriff’s deputy Melissa Nieburger said that the sheriff’s department did have contacts with protest organizers, which included the California Courage Campaign, CREDO, MoveOn.org, 350.org, the California Nurses Association, United Domestic Workers of America and the main sponsor, the good-government group Common Cause, prior to the event, and that they were aware that some protesters would seek to be arrested for trespassing. She would not guarantee that all 25 who were arrested were part of that coordinated operation. The police, who wore riot gear, batons and helmets, did put the arrested into plastic handcuffs. Nieburger described them as “passive restraints.” They were being processed at press time, and Nieburger would not say whether they would be released or would spend the night at the jail in Indio.

Nieburger estimated between 800 and 1,000 activists at the “Uncloak the Kochs” event. Event organizers chartered buses from several locations around Southern California and claimed 1,500 people signed up for those buses, on top of any local activists who attended. It appeared from the ground that well over 1,000 protesters were there.

It seems they are using their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble, to protest the Koch brothers' funding of attempts to end regulation of their polluting industries. The protesters are not demonstrating against the right of the Koches et al to assemble; McArdle is just doing damage control to make her husband's benefactors seem like innocent victims.

The protesters generally decried the Koch Brothers’ influence over American democracy, in particular their use of the Citizens United ruling to spend corporate money in elections. Koch Industries’ funding of climate denialism and other conservative causes was on the minds of the protesters as well.



The Koches have every right to meet with their operatives, of course, just like the left has every right to protest their actions. The Koches and their friends, safely ensconced behind the walls of the luxury resort and a line of riot police to protect them from anything that would offend their eyes or ears, are scarcely being intimidated from the exercise of their Constitutional right to assemble.

It's strange that when tea-baggers assemble to protest it's a good thing but when liberals do it it's some kind of anti-Constitutional act. But the tea-baggers are being supported by the Koches, so there's a mystical kind of synergy to it all--if a corporation does something it's okay, but if a private citizen does it it's not.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

She really is shameless, isn't she?

aimai

Susan of Texas said...

It's her finest quality! But it does make her kind of boring and predictable.

She's been a loyal little supporter of the Koches. I devoutly hope that that is how she is remembered by posterity.

Mr. Wonderful said...

OT, sort of: I just re-read her "if I were an Egyptian."

I know we routinely say, around here, that she's "stupid" or "shameless," etc., and often she is. But this really takes the rancid, carcinogenic cake.

Can you imagine writing such a thing in a private email, let alone in public? "If I were an imprisoned Chinese dissident, here's what I would certainly do."

"If I were an oppressed subject of a dictatorship with an Islamic mind-set from birth, raised and educated in a barely modernized society, I certainly know how *I* would respond to things."

You may as well say, "I don't know why rhinoceros are allowing themselves to be hunted to extinction for their horns. If I were a rhinoceros, I wouldn't stand for it."

satch said...

In Wingnut World, criticism equals censorship, and mockery equals intimidation.

Anonymous said...

you probably find her predictable because you've been following her long enough. I just started and this stuff still surprises me and makes me hyperventilate. Every time I think she can't sink any lower, she does.

Anonymous said...

oh wait, I guess you mean her positions are predictable. yeah, they are. I guess what surprises me is that she says these things for everyone to read, and she contradicts herself with no apparent self-awareness. And gets paid for it.

atat said...

Please tell me someone at leasted tweeted back a 2x4 joke.

Susan of Texas said...

They have now!

Anonymous said...

Did we ever learn who her Egyptian correspondent is?

Anonymous said...

Eh, I've been reading her on and off since the early 2000s, and no, it doesn't get any better.

Clever Pseudonym said...

Megan's tweet is absurdly obtuse. She's stupid, but not that stupid. Susan, your tweet, on the other hand, was hilarious. Well, so was Megan's; I just doubt that was her intention.

Anonymous said...

yesterday, while protecting mistress ayn from being criticized as a looter, mcmegs declared that she's "most definitely no rand fan". wtf? she's the self styled jane galt.
http://www.samefacts.com/2011/01/watching-conservatives/no-foolish-consistency-here-or-any-other-kind-2/comment-page-1/#comment-60268
pragmatism

ddayen said...

Sadly, on this one McMegan is following the lead of others rather than bravely staking out new territory in stupidity. I've seen plenty of conservatives referencing my story with exactly this bit of logic, including Constitutional law professor Orin Kerr.

http://volokh.com/2011/01/31/activists-meet-to-protest-meeting-of-activists/

dday

Anonymous said...

Gosh, what will McMegan think of next. (Haha it will be the same thing, again.)

Anonymous said...

Wonder what she would have thought if they were exercising their right to bear arms?

Batocchio said...

Sadly, that is not the dumbest argument I've read today.

Otto Man said...

I appreciate these looks at Megan McArdle's work, if only to be reminded why we let our subscription to the Atlantic Monthly lapse after twelve years.

Susan of Texas said...

For a Libertarian, McArdle has an uncanny ability to parrot conservative talking points.

Anonymous said...

First Amendment rights for me, not for thee! It's quite simple, really; Megan McArdle is simply the stupidest person on the planet, and she proves it every time she hits the "Publish" button.

atat said...

Re: "I’m most definitely no Rand fan..."

She used to call herself "Jane Galt"! How in the world can she now claim she isn't a Rand fan?

Tehanu said...

Progressive protesters demonstrate against corporations' exercise of first amendment rights ....

Fixed.