Michael Ryan Doesn't Understand the Concept That Having Free Speech Has Consequences

Re: "Muzzling the First Amendment," from the March 26th edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

As usual, Mr. Ryan writes total nonsense. No one is muzzling free speech. Idiots, such as Ann Coulter, have the right to say any stupid thing they want to say. However, if they say something outrageous, than they will have to face the consequences, and that's what happened in Canada.

What if someone wrote a letter to the Augusta Chronicle editorial page, claiming that Mr. Ryan's mother was a whore? I'm sure he would decline to publish it.

What would he think of claims that his refusal to publish this letter was "muzzling free speech"?

Hell, he even refuses to publish my letters when they merely point out his habit of plagiarism. I guess he is muzzling my free speech as well.

Justice John Roberts is not simply a conservative. He's a pro-corporate fascist, and no self respecting university would allow him to speak.

Note that in this column, Mr. Ryan made no mention of the brick throwing incidents into democatic political headquarters across the nation, nor did he mention Sarah Palin's face book page where she showed a map with democratic headquarters targetted by rifle sights. Clearly, these are cases of free speech intimidation, but because they happened to liberals, they aren't noteworthy 0f mention.
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Re: "In control--and out of control," from the March 23rd edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Maybe Mr. Ryan should change the name of the opinion page to the "liar's digest."

What a pack of lies this column was.

First, he claims that "democrats voted to turn America into a European-style socialistic society" (as if that were a bad thing) "with unprecedented and likely unconstitutional federal power over both states and individuals."

Private health insurance companies remain in business, falsifying the claim that the dems voted in favor of socialized medicine. According to the front page of this edition of his own newspaper, most law experts on the right, the left, and in the middle say that the Health Care Reform Law is clearly not unconstitutional, thus falsifying the second part of this statement as well.

Second, he claims that this is "one of the biggest job-killing bills in the country's history..." This is total bullshit. He thinks "regulations should be lessened to spur an economic recovery." Lessened regulations are one of the causes of the severe recession we're living in. He provides no evidence that this will cause unemployment. This claim is a ridiculous lie.

Third, he claims that "Socialism has never worked for long as an economic model." Some of those socialist countries such as Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany and Canada seem to have done quite well economically. It works here pretty well too. In fact further on in this editorial he opposes cuts in medicare. Medicare is a socialist program.

Fourth, he claims the law trashes the tenth amendment and states rights. This debate was solved during the Civil War--the federal government trumps the state governments. The U.S. is one nation, not fifty nations. Moreover, Article 1 section 8 of the constitution, aka the Commerce clause, clearly gives the federal government the right to do most of what's in the new law.

Fifth, he whines about Medicare cuts. Yet, conservatives have been clamoring for cuts in Medicare for years. Now, he's opposed? I think we can safely say, Mr. Ryan is a liar and a flip-flop.