Gov. Brownback is walking it back. Too much heat headed his way I guess.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticl…

report 2 likes, 1 dislike   like  dislike

I sent my e-mail comments to Shawnee Mission East high school principal Karl Krawitz (eakrawit@smsd.org) as follows:

"Dear Principal Krawitz,

As a military veteran, I find it appalling that you attacked the right of one of your students to speak freely. Would you have every American be silenced as well?

I served four years active duty so that every American including youth like Ms. Emma Sullivan and yes, even you sir, would have the right to speak freely. Ms. Sullivan did so, and if the press reports are accurate you demanded she apologize to Governor Brownback and even suggested what she should say. I find your actions despicable, sir.

I strongly encourage you to rethink what free speech means in America, yes, even in 2011. Please don't sully my years of military service by thinking your actions were in any way American. They were not.

You are right that an apology is due, but that apology should be from both you and Governor Brownback to Ms. Sullivan for attacking this young woman who is keeping the flame of free speech alive while you and others are doing your best, maybe inadvertently, to extinguish it. We need a nation of Emma Sullivans, not a nation of First Amendment attackers like yourself and Gov. Brownback.

When I was going to high school many years ago, we had much higher standards for those allowed to serve as high school principals."

report 22 likes, 2 dislikes   like  dislike

Simply unbelievable that in 2011 we have to defend a student's Right to say her Governor sucks. Thank you horrid anti-Civil Liberties Republicans and enabling spineless Democrats for giving us the Patriot Act, warrant-less wiretapping, Guantanamo, rendition, and all the other UN-AMERICAN crap. Osama's 9/11 attack didn't undermine our way of life nearly as much as your chicken-shit responses.

Guess all that corporate Military Industrial Complex money/Wall Street money helps you look in the money without puking...'cause I can't look at your smug faces without puking. Y'all sold your country down the drain...regardless of whether you're the instigator or enabler.

report 6 likes, 2 dislikes   like  dislike

Wow - love the letter to the principal - thanks! It's always hopeful, as gloomy as it seems at time to counter irrational actions(of the adults in this case), that the thugs that want voices to be snuffled when embarrased or confronted, are shot-down!

I think the more enlightenment in NWA, the better. So thank you Kansas student for enrolling at the UofA. Fayetteville is the light at the end of the knuckle-dragging tunnel know as NWA.

report 5 likes, 1 dislike   like  dislike

Surprise! Surprise!

The principal is a former coach.

"During Krawitz’s 28 years at Olathe, he also coached wrestling, football and track and field."

http://smeharbinger.net/eastipedia/eastipe…

report 3 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Lotta dumb moves here, in my opinion.
If Brownback and company want to monitor social media, fine. I'd want to know what folks were saying about me -- if they WERE saying anything in my case, of course.
Brownback's office complaining about it, all the way to the school principal ultimately? Dumb.
The school principal scolding for an hour and insisting (originally) that she apologize to Brownback? Dumb.
If the principal wanted to ask her about the incident, fine. If he wanted to talk to her about possible repercussions she might face in the future out in the real world as a result of thoughtless use of social media? Fine.

And NOW.
"Brownback's enforcer is a former A&W carhop who doesn't spell so hot, by the way." Wanna think about that a little, Max -- the former A&W car hop bit at least?
We all have out little spelling problems and our little grammar problems. Me? Right now I gotta look up "repercussions" above and I'd have to look up commas and quotes if I'd finished this sentence at the close quote mark.
But your sniffy attitude toward car hops, and by extension, perhaps service people in general? Bad form, I think. (Of course, it’s also bad form for me to extend your words, isn’t it?)

report 4 likes, 2 dislikes   like  dislike

Washington County...

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

I noticed the Arkansas sweatshirt. I'm glad she stuck her ground.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Petty bullies in Kansas? Power-bullies inside the Beltway? "Inside The Attack on the First Amendment."

"As the occupiers of Zuccotti Park, like those pepper-sprayed at UC Davis or the Marine veteran shot in Oakland, recently found out, the government’s ability to limit free speech, to stopper the First Amendment, to undercut the right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances, is perhaps the most critical issue our republic can face. If you were to write the history of the last decade in Washington, it might well be a story of how, issue by issue, the government freed itself from legal and constitutional bounds when it came to torture, the assassination of U.S. citizens, the holding of prisoners without trial or access to a court of law, the illegal surveillance of American citizens, and so on. In the process, it has entrenched itself in a comfortable shadowland of ever more impenetrable secrecy, while going after any whistleblower who might shine a light in."

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/28/inside_the…

report 6 likes, 3 dislikes   like  dislike

Max, there's a difference in Fayetteville than in NW Arkansas.

report 1 like, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Good thing she didn't say something dangerous like, "Bhang hits for jesus."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_v._Fred…

report 1 like, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Excellent link to Morris Davis' story, Norma. That story needs to be kept front and center, with all of us pointing and laughing at the perpetrators of injustice (and illegality), and demanding that they walk it back just as Brownback was forced to after much derision for his folly. Too bad that the Kansas teen got way more press coverage than Davis' firing. Her story deserved the attention, but, God knows, Davis story did too and it received very little outside of the blogosphere.

report 2 likes, 1 dislike   like  dislike

Either there's a typo ("he" for "she") in the update, or Emma Sullivan is transgendered. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

And/or Max is a former A&W carhop.

Who knew?

report 1 like, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Yes, I'm aware that Fayetteville is an island of progressive sunshine in Washington County. That's why I suggested she might be careful about venturing north across the county line. And thanks for the editing help.

report 3 likes, 1 dislike   like  dislike

I don't know where to put this but it seems important.

In light of this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/r…

You should listen to this:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/21/sey…

I can't remember if Sy Hersh, a superb investigative reporter, has ever been wrong in any of his reporting. Hopefully we won't allow ourselves to, again, be stampeded into a foreign war with lies and misinformation. And where is the MSM on this? They are acting, as always, as faithful stenographers to the military/industrial/congressional complex.

report 0 likes, 1 dislike   like  dislike

Limiting 'free speech' is far from being a monopoly of the conservative movement. Ann Coulter has hardly been welcomed by students on the left side of the equation including physical attacks on her when she visited campuses. The only 'free speech' is speech that agrees with the dominant group's proclivities. Let's call a spade a spade.

report 2 likes, 2 dislikes   like  dislike

Cato is correct. Viva la difference!

If you want to end up in Andy Lee's prison-4-Profit in Benton County then take yer risks driving there, but best not alone. Make sure your car is washed, all the lights are 100% and don't drive while Mexican. Those 3 items, when overlooked, could get you a stay in Lee's Hotel featuring $5 bologna sandwiches with small,stale chips.

Those who have no reason to go there usually don't. Now that we have a MacAdoodles in Chickenopolis, an Ark lottery, there's really no need for me to traverse Benton County, save for some fine Indian eateries.

Did I mention don't go there alone.

report 1 like, 1 dislike   like  dislike

LOVES bigotry in action. HOW do I love thee? Let's count the ways in Alabama.

Because this is what all the GOP contenders are promising, in one form or another, for America as a hole. Er, whole.

"Alabama is already at the low end of states in employment and economic vitality. It has long struggled to lure good jobs and shed a history of racial intolerance."

Sound familiar, Razorbabies?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/opinion/…

report 3 likes, 3 dislikes   like  dislike

Unbelievable that they would even consider punishing a student for participating in the political discourse. I guess they are trying to make it known to the rest of the world that the United States is pretty much the most authoritarian country in the Western hemisphere. Thanks guys. The world really needed to hear from you.

report 3 likes, 3 dislikes   like  dislike

Couple of responses to Doigotta and Louis of Scrapperdom:

D, I think maybe Max was suggesting that the spokesperson might have gotten into a business over her head if she is going to work in the communications field. You get paid to NOT do things like that.

And Louis, considering all the screwed up kids coming through our schools thanks to their f'ed up parents, there is a pretty good demand for graduates with those degrees you mentioned in the counseling business. It may not pay great but it beats being a legalized crook in the banking industry.

At least in my book.

report 3 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

"Limiting 'free speech' is far from being a monopoly of the conservative movement."


I am so tired of this equating of all 'sins' so that no one is guilty of any sin...all the Presidents are bad therefore Dubya's not that bad...everyone lies therefore Rove/Limbaugh/Hannity can speak for hours without a single accurate fact. HELL YES conservatives are a whole lot worse than liberals about limiting Free Speech...it's not even close. In some areas, good and bad, there are huge fundamental differences between conservatives and liberals'; and the proof is in the historical accounts...the factual accounts, like Cato gives, not the fairy tales that the likes of Palin/Bachmann love to spin.

Of course liberals have their 'sins'; but stomping on Civil Liberties/dominating high school students ain't our modus operandi (heck, we aren't good at controlling things/politicians we want to control).

"Ann Coulter has hardly been welcomed by students on the left side of the equation including physical attacks on her when she visited campuses."

Talk about apples and kiwi...protesting against Mz Coulter making a speech in your community isn't remotely connected to a sitting governor going after a high school student because she criticized him.

"The only 'free speech' is speech that agrees with the dominant group's proclivities. Let's call a spade a spade."

I'll call bull bull. The entire reason for our First Amendment is to protect unpopular crappy speech that usually belongs to a tiny minority.

report 7 likes, 1 dislike   like  dislike

Great update on the wire now - Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback apologized for what he called his staff's "overreaction" to a disparaging tweet directed at him by a high school senior.

'bout damn time!

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Part of the idea of listening to all the speech and knowing that they are all lying to you, is so that you can come to an educated conclusion. Rush, Hannity, et al on the right have some facts right on, some fudgy, as do Rachel and Keith 'frothing mad' Olbermann.

It isn't saying nobody is guilty, it is realizing that all are guilty and you have to use that grey matter to sift the crap from corn. There are folks as plugged into Huffpost as much as others exclusively follow Fox, and it is to the detriment of reason that you partake exclusivley from one or the other. Read both, figure which parts are facts and which are bull.

This young woman did something daring in our complacent society. Unlike the ravenously ignorant and useless hordes at the various OWS, you have one young lady who stood up to a steate bully before the news even got ahold of it. Where we have had kids that are ingrained with blind obediance all throughout school, you had one young lady who would not be cowed. How many other kids would have reacted as she did?

Brownback is a grade A son of a Bitch, and a Thug who would make Franco proud, but this young lady, and her family dug their heels in.

Now that the SOB Brownback has, last I heard, issued an apology of his own, let us see if Emma can meet Brownback, as she wants, and if he can control his bruttish impulses and actually listen to this woman. He at least owes her that much more.

report 1 like, 3 dislikes   like  dislike

Okay, who are you and what have you done with Steven E? While you have some good points on the personalities, you forget that the R politicians are afraid of Rush, Sean, and Groover* (Trust Fund Baby**) Norquist while the D politicians pay no attention to Rachel and Keith or for that matter, Bill Moyers.

Cut Brownback (that name just calls for sexual snark) some slack as this was the work of a person who appears to be petty mean girl herself and he likely knew nothing of it until it hit the national fan.

*In river rafting terminology, a "groover" is a rocket box which serves as a latrine. The name comes from the grooves you get on your thighs and buttocks when you sit on the thin metal rim of the box to make your deposit. (Nowadays, most people pack a toilet seat for increased comfort, but the name remains.) Thus, on a river trip you go to the groover to groove.

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norqui…

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Max, as long as she had the Razorback sweatshirt on, she will be okay in Benton County. And, to be truthful, I have never been abused in Benton County, even though most people who know me know that I am a liberal Democrat. It's kinda like, he ain't going to change anything, so let's just ignore him.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

By the way, I want to say amen to what Zelda said above. I also want to say that Louie ought to quit being such a smart-ass and develop some real beliefs.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

>>Cut Brownback (that name just calls for sexual snark)<<

Like 4 instance "Brownback Mountain"?

report 1 like, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

>>This young woman did something daring in our complacent society.

Yes, truly daring. So what exactly did she say?

"Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot."

Except she didn't tell the governor anything at all. She was being an internet tough girl and showing off her 9 inch e-penis to her friends on twitter and it got picked up by someone with no sense in the Governor's office.

There isn't anything daring here at all and certainly not anything approaching civilized discourse. Just another kid without any political socialization or understanding of the way the world works riding a wave of the raging American culture wars. In other words, what's animating her isn't all that different than what's animating the OWS crowd you (estrada) rage uncontrollably about.

But yes, an act of courage to lie about criticizing an unpopular governor.

Nailed it again, Estrada.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Kids can cut to the chace pretty quickly. She is perfectly entitled to her observed opinion that Brownback 'sucked'. Who is that prick to be monitering what others write about him, then administering punishment to folks who disagree with him? Pretty simple question.

Just who IS this asshat that he thinks he can intimidate kids?

She has even stated that she would look forward to sitting with the asshat and talking with him, not quite the stance of an internet commando. She was just a kid, till some asshat governor and his merry band of brownshirts decided to give her the "Treatment".

The difference between Emma and the OWS is that she was just expressing herself in a way that was niether harmeful or hateful. It was an expression of feeling. She didn't intimidate a line of children, she didn't burn buildings. She was tweeting from the back of the bus. It is bad enough kids have the campus snitch running around trying to listen in on lunchtime gossip, but to also have the Inquisitors online trying to find ONE FREAKIN LINE from one little student is an outrage.

In the end, it was Guv asshat who was forced to backpedal, as he made a storm he could not control. He made the apology because, deep down, he knew he committed and offense, and he is hoping to survive.

In the end, she wasn't lying at all about the guv. He does suck. If there were any dounts, guv asshat removed each and every single one of them.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Max --

The "editing help" occurred about 5 minutes after I learned from another blog that I'd mistyped my employer's top official's middle initial on our own website ... so rest assured I wasn't being snarky!

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Funny you hide behind the "Freedom of Speech" skirt when you are called on the carpet here yet in other threads (OWS) you demonstrate a more nuanced interpretation of it and a willingness to split hairs over good and bad speech.

The governor was a guest her school. She made up a story that she was uncivil to his face and said he sucked. You (mostly correctly) demonize OWS which is at least a political movement with some kind of point yet here is where you magically have decided to plant your flag and circle the wagons, Estrada? This girl is infinitely more boneheaded and vapid than OWS.

This idiot tweeted that she was rude to him and told him he sucked to his face but it never even happened at all. I don't think anyone is defending the governor's staff but the way more troubling thing is that what the girl did is being championed as some sort of exemplar of good political discourse. It's not.

If you want a good, reasoned opinion on the situation, I suggest this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compos…

BTW, you should quit concerning yourself so much with appearing "redeemable" to liberals that you become totally incoherent by taking rediculous positions like this. It's not a good look, bro.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

You seem to have this mistaken notion that I come to conclusion based on what other would like me to believe.

I don't care to appear redeemable, I do care about making an honest observation about a topic. And your ablity to read is serioulsy impared. I listed the differences between the fleabaggers and Emma. Like I have said, a couple of times, Emma does not, unlike the OWS, commit acts of vandalism or trespass. She said something. She made a statement that was hers to make to someone else. So then you have some bully governor and his band of thugs that lower the boom on her. She could have been cowed, but she wasn't.

She knew she did NOTHING that warranted her having to apologize. If she had made that statement in the bus with her friends about, and one of brownbacks quisling heard this, should they then pounce on her as well?

For a person who claims to represent freedoms, you sure have an easy way with bullies of the state. I am sorry and pity you most profoundly for missing the point about what this is about. I guess in some ways, you do like the state to get involved in menial events, and bullying children.

I don't. I defend liberties, even when some seem trivial, perhaps moreso, because they shoudl remain trivial. That is, until made spectacle by some POS bully who believes he has the power to control speech and thought.

I find it very interesting that you defend a state representative using the power and authority of the State to punish a high schooler.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Vandalism and trespass are your standards. Mine are intelligence and responsibility. This "little girl's" tweet demonstrated neither. But on the plus side she didn't sh*t on the street or camp in a public park so she doesn't meed the Estrada standard for vermin so she's A-OK.

At least there is some intelligence in OWS and they take their pepper spraying and night-sticking like men usually. Where is the intelligence in her tweet? Spell it out for me, Estrada. Where is the brilliance? You simply agree with her conclusion so you've worked backwards from there. You disagree with OWS's conclusion and have worked backwards from there. It's pretty obvious.

I have no problem with and not ashamed of the state and authority. If you had any intelligence and sophistication about your love of your freedoms you would ponder where they come from and how they are guaranteed & protected. We organize together in a social contract so that we may have them at all. Freedom of speech and the right to bear arms don't exist in the state of nature. So yes, I love the state and am thankful everyday for it, as you should be. I also appreciate how difficult public service is in the face of ingrates like OWS, this little girl, and --frankly-- you Estrada.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Aww, poor Lee, friend of the jack booted thugs whom he so eloquently defends as they perpetuate a scorshed earth policy on one little girl in one little high school because of one little tweet. Vandalism isn't a standard, lee, it is a crime, and if you like, you can hunt down the videos of those criminla acts. Or maybe in your zeal, you don't see vandalism as a crime.

Liberty is neither lost nor gained by the likes OWS who are simply a mob and gaggle who have a documented history of violence. Liberty is lost because a conversation between friends can be hunted down and punished by some thug in some capital building. Nice to see that you not only play the part of O'Brian well, but that you exhult in your perifidy. Before he knew you, Orwell knew of your type. Your mother would be so proud of that snappy uniform and the salute and lock step that goes with it.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Steven E, I wish you were as passionate about Morris Davis' free speech case as you are about the Kansas teen. It is a far more important "hill to choose to die on". I am not belittling her courage in standing up against the powers that be for an inconsequential tweet (to all but Brownback's crazed staff).

"Morris Davis is not some dour civil servant. Prior to joining the Library of Congress, he spent more than 25 years as an Air Force colonel. He was, in fact, the chief military prosecutor at Guantánamo and showed enormous courage in October 2007 when he resigned from that position and left the Air
Force. Davis had stated he would not use evidence obtained through torture back in 2005. When a torture advocate was named his boss in 2007, Davis quit rather than face the inevitable order to reverse his position."

"Does a newspaper article from November 2009, a few hundred well-reasoned words that appeared in the conservative Wall Street Journal, concluding with these mild sentences, meet Justice Holmes’s high mark?

“Double standards don’t play well in Peoria. They won’t play well in Peshawar or Palembang either. We need to work to change the negative perceptions that exist about Guantanamo and our commitment to the law. Formally establishing a legal double standard will only reinforce them.”

Morris Davis got fired from his research job at the Library of Congress for writing that article and a similar letter to the editor of the Washington Post. (The irony of being fired for exercising free speech while employed at Thomas Jefferson’s library evidently escaped his bosses.) With the help of the ACLU, Davis demanded his job back. On January 8, 2010, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Library of Congress on his behalf. In March 2011 a federal court ruled that the suit could go forward."

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/28/inside_the…

Surely you agree, Steven E, that Davis' case is a far more egregious assault on the first amendment.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Steven E, I meant to add that I wish you would review your concept of exactly what "civil disobedience" is. It always entails law breaking.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Aww, poor Estrada, caught in a sh*tstorm of his own incoherence.

Vandalism is only a crime because the STATE makes it so estrada. Or did you forget in your zeal to characterture me?

No liberty was lost. She was able to say what she said (whatever THAT was) and the world heard it, even if it was terrible. In fact, the girl seems to have made out just fine though you wouldn't know it from listening to your characterization of what happened. My point is that there are no good guys here. The girl is terrible and so was the Brownback functionary.

The funny thing about you freedom and right types is you seem to always forget about the responsibility and consequences part of the deal.

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike

Lee, I am very aware of responcibility and consequence, something Thug Brownback is learning about, too.

Outlier, point taken, but the thing is, Davis was dealing in delicate matters where there were secrets, he was an animals of the system and he knew there were recriminations. He knew he was, in a way, betraying DC, and DC is an animal with little mercy. That said, he enjoined in battle, and as it looks, may win that fight. But, he went in fighting, KNOWING he was getting into a fight.

My point, and this is being overlooked by you, and I know it is intentioanlly being looked over by Lee.

Is a person safe from the force of the state coming after them for something they write from one friend to another? No laws were broken or broached. Is it enough that some state official has his panties in a wad over one tweet?

This is more basic than OWS or Davis. They knew they were engaging in battle.

Emma did not. She was just a girl living her life till some state bully decided to bring the force of the state upon her. That is the one salient point. Is it right for the state to threaten you just for speaking to others?

report 0 likes, 0 dislikes   like  dislike