The Democrats attacks on the 2nd amendment have been a tradition going back as far as I can remember. Assurances to the contrary are, well, lies designed to mitigate the wrath of an electorate enamored of its rights to bear arms.

Now its the first amendment's turn.

It is understandable that the administration has secrets and wants to keep them. But this campaign to flush out sources has the feel of chest-thumping and intimidation. It is one thing to protect information that might put Americans in danger or undermine national security; it is another to bring cases against whistle-blowers and others who divulge information to spur debate and raise questions about public policy.

Its a pretty scary thing when the Justice Department comes calling, and expensive too, which is the point. Its just easier to roll over and make them go away than defend one's rights at great personal cost.

The pretext of national security is dubious just on the basis of the Democrat's delight with leaks during the Bush administration. The Obama administration's efforts to disenfranchise Fox News (as an example) deepens suspicions that a larger strategy is at play.

Well, if you thought that, you'd be right. The kind of total transformation Obama promised if elected requires a major shift in public attitudes. Americans, like citizens of other socialist countries, must place their confidence in government institutions to resolve their personal and community issues. Only in that way can the ruling class exercise the kind of power that they apparently believe to be their birthright.

We have of course heard familiar rhetoric about evil oil companies, evil Fox News, and the general anointing as devil spawn anyone that consistently obstructs the Democrat's socialist agenda. That's easy to do whether in or out of power. Yet it has only been recently that Democrats have had the opportunity to exercise what we'll euphemistically call a positive campaign to engender trust and confidence in government.

Well that's a problem. Just as public corporations are perfectly willing to screw their customers in the name of their shareholders, government bureaucracies are just as willing to screw the citizens for their shareholders--which isn't us, but rather their political and union masters. Creating confidence in that dysfunctional mess isn't going to happen naturally and so a little help is needed.

PR spin.

If you can't actually do your job right, you can always fall back on spinning your performance by taking credit and assigning blame. Of course, when you're the government, you have advantage over large corporations in that you can actually prosecute people--threatening them with the loss of their freedom and confiscation of their assets (well, corporations have at least a limited ability to do this as well...).

The 1st amendment is a huge obstacle to the Democrat's plans to remake the country in France's image, and so therefore must be challenged and undermined wherever possible.

That constitution thing is just a great big hassle for the oh-so-smart people that want to run everything. Don't worry though--they'll be big fans of the 1st amendment again when once again have a Republican President.