This is the new price of dissent in America. Where once free speech was truly free, being on the 'wrong side' of the Administration now carries a high cost.

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"Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." 

To the American people, the First Amendment is clear and sacrosanct.  It protects citizen dissent in the face of governmental tyranny.

To the current White House and Congress, however, it’s as meaningless and easily ignored as the President’s campaign promises.

Through ten months of the Obama Administration, the nation has learned that the 44th President of the United States enjoys golf, the Chicago White Sox, government-run health care and Czars.  In fact, he really loves Czars -- all 18 of them. 

If there is one aspect of American society the President doesn’t enjoy or tolerate, it is dissent.  Not from the people, not from this nation’s employers, not from his military Generals and certainly not from the media.  

Don’t dare point out that now-former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones is a crazed 9-11 “truther” with a radical background.  Don’t dare be the only media outlet to run with the story exposing Obama’s favorite community organizing group, ACORN.  If you do, as Fox News did, then start packing - you’re “dead” to this Administration.  If you do, according to the Obama White House, you are “not really a news station” and your product is nothing more than “opinion journalism masquerading as news.”

Never mind that more Americans tune in to Fox on a nightly basis than any other news stations currently available to them.  In Obama’s world, the government gets to decide what constitutes legitimate news.  And he would much rather you watch and read only those media outlets that parrot his talking points.  

The clear message: Play ball or don’t play at all. 

Last week, the leadership in Congress expanded upon Obama’s jolly totalitarian bandwagon when Speaker Nancy Pelosi rolled out her 1,990-page, $1 trillion plus, government takeover of health care.  On the West Front of the Capitol, she invited citizens to join her as she unveiled the ultimate assault upon free-market health care.

Instead of allowing everyone into her press conference, Pelosi instructed the Capitol Police to shepherd all protestors away from the event.  Those who raised their voices or congregated in groups of twenty or more were threatened with “forcible removal.”  By the end of Pelosi’s health care dog-and-pony show, two individuals were in fact forcibly removed by Capitol Police. 

This is the new price of dissent in America.  Where once free speech was truly free, being on the “wrong side” of the Administration now carries a high cost.

As another example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is aggressively opposing government-run health care and Cap-and-Trade legislation (an expensive government scheme that taxes and regulates all carbon output).  Instead of openly debating the merits of those proposals with the Chamber, the White House launched a strong-arm campaign, seemingly run right out of the West Wing, to discredit and undercut the Chamber and directly pressure its membership into political compromise.

 Succumbing to the Administration’s assault, companies such as Apple and Nike have capitulated to the Administration’s hard line and pulled their membership in the Chamber. 

The fountains of “hope” that were supposed to be flowing across America during Obama’s first year in office have run dry.  They have been replaced by a rogue band of unaccountable Czars that determine corporate pay scales, White House lackeys who blackball news organizations and elected leaders like Pelosi ordering Capitol Police to stifle dissent at press conferences.

Gone are the pretences to piety that President Obama once enjoyed.  Now, it’s time to play old-school Chicago-style politics.  Rahm Emanuel, Chicagoan and current White House Chief of Staff, is now whispering into the President’s ear.  This is the same Rahm Emanuel who addressed President Clinton’s critics during the1992 campaign by plunging a knife into a rare steak and screaming “Dead! Dead! Dead!”

Could it be that our nation’s “savior” was a false prophet?  After Obama’s first near-year in office, this Administration is attempting to sacrifice both the First Amendment and Presidential decorum on the altar of political power.

The answer for the American people is to speak up and speak louder.