At what point do people have the right to defend themselves

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Saturday, October 25, 2014

At what point do people have the right to defend themselves: Paul Begala misquotes Joni Ernst and bizarrely misinterprets the rest of her quote

Posted on 12:40 PM by kitkat boom


Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst made this statement in 2012:
"I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family -- whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from a government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important."
Paul Begala, always one to misinterpret what someone says when it serves the right political cause, has this comment:

This notion -- that the Second Amendment gives citizens the right to fire upon federal officials, or their local police, or sheriffs or even U.S. military personnel -- is common among right wingers. But it's one thing to hear, say, goofball Ted Nugent honk off that way. (The Nuge, by the way, has boasted about how he avoided taking up arms in defense of his country during Vietnam.) It is another to know that someone with those loopy views is one step away from the United States Senate.
The Washington Monthly blogger Ed Kilgore has asked the right question -- the one any Iowa voter should be putting to Ms. Ernst: "Since you brought it up, exactly what circumstances would justify you shooting a police officer or a soldier in the head?" 
Good question, Ed. Is it OK to do so if, say, the Supreme Court stops the counting of votes so as to give the presidency to the candidate who got fewer votes? I don't think so. 
How about segregation? If ever American citizens were oppressed by their government it was African-Americans under Jim Crow. Thank God we had Dr. King and not Ms. Ernst leading the civil rights movement. . . .
Clearly, with just over a week to go before the election, we have officially entered the political silly season.  First, I should note that Begala misquotes Ernst in a small but very significant way.  Ernst talks about "a government" taking away her rights, not "the government" as Begala claims.  Begala’s misquote makes it appear as if she is referring specifically to our government, when she is obviously referring broadly to governments (including a foreign power).

In any case, Ernst isn't just talking about one right or even some rights that people have, but all rights.    She didn't say if the government takes away "one of our rights" or "some of our rights," but clearly "my rights."  Presumably, Begala would be upset if Americans tried to fight back against a foreign or domestic totalitarian government that would tried to take away all their rights.  But others would think that it is reasonable.  Begala asks bizarre questions of whether it is OK for us to shot federal officials if they take away segregation.  Seriously? Is this what Begala thinks anyone would define as all their rights?

Begala responded as shown in these Tweets (click on them to enlarge).
Again, the fact that she was referring to "a government," not "the government," seems important here.  In addition, she was not referring to losing just one right, but her rights, is also important.  Begala's misquoting her creates the wrong impression as referring to "a government" can obviously involve a foreign government taking over and taking away all her rights.  Begala did finally acknowledge that he had misquoted her.

UPDATE: Begala later acknowledged that Ernst had been misquoted and CNN changed the text of her quote.


Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in 2014elections, PaulBegala | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Nice review of More Guns, Less Crime by a board-certified forensic expert with a statistical background
    There is a very nice review of the third edition of More Guns, Less Crime at Amazon.  It would be nice if the review got some helpful click...
  • In the Santa Barbara killings, the media tries to avoid discussing murders committed with anything other than guns
    On February 23, 2001, David Attias, a University of California-Santa Barbara freshman, " plowed his turbo-charged Saab into a group of ...
  • Continued massive coverage of the Taylor Woolrich story: What happens when a woman is being stalked but not able to defend herself
    KGTV San Diego : " College student wants right to carry gun on campus " Fox 5 San Diego : " Dartmouth student from San Diego ...
  • CPRC discussed in new Forbes article: “How Bloomberg’s Million-Dollar Desire For Gun Control Is Backfiring”
    The article yesterday in Forbes starts this way and is highly recommended: With the midterms just over a month away New York City’s former m...
  • Note that the places Al Queda has discussed attacking in the US are places where few permitted concealed handguns are allowed
    From Yahoo News: Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems...
  • Tennessee up to 471,882 permits in July 2014, Michigan at 558,403, Utah at 550,663, and Florida at 1,290,362
    Click on above screenshots to enlarge them.  It is pretty amazing that just seven states now have a total of just seven states account for o...
  • Newest piece at Fox News: "Chicago violence: The buck stops with you, Rahm Emanuel"
    The newest CPRC op-ed at Fox News starts this way: Over the July 4 weekend, in Chicago alone, 16 people were shot to death and another 66 we...
  • Despite massive government tax and regulatory subsidies, Electric car sales are stalled
    Not only is there a large tax credit per car, but the federal government subsidizes massively subsidizes electric cars via its MPG regulatio...
  • Obama's judicial nominees being pushed through the Senate at fast clip
    From Politico: The Senate barely does anything these days — except approve judges that could shape the law for a generation.   Since Majorit...
  • With riots still going on in Ferguson, the New York Times publishes Darren Wilson's address
    From Howard Kurtz over at Fox News: The New York Times, whether consciously or not, has just endangered Darren Wilson’s life.   With tension...

Categories

  • 2010election
  • 2012election
  • 2014elections
  • 2016 election
  • 3D Printed Gun
  • absurd gun law
  • Academia
  • accidentaldeaths
  • AffirmativeAction
  • APgate
  • appearances
  • apple
  • assaultweaponsban
  • At the Brink
  • Athletes
  • Australia
  • background checks
  • BATF
  • Benghazi
  • Bergdahl
  • Bitcoin
  • Blacks Concealed Carry
  • Bloomberg
  • Bob Costas
  • brokenpromisesobama
  • Brookings Institution
  • Bruce Braley
  • CampaignFinanceRegulation
  • Canada
  • cancer
  • CastleLaw
  • Chicago
  • china
  • CNN
  • communism
  • ConcealedCarry
  • corporations
  • Corruption
  • Crime
  • Crime Prevention Research Center
  • DC
  • de Blasio
  • Death
  • DeathPenalty
  • defensive gun use by child
  • DefensiveGunUse
  • DefensiveGunUse1
  • Democrats
  • demonizingrepublicans
  • Dinesh D'Souza
  • drones
  • druggangs
  • drugs
  • Dumbing Down the Courts
  • Economics
  • Economy
  • education
  • electric cars
  • Environment
  • EPA
  • EPAgate
  • EricHolder
  • EU
  • FDA
  • FirstAmendment
  • Frank Miniter
  • Fraud
  • Fun
  • Gabrielle Giffords
  • Gary Becker
  • GDP
  • george zimmerman
  • GlobalWarming
  • Google
  • Government
  • governmentcontrol
  • governmentwaste
  • Gun Control Poll
  • gunban
  • gunconfiscation
  • GunControl
  • GunFreeZone
  • gunlocks
  • gunownershiprate
  • Guns
  • Guns in Media
  • harryreid
  • Health
  • healthcare
  • Hillary Clinton Corruption
  • Hillary Clinton Gun Control
  • Hillary Clinton Mistakes
  • HillaryClinton
  • homosexualmarriage
  • hypocrisy of gun control advocates
  • IllegalAliens
  • income tax
  • insidertrading
  • IRSgate
  • James O'Keefe
  • JimSteyer
  • JoeBiden
  • John Walsh
  • Jonathan Gruber
  • Ken Rogoff
  • Knife
  • lead
  • Leland Yee
  • MaximLott
  • Mayors Against Illegal Guns
  • Media
  • media matters Lott
  • MediaAppearance
  • mediabias
  • mediamatters
  • mental illness gun control
  • Mexico
  • MGLCreviews
  • Michael Brown Ferguson Missouri
  • military
  • MinimumWage
  • Monopoly
  • multiple attackers
  • multiple defensive shots
  • multiplevictimcarattack
  • multiplevictimnongunattacks
  • multiplevictimpublicshooters
  • multiplevictimpublicshooters nonUS
  • newjersey
  • Newtown Attack
  • NICS
  • NSAgate
  • nullification
  • numberpermits
  • Obama
  • Obama Foreign Policy
  • Obama Waste
  • ObamaAdministration
  • obamacare
  • obamacare enrollment
  • ObamaCorruption
  • ObamaDishonest
  • obamadoesntunderstandeconomics
  • ObamaGunControl
  • obamajudicialappointments
  • obamalawless
  • obamaleftwing
  • ObamaMisstatement
  • Obamaprivacy
  • Obamatreatmentmedia
  • op-ed
  • OpenCarry
  • Other
  • Palin
  • PaulBegala
  • piersmorgan
  • Piketty
  • Police
  • Police Chief James Craig
  • police racism
  • Police State in US
  • PoliticalCorrectness
  • poll
  • postedgunfreezone
  • privacy
  • privatization
  • ProsecutorialAbuse
  • prostitution
  • pseudonym
  • Public Schools
  • racialdiscrimination
  • Radio
  • RahmEmanuel
  • redistricting
  • Regulation
  • religion
  • RickPerry
  • right-to-work
  • Russia
  • Santa Barbara Shooting
  • scandal
  • schoolsecurity
  • SecondAmendment
  • sexist
  • sexual harassment
  • SharylAttkisson
  • Sheriff David Clarke
  • smart gun technology
  • SmokingBan
  • socialism
  • Soros
  • sports
  • StateDepartmentgate
  • SteveLevitt
  • stimulus
  • StudentsforCConCampus
  • SupremeCourt
  • Talks
  • Taxes
  • Taylor Woolrich
  • technology undermining gov regulation
  • technologycausingcrime
  • technologysavinglives
  • technologysolvingcrime
  • television
  • Terrorism
  • thugishgovernment
  • Tina Fey
  • TomCorbett
  • transparency
  • TSA
  • UK
  • UN
  • unemployment
  • Unions
  • VAgate
  • VoteFraud
  • voting
  • waitingperiod
  • wealthtransfers
  • Wikipedia
  • womenssuffrage
  • womenversusmen
  • ZeroTolerance

Blog Archive

  • ►  2015 (13)
    • ►  January (13)
  • ▼  2014 (487)
    • ►  December (40)
    • ►  November (33)
    • ▼  October (53)
      • News media does what it can to help out Jeanne Sha...
      • Democrats using race and Stand Your Ground laws to...
      • Illegal aliens being encouraged to vote in North C...
      • Newest piece at Fox News: "‘Lone Wolf’ terror atta...
      • Penn Gov. Tom Corbett signs a pro-gun law barring ...
      • Testimony today on gun control before the Australi...
      • KFC employee uses gun to stop armed robbery: Polic...
      • A death spiral for Obamacare: Some numbers that po...
      • More voting machines in Illinois changing Republic...
      • The Weather Channel co-founder announces "Man-Made...
      • So Democrats claim that Obamacare isn't pushing u...
      • More concealed handgun permit data
      • Unfortunately, last week's attack on the Canadian ...
      • At what point do people have the right to defend t...
      • Hillary Clinton: "Don’t let anybody tell you that ...
      • Tina Fey has problems correctly using a credit car...
      • Victoria (Australia) Police: Banning semi-automati...
      • Watch White House make an embarrassing attempt to ...
      • This is just too funny: Communists don't want to l...
      • My newest piece at Fox News: "The truth about youn...
      • Dad shoots, kills armed intruder who broke into Sa...
      • Serious voting problems in this election, fraud, i...
      • One of the Canadian shooters, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau...
      • Eric Holder says failure to pass gun control is hi...
      • Obama adm starts process of soliciting vendors to ...
      • Are Democrats losing the women's vote?: Does Obama...
      • Concealed carry permit holder stops robber who was...
      • Home owner shots man who was breaking into home at...
      • Obama administration scrapped 16 aircraft that cos...
      • Neighboring business owner stops credit union robb...
      • "Find My iPhone" App helps find woman whose care t...
      • Pennsylvania state representative uses his permitt...
      • Concealed handgun permit holder saves young woman ...
      • Washington Post: U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner implicat...
      • Armed gunman got more than he bargained in St. Lou...
      • DC forcing people to reregister and re-finger prin...
      • CNN interviews me on "Why blacks should have more ...
      • One problem that drone package delivery faces that...
      • The EPA scandal takes a new turn with crucial EPA ...
      • Actor Dean Cain speaks out on how a personal exper...
      • Newest piece at Fox News: “Michael Bloomberg’s ant...
      • If you want the best fuel economy, don't buy the s...
      • Pennsylvania state government moving to protect gu...
      • So what do these Democrats know?: Democrats are al...
      • Obamacare causes Wal-Mart to cut health benefits f...
      • Man halts robbery by four armed men at bar, kills ...
      • Information on errors in Bloomberg's various claim...
      • Gallup: Opposition to President similar to 2010 an...
      • Biden upsets allies in Middle East by incorrectly ...
      • Corruption in Virginia, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuli...
      • Union uses Obamacare to defraud taxpayers of $1.3 ...
      • Taxpayers pay for this "nonpolitical" speech by Obama
      • Despite Obama's efforts to hide the coming health ...
    • ►  September (45)
    • ►  August (37)
    • ►  July (42)
    • ►  June (52)
    • ►  May (77)
    • ►  April (52)
    • ►  March (56)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

kitkat boom
View my complete profile