San Francisco fails in attack on Savage
Single vote halts resolution condemning 'hate speech'
Posted: August 14, 2007
9:56 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily. com
San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew
A single vote by a San Francisco Board of Supervisors member whose
grandfather emigrated from China seven decades ago has halted in its
tracks a proposal to condemn as "hate speech" radio personality
Michael Savage's criticism of illegal aliens in the United States.
The vote tonight was 9-1, with third generation San Franciscan Ed Jew
turning in the veto vote, after getting up and affirming Savage's
First Amendment right to express his opinion.
Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval had introduced a resolution condemning the
radio talker. After the vote, he called for the tally to be rescinded
and the proposal sent to committee, which essentially is a polite way
of letting the issue die.
"For the record, I do not agree with comments allegedly made by Mr.
Savage, but the First Amendment gives him the right to make those
comments," Jew said.
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Sandoval responded with a personal challenge to Jew.
"If this commentary was directed at the Chinese-American or the Asian
community, you would not be resorting to this rigid formalism on your
part," he said.
Michael Savage, on his show tonight, said he wants people to urge
authorities to arrest illegal immigrants, because he is being targeted
in a "dry run" to see how far illegal aliens can go in silencing free
speech.
"This is a dry run against free speech in America by the Islamists and
the illegal aliens who are now becoming one and the same," he said.
"It's the same organizational structure. … I am the target of this dry
run. They want to see how far they can get in silencing a voice of
freedom in the United States of America. They want to see which, if
any, governmental agencies will stop them."
"Guess what they learned so far?" he continued. "That not only will no
governmental agency stop them in their attempts to kill free speech,
they will aid them in their attempts to kill free speech. We have lost
our freedoms already.
"Lady Liberty has been hog tied. She is being raped by the illegal
aliens. She is being raped by the landlords who are using the illegal
aliens. Lady Liberty is there in bindings screaming for us to release
her," he said.
Savage noted another protest is scheduled tomorrow by illegal aliens.
"I would hope that my own government would be interested enough to go
out to the station tomorrow, logically assuming that most of them are
here illegally – after all this was illegal aliens protesting today,
stirred up and fomented in a mob action by a supervisor who supports
Hugo Chavez, an enemy of America," he said.
"You don't have to be a Sherlock to put two and two together. They're
enemies of the state, they're enemies of the people and they're
enemies of me. But they're here illegally ... they're criminals," he said.
Sandoval had pushed hard for a unanimous endorsement of his
resolution, required for it to be approved by the San Francisco board.
San Francisco Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval
He said condemnation of immigrants "leads to the beating of
Muslim-Americans and many other Americans."
"This attempt to vilify Latino-Americans will not be tolerated," he said.
"We are saying first that we are recognizing this speech is hateful
and we are condemning it."
"Don't fool yourselves. This kind of speech just incites behavior that
is nothing short of hysteria," he said. "It's the kind of hysterical
behavior we saw in Nazi Germany 60 years ago."
Earlier, one of the nation's top civil rights attorneys offered his
assistance to Savage in suing Sandoval.
Daniel A. Horowitz of Oakland, Calif., wrote to Savage after Sandoval
introduced his resolution.
"You have a strong federal civil rights action that you can file
against Supervisor Sandoval and the city of San Francisco," he
advised. "You have a constitutional right to state your political
opinions and no city official has the right to lie about what you said
or to call for a mob to come to your door to threaten you and to try
to have you fired."
Horowitz said the Civil Rights Act of 1871, designed to tame the
terror of the Ku Klux Klan, can be used as the basis for a federal
civil rights action against the official and the city.
"You are protected by this civil rights act because you are the victim
of the same type of mob terror that (the) Klan used to inflict," wrote
Horowitz. "This terror is being organized against you simply because
people do not like what you say. Translated into legal language, you
are being attacked by a type of terrorist because you have exercised
your First Amendment rights."
Horowitz wrote: "The Klansman in your case is wearing a suit and not a
white robe. He is doing his dirty work under the hood of his elected
position instead of under the coward's hood of the Klan."
The call for action against Savage came at the same time city
supervisors were considering using taxpayer dollars to pay for
immigrants' green cards and citizenship.
Sandoval's resolution condemns Savage for "defamatory language ...
against immigrants." The resolution was in response to Savage's July 5
broadcast, when the talker commented on a group of students who had
announced they were fasting in support of changes in immigration policy.
"I would say, let them fast until they starve to death," quipped
Savage, "then that solves the problem."
Sandoval's resolution calls Savage's comments "symbolic of hatred and
racism."
"I really for the life of me cannot understand why there is not more
media outrage to what Michael Savage said," Sandoval said. He plans to
hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall Tuesday just before
the entire Board of Supervisors votes on his resolution against Savage.
"The intolerant and racist comments of Michael Savage demand a strong
condemnation, " Sandoval insisted.
In response, Horowitz wrote: "This Sandoval fellow accused you of
using 'defamatory language ... against immigrants.' Of course, this
statement by Sandoval is slander. I have listened to your show. You
are very complimentary of immigrants. In fact, you frequently mention
that your parents were immigrants. The slander by Sandoval arises
because he claims that your opposition to illegal entry into this
country is somehow a stand against Hispanics. That is like saying that
every Border Patrol agent and every Congress person is anti-immigrant
because they don't condone illegal border crossing."
"I will back you, Michael, and file this lawsuit if you wish,"
concluded Horowitz.
The San Francisco government's proposed resolution condemning Savage
is just the latest in a major, multifaceted – and largely unreported –
effort both in and out of government to transform American talk radio.
The entire campaign, complete with details of battles against Rush
Limbaugh, Savage and other top talkers, is revealed in-depth in the
current edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled THE
WAR ON TALK RADIO."