Missouri top prosecutors announced this week that they will threaten and prosecute critics of Barack Obama.

From Gateway Pundit:

St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out falsely against Barack Obama.

Copious Dissent posted video on the Missouri Obama "Truth Squads":

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt released a statement moments ago on the news this week that leading Missouri prosecutors and sheriffs supporting Barack Obama were forming "Truth Squads" to intimidate and threaten his critics.
For Immediate Release:

Gov. Matt Blunt Statement on Obama Campaign’s Abusive Use of Missouri Law Enforcement

JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics.

“St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

“What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

“This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

The Examiner notes how this fits all too well with the legal threats Obama is leveling against TV stations.

From Mark Steyn:

For all the entirely false rumors about Mayor Palin banning books from the Wasilla library, the only candidate using agencies of the state to suppress views with which he disagrees remains Barack Obama. In Missouri, the Senator has managed to enlist various county officials to threaten TV stations running "untrue" anti-Obama ads. The Governor, Matt Blunt, responds:

St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment... Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.

As Stanley Kurtz, Milt Rosenberg and David Freddoso can tell you, this pattern is well established: The Obama campaign's response to uncongenial allegations is not to rebut them but to use its muscle to squash the authors. This is especially true when it comes to attempts to lift the curtain however briefly on the Senator's mysterious past. The New York Times' general line on the Obama candidacy may approximate that of Bagehot on the British monarchy ("we must not let daylight in upon magic"), but the last time I checked that was not yet constitutionally enshrined.

Throughout my travails this last year with Canada's capricious, totalitarian "human rights" commissions, I have expressed my appreciation for America's First Amendment. Free societies do not criminalize opinion. What Obama is doing via pliable Missouri public officials is disgusting - and a revealng portent of what his Administration would do to its enemies*.

Can't verify . . .but Vermont . . .
Obama Goons Call Police Over Grad Student's Questions

and 

Obama Wants NRA Ads Banned in Pennsylvania too.