But, at the InstaPundit we have calls for the President to resign, for violating his oath of office.
These are not two Tea Party Loons. These are two Law Professors.
And, here is a more immediate downside to this LA police (and FBI?) interrogation of the supposed producer of the 15 minute movie Innocence of Islam. The InstaPundit notes:
Reader J.M. Hanes writes: “I went berserk over the L.A.T. Nakoula photo too, but on top of the brownshirted Constitutional debacle, one incredibly consequential point has gotten lost in the shuffle: Could any visual more effectively reinforce the Arab Street’s belief that the U.S. government can, in fact, punish blasphemers if it so chooses?”Then the Instapundit links to the Volokh Conspiracy, where Law Professor Eugene Volokh blogs "Why Punishing Blasphemous Speech That Triggers Murderous Reactions Would Likely Lead to More Deaths".
That’s why it seems to me to actually be safer — not just better for First Amendment principles, but actually safer for Americans — to hold the line now, and make clear that American speech is protected even if foreigners choose to respond to it with murder. That would send the message, “murder won’t get you what you want.” Not a perfectly effective message to be sure, but a better one than “murder will get you what you want.”OK, so the President isn't going to resign, but we have gone down the wrong path on this video issue. It is time to stand by the First Amendment and tell the Arab world to learn that we don't appreciated their diverting their internal issues on to us. Our constitution should not be up for discussion by foreign mobs and foreign "intellectuals".
In my fantasy world I can see us telling the Egyptians we are pulling police protection from their Embassy in DC and their Diplomatic Mission in New York and letting nature take its course. No mobs will be needed. Crime will accomplish everything.
Incidently, at 10:00 PM Saturday Memorandum had as its top headline the Glenn Reynolds Blog Post calling on the President to resign.
UPDATE: And still at the top on Sunday morning at 11:00 AM.
Regards — Cliff
3 comments:
We're all too busy looking at our own Facebook walls and self-selected news feeds.
Narcissism won and has blinded us.
People are begining to wonder... If the President is so motivated to put pressure on Google to take down the film - will he also put pressure on Sony to delay or cancel release of the film Zero Dark Thirty. This is Hollywood's in kind contribution to the Obama re-election campaign which is a victory lap/football spike about the mission to kill Bin Laden.. Could incite more unrest in the Muslim world! Better pull it.
We'll see. After all the access given for this film and its deliberate timing for maximum benefit to team Obama we'll see what trumps what. National security or...
I think we all know!
Just so we are talking about reasonable points--asking for resignation over this is patently ridiculous. That being said, I'm in full agreement that interviewing a citizen over their free speech is chilling and unacceptable in any context. This administration is trashing the constitution to a more extreme degree than even the previous, which I would rate as almost as indefensibly bad, but not quite. Not Brownshirt territory, but sowing the seeds and something that needs to be opposed at every conceivable opportunity.
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