Anti-Creedance Front

New York Times Reporter Booed at Speech
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...porter_booed_2

[CHICAGO - A New York Times reporter cut short a keynote address to graduates at a private Illinois college over the weekend after audience members shouted down his comments about the war in Iraq (news - web sites).

[Article deleted to comply with copyright regulations - clark]

This is pathetic. All these warhawks and "supporters of our President thick and thin" talk about going to war to protect our freedoms, when at home, they're walking all over them! Their policy for free speech is "That's for people who stand behind our President and our flag." Now what kind of free speech is that?

It's in their freedom of speech to boo or do the things they did, but when they try to cut the power to the microphone, that is over the line. That *is* blocking his free speech. It's also unlawful. I recently participated in a campaign to stop Republican special interest groups from getting Danny Glover fired from his MCI contract just because he spoke out against the war. Unlike the Dixie Chicks, unlike Eddie Vedder, he made no comments about war or anything of the sort in the MCI commercials. I'm sure you've seen them, the ones with the yellow and green jelly beans or yellow and green apples. When you try to get someone fired from their job for saying a certain thing or holding certain views, whether you're the government or not, that is infringement of someone's freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Many Republicans or conservatives say they stand behind our Constitution and stand to protect it, like FreeRepublic.Com. But some of their actions speak differently than their words. I posted 2 messages on the Free Republic forums (whose front page proclaims "Defending Our Constitution", and after that, I got this message: Your posting priveleges have been revoked! Yes, as I said before, many conservative Republicans' idea of free speech is free speech for anyone but the opposition.

And from a conservative perspective, from a libertarian Constitution-honoring perspective, you should mandate free speech for everyone, including opposition. Most, if not all of our forefathers expressed that criticism of governmental policies was essential to a healthy democracy. Especially my most respected Colonial-age figure, Thomas Jefferson. And they are so right. For a healthy democracy, with the literal meaning of "rule by the people", the people need to be educated about issues and also be able to have their voice heard, minority, majority, whatever. And you should support that as an American, otherwise you are the one who is truly unamerican.

Vorkosigan

we have one of these threads already.