ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT - AT 7:10 P.M. ET:  The mainstream media, which normally becomes hysterical at any perceived threat to its freedom, if the threat is from the domestic right, has been remarkably casual about a real threat, supported, to our embarrassment, by the Obama administration.  Law professor Jonathan Turley writes:

Around the world, free speech is being sacrificed on the altar of religion. Whether defined as hate speech, discrimination or simple blasphemy, governments are declaring unlimited free speech as the enemy of freedom of religion. This growing movement has reached the United Nations, where religiously conservative countries received a boost in their campaign to pass an international blasphemy law. It came from the most unlikely of places: the United States.

While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any "negative racial and religious stereotyping." The exception was made as part of a resolution supporting free speech that passed this month, but it is the exception, not the rule that worries civil libertarians.

And for good reason.  This is part of a campaign, normally waged by the left, to restrict any speech that favored parties don't like - simply by labeling it as "hate speech" or speech that creates "a hostile environment."  On college campuses, logic like this has been used to introduce speech codes that basically ban anything a particular group might find "offensive."  Thus, the listener becomes the censor, with the legal power to destroy.

In the resolution, the administration aligned itself with Egypt, which has long been criticized for prosecuting artists, activists and journalists for insulting Islam.

Hey, it's a different perspective, a different narrative, Jonathan.  Let's get with the program.

While not expressly endorsing blasphemy prosecutions, the administration departed from other Western allies in supporting efforts to balance free speech against the protecting of religious groups.

Unbelievable.  Incredible.  Again, the United States, under Obama, is softer than the Europeans.  And many reports say the Europeans are getting worried that American foreign policy is turning into pillow talk.

This is simply another signal that the Obama administration is taking the United States in unprecedented directions, directions that contradict our most basic values.

October 19, 2009