UPDATED: Romney Calls Anti-Muslim Movie "American Values" (Was this a Agent Provocateur Op?)

[Blue State Bandit]

Last edited Wed Sep 12, 2012, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)

In the wake of the horrible events in North Africa that took the life of 3US Embassy employees including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the Romney Campaign, has shown a clear lack of diplomatic finesse, and it only got worse.

Before the death of our ambassador was known (and possibly before it actually occurred), The Romney campaign released a brazenly inartfull statement blasting a statement from embassy trying to put distance between the US Government, and a despicably insulting movie posted to youtube by California Developer Sam Bacile and notorious firebrand Terry Jones.

In the closing hour of 9/11 the Romney campaign called the embassy statement “akin to apology" and proclaimed it to be “disgraceful to apologize for American values.”

The embassy statement in full reads:

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

http://egypt.usembassy.gov/pr091112.html

So, according to what I read in this statement, and the response from the Romney campaign, the Romney campaign believes that being Anti-Muslim is an American value.

I disagree.


UPDATE: Is This a RatFuck Operation?

According to new information, there are growing question as to whether or not California Developer Sam Bacile, credited with producing the movie, actually exists.

Read more here from DU'er Kolesar

So my question is:

Was this an attempt to discredit President Obama's foreign policy regarding North Africa and the Middle East by intentionally instigating these attacks? We know that Terry Jones is involved, but who else is pushing this?

[ann---]

1. Exactly!

Free speech is an American value - but HATE speech should NOT be. Mitt is a twit.

[HopeHoops]

4. Hate speech or not, it's still protected. I don't agree with it, but it's still protected.

It's a fine line between what is and is not protected, and we do have some reasonable restrictions such as threats to harm others, but we can't expect our own views to be protected if we don't allow the ones we totally disagree with to be protected. It sucks, but that's how it has to be.

[Blue State Bandit]

6. Not entierly.

The Constitution does not grant absolute immunity to those who would abuse this freedom to incite violence. In 1942 the United States Supreme Court decided Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire .

Chaplinsky was a Jehovah’s Witness who was prosecuted for calling a marshal a fascist and a “damned racketeer” while the marshal attempted to stop him from preaching publicly. The Court upheld the conviction noting that the case presented a gross example of the abuse of the privilege of allowing every citizen to speak his or her mind, “There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or “fighting words” those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.”

http://blog.ctnews.com/meehan/2011/01/11/inciting-violence-and-the-first-amendment/

[HopeHoops]

8. That falls under "reasonable restrictions" as stated in my post, as does "FIRE!" in a theater.

[Blue State Bandit]

9. Agreed.

[frylock]

15. good info..

thx

[uponit7771]

19. Iciting riots is NOT "Free Speech"

[HopeHoops]

21. See post #8.

[ljm2002]

20. Yes, it's protected (to a point). No, it's not an American value. n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. Hate speech is an "American value:?

[Blue State Bandit]

3. And shamefully, a political tactic.

[hifiguy]

5. Count on that silly asshole to double down

on teh stoopid. Blazing away at both feet with a machine gun yet again.

[Blue State Bandit]

10. If you mean Romney, he already has.

If it's the producer, or the Terry Jones people, I don't think it will be long.

[Initech]

7. In a diplomatic crisis - side with the people who caused it.

Yeah that's the kind of backwards thinking we need from someone who wants to be the leader of this country. Ugh...

[nanabugg]

11. I guess he wants Americans everywhere to be attacked?? nt

[Blue State Bandit]

13. It's an attempt on the part of the zealots on the religious right...

to draw America into a major war in the Middle east to fulfill their Armageddon fantasies. It is a clear attempt to start a war that could quite litteraly (H/T to Big Joe Biden) kill tens of millions of people.

[K Gardner]

12. He has proven himself to be a dangerous sociopath. n/t

[robinlynne]

16. They already found the real guy. several aliases, federal prison time for fraud, right wing christ

Christian from Egypt. They did not say if American citizen or not.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

17. That movie was like the worst outtakes from Three's Company

dubbed by the Three Stooges.

[Blue State Bandit]

18. Word.

[doribaba6]

22. Spam deleted by Violet_Crumble (MIR Team)