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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chartseer who wrote (89572)	8/19/2010 11:18:50 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224729

Walking Back Pelosi Posted 06:56 PM ET Free Speech: The speaker of the House wants to know how opponents of the Ground Zero mosque are being funded. When Americans can be investigated for their opinions, our republic has arrived at a dangerous place. In an interview Tuesday with KCBS in her home district of San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi said she's among "those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,"and wondered how the issue is being "ginned up." This is how tyrants act, not U.S. lawmakers — especially those two heartbeats from the presidency. Elected and appointed officials in this country have a duty to tolerate dissent, and in some cases even promote it. Our constitutional safeguard of free speech is one of the principles that sets us apart from repressive nations. Caught in a corner she stumbled into by herself, Pelosi tried to "walk back" her remarks. But she failed to disown her previous statement. She merely added to it, saying she also supports transparency about who is funding the mosque itself. So her contention that the opposition needs to be investigated stands. Should the speaker get her way, that will be some drawn-out probe. The number of Americans she would charge with being the "opposition" is considerable. A Siena Research Institute poll found that 63% of New York state voters are against the Cordoba House. When polling all Americans, CNN found that 68% oppose the mosque, and Time discovered that 61% don't like the idea. Only 29% told CNN they favor the plan, while 26% in the Time poll said they support it. The Pelosi probe would also catch one of her colleagues in the dragnet. Harry Reid, her counterpart in the Senate, is also opposed to a mosque so near the spot where nearly 3,000 Americans were incinerated in the name of Allah. So is former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. No matter how odious an idea or speech may be to those in power, the state doesn't have the moral standing to punish or re-educate those who express unpopular positions or annoy the authorities. When lawmakers respond as Pelosi did, they undermine our founding principles and inject a degree of tyranny into our system. Anyone who wasn't chilled by her statement is part of the problem.