Denying the Heckler’s Veto

I had not planned to blog anything about the shootings in Tucson, because I am primarily a counterjihad blogger, and because I generally focus on issues and events that have received too little attention elsewhere. The shooter in Tucson was not a jihadi, his victims had no known association with the counterjihad, and the story has already been covered in intensive detail in many other places.

This horrific event has nonetheless become relevant to the counterjihad blogosphere because it has been misused as a tool for attacking freedom of speech, which is another of our legitimate concerns.

As Rahm Emanuel infamously said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” True to form, leftist politicians and media pundits have attempted to exploit this “opportunity” for political gain in a truly shameless manner. They have attempting to shift the blame from one malevolent, deranged individual with no coherent belief system to their political opponents on the right.

One of their ploys is to attempt to muzzle freedom of speech by imposing a heckler’s veto on opposing political speech that they choose to label as too inflammatory.

A heckler’s veto occurs when an acting party’s right to freedom of speech is curtailed or restricted by the government in order to prevent a reacting party’s behavior. The common example is that of demonstrators (reacting party) causing a speech (given by the acting party) to be terminated in order to preserve the peace.

I call your attention to the newly-elected US Representative from Florida, LTC Allen West, who is having none of this. He is also one of the few people on the political scene who truly understands the counterjihad:

Rep. Allen West decries ‘opportunism’ in wake of Arizona shooting; has no plans to change rhetoric

(h/t: Weasel Zippers, vagabond trader)

by George Bennett | January 11th, 2011

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, this morning criticized “political opportunism” in the wake of Saturday’s shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and said he has no plans to tone down his own “stronger language.”

Within hours of the shooting that killed six and critically injured Giffords, some commentators placed the massacre in the context of the nation’s heated political climate and blamed the tea party movement, Sarah Palin and other conservatives although no public evidence has suggested accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner was associated with or sympathetic to any of them. Some critics pointed to West’s own words — such as saying citizens must be “well-informed and well-armed because this government that we have now is a tyrannical government” — as contributing to that climate.

West has rejected such criticism and accused those making it of trying to score political points.

“One of the concerns I do have is the political opportunism that has come out of this. That’s kind of deplorable and unconscionable what some people are doing. This is not the time to start looking for grandstanding and things of that nature,” West said on his way into a West Boca Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Boca Lago Country Club.

Asked if he had any regrets about his choice of words in the past, West said, “No I don’t, because I think when you look at the president saying don’t bring a knife to a gun fight and the fact that the president talked about if the Republicans were to win in the midterms we’re going to have hand-to-hand combat.”

He also said a blogger in Broward County had once said West should be skinned alive, so “I think there are some things that both sides need to be concerned about.”

West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, has said his references to “bayonets” and military imagery are metaphorical — and he has no plans to stop using them…

Read the rest.

Gates of Vienna: The Challenge That We Have

(Reprinted with permission)

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) — oh, how satisfying to type those words! — gave a memorable speech last month in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, when he was still the congressman-elect.

When Col. West speaks out about Islam, he sounds exactly like one of the contributors to this blog. To have him in the halls of Congress is a real boost for the Counterjihad.

Many thanks to Kitman for YouTubing this video:

Watch this video on YouTube.

Allen West : “A Man Must Stand for Something or He Will Fall For Anything!”

Originally published on 1389 Blog.