Monday, May 14, 2007

US Decries 'Hate Speech' in Serbian Political Debate

Odd that the U.S. government is lecturing a foreign country about something that is legal in the USA:

"The United States Tuesday appealed for moderation in the political discourse in Serbia after a hard-line nationalist figure was elected speaker of parliament. Serbian legislators have been unable to agree on a new government, at a time of critical international diplomacy on the future of Kosovo. VOA's David Gollust has a report from the State Department.

The State Department had no specific comment on the election of political hardliner Tomislav Nikolic as Serbia's new parliamentary speaker. But it did express concern about the tone of debate leading up to his election early Tuesday, which it said was reminiscent of the inflammatory rhetoric of the Slobodan Milosevic era....

At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said reports of the debate leading to Nikolic's election suggest it harkened back to the bad days of "hate speech" of the Milosevic era, where politicians were characterized as either patriots or traitors depending on whether they supported the regime.

Source

So it is hate speech to question someone's patriotism! I guess I had better not say what I think of John Murtha or Ted Kennedy. (I actually said what I think yesterday on Dissecting Leftism)