home

Newt Gingrich: Limits on Free Speech Are Coming

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 02:05:48 PM EST
Tags: Newt Gingrich, Free Speech (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

Newt Gingrich was in New Hampshire this week. He gave a talk in which he said that free speech will be forced to curtailed in the name of the war on terror.

Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.

The event he was speaking at?

Gingrich spoke to about 400 state and local power brokers last night at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner, which fetes people and organizations that stand up for freedom of speech.

Other Gingrich positions included this on the separation of church and state:

He also said court rulings over separation of church and state have hurt citizens' ability to express themselves and their faith.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

< Tuesday Open Thread | 7 Ex-Prison Guards Charged With Manslaughter in Boot Camp Death >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Newt Gingrich: Limits on Free Speech Are Coming | 14 comments (14 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

    Well, since Newt's so gung-ho (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by scribe on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 02:24:47 PM EST
    for gags (or is that "gag-ho"?), it seems only fair to stuff the first one into his mouth.  We can surely do without him belching his bile all over the airwaves for the rest of his natural-born days.  

    Yeah, there's a "need" there alright. (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by aw on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 02:28:17 PM EST
    a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

    Substitute "Democrats" or "netroots" or even "citizens" for "terrorists".  

    Newt the fraud (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by Dadler on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 02:29:41 PM EST
    Why anyone listens to a word this gasbag hypocrite says is beyond me.  The last time he was right or insightful about something was the first time.  As for the internet, does anyone really think they aren't monitoring the hell out of it now?  What Gingrich is talking about is formal window-dressing for what is already going on.  Be serious.

    And his comment about people's freedom of expression being unduly harmed by the separation of church and state, please, go live in a theocracy like Iran if you want more literal religion in your government.

    Some (none / 0) (#4)
    by aw on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 02:37:31 PM EST
    might like to express themselves by slapping a big scarlet "A" on Newt.

    Parent
    I have always thought Newt to be... (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Bill Arnett on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 02:39:39 PM EST
    ...slightly insane, and here he goes changing my mind about that.

    It's clear he is TOTALLY INSANE, unAmerican, a betrayer of our constitution and everything for which America used to stand.

    God, I hope he's the rethug nominee in '08!

    Actually, (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by scribe on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 03:15:21 PM EST
    this is the latest Repug meme-building exercise.  

    A couple weeks ago, there was a buried-on-page-37-type article in the NY Daily News (which I didn't bother linking to, then, and is in the pay archives, now) highlighting the NYPD's Intelligence Unit, how they started with a couple guys and computers and now Ivy-Leaguers are kicking in the doors to get jobs there.  Yadda, yadda.  The gist of the article, though, was the perceived "danger" posed by the internet, where anyone could find anything and putative terrists could organize and figure out how to do things (like, "my suicide vest wiring seems to be shorting out.  How do I make sure" I think was the example....).  Thrust - limit the internet, limit speech.

    A week or less later, Chertoff in another article, decrying the internet as a major danger.

    The other day, a low uproar (making it to the radio news) about how dangerous information about nuclear power plants - which, gasp, could be used by terrists - was available in the local public library.  (Not coincidentally, I'd suppose, there have been a lot of local radio ads lately about how good, safe and global-warming-preventing reauthorizing the local nuke generator plants will be and how wonderful it will be when we build new ones.  Sponsored by the plant operators, of course.)

    Now, Angry Newt, spouting the flip side of the argument.

    So, the meme is "information is bad, knowledge is bad, go back to sleep, don't dissent".  OK?

    The point is, they intend to do everything they can against net-neutrality and to censor and control the internet.  They saw how effectively the netroots worked, and they didn't like it one bit.

    Too late Newt (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by Joe Bob on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 04:00:17 PM EST
    We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city

    Someone needs to tell Newt about New Orleans. 'Losing cities' isn't really a turn of phrase any astute Republican commentator should be using.

    In all seriousness though, New Orleans exposed our domestic security apparatus for the fraudulent charade that it is. In spite of everything done in the name of the "Homeland" over the past 5 years the operational acronym is still YOYO: You're On Your Own.

    I wonder if (4.00 / 1) (#14)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 11:54:37 PM EST
     a couple of weeks in a well lit, 60 degree cell with some AC/DC playing at, say, level 9 will change his mind. I promise we'll wake him up every 15 minutes and ask.

    I was hoping you'd post about this. (none / 0) (#7)
    by Kitt on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 03:31:39 PM EST
    He does understand he is seriously talking about undermining the constitution.

    And...what Bill said.

    let's not forget........... (none / 0) (#8)
    by cpinva on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 03:47:53 PM EST
    mr. gingrich is a former history prof. consider this as you send your children off to college: what kind of warped version of history was he teaching, exactly?

    Musta been.... (none / 0) (#11)
    by kdog on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 05:12:08 PM EST
    the history of tyranny he was teaching.

    Parent
    First ammendment award dinner? (none / 0) (#10)
    by JSN on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 04:18:01 PM EST
    The good news is he was using his first amendment rights the bad news is that he wants to repeal the first amendment. Who invited him and how much did they pay him?

    come on Newt (none / 0) (#12)
    by ikez78 on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 07:27:48 PM EST
    What an asinine idea.  

    What can.. (none / 0) (#13)
    by Edger on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 08:05:22 PM EST
    ...you expect from Newt.

    Newt Gingrich: Limits on Free Speech Are Coming | 14 comments (14 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment