Gingrich raises alarm at free-speech dinner

rkzenrage • Nov 30, 2006 10:49 pm

Gingrich raises alarm at free-speech dinner

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

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.

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.

Full story

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SteveDallas • Nov 30, 2006 11:34 pm

At risk of displaying outrage fatigue....

:zzz:

It's not like Gingrich is part of the government or anything. We only encourage him by paying attention to him.

Sundae • Dec 1, 2006 7:43 am

I'm just intrigued at the idea of losing a city. How careless?

Griff • Dec 1, 2006 9:44 am

SteveDallas wrote:
At risk of displaying outrage fatigue....

:zzz:

It's not like Gingrich is part of the government or anything. We only encourage him by paying attention to him.

He thinks he's going to be your next President.

Griff • Dec 1, 2006 9:47 am

Sundae Girl wrote:
I'm just intrigued at the idea of losing a city. How careless?

I don't appreciate your attitude, we're trying to maintain a sufficiently paranoid electorate to justify our roll back of the Bill of Rights, current level of overeseas deployments, and absurd military spending. Shame on you for calling us on it.

rkzenrage • Dec 1, 2006 11:51 am

Griff, your sig is killing me... not because it is mine... because of the visual it is giving me out of context.

tw • Dec 1, 2006 2:24 pm

rkzenrage wrote:
Griff, your sig is killing me... not because it is mine... because of the visual it is giving me out of context.

He gave you a star. That can only be a good thing.

rkzenrage • Dec 1, 2006 2:33 pm

I just see Seuss characters running around with their big yellow bouffants on fire. It's beautiful.
Get out of here
Get out of there
We need to get the f*ck out of everywhere

tw • Dec 1, 2006 3:13 pm

rkzenrage wrote:
I just see Seuss characters running around with their big yellow bouffants on fire. ...
We need to get the f*ck out of everywhere

So the quote is mis attributed. It should have listed Dr Seuss as its author.

rkzenrage • Dec 1, 2006 3:15 pm

LOL.

Griff • Dec 1, 2006 3:40 pm

Whatever meds tw is on... I want some. lol

xoxoxoBruce • Dec 2, 2006 1:05 am

Gingrich was speaking to a bunch of people gathered to honor champions of/for free speech and the article didn't mention the reaction of the attendees to his remarks? I find that piss poor (or bias) reporting.:eyebrow:

Beestie • Dec 2, 2006 1:39 am

xoxoxoBruce wrote:
Gingrich was speaking to a bunch of people gathered to honor champions of/for free speech and the article didn't mention the reaction of the attendees to his remarks? I find that piss poor (or bias) reporting.:eyebrow:

I think given that its a CNN article and that the audience was adequately described as free speech advocates that the reaction was somewhat predictable.

Since it would have been much easier for Mr. Gingrich -regardless of one's opinion of him- to "tell the audience what they 'paid him to tell them'" it gets my attention that he, instead, chose to tell them like it is.

It would appear that bin Laden has enjoyed more success than he could ever have imagined in terms of eroding America from the inside. To hear such as this from someone like Gingrich is indeed sobering if not alarming.

We may really be faced with choices tougher than we are ready to face. Is it truly necessary for us to sacrifice what we are to protect ourselves? When some smart guy (help me out with who it was) said anyone who gives up freedom for security deserves neither - did he contemplate a 9/11 world? Would he say the same thing today or would he side with Newt?

Time for America to decide what it wants so it seems. We can either take the pricipled position and take a hit or we can become less "American" and give more power to the government to protect us. Personally, I think we should stick with what got us here. Even it its my town to go up in a mushroom cloud. At least the rest of America can "martyr" us and defend our existing principles.

America is no stranger to shedding blood to defend its right to exist as conceived. I see no reason to revisit that - potentially personal sacrifices not withstanding.

They die for a purpose. We die for a purpose. We kill for a purpose. They kill for a purpose. But the idea that we have to become more like them to defeat them is to hand them a victory without exacting a price. Nothing American about that. Nothing. Sorry Newt. I vote to retain rights granted to me and guaranteed to me. Find another way to win. If I have to pay for my descendents' freedom than so be it. Somebody paid for mine so its only fair.

Urbane Guerrilla • Dec 2, 2006 1:59 am

Ben Franklin, Beestie: he of "A Republic -- if you can keep it."

Of course, we and a great deal of the rest of humanity -- and our cause is humanity's, as our foes are explicitly antidemocratic -- are much better off once we win this war. The particularly tricky part, I think, is how we'll know we have indeed won -- amorphous terrorist groups hardly have territory to defend, though their national sponsors do, nor capital cities. If anything but bigotry motivates our foes at bottom, I've yet to hear of it and to be convinced. I'm even less convinced that we should "take a hit" from such a lot of swinish fascists. Should they not suffer for their disenlightenment? Do we have to decapitate all the authoritarians or can we get the job done at a half or a third? I think it is the unfree, the slavemongers, who must tremble at our righteous wrath.

There are those who expect all our nation's troubles to originate from those parts of the world not meaningfully connected to the greater global economy: most of the continent of Africa and a considerable swatch of Araby; the Axis of Evil, and on a back burner places like the Transcaucasus. Note this sample includes a lot of Islamic countries.

rkzenrage • Dec 2, 2006 3:06 am

xoxoxoBruce wrote:
Gingrich was speaking to a bunch of people gathered to honor champions of/for free speech and the article didn't mention the reaction of the attendees to his remarks? I find that piss poor (or bias) reporting.:eyebrow:

I wondered about that too... but, it may be hard to "report" ten min. of stunned silence.

wolf • Dec 2, 2006 3:22 am

Anybody have full text of the speech, rather than a bunch of cherry-picked quotes?

rkzenrage • Dec 2, 2006 3:32 am

I did, copy it quick before the Gov'ment gets it!

Hello fellow Americans, coloreds, Jew-rodents and the rest of you waiting to burn after the rapture.
We have a brilliant road before us, laid down upon the backs of the less fortunate *coughracescough* and downtrodden little people who have given so much and, hopefully with Republican support, will continue to do so!
Soon, Jesus will come back and liberate this great nation that he made, kill all other nations except those who vote for us in the UN and the demon races and all will be well... I shall be president on that day. My wiener will work too!
CanIgeta'Amen?!
Oh, free speech is very bad... if you speak out against anything anyone is doing that seems like it make make things change, you are a dirty, rag-head-terrorist and should kill yourself.
Praise God and all his works... let's eat.

Wow... just...wow. It is like Churchill is back again, huh? Man, you don't hear stuff like that much any more!

xoxoxoBruce • Dec 2, 2006 7:32 am

Beestie wrote:

Since it would have been much easier for Mr. Gingrich -regardless of one's opinion of him- to "tell the audience what they 'paid him to tell them'" it gets my attention that he, instead, chose to tell them like it is.

Horseshit, not like it is.....like he thinks it is.

It would appear that bin Laden has enjoyed more success than he could ever have imagined in terms of eroding America from the inside. To hear such as this from someone like Gingrich is indeed sobering if not alarming.

True, because of people like him claiming it's necessary..... the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

We may really be faced with choices tougher than we are ready to face. Is it truly necessary for us to sacrifice what we are to protect ourselves? When some smart guy (help me out with who it was) said anyone who gives up freedom for security deserves neither - did he contemplate a 9/11 world? Would he say the same thing today or would he side with Newt?

It was people like Newt that he was warning us against.

Time for America to decide what it wants so it seems. We can either take the pricipled position and take a hit or we can become less "American" and give more power to the government to protect us. Personally, I think we should stick with what got us here. Even it its my town to go up in a mushroom cloud. At least the rest of America can "martyr" us and defend our existing principles.

C'mon, do you really think the government could stop a small, well financed, terrorist cell?
It can't be done without turning this country into North Korea and maybe not then.

America is no stranger to shedding blood to defend its right to exist as conceived. I see no reason to revisit that - potentially personal sacrifices not withstanding.

They die for a purpose. We die for a purpose. We kill for a purpose. They kill for a purpose. But the idea that we have to become more like them to defeat them is to hand them a victory without exacting a price. Nothing American about that. Nothing. Sorry Newt. I vote to retain rights granted to me and guaranteed to me. Find another way to win. If I have to pay for my descendents' freedom than so be it. Somebody paid for mine so its only fair.

We have a winner! You make the right choice. :thumb:

Griff • Dec 2, 2006 9:32 am

I was suprised at Gingriches level of paranoia.

Time for America to decide what it wants so it seems. We can either take the pricipled position and take a hit or we can become less "American" and give more power to the government to protect us. Personally, I think we should stick with what got us here. Even it its my town to go up in a mushroom cloud. At least the rest of America can "martyr" us and defend our existing principles.

Deviating from our principles is what got us here. Constant wars in foreign lands got us here. Bush had a rare opportunity after 911. Had he ruled as he ran America would be a powerful force for good today. Unfortunately, he played it as if he was following bin laden's script.

rkzenrage • Dec 2, 2006 1:21 pm

Far more people died because they were afraid to fly, post 9/11, due to increased travel on the roads, than in all terrorist attacks against the US combined, foreign soil included.

DanaC • Dec 2, 2006 3:27 pm

Thomas Jefferson, "Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security will lose both and deserve neither."

rkzenrage • Dec 2, 2006 4:22 pm

That was Benjamin Franklin.
Good quote and impulse though. (everything else is TJ)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
~Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Trilby • Dec 2, 2006 5:17 pm

Ahh! We're doing quotes then? here's one:

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.

Author: Mother Teresa

Hippikos • Dec 2, 2006 5:31 pm

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~ Dick Cheney

DanaC • Dec 3, 2006 11:29 am

That's funny. The site I quoted from attributed it to Jefferson and a slightly different verson of the same thing to Franklyn.....shows not to trust the internet :P

lookout123 • Dec 3, 2006 3:39 pm

Griff wrote:
He thinks he's going to be your next President.

to be fair, he hopes to be the next president. he expects to engineer the movement that sweeps the next person in. i was reading some article a few weeks ago. doesn't seem like the best plan to me, but this is america, so...

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