Gingrich: Let's reexamine free speech.

[LouisianaLiberal]

I received this forwarded email from a newly "converted" dem, asking if this is true. I won't copy my response to her, since everyone here is familiar with the right's need for permanent war with illusory enemies, their attempt to reframe issues, etc. Gingrich is attempting to normalize the questioning of free speech, and I'm afraid this is just the opening salvo. The forwarded email is below, and a link to TPM cafe below that.


This is a transcript of a section of a recent Gingrich Speech in New Hampshire. Apparently it is causing a firestorm in some sectors.

NEWT GINGRICH'S COMMENTS
--------------------------------------------------------

The third thing I want to talk about very briefly is the genuine danger of terrorism, in particular terrorists using weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass murder, nuclear and biological weapons. And I want to suggest to you that right now we should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of if it weren't for the scale of threat.

Let me give you two examples. When the British this summer arrested people who were planning to blow up ten airliners in one day, they arrested a couple who were going to use their six month old baby in order to hide the bomb as baby milk.

Now, if I come to you tonight and say that there are people on the planet who hate you, and they are 15-25 year old mal es who are willing to die as long as they get to kill you, I've simply described the warrior culture which has been true historically for 6 or
7 thousand years. But, if I come to you and say that there is a couple that hates you so much that they will kill their six month old baby in order to kill you, I am describing a level of ferocity, and a level of savagery beyond anything we have tried to deal with.

And, what is truly frightening about the British experience is they are arresting British citizens, born in Britain , speaking English, who went to British schools, live in British housing, and have good jobs.

This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate t he use of nuclear or biological weapons.

And, my prediction to you is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.

This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement. And, I further think that we should propose a Geneva convention for fighting terrorism which makes very cle ar that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are in fact subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous.

This is a sober topic, but I think it is a topic we need a national dialogue about, and we need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until actually we literally lose a city which could literally happen within the next decade if we are unfortunate (APPLAUSE)

This is finally said in a way that even the most "head in the sand" person can understand it. Please God, help us. This is a very sober description of the Islamic terrorist threat we are faced with. We are NOW at war with a culture that wants, not to take over our land, but to KILL us. Please pass this on to those on your list.


Edited to add: this is apparently a couple of months old.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/nov/28/gingrich_in_new_hampshire_lets_re_examine_free_speech_in_age_of_terror

[SpiralHawk]

1. Gingrich = typical republicon fascist bootlicker

It is so plain now.

The republicon totalitarian-corporate state, and it's amoral anti-American lackeys like Newtie.

Republicons are lacking in all honor.

[AndyA]

2. Newt is a scumbag.

Screwing around with another woman while his wife dies of cancer in a hospital. He's right up there with Bush and Hitler when it comes to compassion. :sarcasm:

So why would anyone give a shit what this man says or thinks?

[Cerridwen]

3. So, he finally fessed up, huh?

He and his ilk have been dragging this country in that direction since long before the 'contract on america'.

The horrific events of 9/11 must have been a wet dream for him and his freedom-hating klan of fellow fascist, circle jerkers.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. We must destroy your freedoms in order to save them!

Notice how he ratchets the level of fear up by talking first about suicide bombers and then infanticide bombers (funny, I never heard a thing about that--if it were so, wouldn't it have been mentioned by Rush, etc?), and then that these were ENGLISH speaking people--terra terra terra, gotta be 'fraid of everyone now--so give up your liberties so you can be "secure"....why do I keep thinking ol' Newt would fit right in at a Bund rally?

[KG]

5. there is no lie newt, the serial adulterer, won't scruple to tell.

[Crunchy Frog]

6. So is he running on a platform of repealing the 1st Ammendment?

He's just batshit crazy enough that I could seem him getting the Rethug nomination.:scared:

[Initech]

9. If he gets the nom, I'm outta here.

Costa Rica, here I come!

[AlCzervik]

7. Another bad idea in a series of bad ideas that Gingrich offers up.

Gingrich wanted some free press coverage and he got it. I can't wait until he jumps in because he'll be one of the first to get torn apart by his fellow republican candidates.

[Initech]

8. So much for the land of the free!

Argh, I hate this "everyone is coming to kill you so we must eliminate your freedoms to save your life" bullshit I could puke blood. :puke:

[DefenseLawyer]

10. There is a little-known codicil in the Faber College constitution

which gives the dean unlimited power to preserve order in time of campus emergency. The time has come for someone to put their foot down... and that foot is NEWT!