Now why would someone want to do this? I think it is all those overprotective 'Soccer Mom's' thingking that they can save their children and ours from being influenced by others. Now if the 1st Amendment (Freedom of Speech) were to ever be repealed, it would be the end of these United States as we know them. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/30/national/main520314.shtml
Every blinking idiot who is ready to sacrifice freedom of speech, curtail the freedom of the press and restrict the teachings of college professors should spend some time in the dictatorship their pure-blind stupidity is sure to create. Who'd have thought that, 11 years later, teh &%^*ing Soviets would be winning the cold war? Seven in 10 respondents agreed newspapers should publish freely, a slight drop from 2001. Those less likely to support newspaper rights included people without a college education, Republicans, and evangelicals, the survey found. What a *&%$ing shock.
Scary, yeah. New, hardly. In 1798, Congress passed and John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition acts, which more or less abrogated the 1st Amendment in certain situations. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln suspended the write of habeus corpus. In 1918, someone was arrested in Boston for reading the Bill of Rights in public. The right to disagree with the government has always been threatened, especially when war is nearby or ongoing, as was the case in these examples and as is the case now.
We already ignore the 2nd and 10th amendments, why not just get rid of the 1st as well? The fact is the Constitution has been trampled upon for years now as the Executive Branch has grabbed, hand over fist, more and more power. A horrible precedent was set with FDR and the Court Packing incident. Can't get what you want because of the Constitution, ok change the rules. Ever since then we have seen an explosion in the powers of the Executive Branch, more intrusion into social policy and the increase size and scope of the Federal Government. Presidents before FDR were quite weak. It is easier for an under-educated populous to centralize their approval/disapproval of the country in one central figure rather than 532 Representatives they don't elect.
This thread should have been titled "Big Soccer Sky is Falling" A few little things to put this chilling danger into perspective: 1) you can still go get just about any pornography you want because of freedom of speech (ok, no kiddie porn, that's a chilling abridgement) 2) You can have just about any kind of silly religion and be tax-exempt. You just have to really believe it and not be in it for tax purposes. 3) The US Supreme court still entertains all kinds of stupid lawsuits objecting to harmless displays of religion. 4) I regularly see idiots on streetcorners here in San Francisco passing out Lyndon LaRouche propaganda, communist propaganda, intergalactic conspiracy propaganda....they don't get arrested or even bothered by cops 5) GringoTex hasn't been put on a Texas chain gang yet But someone takes a poll and you're worried? If so, you need some prozac or something
Right now there are citizens in jail who are not charged with any crime, and have no opportunity to defend themselves. And we have created a climate in this nation, as evidenced by that article, that sets the stage for worse behavior to come.
I think that this is more like the 4th, 5th and 6th amendments. You're losing sleep over our harsh treatment of guys like Johnny "Taliban" Walker? But you're right, if we were a rational country we'd first strip them of citizenship and then treat them like foreign scum. Personally, our imprisonment of Noriega troubles me more. How do we capture and imprison a foreign head of state for violating US laws? And how many other scofflaws are there out in barbarian lands?
For all you know, this could be a government "made-up" survey and results. It could all be Propaganda coming from your own govt. I can't see the average American wanting to repeal the 1st Amendment. No other country is so obssessed with freedom of speech than USA. With all this Land of the free bollocks we always hear from across the pond.
> You sure about that? Jose Padilla has been in a military prison for almost 3 months. There are also people like Yaser Esam Hamdi, who is a citizen but was captured fighting for the Taliban. The military is in court right now trying to affirm their right to hold him for as long as the conflict lasts. As you and I know, this "war" is never going to end, so in effect they are going to hold him forever. Plus there are thousands of others in jails right now - supposedly they are not citizens but how can we be sure if they don't have access to laywers or family members?
It's tough to really form an opinion on this survey without seeing any of the questions that were asked. With skillful phrasing a poller can get just about any response he is looking for. I do find it funny that folks without a college education are more willing to support restrictions on professors' speech. WTF are they basing their opinions on? Rodney Dangerfield's "Back To School?"
You know, I'm not exactly shocked by this survey. People have always been in favor of freedom of speech -- as long as you're saying something that doesn't offend them too much. And politics don't really matter, since both the left and the right have demonstrated their willingness to cut corners on freedom of speech. But it still sucks. The good news is that the Constitutional requirements to repeal the 1st Amendment (or any other one, for that matter) are too stringent for it to ever happen. The bad news is that we've got too many people in power who are willing to ignore it and too many other people out there who are willing to let them.
Bollocks? Just because one-half of your political spectrum proudly pledges loyalty to a crown on top of some old inbred German windbag's head doesn't mean you can't sing songs of liberty, too.
I am not worried about an actual amendment to the Constitution. That would never happen. However, if our government ignores it, what can we do? Heck, the national government already ignores the 9th and 10th, the 2nd is under heavy fire and most of the other amendments in the bill of rights are under attack.
Tell me about it. I've been trying to get this platoon of Marines out of my apartment for a dog's age now.