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Thursday, December 7, 2006
South Carolina: Where the action will be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charleston, S.C. – While the junior half of this operation has been trekking across the Iowa plains, we’ve been sampling opinions in the Palmetto State. Chances are we’ll be back soon.
The South Carolina Republican Party has already scheduled a presidential primary debate for May 15. It’s going to be a very high-profile event in the early part of the upcoming GOP contest.
Not to be outdone, state Democratic Party chairman Joe Erwin announced this week that the Dems have scheduled a presidential debate timed with the state convention and Jefferson-Jackson dinner on April 27.
Will Hillary be there? Will Barack Obama? It’s going to be an interesting early test of commitment.
Once more into the breach: Newt and the First Amendment, again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Newt Gingrich, the non-candidate for president in ‘08, confesses that his remarks of last week, suggesting limits on free speech to curb talk among terrorists, “must have hit a nerve.”
On Wednesday, the Union-Leader of New Hampshire, where Gingrich made his speech (during an event celebrating the First Amendment, no less), published an op-ed piece by the former House speaker, on the same topic.
Some excerpts:
We need a serious dialogue — not knee-jerk hysteria — about the 1st Amendment, what it protects and what it should not protect. Here are a few baseline principles to consider:
We should be allowed to close down Web sites that recruit suicide bombers and provide instructions to indiscriminately kill civilians by suicide or other means, or advocate killing people from the West or the destruction of Western civilization;
We should propose a Geneva-like convention for fighting terrorism that makes very clear 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. A subset of this convention should define the international rules of engagement on what activities will not be protected by free speech claims; and
We need an expeditious review of current domestic law to see what changes can be made within the protections of the 1st Amendment to ensure that free speech protection claims are not used to protect the advocacy of terrorism, violent conduct or the killing of innocents.
Can’t wait for Bob Barr to weigh in on this.
A new and different gig for Nigut
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former WSB-TV political reporter Bill Nigut, who left journalism three years ago for high-browed culture, has a new job.
He’ll be director of the Southern regional office of the Anti-Defamation League in Atlanta. The ADL focuses on fighting anti-Semitism and racism. Nigut’s territory will be Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Nigut, a 20-year veteran of local TV, most recently served as head of the Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition, a public-private partnership aimed at bringing a little joy into our humdrum lives.
