[b][size=4]Other view: Fleischer part of effort to silence dissent[/size=4][/b]
[i]Bee Editorial Staff
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, May 27, 2003
When Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary, recently announced that he was quitting his job, the press gave him a hearty send-off. Forgotten among the auld lang synes, though, [red]is the fact that Fleischer is the man who once tried to repeal the First Amendment.[/red]
A week after 9/11, "Politically Incorrect" host Bill Maher was, well, politically incorrect enough to say that flying a suicide mission is arguably less cowardly than "lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away." At his press briefing the next day, Fleischer went ballistic.
"All Americans need to watch what they say, watch what they do," he warned. Or else?
Unnervingly, Fleischer's views on free speech just might get the Supreme Court's blessing. Last March, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia -- [red]the justice who reversed the 2000 election results[/red] -- was asked about the erosion of civil liberties under the Patriot Act. Individual freedoms in this country are "way beyond what the Constitution requires," he responded, and in wartime, "the protections will be ratcheted right down to the minimum."[/i]
More at [url]http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/6740610p-7691729c.html[/url]
Some liberals still can't let Nov. 2000 go..... LOL
Sgtar15