YES, IT'S ANYBODY BUT OBAMA, BUT…

Keep in mind here that I’m speaking as someone whose guy has now dropped out of the race, a decision that has now essentially left me in somewhat of a quandary. You see, out of the remaining candidates still standing, I’m leaning toward Romney or Gingrich. And the fella I was supporting was Rick Perry, who has endorsed Gingrich. Now while Newt would like us all to believe that he is the second coming of Ronald Reagan, facts, as Newt like to say, can be used to tell a rather different story. Because as we take a little journey down memory lane we can see that along the way Newt has floated more than a few ideas that Reagan never would have never gone for. Crazy ideas that deal with everything from “climate change” and mandatory health coverage to the curtailing of free speech online. Today, throughout the ongoing campaign, he has attempted to either downplay or divert completely, attention away from those ideas, and we kinda saw that again in Thursday night's debate in South Carolina. A tactic, that apparently seems to have worked so far.

Regarding the specific issue of the internet, since deciding to throw his hat into the ring comprised of those hoping to unseat our “Dear Beloved Leader,” Newt Gingrich has continued to portray himself as a friend of a free and open Internet. But in the past he's talked up some pretty radical proposals that would actually curtail free speech online. Ideas that you would normally expect to hear coming from Eric Holder or Barack Hussein Obama. There was a question posed on Thursday night that had to do with the Stop Online Piracy Act, legislation that has the support of many in the entertainment industry as well as many powerful members of the House and Senate. The legislation now appears, at least, to be on life support after running into what can only be described as a firestorm of criticism from Internet users, tech companies like Google, and activists who shut down websites in protest last week. It sounds like what it was that Gingrich was supporting, and not all that long ago, politically speaking, is eerily similar to what we're hearing from Barry "Almighty." But apparently that's not his opinion today.


Today, at a time when Gingrich is busy trying to become Barry’s Republican opponent in 2012, his opinion seems to have changed on a number of issues. Regarding the internet specifically, he now says, "You have virtually everybody who's technologically advanced, including, you know, Google and YouTube and Facebook and all the folks, who say this is going to totally mess up the Internet, and the bill in its current form is written really badly and leads to a range of censorship that is totally unacceptable. Well, I favor freedom." Adding, "The idea that we're going to preemptively have the government start censoring the Internet on behalf of giant corporations' economic interests strikes me as exactly the wrong thing to do." What a difference a few years make, because it was back in 2006 that Newt was singing slightly a different tune. Because back then what he calls this “messing up of the internet” didn’t seem to bother Gingrich all that much. Then Gingrich was arguing that censoring the Internet would be the right thing to do when it comes to Islamic radicals who use the web to organize jihad against the U.S.


His opinion of things in 2006 was, "We need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until we actually literally lose a city, which I think could literally happen in the next decade if we're unfortunate," is what Mr. Gingrich opined in a speech given in New Hampshire. He went on to say, "We now 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 the threat." So I think it a very fair question, much more fair than asking him about the ramblings and bizarre accusations of an ex-wife, to ask regarding what it was that might have brought about this very obvious change in his position. Gingrich's aides posted the audio on the web at the time, but for whatever the reason, that file seems to be gone now. It's become one of those things that makes you wanna go, hmmmmm. But if memory serves, the former House speaker didn't really go into great detail back then, but he did suggest that a group of retired judges or other respected individuals should be empowered to shut down websites that foment anti-American violence. But who defines exactly what that is.


Now while at the time Gingrich did not explain how the U.S. would take down those sites on servers beyond the reach of U.S. law and he conceded that the kinds of controls he was proposing for the web would trigger "a serious debate about the First Amendment." DUH! But he justifies any intrusion saying that it was needed because of the apocalyptic nature of the threat posed by Islamic terrorists. "This is a serious, long-term war," Gingrich said. "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." Now obviously, terrorists pose a more significant threat than intellectual property pirates. So, I suppose, Gingrich could distinguish his positions on those grounds. But both proposals raise serious questions about their practical effectiveness and the degree to which they'd block speech that's lawful right now.


In any event, Gingrich's 2006 statements show that he's not entirely averse to "preemptively hav[ing] the government start censoring the Internet" for some reasons and that he's far from being a champion of unfettered free speech on the Web. And as mentioned earlier, he has had a sentiment for “climate change” going so far as to team up with old “Stretch” Pelosi. We’ve got to remember that a great debater does not even a good president make. And it may be just me, but as this primary process continues, the level of arrogance being exhibited by Gingrich has continued to escalate. So as Team Gingrich, including the candidate himself, continues to make hay regarding what Romney did, or did not do during his time as governor of Massachusetts or while he was at Bain, our about his taxes, Gingrich is far from being as pure as the wind driven snow. And again, speaking only for myself, I’m “leaning” toward Romney. Look, I’ve put all of my eggs in one basket already and was left with an empty basket and eggs all over my feet. So I’ll b watching and listening and deciding, just who it is that I think is best able to beat Barry.