{"id":5669,"date":"2004-01-27T12:56:31","date_gmt":"2004-01-27T19:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/01\/27\/perhaps-hed-support-a-free-speech-zone-approach.html"},"modified":"2004-01-27T12:56:31","modified_gmt":"2004-01-27T19:56:31","slug":"perhaps_hed_sup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/27\/perhaps_hed_sup.html","title":{"rendered":"Perhaps he’d support a Free Speech Zone approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

In defense of “freedom of speech,” Al Franken body-slammed a heckler from behind<\/a> and threw him to the ground at a New Hampshire Dean campaign stop.<\/p>\n

“I got down low and took his legs out,” said Franken afterwards.
\nFranken said he’s not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely. “I would have done it if he was a Dean supporter at a Kerry rally,” he said.
\n“I’m neutral in this race but I’m for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down.”<\/p>\n

Hmmm. Wonder if he’d have done it if it were a Dean supporter at a Bush<\/i> rally.<\/p>\n

Or for that matter, I wonder what the headlines would read if it had been, say, Sean Hannity knocking down a heckler at a Bush rally. Or, for that matter, a Secret Service agent doing the body-slamming.<\/p>\n

I have no great fondness for Lyndon LaRouche supporters (whose candidate sort of epitomizes the idea that if you go far enough to the fringe, both the Left and Right circle back together). But I find the idea that assault is a reasonable defense of free speech, or an acceptable way to deal with hecklers, to be more than a bit dubious. <\/p>\n

(via Command Post<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In defense of “freedom of speech,” Al Franken body-slammed a heckler from behind and threw him to the ground at a New Hampshire Dean campaign stop. “I got down low…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15738,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/08\/unblogged-bits-for-tuesday-08-september-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":5669,"position":0},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Tuesday, 08 September 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-Sep-09 6:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Somehow it is refreshing: PB expands on GC Sermon - Some Episcotrivia here. The idea that it's not just enough to claim that one \"loves God\" but that one also must love (and demonstrate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51304,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/30\/freedom-of-speech-is-for-provocative-dolts-too.html","url_meta":{"origin":5669,"position":1},"title":"Freedom of Speech is for provocative dolts, too","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 30-May-15 1:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"I dislike people telling me what I can say or think about a particular religion, or who insist on my respecting their religious tenets regarding iconography.On the other hand, I dislike people who go out of their way to be provocative, insulting, and hateful, then wrap themselves in the flag\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4752,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/12\/wont_you_be_my.html","url_meta":{"origin":5669,"position":2},"title":"Won’t you be my neighbor?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Jan-04 12:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Howard Dean's been getting more religious out on the campaign road, but his theology on loving your neighbor is a bit dubious. Later, Dr. Dean flashed his much-talked-about temper at...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11477,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/19\/freedom_of_political_expr.html","url_meta":{"origin":5669,"position":3},"title":"Freedom of Political Expression not quite dead yet","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Aug-07 7:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Feds have settled with a couple who, in 2004, were\u00a0handcuffed and ejected from public property for the audacity of showing up in anti-Bush t-shirts at a Bush speech.\u00a0...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/ranks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5703,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/21\/two_political_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":5669,"position":4},"title":"Two political notes","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Jan-04 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Personally, I didn't find anything all that offbeat about Howard Dean's \"To New Hampshire -- and Beyond!\" speech Monday night. I know a lot of anti-Dean folk found it so...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3295,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/29\/only_in_america.html","url_meta":{"origin":5669,"position":5},"title":"Only in America …","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 29-Dec-02 11:54am","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope it says something grand about our country that, as Al Franken noted in This Week, the number one rapper in the country is white, and the number one...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}