Ha, he brings up limitations on speech during WWII. Do I have to point out the difference between providing operational intelligence (this ship sailed yesterday, going to Morocco) and making a statement about your views?

Famous and probably apocryphal comment by a WWII censor about what the public should be told during a war - "If it were up to me, I'd tell them nothing till it was over, then I'd only tell them who won".

U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said in a statement that Americans respect the Quran "and all religious texts and deplore any action that shows disrespect to any religious faith."

I don't. Most religious texts, including the Quran, are made up bullshit. If a person truly lives their faith and respects the rights of others, I respect that. I don't respect people who use religion to control and manipulate.

I'm completely fed up with this bullshit. Do these men understand the hypocrisy of their stances and how they are breaking the oaths they made to defend the Constitution of the United States? That doesn't merely mean to defend the country, but to defend the ideals upon which this country was founded. That includes fighting for the right for people to exercise their freedoms in ways we may find offensive.

Rather than condemn Americans for exercising their inalienable rights, the Ambassador should be condemning the Muslims who are acting to deny those rights to their fellow man. The general should keep his mouth shut, take care of the army and leave politics to the politicians.

(Truth is, the Quran burning didn't start these riots--Imams worked these people into a frenzy and set them loose. If someone hadn't burned a Quran, they would have found another excuse. That General Petraeus apparently doesn't understand this is truly frightening and only reinforces the futility of this war. More allied soldiers are going to die for the vanity of those in power who have as little respect for us as the animals we are fighting.)

A well thought out precis of the difference between restrictions on intelligence and free speech.

http://denbeste.nu/entries/00001440.shtml

Joe, I don't have a problem with what General Petraeus said, but I do have a problem with what Senator Graham said. The difference is that Senator Graham would like to make it illegal, which would be unconstitutional (he didn't say that, but certainly implied it). General Petraeus said, rightfully, that it is the sort of thing that works against our interests in the region. To my knowledge, the General didn't say anything about whether or not it should be legal.

Also, you're right that the Imams worked ignorant people into a frenzy. But this idiot preacher sure gave them a good match to light under their ass.

I believe the idiot preacher had every right to burn the Quran. I believe that the sick, despicable, worthless, hateful, Westboro Baptist people have a right to do what they are doing. I believe that any idiot has a right to burn a flag.

I also have a right to say what I think of them. This Quran burning preacher is a complete moron who is clearly working against the larger interests of the United States and putting American service members and contractors at great risk in order to garner some publicity for himself. He is a dirtbag and is deserving of great scorn. But, he is as protected as he can be under free speech and rightfully so.

I love this quote from Senator Graham, "Free speech probably allows that, but I don't like that." What the hell does he mean "probably"? Of course free speech allows that. Also, of course he doesn't like it. None of us do. Nobody with whom I can relate likes klan rallies, flag burnings, Quran burnings, Bible burnings, etc. That's the point of a free speech guarantee! You wouldn't need to guarantee it if there wouldn't be such problems.

It's shocking to me that a U.S. Senator would be so dumb on such a fundamental point of the Bill of Rights. I don't like that.

"If I had my way, that wouldn't be free speech."

Let's just make sure he doesn't get his way. The idea that some things are beyond the pale of free speech doesn't seem to be confined to the left or the right. Hopefully, people will realize that the mechanism that allows supression of speech they don't like will eventually backfire on them.

Well said, RPM.

Here's the thing about Senator Graham as well as many others in what remains to be, in my mind, a very respectable body of Americans.

He's a good guy. Not terribly thoughtful, but a good guy. He continues to be a LtCol (I think) in the Air Force Reserves. He's a good American by any measure.

However, he just doesn't quite get the whole idea of America. Either that or, more sinisterly, he's playing up to his dumb-assed South Carolina constituency. I suspect the latter.

Oops, he has a full chicken (Colonel) on his shoulder. Sorry Senator Graham. (the chicken thing is just military jargon and in no way is meant to denigrate his service.) Here is his biography from his web page:

"Lindsey O. Graham was elected to serve as United States Senator on November 5, 2002.

A native South Carolinian, Graham grew up in Central, graduated from D.W. Daniel High School, and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

Graham logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as an Air Force lawyer.

From 1984-1988, he was assigned overseas and served at Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany. Upon leaving the active duty Air Force in 1989, Graham joined the South Carolina Air National Guard where he served until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.

During the first Gulf War, Graham was called to active duty and served state-side at McEntire Air National Guard Base as Staff Judge Advocate where he prepared members for deployment to the Gulf region. His duties included briefing pilots on the law of armed conflict, preparing legal documents for deploying troops, and providing legal services for family members of the South Carolina Air National Guard. He received a commendation medal for his service at McEntire.

Since 1995, Graham has continued to serve his country in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and is one of only three U.S. Senators currently serving in the Guard or Reserves. He is a colonel and is assigned as a Senior Instructor at the Air Force JAG School.

In 1988, Graham went into private law practice and in 1992 was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives.

In 1994, he became the first Republican to represent South Carolina's Third Congressional District in Washington since 1877.

Graham is known as a leader who never abandons his independence or strays from the conservative reform agenda. He has fought to balance the federal budget, provide tax relief to all taxpayers, keep our military adequately funded and prepared, return control of education back to parents and teachers, and ensure the government keeps its promises to America's greatest generation.

Graham lives in Seneca and is a member of Corinth Baptist Church.

He serves on five committees in the U.S. Senate: Appropriations, Armed Services, Aging, Budget and Judiciary."

"He's a good American by any measure"...completely disagree. An opponent of free speech is not a good American. You cannot be a good American if you don't "quite get the whole idea of America."

We're just going to have to disagree about Senator Graham. The man swore an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

There's no wiggle room for the parts you find inconvenient or just don't like.

Apparently Senators Graham and Reid, and likely several others - yes, McCain, I'm looking directly at you - need to have And Congress shall pass no law explained to them.

David, Mark, and IRA,

""He's a good American by any measure"...completely disagree. An opponent of free speech is not a good American. You cannot be a good American if you don't "quite get the whole idea of America.""

That's a pretty good point. Let me revise my comments to say that he is a well-meaning American. Were I in South Carolina, I'd vote against him in a New York minute. But, he is a stand up guy. He is ignorant as hell, but that may make him well suited to represent his South Carolina constituency. Isn't that what Democracy is all about?

For those that think that I'm being too harsh on the beautiful state of South Carolina, please allow me a proactive rebuttal. Here it comes ... ready for it?

Senator Strom Thurmond.

There, that should shut them up.

Why are people so threatened by differences of opinion? I'm not bothered by people who don't agree with me. It doesn't make them bad people. It only makes them wrong.

Mark Steyn's response to Senator Dandy Fop was well done. The senator is a weakling and nothing but a PC pandering twit.

Sio, if you thought Steyn's response was good, check this one out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeyrp-V3Jvc&feature=player_embedded

The bottom line is we will never NOT piss off the Muslims who are looking for an excuse to murder and riot. Name a teddy bmilkshake
ear Muhammad and watch the flames!

An interesting aspect of this Koran-burning story is how our own mainstream media colluded to keep it out of the news. I agree that this asshat preacher doesn't deserve his 15 minutes, but it appears more people in Afghanistan knew about this incident than we did.

oops- thought I was was naming a file on a different computer "milkshake".

There must be something in the air of the Senate chambers, because the more Graham talks about this, the dumber he gets. He seems to be totally unaware that there is a difference between condemning something from a moral standpoint, and wanting to outlaw it.

And he keeps bringing back the flag-burning argument. Yes, the Left are total hypocritical dipshits on that argument. But that doesn't mean that the rest of us get to throw reason out the window.

You've all missed something.

We're NOT at war.

Congress has not performed that Constitutional duty.

If they did, then an entire spectrum of legal mechanisms for determining the extent of treason and sedition would automatically be activated.

Since Congress is not going to declare war, the best you can hope for, and not just from Sen. Graham, is continuing stupidity.

That's because there is no unifying principle, out in the open.

The mechanisms at work are all Mencken's.