[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26051]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THE LIBERTY TREE AXED BY THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, talk radio today is like the Liberty 
Tree in Revolutionary War times.
  The first Liberty Tree was in Boston where the Sons of Liberty would 
gather around a large elm tree in the public square. They would talk 
about the issues of the day and voice their political opinions. Anyone 
could speak. But the British military cut down the Liberty Tree because 
colonists spoke out against taxes and the King.
  Now it sounds like the redcoats over at the FCC are trying to put the 
ax to the Liberty Tree of free speech again. They say they need to 
protect the American people from hearing things that are just too 
controversial. So their answer is to control the speech content of 
those radio rebels. The redcoats at the FCC say they must determine 
what the masses hear.
  Mr. Speaker, the notion that anyone in the Federal Government has the 
right to censor political speech is an affront to a free people. The 
Constitution protects political speech because it's sacred. We defeated 
the British because they wanted to control speech, and now it's time 
for those who still believe in the First Amendment to defy the redcoats 
at the FCC.
  And that's just the way it is.

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