First Amendment, people...it's important. (And if your first amendment rights are threatened, exercise your 2nd amendment rights!)

I think that the civil liberty that is coming under the greatest threat currently is that of free speech, particularly speech broadcasted over the radio. Currently the liberal majority is threatening conservative talk radio with censorship because of how much weight conservative talk radio hosts have with those that listen and how much encouragement they give to people, specifically Republicans, to get involved in the fight for political offices to insure that the conservatives regain the majority. There are many liberal politicians that are outspoken about re-instating the Fairness Doctrine that was established in 1949 but repealed in 1987 by President Reagan. It requires radio programs related to public affairs to feature all points of view about issues, or they’d lose their broadcasting license. Basically what happened back then was that producers avoided controversial programming altogether, because if even one person complained about them not being completely “fair” in allowing equal airtime to persons from differing viewpoints, they’d lose their license, pay fines, etc. Now, since it was repealed, there was an explosion of radio stations because people no longer feared the government’s “punishing” radio stations that spoke out in support of one side. The problem is that, now that the liberals are once again in majority, they want to try and either reinstate the Fairness Doctrine (which is totally unconsitutional) or in some back-door kind of way, to have another bill that censors radio. The reason is that liberal talk radio shows have never garnered good ratings or much support at all. They just don’t do well, so, naturally, the liberals feel threatened because of how well conservative talk radio gets their platform across to the people. I think that, despite the popular liberal leaning toward this kind of censorship, the government should take active steps toward an understanding that freedom of speech guarantees that freedom over the radio waves too, and that the government should actively support a bill that would make it impossible to censor radio broadcast, save in the occasion of a “clear and present danger” situation or if someone is intentionally slandering another “on the air.” After all, no-one is forcing anyone to listen to conservative talk radio. There are plenty of music, weather and sports stations for the “sensitive” listener.