[aomagrat]

NA$CAR should just go ahead and take the fenders off the cars, move all races north and west, and be just another eurotrash circuit.

[orionblamblam]

Confederacy: OWNED

[RonF]

“This is the most chilling thing I’ve seen against freedom of speech,” spokesman Don Gordon said.

See, that's self-serving nonsense. The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law" abridging freedom of the press or freedom of speech. In this case, no government body has made a law restricting this organization from doing anything. What has happened is that a private property owner (the railroad) has decided what can and cannot be done on his property. Since their actions are within the law, no one has any right to tell them what can be posted on a billboard they own. This is NOT a freedom of speech issue.

[mtbopfuyn]

NASCAR didn't abide by the lease contract so the sign was taken down. What's the big deal? If they want to put up the sign again, buy their own land.

[Bigh4u2]

"“We made no judgment as to the content of the billboard, but we did understand it to be controversial and therefore asked that it be removed.”

Ummm. Yes you did make a 'judgment' call.

You can't say in one breath 'we made no judgment call' and in the next 'we did understand it to be controversial'.

They aren't inseparable.

[RebelBanker]

Dixie ping!

The damnyankees have already infested the thread...

[Junior]

I'm a big supporter of Southern heritage, but I don't think this group has a legal or ethical leg to stand on. The property owner has a right to do whatever he or she wants with his or her property. Period. Calling this "a blow against the First Amendment" strikes me as being a bit disingenuous.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

NASCAR can go to hell!The yankee agitators need to be kicked back north where they belong with their stupid ideas and treasonous trash.

[BaBaStooey]

Memo to Johnny Reb. The Civil War is over. Stop fighting it.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

How does someone get away with putting up signs on other people's property without their permission in the first place?

I didn't see anything in the article.

[tallhappy]

“If we find out NASCAR is involved, you can expect airplanes towing Confederate banners over every NASCAR race anywhere in this nation — forever,” Gordon said.

This guy seems to be trying a bit too hard. Looks like he is looking for attention above anything else.

[wbill]

Officials of the S.C. Central Railroad, which owns the land where the billboard stood, said the message was “controversial” and needed to come down.

Sounds to me like the private property owners decided not to support the SCV. What's the problem?

If this group would like to put up a billboard, then they can put it up on their own land, or with a landowner that supports their beliefs.

[Muleteam1]

Several years ago I had a billboard company after me almost on a daily basis trying to rent space on my commercial property for one of their billboards. The fact that the sign would only only occupy a 2' x 2' footprint on the property was their favorite arguement. Realizing that perverse ideologies in the U.S. now possess a lot of money to rent advertising space, my reply was not just "no", but "h_ll no."

In the case of the current story, I agree with the RR company's right to do with their property as they see fit. It would be a sad day if the Constitution were interpreted to give not only the right of free speech but also the freedom to set up your podium in any place you wish.

And I will add that three of my four great grandfathers, and several of my great great grandfathers fought for the Confederacy.

Muleteam1

[TankerKC]

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees every American the right to free speech. However, the sign was on private property, and the property’s owner ordered it down.

Correctly noted by the reporter. I hope all other reporters follow his lead the next time a liberal cries about the 1st Amendment in similar circumstances.

[sgtbono2002]

When someone leases a piece of land the person doing the leasing has some rights. It isnt up to the owner any more to make that decision. Now evidently the railroad had a codicil in the lease that said if the sign was offensive they could take it down. But who decides if it is offensive? The advertising place took the path of least resistance AND WENT ALONG WITH THE RAILROAD, THEIR POCKETS ARE DEEPER THAT THE SONS OF THE CONFEDERACY.

[righthand man]

bump

[JamesP81]

I don't have a problem with SCVs sign, but it was on private property. I don't have to provide a forum with my personal property for anyone who wants it and neither does anyone else. If the government had been the one that decided the sign was inappropriate it would be different, IMO.

[ZULU]

“This is the most chilling thing I’ve seen against freedom of speech,” spokesman Don Gordon said."

Just another one of a series of esclating selectiuve attacks on freedom of speech.

If some group had a "Black heritage" or "Hispanic Heritage" sign removed from a highway, the vipers and slimy slugs in the ACLU would be in court in the blinking of an eye. They would have even responded had somebody put a NAZI sign which was removed.

[HighWheeler]

"The nation’s largest stock car racing organization has started diversity programs and tried to appeal to black and Hispanic fans.

-- --

Yeah, they want to have the same huge black and hispanic base that drag racing, Formula 1, short track, motorcycle, and Indy racing enjoys.

Idiots.

[sionnsar]

“We made no judgment as to the content of the billboard, but we did understand it to be controversial

Doublespeak lives.

[Liberty Valance]

I found this interesting obit from 76 years ago...



The obituary of George Sanford Chamberlin, Sr., a Confederate veteran, who died in 1936. Last Veteran of Confederate Army in County is Buried in Micanopy The flag of the Confederate states of America was flown for perhaps the last time in this county last week when it was unfurled above the open grave of George S. Chamberlin, whose death and burial at Micanopy Thursday brought to a conclusion the age-long straggling march of the "thin" Gray line" of the hosts of Lee and Jackson in the county.

A veteran of four full years of service in the Confederate Army, Mr. Chamberlin at the age of 94 had survived all the rigorous hardships of active warfare and lived to see each of his scores of comrades in the county go down before him at the hands of time until he alone stood out as the sole representative of the Glory of the Lost Cause for which he and his fellows fought and died.

Born at Monteocha. in this county on January 31, 1842, Mr. Chamberlin had been a lifelong resident of the county--and during all of his years never set foot outside of Florida. His father came here from Massachusetts as a United States soldier sent to subdue the Indians: but during the California gold rush he departed for the West and was never heard of again leaving the young Chamberlin an orphan to to be reared by relatives.

Mr. Chamberlin was educated at the old East Florida Seminary, then located at Micanopy. At the opening of the Civil War he enlisted with the Marion Dragoons under Capt. James B. Owens, later transferring to the Second Florida Cavalry, serving in C Troop under Capt. Chambers. He saw action but twice during the the war, in a battle fought at Gainesville and in a single skirmish with Union troops near here.

Following the Civil War Mr. Chamberlin joined with a group of friends in forming the community known as Tacoma, which was as developed into one of the finest truck and citrus growing sections of its day.
Mr. Chamberlin fractured a hip in an accident in 1929, and since that time had been confined to bed at his home at Tacoma.

Surviving him are three sons. R. M., J. W. and G. S. Charnberlin; two daughters, Mrs. I. E. Jones and Miss Martha Chamberlin, all of Micanopy; 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren .

Mr. Chamberlin for many years s was an active member of Stonewall Jackson Chapter Confederate Veterans, which formerly was one of the largest and most active chapters in the state. The passing of years 80 thinned its ranks however, that three years ago the post was declared dissolved, Mr. Chamberlin remaining its only member. Records of the chapter, upon its dissolution, were placed in the county's archives at the Court House.

Daughters of the Confederacy joined friends of the old veteran at his graveside and it was they who followed the time-honored custom of unfurling over the grave the flag of the Confederacy, the flag which may never again be unfurled in the county.