Campaigning Feb. 21, the day before Michigan's primary, Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush has endorsed installing anti-porn filters on Internet services in public libraries and schools and similar places.
Speaking on WJQ-FM here, the Texas governor spoke while answering a question on a local ballot measure to require anti-porn filters on Holland libraries. "I'm not going to tell the people of Holland what to do on their referendum," he told host Dottie Barnes. "All the times I've been asked about filters that will filter out pornography and smut in the public places, my answer is yes, there ought to be filters for Internet services that exist in public places."
Rival GOP White House hopeful Sen. John McCain had previously endorsed such filtering during a South Carolina campaign stop in Greenville. Former Ambassador Alan Keyes, running a distant third behind Bush and McCain in the GOP primary hunt, has also endorsed filtering requirements.
McCain, in fact, has co-sponsored legislation in the U.S. Senate to cut federal funding to libraries and schools which do not install filters. Keyes has dismissed filtering critics' free speech concerns. "I don't think it's a free speech issue in this case," he told the Grand Rapids Press. "Don't use the First Amendment. That's some excuse to destroy our children's lives and souls."
