HR347 - Speech No Longer Free in the United States

Do you think Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Denver has accomplished anything?

JSG wrote: Here's an honest question: Do you think standing behind a barricade with a sign, yelling, really affects any kind of change? Do you think public figures even notice or would consider changing a policy because of it?

Here's an honest question: Do you always deflect from the issue at hand with some distracting digression- or can you focus on the issue at hand?

President Obama signed bill H.R. 347 (also known as the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011) into law on March 9th, amid numerous protests from the Occupy movement, as well as other agencies.

While these changes to the law are not the death of free speech, they aren’t as trivial as the administration would have you believe.

Rather, they are part of an incremental and persistent effort by the government to keep demonstrators away from events involving those at the top of the political food chain.

For one thing, the law makes it easier for the government to criminalize protest. Period.

It is a federal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison to protest anywhere the Secret Service might be guarding someone.

For another, it’s almost impossible to predict what constitutes “disorderly or disruptive conduct” or what sorts of conduct authorities deem to “impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions.”

I'm not a protestor- most of us on the right are not protestors- this activity is amost exclusive to the left- and it's all you folks on the left who should be the most concerned about it- and all I see here is ambivalence, pretty pathetic when a libertarian like me is more concerned about your right to protest - than you all are.

Oh well- don't call on me to bail you out of jail- I tried to support everyone's right to protest.

P.S. Once you are found guilty of a felony (which will happen if you protest and are arrested under this law) you will lose many rights for the rest of your life. You may never again be able to have a passport- own a gun- vote or do many other things once you are convicted of this crime- which is now a felony.

You guys on the left voted for all this stuff!
So have fun at that next protest and good luck in the contest!

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/03/the_anti_protest_bill_signed_by_barack_obama_is_a_quiet_attack_on_free_speech_.html

There are a lot of things under attack, including the internet. CISPA is a bill that would grant the government extensive Internet censorship powers, as well as infringe on the privacy of individual Internet users. Go take a look at H.R. 3523. If you take a look at all the bills trying to dismantle the 1st amendment, it gets pretty darn scary.

It IS scary...

Interestingly enough, 58% of the House GOP majority voted FOR IT... Obama has threatened to veto it...(thank god)...

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2012/h192

JSG wrote: Do you think Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Denver has accomplished anything?

Sure they have - you're talking about them, eh? But again, I think I stated earlier that assemblies need to be focused and a well-organized. The occupy movement is neither. It may have been at the get-go but degenerated quickly into a diffuse mess.

And regardless, as stated by another poster, the problem I see is another incremental curtailment of our constitutional rights.

LadyJazzer wrote: It IS scary...

Interestingly enough, 58% of the House GOP majority voted FOR IT... Obama has threatened to veto it...(thank god)...

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2012/h192

I hope he follows through and does veto it.

cydl wrote:

JSG wrote: Do you think Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Denver has accomplished anything?

Sure they have - you're talking about them, eh? But again, I think I stated earlier that assemblies need to be focused and a well-organized. The occupy movement is neither. It may have been at the get-go but degenerated quickly into a diffuse mess.

Obama makes free speech a felony? It was Introduced by Rep. Michael Rogers [R-MI8] and passed by the Republican majority House. Obama is going to veto it.

Another incorrect thread.

Soulshiner wrote: Obama makes free speech a felony? It was Introduced by Rep. Michael Rogers [R-MI8] and passed by the Republican majority House. Obama is going to veto it.

Another incorrect thread.

Posting the truth or getting the facts correct doesn't appear to be important to our conservative friends here. But they do provide some comic relief.