Recently by Eric Peters: How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Driving… And Much More Besides
Now we cant lawfully speak or peaceably assemble. Not within earshot or sight of those who rule us, at any rate.
HR347 the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act is now the law. (More accurately, an updated version of the Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich. The phraseology and cadences are becoming so familiar, arent they?)
It codifies the federal governments practice ever since the days of The Chimp to shunt protesters into what Judge Andrew Napolitano rightly calls No Speech Zones and more, expands on it criminalizing mere speech, mere peaceful assembly, if it impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of government business or official functions as defined by the agents of the federal government. The language is so sweepingly vague it amounts to carte blanche suspension of the First Amendment whenever and wherever the government so decides.
Heckling or even standing silent with a protest sign could and will be construed as impeding and/or disrupting the orderly conduct of government.
And the punishments for transgressing the new befehl are severe: As much as ten years in prison and an unspecified fine. The minimum sentence is up to one year in prison and an unspecified fine. No more plastic handcuffs, temporarily fitted a short ride to the pokey and a misdemeanor fine (even that is an outrage, of course). Henceforth, offenders will be facing life-changing hard time. Even a month or two in the clink is enough to result in the loss of ones job and with that, the cavalcade into destitution begins. A year in jail and its over for most people. Ten years? For impeding or disrupting the orderly conduct of government business or official functions? In other words, for heckling a pompous politician? For denouncing ObamaCare? For causing Obama (or Romney or any of the other front men) to see or hear dissatisfaction with their rule?
Yes, indeed.
Rapists are treated more gently. Of course, rapists and murderers do not offend against the state. It is a key thing to grasp. They merely trample upon the rights of other people. And they the people dont matter. As George Orwells Winston Smith explained in 1984, the real crime is political crime; i.e., dissent. In his dystopia, ordinary criminals were likewise treated almost kindly relative to the consequences that awaited Thought Criminals such as Winston Smith.
And soon and now us.
The chilling effect this will have on (formerly) free speech will be extreme. How many will dare to say anything to even stand on a street corner in the face of this? Which is precisely the object of those behind the new law.
This is a history lesson in process.
People often ask, couldnt the Germans see it coming? Why didnt they do anything?
Well, why dont we?