Well this is stepping over some boundries...

[Buster]

http://www.freestatevoice.com.au/politics/item/567-obama-wants-to-jail-americans-with-new-law

What an amateurish piece of crap. Poorly written, badly formatted, hyperbolic garbage. What is it, written by a bunch of high school kids??

I can't believe you people are taking this seriously.

 

[Leta]

This.is.nonsense.

I was a reporter for a small town newspaper at the tail end of the pre-blog era. Our readership was less than 25,000 people. There is no way this article would have made to publication even in our rinky dink paper based on (lack of) copy editing alone.

Additionally, whenever anything, be it print, internet, radio, or television news leads with "President Whoever wants to pass a/change the law..." listen with a *very* critical ear. Do U.S. Presidents have agendas? Of course. Can they use their sway to influence Congress? Sure. Do they introduce laws? NO, never. That is not how our system of government works, not now, not ever.

And really? It was introduced in 2007, when Barack Obama was still the senator from IL. Unless he was the person who introduced this legislation (and he wasn't) it's pretty clear that using the President's name is just a tactic to be extra inflammatory.

 

[sunsaver]

I thought we we're supposed to avoid politics on this forum. Enough with the fearmongering. I'm sick of these foriegn owned corporate zombie echo voices. We're looking for original thought and answers, not right-wing or left-wing rhetoric. This crap belongs in the compost pile.

 

[k0xxx]

What an amateurish piece of crap. Poorly written, badly formatted, hyperbolic garbage. What is it, written by a bunch of high school kids??

I can't believe you people are taking this seriously.

Yes, this particular article is very poorly written. However, the bill referenced is real, and as has been referenced in this thread, did not pass the Senate. As a real piece of legislation (H.R. 1955) that made it through the House, it is something that should be taken seriously. Also, the fact that when it passed the House that it was on a voice vote and not an actual roll vote, should give people pause. (If I were a politician, I wouldn't want to be on record as voting for something like this either)

You can download the actual text of the bill in its' various forms as pdf files here .

As stated earlier, I can find no reference to this bill be reintroduced since it was defeated in 2007. John Brennan (Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism), is on the record as stating that the administrations' attention needs to be focused more on "homegrown terrorists", but I have been unable to substantiate any attempt (by the current administration) to get this bill to re-surface. So it probably is a good bet that the article is just B.S.

As for the Presidents' power to introduce legislation, Leta is correct. However, there are always a lot of elected representatives in both parties that are willing to introduce legislation on behalf of a president.

We should all be vigilant as to what is being introduced "on our behalf", but we should do our homework before we get riled up by articles such as this.

 

[Neko-chan]

First I've heard of it.