Move On Starts Petition to have Republicans charged with sedition

[Alyosha]

I just want to say "thank you" to those who sign it because it really cements the fact that free speech and republican government is no longer a necessity in the modern authoritarian state.

http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/17/moveonorg-wants-gop-leaders-arrested-for

[junie]

not sure what 'free speech' has to do with it...




The 16-day shutdown of the federal government has finally come to an end (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling_n_4111483.html), but many Americans are still furious about what they perceive (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/federal-government_n_4102263.html) as a GOP-sponsored gambit to defund the Affordable Care Act.


One outlet for that fury is a petition (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/arrest-and-try-house/?source=search) from the progressive MoveOn.org that calls for the U.S. Department of Justice to arrest and try Republican leaders, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) and House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio), for "the crime of seditious conspiracy against the United States of America."


The petition argues (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/arrest-and-try-house/?source=search) that "the House GOP leadership's use of the Hastert Rule and H. Res 368 to shut down the government and threaten the US economy with default is an attempt to extort the United States government into altering or abolishing the Affordable Care Act, and thus, is self-evidently a seditious conspiracy." (The U.S. Code (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384) defines "seditious conspiracy" in part as any conspiracy "to oppose by force the authority [of the U.S. government], or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States.")


With more than 21,000 signatures to date, the petition reflects a wider revulsion over the government's costly political meltdown -- which, among other consequences (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling_n_4111483.html?utm_hp_ref=politics), resulted in furloughs for 800,000 federal workers, the shuttering (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/10/07/government-shutdown-impacting-families-of-head-start-children/)of some Head Start programs, the suspension of federal health and safety (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/08/federal-furloughs-health-and-safety/2944897/) inspections, and the loss of $24 billion (http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/16/news/economy/shutdown-economic-impact/) in economic activity.


At the end of the standoff, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was among those still angered by the shutdown, although not so angry as to accuse anyone of being an enemy of the state.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/moveon-petition-arrest-republicans_n_4116820.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[Ravi]

meh, just put them in FEMA camps.

[junie]

meh, just put them in FEMA camps.


:laugh:


4330

[Mr. Freeze]

Move On was an organization I joined as a teenager that I have since quit for its overtly partisan stance. They used to be more of a hippie, pro-Nader/Chomsky type of group and now they're just a Democratic water-bearer.

For the person who asked about free speech, when you wish to have someone charged with sedition, ie "conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch", then you are essentially saying that those people no longer have the freedom of speech if that speech disagrees with the will of the majority.

That's very dangerous because freedom of speech is better in the "pro" extremes than to limit it even a hair.