LEGISLATIVE ALERT!
MichaelConnelly.jigsy.com
I pointed out in my last blog article that President Obama has started
off the year by continuing to ignore Congress and
implement his socialist agenda by using Executive
action. However, that does not mean that the rest of
us can also ignore Congress. There are currently
some important pieces of legislation pending in
either the House or the Senate that demand the
attention of every patriotic American. Some of them
merit our support while other bills need to be
defeated.
There are two pieces of pending legislation
that are very dangerous to our First Amendment
rights since they are designed to limit our ability
to use the Internet to express ourselves, and to
find out the truth about what is actually happening
in our country. These are HR 3261, the so called
“Stop Internet Piracy Act” (SOPA) in the House of
Representatives, and S 968 in the Senate, the
“Protect Intellectual Property Act” (PIPA), The
Senate version has heavy support from the usual far
left Democrats while surprisingly the House version
has a lot of Republican support.
Both pieces of legislation profess to have
noble intentions to prevent Internet piracy, and
copyright infringement, . However, I have read the
proposed bills and both of them contain some very
dangerous language that would basically give
President Obama and his Attorney General, Eric
Holder a kill switch over the Internet. For example,
if you have a website and post content from other
websites on it the government can shut you down if
anyone complains that you don’t have permission to
use the material.
The key is, “if anyone complains.” If I give
you permission to repost my articles and you do so,
it would not me necessary for me to claim you
misused them, anyone can do it and you would be shut
down until you proved otherwise. It is assumed you
are guilty until you take the time and go to the
expense to prove your innocence. There are other
provisions in both bills that would essentially
allow the Federal government to severely restrict
and control the content of the Internet such as is
the case in countries like Iran and China. Please
contact your representative and Senators and urge
them to oppose these bills.
On the other hand, there are some good pieces
of legislation that have been introduced in the
House of Representatives that I urge you to support.
The first is HR 973 that restricts the use of
foreign law in deciding cases in U. S. Courts. This
bill has become extremely important in light of the
recent unbelievable ruling by the U. S. Tenth
Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a lower Federal
ruling striking down an amendment to the state
Constitution of Oklahoma that was adopted by a
favorable vote of 70% of the people of Oklahoma. The
amendment stated in part,
"The courts
shall not look to the legal precepts of other
nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall
not consider international law or Sharia law."
A Muslim representative from the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a radical Islamic
group, challenged the law on the grounds that it
violated his freedom of religion. The court agreed
and found the state constitutional amendment
unconstitutional under the Federal Constitution.
This ruling is incredible to me since Sharia law
relegates women to what amounts to slave status.
Under Sharia law women are subordinate to men, and a
Muslim man can rape, beat, and even kill his wife
for virtually any reason. He can also murder his
daughters if they “dishonor the family” by dating a
non Muslim or adopting American dress or habits.
If this court ruling is allowed to stand
Sharia law could potentially be used as a valid
defense against charges brought by U. S. prosecutors
for any of these crimes. HR 973 is designed to
prevent that from happening. It is sponsored by
Republican Representative Sandy Adams of Florida and
has 83 cosponsors. Contact your representative now
and ask them to support this important legislation.
Two other house bills that need your support
are HR 204 and HR 2913. The first cuts Congressional
pay and the second cuts the extravagant benefits
given to members of Congress. For example, if you
serve one term in the House of Representatives you
get full retirement benefits for the rest of your
life. On the other hand, if you risk your life
serving our country in the military you get no
retirement benefits at all until you have served at
least twenty years. At a time when our deficit is at
an all time high and many Americans are struggling
to even feed their families, it is time for members
of Congress to share some of the sacrifices that the
rest of us face.
HR 204 was introduced by Democrat Gabrielle
Giffords of Arizona and has only 18 cosponsors while
HR 2913 was introduced by Republican Mike Coffman of
Colorado and has only 15 cosponsors. Let your
representatives know you expect them to support
these bills.
mrobertc@hotmai.com
www.michaelconnelly.jigsy.com
www.constitution.jigsy.com