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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums“Tehran Tom” Cotton and Criminal Speech.
https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/tehran-tom-cotton-and-criminal-speech/Source info at the link.
As you know by now, 47 members of the Teapublican Treason Team (aka republicans), led by GOP Senator Tehran Tom Cotton, sent an illegal letter to Irans government this week. That letter and the decision to send it displays an appalling level of ignorance when it comes to history, the Constitution, and law in general. Such ignorance is par for the course amongst Teapublicans, so Mister Blunt and Cranky will offer a brief primer on the limits of free speech.
Even the current nutjob Right Wingnut majority on our Supreme Court understands that criminal speech is not protected by the First Amendment. Extortion? Not protected. Blackmail? Not protected. Speech that violates the Logan Act? Not protected.
So anybody saying that Tehran Tom and the TTT were exercising their free speech rights is just as willfully pig-ignorant as they. Hell, even the Second Amendment doesnt give us the right to commit armed robbery. Nor does the Establishment Clause sanction virgin sacrifices. Same with speech.
There are just some things a law-abiding citizen does not do. And making common cause with a foreign government against our own nation is one of those things. Whether the other country is friend (like Israel) or foe (like Iran), Americans cannot legally engage with them in order to do harm to a person (like the Prexy) or the country as a whole.
The Republican party, like the Federalist party before them, is engaging in criminal speech. The fact that they will almost certainly get away with it does not mean that their actions are anything other than illegal.
Lots of people dont like Obama. But most of us understand that disliking the President doesnt give us the right to commit crimes against his office and our country.
Pity that Repub lawmakers dont even understand the simple idea of obeying the law.
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“Tehran Tom” Cotton and Criminal Speech. (Original Post)
riqster
Mar 2015
OP
Eric Holder needs to arrest somebody...Otherwise there is no reason to continue to engage
NoJusticeNoPeace
Mar 2015
#1
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)1. Eric Holder needs to arrest somebody...Otherwise there is no reason to continue to engage
as if anything matters, laws, etc.
This is a sham...
We are such fools if we let this continue
riqster
(13,986 posts)2. Agreed. Sometimes taking the high road is the worst thing one can do.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)3. K & R, good article.
Instead of focusing on Hillary's emails we have to keep the focus on the Senate 47, never let them forget.
riqster
(13,986 posts)5. S'truth.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)4. Finally, WE have a good bumper sticker : Tehran Tom is a national traitor.
K & R
riqster
(13,986 posts)6. Yep. A Dem Congresscritter came up with it.
I am spreading it.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)7. Yep. It's the perfect message in a language the nutwingers will understand.
riqster
(13,986 posts)10. Exactly.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)8. Tehran Tom The Traitor
riqster
(13,986 posts)9. The entire party too, so far as I can tell.