Democratic Efforts to Criminalize Blogs -- Why Does Republican Mark Kirk Approve?

Publius' Forum ^ | 5/05/09 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

I hope I have this story all wrong, I really do. But it seems that Representative Mark Kirk has signed onto an effort that could criminalize the free political speech of bloggers or anyone else that uses the Internet to communicate. Kirk, a Republican who has been making noises about running for governor of Illinois, has his name attached as a sponsor to the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act (HR 1966 IH), a bill in the House proposed by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D, CA), that would make it a federal felony to use the Internet to cause "emotional distress" through "severe, repeated, and hostile" speech.

Why is Representative Kirk signing onto a bill constructed with such overbroad language that it could criminalize bloggers?

Perhaps he doesn't realize he's doing so? The bill is supposed to stop "cyberbullying" and does not seem to be intentionally aimed at political blogs. The title refers to Megan Meier, the 13-year-old Missouri girl that committed suicide in 2006 over scurrilous messages that she found about herself posted on the Internet by Lori Drew, the mother of one of her classmates.

However, the language is overbroad and unclear. Because of the unclear language in the bill, this thing could easily be applied in all sorts of areas for which it is not intended, as lawyers and activists judges are prone to do.

Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

[Mobile Vulgus]

Kirk is making a big mistake here.

[Old Sarge]

Rep. Kirk: Useful Idiot.

[Paladin2]

"...a Republican who has been making noises about running for governor of Illinois"

Pre-emptive strike - put him in jail. It'll save much time and expense.

[Anima Mundi]

So many bad things start like this. There is one instance of something happening and then a law is made because of it and then the law is used to hamstring all sorts of other things that only REMOTELY related to the intent of the law. I have been using all the attempted proposals at controlling or taxing the internet to try to convert the younger crowd. Encroachments on the internet are the one freedom they understand and expect. So many others that I grew up with and expected are already long, long gone.

[Diogenesis]

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
President Ronald Reagan

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to (have their citizens suffer and) repeat it."
George Santayana

[prismsinc]

We need to come up with our own euphemisims to overcome this. It’s the only way to get around this until 2010.

[BillyBoy]

MARK KIRK TRUTH FILE
JUST SAY NO TO SOCIALISM

" [He's] Better than Barack Obama"
- Carol Calabresa/The Sierra Club, 2008
" The strength of our campaign remains the Democrats"
- Mark Kirk, 2008