"They shall be...Imprisoned not more than 20 years"

[Heather MC]

Found this Image here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=757637047596246&set=a.518604234832863.140556.490381544321799&type=1&theater¬if_t=photo_reply

[shraby]

1. So is extortion.

[LaydeeBug]

55. yes. nt

[NYC_SKP]

2. Facebook it.

[Maraya1969]

68. I just stuck it on John Boner's Face Book Page. I might go down the list and stick it on all the

ones on the list of thuglicans that I got on here. Good for their supporters to know.

You only have to type it once to a note pad and then just copy and paste.

[NYC_SKP]

69. Oh I love that idea!

We could tweet it, too!

https://twitter.com/johnboehner

[gopiscrap]

3. YUP, the entire gop should be arrested

and the party labeled as a terrorist organization

[FrodosPet]

24. But a large part of the cops and prosecutors are RW

So of course it is not going to happen.

Try starting a post about how more progressives should become cops and prosecutors in order to inject some humanity and caring into the professions, and it sinks like a stone.

[valerief]

4. So how does that play out? Let's say the Teabagger members of Transgress

get arrested for sedition. What next? Does the activist SCOTUS redefine sedition and let them go free?

[Heather MC]

5. We have a lot of work to do, but what they are doing is Criminal

We just need to yank out the scapegoats, Ted Cruz for starters. In a war you take out the leader first

[valerief]

6. Boehner is the leader. He's not calling a vote. nt

[Heather MC]

9. I am not removing Boner from responsiblity

but the loud mouth long winded Ted Cruz, Got them here

[valerief]

10. The parent of the crying baby is the leader, not the crying baby. nt

[Heather MC]

13. ha ha Fine but in biblical times the baby would have gotten the sword

Most of the ass holes claim to be Christain
Let's take out the baby old testament style

And the Parent too that was done alot back then

[valerief]

53. Whatever. I'm an atheist, so I don't care about Christian stuff. nt

[awoke_in_2003]

59. The last thing we need...

is biblical judicial system.

[valerief]

60. I thought we had that, considering the abortion limits in this country. nt

[awoke_in_2003]

62. I should have said more...

and we need to claw that crap out of our system.

[former9thward]

8. No redefinion needed.

No judge or lawyer trained in law, liberal or conservative or something in between, has the definition the OP has.

[mchallenger7]

7. Criminal

Nothing short of criminal and treasonous what the Republicans are doing to this nation, and the innocent American people who are left in their wake. All this over affordable healthcare. Smh

[Heather MC]

11. I don't believe the ACA ever had a thing to with this

They could have just as easily made a stink about Gays Openly serving, or women being able to choose when they get pregnant.

Someone behind the scenes *cough* Kock Brothers *cough* is benefitting greatly from this. they know they were never going to stop the ACA they just wanted to shutdown the Government. Who knows maybe they did it to sneak some primo columbian coke past customs we may never know why. but we do know the KocK brothers invested a hell of a lot of money into creating this cluster fuck

[wordpix]

23. I keep wondering what the Kochbros have against the ACA

I do know they hate the gov, esp. the IRS, EPA and anyone else trying to regulate their business empire.

[CrispyQ]

40. They hate the idea of The Commons, a community pot, & a safety net.

They are YOYOs - You're On Your Own. We are WITTs - We're In This Together. They are two different world views. It's why the teabaggers vote against their best interest, because they have a YOYO mind set, not a WITT one. The baggers only see that the 1% will make sure the 99% that the baggers hate, poor people, minorities & women, mostly, don't get any taxpayer funds. Their hate & intolerance blinds them to the fact that they are being duped.

I really like this saying:

"In a just society, there is no limit to how high one can climb, but there is a limit to how far one can fall."

~Jared Bernstein, author of "All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy"

[FiveGoodMen]

49. In a just society there have to be limits on both ends

Those who climb too high have total power over the rest of us.

And the rest of us look like nothing but ants to them, so they have no empathy.

That's what we're all living through now.

Some seriously progressive taxation would solve a lot of the problem.

[LiberalArkie]

32. I wonder how many companies the Koch Bros will be able to buy cheap if it blows up

[mindwalker_i]

12. I think it's been pretty well established

that we don't follow laws in this country, particularly against the rich or powerful. Recent examples include the Iraq war and accompanying torture, and the banks stealing 10s of thousands of houses from people, and in both cases no laws were prosecuted to the extent that anyone other than a couple of very low-level people went to prison.

That's my biggest problem with Obama: his decision to "look forward" has increased the boldness by which people will break the law, because they know they can get away with it. It's damages the country pretty severely.

[Heather MC]

15. Agreed POLITICAL RAPISTS that needs to be spelled correctly on a protest poster

I don't want to be a Moran

[Heather MC]

17. Sorry not about you I was poorly referring to all the Tea party Protest posters that are filled with

mis-spelled words like "Moran" it was a subtle joke.

but in no way a jab to you

[tritsofme]

18. This impulse I've seen over the past few days to criminalize political differences

is rather frightening. Beat them at the ballot box.

[tkmorris]

20. To be fair, this is a bit more than "political differences"

It is fine to believe that the ACA for example is a bad idea. It is likewise fine to attempt to pass legislation to get rid of it, defund it, or limit it. However it is not acceptable to, for example, round up some hostages at gunpoint and demand it's repeal OR ELSE. It is likewise not acceptable to hold the entire government hostage in a temper tantrum because you have repeatedly failed to legislate the ACA away, which is what a small group of psychos are doing right now (with the grudging acceptance if not outright blessing of the rest of the Republican party).

On the other hand Congress enjoys immunity from prosecution for "legislative acts" which this almost certainly is, so discussing the legality of it seems rather pointless, except to illustrate just how out of bounds their actions are. No one is getting arrested here.

[onenote]

54. It should not be acceptable politically. But it is in no way unlawful

Any more than it is unlawful for someone to filibuster a bill in an effort to force changes or, in the Senate, to put a "hold" on a bill to prevent it moving unless some concession or another is made to the person putting the hold on the bill.

It is, and has been for some time, quite common for nominations to fill vacancies on government agencies to be held up until a nomination for someone from the other party (either to the same agency or a different agency) can be "paired" with it and both confirmed at the same time.

There is a reason for the old saying that making legislation is like making sausage -- best not to watch either being made.

[Shemp Howard]

28. Very well said, tritsofme!

Very well said, tritsofme, and very refreshing. One should only criminalize things that are, well, criminal. In this current shutdown, the GOP leadership is morally wrong. Definitely wrong. And stupid. And heartless. And devious. But not criminal.

Beat them at the ballot box! They so richly deserve it.

But arrest and imprison them? Nope. Suppose a Democratic representative refused to vote for a government funding bill because it contained money to support a war. And suppose that the war was considered a just one, and appoved by Congress. Is that Democratic representative a criminal for refusing to vote?

[Diego_Native 2012]

58. There are real world consequences to political actions.

When the GOP decided to cut off funding for government programs that include Head Start and the NIH, among many others, those are real world actions that have real world consequences. Their political stunts don't exist in a vacuum and shouldn't be judged as if they do. Real people are suffering. I'm all for anyone with a point of view being able to voice it without fear of criminal prosecution, but they've gone beyond merely making a political point and into the realm where people are getting hurt.

Letting the GOP, or any elected official, hide behind the immunity of politics when they are engaging in behavior that can and will directly result in grievous harm to others isn't...can't be...the rule of law our country upholds.

[dairydog91]

19. Are people really buying this "Sedition"/"treason" quackery?

You can't criminalize legislating or failing to legislate, because legislating or failing to legislate is Congress's prerogative. Congress members have the power to legislate, even if they're assholes about it. Congress members have almost full Constitutional immunity when they're legislating (i.e. under Article One, Section 6). Congress may make its internal rules, and it may even impeach its own members, but other branches must keep their hands off. Congress members answer to their constituents; if a majority of House members' constituents actually want a shutdown, well, then it's time to start stockpiling supplies. You can't override Congress's Constitutional powers with a sedition law; even if you could convince a court that the sedition law otherwise applies, the Constitution would bar applying that law to the act of legislators legislating.

Trying to apply "Sedition" logic to a legislature's actions is bizarre; of course Congress may refuse to carry out an act of legislation. Criminalizing legislators when they refuse to vote how you want them to is an act of dictatorship (grossly so in the case of a system of government that's supposed to separate the legislative and the executive), and there's no amount of yelling "MY TEAM" that changes that. Hell, under this logic any legislator who voted to condemn the Iraq War a few years ago could have been charged with sedition. Following this train of legal "thought", under which any vote by a legislator which goes against fully executing a previously law is considered sedition, it WOULD have been sedition to vote in any way against the Iraq War (After all, you'd be hindering the execution of the Authorization of Military Force, which was a U.S. law).

In short, if you want the kind of legal system where legislators can be punished for "wrong" votes, there are any number of tinpot dictatorships available. I'll take the U.S., despite its flaws.

[raging moderate]

25. It is not true that Republicons had no input to the ACA.

The basic framework was originally a Heritage Foundation, and it was put in place in Massachusetts with input from the very Republicon and "severely conservative" Governor Mitt Romney. The original Democratic idea was something more like a modified single-payer with some supplementary insurance company activity, perhaps as in Germany, and the Heritage Foundation idea was offered as a concession to Republicon concerns about free competition and free enterprise. Several key elements of the current Affordable Care Act were suggested (indeed, insisted on) by Republicons. And the whole thing was delayed this long to appease wary Republicons.

[Clown is Down]

33. Perhaps,

But between waivers, extensions, etc. technically, what the house is voting against is not what was passed 3.5 years ago.
President Obama has virtually line item vetoed aspects of the bill, as well as some rewriting by Chief Justice Roberts to make it constitutional.

[RC]

39. No Obama doesn't/didn't. All he can do is either sign/veto the bill.

The President can suggest what he wants, but Congress does the writing. Clinton had a line item veto for a while. The Republican took it away from him, even though he rarely used it.
Also the Supreme Court cannot rewrite any bills. All they can do is rule on the bill, or parts of the bill.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

46. He unilaterally suspended the employer mandate even though the law doesn't allow him to do so

[AtheistCrusader]

34. And let them. Our next opportunity for redress is the mid-terms.

We can stick it to their happy asses in spades, then.

[Clown is Down]

38. Agreed...

The correct way is to vote them out. Not hyperbolic accusations that only serve to make our board look radical and dangerous.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

48. And the fact we can and will do so disproves the "It's a coup!" antics. n/t

[wordpix]

27. I could buy into the sedition argument except the law notably uses the word "by force"

what the repugs are doing is not (yet) "by force" but it is by extortion.

[Chico Man]

43. It's appealing to those wishing it were so

Sad how it appears both sides 1) have no trust in government and 2) have such strong opinions for something they are ignorant about

[GreenStormCloud]

44. Outstanding post.

It is sad how many DUers are so ready to establish a dictatorship in the belief that it would be a good thing.

[Moe Shinola]

64. Yes!!

Preach it, man. Everyone here knows the history of sedition law in this country, and how un-American it has always been. Don't make fools of yourselves, people.

[B Calm]

22. You'd think 60 minutes would do an hour show on Seditious Conspiracy!

[davidn3600]

26. Well...we all know the government doesnt feel like it has to follow its own laws

Look at the NSA.

[JDPriestly]

29. Members of Congress have immunity for what they say and do while in the Halls of Congress.

[pasto76]

30. sorry you cant redefine force to suit you

force is force.

you could have just put the US Code up there and it would have had a much harder impact. your personal footnote that tries to redefine a word that has a clear meaning really detracts from this.

[Heather MC]

36. I didn't add that as is posted on the bottom of the image, click on the link. I found this on FB

the Definition of Force is part of the image not something I added in

[cstanleytech]

31. Dont get me wrong I think the republicans are behaving like giant douchebags but I do not

believe that law applies here because they do have authority of deciding how to spend the tax payers money.

[Heather MC]

37. That's the point they haven't decided anything

they knew that bill wouldn't get passed and in the end when they should have voted on a budget they voted for a tabled conference instead

[cstanleytech]

41. Sorry but that doesnt mean they committed the crime the OP is trying to claim they did. nt

[mnhtnbb]

35. I raised the issue--sedition--when I wrote to POTUS last Thursday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251327537

[Snake Plissken]

42. This one should fall under the RICO act, the billionaires pulling the strings need to be taken away

in handcuffs too.


The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed someone who told a man to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually commit the crime personally.

[GreenStormCloud]

50. But congress has not commited a crime.

To propose legislation, vote on such legislation, or to not vote or not propose legislation is not a crime. Since there is no crime, then there is no conspiracy to commit a crime.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

45. A refusal to do something is not force.

[NuclearDem]

47. Look how tough I am! Sedition! Treason! Terrorism!

Republicans are sabotaging the democratic process, so we should abandon the democratic process and throw them all in prison! That'll show those undemocratic monsters what's what!

[Zorra]

51. The DOJ is too tied up with arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana growers

at this time to deal with anything as trivial as sedition or war crimes.

[annabanana]

56. jpg stolen & spread . . . k&r, n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

57. .

.

[CapnSteve]

61. Brava, Heather MC! I am with you...

...have the AG charge and arrest the "thirty or so" tea-party loyalists that are holding us all hostage, starting with Ted "the loser" Cruz! Give the rest of the GOP something scarier than being primaried to worry about!

[rdking647]

63. better than jailing them

just deport their asses

[Warren Stupidity]

65. Not sedition. Not treason. No Text.

[BillyRibs]

66. It'll never happen!

Don't even dare to dream it.

[NorthCarolina]

67. I wish, but it'll be Look Forward Not Back.