You read that right. Arizona H.B. 2549 would make it a crime to be lewd or annoying on the Internets. This bill is on the Governor’s desk for signature. And isn’t interesting that these wingnuts have found one more bit of the Constitution that they want to undermine?
A group called the Media Coalition, which defends first amendment rights in the media, notes in a letter to the Governor various issues with this bill:
“H.B. 2549 would make it a crime to use any electronic or digital device to communicate using obscene, lewd or profane language or to suggest a lewd or lascivious act if done with intent to ‘annoy,’ ‘offend,’ ‘harass’ or ‘terrify,’” the letter notes. … ‘Lewd’ and ‘profane’ are not defined in the statute or by reference. ‘Lewd’ is generally understood to mean lusty or sexual in nature and ‘profane’ is generally defined as disrespectful or irreverent about religion or religious practices.”
So let’s start counting the problems here:
- Teajadis, winguts and general conservatives trying to rewrite the First Amendment.
- They think they’ll be policing this across the entire Internets. All of it. Can we say Overreach?
- And who will be doing this policing? Can we say Big Government?
- Will they target Sheriff Joe first? Seriously, all that crap he posts up to You Tube is pretty annoying to me.
- This is English-only annoyance, harassment or lewdness, right? I mean, we already know that the consider other languages to be un-American.
This is one more thing that Republicans are working on that is completely not useful except to themselves. It is more evidence that handing over government to Republicans is a seriously bad idea. They only give lip service to the Constitution and work overtime to make sure that there is a ton of government pointed at controlling the speech and behavior of the people who pay their salaries. And — with the help of some Democrats — are also working overtime to make sure that businesses feed at the trough of taxpayer money pretty freely and can run roughshod over the citizens who work for them,