‘End of free speech’ signed by Obama

I caught Judge Napolatano on Fox this morning who once again warns us of the creep spread to limit our freedom of speech. Anyone else hear about this bill?  The bottom line is now Obama can give Secret Service protection to anyone. At that point, no one dare say a peep essentially. Let me get off the soap box and let you read this foul thing. Did the GOPers really approve this?

Here is the link to GOV Track with text, the history and the two votes taken: H.R.347  The totals were 388 Ayes, 3 Nays, 42 Present/Not Voting. Vote Details.

Feb 6, 2012: This bill passed in the Senate with changes by Unanimous Consent. A record of each senator’s position was not kept

Update: The Sentry Journal has done a great post including an analysis of this and with the video from Napolatano “While we were distracted did we lose free speech?

Jonathan Turley’s blog page notes that the imprecise language, just as in the NDAA, creates risks and can most definitely be seen as a threat to our First Amendment right to Free Speech, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom to Petition our government. None of that is very comforting in light of the Patriot Act and surveillance of and wire tapping of Americans.”  H.R 347 could be making the First Amendment illegal UPDATE: Turley removed his post and replaced it. Guts !

Significantly, though, the definition of “restricted buildings” is anywhere someone protected by the Secret Service “will be temporarily visiting.”

“A person eating in a diner while a presidential candidate is trying to score political points with the locals could be arrested if government agents determine that he is acting ‘disorderly.’ Mind you, depending on who’s making the assessment, anything can be considered disorderly, including someone exercising his right to free speech by muttering to himself about a government official. And if that person happens to have a pocketknife or nail clippers in his possession (or any other innocuous item that could be interpreted by the police as ‘dangerous’), he could face up to 10 years in prison,” Whitehead warned.

“Tonight you no longer need to be a conspiracy theorist to have real questions about whether we are becoming a police state.”  

In a terse online statement, the White House has confirmed that Barack Obama has signed into law an update of restrictions around the White House, the vice president’s resident and other locations – a move critics say signals the “end to free speech.”

The White House said yesterday Obama “signed into law: H.R. 347, the ‘Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011,’ which makes it a federal crime to enter or remain knowingly in any restricted area of the White House, the vice president’s official residence, or their respective grounds without lawful authority.”

“Current law makes it illegal to enter or remain in an area where certain government officials (more particularly, those with Secret Service protection) will be visiting temporarily if and only if the person knows it’s illegal to enter the restricted area but does so anyway,” he said. “The bill expands current law to make it a crime to enter or remain in an area where an official is visiting even if the person does not know it’s illegal to be in that area and has no reason to suspect it’s illegal. Full Story at WND