If someone says something you don't like, deport them!

[Gil]

Apparently conservatives are petitioning to have Piers Morgan deported back to Britain for supporting gun control. Cute, right?

[JesusFightClub]

Piers Morgan is an absolute cunt. We don't want him back! Don't give us him!

Having said that, people are suggesting he is tried for treason. Hmmm? First of all, he's not given up his UK citizenship AFAIK so he can't be tried for treason under US laws. Secondly, even if he had, what's treasonous about disagreeing with the law? One might say "This is wrong, I want to change it" without committing treason!

[Sola]

You can keep him. That said these people don't seem to have heard of free speech.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Establishing that "We the People" forum to allow anyone to petition the government and get a response if they have more than 30,000 signatures might not have been the most brilliant move that Obama ever made.

Nevertheless:

1. Having the right to directly petition the government does not mean that the government will agree with your request, particularly if it would mean deprive someone else of their rights . If the government can't arbitrarily deport someone, then they can't suddenly do so just because a petition exists.

2. Treason does not mean what they think it means. He's not selling military secrets or trying to overthrow the government. He is expressing an opinion on the 2nd amendment, which he has every right to do under the 1st amendment.

Do all the the folks supporting this bit of foolishness realize that it's just a form of protesting, and that it won't actually work?

[OkToBeTakei]

You can keep him. That said these people don't seem to have heard of free speech.

This.

[Childless]

Funny how these crusaders for the Constitution don't think it's a document worth supporting when someone disagrees with them. Hypocrite much?

[darareaksmey]

You can keep him. That said these people don't seem to have heard of free speech.

Were I these idiots, I might answer that with, "Well, he's not a US citizen, so he doesn't get free speech under the First Amendment." To which we saner folk would counter, "EXACTLY, he's not a US citizen, so how you gonna charge him with treason?" :roll:

Dictionaries, civics texts, Google--the right wing has no use for these when the answers aren't what they wanna hear.

[debrand]

If we are going to throw free speech rights out the window, think that the people who signed the petition to secede from the union are closer to be treasonous than advocates for gun control.

I thought about making a thread on the emotional intensity of some right wing gun advocates. I've noticed that articles discussing gun regulations often have far more crazy comments than other articles. The right wing people want NO regulation on guns and view any suggestion of regulations-no matter how mild- as being a 'ban' on guns. Its like they can't comprehend English. And some of the replies I've seen have been some of the angriest that I've ever read on that site.

We could be having a conversation about common sense gun regulation in this country. We won't because how do you compromise with a group that is so hysterically emotional.

Oh and those emotional, angry people are the ones that want semi assault weapons to be legal. That's scary

[Artemis]

Agree with JFC - we don't want him back.

That being said they are off their collective trolley trying to try him for treason FFS.

Also there is now another petition at 'We the people' saying

"We want to keep Piers Morgan in the USA. There are two very good reasons for this. Firstly, the first amendment. Second and the more important point. No one in the UK wants him back. Actually there is a third. It will be hilarious to see how loads of angry Americans react."

To date it has about 7k signatures, which is really funny. The initial 'Get rid of Piers Morgan' has about 75,000.

[RosyDaisy]

Were I these idiots, I might answer that with, "Well, he's not a US citizen, so he doesn't get free speech under the First Amendment." To which we saner folk would counter, "EXACTLY, he's not a US citizen, so how you gonna charge him with treason?" :roll:

Dictionaries, civics texts, Google--the right wing has no use for these when the answers aren't what they wanna hear.

You are absolutely correct. The right ring has no use for facts.

[slickcat79]

I thought about making a thread on the emotional intensity of some right wing gun advocates. I've noticed that articles discussing gun regulations often have far more crazy comments than other articles. The right wing people want NO regulation on guns and view any suggestion of regulations-no matter how mild- as being a 'ban' on guns. Its like they can't comprehend English. And some of the replies I've seen have been some of the angriest that I've ever read on that site.

We could be having a conversation about common sense gun regulation in this country. We won't because how do you compromise with a group that is so hysterically emotional.

I do not get that either. I don't own guns, but I know plenty of people who hunt. I've eaten meat from the animals they've killed, so I'm not going to be hypocritical enough to suggest that no one anywhere should ever own any kind of gun. But people seem to freak the fuck out over the mildest suggestion of gun control reform.

I have a redneck friend on FB who wrote a post the other day about how he saw programs about people turning in their guns and he totally didn't understand it. All his commenters were suggesting that anyone who turns in their gun is stupid, and that the media is making things up. If he saw the same program that I saw, Los Angeles was offering people gift cards in exchange for their guns. So maybe they needed money for Christmas more than they needed a weapon, and liked the idea of turning it over to a legal authority more than selling it to a sketchy pawn shop. There are millions and millions of people in the US who don't own guns and never did, so why are people stupid for deciding they don't need one anymore? Makes no sense to me.

[freejoytoo]

You can keep Piers Morgan! He's a disgusting man and the fact that I agree with his views on gun control makes me want to go and have a shower.

[smores]

The people who comment on gun regulations articles make me feel really sad for humanity. Gun control doesn't have to be all or nothing, but for God's sake, obviously what we've got isn't really working -- they got their way with "more guns" and it didn't work, because it's a flawed premise. Maybe we ought to explore that failure and WHY a little more, so these idiots really cannot defend that position anymore. Of course, this requires logic, which they lack.

[wild little fox]

Now we have a list of 75,000 people we can boot out of the country. I would not mind, one bit, using taxpayer money to buy them an island somewhere and moving them ASAP.

[mirele]

The petition to deport Piers Morgan, as well as the petition to declare Westboro Baptist Church a hate group, will be given the old heave-ho by the Obama administration. That's what they did when confronted with the Scientology petition a couple years back.

This is why the Piers Morgan petition will fail:

* The proponents claim that Morgan is presenting a treasonous view of the Second Amendment. This view, however, is held by millions of Americans.

* Deporting Piers Morgan for something stupid like this might cause an international incident. As much as he's a smarmy ass, he is a "journalist" (oh, I wish I could put a thousand quotes around that) and deporting "journalists," especially ones from a known news channel, is bad juju.

As for Westboro Baptist Church:

* The government doesn't have a way to declare an organization a hate group. It can prosecute groups for crimes, but those types of designations are left for organizations like the SPLC.

* That said, if WBC is committing crimes, don't be afraid of their church designation, prosecute 'em.

* What I suspect will happen to WBC over the next couple of decades (if it survives the certain death of its founder), is that due to larger social changes, it will lose any tax exemption it may claim, as will other anti-gay groups. That's because, as GLBT persons gain the rights heterosexuals have in the USA, giving tax exemptions to groups that want to suppress those right is eventually going to run counter to public policy. (See, for example, the long fight between Bob Jones University and the IRS in the 1970s into the early 1980s. The IRS won that one.)

[DifferentGurl]

Well since Obama's daughters will be spending their teenager years in the White House....maybe he can use his presidential powers to deport the guys that are mean to his daughters. Being an abusive dick? Out of the country for you! :P

[Peas n carrots]

All the Brits I know in the US (including DH) are in favor of more gun control. I guess they are going to be shipped back too?

In that case, I will gladly leave with DH

[crazyforkate]

UK posters, as an ignorant Canadian, what's so bad about Piers Morgan? Genuinely asking, I have hardly any idea who the guy is.

[ElphabaGalinda]

All the Brits I know in the US (including DH) are in favor of more gun control. I guess they are going to be shipped back too?

In that case, I will gladly leave with DH

A lot of people in the US, no matter where they're from originally, are in favour of more gun control. Fundies are lovers of freedom of speech when it benefits them, but they don't think it's for anyone else. Hypocrites. Though deporting people because you disagree with them seems to fit into the fundie ideal...the fundie ideal just looks a lot more like Saudi Arabia than the US.

ETA I dislike Piers Morgan, but he's done nothing deportation worthy.

[treemom]

Ok I don't know a ton about Piers Morgan. Why is he so disgusting?

[JesusFightClub]

Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Morgan

For those who understandably find this tl:dr, he's known over here as an incredibly aggressive and thoroughly dishonest newspaper editor. He has been known to lie for headlines, utterly lack any sense of taste and pretty much get his minions to stalk anyone he thinks will get him a headline. He lives up to (down to?) all the worst journalistic stereotypes.

He was in charge of the News of the World when they ruined my friend's childhood by running an expose on her dad, who'd been having an affair but was in no way a public figure. I spit towards him.

[Artemis]

'Cos he's the worst type of gutter journalist - a nasty, lying, conniving, manipulative, unscrupulous bastard who bullies people when he can get away with it and sucks up to them when he can't. If he ever knew what integrity is, he's forgotten.

[OkToBeTakei]

'Cos he's the worst type of gutter journalist - a nasty, lying, conniving, manipulative, unscrupulous bastard who bullies people when he can get away with it and sucks up to them when he can't. If he ever knew what integrity is, he's forgotten.

All this. But now he is a judge on some shit talent show. For me this is just reward.

[GolightlyGrrl]

'Cos he's the worst type of gutter journalist - a nasty, lying, conniving, manipulative, unscrupulous bastard who bullies people when he can get away with it and sucks up to them when he can't. If he ever knew what integrity is, he's forgotten.

This. There a countless talented journalists with integrity who could have handled this job with aplomb and this fuckwit gets the gig. Why? Because he was once a host of a cheesy talent show, therefore, he's a name brand so to speak?

That being said guess who also wants him deported? Kidist!

http://cameraluc.blogspot.com/2012/12/d ... redux.html

Oh, the irony. Kidist writes one of the most racist, misogynistic, homophobic, classist, xenophobic blogs out there. She puts the bitch in bigot. Can we start a petition to have her ass deported back to Ethiopia? Toronto deserves so much better than her.

[ElphabaGalinda]

This. There a countless talented journalists with integrity who could have handled this job with aplomb and this fuckwit gets the gig. Why? Because he was once a host of a cheesy talent show, therefore, he's a name brand so to speak?

That being said guess who also wants him deported? Kidist!

http://cameraluc.blogspot.com/2012/12/d ... redux.html

Oh, the irony. Kidist writes one of the most racist, misogynistic, homophobic, classist, xenophobic blogs out there. She puts the bitch in bigot. Can we start a petition to have her ass deported back to Ethiopia? Toronto deserves so much better than her.

We actually learned about him in journalism school as an example of what not to do and how not to act. This was in a Journalism Ethics course. He gives all journalists a bad name, and when referring to him it should really be "journalist".

Toronto totally deserves way better than Kidist...but we mostly do have way better. Too bad you can't deport someone just because you hate everything they do.