A law establishing a voluntary, national emergency alert system to give localized text warning messages to cell phone users about severe weather, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and missing children has generated conspiracy theories and complaints from some on the political right who suspect the system is designed to help President Obama promote his political agenda.

At issue are “Presidential Alert” text messages disseminated to cell phone users. For the Daily Caller, this was all too much:

To be fair, Obama’s texts are for big emergencies and stuff, like this:

“There is a big meteor hurtling to Earth that will kill us all!”

And this:

“Some folks in Washington are trying to stop me from saving helpless children with common sense gun control legislation, and also from giving you more free stuff. Help!”

Stop the Cap! has received more than 75 e-mail messages from concerned citizens that the “Obama Alerts” are the next stage of the “Kenyan Muslim Socialist Takeover of the U.S.,” to quote one message.

Why the alarm? This snarky article from Engadget did not help and riled up some on the right:

AT&T has begun rolling out Wireless Emergency Alerts updates for iPhone 4S and 5, so you won’t be the last folks to know if the entire northern hemisphere is about to be covered in ice à la Day After Tomorrow. You’ll receive a notification from the carrier when your update is ready, but only if you’re using iOS 6.1 or higher. Once installed, AMBER and Emergency alerts are automatically sent to your phone unless you switch them off via Settings, but you can’t disable Presidential alerts. WEA messages are always free of charge, so you don’t have to worry about going over your texting limit when notified that you need to get the hell out of dodge.

Missing from this week’s discussion was the total cost to taxpayers to enable the text alerts. The Warning, Alert and Response Network Act of 2006 allocated $106 million to study, develop, and enable the text message warnings now sent by almost every cell phone provider in the U.S.

Some cell phone customers may have already received warning messages, typically during severe weather events. The messages are sent free of charge and do not eat into your texting allowance.

Although the law could have better labeled “Presidential Alerts” as something less eyebrow-raising, such as “critical public service warnings,” the WARN Act does not enable the Obama Administration to begin sending short messages lobbying Americans for gun control.

They have Twitter accounts for that.

One more fact to consider: the WARN Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006.