Here come the Thought Police

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Topic:	Science > Abortion
User:	"Curly"
Date:	19 Nov 2007 09:59:22 PM
Object:	Here come the Thought Police

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.thoughtpolice19nov19,0,2384977.story
Here come the thought police
By Ralph E. Shaffer and R. William Robinson November 19, 2007
With overwhelming bipartisan support, Rep. Jane Harman's "Violent
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act" passed the House
404-6 late last month and now rests in Sen. Joe Lieberman's Homeland
Security Committee. Swift Senate passage appears certain.
Not since the "Patriot Act" of 2001 has any bill so threatened our
constitutionally guaranteed rights.
The historian Henry Steele Commager, denouncing President John Adams'
suppression of free speech in the 1790s, argued that the Bill of Rights
was not written to protect government from dissenters but to provide a
legal means for citizens to oppose a government they didn't trust. Thomas
Jefferson's Declaration of Independence not only proclaimed the right to
dissent but declared it a people's duty, under certain conditions, to
alter or abolish their government.
In that vein, diverse groups vigorously oppose Ms. Harman's effort to
stifle dissent. Unfortunately, the mainstream press and leading
presidential candidates remain silent.
Ms. Harman, a California Democrat, thinks it likely that the United States
will face a native brand of terrorism in the immediate future and offers a
plan to deal with ideologically based violence.
But her plan is a greater danger to us than the threats she fears. Her
bill tramples constitutional rights by creating a commission with sweeping
investigative power and a mandate to propose laws prohibiting whatever the
commission labels "homegrown terrorism."
The proposed commission is a menace through its power to hold hearings,
take testimony and administer oaths, an authority granted to even
individual members of the commission - little Joe McCarthys - who will
tour the country to hold their own private hearings. An aura of authority
will automatically accompany this congressionally authorized mandate to
expose native terrorism.
Ms. Harman's proposal includes an absurd attack on the Internet,
criticizing it for providing Americans with "access to broad and constant
streams of terrorist-related propaganda," and legalizes an insidious
infiltration of targeted organizations. The misnamed "Center of
Excellence," which would function after the commission is disbanded in 18
months, gives the semblance of intellectual research to what is otherwise
the suppression of dissent.
While its purpose is to prevent terrorism, the bill doesn't criminalize
any specific conduct or contain penalties. But the commission's findings
will be cited by those who see a terrorist under every bed and who will
demand enactment of criminal penalties that further restrict free speech
and other civil liberties. Action contrary to the commission's findings
will be interpreted as a sign of treason at worst or a lack of patriotism
at the least.
While Ms. Harman denies that her proposal creates "thought police," it
defines "homegrown terrorism" as "planned" or "threatened" use of force to
coerce the government or the people in the promotion of "political or
social objectives." That means that no force need actually have occurred
as long as the government charges that the individual or group thought
about doing it.
Any social or economic reform is fair game. Have a march of 100 or 100,000
people to demand a reform - amnesty for illegal immigrants or overturning
Roe v. Wade - and someone can perceive that to be a use of force to
intimidate the people, courts or government.
The bill defines "violent radicalization" as promoting an "extremist
belief system." But American governments, state and national, have a long
history of interpreting radical "belief systems" as inevitably leading to
violence to facilitate change.
Examples of the resulting crackdowns on such protests include the
conviction and execution of anarchists tied to Chicago's 1886 Haymarket
Riot. Hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee for
several decades during the Cold War and the solo hearings by a member of
that committee's Senate counterpart, Joseph McCarthy, demonstrate the
dangers inherent in Ms. Harman's legislation.
Ms. Harman denies that her bill is a threat to the First Amendment. It
clearly states that no measure to prevent homegrown terrorism should
violate "constitutional rights, civil rights or civil liberties."
But the present administration has demonstrated, in its response to
criticism regarding torture, that it can't be trusted to honor those
rights.
-- Regards, Curly
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time to dust off Madam Guillotine
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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User: "Phlip"
Title: Re: Here come the Thought Police	19 Nov 2007 10:06:12 PM

With overwhelming bipartisan support, Rep. Jane Harman's "Violent
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act" passed the House
404-6 late last month and now rests in Sen. Joe Lieberman's Homeland
Security Committee. Swift Senate passage appears certain.

Oh goody! Now they can finally crack down on Aryan Nation and the Klan.
Riiiiiight..?
--
Phlip
.

User: "Michael Gray"
Title: Re: Here come the Thought Police	20 Nov 2007 01:11:37 AM

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:06:12 -0800, "Phlip" <phlipcpp@yahoo.com>
wrote: