Ahh, Freedom of Speech! As long as you don't say what we don't want you to say. The Homegrown Terrorism Bill is making the rounds through the House and Senate: Both the House and Senate have introduced legislation entitled the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007". Positions on the bill range from calling it a "thought crimes" bill, to labeling it a redundant government program, to seeing it as an important tactic for preventing terrorism at home. The bill defines "homegrown terrorism" as
* the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
Hmmm. Lots of room for interpretation there. What do you think? Will this bill help increase our security, or is it an infringement on free speech and freedom of thought? You can probably guess how I feel about it, but you can enter your opinion of this proposed legislation direct to your congressional representatives by using the links below.
Helps keep us safe
Violation of free speech
3 comments:
No surprise here. We should have seen this coming. Now I got to see what the bill looks like.
Just call this the 2007 George Orwell Police State. Making it unlawful to "coerce the United States government" by force or threat of force is the language that makes it illegal to demonstrate peacefully on the streets, because a demonstration that is peaceful today could arguably "threaten" to become "unpeaceful" tomorrow.
All we need now is a detention bill that makes it lawful for the United States to hold US citizens in Turkey while "information" is elicited from their teeth and testicles.
I said, the devil will be in the details. Let's keep a lookout for this legislation and ensure that we give it a good going-over before we turn America into a communist state.
We have an election coming up. Let's let them know that we're watching them.
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