Hold That Thought

Bruce Fein is a frequent guest on The Randi Rhodes Show, Air America Radio. For more on this act, see previous posts: 12/9/07, Monday Event; 11/23/07, Is Resistance Futile?; 11/2/07, Prepare! More Thought Police and; 10/30/07, Prepare for the Thought Police
Police in thought pursuit
By Bruce Fein - December 27, 2007
[...] Congress is perched to enact the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 20007 (Act)," probably the greatest assault on free speech and association in the United States since the 1938 creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat, the bill passed the House of Representatives on Oct. 23 by a 404-6 vote under a rule suspension that curtailed debate. To borrow from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, the First Amendment should not distract Congress from doing important business. The Senate companion bill (S. 1959), sponsored by Susan Collins, Maine Republican, has encountered little opposition.
[...] Denuded of euphemisms and code words, the Act aims to identify and stigmatize persons and groups who hold thoughts the government decrees correlate with homegrown terrorism, for example, opposition to the Patriot Act or the suspension of the Great Writ of habeas corpus.
The Act will inexorably culminate in a government listing of homegrown terrorists or terrorist organizations without due process; a complementary listing of books, videos, or ideas that ostensibly further "violent radicalization;" and a blacklisting of persons who have intersected with either list.
[...] Prior to September 11, homegrown terrorism consisted largely of Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, the Unibomber and the D.C. Metropolitan area snipers. The Act, nevertheless, counterfactually finds "homegrown terrorism ... poses a threat to domestic security" that "cannot be easily prevented through traditional federal intelligence or law enforcement efforts."
[...] Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed in Gitlow v. New York (1925): "Every idea is an incitement. It offers itself for belief and if believed it is acted on unless some other belief outweighs it or some failure of energy stifles the movement at its birth. The only difference between expression of an opinion and an incitement in the narrower sense is the speaker's enthusiasm for the result."
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071227/COMMENTARY02/620257774/1012/COMMENTARY Bruce Fein is a constitutional lawyer with Bruce Fein & Associates and Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda.

Monday Event

International Human Rights Day
Monday, December 10th
DEMONSTRATE
AGAINST
"The Violent Radicalization and
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act"

Crimes in YOUR MIND could be prosecuted if you tell someone!

Citizen Squealers? Agente provocateurs? Hell no! We will not go.

PUT YOUR FEET IN THE STREET AND SCREAM YOUR OUTRAGE
WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!! GO-- Meet others outside Senator Hillary Clinton's office.

Monday December 10th
(International Human Right's Day)
12 noon to 1:30 PM
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
780 Third Ave @ 48th Street
New York, NY 10017
Demand Clinton Stop HR 1955 & S.1959

"The Violent Radicalization and
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act"

Under the broad language of the Harman bill, anyone attending a "planned anti war rally" could be charged with trying to coerce a government and its people. Government need only charge that an individual in a group "thought about coercing a government or its people." Labor demonstrators that block or intimidate shoppers from entering a store could be charged with "coercing people" under Harman's "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act."
They already use this against so called eco terrorists, jailing one man for merely speaking about an incident for which he was already tried and jailed!
Funded by The RAND Corporation his bill is.
Tell your friends and there is a same action in Chicago, as Barack Obama is on the Committee that will hear this vote! http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/12/93185.html

Is Resistance Futile?

from GI Special:

“Thought Crimes,” HR 1955 Passed With 404 Votes.
Submit, Ye Citizens, Silently to State Murder.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.
The full text is available at www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=110-1955 with 404 votes in favor..
A close reading within an historical context – keeping especially in mind the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and Presidential Executive Orders, pursuant to which the government has engaged in massive surveillance of its own citizens, as well as detentions, extraordinary renditions, assassinations, and torture – leads me to the following conclusions:

-- This is a “Thought Crime” bill of the type so often discussed in an Orwellian context.

-- It specifically targets the civilian population of the United States.

-- It defines “Violent Radicalization” as promoting any belief system that the government considers to be extremist.

-- “Homegrown Terrorism” and “Violent Radicalization” are defined as thought crimes.

-- Since the bill does not provide a specific definition of extremist belief system, it will be whatever the government at any given time deems it to be.

Prepare! More Thought Police

Intriguing post from Cryptogon about the "law" that will probably pass the Senate.
Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
October 27th, 2007
Did I miss something here? Does the U.S. Government have a reason to believe that the American people are about to snap out of their zombie trance and actually do something? Personally, I wouldn’t have bet on it happening any time soon. The way I saw it—before I left the United States for good—was that 9.9 out of 10 Americans would gladly dig their own holes, get down on their knees and pull the muzzle of the executioner’s weapon against their skulls. It’s their patriotic duty to be spineless followers and boot lickers, no matter what.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=1525
See also my post: November 1, Prepare for the Thought Police

Prepare for the Thought Police

You did see this coming, right? All those bad dreams are coming home in the middle of the day. From now on, any thought that doesn't conform to a romp in a drug commercial must be squeezed out of consciousness or else face the consequences of what, the Spanish Inquisition?
H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes.
Library of Congress:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:4:./temp/~c1105SWCjU:e0:
...(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.`
(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism' means 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.`
(4) IDEOLOGICALLY BASED VIOLENCE- The term `ideologically based violence' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs.
Please note that the sponsor and most of the cosponsors are, ready? Democrats! Keep up-to-date on this bill's status with this link:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1955

This bill has been passed in the House. The bill now goes on to be voted on in the Senate.
Sponsor: Rep. Jane Harman [D-CA]
Cosponsors [as of 2007-10-24]
Rep. Christopher Carney [D-PA]
Del. Donna Christensen [D-VI]
Rep. Yvette Clarke [D-NY]
Rep. Charles Dent [R-PA]
Rep. Norman Dicks [D-WA]
Rep. Al Green [D-TX]
Rep. James Langevin [D-RI]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA]
Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY]
Rep. Daniel Lungren [R-CA]
Rep. Ed Perlmutter [D-CO]