Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Slate, bringing light to something...

Every now and then when I have a chance, I take a gander over at Slate.com's articles to try and get something a little more structured then the typical chaos at Drudgereport.com, but I keep forgetting just how much I like one of their writers Dahlia Lithwick.

She is probably the only writer on that site that actually keeps up with issues concerning poor foreign policy decisions effects on us (ie, "Their side"), as well as my personal axe to grind, civil liberties.

I would highly recommend everyone take a chance to get familiar with her writings, but today's offering I found especially fascinating mostly because its about an issue that nobody is talking about, despite its very ominous name...

I bring to you the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007," (from Congresswoman Jane Harman of D-CA) which seeks to define "Homegrown Terrorism" as (pulling right from the article):
"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. "

Now, I'm no lawyer (we have DC&H for that), but the language I see there could pretty broadly be applied to any "perceived" group of people that the government labels as maybe possibly kinda sorta wanting to think about maybe harming the government...

Ms. Lithwick points out that this may be one of those horribly political named bills designed just to get some publicity (or your name out there) and it is quite possible that this is just another harmless Homeland Security "Drum-Beating" to bring up come election time, but I gotta say that this language scares the crap out of me.

Granted I hold people like Senator Feingold in the highest possible regard merely for his vote against the "Patriot Act" of 01 (final tally, 98-1), but doesn't this bother anyone else out there even a little?

Am I over reacting here?

3 comments:

Jack Gonzo, MD said...

In one manner of speaking it would finally list the KKK, and those who would bomb abortion clinics as terrorists, but yes, the language is quite scary.

Dews said...

Just becomes a "Do the ends justify the means" kinda argument though at that point, but I hear ya.

Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe said...

This sounds like some of the old Sedition acts.

Sorry, my brain is broken. Wish I could think some more on this one. I'll look some stuff up tonight.