I wrote to my Senator, Sherrod Brown, regarding my concerns about the HR 1955 / 1959 bill. Here's his typical politico-speak glib response:
Thank you for expressing your concerns about H.R.1955 and S.1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.
H.R.1955 and S.1959 amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to add provisions concerning the prevention of terrorism by those born, raised, or based and operating primarily in the United States.
The bill would direct the Department of Homeland Security to establish a grant program to help prevent homegrown terrorism and the use of extremist belief systems to facilitate ideologically-based violence. It would also establish a university-based Center of Excellence for the Study of Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States and conduct a survey of methodologies implemented by foreign nations to prevent radicalization and homegrown terrorism.
In addition, the bill explicitly states that the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to prevent ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism may not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, or civil liberties of any American citizens or lawful permanent residents.
H.R.1955 passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 404 to 6. Should S.1959 reach the Senate floor, I will keep your views in mind. Thank you again for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
Are we already under some pseudo martial law? Well if we're not, you coulda fooled me. Firefighters are now being asked to report people who express discontent with the government.
Read more here: Firefighters moonlighting as the thought police
Whoa. Free speech be damned eh? Our Founding Fathers are doing nausea-inducing rollovers in their graves.
Wire-tapping has been ongoing for some time now. The government reads our emails. Cameras are everywhere. Homeland Security wants to enforce a national ID card. And the list goes on.
Yup kiddies, welcome to Amerika. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence are now just historical documents that mean squat to the government and seemingly, to almost every single politician currently in office.
Truer words were never spoken by Thomas Paine:
"That government is best which governs least."
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
And of course, Patrick Henry:
"Give me liberty, or give me death."
Dolphin
Here's a good article about Japan Whaling. Read here: Japan's Whaling Shame
IMO, their argument that it's about culture is BS. And it sure isn't about meat considering maybe 1% of Japan's population even eats whale meat. And it's not about science. Science isn't about killing 1,000 whales to do research on.
Please continue to make your voices heard on this outrage.
Incidentally, I abhor any torture or needless killing of animals. Our own country does it to cows, pigs, chickens, etc. And it's not about being hypocritical. Meaning, "..it's okay for us to kill cows, etal but not okay for another country to kill whales or dolphins." Whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals are in danger of being either more endangered than they are now or extinct.
Many people fail to see that.
The Japanese fleet has been underway for two weeks now. We know that Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace have also been underway in hopes of intercepting and interfering with the slaughter of these mammals.
Hopefully we will be hearing further updates soon.
It amazes me that there are sites out there that support, endorse, and encourage the slaughter of our marine mammals. I've seen websites about the killing of whales, dolphins, orcas, etc and the clubbing of seals, walrus, penguins. I won't even dignify mentioning these sites or linking to them, but they should be ashamed of themselves.
Anyone who takes such perverse pleasure in killing animals in such a way as to torture them, deserve to be tortured themselves. What is it with people getting joy out of harpooning a humpback whale and watching it suffer for 12 hours while it's in complete agony and finally dies? What is it about people who enjoy taking a club and whacking defenseless seals?
It literally makes me sick.
Speaking of being sick, if you have not heard about the Senate Bill HR 1959, then I strongly suggest that you run, not walk, to the following links and educate yourselves. If you want to bury your head in the sand, live in denial, and think there's no way in heck our government would do such a thing, then remember that a lot of people back in the time of Pre-Nazi Germany thought the same thing.
Senate Bill to criminalize thoughts, blogs, books and free speech across America
Contact your State Senators
Just do a search on your favorite search engine for "HR 1959" and see just how dangerous this legislation is.
Some are saying people speaking up about this are overreacting or being paranoid.
Some are saying that come January 2009 when the new President is supposed to take over, Bush and Cheney will enact Martial Law to extend their dictatorship of America indefinitely, and say they are defending us against terrorism. They are the terrorists.
What are you going to do? Believe it could never happen, or believe it is a possibility and speak up and take action? Simply for exercising your free speech rights, you could be labeled a terrorist according to Bush.
This is no conspiracy theory or some Oliver Stone movie. This is real and very possibly about to become even more real. I'd rather be thought of as a paranoid citizen speaking up against crap like this and end up being wrong, than to take absolutely no action, live in denial, and then have our worst fears realized.
This is a quote:
"The biggest joke of all is that this section also says that any measure to prevent violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism should not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. However, the definition of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as they are defined in section 899A are themselves unconstitutional. The Constitution does not allow the government to arrest people for thought crimes, so any promises not to violate the constitutional rights of citizens are already broken by their own definitions."
Will the country we save, be our own for a change?
Mahalo,
Dolphin
