Friday, October 26, 2007

Thomas Jefferson was a terrorist

Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 passes House 404-6.

If this passes the Senate, "adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." will be illegal. What is an extremist belief system? Well, that's not defined in the bill, it's up to the government and the commission that will be formed. Maybe they can call the commission the House Un-American Activities Commission, oh wait, that's already been used.

This is absolutely an outrage that something like this can pass with such an overwhelming majority and NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION! It is time for all Americans to wake up and smell the tyranny. First, it was the Patriot Act which gave the government unprecedented powers to monitor communications and gather data on everyone. Then the Military Commissions Act which suspended habeas corpus and allows the Executive branch to imprison anyone it wants. Now, to complete the tyrannical triple-play, this bill gives the government the power to define its enemies based on their beliefs.

If you read the text of the bill, it defines Violent Radicalization, Homegrown Terrorism and Ideologically Based Violence. Hell, it even defines Commission. But notice it never defines what an extremist belief system is. That's because not defining it makes it easier to apply it with a very broad brush. I've seen media and politicians calling Ron Paul and his supporters (of which I am one, for now) extremists. So stating that the Constitution should be consulted and followed when considering laws is extremist? You know, that annoying document that politicians swear to uphold and defend when they are going into office and then spend the next 2-4 years attempting to shred it?

Not defining the term also is an affront to the rule of law, one of the founding principles of our country. In a nutshell, no one is above the law and government authority is only legitimate when exercised under written, publicly available laws and follows due process. One of the major issues at the forefront of the American Revolution was the British constitution. The British constitution was not a written document, it referred to a vast collection of laws and judicial decisions. And there was no defined authority to decide constitutional questions (i.e. our Supreme Court). By enacting vague legislation like this bill, the government is moving away from the rule of law.

To add insult to injury, there's a section of the bill about "protecting civil rights and civil liberties..." They pass a bill that makes certain thoughts a crime and expect to protect civil rights? Can you say "lip service"?

Let's hear what Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers terrorists has to say...


"[If] the King can model the constitution at will... his government is a pure despotism. The question then arising is, whether a pure despotism in a single head, or one which is divided among a king, nobles, priesthood, and numerous magistracy, is the least bad. I should be puzzled to decide."

"We surely cannot deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded, that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases and change these forms at its own will... The will of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded."

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

"The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed."

"As revolutionary instruments (when nothing but revolution will cure the evils of the State) [secret societies] are necessary and indispensable, and the right to use them is inalienable by the people."

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security. "

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. "

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. "

"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. "