Dear Readers:
Please sign this urgent request for petitions and public ads to help topple the passage of S. 1959 "The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act". You can sign by posting your name to the "post comment" section below. (Please keep comments brief to avoid overwhelm when reading and counting signatures. Thank you!)
I hope to see a list of signatures so long that I have to count all day long!
Time is of the essence: I will be turning this petition in on Monday, January 14th, 10:00 am. Please sign by midnight on Sunday, January 13th to give me time to count the votes.
IF ANY OF YOU WANT TO TURN THIS PETITION IN TO ADDITIONAL ACTIVIST ORGANIZATIONS, PLEASE INDICATE IN YOUR SIGNATURE BELOW WHICH ORGANIZATION YOU WILL BE GIVING IT TO.
ANYBODY WHO PASSES THIS PETITION ON TO OTHER BLOGS AND OTHER ACTIVIST ORGANIZATIONS TAKES RESPONSIBILITY TO TALLY THOSE VOTES AND TURN THEM IN SEPARATELY FROM THE ONES BELOW. TO AVOID ANY CROSS-OVER PLEASE COPY/PASTE THIS LETTER AND POST IT INDEPENDENTLY OF THE VOTES BELOW TO YOUR CHOSEN BLOG. AGAIN IT WILL BE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO TURN IN THE RESULTING SIGNATURES. THANK YOU.
I take responsibility for turning this petition in to True Majority, Credo and Moveon.org. If anybody else wants to take responsibility to turn this in elsewhere just indicate which organization you will give the signatures to AND PLEASE COLLECT YOUR SIGNATURES SEPARATELY, TO AVOID ANY CROSS-OVER. Thank you!
DEAR MOVEON.ORG, TRUE MAJORITY AND CREDO:
As proactive and powerful as we know you to be, we are hereby urgently asking you as constituents and concerned citizens, to please work to stop the passage of S. 1959 “To Establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, and for other purposes.”www.aclu.org/safefree/general/32886prs20071128.html ACLU website press release about the bill
THe ACLU has used the word "persecution" of American citizens in its website press release (link above) concerning this bill which, according to Legislative Director Caroline Frederickson, targets thought and not action. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112907J.shtml
Michael Ratner, director/attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, testified live on KPFA radio that the bill "is so broad" and used words to the effect that it can and would be misconstrued to suit individualized agendas.
In an article by civil rights attorney Bruce Fein on Washington Times.com ("Police in Thought Pursuit"), Fein vociferously states that free speech in the schools and homes will be impacted by the passage of this bill. www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071227/COMMENTARY02/620257774/1012/COMMENTARY
Full text of the bill: http://tinyurl.com/3a3y2z
The bill creates a Commission of Government personnel to infiltrate the college campuses and "Study" (spy on) students as potentially "Homegrown terrorists" whose undefined "radical ideologies" must be "Studied" to prevent acts of terrorism. The Commission will make "recommendations" probably leading to future legislation (according to Michael Ratner) which is stacked on the unconstitional foundation of targeted thought models. The Commission is given the powers to conduct hearings and to gather such evidence "and administer such oaths as the Commission considers advisable to carry out its duties". Thus, the Government itself acts as prosecutor, juror and judge of American citizens dubbed terrorists. Guilt-by-association loopholes are wide open as anyone who "facilitates" acts of homegrown terrorism (ie journalists, bloggers) will be automatically be targeted as a terrorist ringleader. So even if the blogger/journalist never saw the face of the perpetrator, who could have been crazy to begin with and was set off by any news they read, the news bearer would be The Terrorist tried by government personnel. Bye-bye free speech. The Internet is targeted by the bill as a source of "constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda" . And contrary to the claims that the bill does not discriminate against any one social cross-sector, the text of the bill states that the Government Commission "should not" (recommendation) target any one social group. Yet it unequivocally states that the People "Shall not" (imperative) "coerce" the government, without defining what form such "coercion" takes. The motive to protect the government's best interest, but not that of the people, is thus confessed. Any Legislative Aides working for Congress who state that the bill does not clamp down on civil liberties is hiding the truth from the public and Congress members, alike. In fact, the words in the title "For other purposes" are not mentioned, let alone defined, in the text of the bill. That leaves an enormous loophole subject to personalized interpretation (and agendas).
We as your constituents urge you to help us to protect free speech and due process of law for Americans. Even your own organizations could be vulnerable to the passage of this bill.
Please take out quarter-page ads to involve the public, e-mail petitions, and ask members to call their Senators urging them to "Just say No" to the Violent Radicalization/Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.
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