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Ex-White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan
exposed Fox News as a propaganda tool
for the White House on Chris Mathews' Hardball [7-25-08]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-OpIXfXKO8
ACLU writes letter to Denver police on behalf of falsely arrested WACC member
June 16, 2008
David Fine
Office of the City Attorney
1437 Bannock, St., Room 353
Denver, CO 80202
VIA EMAIL David.Fine@denvergov.org
Chief Gerald Whitman
Denver Police Department
1331 Cherokee St.
Denver, CO 80204
VIA FACSIMILE 720-913-7029
Re: City Policy on First Amendment Activity on 16th Street Mall; Request
for Training Bulletin in Advance of the Democratic National Convention
Dear David and Chief Whitman:
I write regarding the City and County of Denver’s laws regarding First Amendment
activity on the public areas of the 16th Street Mall, and the misunderstanding
of Denver Police Department officers regarding those laws.
On June 11, 2008, Robert Weiland and other members of the group “WeAreChangeColorado”
were standing on the 16th Street Mall sidewalk. Mr. Weiland’s group believes
in questioning and stimulating public debate regarding the official version
of the events of September 11, 2001. On June 11, 2008, Mr. Weiland and members
of WeAreChangeColorado were distributing free flyers and DVDs with their message
in a peaceful and courteous fashion to persons on the 16th Street Mall who wished
to receive them. Mr. Weiland states that he was not selling any items nor blocking
any pedestrian traffic.
Like any other member of the public, Mr. Weiland and members of WeAreChangeColorado
had the right to engage in free expression on the public sidewalks of the 16th
Street Mall under the First Amendment and Article II Section 10 of the Colorado
constitution.
Nevertheless, Mr. Weiland and the members of WeAreChangeColorado were confronted
by Denver Police Department officers, including DPD Officer Albert St. Peter.
The officers ordered Mr. Weiland to cease distributing the flyers and the DVDs,
on the basis that they were prohibited from doing so unless they had a “peddler’s
license.”
In addition, the officers told Mr. Weiland and others present that the 16th
Street Mall was “private property.” A video1 recording of the incident
documents the officers consistently and uniformly stating, falsely, that that
the 16th Street Mall was “private property” and that a “peddler’s
license” was required to engage in this First Amendment activity on the
16th Street Mall.
Mr. Weiland explained to the officers that he was giving the literature and
DVDs for free to people who wished to received them, and that he was not selling
anything. In the video, the officers in fact acknowledge that Mr. Weiland was
“handing out” free materials, not selling them.
DPD officers, including Officer St. Clair, handcuffed Mr. Weiland and arrested
him. The summons is difficult to read, but it appears Mr. Weiland was cited
for violating D.R.M.C. § 47-35, an ordinance that does not exist. The officer
may have cited, or meant to cite, Mr. Weiland for violating D.R.M.C. §
47-32,2 which requires a license for persons engaged in peddling, which is defined
as selling or bartering goods. See D.M.R.C. § 47-16. The officers knew
Mr. Weiland was not engaged in selling or bartering goods.
Officer St. Clair also cited Mr. Weiland for violating D.R.M.C. § 38-86,
“Obstruction of streets or other public passageways,” and D.M.R.C.
§ 38-115, “Trespass.” Neither Mr. Weiland nor any else distributing
materials blocked or obstructed any pedestrian access. The citation for trespass,
I assume, arises from the officers’ universal and erroneous belief that
the sidewalks of the 16th Street Mall are private property.
During the arrest and citation of Mr. Weiland, the officer asked Mr. Weiland
and other members of the group whether or not they planned on engaging in such
First Amendment activity during the Democratic National Convention. As documented
in the video taken of the incident, the officers stated that Mr. Weiland and
the other members of the group should have “researched the law”
before attempting to engage in their First Amendment activity, and that had
they done so, they would have known they had to first obtain a peddler’s
permit to distribute their free materials.
It is likely that during the Democratic National Convention, many people will
wish to engage in First Amendment activity on Denver’s public areas including,
but not limited to, sidewalks and the 16th Street Mall. As the video makes clear,
of the numerous officers at the scene, all the officers agreed (or if they disagreed,
did not correct the erroneous statements of their fellow DPD officers) that
a “peddler’s license” was needed to distribute free literature
on the mall sidewalks, and that the 16th Street Mall was “private property.”
As a consequence of those misperceptions, DPD officers arrested and cited Mr.
Weiland for engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment and Article
II Section 10 is of even more disconcerting.
In anticipation of the Democratic National Convention, we request that Denver
provide additional instruction and training to its officers regarding the First
Amendment protections afforded to persons demonstrating in public forums including
the 16th Street Mall. In addition, as you know, the D.R.M.C. was recently revised
to permit a broader range of First Amendment activity in Denver. For example:
- The former version of the code purported to require a single person in a
public park expressing their views to obtain a permit to do so. The revised
version of this code makes clear that no permit is required for any group
less than fifty persons. See D.M.R.C. § 39-76(a).
- The revised code also makes clear that no permit at all is required in instances
where it is not “reasonably possible to obtain a permit in advance of a short
notice activity.” See D.M.R.C. § 39-85.
- The former version of the code purported to criminalize “offensive” conduct
or “loud and unusual” noises in public parks. The revised version of the code
restricts the prohibition and criminal sanction only to actions “calculated
to provoke a breach of the peace.” See D.M.R.C. § 39-12.
- The revised code creates new guidelines and procedures for the limited instances
in which public assembly permits can be revoked. See D.M.R.C. § 39-80.
In advance of the Democratic National Convention, we request that the Denver
Police Department issue a training bulletin to all its officers correcting the
misunderstandings that resulted in the arrest of Mr. Weiland, and that makes
clear the protections and time, place and manner limits on First Amendment activity
in Denver’s traditional public fora. Such a training bulletin could help to
minimize, if not eliminate, the possibility that DPD officers will continue
to misinterpret the law and make additional wrongful arrests like that of Mr.
Weiland. If you are agreeable, the ACLU of Colorado would be happy to provide
comments and feedback on drafts of any training bulletin, similar to our cooperative
effort with the revision of the parks and parade permitting ordinances.
Alternatively, if Denver believes that First Amendment activity on the 16th
Street Mall requires a permit, and/or that the mall is private property, please
explain that understanding to us. If we do not hear from you in response to
this letter, we will assume that the officers who arrested Mr. Weiland were
acting pursuant to and consistent with Denver policy, and that if Mr. Weiland
or any other person engages in similar expressive activity on the 16th Street
Mall in the future, they will be arrested and cited.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter. If I can provide any more
information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Very truly yours,
Taylor Pendergrass
Staff Attorney, ACLU of Colorado
Posted in response to the following blog
http://community.myfoxcolorado.com/blogs/911truthCO
/2008/06/17/Freedom_of_Speech_in_Denver_Colorado>
Some of you will find interest and social concern in this. The rest of you will be taken by complete and utter surprise when you are forced to exchange your state driver’s license for a National ID card, when the US merges with Canada and Mexico to form the North American Union, or when the Federal Reserve calls in their cash trash to replace it with the Amero (by then it will be too late). OR when the next false flag terror operation is carried out by fake terrorists (Al-'CIA'-Da) on US soil as pre-text for war with IRAN. Did I mention that Bin Laden was a paid, trained asset of the CIA during the late 80’s early 90’s to fight against the Soviets? CIA code names for Bin Laden include “blowback” and Tim Osmond. (Look! I’ve provided one mainstream source to back up these claims for you “truthers” out there, lol! -http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3340101/). This brilliant and devious plan was blueprinted by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the foreign policy advisor to none else than Democratic Presidential candidate Barrack Obama. Gee… I guess I won’t be voting for any members of the council on foreign relations! (haha, the jokes on me… ALL the candidates are/were CFR members).
Don’t say you weren’t warned. Some of you refuse to speak to me, these “far fetched” beliefs as premise. The rest of you either tolerate it, or have questioned it enough to actually do the research, only to find your entire reality come crashing down with revelation (interestingly enough they even named a book of the Bible after this physiological phenomena of experiencing a revelation). Must I provide examples of Bible verses warning us of these things to come??
Okay, now that I am off my soap box…
This first URL links to a video filmed in November 2007 of Denver Police confirming that it is LEGAL to hand out free informational DVDs on public streets (with a first hand look at the public scrutiny received by those who dare to question the spoon fed lies). We Are Change member mistakes the quote 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism' as being Abe Lincoln's (it was Thomas Jefferson) but it is still fully applicable here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zP3RyJMl4
The second URL links you to video footage and full story (covered by infowars.com, one of the 'mainstream' news sources for us conspriacy theory kooks; for those that dont know) of a We Are Change member being handcuffed and ticketed for handing out free informational DVDs including Terrorstorm and Loose Change, on the SAME street corner in Denver, Colorado.
http://www.infowars.com/?p=2676
Video:
Hmmm… must be some sort of confusion at the good ole Denver PD. Pay close attention to the Cop who claims the arrest is for “peddling” but refuses to discuss the definition of the word. Let it be known that we don’t blame these cops. They are all sheep like the rest of us that need a good ole awakening. Just with more connections…. and gun (tazer) power :-) I like to call them fund raisers. Lord knows I’ve paid a few salaries.
In love and freedom… it’s time for bed.
Time to Listen to Ron Paul?
Mar 27, 2008 | 8:21 PM PST
Category:
Political
Time to Listen to Ron Paul?
By Elizabeth MacDonald (FoxBusiness)
http://emac.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2008/03/26/time-t
o-listen-to-ron-paul/
Time to listen to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the lone voice of reason in Congress today who’s got to feel like he’s shouting into a field of cotton with his repeated warnings about the dangers of a collapsing dollar, while the administration goes AWOL on the problem.
The dollar just hit a record intraday low against the euro on reports that consumer confidence levels have dropped to levels not seen since the post-Watergate era. It is down 7% year to date against the Chinese renminbi, it’s weaker than the Japanese yen and the Canadian loonie.
The joke is the greenback is now only stronger than the Mexican pesos and the Zimbabwe dollar, an overstatement for dramatic effect, to be sure.But since hitting a peak in 2002, the dollar has lost about a quarter of its value against a trade weighted basket of currencies.
A weak dollar acts as an anvil around the neck of the US economy and consumers. Rising inflation is essentially a tax on consumers, so are rising energy prices, and that double whammy threatens to undermine the purchasing power of the rebate checks due out in May–backed by printing even more dollars.
A bellwether event of significant import to our nation’s finances happened this past January 1 with little notice. That’s the day the first baby boomer was allowed to retire. A new federal report wearily warns once again for the umpteenth time that the nation faces some $60t in Social Security and Medicare unfunded liabilities alone.
We’ve heard time and again conservatives say deficits don’t matter. To say that deficits don’t matter is like saying ketchup is a vegetable or trees cause pollution.
The $406b we pay annually in interest on the $9t in federal debt alone would rank as the world’s 30th biggest economy.
That annual interest cost surpasses the gross domestic product of Belgium, and is bigger than the GDP of Denmark and Hungary combined. The $406b would cover the annual cost of investigating Medicare fraud.
Stack all those one dollar bills making up our $9t deficit (and that doesn’t include the $60t in unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security) and you would reach the moon and back. “Printing money cannot create wealth, if it could counterfeiting would be legal,” economist Brian Wesbury has said.
Even Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and a forceful advocate for laissez-faire economics, got so sick of the way central bankers were willy nilly printing money in the ‘70s, he advocated that the government should replace the Federal Reserve with a computer. “Money is too important to be left to central bankers,” he quipped.
Broad zoom: The US economy has spent all of a year and four months in a downturn over the last two and a half decades. During that time we’ve seen a market crash of 22% in 1987, the S&L crisis, four wars, three financial crises (Mexico, Asian flu and Russian debt crises), the blow up of the hedge fund Long Term Capital, two asset bubbles (dot com and telecom). Since the Bush tax cuts of 2003, the US economy added the equivalent of China’s GDP–and government spending has boomed.
Now Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has both cut rates at a breakneck speed and pumped a massive amount of monetary stimulus into the markets to cure the credit crisis. I still think he is doing his level best to fix a crisis not entirely of his own making. The question now is, will Bernanke yank the liquidity punch bowl when the economy returns to trend growth in 2010 or 2011 as the central bank projects?
Let’s hope so, because the case for a weak dollar is, to me, well, weak. Namely, that a lame greenback softens the housing and credit crises as it fuels profits at US exporters whose goods are now dirt cheap in the eyes of foreign customers. Strong foreign sales at places like Boeing and Caterpillar reportedly added 1.4% to US growth in the second quarter of 2007. But exports make up just 13% of GDP. Consumers make up a larger 70%.
It’s no surprise consumer confidence is as weak as it was in the ’70s. LBJ had promised this country it could have both guns and butter in the ‘60s, so the Federal Reserve gunned the printing presses to pay for spending on entitlement programs and for the Vietnam war. For the first time, too, politicians got their mitts on taxpayers’ Social Security funds, after Democrats passed a so-called “unified budget” in the late ‘60s.
All that spending caused the dollar to nosedive in the 1970s amidst an oil embargo that sent oil costs, priced in dollars, soaring. Paul Volcker, then Fed chairman, enacted rapid rate hikes hitting 21% by 1979, and the Treasury went so far as to sell $6.4b in “Carter bonds,” largely denominated in Deutschemarks, to prop up the dollar. Gold got ripped off its mooring of an average $35 an ounce in the ‘70s, and in 1980 it hit a record $835 an ounce, around $2,250 in today’s prices.
Gold acts as a dew line for inflation. We essentially have a good handle on how much gold there is in the world and potentially below ground. When gold rises in price, it signals we are printing too many dollars, which indicates a concurrent drop in the greenback’s value. Over the last seven years, gold and oil prices have risen in lockstep, up 239% and 267% respectively. If the dollar had also risen in value at the same rate, oil would be selling at about $30 a barrel.
But now central bankers say that because of the weak dollar, they’ve seen capital losses carved out of an estimated $12t worth of dollars they hold in foreign currency reserves. The fear is they may unload their $12t in greenbacks en masse to cut their losses and run–which would really tip the US into a protracted recession. Already reports out of China show government officials there willing to rotate future planned investments out of US treasurys into other investments.
Countries pegged to the dollar are rightly saying, too, that we are exporting inflation to their shores. Saudi Arabia is a land that has had nearly zero inflation since 1998, but recently inflation soared to 7% annually, despite the fact the country is flush with petrodollars.
Congressman Paul rightfully warns us when he says the US government has “systematically undermined” the US dollar by expanding “the money supply at will for financing war or manipulating the economy with little resistance from Congress–while benefiting the special interests that influence government.”
It’s not just the US gunning the mints. Goldman Sachs figures that three-fifths of the world’s broad money supply growth came from emerging economies over the past year or so. Three-fifths. That’s gigantic.
Goldman Sachs says the growth in Russia’s M3 measure of broad money grew 51% over the last year or so, India by 24%, and by 20% in China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Brazil. That’s three times as fast as the US and the rest of the developed world, and it’s faster than their GDP growth rates. It’s the fastest pace in decades.
All that loose money is pouring into commodities, stock exchanges around the planet as well as bond markets–it’s largely why our long-term bond yields have been historically low, spurring a dramatic increase in mortgage borrowing, as mortgage rates typically track the 10-year Treasury note.
Watch out here–emerging economies are just as susceptible to minting lots of money due to political pressures, including things like paying for wars, or calming local populations clamoring for higher pay and more jobs.
What can be done stateside?
The administration needs to state more emphatically that it supports a strong dollar. A stronger dollar would draw liquidity back into the credit markets, lower inflation risks, cut oil prices and restart economic growth, notes Bear Stearns economist David Malpass.
Presidential candidates vilify NAFTA and free trade, when the weak dollar is partly to blame for problems like jobs lost to overseas operations, Malpass adds.
“Empires fail because they run out of money, or more accurately, run out of the ability to spend or inflate,” Congressman Paul warns. “We need to control spending, immediately, before it is too late.”
Members of We Are Change Colorado confronted a Denver advisory board for water about the ill health effects of fluoride, a known neuro-toxin, as well as other related information, including the work of propagandist Edward Bernays to add it to the nation's water supply (his work also spurned approval for lead and asbestos usage).
The group gave a presentation filled with objective information and convincing arguments... and standing up for the nation's health in their actions.
"No one's warning us not to drink the water, but they warn us not to ingest the toothpaste that has the same amount of fluoride," one member of Change argued.
The problems with public water supplies are well established-- for instance a recent controversy has arisen from an AP report that some 40% of the nation's water contains significant amounts of pharmaceutical drugs and other dangerous elements.
The Advisory Board to the City and County of Denver’s water treatment was confronted by We Are Change Colorado about the dangers of Fluoride on March 20th, 2008.
The Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) of Denver Water is a 10-member volunteer committee whose function is to advise water department staff and commissioners on issues while encouraging and coordinating public participation in the water department’s policy making process.
The CAC exists as a result of the Colorado Foothills Agreement. In the late 1970s, Denver Water found itself in need of a new treatment plant and operating reservoir. Public concern over growth issues and potential environmental impact in the canyon where the reservoir was to be built led to the Foothills Agreement -- a pact between Denver Water, federal agencies, elected officials and the environmental community. Among other things, terms of the 1978 agreement required the formation of a citizen group charged with representing public interests.
The Denver Board of Water Commissioners recognizes that there is a need for full and timely public participation in the decision making process of the Board on important Board decisions and, to insure that participation, it has agreed to create a Citizens’ Advisory Committee with a substantial degree of independence. Under the Denver City Charter, the Board has not and legally cannot delegate to the committee any responsibility placed upon the Board by law.
To the two new girls on the staff who posted "highlights" on certain candidates... you forgot one... Huge Crowd in Denver Goes Berserk for Ron Paul [Part 1]
(Feb 1, 2008) Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul gets a very warm reception at the Four Seasons Ballroom (Colorado Convention Center, Denver), with him are his wife Carol and granddaughters Valerie and Laura.
Video from 9news.com
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
Paul (R-Texas) was in Denver at the same time as Mitt Romney, who tried to frame the race as a two-candidate contest between himself and John McCain.
"We'll have to wait and see. First, the elections haven't occurred yet and we'll see how we'll do in our rally here. We've had a tremendous reception here in Colorado and I think we're going to do quite well. That would be an easy goal if all of a sudden he thought it was a two-man race," Paul said.
Huge Crowd in Denver Goes Berserk for Ron Paul [Part 2]
Huge Crowd in Denver Goes Berserk for Ron Paul [Part 3]
Huge Crowd in Denver Goes Berserk for Ron Paul [Part 4]
Huge Crowd in Denver Goes Berserk for Ron Paul [Part 5]
Mitt Romney and Ron Paul visit Colorado
Faux Reports, Faux Decides (for you). This is PITIFUL, Fox. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Here's MSNBC on Nevada - at least SOMEONE has an ounce of credibility in their journalism.
JFK Evidence is Bogus
Dec 20, 2007 | 11:13 PM PST
Category:
Political
FBI Now Admits Evidence Used to Connect Oswald to Kennedy Assasination Was Bogus
By Jonathan Elinoff | TruthAlliance.net | Dec. 18, 2007
The front page of the Sunday Washington Post features, "FBI Forensic Test Full of Holes." It claims that hundreds of defendants sitting in prisons nationwide have been convicted with the help of an FBI forensic tool that has been found to be completely full of inconsistent results and has actually been discarded by the FBI for such reasons more than two years ago. But the FBI lab has failed to take or attempt to alert any of the affected defendants or courts, even though the window for appealing convictions is closing.
As early as 1991, the FBI conducted studies on the reliability of the "bullet-lead" analysis used to connect bullets found at the scene of a crime to bullets in thepossession of a suspect. The studies found that lead composition of bullets in the same box didn't always match, which should have been a sign that the test was completely unreliable. Further analysis discovered that bullets packaged15 months apart in different areas of the country in different boxes, unexpectedly matched - a gap the forensic testing originally claimed had different bullet lead make-up.
The Innocence Project is a group of individuals who have committed their time and finances to investigate claims of innocence in convicted cases where DNA testing was never available. To date, over 200 individuals have been set free due to the DNA analysis of many rape cases confirming that the child born from a rape victim's DNA didn't match the accused and convicted individual. Hopefully, they will pick this flawed forensic test up and begin to look at the tens of thousands of people estimated to have been placed in prison solely on this bogus "bullet-lead analysis."
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The test, now confirmed by the FBI's own admittance, has actually been used to connect people to crimes they never committed. The test was first initiated and used on July 8, 1964 by order of J Edgar Hoover for the Warren Commission to connect Lee Harvey Oswald to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. Throughout the following decades, this same test has been used to convict civil rights activists and gang members, many of which have maintained their "innocence."
The forensic test was the only major connection Oswald had to the actual scene of the crime. For Kennedy assasination researchers, this is a big leap. For years, the only evidence outside this forensic connection has been completely circumstantial. Oswald never confessed to the murder and actually stated to the public that he believed he was being made a patsy. Oswald was only picked up because an APB had been ordered in Dallas in his description, even though no one saw the shooter.
Oswald maintained that he had gone down to the parade to see the President's motorcade pass, as did everyone, when he was working that day. A famous picture surfaced that many researchers believe identifies Oswald in the doorway of the School Book Depository as the motorcade passed and was not in the sixth-floor window as he was accused to have been.
The interrogation which took place for several hours was not recorded, a violation of standard operating procedure. Oswald was murdered the next morning on live television while being transported in the parking garage at the local jail. Jack Ruby, the man who shot Oswald, was a major mafia/CIA connected nightclub owner and hated Kennedy with a passion. Kennedy's younger brother, Bobby Kennedy, was mounting a large scale war against organized crime, even though the Kennedy's had used the mafia in voter fraud crimes to get elected. The Kennedy empire was built from bootleging alcohol in an organized crime syndicate that Joe Kennedy, John and Bobby's father, ran with connections to Al Capone. Of the many odd factors in the assassination of the former president, it turns out Jack Ruby ran bootleging in Chicago for crime boss Al Capone in his early years as well.
http://truthalliance.net/News/CommunityPublications/tab
id/76/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/331/Default.asp
x
At the Oriental Theater in Denver, CO. Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's wife Elizabeth spoke with WeAreChangeColorado.org on issues that matter to patriots. The Federal Reserve, 2nd Amendment, War in Iraq, National Sovereignty and Health Care.
She also recommends a 47 minute google video that I have recommended to some of you. It's an entertaining and very informative cartoon called Money As Debt and gives an in depth history on how the Federal Reserve began and how money has enslaved society in it's own debt. (by design?) It's a doozey...
Watch Money As Debt here ---- > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-90504743625834
51279
Congressmen Perlmutter talks about HR 1955 Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism ...
http://truthalliance.net/Archive/CommunityArticles/tabi
d/76/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/327/Default.aspx
House bill HR 1955 has received a considerable amount of attention this past month, especially on the Internet where numerous groups are calling it a “
thought crimes” bill.
TruthAlliance.net had the opportunity to sit down with one of the co-sponsors of this bill, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and voice some concerns about this type of legislation. Unlike most elected officials Congressman Perlmutter still makes himself available to his constituents and we applaud him for that.
The bill in question is HR 1955, which is entitled the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.” The language in this bill is extremely broad and subsequently can be used to prosecute American citizens for speech that would otherwise be protected under the first amendment.
Part of the reason this bill drew such an outcry, especially on the Internet is do to the presentation made by Mark Weitzman the Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Hate & Terrorism Task Force. During this presentation he attempted to lump together the organization Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth with Radical Islamic fundamentalist groups before the sub-committee convened by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA).
That presentation foreboded the possible future steps that may be taken to rid the country of certain dissenting groups. It also showed how the legislation could be used not only on the 9/11 Truth community, but anti-war groups, and even Ron Paul supporters too. All these groups advocate non-violence, but if one person who associates themselves with any of these groups says something violent, the whole group can be labeled as domestic terrorists.
Three terms jump out in the bill as having loose definitions that can be applied to almost any group and any circumstance.
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.
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.
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.
The House of Representatives passed this bill with 404 votes in favor of it, an overwhelming majority. Two Congressmen who spoke out against this bill where Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Ron Paul. Ron Paul said it best December 5, 2007 on the House floor. “This legislation focuses the weight of the US government inward toward its own citizens under the guise of protecting us against “violent radicalization.”
After we talked to Rep. Perlmutter about this bill he understood our concerns and was sympathetic to them. He believed there had to be a violent act as a pretext, and also that there was a privacy clause built into the bill which protected civil liberties. A stipulation that he demanded before participating in the co-sponsorship of the bill. After hearing constituent arguments he was somewhat baffled that the bill failed to include these protections and insisted that he will go back and read the bill, verify our arguments, and if necessary rethink his position on the bill.
Dozens of bills go through Congress every week and a lot of them are over 1,000 pages each. Often bills get sections added and subtracted from them right up to the very day that they are to be voted on. It is an ineptitude that plagues Congress. In fact Congress isn’t even required to read all the bills before they vote on them. Even if they wanted to read them all it would probably be near impossible. This practice needs to change, Congress must read all the bills that they intend to vote on, or not vote on them until they do. The American people are extremely dissatisfied with the performance of Congress. Maybe if more Congressmen actually spent time listening to their constituents like Representative Perlmutter, they wouldn’t as a whole have a 14% approval rating.
Besides the HR 1955 questions we managed to get in a few other with Congressmen Perlmutter regarding the war in Iraq, the Bush administration's contempt and the immigration and open border problem. At the end we gave the Congressmen 4 DVD's. They were: Terrorstorm, Endgame, Loose Change Final Cut, and America: Freedom to Fascism.
See the entire 15 minute session with Rep. Perlmutter below:
Google Spider Goats!
Oct 2, 2007 | 11:59 PM PST
Category:
Political
This is fun and interactive - Enjoy!
9/11 and the pentagon
Jul 29, 2007 | 8:37 PM PST
Category:
Political
