So…I suppose if I’d kept you abreast of what was going on with MoveOn you’d have seen this coming. Or you might have voted in that poll. You could be happy that they support Obama for all I know. I am going to make it a point to keep this thing more current, but you will no longer see any MoveOn updates from me. If you haven’t signed up for their emails & wish to know what’s up with their world, please do so.

This bill is the beginning of the end of Free Speech in America. If it passes, all the information sources you know and trust could be shut down and their authors imprisoned. News websites and blogs could be taken offline and could be arrested as “terrorists.” Jeff Rense at www.Rense.com could be labeled a “terrorist” and arrested. Byron Richards, Len Horowitz, Paul Craig Roberts, Greg Palast, Ron Paul and even Al Gore could all be arrested, silenced and incarcerated. This is not an exaggeration. It is a literal reading of the law, which you can check yourself here: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h1955_rfs.xml

The bill states:

‘…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…

Note that this means the “planned use of force to promote a political or social belief” would be considered an act of terrorism. This all hinges on the definition of “force,” of course. Based on the loose use of logic in Washington these days, and the slippery interpretation of the meaning of words, “force” could mean:

• A grassroots campaign to barrage Congress with faxes
• A non-violent street protest
• A letter-writing campaign that deluges the Senate with too much mail
• A sit-in protest that blocks access to a business or organization
• A grassroots e-mail campaign that overloads the e-mail servers of any government department or agency

You get the idea. “Force” could be defined as practically anything. And since the “planned use of force” would be considered a criminal act of terrorism, anyone who simply thinks about a grassroots action campaign would be engaged in terrorist acts.

If you stopped someone on the street and handed them a Bible, for example, this could be considered an act of terrorism (”…use of force to promote the individual’s religious beliefs…”)

If you sent a barrage of angry letters to Washington about global warming and the destruction of the environment by the U.S. military, this could also be considered an act of terrorism (”…to promote the individual’s political beliefs…”)

If you believe in same-sex marriage and you wrote a letter threatening a sit-in protest in front of your state’s capitol building, this could also be considered an act of terrorism, even if you never carried it out! (”…planned use of force to promote a social belief…”)

The United States is on the fast track to fascism, and the Congress is working right alongside this nation’s traitorous leaders to criminalize any thoughts, words or speeches that disagree with current government policies regarding war, terrorism, domestic surveillance and civil liberties. Simply speaking out against the war on Iraq could soon be labeled a crime. Merely thinking thoughts against the war on Iraq could be considered a criminal act.

Must-see video: Naomi Wolf’s lecture on 10 steps to fascism

There’s a video lecture you simply MUST watch. It’s by Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America. She covers this topic with great elegance and a deep understanding of history. See her video on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

Click here to see her book on Amazon.com.

In her lecture and book, Naomi reveals the ten steps to fascist, then reveals how the United States of America is pursuing all ten! This S.1959 legislation, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, represents one of the ten steps to achieve a fascist state!

It is designed to squash all opposition to the State’s ongoing march towards blatant fascism, where secret police and secret prisons dominate the law enforcement landscape, stripping U.S. citizens of all civil liberties and Constitutional protections.

Thoughtcrimes are about to become a reality in the United States of America, and Congress is pushing this through as quickly as possible so that each individual member of Congress can claim that he or she is “against terrorism.” But this bill doesn’t merely target terrorism: It targets anyone who speaks or even thinks thoughts against the U.S. federal government.

With this bill, the U.S. government is officially labeling the People of the United States as criminals. It is drawing a line in the sand and stating that from now on, it’s the Government vs. the People.

If we don’t stop this bill from becoming law, we are lost as a nation.

There is no turning back from tyranny once the government turns its own citizens into criminals, enforcing only the thoughts, ideas, words and speeches that it approves or tolerates. Everything is at stake here!

Take action now, or lose your freedoms forever

If you live in the U.S., it is urgent that you call your senators right now and voice your strong opposition against this extremely dangerous law.

Here are the phone numbers for the U.S. Senate switchboard:

1-877-851-6437
1-800-833-6354
1-888-355-3588
1-866-220-0044
1-866-808-0065
1-877-762-8762
1-866-340-9281
1-800-862-5530

How to do this:

1) Make sure you know the names of your Senators.
2) Call the U.S. Senate switchboard using one of the numbers above.
3) Ask to speak to the offices of your Senators.
4) Tell them you are strongly opposed to S. 1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
5) Ask for their fax number.
6) Follow up your phone call with a written, signed letter that you fax to your Senators.

Stopping this bill from becoming law is the single most important thing all Americans can do right now. If this becomes law, all free speech about health freedom, the crimes of the FDA, the crimes of the Bush Administration, America’s role in global warming and any other topics could all be criminalized. YOU could be labeled a terrorist, kidnapped by government thugs, taken from your home, thrown in a secret prison, denied access to legal representation, denied due process and essentially “disappeared” into a system of such corruption and evil that it now begins to blatantly mirror Nazi Germany.

Think it couldn’t happen here? It’s happening right now! This is exactly how it happened in Nazi Germany. First, burn the Reichstag and blame it on the “enemy.” Pass new police state laws. Disarm the people. Spread fear. Erect secret prisons and secret police. Call anyone who disagrees with you a “traitor.” Control the mainstream media. Sound familiar? This is all happening right now in the United States of America, and if we don’t work to stop it, this nation will rapidly devolve into a fascist police state where no one is truly free.

We are but a few small steps away from it right now. All it would take is one dirty bomb in a major U.S. city. Bush would declare Martial Law and take over the National Guard. Troops on the streets. Anyone who writes a blog against the government would be arrested. Authors of “alternative” books would be kidnapped and have their books burned on the street. It could all happen at the stroke of a pen. The infrastructure for tyranny is in place right now, just waiting to be invoked.

Our best weapons: Non-violent protest and speaking the truth

How can we fight back against this onslaught of tyranny? We must use what remaining free speech freedoms we have right now to alert our fellow citizens to what’s happening. We must rise up and tell the truth while urging our representatives in Washington to resist the temptation to vote for more “anti-terrorism” legislation that only works to enslave the American people.

We must use our phones, faxes, emails and blogs to rally our friends, family members and anyone who will listen to oppose these police state laws, and we must organize mass (peaceful) protests against this government that is attempting to marginalize the rights and freedoms of our People.

We must not be lulled into a sense of false security by the purveyors of hatred and fear — the Sean Hannitys, Rush Limbaughs and Bill O’Reillys of the world. Instead, we must listen to the voices of freedom.

Also, research the candidates before you cast your vote. Can you imagine what Hillary Clinton would do with the police state powers that Bush has now created? That’s the danger of all laws that centralize power in Washington: It’s not necessarily what today’s President will do with them, but what some future President will do with them.

That’s why it’s never good enough to say, “Well, we intend to only apply these laws to terrorists and not to U.S. citizens at home.” That may be the intention right NOW, but virtually all such laws creep into areas of enforcement for which they were never intended. Just look at the application of RICO laws which were originally designed to fight organized crime operations but are now applied to virtually anyone (and yet they are never applied to Big Pharma, which operates almost exactly like organized crime!). All these anti-terrorism laws run the danger of expanding in enforcement to the point where they are applied against the People of this country. At first, it’s only illegal for “terrorists” to think thought crimes, but before long, it’s illegal for anyone to think those same thoughts. That when the domestic arrests of authors, journalists, bloggers and thought leaders will kick off, and the country will plunge itself into outright tyrannical fascism.

Again, we’re on the track right now. This is happening, folks. You’re LIVING through an amazing chapter of history right now. You’re actually witnessing the downfall of a free nation and the rise of a superpower fascist state. You’re actually part of it.

When it’s all over, will you look back and realize you did nothing? Or will you now take a stand against tyranny and oppose these dangerous laws and lawmakers who threaten the Constitutional freedoms of you and your children?

source

Hart’s lead lawyer, Mark N. Todzo of San Francisco, said his client suspected before reading the AP report that Comcast was interfering with his Internet traffic

(more!)

Some investment tycoons are raking in more than $1 billion a year, but they get away with paying a lower tax rate than you and me. The “carried interest” loophole lets them pay just 15% instead of the 35% most upper-income people pay—or even the 25% most middle-income people pay.^*

*”Understanding the ‘Carried Interest’ Issue,” TPM Cafe, June 26, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3142&id=11644-8495050-Qo9a_O&t=8

Personally, I pay $58 more, but if I make just $5,000 more this year it will be 10 times that.

Former Senator Mike Gravel has been excluded from tonight’s Democratic presidential debate, sponsored by NBC and broadcast on MSNBC at 9:00 pm EDT.

 

Gravel is one of the presidential candidates who have reached out to independent voters. He and Congressman Dennis Kucinich both appeared at a New Hampshire conference of independent voters two weeks ago, sponsored by the NH Committee for an Independent Voice, making clear they value the participation and recognition of independent voters while speaking out against the war and the political compromises of the Democratic Party.

According to NBC, Gravel did not meet certain polling and fundraising criteria: He had to have traveled to NH and/or Iowa at least 14 times, be polling at 5%, and have raised $1 million. Since these requirements are newly implemented (Gravel has appeared in two debates sponsored by NBC this presidential season), and only Gravel is excluded, they surely appear arbitrary and specifically designed to exclude him. At this point in the process, the voters, not the networks, should be deciding who is qualified to continue their campaigns.

 

Independents believe strongly in open and inclusionary debates.

 

Here’s what you can do:

1. Contact MSNBC and Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee, to let them know you protest the lack of democracy expressed by Gravel’s exclusion from tonight’s debate.

 

a. Howard Dean - call the Democratic National Committee headquarters at 202-863-8000, or email Deanh@dnc.org;

b. Chuck Todd - MSNBC political director -  chuck.todd@nbcuni.com

c. Steve Capus - President of NBC News - steve.capus@nbcui.com

2. Mike Gravel will be holding an alternative Democratic Debate at the World Café, 3025 Walnut Street in Philadelphia.  Participants can watch the debate with the Senator, and afterward, he will take questions from the audience.  This is being broadcast live via WebCast, at http://Gravel2008.us/LIVEDEBATE. 

 

Please copy CUIP (national@cuip.org) and Mike Gravel (phillydebate@gravel2008.us) with your letters.  Let’s tell the news media and the Democratic Party that independent voters protest their violations of democracy!

This country has a long way to go to being fully democratic. Please send your letters, thank you.

This ad, reading “Sexual orientation is not a choice”, is the root of debate. This as will soon go up on billboards across Tuscany as part of a drive by its regional government to curb discrimination against gays and lesbians.

(more…)

Barnett Rubin, from the blog Informed Comment:Global Affairs, has some good information on the Administration’s promotion of a war with Iran. There are two posts, one from Monday and one from September I believe you should read.

Scott Horton at Harper’s has an update on the fall product rollout for war with Iran. He analyzes the full text of Dick Cheney’s speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which I discussed yesterday based only on press reports. Horton summarizes Cheney’s discussion of Iran: “Is Cheney threatening war against Iran? Yes, that’s exactly what he is doing.”

(more from “The War Rollout Keeps Rolling Along…”)

I once wrote a book about early warning and conflict prevention. There are two kinds of errors in early warning (as in statistical inference): believing something that ain’t so and disbelieving something that is. You have to weigh the likelihood and the cost of each kind of error. That’s the calculus behind Vice-President Cheney’s One Percent Doctrine: the risk of not acting on a warning of nuclear terrorism is so great, that you have to treat a one percent possibility as a certainty.

I set the bar a bit higher than one percent. But in view of the record of this administration, including what its leaders and supporters have said themselves, the cost of not acting on these warnings is too great. The cost of acting (for me anyway) is being attacked by the New York Sun and the National Review and being supported by a few conspiracy theorists. I can live with it.

(more from “Iran War ‘Rollout’ Roils Blogosphere”)

We still have time to do something. To begin with, you can find your senators here and your representative here. Contact them, tell them you do not want to see the US start another ill-planned, unnecessary war. If you need a sample letter to get you started:

Dear Senator _____:

I have noticed a similarity between the Administration’s current rhetoric about Iran and their rhetoric preceding the Iraq War. I am extremely worried about the Administration’s plans regarding Iran. The United States of America cannot afford to start another ill-planned and unnecessary war.

Do not give the president a blank check to attack Iran. Do not authorize a “preemptive strike” against Iran. Do not authorize a war against Iran [i]unless[/i] their government has attacked us directly. The House and the Senate failed America in the lead up to the Iraq war. Do not make the same mistakes again.

Sincerly,

NEW YORK - Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.

(continued)

We need to be calling our representatives and telling them not to cave into Bush by giving the Government unlimited access to our phone calls…permanently.

You can get information on what to tell your representative, (and find their phone number if you don’t already have it on speed dial ) at the ACLU.

If we don’t act now to let our representatives know how we feel, we may loose even more of our right to privacy.  If you are unwilling to call your representative, email them or send them a letter.  But do something before it is too late!

PORTLAND, Ore. — Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”

Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.

The federal government apologized and settled part of the lawsuit for $2 million after admitting a fingerprint was misread. But as part of the settlement, Mayfield retained the right to challenge parts of the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism.

Mayfield claimed that secret searches of his house and office under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violated the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. Aiken agreed with Mayfield, repeatedly criticizing the government.

(continued)