Wednesday, November 28, 2007

We're Going To Party Like It's 1984

"The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."
-George Orwell's 1984

Ronni Bennett over at Time Goes By has been writing a series of posts about a bill that is right now making its way though Congress. If passed, it will, in the name of Homeland Security, limit or even take away the most valuable right you have as an American citizen. The right to express your opinion and/or criticize your own government.

H.R.1955/S.1955, a.k.a. the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, is also known as "The Thought Crime Bill." The following video will give you an idea of what this bill is about:



This bill is so fear based and 1984 it is almost laughable. Laughable if it wasn't so frightening. One of the things I find frightening about this bill is how vaguely it is worded. Who the government can go after is left for the government to decide.

Anytime an attempt is made to limit what a citizen is allowed to say moves us one more step closer to a totalitarian state. How do we maintain a democracy in a time were our government keeps trying to limit our rights as citizens in an over zealous attempt to, as they see it, protect us?

I have already written my Senate Representative, Sam Brownback, telling him to vote no on this bill. Protect your rights as an American citizen, call, write, or e-mail your Senator now and tell her/him to vote no on this bill.

Find the address and phone numbers for your Congressional Representatives here.

Read the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 here.

A list of posts on Times Goes By and other websites concerning H.R.1955/S.1959 here.

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