Senate "Terrorism" Hearings

It is a small wonder that the Powers That Be didn't publicize this meeting. The remarkably unbalanced witness list alone serves a warning. The JPFO summary here gives an indication of just how had it can be. Read it.

If, in your lexicon, "common sense" is a synonym for "colossal stupidity" then this is a common sense measure. However, if you believe that meekly stacking your belongings and stepping into the boxcar is a good way to get disappeared then you might recognize this as an attempt by the Administration to disarm its opponents.

Additionally, the Liberty Coalition testifies it is grossly unconstitutional. Not that matters to the current Administration any more than it did to the one before.

As always, there is useful commentary from David Codrea and a followup.

I predict that, should this make its way into law, it will not be used to go after real terrorists. It will be used to suppress dissent in the United States. The terror list has been wielded as a weapon against legitimate petition for redress before. For example in 2009, The Maryland State police admitted they classified non violent activists as terrorists:

The Maryland State Police have admitted classifying 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists, including opponents of the war and the death penalty, and tracking them in state and federal "terrorism" databases. Cops infiltrated organizing meetings and rallies, and spied on political email lists, similar to the government infiltration of the RNC.

The groups targeted, including the Maryland Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, aren't suspected of harming anyone, aren't suspected of bombing anyone, and aren't even suspected of vandalizing property.

They're "fringe people," says Thomas E. Hutchins, the former state police superintendent who authorized the operation. "I don't believe the First Amendment is any guarantee to those who wish to disrupt the government," he said.

Terrorist Watch List: Homeland Security Defines Millions Of Americans As Domestic Derrorists[sic] (retrieved on May 5, 2010)

Fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore