Always thought-provoking and sometimes shocking, Ashe Dambala at American Zombie has a way of getting to the heart of a matter. In his recent post, Nothing compares to homegrown..., he shocks with simple facts about the bill just passed by our U.S. House of Representatives: H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on 10/24/07). Among other things, Dambala had this to say:
...it protects us from the homegrown stuff....and "Violent Radicalization" to boot. Isn't that bass-ackwards....shouldn't it be radical violence? I mean violent radicalization? What exactly is that? Am I in danger of being violently radicalized? I'd love to see Congress pass legislation to combat "radical lethargy"....or "homegrown oblivion"...somehow I think those semantic constructs pose a greater threat to the country than all of these mysterious, homegrown, terrorist cells which are suddenly popping up....
...The only homegrown movement I'm scared of is our descent into fascism. This bill seems to be one more surreptitious step in that direction. Funny how the MSM didn't mention a word about this bill....much like the bill Leiberman and Kyl passed declaring Iran as a "terrorist entity" ....they deemed it not so newsworthy. If we're at such a threat from "Homegrown Terrorists", shouldn't CNN be headlining this news?
The bill also singles out the internet as a vehicle for facilitating "Violent Radicalization", which it defines as:
...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.
What the bill does not define is "extremist belief system". Dambala suggests that perhaps "Evangelical Christianity" might fall into that category.
My fear is that patriotism, the old kind that requires us to stand up and speak out for our rights as they are systematically sledge hammered away, the kind that requires us to stand up and speak out against the intentional transfer of public funds to private wealth (Blackwater, Halliburton, et al), the kind that requires us to stand up and speak out against an administration that has caused more harm to our nation, our world and our regard in it than all the homegrown terrorism that ever existed; my fear is that this patriotic standing up and speaking out is just what the creators of this bill consider "Violent Radicalization".
H.R. 1955 doesn't come with sharp teeth, and primarily establishes a commission to study the perceived threat of "Violent Radicalization" and "Homegrown Terrorism". The commission would be charged with creating, first, interim reports and, ultimately, a final report, that will be used,
...as an aid in developing, in consultation with the Attorney General, a national policy in the United States on addressing radicalization and homegrown terrorism.
So, it's a bill to create a commission to figure out how to define and look for homegrown terrorists and what to do with them once they're found, and it's a bill designed to perpetuate the fear that is necessary to properly market and sell the War on Terror [sic] (™The Capt.), so that the private recipients of the transfer of public funds (taxpayers' dollars) mentioned above can continue to benefit from our largely manufactured fear.
Well, I certainly feel violently radicalized, and it's been the work of the thieving, radically violent fear mongers who've been running our country into the ground for the last seven years. I think we should all be very, very afraid, just not of their alleged homegrown terrorists. Mostly, I'm afraid of them, those who benefit from public fear, and even more afraid that, in this bill, they might just be talking about us.
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Note: Around this time last year, after 2 years of blogging, I passed 100,000 visitors to this site. Some time last night, I passed 500,000. I want to tip my hat in thanks to Alan and The Mayoress for making Blog-City totally rock search.
I almost forgot: peace, out, y'all.
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