Feds Want to Jail Bloggers
by Ian Mosley
In an alarmingly short period of time, George W. Bush has seriously undermined the Bill of Rights and paved the way for the US government to arrest political dissidents without any specific charges and to whisk them off to secret prisons in Third World nations where they could be tortured and imprisoned for the rest of their lives. The Soviet gulag system is being speedily transplanted to the US and very little has been done so far to stop it.
The massive defeat of the GOP in the 2006 elections is an encouraging sign that ordinary Americans oppose Bush’s perpetual war in Iraq and shredding of the Constitution. But will the Democrats do what they were elected to do –namely end the Iraq War and overturn the Torture Bill? Or are we in for some bi-partisan tyranny?
In the latest development, bloggers who criticize the government may soon face arrest and imprisonment. If I suddenly vanish from this website, you’ll know I’m down catching the rays in Guantanamo …at least whatever rays shine between the prison bars into my cell.
Hundreds of news stories about illegal government eaves dropping, secret prisons, torture, undermining the right to habeas corpus and lies that led up to the Iraq War would have been suppressed if not for the Internet. We all know the government and a certain media-controlling special interest have had dreams about shutting down the Internet for some time. They keep probing and probing, floating little trial balloons to see what they can get away with. They pushed for a postal fee for e-mails. They wanted to revoke Internet service providers’ common carrier status. The latest attempt comes in the guise of a restriction on “lobbying.”
According to GrassrootsFreedom.com, a website dedicated to fighting efforts to silence grassroots movements: “Section 220 of S.1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress, the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.”
Somehow I doubt if men like Jack Abramoff will be required to stick to the letter of the law while any small-time “Joe Activist” will find himself in jail if he forgets to dot his i’s and cross his t’s on his quarterly report.
“Communicates to members of the public on policy matters?” I think that used to be called freedom of speech, but now apparently it’s “lobbying,” and will be subject to the mountains of red tape which real lobbyists have to go through. (For all the good it does in controlling their corruption, bribery and other misbehavior.) Any lobbyist who fails to keep his paperwork in order and who ‘knowingly and willingly fails to file or report,” every three months with the Federal government faces prosecution and up to a year in jail, not to mention heavy fines and the seizure of assets (including computers) to pay those fines.
According to the Infowars website (a site which would probably be shut down very quickly if this law passes): “This latest attack on bloggers comes hot on the heels of Republican Senator John McCain’s proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. McCain’s proposal is presented under the banner of saving children from sexual predators and encourages informants to shop website owners to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who then pass the information on to the relevant police authorities.” Another part of the regime’s hidden agenda has always been somehow to equate political dissent against diversity, multiculturalism and government corruption with such things as child pornography and child molestation, including creating a “hate registry” and forcing dissidents to register as “hate offenders.”
Infowars further tells us that “In a speech last month, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a ‘terror training camp,’ through which ‘disaffected people living in the United States’” [that’s us, folks!] “are developing ‘radical ideologies and potentially violent skills.’ Chertoff pledged to dispatch Homeland Security agents to local police departments in order to aid in the apprehension of domestic terrorists who use the Internet as a political tool.”
And guess who decides if someone’s a “domestic terrorist.” That’s right, a domestic tyrant like Bush.