Posted on 07/10/2009 5:01:41 PM PDT by Crazieman
Would Congress ever pass legislation that would allow the executive to determine at its own discretion whether political opponents had crossed the line into domestic terrorists and build camps in which to keep them? Sounds like something out of 20th-century totalitarian systems or dystopian fiction. Mark Tapscott says it’s not fiction , and he warns readers about an effort by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) to do just that:
Rep. Alcee Hastings - the impeached Florida judge Nancy Pelosi tried to install as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee until her own party members rebelled - introduced an amendment to the defense authorization bill that gives Attorney General Eric Holder sole discretion to label groups that oppose government policy on guns, abortion, immigration, states’ rights, or a host of other issues. In a June 25 speech on the House floor, Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ, blasted the idea: “This sounds an alarm for many of us because of the recent shocking and offensive report released by the Department of Homeland Security which labeled, arguably, a majority of Americans as ‘extremists.’”
Another Hastings bill (HR 645) authorizes $360 million in 2009 and 2010 to set up “not fewer than six national emergency centers on military installations” capable of housing “a large number of individuals affected by an emergency or major disaster.” But Section 2 (b) 4 allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to use the camps “to meet other appropriate needs” - none of which are specified. This is the kind of blank check that Congress should never, ever sign.
It’s not paranoid to be extremely wary of legislation that would give two unelected government officials power to legally declare someone a “domestic terrorist” and send them to a government-run camp.
To be fair on the second point, most legislation includes phrases similar to the “meet other appropriate needs” as a means of allowing flexibility in using facilities commissioned by Congress. Under unforeseen circumstances even apart from creating concentration camps for abortion opponents, the six national emergency centers might need to get some use other than housing military personnel or civilians evacuated from a disaster area. That language allows the Pentagon and Homeland Security leeway to adapt for other issues without having to worry that lawyers will descend upon them like locusts for not strictly limiting use to the statutes.
However, the designation of domestic terrorist groups — a necessary and critical process for keeping the peace — should not fall into the hands of just one person. That process needs oversight and consensus to be credible and fair. Congress should have some involvement, especially in oversight. Holder could be the greatest AG in the history of the US but still should not have the absolute authority to make that designation, especially after the track record of the DHS in using vague parameters and broad-based smears of legitimate political protest earlier this year.
Mark may also want to look at HR 1966 , introduced by Rep. Linda Sanchez last April in reaction to the suburban mother who drove one of her daughter’s acquaintances — a 13-year-old girl — to suicide. Bas cases make bad law, and that’s doubly true here. Look at this language and imagine how this could be used:
Sec. 881. Cyberbullying
‘(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Who decides what constitutes “substantial emotional distress”? What is the definition of “severe” and “hostile”? What kinds of persons can claim victimhood under this bill? This purports to be a bill to prevent cyberbullying — which is hardly a crime wave in America anyway — but could easily be perverted to shut down “mean” bloggers .
This Congress has taken a strange and dangerous turn away from the principles of free speech and towards … something else entirely.
Update : Apparently, the Irish are also having trouble with this concept.
Update II : I think I was a little too subtle in my post. I don’t think Hastings is passing a “concentration camp” bill, but just a badly worded piece of pork. Irishspy in the comments sums it up better than I did above:
I read the original text of these bills a few days ago and, while I have strong concerns about the lack of due process in allowing the AG to simply designate someone a dangerous person just because of his beliefs or (IIRC) tattoos, Hastings’ amendment about the regional command centers looks more like a bunch of pork for areas affected by base closures than anything else.
That was my point. The language that Mark points out is pretty much legislative boilerplate, probably meaningless in the sense Mark takes it. I’m much more concerned about the cyberbullying bill and the authority Hastings wants to grant to the AG.
Update II : Radio Vice Online has been looking at the cyberbullying bill, too.
Not for long man.
True, but a few years ago, I’d have told you that something like McCain-Feingold is nothing but fiction. I’d have told you that our electing an unreconstructed Marxist President is nothing but fiction.
Only it’s not.
Do a little research about “Progressive” Woodrow Wilson an his political prisoners. This is nothing new.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0205/p09s01-coop.htm
Ohhhhhhh, snap!!!
;-)
Snap is right. This man is blaming the wrong people who put him in jail. It wasn’t the public; it was him. Now we are seeing some crazies in Congress.
“True, but a few years ago, I’d have told you that something like McCain-Feingold is nothing but fiction. I’d have told you that our electing an unreconstructed Marxist President is nothing but fiction.
Only it’s not.”
I would gladly swap Zelaya for Obama......less Marxist baggage.
I know that they will come for me someday ...
>You know, I will be sad to be locked up but it will be nice to finally meet all of you FReepers.<
i’ll be there don’t worry .. just keep shouting “Munz”
I’ll come running with a smile on my face, will be nice to meet you people finally and have FRiends around.
We are gonna be there a long time I think.
Yeah, right. The earthquake might be in an entirely different zone.
Pardon me but no one in Government has that authority, neither individually nor as part of a committee, panel, commission or whatever. To even think for a minute that the act of disagreeing with the policies of an administration is criminal, is in and of itself a violation of the Oath of Office that every Congressman, Senator and elected official swears before taking that office. Hastings and anyone that agrees with him should be forced to resign immediately and stripped of every privilege of their office.
I will NEVER be locked up. Woe to the ones who try. I may not “win” my fight but I’ll damn sure make them know they’ve been in one.
I’m sure it’ll be easy to convert the prison into a work farm.
That's how the Soviet Union stayed afloat so many years.
Socialism is all about "muzzling the ox".
Twilight of the age.
Loose lips sink ships.
It won’t be too long. Just long enough for them to warm up the furnace or get the firing squad in place.
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