Ac-cent-tchu-ate the contradictions.
Via the irrepressible Portland Mercury, we learn that State Senator John Minnis (R-Fairview) has offerred up a bill that would, in part, define terrorism:
The bill defines a terrorist broadly, as anyone who “knowingly plans, participates in or carries out any act intended to disrupt the free and orderly assembly” of Oregonians. In other words, anyone participating in an event—be it a protest or otherwise—that impedes traffic, business, or public assembly on any state property, including schools or universities. The minimum penalty for such an infraction? Twenty-five years without the possibility of parole.
So everyone who went to the march this past Saturday was a terrorist. Almost all of the events planned for the day war “begins” are acts of terror. Those monthly Critical Mass bike rides? Terrorism.
Never mind that V.I. Lenin would clasp Minnis to his waxy bosom for so alacritously taking up his end of the bargain to heighten the contradictions. No matter that Andreas Baader would pucker up his withered dead lips to kiss Minnis for playing his part so thoroughly to the hilt. (Issa giggle, ennit? Imagining those guys holding up a VP of Sales in traffic on the Burnside Bridge in a Lincoln Navigator?) —Don’t get in a semantic tizzy about conflating permitted protests and civil disobediance with hijacking passenger jets to slaughter 3,000 people. The terrorists won long ago; penny-ante shit like Senate Bill 742 is just counting coup. Instead, read the fine print: what’s also terrorism is planning, participating in, or carrying out any act that disrupts:
(c) The educational or governmental institutions of the State of Oregon or its inhabitants.
Senator Minnis. John. Think about it for a minute. Look at the chaos the Republicans have caused by refusing to fund the state budget properly. Look at the mess you’ve made of public education and higher education. (And that’s without crawling into the ever-more-likely conspiracy theory to demolish our public schools in favor of religious education.) John. Senator Minnis. Think about it for a minute:
Your own law condemns you as a terrorist.
You might want to take this one back to the drawing board.
The Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee has some important updates and actions to take regarding this shameful travesty of a bill.
Commenting is closed for this article.
I think the trash can might be a better place to put this bill.
Not only does it effectively punish civil disobedience (or even gathering or speaking without a permit) with the same penalty as for first-degree murder, it also:
1.) Allows asset forfeitures for "instrumentalities of a crime." For example, if you drive a car to a protest (a sin according to some activists, but I digress), the police can seize the car as an instrumentality of the crime.
2.) Forces local police departments to comply with whatever that religious lunatic John Ashcroft gets into his head. Essentially, it invalidates the law prohibiting police espionage or local enforcement of immigration laws if it is associated with a Federal or State investigation of so-called "terrorism."
See this item for details on a a committee hearing on SB 742 to take place on Monday March 24.
Terrorism redefined
U.S. Senator John Minnis (R-Fairview) proposes a new bill that would, if passed, slightly redefine terrorism
Let's just sit tight and hope entopy sorts it all out. I wish there were a way to vote for the apocolypse...
Senator Minnis's Bill on Terrorism is very scary. It sets a double standard for citixens by providing a higher level of protection to federal and state employees or politicians. They become the untouchables. Under this bill, if they felt threatened or perceive that you were preventing them from entering a school or govermental building you would be sent to the goolag for at least 25 years.
For proposing this bill I think that Senator Minnis needs to be sentenced to a Siberian or Mongolian work camp for life. After 25 years his sentence may be reviewed by a panel of constitutionally minded experts who would determine if Mr. Minnis has repented sufficiently enough to resume his life in a free society. If not, then he could bring another appeal every 2-years, hopefully between those periods he will have read and understood the constitution by then.
Jim