| Tuesday, January 8, 2008 5:07PM | | | | Timed Release | Posted By: Jayne Lyn Stahl
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Remember all the media buzz before the USA Patriot Act went before Congress where it was overwhelmingly passed? That's because there was none. In fact, the mainstream media slept through the Patriot Act just as it is napping through HR 1955. Remember, too, that less than a handful of elected representatives reportedly read the Patriot Act before signing it into legislation?
Remember how many of us, back in 2004, thought the war was the major campaign issue? Well, guess what, the Patriot Act, and subsequent legislation inhibiting the First Amendment, and stifling dissent, will be what our grandchildren's grandchildren will talk about in American History 101 long after we're gone, and they will ask---how did they let this happen to our country? How did we, and are we going to allow it to happen again?
Over the past decade, it seems like the mainstream media has treated the flow of information the way the pharmaceutical companies do most over-the-counter medications, that is with timed release. Our civil liberties will soon join the endangered species list. The federal policies of the past seven years have imperiled our intellectual environment as much as our natural environment, and the time speak up is long overdue.
H.R. 1955 , aka the "Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act,", has already passed the House, overwhelmingly, and is in clear and present danger of passing the Senate, too. I urge you to lfind out as much as you can about this legislation before it faces a Senate vote, and passage by Congress. Pay special attention to how the bill defines the word "force," and join the movement to stop the criminalization of dissent, and independent thought, before it becomes law.
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