Dear friends
Below is a letter I wrote to the mainstream media with talking points, links, etc which you are welcome to duplicate. Or, just write a letter of your own.
The point is this:
The Thought Crimes bill sets up a "Court" of government personnel to hold hearings against American citizens based on what will in all likelihood be free speech, dubbing them as "terrorists" based on that. This setup circumvents the Judiciary's role as a "Check" on government power, averts the non-biased citizen jury, and of course government personnel can't possibly be unbiased. To boot, for any entity/person to be judge, juror and prosecutor all in one, is unconstitutional: S. 1959 sets up the government itself to fulfill all of those roles.
With due process of law being at stake in S. 1959, not merely free speech, the fact is that journalists themselves WILL be affected by the bill. They are between a rock and a hard place: To obey the higher-ups' command to not print censored information, and keep their job, or to disobey it and to go ahead based on ethic. Either way the sad truth is that they stand to lose their career, not only their jobs: The passage of S. 1959 will guarantee that for sure.
Please let's write them and point this out to journalists in the mainstream media. Given the "pickle" they are in, they might as well do the ethical thing and just go ahead and do a report. PLEASE JOIN ME IN THE EFFORT OF WRITING MAINSTREAM JOURNALISTS ABOUT THIS! THANK YOU.
I also suggest pointing out that more and more people are going to independent media for "real" news, and that the mainstream should wake up and smell the business losses.
Further, I myself (being really mad and wanting to have empowering facts at hand) have written the NY Times and San Francisco Chronicle threatening to organize a class action lawsuit based on the media blackouts of desparately important information such as this bill, impeachment, etc. They are helping to dismantle the Constitution and should be penalized for it. Please join me in that effort to shake them awake!
Please let's also write our friendly editors, local newspapers (who are more inclined to print this kind of stuff) and urge them to do a report with pro-active suggestions to stop passage of the bill.
Below is an article I wrote based on seven years of post-911 civil liberties research, having served on the Board of my local ACLU Chapter, and having consulted recently with the impeachment field coordinator for Democrats.com. She cued me in that OBama is a key person to appeal to for toppling this bill, since he is on the Committee pushing the bill through and is on our side. It would serve him well as Presidential candidate to say "no" to this bill and to filibuster it. I have included that information in the article and also given some statistics proving that the war OF terror really targets vocal American citizens, not terrorists and that it's a fake. To expose this as fact would be key to undermining the brainwashing of the American people: Very important!
I also have included the analysis of civil rights attorney Bruce Fein (who by the way is working with Democrats.com to amend this bill) and he vociferously states that free speech in our homes is on the line. Truthout's report containing statements by the ACLU, Dept of Homeland INsecurity Personnel, etc are also linked below. The full text of the bill is linked as well.
Please ask your Senators to filibuster and say "no" to this very dangerous bill. Please contact the media, immediately letting them know that since they stand to lose their careers whether they print a story about this or not, they might as well serve the greater American public and the Constitution by doing a report.
Please join me in this effort: I've been working exhaustively on this. I appreciate all the help from you proactive people I can get. THank you so much. ---Kathryn Smith ps letter/links below:
To the mainstream media, please remember that people are now turning to independent media for "real" news: Wake up and smell the business losses! How about covering impeachment as the best thing for America, and how about working to preserve due process of law for American citizens?
Below is a link to an article exposing the war on terror as really oriented toward targeting civilians, using ACLU website statistics for proof. It also quotes the text of the bill S. 1959 http://tinyurl.com/3a3y2z due for vote in the Senate as soon as they come back from winter recess, in which a government panel may conduct hearings of Americans who basically will be designated as terrorists based on free speech (see civil rights attorney Bruce Fein's article, linked below).
YOU YOURSELVES WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS BILL: THAT IS A GUARANTEE. There is a guilt by association phenomenon set up by the word to "facilitate" violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism, meaning that anything you write which spawns some crazy activity by some insane person, even if you never saw their face, makes YOU a terrorist ringleader to be tried in a court comprised of government personnel, with no judge for checks/balances, no citizen jury for impartiality, and only very biased power-hungry sources to give you a "fair" trial. Lots of luck.
For starters, Barack Obama is on the Committee pushing this through, and may be our hope to topple it. People can and must call their Senators BEFORE this bill is voted for in COngress. Thank you for your help.
