WILL ALL TRUE PATRIOTS PLEASE TAKE A SEAT IN THE REAR OF THE BUS

Illustration by Mike Adams

OKAY, I'M AS DISTURBED by this persistent Orwellian news flash culture where we find ourselves p;ushing back as both observer and the observed, as much as the next proud patriot. So let's take a closer look at this article from a Ron Paul supporter, not that there is anything wrong with being a Ron Paul supporter, although this past year I did run across more than a slugfest of rowdy Paulites that gave me pause.

However, cartoonist and "green" activist Mike Adams is worth consideration by anyone who feels that life on this planet can be improved one decision at a time. Let's begin our investigation...

The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It's a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security or any government agency (including the FDA). The law has already passed the House on a traitorous vote of 405 to 6, and it is now being considered in the Senate where a vote is imminent. All over the internet, intelligent people who care about freedom are speaking out against this extremely dangerous law. This bill is the beginning of the end of Free Speech in America. If it passes, all the information sources you know and trust could be shut down and their authors imprisoned.

The bill states:

‘...ideologically based violence’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual’s political, religious, or social beliefs...

Note that this means the "planned use of force to promote a political or social belief" would be considered an act of terrorism. This all hinges on the definition of "force," of course. Based on the loose use of logic in Washington these days, and the slippery interpretation of the meaning of words, "force" could mean:

• A grassroots campaign to barrage Congress with faxes
• A non-violent street protest
• A letter-writing campaign that deluges the Senate with too much mail
• A sit-in protest that blocks access to a business or organization
• A grassroots e-mail campaign that overloads the e-mail servers of any government department or agency

The author, Mike Adams of NewsTarget continues on...

You get the idea. "Force" could be defined as practically anything. And since the "planned use of force" would be considered a criminal act of terrorism, anyone who simply thinks about a grassroots action campaign would be engaged in terrorist acts.

Well, maybe. No more Boston Tea Perties I suppose, even though I've heard Bill O'Reilly call for a new Tea Party several times over the past few years.

If you stopped someone on the street and handed them a Bible, for example, this could be considered an act of terrorism ("...use of force to promote the individual's religious beliefs...")

If you sent a barrage of angry letters to Washington about global warming and the destruction of the environment by the U.S. military, this could also be considered an act of terrorism ("...to promote the individual's political beliefs...")

If you believe in same-sex marriage and you wrote a letter threatning a sit-in protest in front of your state's capitol building, this could also be considered an act of terrorism, even if you never carried it out! ("...planned use of force to promote a social belief...")

This is all strong conjecture, but possible. With the Supreme Court going bonkers on issues like property rights and similar bad jokes against the people the past few decades, anything's possible.

Adams concludes that the United States is on the fast track to fascism, with Congress now working right alongside the current administration to criminalize any thoughts, words or speeches that disagree with current government policies regarding war, terrorism, domestic surveillance and civil liberties. Simply speaking out against the war on Iraq, he fears, could soon be labeled a crime. Merely thinking thoughts against the war on Iraq could be considered a criminal act. And while I agree that this doesn't bode well for the America we once knew, one wonders when the police will start rounding up Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Murtha, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and millions of other fine washables who vigorously oppose this war, for whatever reasons.

But we ARE at war, and from my own perspective, well-documented here on this blog and others found at The Scenewash Project, the enemy is already living and plotting here among us. While I cannot in the least fathom why these same leaders seem to show little interest in plugging these immigration holes to actually help keep our potential enemies out of this country, there is no validl argument against the fact that this enemy is already here, and at some point in time, we will fight this enemy on our own soil.

Professor Naomi Wolfe also fears this coming fascist state of America. In her lecture and new book, Naomi reveals the ten steps to fascism. She attempts to persuade us that the United States of America is pursuing all ten steps. Is her fear justified, or is she just another cheese-nibbling liberal defending the enemy as it chips away at our system which is predicated on the achievements of liberty they wish to overthrow and replace with sharia law, as has been stated here in America and abroad many times over by their own spokesmen.

That this S.1959 legislation, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, represents one of the ten steps to achieve a fascist state is worth considering. Wolfe stipulates that this legislation is designed to squash all opposition to the State's ongoing march towards "blatant" fascism, where secret police and secret prisons dominate the law enforcement landscape, stripping U.S. citizens of all civil liberties and Constitutional protections.

Thoughtcrimes would, in the Mike Adams worldview, become a reality in the United States of America, and since Congress is pushing this through as quickly as possible so that each individual member of Congress can claim that he or she is "against terrorism" we as patriotic citizens should feel all the safer, because as well are made well aware, this administration and the Democratic Congress agree on very little. But, as Adams rightly points out, this bill doesn't merely target terrorism: It targets anyone who speaks or even thinks thoughts against the U.S. federal government. Here's his scenario:

With this bill, the U.S. government is officially labeling the People of the United States as criminals. It is drawing a line in the sand and stating that from now on, it's the Government vs. the People. If we don't stop this bill from becoming law, we are lost as a nation. There is no turning back from tyranny once the government turns its own citizens into criminals, enforcing only the thoughts, ideas, words and speeches that it approves or tolerates. Everything is at stake here!

Stopping this bill from becoming law is the single most important thing all Americans can do right now. If this becomes law, all free speech about health freedom, the crimes of the FDA, the crimes of the Bush Administration, America's role in global warming and any other topics could all be criminalized. YOU could be labeled a terrorist, kidnapped by government thugs, taken from your home, thrown in a secret prison, denied access to legal representation, denied due process and essentially "disappeared" into a system of such corruption and evil that it now begins to blatantly mirror Nazi Germany.

Think it couldn't happen here? It's happening right now! This is exactly how it happened in Nazi Germany. First, burn the Reichstag and blame it on the "enemy." Pass new police state laws. Disarm the people. Spread fear. Erect secret prisons and secret police. Call anyone who disagrees with you a "traitor." Control the mainstream media. Sound familiar? This is all happening right now in the United States of Amerika, and if we don't work to stop it, this nation will rapidly devolve into a fascist police state where no one is truly free.

We are but a few small steps away from it right now. All it would take is one dirty bomb in a major U.S. city. Bush would declare Martial Law and take over the National Guard. Troops on the streets. Anyone who writes a blog against the government would be arrested. Authors of "alternative" books would be kidnapped and have their books burned on the street. It could all happen at the stroke of a pen. The infrastructure for tyranny is in place right now, just waiting to be invoked.

There we have it. The ultimate in polarizing designer fear-mongering, as we are continuously bombarded with and held hostage by dystopian nightmares injected into our social being from both sides of the great divide.

Our best weapons: Non-violent protest and speaking the truth

How can we fight back against this onslaught of tyranny? We must use what remaining free speech freedoms we have right now to alert our fellow citizens to what's happening. We must rise up and tell the truth while urging our representatives in Washington to resist the temptation to vote for more "anti-terrorism" legislation that only works to enslave the American people.

We must use our phones, faxes, emails and blogs to rally our friends, family members and anyone who will listen to oppose these police state laws, and we must organize mass (peaceful) protests against this government that is attempting to marginalize the rights and freedoms of our People.

Okay, sounds good on the ears, and pulls at the patriotic heartstrings of those of us who recall with fondness the uplifting stories of America's humble beginnings. But now, let's fast forward:

We must not be lulled into a sense of false security by the purveyors of hatred and fear—the Sean Hannitys, Rush Limbaughs and Bill O'Reillys of the world. Instead, we must listen to the voices of freedom. In terms of the upcoming election for U.S. President, there is only one candidate that actually believes in freedom: Ron Paul. He needs your support to win.

All the other candidates are nothing more than tyrants of different political affiliations. Ron Paul is the only candidate who truly understands the fundamentals of freedom. That's why he's the only real choice for our next President. Can you imagine what Hillary Clinton would do with the police state powers that Bush has now created? That's the danger of all laws that centralize power in Washington: It's not necessarily what today's President will do with them, but what some future President will do with them.

That's why it's never good enough to say, "Well, we intend to only apply these laws to terrorists and not to U.S. citizens at home." That may be the intention right NOW, but virtually all such laws creep into areas of enforcement for which they were never intended. Just look at the application of RICO laws which were originally designed to fight organized crime operations but are now applied to virtually anyone (and yet they are never applied to Big Pharma, which operates almost exactly like organized crime!). All these anti-terrorism laws run the danger of expanding in enforcement to the point where they are applied against the People of this country. At first, it's only illegal for "terrorists" to think thought crimes, but before long, it's illegal for anyone to think those same thoughts. That when the domestic arrests of authors, journalists, bloggers and thought leaders will kick off, and the country will plunge itself into outright tyrannical fascism.

Again, we're on the track right now. This is happening, folks. You're LIVING through an amazing chapter of history right now. You're actually witnessing the downfall of a free nation and the rise of a superpower fascist state. You're actually part of it.

When it's all over, will you look back and realize you did nothing? Or will you now take a stand against tyranny and oppose these dangerous laws and lawmakers who threaten the Constitutional freedoms of you and your children?

Mike Adams has his theories down pat, and while I applaud his voice and share his concern, like most moral equivalency adherents usually found on the Left, he leaps to analogize the US with one of the worst regimes in history, and he never once considers the very real terrorist threat that our open borders and legal Saudi-influenced immigration policy encourages. And Ron Paul doesn't seem to be all that concerned either. Here's a rock, and there's a hard place. Don't look now, but I seem to be stuck somewhere in the middle.