Dwarven Pirate

HR 1955 - Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
Sponsor: Jane Harman, D-CA

Basically, an amendment to the Homeland Security act.

Text of bill: GovTrack: H.R. 1955: Text of Legislation

A couple things that strike me as important about the bill:

Under findings: Although when there were hearings or investigations on this matter I have no clue, but apparently 406 representatives believe that the internet poses a danger and that Federal intelligence and law enforcement cannot cope with things.

#3 is worrisome to me in that it points at least toward surveillance, if not outright censorship.

The bill establishes a "National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism", composed of ten members who are appointed by various ranking members of government, to serve for the life of the committee, which is to end in 21 months following establishment.

The committee, and its likely huge staff, are to investigate and make recommendations on how to curb domestic political violence, and more importantly I think, to establish a new Homeland Security Center of Excellence to operate I guess in perpetuity.

Laudable to attempt to understand political violence, but is it the job of law enforcement to "mitigate" it? What exactly does that mean?

Anyhow, I don't know what they hope to gain from this. Improve economic conditions, cease governmental and corporate corruption, and promote tolerance is what they will come up with, I think. I'm copywriting that last sentence; if you quote it you owe me US$22M, which is the estimated costs for four years.

The Nay votes were Flake R-AZ, Rohrabacher R-CA, Abercrombie D-HI, Costello D-IL, Duncan R-TN and Kucinich D-OH. There were 22 NoShows.

It is nice to see that she has moved on to bigger and better things than outlawing inefficient light bulbs ( Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress) ), but I wonder if this is just backsliding after trying to get Guantanamo Bay detention facilities shut down ( Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress) ).

Here is the one story regarding the bill that I've come across, and while I think he's going way overboard, there is text in the bill to back up his assertions: Here come the thought police -- baltimoresun.com