Poppin' Fresh

I wonder what the coverage would have been if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama had said something like this:

"When I was in college, we used to take a popcorn popper - because that was the only thing they would let us use in the dorm - and we would fry squirrels in a popcorn popper in the dorm room."

But instead it was Republican Presidential contender Mike Huckabee, and so there was hardly a mention.

Mike Huckabee plays up charm in S.C.

Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007

H.R. 1955 creates a government commission to investigate Americans who "adopt or promote an extremist belief system" for the purpose of "planning or threatening the use of force" in order to advance "political, religious or social change."

Sounds reasonable enough, huh? But wait. In other words, you don't actually have to commit a violent act or other crime. Merely thinking about committing a future crime, combined with an ideology that falls outside the mainstream, makes you a criminal under this law.

And this is scary: H.R. 1955 was introduced by California Democrat Jane Harman and promptly passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 404 to 6. Now it's off to the Senate where there is little opposition.

But have you seen any media coverage of this? Not a word. Search the Internet and you'll find only a few mentions on fringe web sites about H.R. 1955. And nobody is talking about this Orwellian thought crime law. Don't kid yourself, the commission created by H.R. 1955 will inevitably be tempted to exaggerate the extent of the homegrown terrorist threat in order to ensure increased funding, and its findings will be used to justify additional laws prohibiting Americans from engaging in whatever is determined to be "extremist" political dissent.

Don't take my word for it. Read the Library of Congress summary.