Suzanimal
07-21-2015, 06:27 AM
From Daniel McAdams at LRC...
Revolutions most often become horrific parodies as they inevitably turn inward on their own people. The former subjects of Louis XVI soon understood liberté, égalité, fraternité to in fact mean the guillotine. In the name of fighting one’s enemies, the regime takes to cannibalizing its own citizens, as the motion of the action requires the “enemies” list to orient ever more inwardly.
Which brings us to the matter of HR 237, a bill to “[t]o authorize the revocation or denial of passports and passport cards to individuals affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, and for other purposes,” coming to the Floor of the US House today on, of all things, the “suspension calendar.” This “suspension calendar” accommodates bills that are traditionally considered uncontroversial in nature and thus not requiring the full daylight of a thorough Congressional debate.
Think: renaming post offices.
Under the “suspension of the rules,” bills can be brought to the Floor without going through the rules process and thus not be eligible for any amendment or substantive debate. Forty minutes of mostly praise and usually a voice-vote of approval and the “suspension” is on its way to becoming the law of the land.
As my old colleague Norman Singleton brings to light, HR 237 is hardly uncontroversial. It gives the US Secretary of State the power to revoke the passport of any American he determines has “aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise helped an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”
This means the Secretary of State can, unilaterally, with no due process and no oversight, deprive an American citizen the privileges of citizenship, thus relegating him to internal exile inside the United States — a practice most recently perfected in the Soviet Union.
What does the word “aided” mean? No one knows. Is there any wiggle room for inadvertency? No one knows. And what about the very political nature of the US “terror” list in the first place? What if I seemed to have winked approvingly at an MeK demonstration on September 27, 2012, the day before the US Secretary of State unilaterally decided that this Marxist-jihadist terror cult, which has murdered American citizens, should no longer be on the US terror list? Would that one day’s lapse cost me my ability to leave the US?
...
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/today-congress-votes-to-take-your-passport/
Will Congress suspend our rights?
...
The first bill is HR 237, the " FTO Passport Revocation Act of 2015." This bill gives the Secretary of State the authority to deny a passport to anyone the Secretary determines has aided a foreign terrorist organization. The bill provides no ability for someone wrongly denied a passport to challenge the Secretary of State's findings that they helped a terrorists. So much for due process and reigning in executive power.
The second bill is HR 1473, which authorizes spending $190 million on DC's John F.Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts. This represents an increase in federal spending on the Kennedy Center, an institution which largely exists to entertain the DC elite.
...
http://www.campaignforliberty.org/will-congress-suspend-rights
Revolutions most often become horrific parodies as they inevitably turn inward on their own people. The former subjects of Louis XVI soon understood liberté, égalité, fraternité to in fact mean the guillotine. In the name of fighting one’s enemies, the regime takes to cannibalizing its own citizens, as the motion of the action requires the “enemies” list to orient ever more inwardly.
Which brings us to the matter of HR 237, a bill to “[t]o authorize the revocation or denial of passports and passport cards to individuals affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, and for other purposes,” coming to the Floor of the US House today on, of all things, the “suspension calendar.” This “suspension calendar” accommodates bills that are traditionally considered uncontroversial in nature and thus not requiring the full daylight of a thorough Congressional debate.
Think: renaming post offices.
Under the “suspension of the rules,” bills can be brought to the Floor without going through the rules process and thus not be eligible for any amendment or substantive debate. Forty minutes of mostly praise and usually a voice-vote of approval and the “suspension” is on its way to becoming the law of the land.
As my old colleague Norman Singleton brings to light, HR 237 is hardly uncontroversial. It gives the US Secretary of State the power to revoke the passport of any American he determines has “aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise helped an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”
This means the Secretary of State can, unilaterally, with no due process and no oversight, deprive an American citizen the privileges of citizenship, thus relegating him to internal exile inside the United States — a practice most recently perfected in the Soviet Union.
What does the word “aided” mean? No one knows. Is there any wiggle room for inadvertency? No one knows. And what about the very political nature of the US “terror” list in the first place? What if I seemed to have winked approvingly at an MeK demonstration on September 27, 2012, the day before the US Secretary of State unilaterally decided that this Marxist-jihadist terror cult, which has murdered American citizens, should no longer be on the US terror list? Would that one day’s lapse cost me my ability to leave the US?
...
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/today-congress-votes-to-take-your-passport/
Will Congress suspend our rights?
...
The first bill is HR 237, the " FTO Passport Revocation Act of 2015." This bill gives the Secretary of State the authority to deny a passport to anyone the Secretary determines has aided a foreign terrorist organization. The bill provides no ability for someone wrongly denied a passport to challenge the Secretary of State's findings that they helped a terrorists. So much for due process and reigning in executive power.
The second bill is HR 1473, which authorizes spending $190 million on DC's John F.Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts. This represents an increase in federal spending on the Kennedy Center, an institution which largely exists to entertain the DC elite.
...
http://www.campaignforliberty.org/will-congress-suspend-rights