Did the Internet Make Terrorism a Hate Crime?
The Hartford Advocate's Jennifer Abel, better known and beloved by H&R commenters as "Jennifer," tries hard yet fails to find any of the 404 congresscritters who voted in favor of a new terrorism-is-a-hate-crime sorta bill to defend it or even explain what the thing enables law enforcement to do. Excerpt:
What is this Bill of Mystery, that Congresspeople will vote for yet not discuss? It's called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, also known as HR 1955, and one of the first things it says is that "Congress finds … The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to … terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens."
The bill also says that "preventing the potential rise" of individual domestic terrorists like Tim McVeigh "cannot be easily accomplished solely through traditional federal intelligence or law enforcement efforts."
Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich were opposed. Whole story here, and thanks to alert commenter "NoStar" for the link.