Today's
Krugman has been well covered in diaries by
greatbasin2,
jbay,
Delaware Dem and
scottesposito, but I'd like to return to it and pull out a point most people are overlooking.
On first reading, one is struck mostly by the "Worst. Attorney General. Ever." aspect. Further reading brings out the horrifying thoughts that 1) the Justice Department is not paying any attention to domestic terrorism and 2) may in fact be giving white supremacists a "get out of jail free" card; and that Ashcroft loves guns more than he loves justice and is a flat out racist and sexist pig (apologies to Suidae everywhere).
What I'd like to discuss, however, is this little gem:
The concerns of the Justice Department, however, appear to lie elsewhere. Two weeks ago a representative of the F.B.I. appealed to an industry group for help in combating what, he told the audience, the F.B.I. regards as the country's leading domestic terrorist threat: ecological and animal rights extremists.
Ecological and animal rights extremists.
More dangerous than white supremacists and wackos who send anthrax letters.
Right.
But you know what? The wingnuts really think this, and in their twisted world view, they may be right - because ALF, ELF and the like attack property, which, as we all know, is much more important than human life. Not to mention that they interfere with the god-given right of rich people to get richer by selling SUVs and building ostentatious houses and pushing drugs -excuse me - pharmaceuticals.
[end rant]
Sorry, couldn't help myself. My point is this: While I don't condone violence, most animal/ecological extremists specifically avoid harming people and attack the symbols of environmental destruction, and while these actions may deserve prosecution under existing law, I hardly think they are "the country's leading domestic terrorist threat". Nor do I think they deserve a whole new set of laws, designed specifically to address animal and ecological terrorism.
Yes, you read that right. To date, several states have introduced laws addressing animal and ecological terrorism. The most ridiculous of these are being promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is a right wing, corporate funded organization that pushes conservative legislation in the states, and has been doing so for over twenty years. They've endorsed a doozy of a bill called the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" that looks to me like it's trying to make the Sierra Club illegal. Some of the more delightful provisions include the creation of a "terrorist registry" online and including in the definition of terrorism "politically motivated activity", which is "any activity where the principal purpose is to influence a unit of government to take a specific action or to persuade the public to take a specific action." I'm not a lawyer, but that last bit looks like a blatant violation of the first amendment. To quote a report on this awful bill,
At best, AETA is an unnecessarily repetitive bill prohibiting activities that are already illegal. At worst, AETA is an unconstitutional bill which strips animal and environmental activists of civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
I find it appalling that there are people in power in this country that think that a bunch of tree huggers is the biggest problem we have to deal with, and that the appropriate way to deal with them is to pass laws trampling the constitution.