Alas! The Clean Cut Kid website seems to be down and out, temporarily I hope. Because they regularly launch the intellectual equivalents of bottle rockets at us, we are regular readers. I hope that the problem is soon solved. A lot more goes on in the regional blogosphere than I have time to keep up with, but I took this opportunity to stroll around.
Douglas Wiken runs a good blog on regional politics, Dakota Today, from a very anti-Republican perspective. I should consult it more often. I note these comments on the Sears Tower Plot. Seven men calling themselves the "Seas of David" (good name, at least) were arrested for planning the next 9/11: an attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago. They entered into a conspiracy with al Qaeda, or so they thought. It turned out to be the FBI.
Here is Wilken's take:
Perhaps there are all kinds of stupid things these guys have said that is on tape and makes a convincing case that these are world-class dangerous dudes with really, really dangerous skills and access to tons of explosive, airplanes, etc. etc. etc.
With the Bush administration's contempt for law and the constituition, it does not seem beyond the realm of possibility that these guys aren't guilty of terrorism or much of anything else, but guilty of THOUGHT CRIME, poverty, and incredible ignorance and stupidity.
Wilken is thoughtful enough to provide us with a Wikipedia link to "Thought Crimes." Now the lawyers for the seven numskulls will probably try to argue entrapment, but I am guessing it won't sell. I don't know enough about the case or the specific law, but I know plenty about the constitutional issues involved. If the seven were predisposed to commit a criminal act, if they jumped at a chance to begin planning for such an act, then they neither deserve nor will get any first amendment protection. If the story is accurate, they really intended to blow up the Sears Tower as soon as they acquired the means. Just for the record, trying to commit a terrorist act is illegal, even if the bomb never goes off.
Calling this a "thought crime," is rather thoughtless of Dakota Today. I suspect that Wilken is right about the seven fellows: they were not the sharpest knives in the drawer and could never have pulled off a major terrorist incident. But that doesn't mean they couldn't have eventually done something very nasty. Catching people like this before they kill anyone at all is pretty good police work in my book.
Wilken apparently doesn't think so. He seems to think that its a sign of Bush administration designs on our liberties.
So, don't even think about blowing up anything. Don't even think about George Bush going AWOL from TANG. Don't even think about Dick Cheney shooting a lawyer in the face. Well hell, don't even think. It gets more dangerous everyday. You have been warned. Ignorance of Thought Crime is no excuse. Do not think about the elephant in the US Justice Department. Do not think when you see the smirking president on TV, "This guy is a dangerously vomit inducing complete idiot."
This is more than thoughtless, its stupid. This logic is dangerous to liberty. If one adopts it, one is forced to make a choice: either give up all freedom of thought, or never act against any terrorist group until they have already blown someone out of his socks. Do we really want to force that choice on the American people? Wiken strikes me as an intelligent man whose thinking is rather warped by vehement dislike of Republicans. I hope this is not representative of Democratic thought in general, but if it is, well, I hope it gets a lot of airtime.
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