"Hate Crime" Bill Coming up for VOTE in House!

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1.) "Hate Crimes" Bill Will Criminalize Free Speech - I just took action on this issue and thought you might find it interesting too. On Wednesday, April 22 the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up and pass HR 1913 -- the “Hate Crimes” bill. This bill wants to criminalize speech that insults politically-fashionable minorities, such as gays. Even if it means sacrificing religious freedom to do it.
This info comes from HumanEvents.com - To contact your reps:
http://capwiz.com/humanevents/issues/alert/?alertid=13186956

This is what I put in the "Comments' section of that email:

H.R. 1913 is a threat to freedom of speech and religion and must be
stopped!

I both ask for and EXPECT your total OPPOSITION to this bill when it
comes to the floor for a vote.

It is the most horrible, open-ended abortion of the First Amendment that I
have ever seen - and it is SURE to be both ABUSED and MISUSED by those
seeking to squelch opposition to their Parties platforms and agenda's.

You can NOT in good conscience or as a
Constitution-believing/supporting-CITIZEN support this bill.

Thank you.

I'll be watching.

Hit this one and hit it QUICK!

Forward it to EVERYONE in your address books. Pete

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Actual text of bill here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1913:.

I don't see ministers railing about the sin of homosexuality being prosecuted for conspiracy here, despite the concerns of the "Traditional Values Coalition" (follow the "for more information" link via the OP).

Section 10 reads:

• Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution.

I do object to spending $10 million in 2 years to prosecute conduct which is already illegal and subject to prosecution. Also, I don't see how the motive for a crime is or ought to be an automatically aggravating circumstance. If robbing a bank to feed your kids is no less serious than robbing one to feed your crack habit, then killing someone from racial hatred shouldn't be more serious than killing them over any other form of hatred. It violates the spirit of "equal protection" as I see it. JMO.

The suppositions about the nature of such persecution offered in justification of this are silly as well, as is the invocation of the commerce clause.

-ljp

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So the next BG to use the term "gimp" when addressing me, such as "Give me your %*^* wallet, gimp!" is committing a hate crime as well as a violent crime?

Seems to me it's a good thing BGs are not a protected species, because I might otherwise run afoul of this law if I beat the stuffing out of him with my cane.

stay safe.

skidmark

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Killing somebody because they are black,white ,red yellowand killing the same black, white, red, yelloeperson because you want his tennis shoes, is the same crime, why is irrelevant, except for establishing motive. Murder and assualt is illegal already, this is simply more government intrusion into everything .

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The whole idea of "Hate Crimes" is insulting to the idea of Freedom and Liberty.

I'm also worried that in many States, if a murder is committed with a gun, the sentence is longer. What's up with that?

The problem with modern day progressives is they want very much to restrict everyone's freedom in as many ways as they can and they get frustrated when we mention the Constitution as they see it as an antiquated document written by a bunch of old white men nearly 300 years ago.

Our rights and freedom are very much under attack on a daily basis, and if we don't band together against these people, they will succeed.