- McJobs and Workers -

Yelling Bollocks in a theatre...

In Reply to: Yelling Fire Outside the Theater posted by Flint Jones on December 08, 1998 at 11:08:59:

: Congress passed, and Wilson signed, in June of 1917, the Espionage Act. From its title one would suppose it was an act against spying. However, it had a clause that provided penalties up to twenty years in prison for "Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall wilfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the U.S...." Unless one had a theory of about the nature of governments, it was not clear how the Espionage Act would be used. It even had a clause that said "nothing in this section shall be constructed to limit or restrict... any discussion, comment, or criticism of the acts or policies of the Government...." But its double-talk concealed a singleness of purpose. The Espionage Act was used to imprison Americans who spoke or wrote against the war.

Reading from a Mailing list- on a similar note that is, apprarently the US congress has passed a Bill Confering on the FBI the right to roving wire-taps after a simple court order: if a person is put under roving wire tap then any phone equipment they might use, whether they actually use it or not, can be tapped as well now, so that friends of a person under surveilance may be tapped. This effectively amounts to a breech, apparently (I know fuck all about the US bill of rights) to teh fourth amendment regarding securing of person possessions and papers. Big Brother is apparently watching you...Union folks watch out.

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