Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Michelle Malkin has info on the latest efforts:

Congressmen Stevan Pearce, along with Rep. Peter King and Rep. Bill Shuster, introduced a bill today that would protect those who come forward to report suspicious activity from frivolous civil liability prosecution.

If passed, the bill, known commonly as the 'John Doe' protection legislation, would grant immunity to anyone who alerted transportation security to actions believed to be threatening or to any personnel that "takes reasonable action to mitigate such activity."

"We cannot have Americans thinking twice when it comes matters of national security," said Congressman Pearce. "If a passenger sees something threatening, they should report it immediately and do so without the specter of potential prosecution hanging over their head."

"Alert Americans are often our first and last line of defense in protecting the country from terrorist attacks. They should not face potential prosecution for doing the right thing and coming forward to report suspicious activity.

"It is a sad commentary that this kind of common sense has to be written into law, but we must make it clear to America's enemies that they can not exploit our system of justice."...

The Washington Times editorializes that we ought to be watching who's for this effort, and who's agin' it:

We've all seen this phrase in block letters: "REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY," followed by a 1-800 number. But if a House Democrat manages to kill a tipster-immunity measure under consideration in Congress this month, people who report suspicious behavior could be sued in civil court if the accused are not charged with a crime. November's frightened U.S. Airways "John Doe" passengers in Minneapolis are already in the crosshairs.

The lawmaker in question is Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. He thinks that granting tipsters immunity amounts to racial and religious profiling. Yes, that's the Democrats' "homeland security" pointman in the House speaking.

For two months, Mr. Thompson has deployed the profiling argument against this measure, tucked into the House transportation-security bill. The good news is that a bipartisan House majority already passed it 304-121 seven weeks ago. But sadly, Mr. Thompson is expected to strip it from the bill. He is expected to be the lead House negotiator in the coming weeks when the bill reaches conference committee, and if he is, he will have considerable sway over the final product...

Of course, we in Boston have had our own "John Doe's" in the crosshairs for years now, fighting a lawsuit against the Islamic Society of Boston. I have written a major piece for Pajamas Media on this subject in which I hope to introduce an even larger number of people to the victims of this kind of legal silencing. The essay should be appearing tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Defending John Doe.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/7645



1 Comment

Peter King is GREAT.

Leave a comment to: Defending John Doe





(Requires you leave a comment.)


Subscribe to This Thread Without Leaving a Comment


Comment Info and Policy:

1) You must have Javascript enabled in your browser in order to comment (blame the spammers). If you don't know what that is, you're probably fine.

2) HTML is on, so basic html should work. Raw links will be made auto-clickable, too, so even if you don't know html you can just paste in the link and it should work fine. Keep the "http://" in it.

3) Comments are generally unmoderated, which means I don't necessarily agree with the tone and tenor of everything posted. In fact, sometimes people post things they don't really mean just to make other people look bad. The internet is an anonymous place for the most part. That said...

4) I welcome you to post here. I'd love to have your input, agree, disagree or just offer a different data point, really. If I didn't want any participation, I'd turn off comments. Be aware, however, that this blog and the comments section exist for my entertainment. Therefore, I reserve ALL RIGHTS here, including the right to remove any or all comments on nothing more than a whim. Please don't even bother complaining. I'm the one providing the space and the free news and thought buffet. I don't owe anyone anything.

Anyone who posts here will be treated as my guest. That means I'm happy to be polite as a default, but if anyone is rude to the host they'll be unceremoniously shown the door.

It may pay to recall a famous line from the Tom Selleck magnum opus, Mr. Baseball: "Jack-san, you want Yoji's advice about the babes, you come to Yoji with respect."

5) Enjoy your stay!

"Who would have thought it possible that one of the great superpowers would take serious economic risks for the sake of a disinterested ideal?"

-Refusenik Mark Azbel, on news of passage of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, from Philip Spiegel's Triumph Over Tyranny.


Links



Blogroll Me!

:Blogs:
Adam Holland
Adloyada
Agam's Gecko
Amy Ridenour
Armies of Liberation
Astute Blogger
Backseat Blogger
Backspin
Bagel Blogger
Bald-Headed Geek
Banagor
Blazing Cat Fur
BlueTruth
Boker tov, Boulder
Bosch Fawstin
Breath of the Beast
Celestial Blue
Cinnamon Stillwell
Classical Values
Combs Spouts Off
Coming Anarchy
Conservative Grapevine
Conservative Oasis Contentions
Contentious Centrist
Cox & Forkum
Creeping Sharia
DANEgerus
Dave Bender
Davids Medienkritik
Dean Esmay
Defending Crusader
Democracy Project
Dodgeblogium
Dreams Into Lightning
Dutchblog Israel
Exit Zero
Fightin' w/Grabes
FresnoZionism
Ghost of a Flea
GM's Place
The God Blog
Hyscience
In Context
Iraq the Model
Israpundit
Israellycool
Israel Matzav
Jerusalem Diaries
Jerusalem Posts
JIDF
JPundit
Kesher Talk
Little Green Footballs
Marathon Pundit
The Marmot's Hole
Martin Kramer
Matthew K. Tabor
Mere Rhetoric
Michelle Malkin
Mick Hartley
My Machberet
My Wide Blue Seas
Normblog
Omnia21
One Jerusalem
Paula Says
Philosemitism
Point of no Return
PoliGazette
Political inSecurity
Random Thoughts
Ranting Sandmonkey
Red Planet Cartoons
Right Wing News
Rishon Rishon
Roger L. Simon
Sense of Events
Seraphic Secret
Shekel
Shining City
Shira bat Sarah
ShrinkWrapped
Simply Jews
Smooth Stone
Snapshots
Soccer Dad
A Soldier's Mother
Solomon's House
Something Something
Somewhere on A1A
Stand for Israel
Tel Chai Nation
Texican Tattler
TheRIGHTJournal
This Ain't Hell
TigerHawk
Tom Glennon
Tools of Renewal
Tundra Tabloids
UCC Truths
The View From Here
View From Iran
The World
Yid With Lid
Yourish
Z-Word

:New England Blogs:
Alphecca
And Rightly So
Annoy A Liberal
Augean Stables
Bloodthirsty Liberal
Boston Maggie
Boston's Patriots
Business of Life
Daniel in Brookline
Hub Blog
Hub Politics
Internet128
JRTelegraph
Jules Crittenden
Kavanna
Libertarian Leanings
Maggie's Farm
Miss Kelly
N.E. Conservative
N.E. Republican
Neo-Neocon
New Wineskins
Petitedov
Pundit Review
Red Mass Group
Sippican Cottage
sisu
Sons of Liberty
Squaring the Globe
Technicalities
Universal Hub
Weekend Pundit
Who Knew?




Blogroll Policy



If You Enjoy This Site
Paypal Donate

Amazon Purchase
(Buy yourself something with this link and I will get a percentage.)

My Amazon Wish List

Worth a Click

CJUI

Graphics

Remember

Solomonia Button

Smaller Button

Smallest Button

Note on Permissions:
You may feel free to use anything you find on this site as long as you're not selling it. Just give credit where credit is due is all. Thanks for stopping by!

Site (C)2003-2009 Solomonia.com

This site will not display properly at screen resolutions of less than 1024px wide.

Solomonia Store


Search


Recommended

Authors

Solomon
Martin Solomon

MaryM
Mary Madigan

HillelS
Hillel Stavis

Binah
Binah

Jon Haber
Jon Haber

Sophia
Sophia

Amazon Search

Archives
1/28/03-2/4/03
Subscribe
Enter your Email for a Daily Digest of New Posts


Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz
(Be sure to whitelist feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com if you aren't receiving updates.)
rdf
rss2
atom

 Subscribe in a reader

Now Reading

Recently Watched

Library Thing
Banner

Quality Diamond Crosses