Coincidence, Paranoia and Felonies

In researching some of the information in my earlier post on the FISA fiasco, I came across an interesting little tidbit of information; It is not terribly much of a stretch to suggest that I have violated US Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 115, Section 2385: Advocating Overthrow of Government.

I believe I made a pretty convincing argument that our Founding Fathers believed that a free society needs to have the power to keep its government in check, and that occasionally that government may need to be overthrown in order to maintain liberty and freedom.

Thus, I can only conclude that this piece of legislation is in direct contradiction with the original intent of our country as initially set up: it makes it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the United States government, and thus criminalizes the very behavior we so revere in our Founding Fathers.

You can read the text of this law here. It has been on the books for years, originated in the 1940s and amended in 1956, 1962 and 1994.

I understand the purpose of the law, coming as it does in the section about treason and also having originally been passed in the time of or immediately after World War II (different sites list the original bill as 1940 and 1948). The problem is that while I can see the justification for laws against actively engaging in an overthrow, or actively arranging for others to (the reasons for which may outweigh the original Founders' intent), I think it goes a bit far (including possibly violating the First Amendment) to criminalize even the act of suggesting that maybe it's time for such a thing, even if no such action is taken. The problem is that it is so vaguely worded that under it, statements I made earlier today could render me punishable by fine, up to twenty years in prison, and ineligible to work for any government agency for a period of at least five years. Is it really that hard to read my statements (from another site) that "maybe it's time to throw them all out and start over", or that "I want a new government... that starts with all of its members ... not allowed to draw a salary until they can pass a rigorous test on the Constitution" or even here on this blog, when I said "And so it is not without precedent that I contemplate whether we've arrived at such a juncture" could qualify as "advocating or advising" the "desirability of overthrowing the government of the United States"?

I don't, of course, expect the men in black SUVs to come knocking at my door, I suspect that it would take a bit more than musing on a few blogs to elicit that response. Still, it's a little bit scary that in a country that we all love for its freedom of speech, if they chose to pursue it, they could probably make a case that I'm guilty of exactly that and prosecute me for it. It's always fun to find federal laws which, without too terribly much imagination, could be made to cast me in the role of felon.

One final note that makes the whole thing pretty eerie... I have had cable modem service from Comcast since they bought out Adelphia about a year ago, and from Adelphia for years before that, and except for in storms, I have rarely had trouble with the signal. A week ago, we added Comcast telephone service and Comcast cable TV, and just as I was about to post this item, the phone and internet went out, but the cable TV seems to still be working. Comcast assures me that depending on which node goes out, that's not an unusual turn of events, but you have to admit it's kind of creepy at 12:30am discussing which Federal statutes could be used to arrest me and having my lines of communication severed just as I'm doing it.

Ah, the wonders of coincidence...