Alcee Hastings amendment seeks to keep "hate groups" out of military; Attorney General gets to define "hate"

Impeached federal judge and now Representative Alcee Hastings has introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647, link) that seeks to keep "hate groups" and the like out of the U.S. military (PDF here).

It's entitled the "Prohibition on recruitment, enlistment, or retention of persons associated with hate-related violent against groups or persons or the United States government" and it would add the following prohibition to Section 504 of title 10 of the U.S. Code:

A person associated with a group associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons or the United States government, as determined by the Attorney General, may not be recruited, enlisted, or retained in the armed forces.

"Hate groups" are defined by, among several other things, those that "espouse or engage in acts of violence against other groups or minorities based on ideals of hate, ethnic supremacies, white supremacies, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, or other bigotry ideologies." And, similar to Hasting's HR645, there's a catch-all definition:

Other groups or organizations that are determined by the Attorney General to be of a violent, extremist nature.

And, taking a page from Joe McCarthy, those identified as hate group members would include:

(B) Individuals known to have attended meetings, rallies, conferences, or other activities sponsored by a hate group.

(C) Individuals known to be involved in online activities with a hate group, including being engaged in online discussion groups or blog or other postings that support, encourage, or affirm the group's extremist or violent views and goals.

Note, of course, how broad those are, and especially note the "or" in the last; this isn't restricted just to violent groups but those that are "extremist".

No one wants actual violent extremists in the military, but since Eric Holder would define what a "hate group" is, this would obviously be abused. Further evidence of that is offered by the fact that the Obama administration-linked Center for American Progress refers to Rush Limbaugh as "hate radio" and of course the fact that groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti Defamation League have both government links and questionable definitions of "hate".

UPDATE: See July 10's "Watchdog group: Dozens of active-duty troops found on neo-Nazi site", which among other things mentions this amendment (link). As I suspected from the title, the "watchdog group" is the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the profiles on the site in question only feature those claiming to be in the military and don't give their real names. And:

On Friday, the SPLC will present its findings to key members of Congress who chair the House and Senate committees overseeing the armed forces and urge them to pressure the Pentagon to crack down.

Comments

What a fucking joke. "espouse or engage in acts of violence against other groups or minorities based on ideals of hate, ethnic supremacies, white supremacies, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, or other bigotry ideologies." They forgot a few things.....how about the bigoted ideologies of: La Raza MALDEF? La vos de Aztlan? [whatever the fuck that means?] Not one damn thing protecting Americans of European decent. You remeber them dont you? The MAJORITY of Americans, the last time I checked. If those latino groups mentioned above, as well as others with the same anti-Amercian agenda's, are not included in this bill......then clearly, it is racist and even to Fred, it is discriminatory. it does nothing to address the ever dividing groups of special interests. Here is a novel approach..... Just err on the side of caution, and go with the American way! And quit trying to shove diversity down our throats. I bet that soooner rather than later, things will begin to improve. And besides thats your fucking job, Congress and House Reps!! To represent our interests! Happy 4th of July

If it only addresses white supremacy and not brown supremacy it would seem to violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Not that any of these hacks in our minority occupation government have any intention of providing equal protection under the law in any event.

Blacks have alot to fear with this bill it is the start of hispanic mass murder by laws, the whites must understand one fact of life and mass enslavement if you do nothing you become the new jew and we all know about what happened "in the days of the work" ( look up death camps ). this bill is about making this nation into a third world slavery state with all its oligarch rules like mexico. But with more mass evil comes more people willing to fight for freedom from a evil government i say keep it up government put millions of young whites males in prison put more blacks in prison make all areas of government meaning jobs into hispanic playpen use the patriot act to murder the poor whites and use race ideals to take homes and rape children. by the way the 14th amendment was removed by the civil rights act of 1964 and made it really easy to do mass colonization of this so called country. thank you LBJ and Red jack. I hope i live to see the start of the new civil war for freedom, get all the white combat troops out of the army and replace the troops with monkey people.