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Subversive Groups Must Now Register In South Carolina
Hugh Pickens writes "The Raw Story reports that terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. The 'Subversive Activities Registration Act' passed last year in South Carolina and now officially on the books states that 'every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State.'"
slashdot requires all first posters to register.
No one thought to do this pre 9/11.
I am not left-handed, either!
I mean, I don't want to have to drive all the way to South Carolina if I can avoid it. Especially with gas prices the way they are now, and subversive equipment costs going through the roof.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
Well, if they did that then they wouldn't be subversive now, would they?
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
I thought my evil master plan for overthrowing the government was PERFECT! Nobody could have known what I was up to!
And now I have to tell them myself?
Oh well...
The story also states that it only costs $5 to register. At least it's not expensive to get on such an exclusive list!
Only criminals will secretly be Terrorists. :( ...
PANIC!
If you intend to do anything illegal you must register. If you litter and have not registered your intention to litter we're going to come down hard on you! Planning to kill your spouse? Register now, and get 20% off your sentence! Planning to rob a bank? Registration before Feb 15th gives you 10% off your sentence. Planning a terrorist act? Just call 1-900-TERR-RIST, and we'll go easy on you if you don't make it right away to your chosen form of heaven.
Seriously, what kind of bass awkwards government scheme is this? If your penalties for commiting a crime are too lax, tighten them. Otherwise expecting people to register their intention of breaking the law (and inciting the overthrow of the government isn't just simple free speech folks. If you think it is maybe you're so messed up this law will work on you) is pure nonsense.
The muppets coming up with this should be....oh wait I'd have to register to say that....
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
How awesome is that! Lets all go register!
It used to be you have to have a following buy guns or spend years spewing wacky ideas
Now you can just fill out a form and pay $5.
Let's make it $10 and a T.shirt for me please.
Yes, in the same way that "old idea + internet = patent" we seem to be getting a lot of "existing crime + computer = new crime".
Perhaps the future is to have a whole set of different laws which are applicable to different situations: crime + netbook; crime + laptop; crime + multi-processor desktop machine with at leat 1GB video card memory; or even crime + beowulf cluster.
-- Braden's law of data: All data spends some of its lifetime in an excel spreadsheet.
first thought: who's still using Subversion when we have GIT-Hub??
Why didn't the federal government think of this? We could have already had a beowulf cluster of airport security checkpoint imaging machines matching pre-flight body scans with names from the registration list.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
Now all they need to do is have an insurgent tax, IED levy, and require permits for any terrorist act and our security problems will clear away like second hand smoke.
South Carolina could make decent money selling "Registered Subversive" ID's Tshirts and buttons :)
I guess this means secessionist groups must now register in South Carolina.
What is this world coming to?
It sounds like you might need to register with the SC Secretary of State... let me get the form for you...
Dear South Carolina,
As requested, we hereby notify you that we are a "Subversive organization" --a corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons. We hope to directly or indirectly advocate, advise, teach or practice the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government the State of South Carolina and any political subdivision thereof by unlawful means.
Specifically, we wish to advocate doing so by (1) collecting money from business organizations, then (2) using this money to support the campaign efforts of a sufficient number of elected officials to obtain majority influence over the elected branches of the Government of South Carolina. We will solicit and accept donations from corporations subject to foreign control, such as Sonoco Products, SCANA Corporation, Bowater, Inc., and other corporate entities with major investments in both South Carolina and the rest of the world. They do not have to be Fortune 500 companies! We're willing to include profitable corporations of any size, regardless of the national allegiances of their stockholders, board members, or executives.
We will, by funding the continuation of the careers of elected officials in the State of South Carolina, hope to directly or indirectly influence them to pursue policies favorable to the business interests of our donors, particularly when these interests conflict with the rights provided in the constitutions of the State of Carolina and the United States. As we anticipate that these conflicts will be of a constitutional nature, this should suffice to be unlawful enough to warrant registration under your recent legislation. Hopefully you will find this suitably subversive.
Included with our registration fee you will find a 15% gratuity. Please consider this a token of our appreciation of your ongoing efforts to make the realization of our goals easier.
Looking forward to seeing you at the President's Day golf outing. Looks like the weather will keep us in the clubhouse!
Toodles,
-The Old Boy Network
"Any law which isn't enforced and has no public record of ever having been enforced for a certain period of time, say 20 years or perhaps less, that the law in question simply is null and void."
Deputy Bubba: You wanted to see me, Sheriff?
Sheriff Leroy: Yep, Bubba, I just got a call from the state legerslature. It seems our anti-sodomy law is up for renewal.
Deputy Bubba: 'Bout damn time!
Sheriff Leroy: You betcha bygolly! We need to get crackin' on this. We only have a month.
Deputy Bubba: I'll tell the men to be on the lookout for sodomistic behavior.
Sheriff Leroy: Hop to it son. And tell the undercover sting teams to start greasin' up their backsides.
Or, it could be a great defense.
"Your honor, I didn't register as a member of a subversive group, therefore the purpose of my group could not have been to overthrow the government of the United States."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
As always with a radical problem one needs a radical solution: to periodically take back power through whatever means necessary.
Hey wait a second, did you just advocate rebellion against the government? If you live in South Carolina, you better get your paperwork in order.
Not if it costs them $6 a pop to process.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
They arrested Capone for tax evasion. Woulda taken them longer to find something to stick him with if he'd filled in that "illegal income" line on his tax return.