(cross posted from TCDem's Hole in the Wall)

U student to plead not guilty to terrorism charges A University student arrested preemptively before the Republican National Convention will be one of the first people prosecuted under a terrorism clause in the Minnesota Patriot Act since it was passed in 2002. Cultural studies junior Max Specktor is charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

One of my biggest problems of the last 8 years, is this idea that we can't speak up against our government. What is the United States cept for a group of people who decided to challenge the way their rulers did things?

Civil disobedience, while illegal, can be traced back to the foundation of the United States and is very different from terrorism, Specktor said. "[Civil disobedience is] consciously making a decision to disobey for a higher purpose," he said. "It's a time-honored tradition that we celebrate in our history books, the people in the civil rights era who sat in at the lunch counters and wouldn't get out of their seats."

Indeed, Mr. Specktor well said. but reading this reminded me of an post by Paul Rosenberg wrote over at open left on the discourse of terrorism in this country.

First, is that while the term "terrorism" is a contested one, a key component that majority of experts agree on is that it is violence directed against civilian non-combatants.

Well that what it use to be. Its not even about whether or not they should be prosecuted. But after 9/11 to use the word terrorism here? by that standard, our founding fathers were also terrorists, ghandi would have been a terrorist, the civil rights movement, was a movement of terrorism. That is what happens in this country when we are too lose with our words, and now we are calling people who decide to protest their government terrorists. People should never have to fear their government.