It seems American citizens who happen to disagree with The Shrub Administration's bloodthirsty, imperialistic stance on Iraq are finding their names on a no fly list, causing them to be detained, delayed and generally harassed because they have exercised their constitutional right to dissent.

From the S.F. Chronicle article linked above:

"Federal law enforcement officials deny targeting dissidents. They suggested that the activists were stopped not because their names are on the list, but because their names resemble those of suspected criminals or terrorists."

And I suggest that Federal officials stop treating us like mental defectives, which they must certainly believe us to be if they expect anybody to buy their quoted reason for the detainments.

Consider, please, these two provisions of The Patriot Act, signed into law by our fearless leader on 10/26/91 (excerpted from this ACLU analysis of the act):

Give the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and deport any non-citizen who belongs to them.

Lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for "intelligence" purposes

Sure, dissidents are not being targeted. And I'm not a blogger.

I think it's time to reach into the old Filing Cabinet and reference a post I made regarding this whole sorry affair back in the infancy of this blog:

2/11/02

Political (or some people prefer to call them conspiracy) theorists such as the late Mae Brussell and producer of For the Record and One Step Beyond (aired for the last 20 years on one of the greatest radio stations in the world - my world anyway - KFJC ), Dave Emory have seen the creeping fascism we have been witnessing in the wake of 9/11 coming a long way off. An excerpt from one of Mr. Emory's For The Record tape summaries:

"The 9/11/2001 attack can also be viewed as promoting the domestic political and police powers of the governing political interests. The fact that the 9/11 attacks have been followed by the passage of sweeping law enforcement and intelligence provisions which may be used to abridge the constitutional freedoms of American citizens and to stifle legitimate political dissent is not to be overlooked."