CONFORM, AND WATCH WHAT YOU SAY

It was Sept. 14, 2004, just months before the presidential election, and this was a carefully orchestrated Bush-Cheney campaign rally in a hangar leased by Monaco Coach on Eugene Airport property. Attendees had gotten their free tickets from discriminating volunteers at the Lane County Republican Party headquarters; dissidents were screened out. The VP, dressed cowboy casual and seeming at ease with the crowd, had just finished saying, "Our accomplishments over the last four years have made America stronger, safer and better." "The word 'no' just came out of my mouth," Patterson recounted later. "I was at that moment visualizing women in different war scenes around the world screaming out for mercy. And I actually felt like my voice didn't come out, because nobody around me was reacting. That's when the men in black came up behind me and took me by the elbows. Go here to read the rest of this story.

Who are these people whose beliefs are soo fragile that they cannot brook the slightest dissenting view? Are the beliefs fragile, or is there, deep down in the psyche of every American, a mustard seed of faith that freedom and democracy are not as these malignant monsters portray it to be?

And while we're at it, understand that they've codified this to punish dissenters. Part of the Patriot Act, 18 U.S.C 1752 to be precise, reads as follows:

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person or group of persons -
(1) willfully and knowingly to enter or remain in . . .

. . . (ii) any posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area
of a building or grounds where the President or other person
protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily
visiting,

in violation of the regulations governing ingress or egress
thereto:

. . . (2) with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of
Government business or official functions, to engage in
disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to,
any building or grounds designated in paragraph (1) when, or so
that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly
conduct of Government business or official functions . . .;

(b) Violation of this section, and attempts or conspiracies to
commit such violations, shall be punishable by a fine under this
title or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.
(c) Violation of this section, and attempts or conspiracies to
commit such violations, shall be prosecuted by the United States
attorney in the Federal district court having jurisdiction of the
place where the offense occurred.

Now, as someone legally educated but who never spent time in a Prosecutor's office, it still occurs to me that the highlighted phrase above is in the eye of the beholder. Is it someone with bells and whistles and screaming "F*** the President and the War" during a speech? Well, probably so. Is it someone wearing the same message on a t-shirt, but otherwise being quiet? I wouldn't think so, but the statute doesn't say that. Is it someone who simply doesn't have the same party affiliation as the President or the Veep? Is it someone who hasn't said or written complimentary things about the President, the Veep or the Administration? Does any of this matter at all, since we're in a time of war and the Congress authorized the President to do whatever is necessary to go after Al-Qaida? This is the latest schtick the Bushies have been touting to authorize domestic spying without getting warrants - even from the compliant FISA courts. Gonzales said as much last week in the Senate hearings. OF course, he also said that Washington and Lincoln used electronic surveillance on the enemy in a time of war too, but hey, who noticed that one?

You see, if the Administration's argument is right, then so long as the President, in his well-oiled mind, decides that such expressions hurt America and aid the terrorists, he is simply carrying out the mandate of Congress by pummeling, removing, and prosecuting those with dissenting views from his political appearances, speeches, etc..

Welcome to American Stepford, Where everybody likes the President. Pay no attention to the polls. Assault dissenters for Patriotic purposes!