If you missed this early morning yahoo story please read it again and try and let it sink in: we are slowly but steadily moving towards a plain vanilla banana republic - complete with visits to our homes from Saddam's, er sorry, Bush's security forces, in the dark of night.
The yahoo story in question is this:
Pa. man's letter brings Secret Service
http://news.yahoo.com/...
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - An elderly man who wrote in a letter to the editor about Saddam Hussein's execution that "they hanged the wrong man" got a visit from Secret Service agents concerned he was threatening President Bush.
The letter by Dan Tilli, 81, was published in Monday's edition of The Express-Times of Easton, Pa. It ended with the line, "I still believe they hanged the wrong man."
Tilli said the statement was not a threat. "I didn't say who — I could've meant (Osama) bin Laden," he said Friday.
Two Secret Service agents questioned Tilli at his Bethlehem apartment Thursday, briefly searching the place and taking pictures of him, he said.
Do you think they will have enough men for the 'surge', if they are going to use government resources to pay a visit to every person in the US that exercises their right of self-expression - a freedom firstly guaranteed in the US constitution to all its citizens? and ironically, a freedom so manically and shamefully being exported at the point of a gun to the unhappy, and continuingly unfree peoples of Iraq and the rest of the M.E.? a freedom so ephemeral that visits such as these are bound to cast a tiny chill, that could well set into the greatest freeze of all time!
Is this meant to be a warning to writers of letters to the editor, commenters, and perhaps bloggers of more sinister times to come? Media editors and publishers, of course, were already muzzled and brainwashed and have been toeing the line and strutting to the official beat like circus penguins since before the time they were used as military embeds to propagandize this foolhardy war. But ordinary citizens, not yet!
And yet is this the first time?
I remembered other incidents, the T-shirt incident at some Bush campaign event, a government researcher who was fired for off-the-job political leanings.. and on and on.
Thinking these were isolated incidents, and sure that I wouldn't be able to find any citations to back up my claim that we, the citizenry are being muzzled, I googled "Bush campaign event, t-shirt protester" and got 530,000 cited reports in about 22 seconds, including the following!
http://www.google.com/...
Grieving Mom Heckles Laura Bush, Woman Whose Son Died In Iraq ...From Reluctant First Lady To Bush Campaign's 'Secret Weapon' ... (CBS/AP) A woman wearing a T-shirt with the words "President Bush You Killed My Son" and a ...
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/17/politics/main644005.shtml - 86k - Cached - Similar pages
ABC News: Campaigns Rally Against Wrong T-ShirtsA protester is escorted out of a political rally. (ABC News) ... The Bush campaign was even more aggressive in its response to the opposing party's T-shirts ...
abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2004/story?id=214695&page=1 - Similar pages
United for Peace : IndexUnited for Peace is an online resource and national campaign that brings ... Be one of the first to wear an official J27 t-shirt! Order yours today! ...
www.unitedforpeace.org/ - 41k - Jan 20, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages
Salon.com | News WiresLawsuits by protesters are not always embraced by the courts. ... But political experts say the 2004 Bush campaign rewrote the playbook for organizing ...
www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8J152I80.html - Similar pages
firstamendmentcenter.org: newsFederal lawsuit follows anti-Bush T-shirt arrests ... other people at the event who wore Bush campaign T-shirts and buttons were not bothered, ...
www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14041 - 23k - Cached - Similar pages
Bush To Criminalize Protesters Under Patriot Actrense.com Bush To Criminalize Protesters Under Patriot Act ... At first the events were campaign rallies during the election, and then the disruptor ...
www.rense.com/general69/dissent.htm - 26k - Cached - Similar pages
Washington Post: Policing is Aggressive at Bush EventsAs Bush has traveled the United States during this political campaign, the Secret Service and local police have often handled public protest by quickly ...
www.refuseandresist.org/police_state/art.php?aid=1569 - 9k - Cached - Similar pages
A search for the Science researcher fired for anti-Bush leanings similarly yielded another few thousands of links, including:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186708,00.html
The district placed Bennish on administrative leave after one of his students submitted an audio recording of the teacher's in-class politicking, which included comparisons of Bush's State of the Union remarks and "things that Adolf Hitler used to say."
Facts are facts - can you argue with them and fire people for them? Hasn't Mister Bush and his bureaucracy learned - what got us into this quagmire wasn't facts, but the largescale remolding of facts to suit your reality!
An eye-opening paper on the status of Bush-centric political correctness is one written on "Academic Freedom in America after 9/11" by John K.Wilson - http://www2.nea.org/...
It documents a detailed account of the various ham-handed and often not-so-subtle attempts at muzzling free thought. I am almost tempted to quote Iran's Ahmedejinad - you can easier deny the existence of god than..to deny intelligence, truth, justice, or political savvy in Mr. Bush - but I might be shackled and taken away by Bush's Secret Service!!
I am ashamed for my country!
UPDATE: Added "Next" to Title