"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Our New Police State

I've just spent the past few minutes writing my Congressional delegation. Here's the bare-bones letter (I did include variations tailored to each recipient, and I've inserted hyperlinks in place of plain links):

I am writing to you in the hope that the events outlined in the posts linked below will not be allowed to happen again. This post is from Lindsey Beyerstein, a reliable and respected journalist who has been quite active in online reporting for several years. This one is from the Minnesota Independent. And this one is from Glenn Greenwald, another highly respected online journalist and commentator.

What they report is beyond appalling, and is the logical result of eight years of the Bush regime, with its passion for secrecy and unbridled power, which has too often been willingly enabled by the Congress.

While the arrests of protesters in Denver at the Democratic convention were also questionable (see this story), they were not pre-emptive, which I suppose in this climate we can consider a sign of adherence to American values. (Please pardon my sarcasm, but these stories disgust me beyond words.)

It is a sad comment on the state of affairs in this country when I have to sit here and hope that there will be massive lawsuits as our only recourse against this blatant violation of fundamental rights. I am asking you to use your office to call for a congressional investigation of these actions, which appear, from all reports, to be a clear instance of abuse of power.

It starts to appear as though being a law-abiding citizen in this country is not the best option.

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