Is it paranoia if someone is really watching you?
Robert Rouse
December 16, 2005
Remember the good old days when Richard Nixon had an enemies list? Those heady days may have returned . . . big time! It turns out that the Pentagon, that five-sided bastion of war, is probably making a list and checking it twice. They're gonna find out whose peaceful and nice.
I don't know how I missed it, but NBC Nightly News reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon had a database on peace demonstrators. It turns out our war department believes those of us in the non-violent pacifist community might be a threat to National Security. That's right - forget all about our hole-filled borders and un-checked shipping containers, the real threat may be people who say dangerous things like "peace" and flash two lethal fingers skyward in a "V" shape. Those are the real enemies within. We might just love our Nation to death.
But that's okay, they're simply following Bush's lead. In another "let's keep an eye on Americans" moment, Georgie Porgie signed an executive order just months after 9/11 giving the National Security Administration the right to read our e-mails without the due process of a court order.
Neither of these revelations should come as much of a surprise. We already know they can check out whether we've borrowed a copy of "Red Badge of Courage" from the public library. I have an idea that the Bushies should be willing to jump on - give me one of those cool miniature cameras and I'll place it above my computer desk so the government can keep an eye on me . . . of course, I want the right to the footage so I can release a DVD next year. It'll make a fine gift for all of our friends at Homeland Security.
Of course, the fact that the Senate is facing stiff resistance to extending some measures of the Patriot Act might come as a blow to the administration, but you can't expect us all to want to make a cameo appearance on Covert Camera.
I don't know how I missed it, but NBC Nightly News reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon had a database on peace demonstrators. It turns out our war department believes those of us in the non-violent pacifist community might be a threat to National Security. That's right - forget all about our hole-filled borders and un-checked shipping containers, the real threat may be people who say dangerous things like "peace" and flash two lethal fingers skyward in a "V" shape. Those are the real enemies within. We might just love our Nation to death.
But that's okay, they're simply following Bush's lead. In another "let's keep an eye on Americans" moment, Georgie Porgie signed an executive order just months after 9/11 giving the National Security Administration the right to read our e-mails without the due process of a court order.
Neither of these revelations should come as much of a surprise. We already know they can check out whether we've borrowed a copy of "Red Badge of Courage" from the public library. I have an idea that the Bushies should be willing to jump on - give me one of those cool miniature cameras and I'll place it above my computer desk so the government can keep an eye on me . . . of course, I want the right to the footage so I can release a DVD next year. It'll make a fine gift for all of our friends at Homeland Security.
Of course, the fact that the Senate is facing stiff resistance to extending some measures of the Patriot Act might come as a blow to the administration, but you can't expect us all to want to make a cameo appearance on Covert Camera.