first they came for the vegans, and i did nothing

my friends i would like to invite you to join me on the path of paranoia; the righteous path of justified paranoia. i think it's going to be the next big religion, bigger than scientology, but with less money. i founded this cosmology very recently and it began with a vision. while trying to gain insight into the president's way of thinking i consumed a massive amount of jim beam. when the world would no longer sit still no matter how still i was i knew i was ready. the less enlightened might call it passing out and vomiting all over myself or a typical saturday, i'd like to say i was transported to another paradigm.*

in the vision i saw myself as a pawn aligned against the forces of tyranny and oppression lining the great chess board of life across from me. they seemed to have more pieces than they should, but i was ready for battle, until i took stock of my comrades. they all seemed to be mostly smoking weed and playing video games. before i could even get out, "oh shit!" we were overrun. after waking, cleaning myself, and taking a handful of asprin i reflected on my vision. it was pretty simple to interpret, kinda like a burning bush enunciating clearly, i could see the path of righteous justified paranoia.

• it begins with the illegal nsa fishing through our phone calls and email
• and the presidents belief in the unitary executive or president as dictator as i seem to understand it
  
• the nsa, fbi, and the pentagon are spying on activists, not the kkk, the aryan nation or the people who blow up abortion clinics and synagogues and black churches but vegans, quakers and catholic workers
• it has been learned that both the nsa wiretapping and the pentagon surveillance is much more extensive than originally thought
• the attempts in the media to link domestic disagreement with bush to the words and philosophy of osama bin laden. patrick buchanan went out of his way to tie clinton to osama.
• scalito to be confirmed? mr. the-president-can-smother-small-children-and-kittens-for- national-security? give me a feking break.
  
• although they say it's because of their desire to confront online pornography but i feel there's something more sinister behind the government's request of google's search records

on full wakefulness the vision began to fade and along with it the insights i had gleaned. i needed something that would fully and finally place my feet on the righteous path of justified paranoia. i asked and the path has been illuminated.

What BushCo wants, according to the fine print (Sec. 605) of the new PATRIOT Act, is a permanent Praetorian Guard, or Cheka, or Gestapo. It's all too easy to come up with apt historical analogies--but not with any from this nation's history.

"A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'" empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence" (what is "an offense against the United States?), "or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony" (what are "reasonable grounds"?).

I'm not making this up. See the text and URL below.

What will it take to get the press to notice this?

MCM

SEC. 605. THE UNIFORMED DIVISION, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE.

There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the `United States Secret Service Uniformed Division’.

The Secret Service, Uniformed Division will not operate solely in DC, but anywhere former Presidents travel, or foreign dignitaries, or even “as the President, on a case-by-case basis, may direct.” #8

A federal police force, directed by the President. Is this not the Gestapo all over again?

If the new “Patriot” Act passes, the new SSUD federal police can show up at:

(11) An event designated.. as a special event of national significance.
(12) Major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and, within 120 days of the general Presidential election…

A federal goon squad on hand to arrest any ‘disruptors’ during the next Presidential Election… how can you look in the mirror and tell yourself that there’s hope for 2008? Or is that just an excuse to continue doing nothing right now?

Note: This bill comes up in two weeks.

ben frank

so disruption, or as i like to call it, exercising my right to free speech, is to become illegal. and there is to be a special police force that can make warrantless arrests of disruptors, to be formerly known as activists. since they've already got the list with all of the really "dangerous" disruptors the special police will know where to start.

if this crap passes the rnc, with the orange netting and mass arrests of hundreds released after 48 hours will become a quaint antiquity; the last of the good ole' days. next time around, when i, and the hundreds of other people on the street are arrested for watching a marching band the charges will stick; guilty of disruption. there will be no recourse. if alito is confirmed it will be a generation before the supreme court protects our interests again.

this is the righteous path of justified paranoia.


*this is more sort of a metaphor. i didn't really try to think like the president. it was an accident.