We're Afraid of Us

The local police units of several states have been working with their local Homeland Security departments to spy on terrorist groups.

Sorry, my mistake: on violent protest and subversion organizations.

Sorry, screwed up again: on anti-death penalty and peace organizations.

Do any of us remember the sixties? When the FeeB and the local cops and probably the CIA would infiltrate groups like Students for a Democratic Society, or the Black Panthers (admittedly not the most peaceful of organizations), and make recordings of meetings, protests, and try to become effective moles within the organizations. In some cases, the police or the FeeB would attempt to persuade other folks in the organization to do something violent as a protest.

Not that that is happening now (that we're aware of). We don't know who the infiltrators are, but we do know they exist, thanks to the ACLU getting ahold of a variety of reports stating unequivocally that the pacifist Quaker group, the American Friends Service Committee, had been infiltrated, and were being monitored in case they were planning a terrorist attack on America. And that's just once instance. Quakers = Terrorists. Another sentence I've long looked forward to writing.

Pretty soon all of life's absurdities will have been written about, and I'll have nothing left to say.

In another case, an anti-death-penalty group in Maryland was the target of an investigation, and the Homeland Security folks can't decide whether the members are "socialists or anarchists." Gee, they might be both. That doesn't make them terrorists. Does the phrase "we think killing people is wrong" not give you a hint that they might not actually want to hurt anyone? Or are you thinking that's some sort of clever bluff?

Or are you just kinda stoopid?

(I'm voting for stoopid)

Dear Senator Obama,

When you become President, please abolish the Department of Homeland Security, or at least make an IQ test part of the hiring requirements. Anyone not smarter than the average housefly should automatically be rejected, rather than promoted to whatever position it was that thought these stupid schemes up. Write me for further requests (I have a very long list).

Sincerely,

Sten Ryason, OBL
(Odd Bald Liberal)

Frankly, I wish that someone would surveil me, so I could find out about it and gain some sort of notoriety. Advertising revenues would be SO neat.