A couple of weeks ago, following the last presidential debate, I said some rather inflammatory things about George W. Bush in a public post in my LJ, done in a satirical style. We laughed, we ranted, we all said some things. I thought it was a fairly harmless (and rather obvious) attempt at humor in the face of annoyance, and while a couple of people were offended, as is typical behavior from me, I saw something shiny and forgot about it, thinking that the whole thing was over and done and nothing else would come of what I said.
I was wrong.
At 9:45 last night, the Secret Service showed up on my mother's front door to talk to me about what I said about the President, as what I said could apparently be misconstrued as a threat to his life. After about ten minutes of talking to me and my family, they quickly came to the conclusion that I was not a threat to national security (mostly because we are the least threatening people in the entire world) and told me that they would not recommend that any further action be taken with my case. However, I do now have a file with the FBI that includes my photograph, my e-mail address, and the location of my LJ. This will follow me around for the rest of my life, regardless of the fact that the Secret Service knows that I am not a threat.
Obviously, I cannot link to the original LJ post that I made, because I have removed it from my LJ to protect myself and those who commented in that thread from receiving any further visits from the FBI. I apologized for the miscommunication, though I did *not* apologize for voicing my opinion of George W. Bush. I will never apologize for speaking my mind. I will, however, apologize when I say something wrong way and for unintentionally offending/threatening someone, because I am an extremely nonviolent person.
After having consulted an attorney to make sure that speaking about what happened to me will not incur another visit from the Secret Service, I am making this public post to tell you all several things:
...and here's the link to the post.
This is chilling. This is the sort of thing we expect from, oh, say, Stalinist Russia, or, oh, say, Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Criticizing the President is not illegal, folks, as much as people who can't bear anyone who dares to chip away at their little wall of delusion might like it to be. And if you think that criticism of the President should be illegal, think back to when the president's name was "Clinton" and see if you still feel that way.
Now, I never advocate violence against anyone. In fact, I've posted here decrying the kind of violence against nonbelievers, gays, and Muslims that some people seem to think the Bush Administration gives them license to do. I sure as heck don't advocate violence against the government. What I, and what other bloggers do, is verbal protest, protected by the First Amendment. I might want George W. Bush out of office with all my heart, but because I am a patriotic American, I want it done via the ballot box, or, should crimes have been committed, via the impeachment process laid forth in the Law of the Land. Those documents upon which this country was founded are important to me, and as such I feel I must live within them, and so must my government.
So that's where I stand. On the heels of what has happened to this unfortunate individual, I would hope that anyone looking to comment here keeps this in mind, and keeps in mind that we are at least supposed to have avenues for redress of grievances, and that only appropriate expressions of protest will be tolerated here.
In the larger picture, if this is what we're headed for, I don't want to hear any more crap about "land of the free." Because we have turned into a fascist state. Yes, fascist. I hope those of you who voted for this bunch are happy. Now please take the flag off your cars, because the country you used to live on no longer exists.
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