If the torture bill goes through, you and I will be branded as terrorists

We already know that the wingnuts want to see all liberals lined up and summarily executed without trial. That's why they support giving George W. Bush the right to brand anyone he wants as a terrorist -- maybe then he'll shoot us all and we'll shut up so we can't intrude on their little whiny-ass titty baby delusions.

I have letters printed in my local newspaper fairly often. Most of the response I get is by phone, and most of it is positive. Occasionally people respond in writing. Sometimes they write letters, sometimes they send me religious tracts, one person from all the way in Missouri sent me a political cartoon of Cindy Sheehan with the word TRAITOR scrawled across it in Sharpie pen.

What a bunch of cowards right-wing Americans are. They're so spooked by the events of September 11 five years ago that they want this country to turn into a totalitarian, Soviet-style authoritarian society, complete with gulags for dissenters. They wake up in the morning afraid. They live in fear. They go to bed afraid -- afraid of Muslims. Afraid of gays. Afraid of people who disagree with them.

And what do cowards do? They try to make others afraid, then laugh at them when they succeed.

Forgotten in the relentless drumbeat of "Crazy Muslims Are Coming To Kill You" is the fact that not long after the 9/11 attacks, anthrax was sent to a number of people -- all with Democratic ties, leanings, or otherwise in opposition to the Bush Administration. The Department of Health and Human Services determined that the anthrax was of domestic origin, and no one has ever been arrested for this crime.

In the aftermath of the anthrax attacks, people were understandably afraid of receiving correspondence from people they don't know. I myself received a letter of unkonwn origin at that time and took it to my local police, who reassured me that I had done the right thing.

Everyone was afraid of the anthrax attacks at the time, but of course now Ann Coulter jokes about being the anthrax terrorist. So it's hardly surprising that when Keith Olbermann is understandably freaked out about receiving a envelope that contains some white powder AT HIS HOME ADDRESS, the bullies in the right-wing media think it's hilarious.

Editor and Publisher:

Here is the Post item, which appeared under the headline, "Powder Puff Spooks Keith."

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MSNBC loudmouth Keith Olbermann flipped out when he opened his home mail yesterday. The acerbic host of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" was terrified when he opened a suspicious-looking letter with a California postmark and a batch of white powder poured out. A note inside warned Olbermann, who's a frequent critic of President Bush's policies, that it was payback for some of his on-air shtick.

The caustic commentator panicked and frantically called 911 at about 12:30 a.m., sources told The Post's Philip Messing. An NYPD HazMat unit rushed to Olbermann's pad on Central Park South, but preliminary tests indicated the substance was harmless soap powder. However, that wasn't enough to satisfy Olbermann, who insisted on a checkup. He asked to be taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where doctors looked him over and sent him home. Whether they gave him a lollipop on the way out isn't known. Olbermann had no comment.

These are the people who want to give George W. Bush the authority to round up everyone who disagrees with him and brand them as enemy combatants, then throw them in a prison for the rest of their lives without charges and without trial. They want to do this, ostensibly, because they are afraid of terrorists. Yet if someone makes a terroristic threat against a news personality who disagrees with the president, suddenly it's a joke.

These people are disgusting. They are disgusting, and they are un-American. Whoever sent this envelope, whoever backs torture as a policy, whoever backs the silencing of dissent -- these are the true traitors to America. And the head traitor is sitting in the White House.