If the Dems continue to enable Bush there will be more and more of this. It doesn't take much to make a country a police state if the citizens and their representatives act like sheep.
Posted by JohnT at October 17, 2007 10:39 AMAll police states undertake to restrict and deny travel rights to dissenters and opponents of the regime. It's a clear way to enforce "proper" behavior and punish bad (oppositional) behavior and speech. The border is closed to dissenters, probably many who post here.
This is very much an ongoing project of the Cheney regime as naomi wolf recently detailed at Firedoglake in a post about the travel watch list program. Our BushAmerica, and it won't change with a new Repub prezlidenter.
Dems, hearings on travel restrictions, abuses and punishment based on political opposition to the Bushist regime? Put it on the "to do" list? You betcha....
Posted by euzoius at October 17, 2007 11:37 AMIt's not right, but it's what's happening. For now, we need to back up the important stuff on our computers and store in a separate (undisclosed) location. The PTB are nastier than we are, not smarter.
Posted by dus7 at October 17, 2007 12:24 PMHere's the part of Naomi Klein's article that gave me the willies:
Someone else says that his friend opened his luggage to find a letter from the TSA saying that they did not appreciate his reading material.
It reminded me that years ago as a friend was traveling in South America, her Evita tape was confiscated.
Posted by ann at October 17, 2007 12:26 PMThis is a dreaded omen because one of the signals of advancing fascism is the harrassment of artists and intellectuals. Objecting to what people read is a despotic intrusion into personal space and privacy. I wonder just how far this authoritarian, control-freak addiction will go in this country? Will the state eventually object to certain artistic talents? Will even thoughts fall under suspicion?
Posted by Copeland at October 18, 2007 05:03 PM