Freedom on the March

This one's for the folks on the message boards who have trouble remembering anything un-American this administration has done:

--FBI Took Photos of Antiwar Activists in 2002, from the Washington Post.
An FBI agent in Pittsburgh photographed members of an antiwar activist group in 2002, according to documents released yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said the disclosure marks the latest incident in which the FBI has monitored left-leaning groups.
An FBI report from November 2002 indicates that an agent photographed members of the Thomas Merton Center as they handed out leaflets opposing the impending war in Iraq. The report called the group a "left-wing organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism."
Wow, the Thomas Merton Center--those guys must be as dangerous as...oh...Quakers.

--Freedom of Speech, anyone?
Olean resident Brenda Snyder went to Canandaigua on Tuesday to talk to President Bush about health care. What she got was a lesson in message control.

Mrs. Snyder said no one at the meeting was given an opportunity to speak to the President and many, including herself, were prevented by security at the event from talking to the press after the President’s town meeting.

Mrs. Snyder said after the meeting a group of television reporters at the back of the room asked her a question. When she tried to reply, she says she was herded out of the room.

“We were answering questions and this big guy in a suit came along and said, ‘move along,’ ” she said. I said, ‘Why can’t we answer questions?’ And he said, ‘I have been given my orders.' He kept saying ‘move along’ and kept blocking my way and I kept saying, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen I have a right to answer some questions,’” she said. “It felt like if you were out of order at all, someone was going to take you away. It was very threatening.”

--A picture says a thousand words? What if it's on TV? And it makes accusations about a heel-clicking administration? Can't happen. Watch this clip from "Boston Legal." [Background: a secretary at the law firm has been charged with tax evasion.] Here's James Spader.

--It's dangerous being a judge in our country. The Associated Press reports:
Three quarters of the nation's 2,200 federal judges have asked for government-paid home security systems, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this week.

--You don't need to be secure. And don't ask again because we don't care. Congress voted against:
– $300 million to enable U.S. customs agents to inspect high-risk containers at all 140 overseas ports that ship directly to the United States. Current funding only allows U.S. customs agents to operate at 43 of these ports.
– $400 million to place radiation monitors at all U.S. ports of entry. Currently, less than half of U.S. ports have radiation monitors.
– $300 million to provide backup emergency communications equipment for the Gulf Coast.
Meanwhile, the Bush budget–which most of the members who voted against this bill will likely support–contains an increase of $1.7 billion for missile defense, a program that doesn’t even work.

--Abortion? Just the first target. Next comes contraception. From the Kansas City Star:
An attempt to resume state spending on birth control got shot down Wednesday by House members who argued it would have amounted to an endorsement of promiscuous lifestyles.
Missouri stopped providing money for family planning and certain women's health services when Republicans gained control of both chambers of the Legislature in 2003.

But a Democratic lawmaker, in a little-noticed committee amendment, had successfully inserted language into the proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that would have allowed part of the $9.2 million intended for "core public health functions" to go to contraception provided through public health clinics.

The House voted 96-59 to delete the funding for contraception and infertility treatments after Rep. Susan Phillips told lawmakers that anti-abortion groups such as Missouri Right to Life were opposed to the spending.

"If you hand out contraception to single women, we're saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that," Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview.

--To be gay is to be insecure. From the Associated Press:
The Bush administration last year quietly rewrote the rules for allowing gays and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, drawing complaints from civil rights activists.