In this quick review of an anti-Bush novel by Nicholson Baker, Kurt Nimmo runs down some interesting examples of what happens to people who are openly critical of the president and this administration.

1. Richard Humphreys of Portland, Oregon, sentenced to 37 months in prison for saying God might speak to the world through a "burning Bush” at a bar.
2. Barry Reingold, a 60-year-old San Francisco retiree, visited by the FBI for talking about terrorism and September 11th, oil profits, capitalism and Afghanistan at a local gym.
3. A.J. Brown, a Durham North Carolina freshman attending Durham Tech with the help of an American Civil Liberties Union scholarship, had the Secret Service and Durham police knock on her door for the crime of possessing an anti-Bush poster.
4. Dan Muller and Andrew Mandell of Voices in the Wilderness in Chicago were grilled by the police and the Post Master after they told a clerk at the post office they did not want to buy stamps bearing an image of Old Glory.
5. Or take the case of Steve Kurtz, whose grand jury case as a bioterrorist under the Patriot Act was dropped, but who is still being charged with procurement and possession of harmless biological agents. His artwork is critical of biotechnology and transgenic contamination.

He doesn’t mention the journalist here in Atlanta, visited and threatened by the FBI for reading a published article "Weapons of Mass Stupidity" at a local Starbuck’s.

Did you ever in your life think we would have to refight these battles? Our national mood seems to echo another authoriarian regime, and Nimmo closes with this quote.

“When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver.”
Hermann Goering

Whether you are for or against the policies of this president, our freedom of speech allows us to be critical – openly, with freedom of assembly, through print or art (just as was done during the Clinton administration). The legal – and I think rightful – line is drawn at conspiracy and threats against the President’s life.

Let’s try to hold on to the First Amendment. It is one of the ideals for which this country stands.

Happy Independence Day.