I like this guy!

[vsp]

Originally posted by FileNotFound
I am aware of the first amendement zones and bs in the patriot act that can label a protestor as a domestic terrorist.

YET these are NOT related to being arrested for speaking out by writing an article and posting it online.

Id say he had guts if he went protesting with that article - but he isn't.

Protesting is protesting, whether it's online or in-person.
You don't think that the FBI file on the author didn't just get a little wider?

It's one thing for them to thoroughly follow-up on reports of actual threats towards the President. When I worked for the sysadmins at N.C. State, we had a Secret Service visit when one of our conservative students became overagitated by the election of Bill Clinton, and posted a twelve-word exclamation to a USENET newsgroup. (Six words were "Clinton," three were "Fuck" and three were "Kill." Arranging them into the proper configuration is left as an exercise for the reader.) The mere presence of the word "Kill" in proximity to the President-elect's name was enough to trigger Secret Service radar, and they had a little chat with the student in question.

It's quite another to interpret non-violent anti-Bush (or anti-war) statements, actions or paraphrenalia as a direct threat to the President, worthy of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/national/23FBI.html?ex=1070551431&ei=1&en=b52559fd569640f5">monitoring by the FBI</a>, investigation by the Secret Service (the aforementioned girl-with-a-poster), or even temporary denial of basic Constitutional rights (freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, from the examples I provided). Anti-Bush material is NOT A CRIME, nor even remotely close to being one.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of people out there who mistake anti-Bush or anti-war sentiments for <a href="http://www.amarillo.com/stories/120303/opi_letters.shtml">anti-Americanism</a> or worse.