'Out of Control'

I found this article today on the American Library Association's news page (via Morons.org):

Santa Fe Police Detain Library Patron over Chat-Room Visit

A St. John’s College Library visit by a former public defender was abruptly interrupted February 13 when city police officers arrested him about 9 p.m. at the computer terminal he was using, handcuffed him, and brought him to the Santa Fe, New Mexico, police station for questioning by Secret Service agents from Albuquerque. Andrew J. O’Conner, 40, who was released about five hours later, said in the February 16 Santa Fe New Mexican, “I’m going to sue the Secret Service, Santa Fe Police, St. John’s, and everybody involved in this whole thing.”

According to O’Connor, the agents accused him of making threatening remarks about President George W. Bush in an Internet chat room. Admitting he talked politics face-to-face in the library with a woman who was wearing a “No war with Iraq” button, O’Connor recalled saying that Bush is “out of control,” but that “I’m allowed to say all that. There is this thing called freedom of speech.” He also speculated that the FBI might have been observing him because of his one-time involvement in a pro-Palestinian group in Boulder, Colorado.

You know, I'm really sorry if the Secret Service, the FBI or anyone else doesn't like it, but Mr. O'Connor is right.  Bush is "out of control".  He has made it clear that he doesn't care what the American people think he's going to have is war whether we like it or not.  He is trying to bully regimes around the world into joining him, even though their citizens have made it clear that they don't like it, either.  He and his administration ridicule France, talk about destroying the German economy, and are willing to pay Turkey billions, even though over 80% of the Turkish people have indicated that they don't want their government to take part in a war. 

See, what galls me is that one of the excuses being offered for the war is that we want the Iraqis to be able to have a free and democratic country - yet the way Bush and his cronies are running this country, they don't seem to understand what democracy is.  One of the bedrock principles of democracy is that the people being governed have a say in that government, which means our opinions are supposed to mean something - but as far as Bush is concerned, we're pretty much irrelevent, as are the opinions of the citizens of other democratic countries around the world - if their opinions don't agree with what Bush wants to see happen.

Of course, we're also supposed to be a free society, but if anything, this story shows just how far from that we've fallen. The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is an organization that is helping people from around the country in a grassroots effort to pass resolutions barring the law enforcement organizations in a given city (or other geo-political area) from enforcing any laws that would infringe upon an individuals civil rights.  This campaign was started largely in response to the USA PATRIOT act, and has had quite a bit of success.  So far, 51 cities and towns have passed such resolutions - including Oakland, San Francisco, Denver, Detroit and Seattle - and efforts are under way in many more.

Part of what I find disturbing about this story is the idea that saying Bush is "out of control" is somehow a threatening statement.  In what way can this be construed as a threat?  There's no indication that O'Connor indicated what, if anything, he thought should be done about it, and, last time I checked, before you could threaten someone, you had to say or do something that would indicate that there is a real risk that they could, somehow, be harmed. 

Just to be clear, in case anyone is reading.  Yes, I agree that Bush is completely "out of control".  If someone wants to construe that as a threat, that's really their own problem.  The only thing I'm threatening to do is to support any rational, non-violent and legal means of removing him from office, including impeachment or simply trying to convince as many people as possible to vote against him come 2004.