The Patriot Act and Your Tax Dollars

Under the category of don't-they-have-better-things-to-do, federal agents apparently showed up at the door of a Dartmouth student who had checked out Mao's Little Red Book. See the story at the Daily Kos:

A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number.

Apparently, Homeland Security needs to get the word that this is no longer the 1950s and we have since grown out of that nonsense. Or have we? Perhaps the first President Bush should send a note to the current President Bush letting him know that we defeated the communists some time ago.

In the meantime, shouldn't federal agents be investigating what happened to all those billions that went down a rathole in Iraq? Shouldn't federal agents be investigating the nest of corruption that surrounded Rep. Cunningham?

Question: in the interest of fair play, are federal agents putting everyone who buys Mein Kampf on the watch list? I'm not usually this sarcastic but this is getting to be too much. I check out 20-30 books a month from two libraries and I frequently get books on reserve that I don't have a chance to fully browse before checking them out. I only get around to reading one-third of the books I borrow. Not long ago, I got a book on reserve that I thought was written by a liberal but the book turned out to be a right-wing screed. I didn't bother to read the book but it's sobering to realize that our reckless president could have me on a watch list for a book I didn't get around to reading. Bush thinks his administration is above the law. It's not. Bush and some of his top advisers are repeatedly breaking the law. It's time for accountability.