Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Land of the Brave, Home of the Free.


Bullshit.

The men at the top are cowards and those of us at the bottom are not free.

It appears you can be arrested for merely speaking to one fat-assed oligarch who swore to uphold the Constitution, even those pesky little amendments in the back.

According to this story from the Denver Post, a man walked up to Dick Cheney in a public place and told him his Iraq policy was reprehensible. If it had been me I would have added incompetent, ass-hatted and evil, but Steve Howards thought reprehensible was enough.

Apparently it was enough to get him arrested.

From the Post:

Steven Howards, 54, a consultant to non-profit organizations, was vacationing with his family in Beaver Creek when he spotted Cheney in an outdoor mall shaking hands and posing for photos. Howards and his son walked over and told Cheney that his policies in Iraq are "reprehensible."

Howards said he may have touched Cheney on the elbow or shoulder, like others in the crowd. Howards kept walking to his son's piano lesson. He returned to the spot about ten minutes later with another son, and that's when Secret Service agent Virgil Reichle handcuffed and arrested Howards for assaulting the vice president.

Assault. Now, I'm no lawyer, but to me assault means something between threatening a guy and kicking his ass. Something short of homicide, but more than a gentle chiding.

But criticizing him? Jesus, by those standards, every writer who reads this blog has been assaulted by a reviewer or two. I mean, what the fuck?

Honestly, these guys are the world's biggest goddamn candy-asses. Dick thinks that's assault? Dick, the guy who shot a man in the face? Dick, the guy who sends other people's kids to Iraq to get their limbs blown off? He thinks that's assault?

Of course, he also thinks shooting domestic animals is hunting.

What a pussy.

The other guy's not any better. I'm talking about Commander Bunnypants, the little whiny baby who ran off and hid in a bunker on 9/11. The guy who wouldn't talk to the 9/11 Commission unless Dick went to hold his hand. The guy who can't see protesters because it would make him cry. The guy who stamps his little feet when he doesn't get his way.

Yeah, that guy.

No wonder these people think the troops will get all pouty if we criticize the war. They think everyone is like them. They think the troops are all big wusses.

I've got news for them. They're not. The lowest PFC working in supply has more balls than George, Dick, Karl and Condi put together. He's not going to weep into his pillow because the New York Times exposed George for the incompetent little tin pot dictator he is.

But something is seriously fucked up when a citizen can be tossed in the can for speaking openly to one of these bastards. Given last week's vote allowing George to arrest and torture anyone who looks at him funny, how far away is the day that writers can be considered a threat to the government?

I think that day is already here.

Be careful what you say, Planeteers, and be careful what you write.

It's not Big Brother watching you.

It's Big Dick.

1 comment:

Beneath the Carolina Moon said...

David, you may be a transplanted yankee, but obviously you've been here long enough for the southern food to have nourished your brain cells. I'm glad you see and expostulate what cultured and educated southerners grew up knowing. I know that Bubba Clinton grew up thinking that one's choices in life were to either became a mass victim of these people, or become one of them. That's why I find it so easy to forgive him his White House sins. Hell, I even envy a few of them.

Dread