Life In The Village

Reports are circulating that the FBI and DHS were conducting surveillance of the Tea Parties that took place last week, checking on the organizers, monitoring their websites, video taping and photographing the various events. While some may be surprised at this unAmerican Big Brother behavior, it comes to me as no great shock.

As someone who attended a great many Grateful Dead shows I am pretty certain that I was photographed a number of times by the FBI and DEA, who threw many of us in jail with life sentences for drug dealing (while scumbags like Scooter Libby and Dick Vader walk free). This sort of thing is not new, and will no doubt continue. My advice to you dear readers is not to give it another thought.

So the FBI and DHS have photos of you dressed like George Washington, who gives a crap? They probably also know what you had for breakfast that morning, in addition to the size, color, and consistency of the bowel movement it produced.

Fact is there are cameras all over the place. They are at ATMs, along freeways documenting traffic, pedestrian thoroughfares, shopping malls, department stores, banks, casinos, hotels, parking garages, airports, schools, convenience stores, intersections photographing cars that run red lights...so why should the Tea Parties be exempt?

Don't let the boogeymen scare you. Let them make you mad. This is just more of the bullshit we have come to accept, but shouldn't have to tolerate in a free society. Security is one thing, knowing whether or not you make purple poops is another (if you're making purple poops you might want to lay off the Fruit Loops).

Shouldn't DHS be a little more concerned with our borders, so-called "sleeper cells," and securing our ports than photographing protestors with a flair for colonial fashion? Just askin'.