OK here is a few things that I found on Blue’s News. Now I feel these items are worth merit and as such deserve to be commented on. First on a lighter note we have this AP story found on Foxnews.com called Animal Rights Activists Unhappy with Survivor Pig Killing. Now I feel this story is like the reaction to the Bonsaikitten.com story. This is just a case of political correctness getting out of hand. If you were going to win a million dollars wouldn’t you kill a pig? I would have diced that bastard a lot worse than what Skupin did. They didn’t even show the pig get it. This is just getting out of hand. And keep in mind I happen to really dislike that damn Survivor show.

Now this next one I take more serious. This story also reminds me of the Bonsaikitten.com story. I just can’t believe this. A gentleman named Glen Given wrote an editorial for his college paper the Stony Brook Press called “Editorial: Dear Jesus Christ, King of Kings, all I ask is that you smite George W. Bush.” Now granted this is a very controversial topic. Another Foxnews.com news item called Secret Service Accused of Threatening Free Speech which I think explains why I decided to tell you about it. Now the actual piece that Given wrote isn’t on the net as of yet. If you download a copy of the letter that The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press wrote to the feds. the letter is in the PDF format and you need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it but it does include the editorial in question. I happen to have a copy located locally on my server which you can download here.

Here are a few of the highlights in case you don’t feel like clicking links:

Secret Service agents questioned him extensively and asked him to submit to a psychological evaluation which…consisted of personal questions about his family and his parents’ divorce. During questioning, Mr. Given was not represented by an attorney, nor was he advised of his rights as an accused. He also signed a medical release authorizing the Secret Service to obtain his medical records. Mr. Given was told by Secret Service agents that his editorial was not protected by the First Amendment… Agents also stated that they may file charges if they received additional complaints about the editorial. Although Mr. Given voluntarily signed the waivers and offered to remove all remaining newspapers from stands, such actions were taken under the threat of arrest and without legal counsel. The paper has since reported that 2000 copies of the newspaper are missing from a storage area, and there is a concern that Secret Service agents seized those copies.

Read the rest for yourself. Can you believe this? I find this to be alarming. I plan on personally following this story. I understand that treating the President is a serious offense. But this was an obvious case of Satire and Parody. The lawyers defending Givens called his editorial a “Political Hyperbole.” Just read the thing. If you can’t see that it’s satire well then you probably find this site offensive as well.

So what I want to know is this not the USA? Doesn’t the First Amendment count for anything anymore? The term Free Speech means nothing now. And why are they singling out this Givens? The Lawyers point out that Saturday Night Live has parodied the office of the President for years. They haven’t ever been faced with this kind of shit. Did anyone else see the skit recently were SNL has Bush senior thinking about shooting Bush junior. isn’t that the same thing?

And when I say “what’s next?” I mean it. They take away our freedoms bit by bit hoping we don’t notice.

[drain file 28 show]