In chatting about the Bush administration’s horrible attitude towards civil liberties with more right-wing friends, a steady mantra has been: Don’t worry about the laws. Worry about the prosecutions.
OK, gotcha. The prosecutions are here now, and I’m very, very worried.
An artist whose work is dangerous only in that it is politically provocative is facing charges that could lock him up for 20 years in prison. That’s it. End of story. This is not far from a Soviet-era trial of a writer on charges of parasitism and hooliganism.
You know that assault on liberties that all of us nutso left-wingers complained about with the PATRIOT act? It’s here. It’s happening.
(And, in a Blowfish connection, one of the publishers we carry got a subpoena!)
Update: WorldChanging has a very good post on a way that you can help.
posted 23:08