Due to various deadlines I’ve been working on, I’ve been a bit slow getting to this (and too many others). But now that it’s made it’s way to Drudge, I guess it’s “official” enough.
In case you haven’t heard, eight Artists in New York are now being subpoenaed towards the indictment of the artist who’s exhibit / performance art at a gallery in Buffalo has been confiscated by the FBI via claims of “BioTerrorism” as allowed in the dangerous and mis-enacted “USA Patriot Act”.
I realize that the Rightwing Attack Monkeys have time and again instructed us how “Liberals” decry the “Patriot Act” as being dangerous, but that — in reality — it hasn’t proven to be dangerous at all. Think again, Attack Monkeys. It’s your Federal Government that is now encroaching on citizens First Amendment rights with virtually no standards of proof whatsoever.
Such an outrage, of course, if carried out by a Democrat President (see: Waco) would be a crime worthy of Impeachment Petitions circulated by the Attack Monkeys, links to which would proudly be featured on Hannity’s website, and splashed across days and weeks of coverage on Fox News.
As it’s enacted by a Republican “President” on the other hand, the story has gone almost without notice. Isn’t the “Liberal” media strange that way?
Read up on it for yourself. See the details and sign a letter of support for the artists on their Defense Fund website. And stop by the website of the artists…er…bio-terrorists in question.
Or sit around and do nothing because 9/11 is just so scary that you are willing to let your Federal Government, in the person of John Ashcroft, toss your US Constitution out the proverbial window and apply it to artists who’s material challenges the political interests of the Bush Administration’s bio-tech cronies and contributors.
(Thanks to Brenda V. for having brought this to my attention several days ago!)
Jesus wept…
It’s nice to know that the government is taking care of the important things, like artists using benign bacteria and Howard Stern saying "anal sex." Forget that deficit stuff…
…but we’re deficient in morality.
"Or sit around and do nothing because 9/11 is just so scary…"
do you remember 9/11? your sentence isn’t even amusing. and yes, i am willing to let my federal government take down potentially hazardous artwork to keep us safe.
if that artist were a terrorist, and the "simple bacteria" turned out to be the smallpox virus, then you all would be blaming george bush for not stopping it and probably accusing him of releasing it himself.
But he isn’t a terrorist.
And the bacteria isn’t dangerous.
And I am not willing to surrender my rights as an American citizen to let the government run all over the place and shut down art exhibits and other expressions of an individual’s conscience on thinly-reasoned "could bes" and "maybes" that have no basis in reality.
The fact you are, when the return on your security is non-existent, is sad.
John Ashcroft says danger is imminent.
Tom RIdge says to expect an attack this summer.
State Department says terror is at an all time high.
Rumsfeld says he has no idea whether our actions are actually preventing terror.
"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."
-Pastor Martin Niemöller
Unless your White Christian and Republican. Then you get to goose step in safety.
g, I consider your argument weak.
If you read the article, you would see this artist has had honorable exhibitions all over the world and is an esteemed professor at an American University. Much of the group’s work centers around bringing awareness to such biohazards. To confiscate those materials based on rumor and innuendo alone, from non-reliable sources, seems at the least unlawful.
Though you are correct, Liberals (and much of America) would blame this administration should something go horribly wrong that could have been prevented. This war seems a good place to start.
Reads to me like g has taken the first step to becoming one of the 99.9 % of Iraqis who voted for Sadaam Hussein.
Start forking over your rights in the name of "safety" and that’s where you end up. Safe from everyone but the very people whose job it is to protect you.
Actually, this whole thing reminds me of when the Reagan administration refused to allow Canadian Farley Mowat (author of "Never Cry Wolf") into the U.S. because the concept that God’s creatures should be allowed to live on this Earth were deemed a threat to U.S. security.