There’s a good piece on Alternet now by John Graham on the ongoing slow boil of the Patriot Act and the instrusions of Homeland Security. He’s going to have a much harder time getting his name off the list than did Ted Kennedy.

As I said, I’m not into conspiracy theories. But I can’t ignore this administration’s efforts to purge and punish dissenters and opponents. Look, for example, at current efforts to cleanse PBS and NPR of “anti-administration” news. But I’m not Bill Moyers and the Giraffe Heroes Project is not PBS. We’re a small operation working quietly to promote real citizenship.

Whether it’s a mistake or somebody with the power to hassle me really thinks I am a threat, the stark absence of due process is unsettling. The worst of it is that being put on a list of America’s enemies seems to be permanent. The TSA form states:
The TSA clearance process will not remove a name from the Watch Lists. Instead this process distinguishes passengers from persons who are in fact on the Watch Lists by placing their names and identifying information in a cleared portion of the Lists.

Which may or may not, the form continues, reduce the airport hassles.

Huh? My name is on a list of real and suspected enemies of the state and I can’t find out what I’m accused of or why, let alone defend myself. And I’m guilty, says my government, not just until proven innocent or a victim of mistaken identity–but forever.

Sure, 9/11 changed a lot. Tougher internal security measures (like thorough screenings at airports and boundary crossings) are a dismal necessity. But, in protecting ourselves, we can’t allow our leaders to continue to create a climate of fear and mistrust, to destroy our civil liberties and, in so doing, to change who we are as a nation. What a victory that would be for our enemies, and what a betrayal of real patriots and so many in the wider world who still remember this country as a source of inspiration and hope.

Homeland Security and the Patriot Act aren’t about keeping us free. I doubt either of them will make a substantial difference in our safety or security but slowly, insidiously, they will make more and more of us into criminals and once that label sticks it is near impossible to get off.

It’s one thing when a citizenry is wary of its government and works to keep tabs on its behavior, that’s the function of citizens in a democracy, it is quite another thing when the government turns the tables and becomes wary of its citizens for that is the function of government in a dictatorship.