The Nature of the Threat, by Maureen Farrell, contains an excellent overview of the history of our country's plans and actions to deal with dissenters. I have never heard of Operation Garden Plot (in 1971 it gave "federal forces the authority to use 'deadly force' against any 'dissident'") and Operation Cable Splicer (it was "designed to control civilian populations and take over state and local governments"), and now I am more upset than ever. In all my educational experiences that dealt with McCarthyism, both as a student and as a teacher, there has always been this notion that we are past that sort of thing, that it will never happen again. This article shows that elements of McCarthyism have been in our government throughout the last fifty years. Read it.

Looking for the next potential McCarthy now that John Poindexter is seemingly out of the picture? (For more on Poindexter, see Meet Big Brother and also Who Is John Poindexter? and also Tracking John Poindexter (a funny 2002 story about hackers sticking it to Poindexter)). Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri did his best to invoke the spirit of McCarthy:

Gov. Don Carcieri on Thursday withdrew a homeland security plan criticized by scholars and civil libertarians as a threat to free speech and assembly rights.

The bill introduced last week would include acts of terrorism under existing law that makes it illegal to "speak, utter, or print" statements in support of anarchy or government overthrow. It also would have included terrorism under current law that makes it unlawful for any person "to teach or advocate" a government overthrow, or display "any flag or emblem other than the flag of the United States" as preferable to the United States government. . . .

Carcieri said the negative reaction, which included criticism from the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, was overblown.

"State government has a responsibility to ensure the public's safety by assessing and responding to new and evolving threats," Carcieri said. He sought to amend existing laws to define terrorism and include penalties for such acts.

But by reviving rarely used laws first enacted in 1919 that criminalize the advocacy of anarchy, his intentions became lost in a public debate over civil liberties he said he has no desire to limit. (R.I. Governor Withdraws Homeland-Security Bill).

Phew, we dodged a bullet on that one. How often do our politicians propose such things? A while ago, I watched the documentary, Atomic Cafe, and saw Lloyd Bentsen (in the sixties--I think he was a senator then) saying that the US should fire a pre-emptive nuclear strike and obliterate the USSR before they obliterated the US. I actually voted for that bastard. Time and time again, we are inches away from dumb-ass politicians making disastrous decisions. We don't always realize it when these moments occur--all the more reason to work hard to get back to a de-corporatized free press in this country.