You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression

[RamboLiberal]

Book Description
Chilling true stories of ordinary Americans whose everyday liberties have been violated since September 11.

"I'm very liberal and sometimes my friends say I'm giving them some kind of paranoid, nutty stuff, and I agree, but then the FBI show up."—Marc Schultz, reported to the FBI for reading an article called "Weapons of Mass Stupidity: Fox News hits a new lowest common denominator" while he stood in line at a coffee shop

In West Virginia, Renee Jensen put up a yard sign saying "Mr. Bush: You're Fired." She's questioned by the Secret Service. In Alabama, Lynne Gobbell put a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on her car. She's fired from her job. In Vermont, Tom Treece had his high school students write essays and make posters either defending or criticizing the Iraq War. After midnight, the police entered his classroom and took photos of the student artwork.

The heated debates about the Patriot Act, about extensive registration and arrest programs for immigrants, and about domestic spying by the FBI, Pentagon, and National Security Agency have all been front-page news. But less understood are the effects of ramped-up national security policies on ordinary people across the country.

In this hard-to-put-down book, Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine, shows that post-9/11 America has entered a repressive age. Through dozens of engrossing and disturbing individual stories, You Have No Rights makes clear that America is now a country that is both less safe and less free.

From You Have No Rights: Near Albany, New York, Stephen Downs went to a mall with his son Roger, and the two of them bought shirts in a T-shirt shop. Downs put his shirt on, went to eat in the food court—and was arrested. The T-shirt's message? "Peace on Earth."

From Amazon.com

[napi21]

1. The author is on Thom Hartmann now.

Extremely frightening stories!

You know, ShrubCo want's everyone to be afraid of terrorists! I'm much more afraid of ShrubCo!

[fasttense]

2. Shrub has never taken any powers

that he hasn't used. Every power he claims and assumes for himself, he has used already or uses soon after declaring them. So when will he start using his "emergency powers"?

[zonmoy]

3. probably just in time to either fix or cancel the 2008 election.

[Jim__]

4. I'll have to read that book.

I have to see what this:

From You Have No Rights: Near Albany, New York, Stephen Downs went to a mall with his son Roger, and the two of them bought shirts in a T-shirt shop. Downs put his shirt on, went to eat in the food court—and was arrested. The T-shirt's message? "Peace on Earth."

is about. This type of government censorship of speech and thought cannot be tolerated.

[RamboLiberal]

5. I remember this story from DU

Here's a link to it from Google search.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0305-08.htm

[Jim__]

6. Thanks. I have to check on what ever happened in the court case.

It's amazing that a mall food court thinks that it can censor T-shirts.

[RamboLiberal]

7. I know ACLU sued this mall on this case

Don't know if it has come to trial yet or if there is a settlement.

[YankeyMCC]

8. All you have to do is look at the historical precedents

with the possible exception of the Revolutionary War (and I'll not be surprised if someone more expert in that history than me corrects me on this) the US government has reacted with repression, to some degree, against dissent. And perhaps more important during times of peace but internal turmoil, populist vs capitalist, minority vs majority, civil rights activists vs establishment, the US has committed repressive acts - are their more oppressive governments? certainly but this is supposed to be our government and we're supposed to live up to rather high ideas so when our government fails to live up to those ideals the fall is all the more hurtful.

So when people say I'm over reacting to the current admin's repressive policies and acts, I just say "read a little history, it has happened before."