Amazing Abuse of Power

It was only a matter of time after moving to DC before I started my relentless political blogging again... here we go.

A co-worker sent me a link to this article today about a student who received a visit from the friendly Department of Homeland Security because he requested a book by Mao through a university inter-library loan system. This is so wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin.

I find it deeply disturbing that even materials in an academic context are reason for suspicion by the federal government. I also find it disturbing that the government might know what books I have been checking out and that now I have to think, when going to the library, about whether or not the titles I'm checking out will be on a watch list. There goes that good old American feeling of freedom. With all the news lately about the president and the authorized spying on private citizens without warrants, I feel like I am living under a government that's moving away from democracy and our Bill of Rights and toward dictatorship.