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Below is the original text of my comments about a story of DHS pressure upon a student for borrowing Mao Tse-Tung's "Little Red Book" from a university library for a paper.

The story was a FRAUD by that student, i.e. it DID NOT HAPPEN. I hereby apologize to the Honorable Michael Chertoff, Director of Homeland Security, for repeating in Crablaw what turned out to be a slander against his department. The story was published by Massachusetts local newspapers as was a subsequent report of the fraud.

Had the story been true, I would stand by the entirety of my comments below, i.e. I believe that outrage is appropriate against any government that would do what this student claimed. The government did not do it. This student committed a fraud upon his professors, his university and upon the people of the United States.

I continue to have severe reservations about the respect of the Bush Administration for the civil liberties of the people of the United States in light of admissions by the President of repeated, warrantless NSA wiretaps of American citizens in direct violation of the United States Code. I have not blogged on that topic and will do so when I have the chance to get my facts quadruple checked. But the Bush Administration did not nail a University of Massachusetts student for borrowing Mao; it DID NOT HAPPEN, and the whole matter was apparently the result of fraud by the alleged student.

This episode points out the distinction between journalism and commentary. I/Crablaw am not a journalist, but a commentator. I do not have the desire nor the skills or resources to engage in journalistic fact-checking. Frankly, I don't have the money to spend or available business hours to play at reporting, and so I leave that to the "day job" reporters in newspapers and online. Some commentators, notably Talking Points Memo, engage in excellent commentary and excellent reporting, but most cannot do both or necessarily either well. Since I have a 40-50 hour a week day job unrelated to blogging, and a 3.5 hour round trip, and two kids in diapers, I question my ability to do what I do well also.

I note finally that I hope that the defrauder suffers hard for this action, as he has damaged the entire nation through his actions.

Below the evidence of my gullibility and that of a multitude of print and online media.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Government agents have investigated a college student for borrowing Mao Tse-Tung's "Little Red Book" as an academic reference for a paper on, ironically enough, totalitarian governments, going so far as to visit his parents' home to interview this young student.

The justification for this unconstitutional harassment of a reader of lawful, classic historical document of Chinese Communism was that someone in DHS had decided to put the book on a "watch list." I guess that decision was justified because Osama bin Laden is such a terrible Chinese Communist. Several thousand undergrad and graduate students of Chinese history around the U.S., who may have the book (go ahead, buy it from the Amazon link, if you dare) on their shelves or in their academic carrels, should clean their dorm rooms and have their parents clean their living rooms, since company is coming and coming armed. So should the academic advisers, professors and teaching assistants who had the nerve to mention the book by name in syllabuses. So should the department chairs and the university presidents. Oh heck, find the schools' football mascots and interrogate them too.

What's next? You get DHS and the FBI armed in your living room because of your (or your daughter's) use of library borrowing privileges? Guess you better limit your reading habits a bit, perhaps stick to books about Tex-Mex cooking and baseball, subjects that enjoy the full approval of the current President of the United States.

As a matter of fact, the fact that you are reading this blog could, by extension, put you in jeopardy. Maybe you should sell your computer. Better yet, maybe you should disassemble your computer, with an axe.

Just 45 minutes before hearing this story, I borrowed a book from the Baltimore County Public Library regarding progressive/liberal activism from the Wellstone Foundation. I was not a complete fan of the late Senator Paul Wellstone or his far-left economics, but respected his character and willingness to take a political punch on principle. I suppose that that book could be used to mark me as a subversive in need of careful watching. Of course, that book will be put to VERY good use and I just wish I had borrowed five more such books. My schedule does not permit me to engage in the proper stoking of this little blog, let alone any public activism, but I am fired up and angry now, angrier than I have been about any political issue in many years. I guess I am just going to have to buy some No-Doz.

For those who did or did not sleep through Constitutional Law in law school, let's review the actual "black-letter" text of the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The core function of the First Amendment speech, press, assembly and redress clauses is to keep current or future elected governments from using government power to punish, deter or restrain political discussion, political organizing and political activity. This DHS action against a college student borrowing the Little Red Book makes clear that DHS is about being a book police, not about uprooting Islamic terrorists.

In fairness, sometimes content-based restrictions may be good and proper. I do not think that one should be able to disclose private information publicly (e.g. PIN numbers, combination lock codes) or certain REAL national security matters like troop tactics in war or bona fide classified material. These are legitimate, narrow exceptions to the general rule that the government in the U.S. does NOT get to pick and choose your reading list for you. particularly on matters of public policy. Communism was and is murderous, sick, and miserable, but part of what makes it so is the total lack of individual privacy and the total lack of a free press.

The fact that no one in DHS blocked this book from the watch list should tell all of us that our college syllabuses, our library cards and even our credit cards are not safe. For example, I have both borrowed and bought books by Aaron McGruder, the creator/author/artist of The Boondocks. McGruder is bitterly anti-George Bush, very left of center. I know he could get a DHS visit, though they might think better of it. Could I?

My most radical libertarian friends have warned me about abuses of power in strident terms for years, and I have questioned their "excessive rhetoric" in the past, but no longer. If borrowing a a copy of a widely-known historical document to write a history paper in college gets you FEDERAL agents in your parents' living room, we are not the United States of America. I fear that we may have become some other country transplanted onto the topsoil of the former United States of America. As Michael Moore said it best in the title of one of his books: "Dude, Where's My Country?"

If you are a Bush supporter, consider that eventually George Bush will be promoted to "Two-Term Ex-President." Fast forward to 2008, when Hillary Clinton beats, say, Bill Frist by 17 electoral college votes and becomes president of the United States. Maybe your fervent, orthodox religion, your staunch beliefs about gun rights or your outspoken view of abortion as homicide will lead you to be associated with a terrorist like Tim McVeigh or Eric Rudolph. Maybe instead of meeting you at your parents' house, DHS will meet you outside of church or at your job. Maybe your reading list for the past two years will come up in the discussions, and you will be asked to identify acquaintances, co-workers and friends, without your lawyer present.

Now, what do you think?

-- Bruce Godfrey