Does TIAA-CREF Hate America?

Okay, has anyone else noticed that the customers targeted by TIAA-CREF in their commercials-- "people in the academic, medical, cultural, and research fields"-- are the citizens most likely to be targeted as political enemies of the Bush administration? What does this MEAN?

Things to Do: REPEAL THE PATRIOT ACT

When this administration started its war on the Constitution and its media blitz against free thought and expression-- what they describe as an attempt to restore presidential power broken by Watergate, and a return to corporate interests destroyed by the New Deal-- I laminated my ACLU card just in case... and sure enough, I've taken it out three times in public to show to people who were bad-mouthing the ACLU. In each case, they apologized for the slur on members of the ACLU. They were verbal bullies. They said they hadn't thought about what they were saying, only repeated cliches of the far-right as an excuse to push someone around.

"Speaking Truth to Power" Now Officially Against the Law

The Gloves Are Off: Screw You, Screw the Constitution, and Screw Yo' Mama Too. From the Rocky Mountain News, October 3rd:
"A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek this summer and criticized him for his policies concerning Iraq.
Attorney David Lane said that on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people.
... Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on....Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail."

I'm sure glad our Congressmen found a way to "compromise" on habeas corpus last week; now anyone can be labelled an enemy combatant and arrested without probable cause. Enjoy your new country, boys; I hope to see you choke on it. Four Republicans: Lincoln Chafee, Gordon Smith, Arlen Specter, and John Sununu-- voted with the Democrats to strike down the provision regarding habeas review. They lost, 48-51. One Democrat-- a grinning, glowing, globular fellow, Ben Nelson from Nebraska-- voted with the Republicans, and one Republican-- Olympia Snowe from Maine-- abstained, no doubt for a highly principled reason.