FASCISM BEGINS AT HOME

Hi everybody. The current terrorist alert level is "elevated" which is yellow. Or maybe orange. Perhaps chartreuse? I can never get it straight...

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Well, we are officially on the path to fascism. Today the U.S. government deported Cat "Peace Train" Stevens on the same day that it released from captivity a Saudi national who was fighting with the Taliban.

Stevens, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam when he became a Muslim in the 1970s, had been placed on a U.S. "no fly" list and has been deported to Britian according to State Department officials and reports in the Associated Press.

A law enforcement official who asked not to be identified said the United States had information that Islam, who visited the United States in May, had donated money to the militant Islamic group Hamas.

Islam/Stevens has long donated money to charitable causes and has taken a particular interest in children victimized by wars in Bosnia, Iraq and in the Palestinian settlements.

Meanwhile, Yaser Hamdi, who has ties to terrorist organizations based out of Saudi Arabia and who fought with the Taliban against the U.S. in 2001, has now been released from a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Under terms of his release, Hamdi, who was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, cannot return to the United States nor can he visit Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Syria, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

Although it is not clear what he was being held for, he has been captive for almost three years and was once thought to be such a threat by the Homeland Security department that he was held in a naval stockade without being allowed to contact a lawyer.

Given this recent information, I have compiled a list of known and not-so-well known Americans who should be concerned about being deported any day now. These include, but are not limited to:

--John Kerry
--John Edwards
--Michael Moore (start packing)
--Jeneane Garofalo
--Me
--Anyone else who contributes to, or regularly reads Dissent Channel
--Sean Penn
--Democratic billionaire industrialist George Soros, who was recently accused by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert of being involved with drug cartels.
--Bill Maher
--Chris Rock
--Your mama
--Senator Barbara Boxer
--Dan Rather and the producers of 60 Minutes
--Reverend Jesse Jackson and anyone else who actually tried to negotiate with Palestinan leaders instead of just shooting at them.
--Gloria Steinem

Personally, I just hope they fly me out on first class. The leg room is so much better.