Help! Help! I'm Bein' Repressed!

Many of the same people who demand President Bush release his service records to prove his innocence of AWOL charges will be screeching like nails on chalkboards over this one.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists.

Consequently, all left wing blogs have been forced to shut down.

Sorry, folks, but an investigation? This is how law enforcement determines if a crime has been committed, or whether sufficient evidence exists to warrant a trial. We aren't talking about rolling in tanks here, and to insist that campus "political activities" are exempt from any scrutiny whatsoever is a bit naive. (An extreme example for the sake of the point: your frat has an "anti-war kegger" during which several females are drugged and raped.)

The court, as in all cases, is forbidden from commenting, so thus far only one side of this story is told. Even so, as is hinted at later in the piece, we're getting about half the story that a reporter worth his paycheck could provide:

The targets of the subpoenas believe investigators are trying to link them to an incident that occurred during the rally. A Grinnell College librarian was charged with misdemeanor assault on a peace officer; she has pleaded innocent, saying she simply went limp and resisted arrest.

Even the local Civil Liberties Union rep knows better:

"The best approach is not to speculate and see what we learn on Tuesday" when the four testify, said Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, which is representing one of the protesters.

See kids, you're a little premature on this one. (See here, here, here, here) By the way, there are more than a few of us who will be there to defend you should the big bad boogie government ever show up to haul you off to the gulag.

Ultra right wing fascist Fox News, of course, carries the same story.

There now, all better.