Freedom of Speech in the U.S.A.?

One statement I remember saying while we sat around the campfire on a cool summer night by the sea: The U.S. is going in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting freedoms, and Russia is going in the right direction.

By this I was trying to emphasize the fact that the freedoms are multiplying in the Russian Federation after the dissolving of the Soviet Union a little over 15 years ago. Whereas in our society, the government is cracking down on far more than 15 years ago, restricting the rights of it's citizens, and censuring them. The government has been given (or rather, I should say "has taken" since nobody actually gave the U.S. government this authority, and hence, I ask, is it any longer a democratic republic?) unprecedented authority to investigate, track, basically spy on its own citizens without the due process of law guaranteed by the constitution. The government and large corporations have formed their own special censorship in order to control the messages that are fed to our people.

Well, this news story points out another problem for freedom in the U.S.A.

Dan Rather has filed a 70 million dollar lawsuit against CBS because he was used as a scapegoat and fired for CBS to come out showing a more favorable view of the White House. About this he says: "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news..."

God Bless Dan Rather!

God Save America!

~ Basil