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11/04/2004: "USA a democratic country? Blogger gets visit from US Secret Service"

In this weblog, I have not yet taken information from other sites - the entry below is (for now?) the exception.

[b]Blogger gets night visit from US Secret Service[/b]
Link = http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19469

Blog, blog. Who's there? Ann. Ann who? Ann who's asking?

By Wil Harris: Thursday 04 November 2004, 10:05
A WRITER on popular blog-site LiveJournal has posted of her nightmare ordeal with the US Secret Service, an event spurred by a posting she made to her blog criticising George Bush prior to the Presidential Election earlier this week.

Whilst the offending post has been removed - to spare other users further Federal interference, according to author 'anniesj' - you can see her account of events in full, which has been left as a word to the wise.

Secret Service came a-knockin' on Annie at 9:45 PM, but arrived quickly at the conclusion that she wasn't a threat to National Security, more a chick living at home with her mum. Nonetheless, they made sure she got a file at the FBI including her photo, email, and medical records. I guess those boys really like to give the full service.

Agents told her that they had received a report (presumably saying that someone had dared to question the motives, sanity or intellectual capacity of The War President) from another blogger who had been reading Annie's site, and therefore followed up. Achtung!

The tale is a lesson to us all. Number one lesson is that what happens on the internet can and will bite you on the ass in real life. We've seen it time and time again with internet affairs and sordid emails - now, you'd better watch where you put your political commentating toes. Number two is that no matter how cool and geeky the community - and LiveJournal is both - there will always be someone that ruins it for everyone else. And they will probably be Republican.

Annie commented that she didn't feel her civil rights had been infringed, and that Sekrit Servis agents were simply doing their jobs. We'd suggest that there are plenty more jobs they could be doing, like finding Osama Bin Laden, which might be a bit more productive to the countries safety and security.

You can read the full text of Annie's fun and games by checking out her blog here. Be warned though - the rest of it is about gay relationships in Harry Potter. Now where did I put my wand? µ

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Annie might not feel her civil rights had been infringed .... I would. It just goes to prove that even 'freedom of speech' is regulated in the USA ....... especially when you comment against the president.

And they (the Americans) think that we are blinkered!!!