El Peregringo

I simply can’t believe how bad it has become to live in the US. As some of you know, my family and I have just moved to Spain, and while I’ve long gotten the majority of my “printed” news from El País, while I’m here in Spain, I’ve subscribed to the International Herald and Tribune.

I just read an amazing report of US government goons going overboard. It seems that a Mr. Jim Benson, from Alton, IL, went to a hearing about fish ladders on the Mississippi, and the various alternatives. One such alternative is to remove some of the dams, and apparently, in the presentation, a photo of a different dam being blown up was presented to illustrate that option. At the end of the presentation, Mr. Benson rose to speak out in support of removing the dam.

Some local intrepid reporter mis-quoted the hapless Mr. Benson as “wanting to blow up the dam,” and shortly thereafter he received a visit from the FBI.

You know, I want to be protected from terrorism, but for crying out loud, can’t the Bush administration and their lackeys come up with better filtering than this? How much do we citizens pay in taxes to get this kind of piss poor protection?