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On an ever-increasing basis, I get the distinctly creepy feeling that high school English class made a very big impact on the neo-cons in office. Not for the quality of writing of such dystopian classics like 1984 and It Can't Happen Here, but as a guideline of what to do once in power (tell me you can look at Karl Rove and not think "Four legs good. Two legs better"), proving once again that the basic lessons of history and humanity are lost on them.

Case in point: drawing from a very apt analogy of Fahrenheit 451 in which firemen went looking for questionable material (like the unacceptable notion of books that make you think) from the citizens to keep them complacent and happy, comes the news that the Department of Homeland Security has "deputized" the FDNY with the ability to report on citizens that may express opinions or have in their possession books that sound "anti-American." A handy ally for DHS, as fire departments and EMTs don't have to waste time with little niggly things like search warrants or probable cause for such searches.

Mike German, formerly with the FBI and now with the ACLU, talks with Keith Olbermann of the highly greased slippery slope we all find ourselves on.