After all Mason Hess’ recent protests, despite his laughable earlier declaration of American life as indistinguishable from ‘martial law,’ he still can’t name a single thing — out of all those ‘rights and liberties’ he claims the Bushies have decimated — that he could do pre-Bush that he can’t do now as a result of a Bush policy.

Not one?

I see. No wonder he struggles so hard — albeit hopelessly — to dismiss the question as ‘irrelevant.’ Until he can answer it, it destroys his whole Bush-as-dictator argument.

As to no-knock warrants, Mason might try obtaining such a warrant himself, whereupon he’ll soon learn that judicial oversight of same is so hyper-cautious that many a criminal goes free lest judges stick their necks out on a bad search, Pratt anomaly (whatever its curiously unpublicized truth) notwithstanding. When Mason goes through the door with the entry team himself sometime, he’ll lose all that confusion about the risks to personnel and evidence right pronto.

I have my own bones to pick with the Bushies. Moreover, I don’t blame Mason for being leery of government – it’s a feeling I share for ample reason – but baseless, hysterical paranoia serves no one. Let’s not waste our angst on contrived serpents, while the real snakes are proliferating elsewhere on our plane.

William Slusher

Okanogan