A truly chilling development, folks.

I apologize for the brevity of this diary but I found this disturbing article on the HuffPost, and as of yet, I’ve not found another source. If it’s true, (and I have faith that it is)... we all have a major problem.

It’s certainly no secret that the Bush administration has taken a very adversarial stance when it comes to bloggers and how we reveal the corruption and injustices they commit on a day to day basis. And now, it’s becoming clear that the administration has declared a full-scale war against bloggers.

On Friday, I wrote about the, Bush Admin. Trying to Block 'Shield' for Bloggers

Here’s a particularly salient quote from that diary:

"The definition is just so broad that it really includes anyone who wants to post something to the Web," Rachel Brand, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy, said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing here. She also argued it would protect "a terrorist operative who videotaped a message from a terrorist leader threatening attacks on Americans."

Well, much like the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war is escalating.

Lee Kaplan a blogger at David Horowitz’s extreme far-right, anti-Muslim FrontPageMag.com, has taken a college student, a fellow blogger, to court for maintaining a blog, Lee Kaplan Watch for what Kaplan calls, “business interference.”

Apparently, the judge agreed with Kaplan, awarding him $7,500.

The article is from a blog called, Seeing the Forest for the Trees:

The blogger writes,

I hope that sufficient attention is paid to the great danger that what has happened to me poses to all of us. It is by all means a serious issue. My first amendment rights have been subverted with support from the courts, which only shows that everybody is in danger of facing these abusive small claims court defamation suits. My speech has been punished by a ruling with no opinion explaining why or advising me what not to do in the future. My credibility has been tarnished by a trial with incredibly low standards for admissible evidence and a messy, inconsistent court procedure. And, for me, worst of all: I will never know what element of Kaplan's claim, if any, the judge agreed with, though Kaplan will certainly continue to claim that all of them were accepted, though he knows well that this is not the case.

This is a freedom of speech and right-to-blog issue. We must do something to reverse this because it will become a convenient way for right-wingers to harass all of us.

He's absolutely right. We need to nip this thing in the bud before Abu Gonzalez manages to dismantle what amounts to our most sacred right under the Constitution.

I would even go a bit further and say that this is a classic "freedom of speech" issue. It not only blatantly defies the First Amendment but also Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Start dialing, poundin’ the keyboard, or lickin’ stamps... whatever your preference is... Do it!

We cannot let this stand!

Throw da bums out!

Peace

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