Everyday it gets worse (NYT):

Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

Oh, there’s more:

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a “Vegan Community Project.” Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group’s “semi-communistic ideology.” A third indicates the bureau’s interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. For more than a year, the A.C.L.U. has been seeking access to information in F.B.I. files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly monitored.

You’ve likely stopped asking yourself, “… the hell?” since your outrage meter broke long ago:

The latest batch of documents, parts of which the A.C.L.U. plans to release publicly on Tuesday, totals more than 2,300 pages and centers on references in internal files to a handful of groups, including PETA, the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers group, which promotes antipoverty efforts and social causes.

No WONDER no one talks about anti-poverty action anymore! The FBI may come knocking. For their part, FBI says not to worry:

“Just being referenced in an F.B.I. file is not tantamount to being the subject of an investigation,” said John Miller, a spokesman for the bureau.

Right. You’re doing this for giggles and shits. My bad.

“The F.B.I. does not target individuals or organizations for investigation based on their political beliefs,” Mr. Miller said. “Everything we do is carefully promulgated by federal law, Justice Department guidelines and the F.B.I.’s own rules.”

So you can investigate and provide oversight over yourself now.

In other words, your rights are being protected because we say they are. And the very idea that you would want proof means that you’re a terrorist. You’re not a terrorist, right? You’re not an eco-terrorist, are you (the wingnut pejorative for environmental activists having the nerve to actually exercise the First Amendment)?  You want to defeat the enemy, right?

See, it’s only for your protection.

Bullshit. “Because I said so” is not a constitutional justification. Any American adult with the sense God gave grits should be disgusted and insulted by this.

And speaking of God, it should be more than clear that the government has decided which religion is correct and therefore non-suspect. Not only are you suspect if you don’t practice Christianity, but there are only a few brands of it you can “choose.”

Blab it and grab it megachurch theology, good.

Quakers and Catholic Worker, bad, a likely communist plot (I thought “communists” were SO 80s) and under investigation.

It cannot get any clearer: there is ONE true set of political beliefs (the rich get richer, the poor will always be with us, and you’re a communist if you’re complaining) and ONE true set of religious beliefs (God said it is His will that the rich get richer, not a construct put into place by people, so enjoy). And if you question or criticize or (gasp!) act against any of this, you are a terrorist.

Cross posted at Liberal Street Fighter

Note: This is just a by-product of the Creeping Authoritarianism detailed so well in Limelite’s must-read diary.