The Story Of Uncle Iggy

This is a story about uncle Iggy. This is also a true and scary story of how uncle Iggy became a zombie. This is also a story on how uncle Iggy got away from being a zombie only to be attacked from a different direction by those who made him a zombie in the first place. So fill up your coffee mug get comfortable make sure you have your teddy bear and a warm blankie to keep you safe and I will present to you a modern day medical horror story.

A brief note: To the government agencies who are likely spying : Greetings! To the rest of you who are reading this I am not even beginning to tell you to stop taking meds or to ignore your doctor. I am giving you the story of uncle Iggy's decisions. Secondly while I may sound a bit tough on the doctors, the problem is not so much them, it's the fact that there are too few to go around and so they have to do things much quicker than they might actually like, having said that there is still no reason to be rude to a patient. End of Note.

Chapter One: In the beginning.......Isn't that a lovely way to start a story? Sounds almost biblical.....

There was a quiet humble man named Iggy, OK that’s not quite true because Iggy is a Marine and there is nothing humble about a Marine in full plumage. Iggy is a family man with a wonderful wife,gorgeous, intelligent, ( yes she is reading this) and crazy enough to put up with uncle Iggy. He has three children, one who is grown and gone and two at home that fearfully remember the days of him being a zombie. Some clarification, his wife was working in those days so the two youngest ate a lot of tuna and mac, NOT because he tried to eat them ,or anything quite that weird. They all lived happily ever after.....oops getting ahead of myself.....they all lived in Vermont just before the turn of the century,( I have always wanted to write that phrase), and all was well until Iggy got the bright idea to go back into the Marines. In all fairness that was prompted by a sudden lack of employment and a certain need to eat and see to it that the family had clothes and what not because ,as liberal as Vermont is, they still don't let you wander around naked, though if you do it in the winter they might just let it go just for the entertainment factor. So at the advanced age of mid thirties Iggy put on his nations uniform once again and took his family off to a new adventure in foreign lands such as California and North Carolina and all was well for a while.

Chapter Two: The attacks of 9/1/1

Leaving all humor for the moment, the attacks literally and figuratively rocked the world. Uncle Iggy's work load, as a platoon Sgt., tripled and as a result he became very sick, spent quite a bit of time in the hospital, and started the first of many medications. Things were not good. The government made sure that he was just well enough to send off to war and, just to make sure that he was really well protected, gave him various vaccinations, none of which had been actually approved by the FDA, and some of which he had had as a child, and sent him off to play in the biggest kitty litter box in the world. Spring break 2003 was about to start! They failed to mention that the “vaccinations” had side effects and possible complications. Uncle Iggy was not aware of any of this at the time he just knew that he hadn’t felt well since they had given them to him but being a good new zombie he didn't question it until several years later.

Chapter Three: War is hell but drugs are great!

Uncle Iggy, as you can Imagine, came back from war a very different man. Setting aside injuries and illness, he had to spend his time remembering all that he had seen and experienced and deal with a population of people who treated him like he was from Mars. In all fairness those who really mattered still treated him well, but having returned back to Vermont it really wasn't in his best interest to tell anyone that he had gone to war because the good and peaceful anti war demonstrators had already demonstrated just how much they loved military people by attacking national guard troops in uniform and ripping up flags. He didn't sleep much because of the rather intense nightmares and there really being no one that he could talk to that would understand. So uncle Iggy, as many veterans do, checked into the VA healthcare system and the zombification started in earnest. After going through a battery of physical and mental exams it was determined that what he needed was lots of drugs and that would take him to happy land where there were rainbows and unicorns. I know this to be a real place because the gummy bears told me so. Iggy, being rather tired and in pain, also being curious about unicorns and talking gummy bears,complied.

He had so many medications going at the same time that to this day he can't remember them all. He had meds for pain, for arthritis, to help him sleep, for stress, (there were several of those) and for various side effects that came along with the all drugs. It was total Zombie time. Uncle Iggy doesn't really remember a lot about went on at that time because he was so highly medicated but he did manage to pack on 50 lbs and his children got to learn about various combos of mac and tuna. His wife will tell you that his days were basically simple; He would get up have some coffee take his meds and by 10 am would be sound asleep on the couch. He would wake up just before she had to go to work and kind of muddle through the rest of the afternoon and almost be human just about the time to take another dose and go to bed. Now granted he wasn't a true zombie in that he didn't go out and eat brains, he didn't even know where his own were never mind having the ambition to go looking for any others, but his life was just about as close as you could come to it with out Will Smith showing up at the door to try and cure him.

Chapter Four: The wife intervenes and there is less zombie.

Uncle Iggys' children were finally saved by their mother. She somehow got through to that muddled, zombified mind that the children needed to eat something more than tuna and mac and that he needed to get off the meds and try something different. He listened. Out went the drugs, in came herbs and other more holistic remedies, and the zombification process stopped. I would love to tell you that the nightmares had all gone away along with the pain and illnesses, but life is rarely that kind to people, and so you have to make a serious choice, either live with what your dealt or live as a zombie, granted the zombie world did have unicorns and rainbows, but instead he chose to deal with it. Unknown to Uncle Iggy or his wife was that the next wave of zombification was about to begin

Chapter Five: The disease zombification.

Fast forward a few years and we find uncle Iggy getting better. He still has his aches and pains and still has to deal with the nightmares, though less frequently, and from time to time his magical mystery disease lays him out for a bit but over all he is doing better. He has tried to stay away from the VA as much as possible, opting instead for local witch doctors if at all possible while still going to the VA whenever absolutely needed. I am guessing that they don't really like that when you do this and that they must keep track of your absence because, in the words of uncle Iggy, “ when you do go to see them they seem to go out of their collective way to find something wrong with you, beyond what is already there.” The proof? New diseases coming out of literally no where. About 2 years ago uncle Iggy went in for his annual visit to the VA, it used to be every few months then six months and now it's usually about a year, got to love that government health care ( you knew I was going to say that somewhere) and in the course of things they did blood work on him. This was not a “fasting” batch of blood work, no this was right after a meal and after a rather interesting weekend of bonfires, food and beverage. Yet when it was done, even after he had told them of his maniacal weekend, they still listed it as fasting. Amazingly enough the blood sugar level was normal but they decided that there was something troubling about the liver enzymes and suggested that perhaps there was some kind of liver disease going on and that they needed to do more tests. Panic ensued ,the unicorns ran away and the rainbows faded. This is where the new attempt at zombification began.

Chapter Six: What the bleep is going on?

So now uncle Iggy is concerned. Who wouldn't be? You can't live with out your liver and so ,as you can imagine, he worried. For several weeks he got to sit and stew over what might be wrong and his views of worse case scenarios made the movie 2012 look like a quiet stroll on a Sunday afternoon. Finally the time for the new round of testing arrives, an MRI, but before they can begin he has to have his blood pressure taken and more blood work. His blood pressure is through the roof so much so that they decide that the one med he is taking for “hypertension” is not enough and he needs to take another one along with it. Uncle Iggy is damn near in panic mode at this point because he is watching his body fall apart. If you had told him that his ears were going to fall off next he wouldn't have been surprised.

They ran the next set of tests on the liver and send him home and when the new med arrived, for the blood pressure, he eagerly took it thinking that the doc prescribed it and so therefore it must be necessary. Please keep in mind, dear reader, that uncle Iggy has no desire to die and wants to live to see his great ,great grandchildren so with that in mind he started taking the medication. It was a mistake but he didn't figure that out until just recently. Going back to the liver issue for just a moment, it turned out that uncle Iggy has a much larger liver than the average person and that it was perfectly fine, the enzymes were nothing more than a result of it's unusual size.

Chapter Seven: Another attempt.

Uncle Iggy was in trouble. Unbeknownst to him the newest zombie attack attempt had already started but he didn't see the warning signs. I suppose his first clue should have been the severe urge to wander around aimlessly and eat people brains but he seemed to miss that part and the part that showed he was gaining a lot of weight back that he had previously lost. Enter another blood test. This time it was for a arthritis clinic so there was no fasting needed however they treated it as such and out of no where suddenly uncle Iggy was now a diabetic because the blood glucose reading was high. Now just imagine if Uncle Iggy had a wife who was any less beautiful and intelligent, yes she is reading this, and who didn't have a memory that a computer would envy. He had forgotten the fact that they had eaten lunch just before that set of tests and might have been suckered in completely. As it was he was concerned enough so that when the new med came to try to lower the blood sugar he took it. It caused him severe headaches. That’s when his beautiful, intelligent wife remembered that they had eaten before the test so rather then going back to the VA for a med for the headaches he stopped taking the med and went herbal again. Meanwhile the weight gain was continuing.

Chapter Eight. It's all my fault?

Uncle Iggy wound up moving to another state and had to go to a new VA and was assigned a new doctor. O gentle reader please understand this is an example of government run health care at it's finest, while they may share information they don't actually READ the information. So rather then ask Iggy what had changed that might be the cause of the a fore mentioned weight gain, or checking to see if perhaps the medication might be having an adverse reaction, he immediately decided that Uncle Iggy must be sucking down copious amounts of Twinkies and Mountain Dew, which admittedly has it's appeal, though Uncle Iggy is more of an ice cream kind of guy, but if he had been doing that he would have literally been seeing the rainbows and unicorns mentioned earlier from a caffeine and sugar overdose. And so the doctor proceeded to chew Iggy out for gaining weight and suggested that if he wanted to get off of meds that he needed to change his ways and he wanted more blood work to be done to prove that uncle Iggy was indeed diabetic. He also upped the dosage in the newest med. So basically without checking all factors the doctor assumed and suggested that all the gain was nothing more than his fault. Upon leaving Uncle Iggy was furious. It not good to tick off uncle Iggy not to mention his wife.

Chapter Nine: Vindication

Upon arriving at their illustrious mansion uncle Iggy and his intelligent ( did I mention she is beautiful as well?) wife started to research the meds that he was on and low and behold they can cause weight gain and cause a rise in your blood sugar levels! Even better, when mixed with the diabetic medicine they wanted to give to him, it would cause all sorts of other adverse effects such as massive headaches! Now to me this is an amazing thing that two low educated people who are not being paid to research these things can find this information in short order, while the paid professionals can't or won't. So uncle Iggy stopped taking that medication as well and not only has he lost some of the weight that he had gained, it's only been a few weeks after all,the lab results came back and showed that there was nothing wrong with the blood sugar levels or enzymes or anything else of a blood work type nature. Vindication.

There is a moral behind this story, and it is rather simple: question everything. Don't assume that because you are dealing with a doctor, especially one being paid by the government, that they have your best interest in mind or that they know everything. Many of them do, many of them are good and honest people but it seems that the VA ( government run) has a highly disproportionate amount of doctors that treat you like you are nothing but a number and just try to hurry you through so they can get to the next patient. Second thing though, especially if your a doctor, make sure your patient doesn't write blogs, especially if you intend to insult them or belittle them in any way with out checking all the facts, because we will tell and loudly.

The end has come, my point has been made...

Off and on over the last 6 months or so I have considered dis-continuing to write "Simple Minded" and have finally decided that this will be my last post. My reasoning for it is as simple as I have tried to make this blog. First and foremost the points that I have been trying to make, our government becoming corrupted and seriously violating or ignoring the Constitution, has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.  You would have to be living under a rock or on another planet to not see it ,yet it would seem, that most Americans are OK with all of this, not necessarily those of you who read this, but it would seem that with a serious apathetic     and sheep like attitude the vast majority of Americans simply don't care or they believe the lie that we have to sacrifice our freedom for safety ,which has been the siren call of all dictators for centuries. So as such I feel that I am wasting my time in the effort to wake people up. Obviously most of you who read this humble blog are on the same page with me or you wouldn't bother, unless your the NSA that is, and there are not many of you still reading, so I will leave you to other patriots who perhaps have more knowledge than myself with the same amount of passion.
My second reason is that I want to focus more on spiritual matters in my other blog " His Quiet Voice" because even though I like politics, as I have said before, my argument has been made for me by the government and there is little more that I could add, but also because it has been burning me out to the point of missing the things of the spirit which are by far of more importance.
Simply put; I can do little to nothing to stop the corruption that is going on in this world and in our government. There is no president , king,  or politician that can, or will even try, to stop it until the time of the Messiah has come and God has set His kingdom up on this earth. So His kingdom is where I will put my hope and trust and leave the politics to others.
Shalom.

Treason and Mr. Snowden

It is amazing to me how things in politics can change in such a short period of time. Not long ago the focus was all on the fact of the government spying on us in various ways or using agencies to screen or target various groups depending on their political affiliation. Today we seem to have forgotten that the government is the actual bad guy doing the spying on us and are now focused on the messenger.

Mr. Snowden is no saint, of that I am quite sure, but he is no criminal either. He told the truth to the American people; we are indeed being spied on by our own government. That’s the message plain and simple. What was his crime? What makes him any different then others who have been saying the same things for years, including myself, other then he had actual written proof?

Consider that the very people who are accusing him of treason are the same people who frequently violate the constitution that they are sworn to uphold and protect and refuse to play by the same rules that they lay out for the rest of us. So what is their real problem? They got caught with their trousers down and by getting caught they are afraid of losing some of the power they have been slowly grabbing over the past 15 years or so.

Now that they have charged him with treason lets consider what it actually means to commit treason. Websters dictionary describes it as such: The offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family also the betrayal of trust as in treachery.

The “ Concise Encyclopedia” says this: Offense of attempting to overthrow the government of one's country or of assisting its enemies in war. In the U.S., the framers of the Constitution defined treason narrowly—as the levying of war against the U.S. or the giving of aid and comfort to its enemies—in order to lessen the possibility that those in power might falsely or loosely charge their political opponents with treason.

So this brings up a whole host of questions. What country was he trying to overthrow? What sovereign was he trying to kill? What enemies of the the US was he assisting? If you answer the third question logically you can only assume,based on this definition, that we are the enemies in question because we were the ones that were informed. I suppose it could be argued that he aided the Brits, well OK it was a British news paper, but he told them none the less, yet last I knew we are allies and we haven't been at war with them since the war of 1812, maybe I missed the enemy memo.

What did he say that would actually surprise our enemies? They had to have known this was going on already, the only way the couldn't have would have been to be using nothing more than smoke signals and beating drums. Yet last time I looked if you wanted to know something you didn't have to go any further than CNN. Just before I was deployed to Kuwait and then to Iraq, after being told that we couldn't tell anyone, CNN reported that 7,000 Marines were leaving Camp LeJeune heading for Kuwait. When I called a very dear friend of mine to say good bye they already knew. In the electronic age you cannot anything for very long.

It has been said by some that he should return to the US to face the charges, that he should make his case in court. Do you honestly think that it would happen? Do you really think he wouldn't just disappear? He is an American citizen in an America that now allows it's own citizens to be indefinitely detained, by the military, without any charges ever being filed ,where American citizens can be killed with impunity based on the presidents judgment with out charges or trial. Where the federal government will use the power that it has to investigate you if you openly speak against the president and his policies. If he is smart he will stay away as long as he can.

So what did he say that really surprised anyone? Nothing. As I said before; in this electronic age with global communications there is no way you can hide things for long. Many people having been trying to tell Americans that this has been going on for years and most have either ignored it, thought we were nothing but tin foil hat types, or have embraced it.

The only thing that happened is that they got caught. They are embarrassed and Mr. Snowden has become the latest scape goat. Rather than focus on the message they have distracted everyone with the messenger.

Summer Tin Foil Hat Time

Start tin foil transmission. Various quotes come from AP, CNN,FOX, and The Washington Post and my own screwed up mind. I don't take any credit for the reports just my own.
Politicians must love the summer. With summer officially only two days away many of the news items that have been running amok in the press will likely go away as we all head out to do our favorite things, I call them the three “B's” you know beer ,BBQ , and beach. The hard fought battles and scandals of the winter and spring will go away and upon your return to the political world it will begin the election 2014 season. Gone will be the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, gone will be the IRS targeting conservative groups. Missing will be the AG office snooping on the press as well NSA spying on all of us. Missing in action will be all those commentaries from people in DC who support spying on us in violation of the 4^th pesky amendment. Summer and holidays have a way of cauterizing our political wounds and making us forgetful as we doze in the warmth.
So as you head off to your vacations, if you can afford one any how, just remember some of us tin foil hat types will be here trying to keep things in order for you so upon your return you can be reminded of what is real, not the illusion of whats real.
In the mean time here are just a few thoughts to start your summer with.
How many of you remember the whole sequestration issue? I know its been months now and we Americans have a really short memory but it seems to me that if there is such a budget crisis,as we have been lead to believe, then there is something dreadfully wrong here. The president and his family are going to spend up wards of 100 million dollars to go to Africa for a week or so. Excuse me? They can spend all that money on “vacation” while Walter Reed has to furlough people with out pay.
“President Obama’s trip this month to Africa, with the first family tagging along, is projected to cost taxpayers as much as $100 million, sparking criticism as the federal government scrimps along during sequester-related budget cuts.”
“Among the related costs will be fighter jets; hundreds of Secret Service agents; a Navy ship with a full trauma center; and military cargo planes to bring 56 vehicles including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bullet proof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay.
The details were reported by The Washington Post, based on a confidential planning document.”
So while they are enjoying Africa on your dime and with a supposed budget crisis going on:

“Thousands of civilian workers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center -- the country’s top facility for wounded combat soldiers -- are facing furloughs this summer, as a result of sequester and other federal budget problems, according to the Defense Department.

Roughly 2,400 workers at the suburban Washington facility were recently notified by letter that the department needs them to take off as many as 11 days without pay this summer to help with “extraordinary and serious budgets challenges.” Fox News
If that doesn't set sparks flying from your tinfoil hat maybe this might. Again ,remember the sequester, but also consider that this agency targeted political groups that are conservative and while you might hate conservative groups consider if they target them they may come after yours when the political winds finally change as they historically do.

“The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.”
The timing of all this is wonderful waiting until tax day is done and most people minds are focused on summer vacations and aren't really paying attention.
And last, at least for today, in the “violate the constitution”section we have worded proof that our elected officials from the president on down really don't believe in the constitution that they are sworn to uphold.

“The center lives. Bipartisanship is not dead, as Democratic and Republican congressional leaders rally around the National Security Agency's big data grab. With the exception of op-ed writers, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Pauls — Rand and Ron — Washington's establishment is standing together with the administration. In this scrum, party is secondary, at least on Capitol Hill. In a show of unity virtually unseen since 9/11, the congressional leadership has come out unanimously in support of the status quo, while deflecting allegations that The Guardian's news story was actually news.”

Now I agree with them on one part of it; it's really not news. Many have known about it for years and have warned long and loud about it. Now it's in your face and can't be ignored. It is also no real news that those whom we have elected don't really care about it as long as they can keep their power.

So just keep in mind as you go out to enjoy the summer months that your government is thinking about you and quite literally watching you, and while you can't get into a federal preserve or do a White House tour because of the sequestration or because you can't afford a vacation just think of the president and his family while they are enjoying Africa on your dime.

End of tin foil transmission.

Lessons from an old Marine

Here is the simplified version of what is going on in DC via an illustration from and old Marine I once served under.

An old Sgt.Major that I had back in the dark ages described honesty and integrity like this; Honesty and integrity means that I can drop my wallet full of cash and credit cards along with my ID on the parade deck and after a weekend of liberty either finding it where I dropped it with everything still in it or finding it in the duty office where some Marine brought it to after finding it on the deck. Either way all the money, credit cards and ID are still in it and no harm has been done. Simply put honesty and integrity is doing what is right even when no one is looking or even if what is right is not popular.

With all that’s been going on in the government, they would have picked up his wallet, took all the money, traced his credit history with his credit cards, used his ID to look him up on Google and Face Book to see what he was saying on line. Then check his social security number for tax evasion or to see if he had health insurance and fine him if not. If he had dropped a cell phone as well they would be looking at his text messages and who he was talking to. In the end his only crime would prove to be that he dropped his wallet and phone. They would tell him, if they were caught that is, that it was for his security and safety and he had nothing to hide so why be concerned. This is the complete opposite of honesty and integrity.

This is a very simplistic way to look at the ongoing problems in Washington but sometimes simply put is whats needed when we hear little more than talking points or political speech.

This isn't a partisan issue. There have been both democrats and republicans who seem to have little to no problem with the NSA, FBI, CIA (pick your agency) spying on American citizens. We have a president who says he “welcomes the debate” what debate? This has been done with out our knowledge or consent and is in clear violation of the 4^th amendment. There is no debate to be had.

Honesty and integrity; doing whats right when no one is looking. The government has failed and now we are all looking.

Verizon Users vs the Government.

So all of you who use Verizon feeling pretty good right now? Perhaps you don't know yet? The National Security Agency, the NSA for short, has all of your phone records! That puts you in the company of Fox News and the AP! Doesn't that just give you warm fuzzies?! Especially for those of you who love this current administration. I know that Bush and company started all this madness with the “Patriot Act” but I thought your man and his administration was going to be “ the most transparent administration ever.” I thought that he was going to get rid of all the evil done under the republicans and restore our freedoms and liberties and improve our standing in the world. Did I miss the memo changing things? When was it that we became the Soviet Union?

Here is a question for you to ponder. If they have gotten to Verizon, this is for those of us who don't use their services, what makes you think that they don't have the records of all our carriers? They had them from just about all the carriers back during the Bush era ,thanks to provisions made in the Patriot Act, so why wouldn't Obama and company do the same?

I suppose though that this is just another one of those times where it doesn't really matter to most Americans. You have nothing to hide and you should always expect that your personal information to be public, forget about that pesky 4^th amendment that foolishly says”The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Of course they didn't have cell phones in those days,the founding fathers could never have imagined such things but just like modern guns, which they couldn't have imagined either,we should expect our liberties to be curtailed for the good of all, but hey this is all perfectly acceptable under the Patriot Act and has been going on for years according to Senators Fienstein and Chambliss the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Select Committee On Intelligence. They insist that only the Metadata is being collected ,not the actual conversations, and can't be used unless FISA approves. This coming from the same people who tried to tell us that the TSA couldn't keep records of people going through the scanners. Right, we know how that turned out.

Look I am a simple minded person, hence the name of this blog, I get it that there are bad guys out there planning evil things but the idea of the 4^th amendment is that you target very specific people and things not everyone and everything. This isn't about democrat vs republican because both parties are complicit in allowing this to go on, this is about your fundamental rights being violated by a government that is way out of control and one that frequently,in the last 13 years or so, does so quite openly and blatantly.

Maybe I'm the one that’s out of touch with reality. Perhaps everyone really doesn't mind the government monitoring everything that they do constantly, I do but I suppose I am too simple Minded to understand why others are OK with it.

Freedom Of The Press

Tinfoil hat time.

Call me what you will, but when major news organizations such as AP and FOX have their freedom of the press messed with I get concerned. Of course many of you might simply dismiss FOX because the government doesn't see them as a “real” news organization and ,being politically correct, you'd have to go with what the government says. But if your a writer of any kind I would worry if I was you. In light of all these other things that have come out lately of what the government is doing what makes you so sure that they aren't targeting you as well? What makes you so sure that they haven't tapped in to other news organizations such as CNN or ABC? The only reason we know about these two is because they were caught.

I have been writing for years on things pertaining to the constitution and the freedom of speech being attacked ,all to no avail, and now its really coming to light as just how far they are willing to go to violate that right. I have gotten into heated battles over defending the rights of people who were not PC in what they said. I defended their rights to speak and to be seen as idiots with the simple point being that if you value the freedom of speech then you must accept the rights of those whom you disagree with to speak. If you don't who is going to defend you when what you say becomes un popular?

What continues to surprise me is the lack of concern, so it would appear anyhow, from most of the media not involved in this case, and the argument that I keep hearing that you shouldn't be worried if you have nothing to hide.

The problem with that argument is that in both these major cases their was nothing to hide. In the case of the AP they told the government what they had and they complied with waiting a bit before they published it, meanwhile, even after being cooperative, they were being investigated and their phone records seized all under the radar. What was their crime? Investigating and asking questions as journalists have done for 200 years. In the case of FOX they went so far as to accuse the head of their Washington bureau of being a “co-conspirator of possible criminal activity” as justification of searching his personal records. Again, as in the case of the AP, his only “crime” was asking for information. I also saw a brief note today that perhaps CBS has been investigated as well though I have no confirmation as of yet. I understand that the government has a responsibility to investigate things that have a serious effect on national security but neither of these cases as well as some of the whistle blowers, that they have gone after, have done anything wrong.

I have read , from other news sources, that this is already having an effect on how reporters are getting their information as insiders are a bit reluctant to give information to journalists and who can blame them? This administration has made it a point to prosecute whistle blowers and to go after reporters and their sources in clear violation of the Constitution. Who's next?

I don't care if they try to shut me down, I have about 10 readers world wide so I am no threat to them but what about you? I know that a few of you who occasionally read my blog are professional writers, people who are read by thousands world wide if not millions, aren't you even a little concerned that perhaps you are going to do some research on something and find yourself in trouble for asking the wrong person the right questions? Or that you might have sources of information that will dry up because people are afraid to share info? You might think I am being melodramatic here but these are very serious questions that you have to ask yourself. If they are willing to go after the big dogs what makes you think they won't come after you as well? More importantly though, if the government is allowed to continue this practice who is ever going to be able to keep the governments feet to the fire if not the press? Granted up until recently I haven't been sure that they have even been doing their jobs but now that they are a target it's amazing to see.

In many ways its being very hypocritical on their part. While the federal government has been passing bills or using executive orders to stop free speech, such as not being able to protest anywhere near government officials that have secret service protection or having your tax exempt status threatened or questioned if your views are not politically correct, they have remained mostly silent. Now that they are being targeted they are outraged.

So I am mot going to belabor the point but here is the first amendment emphasis is mine.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In my humble opinion this is worse then their attempts at the 2^nd amendment because this they can do under the radar and it only becomes clear when those being investigated find out.

Just my simple minded opinion.