The Tuesday, August 25 announcement of the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate CIA interrogation methods by US Attorney General Eric Holder demonstrates once again the contempt liberals hold for dissent. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid labels town hall attendees "evil mongers." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denigrates Americans who oppose health care legislation as "Astroturf" (a political insider euphemism describing "protesters for hire"). The Speaker goes on to allege that said "Astroturf" brandishes signs with "swastikas."

The Obama Administration advises website visitors to refer the senders of "fishy" emails to the White House. Hate crimes legislation currently under consideration by Congress institutes criminal penalties for acts motivated by "the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person" (language codified in Public Law 103-322 in 1994). Never mind that violent acts addressed by the hate crimes legislation already are criminal in their own right. This new legislation proposes to punish not only the criminal acts, but the thoughts behind the acts.

The criminalization of thought, and thereby, dissent, should be a frightening prospect to Americans. Essentially, those opposing government policies, or proposals or ideas preferred by elected officials, may soon find their disagreement punishable by law.

Go back and dust off George Orwell's 1984. Or if you haven't read it, get a copy. The totalitarian state personified by Big Brother in that dark parable punished expression unsanctioned by the government and called it thoughtcrime. The job of the book's main character consisted of continually updating and revising news reports. The state pervaded the lives of its subjects, coercing them into perpetuating its infallibility and constantly revising history to suit the state's ends.

Attorney General Holder, whose boss, President Barack Obama, came to office opposing the Iraq war and the previous Bush Administration policies that accompanied it, proposes to pursue criminally those who carried out the policy prerogatives of a political opponent. Such an enterprise can not be dismissed as petty partisan reprisal, especially when it concerns activities of intelligence services at the heart of the nation's security. It amounts to terrorizing political opponents by putting them and those in their service in legal jeopardy.

Similarly, the so-called "Military Readiness Enhancement Act," proposed legislation that would impose open homosexuality on the military, would bring with it its own policing of thought under "zero tolerance" policies. Any dissent regarding "real or perceived sexuality or sexual orientation" would become a form of expression punishable in the armed forces by reprimands, denied promotions, and ended careers. Those who do not share the military's new official perspective on homosexuality need not apply, and those currently serving in disagreement with the new law may find their careers at an abrupt end.

The political left has warned for years against "police state" tactics, allegedly employed by their political opponents on the right. Americans should become especially wary of "thought police" tactics, employed against them by their government.

-Tommy Sears