Earlier this month, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed the right of public school students to criticize school policies. The First Amendment Center:

A three-judge panel agreed that school officials in Watson Chapel, Ark., violated the constitutional rights of three students in 2006 who were disciplined for wearing black armbands or wristbands to school to protest a new policy enforcing school uniforms, and for handing out a flier objecting to the policy.

The administrators agreed in court that the student protest did not disrupt classes or order at the school.

The 8th Circuit panel said that despite restrictive decisions since it was handed down, including the 2007 Supreme Court decision in the so-called "Bong Hits for Jesus" case, "Tinker remains good law." Students in both Tinker and the Watson Chapel case were exercising a right of protest against a government policy — something officials in every school ought to celebrate by example, not denigrate.

Over the past years we have slowly watched as the terms of "enemy combatant", "terrorist", and other such terms have come to encompass the very citizens of the mostly free United States of America. We have seen it become more and more convenient over our history as certain administrations faced opposition from ordinary citizens. The greatest mobilization that met a very strong military backlash (including multiple troop units, calvary, and tanks) was the Bonus Army of the 1930s. War veterans from WWI demanded their bonus pay as the Great Depression took strong effect on their lives and families. Before I go too far on a tangent, the topic of today's step towards a frightening state is the fact that regular citizens with dissenting opinions can and do face state repercussions. The best current example of this is the creation of "Free Speech Zones" at political events. This includes both Democratic and Republican. I know that in many of my posts under the title "fascist america" tend to lean towards examples of Republican or 'Right-leaning' peoples and politicians. The fact of the matter is that while it may be easiest to find example of the overt stomping of civil rights by 'the Right,' it is just as easy to see the silence and inaction of 'the Left' when it comes to challenging what may be deemed wrong.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release This scares people. It is a kind of cat-and-mouse game. In a closing or closed society there is a "list" of dissidents and opposition leaders: you are targeted in this way once you are on the list, and it is hard to get off the list.

I was canvassing in Louisiana in favor of the restoration of the Gulf Coast.  While doing so, I encountered certain ordinances or other restrictive regulations that restrict access to housing in certain areas, like closed subdivisions or limit access at certain times.  I believe that having an executive government in place at the federal level that tries so hard to keep information from its citizens, allowing these type of restrictions that negatively impact canvassers's ability to disseminate information to the public is very bad.  Since it seems to be local government bodies and public officials that have either put these restrictions into place directly or else have allowed them to be adopted, we need to take a closer look to see if these actions run afoul of the First Amendment.

Syndicated columnist and fearless first amendment advocate Molly Ivins passed away last night, due to breast cancer, at the age of 62. She will be missed.

Always the muckraker, as the Texas Observer says, her enduring message is "raise more hell."

Her last column, Bubba, we -- yes, we --have to stop the war now is here.