Let it Begin Here's Toby Sackton has a terrific post on The New McCarthyism: Secret Arrest and Detention instead of Blacklisting.

"We are entering a new dark age under the guise of fighting terrorism. Several people have commented to me in the week after the election that this feels to them like 1948, after Henry Wallace lost his battle with Truman, and the cold war was being consolidated in Washington. The next few years brought a communist witch hunt, the blacklisting of numerous artists, writers, and educators, and the firing of many government employees, plus consideration of nuclear war in Korea."

"What is scary today is how much radical improvements in technology and the embrace of totalitarian secrecy by the Bush administration has changed the balance of power- giving the government secret tools that are devastating to liberty and the rights of free speech and association. The new Homeland security bill will create a vast government department whose primary mission will be to closely monitor the actions of all individuals in the U.S. for signs that may point to terrorism. The powers are sweeping enough to allow even local governments the power to secretly read emails, to arrest people based on their unpopular thoughts as expressed in emails or telephone conversations."

Go read the whole thing. After that, check out Toby's son's Blog, M's Daily Ramblings, which we have added to our list of blogs. We love that he is young and so strong on constitutional rights and injustice--like in this line he wrote about the Government's treatment of Moussaoui: "The way Ascroft and the Justice Department seem to be seeking revenge and convictions over justice is terrifying."