Democracy in the ol' US of A

This morning's Times captures the status of dissent and democracy in this great era in which we live.

The FBI goes after potential "trouble makers."

The unusual initiative comes after the Justice Department, in a previously undisclosed legal opinion, gave its blessing to controversial tactics used last year by the F.B.I in urging local police departments to report suspicious activity at political and antiwar demonstrations to counterterrorism squads. The F.B.I. bulletins that relayed the request for help detailed tactics used by demonstrators - everything from violent resistance to Internet fund-raising and recruitment.

In an internal complaint, an F.B.I. employee charged that the bulletins improperly blurred the line between lawfully protected speech and illegal activity. But the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, in a five-page internal analysis obtained by The New York Times, disagreed.

The office, which also made headlines in June in an opinion - since disavowed - that authorized the use of torture against terrorism suspects in some circumstances, said any First Amendment impact posed by the F.B.I.'s monitoring of the political protests was negligible and constitutional.

While our dear leader embraces debate on the hustings.

As anyone who has sat through the 90-minute forums knows, the questions are not hand grenades that detonate onto the evening news. Take, for example, one of the first queries at the "Ask President Bush'' session in Beaverton, Ore., on Friday:

"I'm wondering if I can get some inauguration tickets?''

Or consider this from Albuquerque on Wednesday:

"Can I introduce my mother and mother-in-law, who are new citizens to this country?''

Many times the questions aren't even questions at all. Exhibit A might be these words from an audience member in Niceville, Fla., on Tuesday:

"I'm 60 years old and I've voted Republican from the very first time I could vote. And I also want to say this is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House.''

But what really makes me afraid for our future is this.

[Update, 3:00 PM] Pink clothing? We're doomed.