NOTEBOOK: Power points                 by Lewis H. Lapham (p. 9)                 

Harper's Magazine editor Lewis H. Lapham explicates the nonsensical rhetoric surrounding the reorganization of the FBI. Unable to comprehend John Ashcroft's May 30 statements detailing the changes, he turns to the Justice Department Fact Sheet. "As was to be expected," Lapham writes, "the language lent itself to more than one way of connecting the dots; also, as expected, certain phrases didn't suggest obvious English equivalents, but I could make enough sense of the less obscure imperatives to appreciate the Bureau's rededication to the highest principles of participatory fascism."

The FBI intends to shake off the restrictions of the last thirty years, specifically checks put in place to allow citizens to freely do things like protest the Vietnam War or participate in the Civil Rights Movement. With new divisions named the Financial Review Group, the Document Exploitation Group, the Telephone Applications Group, and the E-mail Exploitation Group, it is obvious to Lapham that our civil rights are again in peril. Our leaders' (idiot George W. Bush) tones on the subject of terrorism are mystifying and ominous, but the sound of civil rights eroding rings appallingly clear.