To the paranoid, everything is a civil liberties threat

There's an interesting article over at The Smirking Chimp (that's an oh-so-clever allusion to our President) discussing a massive federal sweep, during which the feds netted about 10,000 criminals:

Operation Falcon was a massive clandestine dragnet that involved hundreds of state, federal and local law-enforcement agencies during the week of April 4 to April 10, 2005. It was the largest criminal-sweep in the nation's history and was brainchild of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his counterpart in the US Marshal's office, (Director) Ben Reyna. The secret-raids "produced the largest number of arrests ever recorded during a single initiative," Reyna boasted. The details are mind-boggling. Over 960 agencies (state, local and federal) were directly involved acting on 13,800 felony warrants and spending nearly $900,000 on the operation. As the conservative Washington Times noted, "The sweep was a virtual clearinghouse for warrants on drug, gang, gun and sex-offender suspects nationwide."

I'm impressed, since it looks to me as if Gonzales, now that he's settling into his new job, effectively lit a lot of fires under a lot of people's derrieres. Those on the Left, though, see a much more sinister purpose behind this police action. According to them, this has nothing to do with policemen effectively carrying out federally enacted laws. Oh, no. This is a trial run for Bush's planned fascist state:

The Bush administration is sharpening its talons for the inevitable difficulties it expects to face as a result of its disastrous policies. With each regressive initiative, the governing cabal seems to get increasingly paranoid, anticipating an outburst of public rage. Now, they're orchestrating massive round-ups of minor crooks to make sure that every cog and gear in the apparatus of state repression is lubricated and ready to go. Rest assured that Attorney General Gonzales has absolutely no interest in the petty offenders that were netted in this extraordinary crackdown. His action is just another indication that the noose is tightening around the neck of the American public and that the Bush team is fully prepared for any unpleasant eventualities. They want to make sure that everyone knows that they're ready when its time to thin out the ranks of mutinous citizens.

It must be so exhausting to live in this constant state of paranoia. Nothing is as it seems. Evil beings lurk behind every tree, wall and (pardon the pun) Bush. I'd love to give the people who write these things a 24 hour free pass to visit N. Korea, or Iran, or the Sudan, or any number of places, so that they could view, first-hand, what it's like for citizens living in a genuinely repressive country. Of course, we see what we want to see, and it's entirely possible that they'd return from their 24 hour boondoggle lauding the clean streets, and well-ordered (albeit strangely skinny) population in N. Korea.