Traitors all? - Editor's Note

Barbara Ehrenreich e-mailed me one day in May to say that she was on some so-called traitors' list on a website called ProBush.com. Turns out, I'm on the list, too. And we're in good company. There are 142 names on it, including Democratic politicians, as well as actors, entertainers, writers, journalists, academics, and activists. From Susan Sarandon to Aaron McGruder, Jimmy Carter to Noam Chomsky, Madonna to Cornel West, and Whoopi Goldberg to Tony Kushner, the gang's all here.

The traitor list begins with the word "Treason" underlined, and the following definition: "Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies."

The next line is: "Traitor: If you do not support our President's decisions, you are a traitor."

Photographs accompany most of the names, and the website invites people to "have a traitor added to this page." If you click there to send an e-mail and tattle, you are warned that "all e-mails sent to ProBush.com are monitored by the U.S. government."

On the "About Us" page is the slogan "We hate Bush haters!"

ProBush.com is registered to Michael Marino of West Point, Pennsylvania. His brother Ben is a spokesperson for the site.

"We don't like to think of it as blacklisting," says Ben Marino. "We just saw it as an opportunity to list people who didn't support the President, and the public is into boycotting."

Marino calls himself a "domain speculator," and that's how he got started on ProBush.com. "We saw ProBush.com was available," he says, so the brothers purchased it for $8 and decided to develop it. "We figured there was kind of a niche for it," he says.

ProBush.com does have a "disclaimer" that says the list is a "parody" and is "not to be taken seriously. These 'traitors' are not legal 'traitors' of the United States, though we wish they were."

One of the so-called traitors, former Senator James Abourezk of South Dakota, does take it seriously, though.

He has sued ProBush.com and Michael Marino for defamation and is seeking actual damages of $2 million and punitive damages of $3 million.

The lawsuit was filed on May 27.

"ProBush.com plans to defend against the lawsuit and protect its free speech guarantees under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution," says Ben Marino.

"They've impugned my integrity and my patriotism," says Abourezk.

This month, we revisit the neo-McCarthyism that ProBush.com is merely a symptom of. To an alarming degree, people around the country are having to deal with this threat. Those who dare to speak out against Bush--tenants, a bookstore owner, schoolteachers, students, even Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges--face the wrath of the frenzied mob.

When I found out that Hedges was almost booed off the stage when he gave an anti-war commencement speech at Rockford College, I recognized right away that this was part of the larger, distressing picture. I heard a tape of the speech and was horrified and impressed. Horrified by the reaction of the crowd, but impressed by the eloquence and bravery and profundity of Hedges's words. He has kindly permitted us to publish his remarks, which I'm sure you'll appreciate, even as you recoil from the invective hurled at him.

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