First They Came for the Vegan Protesters of HoneyBaked Hams and I Did Not Speak Out Because I Was Not a Smiths Fan…

Via the blog Against the War of Terror (yes, yes, boys, but what're you for?) comes a true story of government surveillance in action, that underscores what all listeners of Vicki Lawrence could have told you a couple of decades ago: Don't trust yourself to no backwoods Southern lawyer (instead, call in the ACLU of Georgia):

More than two dozen government surveillance photographs show 22-year-old Caitlin Childs of Atlanta, a strict vegetarian, and other vegans picketing against meat eating, in December 2003. They staged their protest outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway in DeKalb County.

An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of his unmarked government car.

"They told me if I didn't give over the piece of paper I would go to jail and I refused and I went to jail, and the piece of paper was taken away from me at the jail and the officer who transferred me said that was why I was arrested," Childs said on Wednesday.

The government file lists anti-war protesters in Atlanta as threats, the ACLU said. The ACLU of Georgia accuses the Bush administration of labeling those who disagree with its policy as disloyal Americans.

Whole story here.

Info on starting a HoneyBaked Ham franchise–"You can be sure you have quality time to spend with your loved ones. After all, we're a family business too"–here.

Ratings of The Smiths' Meat Is Murder LP here.