Barking Up Every Tree

I'm sleeping better at night.

Our federal authorities have things under control.

FBI counterterrorism agents are on the case, looking into any nefarious plots by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Documents obtained by the ACLU shows the G-men were tracking PETA types at such frightening events as an animal-rights conference, a community meeting at an Indiana college and a planned protest of a celebrity fur endorser, says this WP story.

Not only that, says the NYT , but "one F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a 'Vegan Community Project.' Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's 'semi-communistic ideology.'"

You never know about those devious vegetarians.

And then there's this Lisa Myers NBC story on the Pentagon's intelligence database: "The DOD database obtained by NBC News includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, including some that have taken place far from any military installation, post or recruitment center. One 'incident' included in the database is a large anti-war protest at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles last March that included effigies of President Bush and anti-war protest banners. Another incident mentions a planned protest against military recruiters last December in Boston and a planned protest last April at McDonald's National Salute to America's Heroes -- a military air and sea show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla."

I bring all this up, of course, because of the furious debate over the warrantless NSA eavesdropping. Just as White House officials insist the program is tightly focused on potential terrorists, Pentagon and FBI spokesmen maintain that they are not investigating or interfering with legitimate political dissent.

But PETA? Vegans? Catholic Workers? No wonder there's considerable skepticism.

Keep in mind that the 1978 foreign intelligence law that some Democrats say Bush violated with the eavesdropping program was passed in reaction to the FBI improperly investigating Vietnam War protesters and civil rights activists, most famously Martin Luther King Jr.

That doesn't mean abuses are going on today, but it explains some of the media skepticism.

National Review's Byron York says Bush is in the same class as . . . Clinton: