Just sitting next to a friend who expresses an anti-Bush opinion can get you into big Secret Service trouble in George W. Bush’s United States.

Recently on Michael Feldman’s National Public Radio show “Whaddya Know?” a high school junior told the audience how he and his friend had recently been stopped on a city bus by the Secret Service.

The two high school students had obtained tickets from an insurance company to attend a pro-Bush campaign rally. Evidently, before the students could get off the bus, the Secret Service already knew who they were and that they had worked for John Kerry’s campaign. That was enough for the students to be labeled “national security risks.” Unless they turned around and went home, they would be arrested, warned the Secret Service agents.

Carrying out President George W. Bush’s violation of American citizens’ civil rights is something of a cottage industry for the Secret Service, abbreviated SS.

These unfortunate initials recall Nazi Germany’s defensive security organization, der Schutzstaffein, abbreviated SS.