Overreaching.  It is one of the few things that the federal government, led by Barack Obama and his henchman, are very proficient at.  If they aren’t attempting to control corporations and the way they do business, it is usually something else.  Oh, and by the way – this also includes the court system.

But nonetheless, a Nevada newspaper – in this case, the Las Vegas Review-Journal – has been served a federal grand jury subpoena.  Pretty tame stuff, or so it seems, right?  It gets deeper, folks.  The subpoena served to the Review-Journal is seeking information about readers who posted comments on the paper’s website.  There’s more here, so follow along.

The subpoena seeks the identities and personal information about people who posted comments on a story written by the paper, investigating a federal tax fraud case against local business owner Robert Kahre.  It seems that prosecutors in the case told the presiding judge that some of the comments hinted at acts of violence and that the subpoena was issued out of concern for jurors’ safety.

What is disturbing about this entire situation here, folks, is the fact that the subpoena also requests from the newspaper the comment writers’ names, gender, date of birth, physical address, phone number, Internet service provider, IP address and credit card numbers.  And the response from the newspaper was the one I expected – and rightfully so.  The paper’s editor, Thomas Mitchell, plans to fight the request, saying that anonymous speech is “a fundamental and historic part of this country.”

Some of the comments (there were 175 comments as of Monday) that were posted at the paper’s website?  They’re pretty harmless to me, in my humble opinion.  Some samples:

“The sad thing is there are 12 dummies on the jury who will convict him. They should be hung along with the feds.”

“socialist, fascist Mormon” and a “Nazi moron.”

Those type of remarks are opinions, not a freaking call to arms.  People use comments like that all the time, and in even more public scenarios.  Just the fact that the prosecutor and judge requests specific information about the posters of these comments has this powerful tinge of Big Brother to it.  The so-called “safety for the jurors” excuse doesn’t fly here, folks.  Anyone who has actually served jury duty knows that there’s plenty of safety while being sequestered during a trial.

If anything, it is a violation of our rights as U.S. citizens.  It’s rather disturbing when a court system asks for that type of information as it could very well be a sign of the times here.  Freedom of speech is a right that has been here since forever.  And a federal court system dares try and violate that right?  Suffice it to say, these “posters” could really bring this to light by protesting in front of the court that is housing this trial.  If there’s one thing the court system – and the federal government in general – despise, it is people congregating and outing the federal government.

Remember the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”?  You can rest assured – this saying does not apply here.  This has the potential for a visit to the U.S. Supreme Court at some point of time.  But that’s putting the cart before the horse.  This should bear watching; when more details become available, The Republican Temple will have them here for you, so stay tuned.