There’s been lots of talk regarding the discovery that the White House website has appended pro-Obama propaganda to the official biography of numerous past Presidents. Included among the chatter has been well deserved and extremely funny mockery.

The consensus has been that this is another example of Obama’s narcissism. And while I largely consider him the most narcissistic president in our nation’s history (though I don’t profess to be a presidential historian, and have only personally lived under a few administrations), it isn’t my biggest takeaway from the story. In fact, it’s unlikely the President even had knowledge of the additions before they happened. At least, I can’t imagine a President being involved in all such minutia, but I’ve also never occupied nor worked in the White House.

What concerns me is the continued parallels, this being yet another in a long line of examples, between the whole apparatus surrounding Obama – his campaign and followers – and the behavior of tyrants. A common feature of dictatorships, for instance, is the erosion of the line between the individual leader and the state, and even the nation. He is the state. He is the nation. The two cannot be separated. This is why you see the faces of people like Saddam Hussein or Hugo Chavez plastered all over the place.

The leader’s presence is everywhere, not just within the nation, but also its history. The leader is tied into the very fabric of the nation’s history, often times through out-and-out revisionism, but also in more subtle ways, such as through carefully crafted narratives, either embellished or outright falsified, whereby the leader’s story becomes an archetype for the social and cultural values of his people.

Obama, in his attitudes toward governance, his policy preferences and the disposition of his followers, resembles more the typical South American strongman than an American Chief Executive. I do not worry that Obama is going to become a dictator in any real sense of the word, but the willingness of a certain sect of the population, namely his most ardent followers, to not only so readily accept these attitudes but to gleefully propagate them through their own initiative is concerning. It is not entirely surprising, as they are the folks who already ideologically lean toward collectivism, but it nonetheless highlights a disturbing strain of political thought in this country, and ought to remind us that freedom is only ever a generation away from extinction.

You probably think this is a free country, where law-abiding citizens can exercise their rights without fear of government harassment or state sanctioned theft. You’re wrong.

The reality is far different. The police are not benevolent protectors of your rights, and it amazes me that so many conservatives continue to delude themselves that only this one, single aspect of state power is exercised judiciously and almost entirely without malice, while rightfully acknowledging that the rest of the government skirts the line between incompetent and evil.

The truth is that many cops are just thugs with badges, granted license by the state to commit crime in its name.

In this latest case, a Monterey police officer took $22,000 off the driver — even though he had committed no crime.

“You live in the United States, you think you have rights — and apparently you don’t,” said George Reby.

As a professional insurance adjuster, Reby spends a lot of time traveling from state to state. But it was on a trip to a conference in Nashville last January that he got a real education in Tennessee justice.

…Reby was driving down Interstate 40, heading west through Putnam County, when he was stopped for speeding.

A Monterey police officer wanted to know if he was carrying any large amounts of cash.

“I said, ‘Around $20,000,’” he recalled. “Then, at the point, he said, ‘Do you mind if I search your vehicle?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t mind.’ I certainly didn’t feel I was doing anything wrong. It was my money.”

That’s when Officer Larry Bates confiscated the cash based on his suspicion that it was drug money.

“Why didn’t you arrest him?” we asked Bates.

“Because he hadn’t committed a criminal law,” the officer answered.

Bates said the amount of money and the way it was packed gave him reason to be suspicious.

“The safest place to put your money if it’s legitimate is in a bank account,” he explained. “He stated he had two. I would put it in a bank account. It draws interest and it’s safer.”

“But it’s not illegal to carry cash,” we noted.

“No, it’s not illegal to carry cash,” Bates said. “Again, it’s what the cash is being used for to facilitate or what it is being utilized for.”

NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted, “But you had no proof that money was being used for drug trafficking, correct? No proof?”

“And he couldn’t prove it was legitimate,” Bates insisted.

You have to prove to the state that your property is legitimate, or it will take it from you. Does that sound like a free, constitutional republic to you?

The story goes on to demonstrate how Officer Bates lied in his report, both by failing to note Reby’s explanation that he was looking to buy a car (which he actually could prove through computer records, demonstrating yet another Bates’ lie), and also in his description of where the money was located.

Reby eventually got his money back months later, no doubt only because of the negative publicity, though he was required to first waive his constitutional rights and then drive all the way back to Tennessee from New Jersey in order to get it. He received no apology.

Others are not so lucky and never see their property again. The Institute for Justice’s blockbuster 2010 report, “Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture,” finds that use of asset forfeiture is extensive at all levels of government. States pull in millions each year, while the US Department of Justice’s Assets Forfeiture Fund held more than $1 billion as of 2008.

Oh, and the same Officer Bates as tried to steal $20,000 from a law-abiding citizen by falsifying police reports was just honored by the Monterey Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6277 as “Officer of the Year”.

Crime – it turns out – does pay, but only when you wear a badge.