the modern day proscription lists

I have often read pieces by people who try to draw an analogy between modern day America and the last days of the Roman empire. I have always thought that the more apt analogy was between modern America and between the final days of the Roman republic. It was then that Rome changed from a representative republic (albeit with a severely limited franchise) to an autocracy. I fear for similar changes in our future. One thing that happened in the latter days of the Roman republic was that when the dictator Sulla came to power and, later, in the early days of the second triumvirate of Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus that there were "proscription lists" put out... basically lists of people to be killed that Sulla and then the second triumvirate saw as threats... and those people were killed. That is how Cicero met his end (as recently shown on the HBO series "Rome"). Well, in the modern day, I am not sure that people will be put to death, but I think there will be efforts to silence people. The news just came out that Don Imus' radio show has been canceled. Sure, Imus' recent comments were rotten, but he has said things just as bad in the past. It is just that now a "perfect storm" of demagogues came together to get rid of Imus. Apparently last night the detestable Keith Olberman had a list of people to "get rid of" which included radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Neal Bortz. This is what I see as the modern day proscription list. Let's hope that the likes of Olberman are not successful.