The Right To Suppress Free Speech
Betcha hadn't heard of that one. It's a new right, available only to Republicans. Daily Kos just posted the story:
Very rarely does the everyday public get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes in a normally-secret Bush Administration.But Monday, March 28, the Secret Service called three everyday people into their offices to discuss why we were kicked out of a presidential event in Denver last week where Bush promoted his plan to privatize Social Security. What they revealed to us and our lawyer was fascinating.
There we were - three people who had personally picked up tickets from Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez's office and went to a presidential event. But as we entered, we were told that we had been "ID'ed" and were warned that any disruption would get us arrested.
After being seated in the audience we were forcibly removed before the President arrived, even though we had not been disruptive. We were shocked when told that this presidential event was a "private event" and were commanded to leave.
More astonishingly, when the Secret Service was contacted the next day they agreed to meet with us this Monday, March 28 to discuss the circumstances surrounding our removal. We had two big questions going into this meeting:
1. How is the Bush Administration "ID'ing" citizens before presidential events?
2. Why was an official taxpayer-funded event called a "private event" - leading to citizens being kicked out?
Most shocking of all, we got answers to both questions.
The Secret Service revealed that we were "ID'ed" when local Republican staffers saw a bumper sticker on the car we drove which said "No More Blood For Oil." Evidently, the free speech expressed on one bumper sticker is cause enough to eject three citizens from a presidential event. (Similarly, someone was ejected from Bush's Social Security privatization event in Arizona the same day simply for wearing a Democratic t-shirt.)
The Secret Service also revealed that ticket distribution and staffing of the Social Security event was run by the local Republican Party. They wanted us to be clear that it was a Republican staffer - not the Secret Service - who kicked us out of the presidential event. But this revealed something else that should be startling to all Americans.
After allowing taxpayers to finance his privatization events (let's call them what they really are after all,) and after using the White House communications apparatus to set them up, Bush is privatizing the ticket distribution and security staffing at his events to the Republican Party. The losers are not just taxpayers, but anyone who values the First Amendment. Under the banner of a "private event" the Republican Party is excluding citizens from seeing their president because of the lone sin of expressing the wrong idea on a bumper sticker or t-shirt. The question for Americans is - will we allow our freedom to be privatized?
Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise. Alexander Young
Denver residents
Kos lays out the big issue:
So to emphasize -- the White House uses taxpayer dollars to finance these propaganda events. THEN, in order to keep out anyone who might be critical, they "outsource" ticketing and security. That way they can label the events "private" and kick out anyone they want in violation of the First Amendment.Who in Congress will step up and call for an investigation?
Wow...it gets scarier and scarier in these United (Christian) States every day. I'm seriously afraid about the future for the first time in my life, and in a Fahrenheit 451/Kafka kind of way. If, a decade ago, I'd seen a movie about life in 2005 America, I would have dismissed it as patently unrealistic.
> Wow...it gets scarier and scarier
Hmmm... Didn't we cover this earlier?
Why yes, we did.
Cridland at March 30, 2005 8:29 AM
From the Washington Post story:
"In this case, Alex Young, 25; Karen Bauer, 38; and Leslie Weise, 39, said they were forced out even though they said nothing and did not sport T-shirts or signs criticizing the president or his policies. Young told the Associated Press that the three wore T-shirts under their business attire that read 'Stop the Lies' and had discussed exposing them during Bush's visit, but decided not to."
The story does not specify whether the three crossed their hearts, nor whether they hoped to perish by way of ocular puncture.
Jim Treacher at March 30, 2005 11:05 PM
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