The T-Shirt Police

Huh.

If I was going to see the President of the US speak, I do not believe I would do so wearing a t-shirt.

But, regarding this, we now have exactly one-side of the story. If you wish to base your judgement on that you are welcome to, but you may be wise to research the other side.

McGentrix wrote:

Huh.

If I was going to see the President of the US speak, I do not believe I would do so wearing a t-shirt.

But, regarding this, we now have exactly one-side of the story. If you wish to base your judgement on that you are welcome to, but you may be wise to research the other side.

That's pretty funny. What could the "other" side say about this?

And besides, these Bush forums are notorious for showing us a completely staged event, right down to the questions, in which ANY and ALL signs of dissent or objective questioning/reasoning is thrown out the window.

So, this is nothing new. One-sided?

Oh, my, Baldimo, what planet have you been living on lately?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28120-2005Mar11.html

Your idiot of a leader has NEVER been able to deal with dissent, because he is just too stupid to intelligently address conflicting viewpoints from those who DON'T agree with him, which now roughly represents 70% of the country.

And honestly, unless you've been living in a hole and haven't watched ANY of these townhall meetings, the obvious becomes actually quite surreal in the case of Bush's townhall "sideshows."

"It was just a matter of learning," she said. "We just really talked about what was going on, what the president was proposing and what did we think about it. . . . They didn't prompt me what to say or how to say it."

While I don't doubt that these events are, to some extent at least, staged, it doesn't really matter. Everyone knows these aren't really open forums, and the fact that the Bush SSI plan is gaining no support indicates that he needs a new strategy.

But what will it be?

D'artagnan wrote:

While I don't doubt that these events are, to some extent at least, staged, it doesn't really matter. Everyone knows these aren't really open forums, and the fact that the Bush SSI plan is gaining no support indicates that he needs a new strategy.

But what will it be?

I have no idea what it will be, but I do think it is funny that people like Dook think this is a new thing that is going on, that Bush is the first person to ever do this. It is laughable to think he thinks this way. It shows that he has never been in politics before the Bush admin. No wonder he thinks Bush is so evil.

Dook do you think Clinton had true open forums when he was going around the country pushing Welfare Reform? I'm willing to bet the answer is no.

Remember 75% or more of the press voted for Clinton.

Quote:

Remember 75% or more of the press voted for Clinton.

Nice made-up statistic there. Perhaps the press liked Clinton a little better becuase he didn't start useless, pointless wars against the world's objections?

Cycloptichorn

Mar 29, 10:33 AM EST

Secret Service investigating removal of three from Bush visit

By P. SOLOMON BANDA
Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) -- The Secret Service says it is investigating the claims of three people who claim they were removed from President Bush's town hall meeting on Social Security last week after being singled out because of a bumper sticker on their car.

The three said they had obtained tickets through the office of Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., had passed through security and were preparing to take their seats when they were approached by what they thought was a Secret Service agent who asked them to leave.

One woman, Karen Bauer, 38, a marketing coordinator from Denver, said Monday the agent put his hand on her elbow and steered her away from her seat and toward an exit.

"The Secret Service had nothing to do with that," said Lon Garner, special agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Denver. "We are very sensitive to the First Amendment and general assembly rights as protected by the Constitution."

The three who were removed, along with their attorney, Dan Recht, met with Garner on Monday. Recht said he may file a lawsuit based on the group's alleged violation of their First Amendment rights.

Garner said the group appeared confused as to who asked them to leave and declined to release further details, citing an ongoing investigation.

Alex Young, 25, an Internet technology worker from Denver who was among the three removed from the event March 17 at Wings over the Rockies, said officials told them the next day they were identified as belonging to the "No Blood for Oil" group.

Young said they belong to no such group, but the car they drove to the event had a bumper sticker that read: "No More Blood for Oil."

"I don't think a bumper sticker on a friend's car should disqualify me from seeing the president," Young said.

Beauprez distributed tickets to the event, which was part of President Bush's effort to gain support for his plan to overhaul Social Security. Messages left after-hours at Beauprez's office were not immediately returned Monday. A call to Bush's advance team in Denver went unanswered.

Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said the congressman has asked the Secret Service about the group's allegations.

Young, like Bauer and lawyer Leslie Weise, 39, is a member of the Denver Progressives, a political activist group. He said the three had T-shirts underneath their business attire that read, "Stop the Lies" and they had talked about exposing them during Bush's visit. He said they had scrapped the plan by the time they arrived at the museum.

Recht said the T-shirts did not play a role in the group's removal.

"They hadn't done anything wrong. They weren't dressed inappropriately, they didn't say anything inappropriate," Recht said. "They were kicked out of this venue and not allowed to hear what the president had to say based solely on this political bumper sticker.

"The very essence of the First Amendment is that you can't be punished for the speech you make, the statements you make," Recht said.

President Bush has visited at least 17 states to gain support for his plan to change Social Security, meeting with people who are generally supportive.

Some people who have stood up to disrupt Bush while he was talking have been removed. But a group called Americans United to Protect Social Security said there have been at least two instances where people have been removed or barred from a Bush event beforehand.

In February, a "black list" of people banned from getting tickets was obtained and published by the Forum newspaper. The White House and the Republican Party denied such a list existed and Gov. John Hoeven's staff said no one was denied tickets.

Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for Americans United, called the Denver example the most egregious violation.

"They're screening the people who are allowed to come and then they're profiling them in the parking lot," he said. "It's quite extraordinary, and disappointing."

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:

How is the Bush Administration "ID'ing" citizens before presidential events?

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