It seems we need a run-down of what actually happens at these events in order for you guys to understand just how badly the audience is being manipulated.
During Bush's campaign, when Bush did 'Town Hall' events, the excuse used was that they weren't actually being ran by the Campaign(which was using public funds) but by the Party(who had the right to exclude whoever they wanted). Now, this, while thin, is apparently a plausible excuse, though it really makes one question just what the point of these 'Town Hall' meetings are when there is no dissent offered whatsoever.
But this, Bush's 60-day, 60-stop Bamblepalooza tour, isn't being funded by the RNC. It's being funded by taxpayer monies. That means you, me, Baldi, everyone in America, is paying for Bush to travel around and 'talk to regular people' about his Privatization plans for SS. Do you know how much money is being spent on this? I don't either, as that number has yet to be disclosed (never mind that they are our public servants, and that this has nothing to do with national security whatsoever, they just don't want to tell us, and so aren't. Imagine,
your employees treating you that way!); but it's a lot of money, I guarantee.
Tickets are handed out to these events by either the local Republican party or by Republican senators who are given tickets. In many cases, the exact time and date isn't told in public until just a few days in advance. Why is this? So that the vast majority, if not all, the tickets can be handed out in advance to people who are known to be staunch Republican supporters. They literally pack the crowd.
This creates the impression that Bush is speaking to a nation that is undivided in their support for his policies. There are two purposes to this: number one, to fool voters (too bad it isn't working) and number two, to fool Bush himself. Remember that this guy doesn't read the papers, doesn't watch the news, and gets his updates on news from Rove, Rice, and Rumsfeld. He probably thinks SS reform is going to pass any day now.
This is also done in order to turn what is ostensibly a 'Meeting' where people ask 'real questions' of their president into a commercial that is guaranteed to support the Pres' cause in a soundbyte - on the
local news.
Have you ever wondered why we don't see video from inside these things? I mean, Bush has been to 40 stops already, you would think video of his speeches would be on the TV every week if not every night, the same way they were during the election. Why is this? Because the Bush crew only allow Local News cameras inside to film the event. They know that there are far less fact checkers on the local news station, and that station is far more likely to A)play a favorable soundbyte than criticize, and B)reach a whole lot of voters who don't keep up with the National news, but watch the local news.
This allows Bush to pack the house, babble inanities about how there 'is no trust fund, it's just a stack of IOU's'(someone should explain to the guy how treasury bonds work and his constitutionally mandated duty to guarantee their repayment).
In Fargo, ND, the
Blacklist for the event handed out BY THE WH to the local organizers of the event included 42 people, 33 of which belonged to the local Democracy for America chapter, including a city Councilwoman.
Quote:The whodunit mystery surrounding the do-not-admit list for President Bush's Fargo visit still hasn't been solved, but clues uncovered Friday indicate a worker with the White House advance team may have been the culprit.
This comes just one day after spokesmen for the White House and North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said the list was the result of "an overzealous volunteer."
The list contained the names of 42 people who were not supposed to be given tickets to Bush's speech Thursday. Thirty-three of them belong to the local progressive group Democracy for America.
This is the equivalent, Baldi, of a president saying that because someone is a member of a group, they are not allowed to hear him speak. This is the equivalent of denying NRA members their right to hear the pres. speak; or denying Right-to-lifers the right to hear the President speak; or denying Libertarians the right to hear the pres. speak. It is
extremely wrong to print up blacklists based upon people's organizations, when we are talking about an event to SEE YOUR OWN PRESIDENT SPEAK, and YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT WITH YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY!
In other instances, people have been kicked out for wearing a certain shirt, or because they were discussing Democratic ideas in line. Or even worse; kicked out because of a bumper sticker on the car, in the parking lot:
Link
Quote:Apr 6, 7:47 PM EDT
Colo. delegation weighs in on ouster of three from Bush event
DENVER (AP) -- Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has asked a Treasury Department official and a Denver prosecutor to investigate the removal of three Denver residents from President Bush's town hall meeting on Social Security last month.
Salazar is the latest member of Congress to request an investigation into the matter.
Karen Bauer, Alex Young and Leslie Weise allege they were told to leave Bush's March 21 meeting at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum after arriving in a car with a bumper sticker that read "No More Blood for Oil." They said a man wearing an earpiece, navy blue suit and lapel pin asked them to leave.
The three believed the man was a Secret Service agent, but the White House has said he was a volunteer. Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur has said the man was a "host committee staff person."
In a letter Tuesday to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey and Dennis Schindel of the Office of Inspector General of the Treasury Department, which oversees the Secret Service, Salazar said he was troubled by allegations that the residents may have been removed by someone posing as a Secret Service agent.
Morrissey replied in a letter Wednesday that a federal agency should handle any investigation. While Colorado law prohibits impersonation of a peace officer, it does not cover officers of federal agencies, he wrote.
A White House spokesman has said the volunteer may have feared a disruption. Bauer, Young and Weise acknowledge they wore T-shirts that read, "Stop the Lies," but that they had decided not to reveal them during Bush's event.
Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., have asked for a congressional investigation into the residents' allegations that their First Amendment rights were violated and that taxpayer funds were misused for the public event, which was ticketed. Their letter noted that University of Arizona student Steven Gerner was denied entry to a similar event, also March 21. Gerner was wearing a Young Democrats T-shirt at the time.
Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., has asked the White House to investigate, and Dan Recht, a lawyer for the three residents, asked the U.S. attorney general to investigate. Young said they had not received responses yet. Recht said a lawsuit was a distinct possibility, although it was unclear who would be named as defendants.
So, Baldi, these three in Colorado were wearing T-shirts under their other clothes, and THAT'S why they were kicked out? ANd they SHOULD have been? They didn't say or do anything untoward, and when they asked about it, the answer they got was 'because of their bumper sticker.'
Are the organizers of these events so afraid of the questions that could be asked that they won't even allow people who look like they MIGHT answer difficult questions to enter?
I don't see how you people can think that not allowing someone to see the Pres based upon their clothes, their bumper sticker, or what groups they are affiliated with, when it is a PUBLIC FORUM, paid for with PUBLIC MONEY, is Democratic and upholds our principles of freedom for all!! If the Democrats were excluding Republicans in this fashion, you would pitch a fit!!!
Now, as for Clinton getting heckled or yelled at at his speeches. It is true that he got heckled less than Bush, but that is in part because he was a far better president. But let us see what google can find us.
By searching for 'Clinton's Speech Interrupted' and 'Clinton Speech Disrupted' I find at least 10 different occassions where protestors shouted at Clinton, from AIDS protestors, to South American protestors, Abortion rights, and several Lewinsky Scandal protestors. And yet, he never tried to bar anyone from seeing him speak, or hand out tickets to his public speeches, or to say someone couldn't wear a certain type of clothing or have a certain bumper sticker on their car if they want to hear him speak.
You people need to wake up and realize that your rights are being stripped away from you day by day. You don't care right now, but next week, next year, next ten years, it could be
you who isn't allowed to take part in our Democracy because there are those in power who feel that people who disagree with the President should not be allowed to have their voices heard. It's sad, and every patriot should fight to end this practice.
Lastly, I found a little rundown on just how much this is costing the taxpayers:
Lots of links inside the story,
here. It's a staggering amount of money being spent on this tour, and is it working in the slightest?
http://www.pollingreport.com/social.htm
Quote:CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. April 1-2, 2005. Adults nationwide.
Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling Social Security?"
N=1,040, MoE ± 3
Approve Disapprove Unsure
4/1-2/05 35 57 8
In the end, how many millions of dollars that we DON'T HAVE to be spending right now is being wasted on this pointless, exlusionary, Bamblepalooza tour of the Nation by the Bushco?
Cycloptichorn
