The first amendment is alive and well in Bush's Amerika...Well, not really..

Seems Duh-bya doesn't know how to handle it when average Americans show up to excercise their Constitutional right to free speech..

While he is most at home addressing military audiences who can't voice their dissent from his disastrous policies and corrupt administration, everyonce in a while he must venture out near the unwashed masses..

But not until the crowd is screened for people with "offensive" messages like "young democrats on their t-shirts or Kerry stickers on their cars..

The coward, who insists we are bringing democracy to Iraq, takes unprecedented moves to silence dissent here..

Source:USA Today 24 Aug 07.Editorial page..
Bush hails freedom, but can he handle a lousy T-shirt?

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Independence Day in 2004, invoked the nation's highest ideals: "On this Fourth of July, we confirm our love of freedom, the freedom for people to speak their minds. ... Free thought, free expression, that's what we believe," Bush told the crowd.

Ringing words. Unfortunately, the White House advance team didn't get the memo. Or the message.

(Photo — The Ranks: Wearing the shirts that got them evicted from a president’s speech in 2004. / Photo via ACLU)

More than an hour earlier, the advance officials, working with local police, had confronted and ejected a young couple who had come to the speech wearing T-shirts that fit any reasonable definition of free expression. The front of both shirts bore the name "Bush" surrounded by a circle with a slash through it; the back of Jeffery Rank's shirt carried the slogan "Regime Change Begins at Home" and Nicole Rank's shirt read, "Love America, Hate Bush."

The Ranks refused demands to take the shirts off, turn them inside out or leave. Though they were on public property and not being disruptive, they were handcuffed, arrested and charged with trespass. The charges were later dropped, and with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. advance personnel for violating their First Amendment rights.

Last week, the government settled the case, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to pay the Ranks $80,000. That avoidable expenditure of taxpayer dollars speaks volumes about who was wrong here.

It would be one thing if the Charleston incident were an isolated case of overzealousness. But it's not. People have been kicked out of a Bush event in Denver because their car bore a "[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. . Others have been kept out for wearing a Young Democrats shirt. Extraordinary efforts were made to prevent protests from marring the GOP convention in 2004 at which Bush was renominated.

During the Ranks' suit, the White House was forced to cough up a [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. , which reads like something Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez would love. Among the advice: Advance personnel should ask the local police department to designate a protest area, "preferably not in view of the event site or the motorcade route."

It's vital, of course, that the Secret Service protect the president from physical threats when he appears in public. And it's understandable that the White House wants to have the president speak without disruption from people who disagree with him. But it's important that cloistered presidents know that there are people who disagree with them, and there are disorderly conduct laws to deal with protesters who cross the line.
Dissent is a bedrock of our system. The administration, with its penchant for secrecy and order, never quite gets that and repeatedly tries to draw the line too broadly.

Even people who might be sympathetic toward Bush are tiring of this cavalier arrogance. When he returned to Charleston in 2006 for a fundraiser at a private home, the Secret Service demanded that the local police keep protesters off a bridge the motorcade would cross. [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. , a Republican, refused. The Secret Service compromised, and protesters got onto most of the bridge.

If you profess to love "the freedom for people to speak their minds," as Bush told the Charleston crowd in 2004, you have to assume you're not always going to love what they say. Instead of a lengthy manual on preventing and handling demonstrators, Bush's advance people need a refresher course on a somewhat older manual. It's called the Constitution of the United States.

The White House declined to provided an opposing view to this editorial because, according to spokesman Tony Fratto, the Presidential Advance Manual is an issue in two other pending lawsuits.

12:22 AM/ET, August 24, 2007 in

Old News.

we already had this thread.

Well thats pretty good, because this editorial was dated YESTERDAY...

I know this board suffers from an extremely high ratio of Bush supporters to "normal people" but I thought the irony of sending troops to die for "freedom" while "monitoring" what clothes people wear here would not escape even the most diehard "presidential" supporter..

So lets see, many of you "Americans" don't mind it when your phone calls are"monitored" and you don't mind it when your clothing choices are"monitored" by the secret service either...

I think I get it..You "Americans" just like the "idea" of freedom..

What was I thinking?

As you were..

If your going to blame Bush for every mistake that security
makes at rallies and other gatherings you may
as well blame him for every unjust traffic ticket..
Blame him for Global warming....
Blame him for bridges that fall down....

When Hillary gets elected and the Patriot act
is reversed 9-11 will happen again perhaps
in another city, who will you blame then?

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Independence Day in 2004

Last week, the government settled the case, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to pay the Ranks $80,000. That avoidable expenditure of taxpayer dollars speaks volumes about who was wrong here.

Like I said, old news.

Now go back to being a miserable liberal and leave the happy thoughts to conservatives.

You are fool if you believe that Hilary or any democrat will reverse the Patriot Act. Power consolidates and freedoms surrendered are not restored unless demanded.

The Patriot Act is just another weapon in the arsenal of those new world order types that want to restrict freedom and liberties.

Its good cop-bad cop politics - they are all on the same team and play emotional divisive issues to keep people split and confused, while the same cops pursue the agenda's no one pays attention to. NAFTA, CAFTA, globalism, North American Union, privatization, empire-building and other "brainy" issues that the average American has no interest in - even though they should

The situation was resolved this week... that makes it current news. Simple things evade your comprehension I guess.

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link.


Comprehend this. Mr. Intelligentsia LOL

First I heard of it. Certainly wasn't among the first page of subjects.

Only thing you have been remotely right in vs. me anyways, and hardly a subject worth gloating over. But I guess you take your wins when you can.

So you were wrong?

Apology accepted.