How about eye witness? -- Notes from Zarahemla Political Forum

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Date Posted: 17:37:25 06/17/07 Sun
Author: Chuck in ND
Subject: How about eye witness?
In reply to: Cricket 's message, "Cite your sources about stifling free speech" on 13:13:04 06/17/07 Sun

When Bush visited ND, all protesters were assigned positions a half mile from the parade route. There were a handful of anti-war people who got inside the sports arena where Bush was to speak. They quietly took off their coats to reveal anti-war slogans. None of them said a word, merely had T-shirts. All were taken into custody and released hours after the event. One of our local city-council(wo)men was denied a ticket to the event (along with 200 other prominent citizens and lawmakers) even though every other city dignitary and local official was invited, because she (and the others) belong to Progressive Coalition and other pro-peace groups.

That's personal witness.

How about Cindy Sheehan? Bush refuses to speak to her.

How about these comments as PATRIOT Act was being renewed:
"Passage of this act is vital to maintaining the post-9/11 intelligence reforms that have reduced America's vulnerability to terrorist attacks,'' said House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "The bill has also contributed to a massive increase in American patriotism. FBI surveillance of anti-war and civil liberties groups has detected a distinct chilling in anti-government sentiments being openly expressed that translates to a 62% increase in patriotism."

"If there is one thing America needs right now its patriotism." says House Republican leader Tom Delay, R-TX. "That is why it is so important that we renew the Patriot Act and silence all this anti-American criticism of the government and its members. That is why I offered the "With Us or Against Us Amendment to the law. Under this new amendment once this law is passed anybody who voted against it will be thrown in jail and shipped down to Gitmo were they belong."

"This law makes collecting information on peaceful, legal, anti-administration groups a lot easier." says FBI Director Frank Mueller. "It takes a lot of effort to collect this kind of information and the Patriot Act is a real godsend. We have a file on the ACLU that is 1,173 pages long. Can you imagine how hard building a file like that will be without the Patriot Act? Not to mention the 2,238 page file we have on Green Peace."

If that doesn't chill your blood, I can't imagine what will.

Then there's the zillions of news stories. I list these, knowing full well that you will dismiss everyone as a disreputable source. (Further evidence of the stranglehold the Bush team has on debate--none of the "conservative" media will cover the phenomenon.) But anyone who's read much knows there are countless examples of Bush protesters being silenced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone
http://www.progressive.org/mag_mcohiostate
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/11423prs20030923.html
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/20/143259
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/11/03/TampaBay/7_protesters_arrested.shtml (notice the "designated area" for protesters is hundreds of yards away, so Bush and the media following him will never see them. SOP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112302185.html
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/04/INGPQ40MB81.DTL
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07232004.html
http://www.freedomofthepress.net/quarantiningdissent.htm (grandmothers arrested for being outside the "free speech zone". BTW, James Bovard is a conservative.)

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Replies:

How about Cindy Sheehan? -- Beetle Bailey, 20:00:51 06/22/07 Fri
- Hey, Beetle... -- Deborah, 00:11:03 06/26/07 Tue
  - terms -- Cricket, 11:34:33 06/27/07 Wed
    - With a bow -- Deborah, 00:36:12 06/28/07 Thu
hoping this will post -- Cricket, 05:56:54 06/23/07 Sat