Keeping dissent invisible: Secret Service keeps protesters out of sight and off TV

[Standing Wolf]

Quoting Salon.com on anything even remotely connected to the Bush administration is a lot like quoting coyotes on the topic of chicken security.

 

[PeteyPete]

If it's true...it's reprehensible.

That said, i'd bet that this story is total bull????. If the SS were rounding up people and putting them in fenced-in cages and calling them "Free Speech Areas" there would be a groudswell of outrage and people would call any administation on it. The ACLU is full of ???? 99% of the time, and only support their interpretation of the constitution when they think they can destroy religion, ban guns, and piss off the entire country.

 

[ACP230]

Similar tactics were used on Pro-2nd and pro-logging protestors when V.P. Al Gore visited Marquette, MI during the 1996 campaign. I didn't hear any of the local leftists complaining about our treatment!

We were moved away from the gym where Gore was to speak and kept about 100 yards away on a sidewalk across the street.

I Klintonious sicced the Secret Service and the IRS on people who criticized him at campaign rallies and while he was jogging. I haven't heard of the current administration doing anything like that.

 

[matis]

_____________________________________
The rockets go up
who cares where they come down
that's not my department
says Wernher von Braun"
_____________________________________

Yep, I loved his songs, too. He was a math professor at one of the ivey leagues schools. His name was Lehrer -- can't remember his first name.

I liked his song, NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD WEEK, very much, too.



I support Bush on the war on terrorism and many other issues. On some I disagree with him.


Most of what the ACLU does disgusts me.


HOWEVER!

This time they are absolutely correct! Even if this is their way of attacking Bush, I support this lawsuit.

Whether other presidents did this or not, this is reprehensible and must be stopped.

I hope this lawsuit is successful.




matis

 

[DaveB]

Tom Lehrer bio:

http://wiw.org/~drz/tom.lehrer/jmazner/lehrhtml.html

db

 

[JohnBT]

Freedom of speech is subject to "reasonable restrictions". We can argue over what is reasonable, but it has been an accepted practice for a long, long time and few have complained because it was sensible.

For example, just for the heck of it, yell "Fire." in a crowded theater and see how you fare. Need I list other examples of "reasonable restrictions" on an individual's right to say what he pleases anywhere he pleases?

And anyway, it was worse under LBJ and Nixon.

John

 

[Sean Smith]

I guess the would-be protesters will have to give up and go back to work at NPR now.

 

[matis]

DaveB

Thank you for that excellent Tom Lehrer bio reference.

Sure brought back memories.


However it sounds like Lehrer is still leftist.


I "left" the left years ago.

"If you're not a socialist when you're 20, you have no heart. If you're still a socialist when you're 40, you have no brains."


Although I'm now way "to the right of Attila the Hun", I can still enjoy some of the old stuff like Lehrer.

I still like Bob Dylan.

I can still get off on the plays of Bertold Brecht and he was hard communist!

For instance I still can enjoy his THREE PENNY OPERA and especially, CAUCASION CHALK CIRCLE.


I can imagine exchanging views with Lehrer now (he's 75 if still with us) and seeing if he's "grown up", yet.



Back to the thread: I hope the ACLU wins this case (feels strange to say that) and the secret service gets back to protecting the president and not pimping for him.



Thanks again, DaveB






matis

 

[DaveB]

However it sounds like Lehrer is still leftist.

One can only hope.

Why else would we plan to get political satire show tickets in heaven?

db

 

[TallPine]

For example, just for the heck of it, yell "Fire." in a crowded theater and see how you fare. Need I list other examples of "reasonable restrictions" on an individual's right to say what he pleases anywhere he pleases?

What if there is really a fire ....

Reasonable restrictions like "freedom of speech" zones ... you have the right to say anything you want, but you don't have the right for anyone to hear you.

Maybe we could put CBS, CNN, ABC, NBC in one of those zones

 

[RKCheung]

For example, just for the heck of it, yell "Fire." in a crowded theater and see how you fare. Need I list other examples of "reasonable restrictions" on an individual's right to say what he pleases anywhere he pleases?

Yelling fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire would fit the "clear and present danger" Supreme Court test. I don't see how protesting an adminstration's policies would though.

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_and_present_danger

"Words which, ordinarily and in many places, would be within the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment may become subject to prohibition when of such a nature and used in such circumstances a to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils which Congress has a right to prevent. The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done."