Read this column. She is one of us.

[Bluzmann57]

and she's a reporter. www.qctimes.com/columnists#Ickes and then click on Barb Ickes. This is a very telling column. I find it shocking that there was racial profiling going on the rally,especially among kids. I emailed her and she did reply. She is a believer and a real reporter. I also met her at a local drinking establishment where I was doing my usual bitching about bush and co. and she agreed with me.

[nolabels]

1. I tell you man, the whole US is turning into one giant Nazi camp

Every where you look they try to stuff people down when they bad mouth that snibbling twerp. He is nothing, but what he represents is what they are really worried about,and that's what really stinks man, I tell you, that really stinks

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bushnonazi.html

[Robbien]

2. It is a pretty good column

and none of that lets be fair and now include some statements from Bush supporter business.

I sent her a short email of thanks.

[skygazer]

3. Very good column

These are disturbing stories and there are many of them. It's alarming that the people being ejected are not heckling, carrying signs or raising any kind of disturbance - they're simply exercising their right of choice.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. This is happening everywhere.

At first, I thought there were just a few isolated incidents caused by a few overzealous campaign volunteers. But it's become obvious that it's policy. It happened in Minnesota a few days ago when a guy who had just returned from National Guard service overseas nearly got thrown out of a Bush* rally and threatened with arrest because a teenager he was escorting was found to have a Kerry sticker *in his wallet!* (The kid was thrown out; the National Guard guy got to stay, but only after an argument). WTF is wrong with these people?
 
"The president was visiting Mankato and Tim Walz wanted to see him. A teacher who has 23 years of service in the National Guard and who recently returned home from overseas, Walz wanted to hear his commander-in-chief.

He did.

But only after being threatened with arrest and subjected to a political interrogation. Welcome home, good and faithful soldier. You may see the president...."

http://www.startribune.com/stories/357/4925396.html

[peacetalksforall]

6. This is Cabal Nazism.

It's descending. Now we know what it was like for the Germans and every other people who have had the rug pulled out from under them.

[Warpy]

8. it's been Bush policy from Day #1!

All during his reign (one can't call it a presidency) he's had hand-picked crowds of cronies and loyalists, a press that presubmits all their questions and strays from the script only if they're ready to accept reprisal (see Helen Thomas's treatment). Washington hostesses have complained since the first month that nobody in the Bush White House is ever seen at DC soirees, not a big point, but an illustration of how hermetically sealed off from the country they really are. They are an echo chamber, each repeating the other's insanity with no discussion, let alone dissent, allowed.

It's not only creepy, it's incredibly dangerous to the 99.5% of the country kept outside the protective bubble surrounding this bunch. With no reality check from outside the bubble, they're likely to go father and farther awry into utter insanity, and they will take the rest of us where that insanity leads.

[Blue Gardener]

4. Sent her a thank you

Thanks for posting, it was a very good column.

[ewagner]

7. Me too

Just sent her a thank you. We need some more real journalists who aren't afraid.

[obelus]

9. There has to be a way this is spinnable...

Maybe it is a good thing that the President moves from Potemkin village to Potemkin village as he stumps around the U.S. Back during the inauguration, I tuned in the old Zenith to catch the angry hordes shouting about the stolen election. They were not there. The esteemed news readers mentioned in dulcet, well modulated tones that police had cordoned off an area on the other side of town for their hissy fits. What a thoughtful gesture for the new administration to provide free speech areas, presumably with cold cuts, coffee, and cheese cake, and well tended porta-potties.

If the administration must take great measures to squelch our voices, than we must be doing our job as citizens. If storm troopers in full battle regalia must turn out whenever the guy gets out of the limo, we must be doing our job as citizens. If only loyalists are allowed within 100 yards of the preening, simpering coterie of brutal fixers and head honchos, then we must be doing our job as citizens.

They are clearly rattled. We must be doing our job as citizens.