The Denver 3 post update at DFA....kicked out of Bush rally.

[madfloridian]

There is more about this in LBN, but this is an update posted by them at Blog for America.
http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006146.html

The Denver 3 Speak Out
Alex Young, Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise were removed from a "town hall" event in Denver, CO last week where President Bush appeared to discuss his Social Security privatization plan. They sent DFA an update on their story after meeting with Secret Service agents today.

Very rarely does the everyday public get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes in a normally-secret Bush Administration.

But today, the Secret Service called three everyday people (Alex Young, 25, an IT professional; Karen Bauer, 38, a marketing coordinator and Leslie Weise, 39, a lawyer) into their offices to discuss why we were kicked out of a presidential event in Denver last week where Bush promoted his plan to privatize Social Security. What they revealed to us and our lawyer was fascinating.

There we were—three people who had personally picked up tickets from Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez's office and went to a presidential event. But as we entered, we were told that we had been "ID'ed" and were warned that any disruption would get us arrested.

After being seated in the audience we were forcibly removed before the President arrived, even though we had not been disruptive. We were shocked when told that this presidential event was a "private event" and were commanded to leave...."
More astonishingly, when the Secret Service was contacted the next day they agreed to meet with us this Monday, March 28 to discuss the circumstances surrounding our removal. We had two big questions going into this meeting:

1) How is the Bush Administration "ID'ing" citizens before presidential events?

2) Why was an official taxpayer-funded event called a "private event"—leading to citizens being kicked out?

Most shocking of all, we got answers to both questions.

The Secret Service revealed that we were "ID'ed" when local Republican staffers saw a bumper sticker on the car we drove which said "No More Blood For Oil." Evidently, the free speech expressed on one bumper sticker is cause enough to eject three citizens from a presidential event. (Similarly, someone was ejected from Bush's Social Security privatization event in Arizona the same day simply for wearing a Democratic t-shirt.)

More at the link

Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise, Alexander Young
Denver residents

[efhmc]

1. Democracy is toast in the USA.

[libhill]

4. Yup -

we've slid downhill to a fascist state. It's all over.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. This is so messed up

I'm sick of this "town hall screening" crap. Everyday people should be allowed to see the president of the united states. This is more proof he stole the election because he's afraid to confront everyday people like this. He has to have everything pre-screened and can't handle the truth. Bastard. Imagine what people would be doing if this was a democratic president. Ugh. Did he forget the rules of democracy in this country? Of the people BY the people and for the people. Not Bush.

[grannylib]

5. I am with you...this is disgusting. We had much the same happen here

when the Chimp showed up for a campaign rally; son of local Dem politician denied tickets, then got them, but was under guard the whole time, along with his HS poli-sci teacher.
This administration is terrified of First Amendment rights (they hate us for our freedoms!) which is why they are so desperate to abridge them in the name of 'fighting terrorism' and for political propaganda.
"Free Speech Zones?" How much of a fucking coward is this weenie anyway? (Don't feel you have to answer, I know full well how cowardly and weenie-like this pResident is...)
Everything is scripted, they admit they are 'creating their own reality,' the Constitution is under siege from those who swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend it, and I want my country back!

[enough]

3. Hard to believe the SS was willing to talk to them.

Maybe they're fed up too.

[tridim]

6. Has this been reported in the MSM at all?

Or once again are DU'ers the only ones who know what's actually going on in this gawd forsaken country?

This must be covered nationally. It's unconstitutional.

[battlebob1]

7. couldn't get within a block

In Phx, we were shoved to over a block away and totally out of site...

[Coloradan4Truth]

8. It was reported as the first

story on the Denver NBC channel's 6:00 news (http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=eee74946-0abe-421a-00c0-7b644f80aafe&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf). The coverage was objective and the three were given the chance to present their case.

They had another bumper sticker on their car that they showed on the news too... "Save the Environment, Plant a Bush Back in Texas", I about busted a spleen when I saw that on the news!!

(edited for spelling)

[forintegrity]

9. You mean the COM?

(corporate owned media)

Let's call it what it is!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Aren't the ironically named SS also

After allowing taxpayers to finance his privatization events (let's call them what they really are after all,) and after using the White House communications apparatus to set them up, Bush is privatizing the ticket distribution and security staffing at his events to the Republican Party. The losers are not just taxpayers, but anyone who values the First Amendment. Under the banner of a "private event" the Republican Party is excluding citizens from seeing their president because of the lone sin of expressing the wrong idea on a bumper sticker or t-shirt. The question for Americans is—will we allow our freedom to be privatized?


taxpayer funded. Protect Chimp? Absolutely. Do his ideological bidding? Frightening. :scared:

[Kimber Scott]

11. Our freedom and democracy has already been privatized.

Can't somebody do something since he is staging these little events on our dime? It seems like it should be illegal to use taxpayer money for private events?

[madfloridian]

12. Good coverage from the Denver Post. "Run-Out has become a Runaround".

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2788912,00.html

SNIP..."The premise is as absurd as it is disingenuous. It is also critical to the Bush administration's ability to keep a dirty little secret.

In the past week, two White House spokesmen have told me they don't know the name of a Republican staff member who refused to let three people attend President Bush's March 21 Social Security "town hall" meeting in Denver. The three were banned because they arrived in a car with a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker. The White House doesn't know who did this because the White House doesn't care to find out.."

SNIP.."The runaround for the Denver Three seems to be a full sprint, just as it was in February for the Fargo 42. The Fargo 42 mysteriously appeared on a list of folks banned from Bush's nonpartisan, taxpayer-financed Social Security "town meeting" in North Dakota. Most were part of a Howard Dean meet-up group. But some had done nothing but write letters to the editor that were critical of the president.

SNIP..."Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates doesn't know who put her name on the no-admittance list or why. When the list leaked to the Fargo Forum newspaper, Coates got a ticket from Fargo's Republican mayor and went anyway.

"This is thought-police stuff," Coates said. "It's the new normal. It arouses suspicion about people by default. It's really a dark strategy."