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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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January 05, 2004
Bush squelching protest
I tend to give President Bush some slack because he seems to be doing a reasonably decent job in his very difficult central responsibility of defending the country from attack. Nonetheless, like any politician, give him an inch and he'll take a mile.
I'll even give him some leeway with the dreaded Patriot Act. Some form of judicial oversight for prisoners in Gitmo might be reasonable, but overall I'm not too worried about the fine points of the civil liberties of enemy combatants.
However, restricting the rights of innocent Americans to protest the government constitutes something unacceptable. McCain-Feingold [ultimately a collusion between all three branches of the federal government] will go down in infamy.
There's another ongoing set of abuses though, that lay entirely on the executive branch- and ultimately George W Bush personally. Story from the San Francisco Chronicle
Basically, there seem to be a lot of reports of squelching of expressions of criticism anywhere physically near the president- and by "near" we mean within sight of tv cameras along his route. This seems to include public streets.
Corralling any kind of protesters a half mile away in a "free speech zone" doesn't get it. As some have noted, AMERICA is supposed to be a free speech zone.
You give them an inch of latitutde for the sake of physically protecting the president, and he'll take a mile of leeway in suppressing little, mildly politically embarassing displays of dissent by brunt force. Alright, maybe you don't want guys carrying protest signs on pointy sticks right up to the president. It seems exceedingly unlikely that actual assassins would announce themselves by showing up carrying a protest sign to draw attention. Still, they might poke him with the pointy stick. That's pushing it, but perhaps we defer to even a somewhat unlikely security concern.
But there's just no excuse from trying to ban people from standing on a public road with a sign criticizing the president. That cannot be reasonably justified on grounds of security at all. It might be bad for the president's job security to see him surrounded by protesters at every step. But hey- that comes with the job.
These abuses are smaller, more retail level micro-censorships relative to the sweeping, formal nationwide ban on political protests by McCain-Feingold. On that basis, you could say that these smaller suppressions of dissent at presidential appearances are therefore not as serious. However, unlike the campaign finance stuff, this is ALL 100% under the control of the president. The FBI and Secret Service work for HIM, not the Congress or the courts.
I would, however, like to take a moment to bash US Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr for collusion. He is apparently prosecuting a South Carolina protester, trying to absolutely get him jailtime for carrying a derogatory sign amidst a group of sign waving presidential supporters.
However, President George W Bush has total control and thus personal responsibility for the policies and actions of federal law enforcement. At bottom, Strom Jr works for Dubya. He could stop this nonsense. He could stop Strom Jr. He could tell the FBI and the Secret Service to, oh...uhm..
Oh, yes- now I remember. President Bush could tell his subordinates to follow the frickin' constitution.
posted by Al at 1/05/2004 02:53:00 AM
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