Feds have to pay Bush protesters $80,000
No, wait a minute -- WE the Taxpayers have to pay it. Our tax dollars hard at work.
In a fair world the Bush campaign committee would reimburse the US Treasury for this free speech violation.
Whatever, gotta keep Bush free from seeing Americans dissent .. that way he can continue to think he is loved and doing a good job.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A couple arrested at a rally after refusing to cover T-shirts that bore anti-President Bush slogans settled their lawsuit against the federal government for $80,000, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Thursday.
Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where Bush gave a speech. A judge dismissed trespassing charges against them, and an order closing the case was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.
....The front of the Ranks' homemade T-shirts bore the international symbol for "no" superimposed over the word "Bush." The back of Nicole Rank's T-shirt said "Love America, Hate Bush." On the back of Jeffery Rank's T-shirt was the message "Regime Change Starts at Home."
The ACLU said in a statement that a presidential advance manual makes it clear that the government tries to exclude dissenters from the president's appearances. "As a last resort," the manual says, "security should remove the demonstrators from the event."
Ooooh .. Bushies have a Secret Manual on how to save Commander Guy from dangerous T-shirts.....you can see it here:
The manual says White House advance personnel should preposition "rally squads" that can swarm any protesters at the event and "use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform." The rally squads can be formed using "college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities."
Geez, do those "rally squads" know that they're participating in fascism? Because this sounds exactly like what Hilter used his brown-shirt, hobnail-boot wearing thugs to do.
The title of this manual should be "A Strategy for Brownshirts" .. and I'll bet Karl Rove wrote it. He was head of The Advance Office.
So how many amendments does that make now? We've had the first, fourth, fifth and sixth. Have I've missed any?
Arresting someone for exercising their freedom of speech at a taxpayer-funded event -- let me repeat, a taxpayer-funded event -- is a very serious matter. It adds insult to injury that Taxpayers get to foot the bill for that $80,000 fine money .. for a law violation by the Bush administration.
I would also have held out for a refresher course on the US Constitution for every White House staffer. I’m onery when it comes to violations of the Bill of Rights.
For cripe's sake, these people were just wearing T-shirts, they weren't yelling or causing a disturbance.
Freedom of speech is a GUARANTEED constitutional right .. NOT an afterthought!
How many Americans have died fighting wars to defend our constitutional rights and way of life?
Yet, here, on American Soil, our Commander-in-Chief can VIOLATE our right to free speech .. and not only live to tell about it, but just pay them off to forget about it.
