Is it Possible That We Still Have the Right to Dissent

In the movie "A Guide For A Married Man" a man, apprehended by his wife while in a compromising position with another woman says something resembling "... are you going to believe what you just saw with your own eyes or what I tell you that you just saw?"

This does not exactly relate to this story, but it is close enough for me, and anyway, I love the quote, and I use it at every opportunity.

This accurate quote is from the song "The House I Live In."

"The place I work in, the worker at my side
the little town or city where my people lived and died
the "howdy" and the handshake the air of feeling free
the right to speak my mind out, that's America to me."

It is difficult for me not to conjure up these words being sung by Frank Sinatra so many years ago.

The Bush Administration has put placed our country in the unbelievable place of denying our freedom of expression, or "the right to speak my mind out."

I loosely quote an article published on August 16th datelined Charleston W. Va.

"Feds pay $80,000 over anti-Bush T-shirts"

A man and a woman who refused 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.

The couple were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where President 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.

They had spent a night in jail following their arrest.

"This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia. "... Public Officials will think twice before they eject peaceful protesters from public events for exercising their right to dissent." Sorry Andrew, $80,000 is mot nearly enough to deter these guys.

White House spokesman Blair Jones said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing. He could have said"... are you going to believe what you just saw with your own eyes or what I tell you that you just saw?"

How about this for parsing words?

Blair Jones went on to say "The parties understand that this settlement is a compromise of disputed claims to avoid the expenses and risks of litigation and is not an admission of fault, liability, or wrongful conduct,"

Disputed claims? They were arrested and jailed for a protest. What disputed claims?

The front of the homemade T-shirts bore the international symbol for "no" superimposed over the word "Bush." The back of one T-shirt said "Love America, Hate Bush." On the back of the other 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."

Someone should advise Blair Jones that when the President or his people say or do something absolutely horrid that they should take responsibility for the event and say the magic words in society of "I am sorry, we made a mistake, and we are taking steps to insure that it does not happen again.

And now I present my usual venting of a usual upset with the people who should have the responsibility of reporting ALL violations of press freedom in our country to the citizens of our country. This of course would be The NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox Television Networks. This type of violation by the Government should not be treated so cavalierly by the media.

I have not observed a mention of this recent incident on television, and it should be reported with the same fervor used when dealing with the really important events like Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton, and Lindsey Lohan.

Most of the other Constitutional violations can be blamed on "we must protect Americans from terrorist activities." But what could they possibly say about this one?

Norman Horowitz

Comments

[vapopper]

makes me wonder if there is any truth to the rumor that Matt Carson was arrested or detained for his book On A Hill They Call Capital - Bacon's Rebellion picked up the review and then his book signings were canceled, all very strange. link to bacon's post: http://baconsrebellion.blogspot.com/2007/08/at-last-political-thriller-plot-that_21.html

[montemalone]

How is a fine, paid for with taxdollars, supposed to punish/deter the criminals that arrested the protesters in the first place? Do you think they care about a fine?
Bush probably laughed when/if he found out about the fine.
The court should have said that no one will be prevented from attending public events, and that they have a constitutional right to express their opinions/ideas/thoughts.

[Smokr]

Operation
Iraqi
Liberation

Says it all....especially important since American citizens are no longer allowed to say anything.

[radiclib]

Impeach Bush.

[EvereaderinSC]

One more thing, the words on that solitary protester's sign were telling: NO WAR FOR OIL...

[happytrails]

The fear of a t-shirt slogan just points up the craven cowardice of this administration. These are the same people who hid out during Vietnam. Where is the justifiable outrage of the true heroes/victims of failed-war policies? Where is the justifiable outrage of our veterans? The cowards destroy the Constitution, cut veterans benefits, send poorly equipped kids to occupy a country, deny psychological damage, etc., etc.
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

[Thorn]

Are you actually asking if you still have the right to dissent? Where are you? Where are you posting?

[readyforchange]

The fine should have been much more...$80,000 is nothing for this type of fascist harassment. The lack of media attention is a disgrace.

It brought to mind the protests Bush has to endure while traveling to other countries. The coward forbids dissenters at his appearances in the homeland.

I keep thinking I'll awaken from this nightmare. As it stands now, the experiment known as America is dead.

[brkily]

This week university professors were arrested in Bangladesh for promoting protests against the policies of their government. In the U.S., with our shiny new laws passed recently and since 9/11 by the compliant and cowed congress, it will be ever so easy for the same thing to happen here. It is not far-fetched at all.

..."Dhaka - Bangladesh security forces on Friday arrested four university professors who were allegedly active in protests that erupted into clashes with police and prompted a curfew in six cities, officials said.

The arrests came in early morning raids before the government said it was temporarily suspending the curfew imposed after three days of unrest in the country, which has been under emergency rule since January.

Harun ur Rashid, dean of Dhaka university's social science faculty, and Anwar Hossain, dean of bioscience and general secretary of the university's teachers' association, were arrested, acting vice-chancellor Yusuf Haider said.

"At least 10 army officers came to our house in the night and said my father had to go with them to the police station," said Hossain's daughter Dipannita.

The pair have been vocal in their criticisms of the army and the military-backed interim government, which took power seven months ago following a political crisis that saw the cancellation of national elections.

They had also been active in the protests this week, which began after army personnel manhandled students during a football match on the campus of Dhaka University on Monday.

Two more teachers were arrested from their homes in north-western Rajshahi early on Friday, said the head of the city's university Altaf Hossain.

Hossain said intelligence officers told him they suspected teachers at the university of instigating violence there earlier this week that left one bystander dead and dozens injured.

The detained academics were applied physics professors Saidur Rahman Khan, also a former head of the university, and Abdus Sobhan, leader of a left-leaning teachers' group, he added.

"Their families said security forces in civilian dress picked up the teachers from their homes," he said...."

[Joeseo]

Americans are well acquainted with being muzzled on the job. The workplace has no toleration for free expression.

Given Bush/Cheney and the fully ensconced fascism of American Corporate control of our government, you must behave in the manner of an employee instead of a citizen.

The friends and relatives of mine comprising part of the hardcore radicalwingnutters act just like the Corporate Media types and ban political talk at all social functions.

Have we lost? you betcha!

[billysviez]

this is just the start of the dictatorship that is coming to us, courtesy of the evil cheney and his puppit bush. we have a spineless Democratic party who do nothing to stop these criminals. i'm 65 years old and sometmes geting old don't seem so bad. unless WE THE PEOPLE stand up for Ourselves WE have no hope. as a Proud American and Vietnam Vet. i never thought i would see this.

[politigal]

It made me sick during the 2004 election campaign - to watch Bush in front of canned crowds. This Administration is all about Propoganda. How about during Katrina- the handful of people taken to a remote area of the Convention Center Parking lot - to spout tepid words of praise regarding the Gov'ts handling of the emergency. And even the attempt to donate 10,000 copies of the "Path to 9/11" to our public schools- to be taught as history?
Thank you for writing this article - we need to be told what is going on. And we all should be VERY VERY CONCERNED!

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

...Sorry Andrew, $80,000 is mot nearly enough to deter these guys.

It set's a precedent. Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas have bravely acted on behalf of freedom. I challenge the Huffington Keyboard Brigade to stand up and act on your conscience at risk of jail, monetary loss or discomfort.

mike

[SmackwaterJack]

Well... what did you expect? Yesterday the White House threatened Senator Warner, a sitting United States Senator. What chance do you think average people have?

[EvereaderinSC]

Excellent post, Norman! As I finished reading it I couldn't help but think of the national news on NBC we watched last night. After the shots of the floods and an interview with a venerable entertainer there was a thing on a popular squirrel video from YouTube. Yes it was a cute/mean looking animal with music played creatively to make you laugh. But I wanted to scream at Brian Williams: "Where is the news that is important? What about the news you just told me on these WV protesters, this and other numerous cases of free speech being snuffed out?

Back in the "pre-war" days when Bush flew here to Columbia, SC. A protester held up a sign at the airport. He was hauled off in handcuffs & jailed I think. Later the court gave him a $500 fine, which I think some folks here helped him pay.

He was told when he was arrested that he was in a "No Protest Zone." He then told them he thought he was in America where protesting was allowed anywhere. His story barely made the local paper here, they may have touched on it in the national news. The paper that covered it most thoroughly was our local Free Times.

Today, free speech has been marginalized, out-sourced and strangled. We, the People need to keep the heat on. Lincoln said the travails he and his country endured were all about whether government by and for the people, this experiment in democracy could survive. We're in a struggle right now, no less important to see if the People can prevail against corportate government. It's an even more exasperating fight as you cannot jail a corporation, nail or charge a single person it is completely souless. Let's all keep the heat on...