Posted on 05/14/2004 8:20:31 AM PDT by freeeee
The King made a royal visit to Wisconsin last week, and as is common when monarchs travel, individual liberties were suspended.
King George Bush's bus trip across western Wisconsin closed schools and roads, prevented residents from moving freely in their own communities, and prevented citizens from exercising their free speech rights.
All in all, it was a typical George W. Bush visit.
But there's a slight twist.
People in western Wisconsin, who hold to the refreshingly naive notion that they live in a republic as opposed to an imperial realm, are objecting.
"There's a pattern of harassment of free speech here that really concerns me," says Guy Wolf, the student services coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. "If they're going to call it a presidential visit, then it should be a presidential visit - where we can hear from him and he can hear from us. But that's not what happened here, not at all."
Wolf and other La Crosse area residents who wanted to let the president know their feelings about critical issues came face to face with the reality that, when King George travels, he is not actually interested in a two-way conversation.
Along the route of the Bush bus trip from Dubuque to La Crosse, the Bush team created a "no-free-speech" zone that excluded any expressions of the dissent that is the lifeblood of democracy. In Platteville, peace activist Frank Van Den Bosch was arrested for holding up a sign that was critical of the president. The sign's "dangerous" message, "FUGW," was incomprehensible to children and, no doubt, to many adults. Yet, it was still determined sufficiently unsettling to the royal procession that Van Den Bosch was slapped with a disorderly conduct ticket.
Up the road in La Crosse, the clampdown on civil liberties was even more sweeping. Wolf and hundreds of other Wisconsinites and Minnesotans who sought to express dissents were videotaped by authorities, told they could not make noise, ordered not to display certain signs and forced to stand out of eyesight of Bush and his entourage. Again and again, they were told that if they expressed themselves in ways that were entirely protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, they would be "subject to arrest."
"Everyone understood the need for basic security for the president, but none of us could understand why we had to give up our free speech rights," explained Wolf.
La Crosse Mayor John Medinger shares that concern. The Bush-Cheney campaign leased a portion of a local park where the royal rally was held. Yet, Wisconsinites who wanted to protest Bush's visit were told they could not use a sound system in a completely different section of the park.
"I want to find out why the whole park was used when only a portion was leased," Medinger told the La Crosse Tribune. "So when demonstrators were told they couldn't have (sound) systems, the question is why."
The Bush-Cheney campaign paid a $100 fee to use one part of the park, but disrupted much of the city. Medinger is now assessing the full cost of the royal visit and hopes to deliver a bill to the campaign, which State Elections Board attorney George Dunst says the Bush campaign should pay. Other communities, including Prairie du Chien, are looking at following Medinger's lead.
But the challenge should not just be a financial one. The Bush visit attacked First Amendment rights up and down the Mississippi. A lot of people are owed apologies.
In a monarchy, of course, the King never apologizes. But in a democracy, the president is supposed to be accountable to the people.
By pressing demands that the charges against Frank Van Den Bosch be dropped and that the White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign apologize for participating in an anti-democratic endeavor, residents of western Wisconsin can, and should, take up the cause of this country's founders. It is time once more to challenge a King named George.
Caption: President Bush waves to crowds from his campaign bus as he passes through Prairie du Chien last Friday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Rather have that than being taught by a liberal writer filled with irrational animus.
BTW, what do you think of your brother in arms, Michael Berg, blaming his son's death(by jihadists/al-queda) on Bush.
BFD.
And we can know this because they aren't holding any criticizing signs. The bad guys always do that, dontchaknow.
If only someone had seen Oswalds protest sign in time...
Hate to burst your bubble, sweetie, but the Dems did the same thing 30 years ago when my mother protested ....Carter, I do believe?... coming to our town. She and her friends were forced to stand behind a fence, and not only that, but his supporters were bused (bussed?) in from out of town so there were more.
What about the women in FL whose sign "My abortion hurt me" was ripped apart at a Kerry rally?
If you think this is a new "Bush" thing, you'd best think again.
And why do we hear about anti-Bush protesters having their rights "trampled" but not similar incidents on the other side?
See tagline.
Yep...I was in San Francisco to freep the Schlickmiester at a private residence dinner above Union Street, and they had a major cordon operation going on, 1/4 mile if not more. Mel Morgan was leading the charge.
We fanned out and staked out street corners and I was one of the lucky ones to be on the right street corner.
Me and about 4 or 5 others looked the sucker right in the eye.
I flipped him off.
The problem is that the SS knows it cannot really protect the President from a determined assassin, so they want to create a record 'for the file' of how hard they have tried, just in case.
It is all CYA nonsense.
So9
Btw, freeee, I think you would get a better reception in the cyber rubber room lorded over by the one with the self-proclaimed "gift".
The people of Wisconsin have had to adjust their daily lives for a single event. Big whoop. For EIGHT YEARS, every time algwhore came to Tennessee they would stop traffic on the Interstate to allow him to pass on his way to the family plantation in Carthage. Usually durng rush hours.
Here is a tip. Get some wood and nails and build a bridge and then get over it.
Apparently he's never heard of what it's like when either of the Clintons traveled. Even today I read that signs, etc., are removed from Hillary's presence.
The point of the article was that people who weren't protesting were allowed to stay.
Those with critical views were forced to leave or face arrest.
W thinks a nice photo-op trumps the 1st Amendment. Can't have those pesky protesters ruining something as important as a re-election campaign. Hey, you gotta have priorities.
From personal experience I know that Dubya is very considerate of New York metropolitan area traffic concerns when he travels here. The Clintons didn't give a RAT's ass (and probably secretly enjoyed cauisng as much disruption as possible).
Exactly - like when he tied up airport traffic at LAX while he was getting a 200$ haircut.
I remember all sorts of things.
Like FReepers having a fit over Clinton's use of the SS to limit dissent, while giving supporters a front row seat.
Where's the barf alert?
Dane wrote:
Btw, freeee, I think you would get a better reception in the cyber rubber room lorded over by the one with the self-proclaimed "gift".
No, It is just the way it is. There are nine jillion ways to express ones opinion, whining becuse you are not allowed to harass a specific target, in a narrowly defined way, is just that, whining.
Hillary also used thugs to clear the way of protestors before she made her entrance....
Whenever algore made his not-infrequent trips to Nashville he ALWAYS showed up during either morning or afternoon rush hour. Screwed up the whole town and made me late for an appointment once that cost me a $6000 job. DNC wouldn't compensate me, either. Party of the little man, my ass.
The Presidency has been Imperial since LBJ.
The People have more or less liked it, don't ask me why.
As we see in the photo, the sidewalk was not closed down.
Oh, far from it. There is a crowd of people standing there.
Some people were removed or arrested for one reason and only one reason: they were protesting.
THAT is why this isn't a free country.
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