In America, you can’t use taxpayer funding to host the president and then cleanse the area of dissenters. That is, we can safely say, unAmerican. Therefore it is common, codified practice for Bush events, according to the ACLU:
"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.’"
But the Bushies, for once, got caught. Here’s the AP lede about protestors who were arrested by local police at the behest of White House "handlers":
"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."
Ah, yes. America. I remember it well.
But of course:
"White House spokesman Blair Jones said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing."
Read here.
