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Wednesday, February 01, 2006

John Cole gets it
Posted by Jill | 8:45 AM

If more conservatives were like John Cole, instead of mindless grinning bulldogs resolutely goosestepping behing George Bush because they can't face admitting that they were wrong, we would be much better off.

Cole has no love lost for Cindy Sheehan, but even he knows that arresting someone for wearing a T-shirt is completely antithetical to the U.S. Constitution, as well as making a mockery of claims to be spreading freedom:

It was one thing when I thought she was arrested for unfurling a banner in the Capitol or some sort of civil disobedience. But arrested for wearing a t-shirt? WTF? What the hell is going on? Someone fill me in on why an anti-war t-shirt is a criminal offense.


Read the comments as well; there are a variety of opinions, though it appears that Sheehan did nothing illegal:

...the United States Capitol Police Board issued a regulation that interprets “demonstration activity” to include: parading, picketing, speechmaking, holding vigils, sit-ins, or other expressive conduct that convey[s] a message supporting or opposing a point of view or has the intent, effect or propensity to attract a crowd of onlookers, but does not include merely wearing Tee shirts, buttons or other similar articles of apparel that convey a message.”


Meanwhile, this from his comments indicates the kind of dumbass mindset we're up against:

Remember, that by stopping her from wearing that tee-shirt they’re protecting your right to blog, watch Joss Wheadon movies, drink Johhny Walker blue, etc.


So let me see if I understand....by stopping free expression, they're protecting free expression? Someone please explain this logic to me.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald on the same topic is must reading as well. An excerpt, which in no way exempts you from reading the whole thing:

This is nothing more than a naked attempt to stifle dissent and to create a criticism-free bubble around George Bush. Presidents routinely use all sorts of propagandistic imagery at the State of the Union to decorate their speeches with an aura of regal patriotism. We always see weeping widows and military heroes and symbolic guests of all sorts who are used as props and visuals to bolster the President's message both emotionally and psychologically. The State of the Union speech is hardly free of visual messages and propaganda of that sort; quite the contrary.

But we apparently now have a country where the only ideas allowed to be expressed in our Nation's Capitol while the President is speaking are ones which glorify the Government and its Leader and where dissenting views are prohibited and will subject someone to arrest. Message cleansing of that sort belongs at a political rally in North Korea, not in Washington, DC.

There have been stories here and there of the Secret Service and other federal government agencies exercising the police power of the state for no purpose other than to stifle dissent. Virtually every appearance of George Bush is meticulously and vigilantly staged to ensure that he is surrounded only by agreement and adoration and almost never dissent of any kind.

This is plainly unhealthy and disgustingly contrary to every defining core American value. Our leaders aren't entitled to reverence and worship and aren't supposed to want it. Criticism, dissent and divergence of opinion are things which the founders did everything possible to foster, and the idea that someone is dragged out of a speech by the President for silently and peacefully wearing an anti-war t-shirt is disgraceful and embarrassing.

And these attacks on dissent are particularly ironic given that they occurred in the midst of a speech by a President who loves to lecture the world on the virtues of liberty and who holds himself out as the Chief Crusader for freedom and democracy.
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