Padding his fake townhall meetings with partisan backers of his proposed changes in Social Security at the taxpayers expense and refusing to allow anyone in with the slightest inclination to disagree with him is not only avoiding reality but illegal. The Denver 3 were not the first that were treated in this manner but they will hopefully be the last due to the scrutinty his dirty tricks have drawn in the last few weeks.
As reported in the Denver Channel and earlier in the Denver Post the Secret Service are conducting an investigation into the incident. The Denver channel reports that the Secret Service know who the person was that instructed the D3 to leave the meeting. Fox News reports concerning the story that: "He is the president, and regardless of affiliation, everybody should have the opportunity to go and see the president," said Aaron Johnson, spokesman for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo. "It shouldn't be the job of anybody to make sure the crowd is 100 percent sympathetic." BuzzFlash
quotes the same Fox News article as stating : "Duffy said the White House sends advance teams to deal with logistics for any official event" - which the Denver town hall meeting was. "These teams typically handle the screening for speakers and audience members who will be sitting with or addressing the president during the event. They also keep an eye on the crowds for possible troublemakers." This pretty well gives the impression that the white house is in control of the people ejecting folks from these fake townhall meetings.
Earlier the Tuscon Citizen reported that a student was refused admittance to a meeting because of the tee-shirt he was wearing. This was standard operations during the 2004 campaign to shield bush from real questions from real people because of his inability to think on his feet and respond without making himself look worse than he normally did. That ploy was seen through by most people but accepted blindly by the sheeple in his rallies. The Daily Show has an informative interview with Frank Lunz, where he explains that a townhall meeting that gets out of control can make a speaker look very bad. Needless to say, it takes very little to burst bush's bubble to answer a question that is not rehearsed or coached by speech writers or the master himself, Karl Rove. In the case of these Social Security Townhall Meetings the tactics used on the Denver 3 are not acceptable and if allegations are proven correct, quite illegal considering it is the general public who is financing them. With this administration's vigor at avoiding responsibility for practically any of it's actions, these alleged breaches impune the integrity of all citizens of this country that abide by the law. This issue as was alluded to on the Election04 bbs had weak legs but now has garnered strength and with their walking papers in hand, will not just go away, because more and more people are saying no to bush.
Many of the blogs including DailyKOS
and War and Peace have comments on this issue as well as the following sites: blog for america • summit daily • Keep watching the watchers • Stepford Town Meetings 4-10-05 • Phish Fan in Jeezus Land
• Denver 3.org •
Helen Thomas at Common Dreams