Things are getting so bad the president now travels in secret to his ticketed events:
Security will be tight this morning in anticipation of President Bush’s arrival in East Tennessee to visit the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
It’s so tight, in fact, that no one involved in the preparations Sunday would utter so much as a word about event details.
. . .
Lack of information about the president’s visit has upset many dissenters who normally show up at Bush visits to protest the administration’s policies.
Bush’s administration has differed from past presidencies in that protesters are forced under threat of arrest into “First Amendment zones” that are placed well away from where the president is expected to be.
But with no one from the White House letting the public know in advance where the zones in Oak Ridge will be – or if protests of any kind will even be permitted – some potential protesters said they weren’t going to show up for what seemed to be the certainty of jail time.
. . .
“They put us where no one can see us, and they let the Bush supporters up front. No one seems to know where the zones are, and that’s the whole point. It’s hard to organize demonstrations when you can’t even tell anyone where to go, and if they don’t know where to go, they’re going to get arrested.
“It’s ironic that we have a president claiming to be pushing democracy in Iraq while here in Tennessee the First Amendment only applies to a few hundred square feet.”
Resonance will remain a free speech bubble during Bush’s visit.
I would like to know where and under whose direction the “free speech zones” were initiated. There are those who insist this is simply Secret Service policy and that the bush administration had nothing to do with this practice. Since I don’t remember this happening under past presidents, I suspect that bush or rove or both had something to do with implementing this. If you can give me any information on this with source, please forward to my email address.
Thank you.