"Free Speech Zones" predate Bush. Both Clinton appearances I've attended here in Arizona, same thing: protestors were shuffled away to places out of the way and generally out of sight of the cameras and the event itself.
And on at least one occasion, to my personal knowledge, a Clinton visit to a shopping mall resulted in Secret Service forcing booksellers in the mall to take down front-store displays of books that did not portray Clinton positively.
As for "hearing nothing that doesn't square with its own evaluations", that is in fact nothing new. You can go back to at least Johnson and find keester-kissing generals and advisors who toe the party line no matter what reality says. The Pentagon, for one thing, specifically provided Johnson with backup when he lied about a second US destroyer being attacked by North Vietnamese speedboats, justifying his escalation of the war into the nightmare it became. But there was no such attack, and no one posted in the Vietnam theatre claimed one occurred, either. The daily report for the day of the "attack" mentioned nothing more exciting than a sonarman "chasing his own screws". The Pentagon fabricated the report at his request.
And I'll tell you again: the Patriot Act protects your First Amendment rights regarding such laws as RICO and the Foreign Intelligence Act. It is, for example, no longer illegal to say you want the President to die. Under previous interpretations of the Foreign Intelligence Act, such a statement by itself could legally be interpreted by the FBI to be evidence of conspiracy to commit the actual deed. Now you can wish openly for Bush to die by any number of means --- thanks to Bush.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2006-10-06 07:33 am (UTC)And on at least one occasion, to my personal knowledge, a Clinton visit to a shopping mall resulted in Secret Service forcing booksellers in the mall to take down front-store displays of books that did not portray Clinton positively.
As for "hearing nothing that doesn't square with its own evaluations", that is in fact nothing new. You can go back to at least Johnson and find keester-kissing generals and advisors who toe the party line no matter what reality says. The Pentagon, for one thing, specifically provided Johnson with backup when he lied about a second US destroyer being attacked by North Vietnamese speedboats, justifying his escalation of the war into the nightmare it became. But there was no such attack, and no one posted in the Vietnam theatre claimed one occurred, either. The daily report for the day of the "attack" mentioned nothing more exciting than a sonarman "chasing his own screws". The Pentagon fabricated the report at his request.
And I'll tell you again: the Patriot Act protects your First Amendment rights regarding such laws as RICO and the Foreign Intelligence Act. It is, for example, no longer illegal to say you want the President to die. Under previous interpretations of the Foreign Intelligence Act, such a statement by itself could legally be interpreted by the FBI to be evidence of conspiracy to commit the actual deed. Now you can wish openly for Bush to die by any number of means --- thanks to Bush.