Denver: The Busheviks Once Again Pull the Plug on Democracy, And Lie About It for the Umpteenth Time -- the Same Lie by the Way. It Should be a Front Page NYT Story, But You Have to Read a Paper in Fargo, N.D. to Get the Truth.
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A release from the DNC:
Local Residents Blacklisted from Bush Town Hall Events
Washington, DC – Last weekend, a North Dakota newspaper reported that Republican operatives have adopted a strategy to 'blacklist' some local residents from attending Bush's so-called public town hall meetings on Social Security.
The story is re-printed below in its entirety from The Forum (Fargo, ND):
Denver deals with own list
By Matthew Von Pinnon, The Forum
A do-not-admit list similar to the one meant to keep dissenters out of President Bush's town hall talk on Social Security Feb. 3 in Fargo may have turned up this week in Denver.
Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise, both members of Denver Progressives, were turned away at the event's door even though they had tickets.
A doorman stopped the two women and directed them to another man, who said they had "been ID'd" and would have to talk to someone from the Secret Service.
Another unidentified man with a shaved head, earpiece and red lapel pin approached them.
" He said we were allowed to go in but, if we caused any problems, we'd be taken to jail," Bauer, a 38-year-old marketing coordinator, told the Denver Post.Lon Garner, special agent in charge of the Denver-area Secret Service, said his staff doesn't remove people from presidential events unless they break the law.
He added that the Republican staff may ask people to leave, and some of them may seem like members of the Secret Service.
Garner told the Denver Post he understood Republican event workers had two names on a "list."
Bauer and Weise were later allowed in but, more than an hour before Bush took the stage, they and their 25-year-old fellow Progressive Alex Young, were escorted out of the audience at Wings Over the Rockies Museum.
"We kept asking, 'Why is this happening?' " Young said. "The guy said, 'If the staff asks you to leave, you have to leave. This is a private event.' "
The three who were forced to leave said it was not billed as a private event - rather a "Conversation on Social Security" - and they had tickets legally obtained through the office of Colorado Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez.
A spokesman for Beauprez, Jordan Stoick, said 1,500 tickets were distributed through the congressman's e-mail list and the office had no way of knowing who they were inviting or to what party they belonged.
Weise, a 39-year-old lawyer, said a Secret Service spokesman told her Republicans identified the trio as "protest-type people" who were part of the "No Blood for Oil" group.
Weise and Bauer told the Denver Post they wore T-shirts underneath their business suits that said, "Stop the lies." They said they planned to reveal them as the president spoke, but didn't plan to otherwise disrupt the event.
The group has a Web site and has protested Bush events in the past, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said Friday she is not aware of do-not-admit lists.
Jim Morrell, another White House press secretary, said Feb. 4 that Fargo's do-not-admit list may have been the work of an "overzealous volunteer" with a White House advance team made up of local, state and federal officials preparing for Bush's Feb. 3 visit to the Bison Sports Arena.
Morrell said at the time the White House wasn't aware the list was created or distributed and regrets it happened. He said the White House was taking steps to ensure nothing like it happened again.
The Fargo list contained the names of 42 people not supposed to be given tickets to Bush's talk on Social Security reform. Thirty-three of them belonged to the local group Democracy for America. There were two high school students, a librarian, a Democratic campaign manager and several university professors on the list.
Also included was Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates, who got into the event using a ticket given to her by Mayor Bruce Furness.
Learning of the similar case in Denver, Coates said Friday she considers the uproar over the Fargo list part of her past, but she's still concerned about what it says for America's freedom of speech foundation.
"This just shines a light on the fact this administration doesn't like to deal with dissent or disagreement," Coates said. "I find it ironic that at this event, where we're talking about standing up for freedom, that this can happen. It's just kind of pitiful."
Fargo's free tickets were handed out beforehand at the Fargodome and headquarters of the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau. Officials from both buildings say they had no involvement with the list, but were aware it existed.
The list arrived in one of two boxes containing tickets and other forms. People who showed up for tickets were asked to write down names and addresses of anyone attending the event.
Those handing out tickets were told to alert a representative from Gov. John Hoeven's office if someone on the list tried to get a ticket.
One of those representatives was James Burgum, a recent North Dakota State University student now working for Hoeven.
Burgum told others he got the list, along with the tickets and forms, from the White House advance team.
If anyone from the list tried to get tickets, Burgum was instructed to take the person aside and explain to them that this wasn't a political rally and to make sure they weren't intending to be disruptive.
The genesis of the lists remains a mystery.
Reporter Andrea Domaskin contributed to this story.
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