Anyone else embarrased when their side shouts down speakers and disrupts events? I think carrying signs outside events, moderate hissing and booing during speeches, wearing t-shirts, etc. are fine, but actually disrupting speech makes me feel that the protesters’ does not feel that their own side is strong enough to undergo scrutiny.
No . Nobody should be arrested for holding up a political sign on public property.
They just have so much more to protest. It is easy.
Absolutely.
I ran into that just recently during a friends’ visit, when an embarrassed mother started to apologize for her son’s defense of “His Dark Materials,” by saying, “Oh, I forgot, you’re Catholic.”
And I had to say, “Yes, but I’d welcome the chance to discuss the book.”
If there’s an argument for or against something, let’s air it; it will stand or fall on its own strength. If your side doesn’t stand up when examined or attacked, maybe it ought not to be your side…
I don’t know about that. Daniel Pipes gave a lecture at my college and was all but calling for the “preemptive” invasions of every Arab state by the end.
I was proud to be among those who stood up and told him to shut the fuck up.
Why do you make that claim. ?The message is the point. If it were pro McCain nothing would have been done. But, this message is practically harmless. it shows how sensitive they are to even the most mild criticism. The content was all important.
Well, to be fair it seems as though they took every sign, not just the anti- ones.
And right there is where you lost Gonzo.
Keith Olbermann did a piece on it tonight. While not unempeachable, they did insinuate it was unusual behavior and not the norm.
Actually, every post above that discusses the issue suggests that they took all signs, not just pro-McCain signs.
So why do YOU make the claim that a pro-McCain sign would have been left alone?
Having watched that Countdown segment, I notice that the commentator carefully avoids saying that there were McCain supporters with posters in the event. He says there may have been attendees with buttons, but nothing about others with posters.
And they threatened and fined them all then.
You did note in the video when she asked them why they were after her ,they said it was because McCains people asked them to.
As usual, I try to see things from both sides, and I believe a sign “Obama = Clinton” would be just as insulting to Obama as “McCain = Bush” would be for McCain.
Again, nice point you made, Bricker.
I would tend to believe that most of them left the signs on the first request and the officials there didn’t have to go the next step that you believe should have been the first response. Again, this has been brought up by previous posters.
I know you have a problem with writing comprehensibly, but in this case I’m going to have to ask you to overcome it as best you can. I have no idea what this sentence in this context means.
For you. If you are at a rally for your candidate and bring a sign and someone seemingly official asks you to leave it ,what would you do. Most likely say no problem and toss it. If you are against the candidate and have a sign ,what do you do. ? You are annoyed that your right to protest is being abridged. This dangerous old woman with a flamingly horrible message ,McCain = Bush was singled out. I am not sure the message is seen as an insult by the 30 % who always back Bush. But it was supposedly an open meeting in a public building. She was on public land and was a threat to nobody. They did not like the message. It is all about the message.
If it was the one I just watched on I noticed they didn’t have anyone explain or defend the action. Just criticism.
I’m not sure that makes it okay. She does say to them “I’m outside” if protesters want to stay outside with signs like that shouldn’t they be allowed to.
Just asking, Is it okay for officials to start declaring how many feet away from the event you have to be before you can protest. We don’t want violent conflicts on the street but how far should we go in squelching freedom of speech to prevent it.
If McCains campaign rented the property for the event how much control does that give them over the outside? If people are blocking traffic or obstructing the passage of those who are entering that’s one thing but it seems to me that people should be allowed to protest peacefully on public property. The No signs at all thing doesn’t make it okay.