Protect Our Civil Liberties T-shirts are Anti-Republican?

xelloss12 · Oct 18, 2004

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash...news-8/1098083343246950.xml&storylist=orlocal

Teachers T-shirt protest draws national attention
10/18/2004, 12:03 a.m. PT
The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The ousting of three Southern Oregon teachers from a Bush campaign rally last week has drawn the attention of national Democratic Party officials.

Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe pointed to the incident to charge that the Republicans are putting unprecedented restrictions on who can attend the president's campaign rallies. The three women were ordered, under threat of arrest, to leave the president's rally in Central Point. They said a volunteer objected to a statement on their T-shirts, "Protect Our Civil Liberties."

McAuliffe called the action "beyond outrageous" and said there has never before been a presidential campaign that is so determined to "keep people away who have a different view."

"The president has stripped his events of anyone who might disagree with him, which is completely un-American," McAuliffe said in a conference call with reporters Sunday.

Tracey Schmitt, a Bush campaign spokeswoman, said no one on the campaign staff "can remember the incident or understand why they would have been removed unless there was reason to believe that they were disruptive or were planning to be disruptive."

Tonia Tong, a Medford schoolteacher who was one of the three women removed from the rally, also participated in the conference call. She said the trio had agreed to remain quiet during the event and had successfully passed three security checkpoints.

But she said a volunteer helping with security stopped one of the three women, Janet Voorhies, when she tried to go to the bathroom.

The volunteer told her they were no longer welcome and would have to leave the event. The women said they were escorted out of the Central Point fairgrounds by police officers and threatened with arrest if they did not comply.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1097928233288440.xml

Civil liberties T-shirts trigger 'alarm'
A Bush rally volunteer reacts to three women's attire and tosses them out
Saturday, October 16, 2004
JEFF MAPES

Janet Voorhies said she was curious to see how Republicans would react when she and two other women showed up at President Bush's Central Point rally wearing T-shirts stating "Protect Our Civil Liberties."

She got her answer before the president even spoke. The three women were ejected from the rally and escorted from the Jackson County Fairgrounds by state police officers who warned them they would be arrested if they tried to return.

Republican officials said they weren't exactly sure why a volunteer at the event demanded that the three women leave the rally. But a Bush campaign spokesman, Tracey Schmitt, said: "It is not the position of the campaign that wearing a T-shirt that says protect civil liberties is enough to conclude someone is disruptive."

Thursday night's action was the latest in a series of incidents in which people have been removed from Bush campaign events for expressing opposition to the president. Officials say the events are open to supporters and people who are considering voting for Bush, but they are quick to act when they think there is a possibility of disruption.

Voorhies, 48, a student teacher who lives in Ashland, said she and two other teachers obtained tickets to the event after saying they were undecided voters. She said she does not expect to vote for Bush, however.

She said the three decided to wear T-shirts that weren't critical of the president but expressed an issue "important to us. . . . We were testing the limits of the Republican Party, of who is allowed to be at a rally for the president."

Voorhies said the three made it through all three checkpoints and assured volunteers who questioned them that they would not disrupt the event. But when Voorhies was on her way to the bathroom, she was stopped by a volunteer who told her she wasn't welcome.

She said this volunteer pointed to her shirt and said it was "obscene."

Jackson County Republican Chairman Bryan Platt said he didn't see the incident but said the volunteer was trying to make a judgment about whether the women would be disruptive.

"It basically just triggered his alarm," Platt said of the volunteer, whom he did not name, "and we'll stand behind that. I wish (the women) would have just dressed in a way that was without that kind of intent to incite any kind of incident."

Lisa Sohn, a spokeswoman for Democrat John Kerry, said their rallies have been open to anyone and charged that the Bush administration has the attitude "that if you don't agree with them, it is not okay."

Jeff Mapes: 503-221-8209; jeffmapes@news.oregonian.com
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I understand that the rally can throw out whoever they choose, but throwing out people who wear a "Protect Our Civil Liberties" t-shirts seems a bit excessive. What if they were Bush supporters saying that the War on Terror is the only way to protect our civil liberties?

FranchiseBlade · Oct 18, 2004

If Bush/Cheney feel threatened by 'Protect our Civil liberties', what does that say about their stance on civil liberties?

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