So the President decides to visit the grave of the greatest American civil rights leader on his birthday, and this is his reward:
.S. President Bush arrived in Atlanta Thursday afternoon for a controversial visit to Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave that drew nearly 500 protesters.
Carrying signs and chanting to rhythms pounded from conga drums, members of the crowd resisted efforts by police to move them to a designated protest area about 150 yards from the reflecting pool of the King Center, CNN said, where Bush was to lay a wreath to commemorate King’s 75th birthday.
As Bush arrived just before 4 p.m., the crowd booed and chanted “Bush go home!” WXIA-TV reported. Drums beat loudly as protesters chanted “In 2004, Bush no more,” and held printed signs that displayed King’s image and said “War is not the answer.”
There are times and places- Bush has a fund-raising event tonight, and I have no problem with protestors there. This, however, is disgusting.
HH
A classic example of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” If Bush hadn’t gone to the grave, he’d have been protested by the “Good Reverends,” NAACP, etc.
Dimmy Karras
At least Bush didn’t spend King’s birthday this year as he did a year ago, when he dishonestly labeled the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program a “quota” system in a White House press conference.
M. Scott Eiland
“At least Bush didn’t spend King’s birthday this year as he did a year ago, when he dishonestly labeled the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program a “quota” system in a White House press conference.”
You misspelled “accurately.”
Too bad that Colin Powell wasn’t there with the President today–the picketers could have flown in Hesiod and Harry Belafonte for a rousing chorus of “Stepin Fetchit” and “house n*****” as the President and the Secretary of State came to honor a national civil rights icon. Very classy all around.
Ricky
Dimmy, read the news much? There was a small story a while back about the USSC finding the UM policy unconstitutional (quota).
[cue the eschaton talking points in 5,4,3…]
David
I am outraged by the NAACP’s spokeman’s excuse for the demonstration – the University of Michigan’s affirmative action case. Nothing was more antithical to Dr. King’s teachings than discrimination, reverse or otherwise. His heirs have fallen far.
CadillaqJaq
“Would-be” heirs have fallen far. Disgust is too weak a description for yesterday’s performance.
Dean
Six comments agreeing w/ John?
I’d venture that we’ll start hearing any or all of the arguments next:
1. Republican southern strategy means you have no leg to stand on to criticize.
2. What’s so bad about what they did, it’s freedom of speech, which you’re suppressing.
3. Trent Lott, Haley Barbour, Strom Thurmond.
4. Dubya/GOP is a racist, so you gotta fight fire w/ fire.
5. GOP did the same thing, at XX convention or YY meeting.
Did I miss anything?
CadillaqJaq
You pretty much covered the bases Dean except for listing Howard Cosell, Jimmy the Greek, and Al Campanis, all known for their sports knowledge rather than their politics, but all were accused of racial slurs. All were given the axe brecause they aggravated the NAACP etal. (None of their ‘slurs’ were as extreme as some of yesterday’s outpourings. IMO anyway).
BTW, I recall a time when NAACP meant “Never Aggravate Adam Clayton Powell.”
Andrew Lazarus
Is there a possibility this is related to the “Free Speech” protest zones being located far away from the event? So only angry protestors risking arrest got this close. Maybe they carried fake pro-Bush signs, the free speech perimeter only applies to criticism.
Dean
Gasp!
You’re right, Andrew!
In fact, every instance of Hitler=Bush, be it Margaret Cho, Moveon.org, or George Soros is ACTUALLY a blow for free dissent (ever since they opened those first concentration camps in Montana, you know)! I mean, when Ashkkkroft and company showed up w/ the SS Stormtroopers (from that picture that Indymedia showed of the REAL Time Magazine cover), and slaughtered all those innocent protestors, this was just in reaction to that, ya know?
{shrug}
Still, it took 9 comments before you had the first “free speech is being suppressed” line. I suppose that’s progress.
Andrew J. Lazarus
Dean, you might want to check out this thread at Tacitus. If you’d like to defend the policy that pro-Bush signholders get closer than anti-Bush signholders, go ahead. I’m sure you’re happy that Dear Leader’s campaign ads won’t need any airbrushing, but I don’t see that as part of my America.
Dean
Andrew,
You wanna complain about the Free Speech zones, hey, have at it. I don’t understand such a policy, m’self, I think it’s both wrong, and bad politics.
But YOU’re the one who suggested that these guys were doing it out of some reaction to the zones. I think that’s a crock—along the lines of arguing that Bush=Hitler signs are simply a reaction to the free speech zones.
But then, it’s the Left that perfected airbrushing and then denying that any such thing had happened. Or was Stalin a rightist?
BTW, I’m amused that all of a sudden, free speech zones are condemned by the left. Where were they when the universities were creating these things, setting the precedent? Why were the Nat Hentoffs so alone in their decrying of this sort of thing?
Bishop Niemoller, anyone?
Andrew J. Lazarus
Dean, I was suggesting that the protestors in question were more likely to be obnoxious since they were already out of their allotted space. Maybe not, but that’s not the same as saying it was a protest about the zones.
I had always though Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement was a liberal/left movement. Before it started, the free speech zone of the Berkeley campus was the empty set. The current time, place, and manner restrictions have more to do with keeping noise out of classrooms than anything else. Team Conservative wasn’t so happy with all that free speech in Berkeley. (I wonder if anyone has ever told the rather large Berkeley Campus Republicans this interesting item?)
Dean
Andrew,
What’s the strength of your magnetic field? With that much spin, we could probably power your local town, w/ enough copper wire for the dynamo.
So, they’re obnoxious only AFTER they were put into that space?? Uh-huh. You know, anti-globo protestors never actually destroy Starbucks or trash places on their own, either. (I’ve seen ’em up close, that’s a crock, btw.)
And Free Speech zones are for “keeping noise out of classrooms”?? Riiiight. Well, tell ya what, that’s why there need to be free speech zones at Presidential addresses, too. If the protestors would just keep quiet, and wave their signs in silence, I’m sure that the rest of the audience could hear the President’s remarks better—but since they won’t, that’s why we need free speech zones.
Pot, kettle.
Or is it goose, gander?
Dorian
Dean,
“1. Republican southern strategy means you have no leg to stand on to criticize.”
– Better than Deans “I want the South to like me” southern strategy.
– BTW Republican southern strategy freed the slaves.
“2. What’s so bad about what they did, it’s freedom of speech, which you’re suppressing.”
– I think what we have here is pretty much “hate crime” by people who don’t want their judgement clouded by facts.
“3. Trent Lott, Haley Barbour, Strom Thurmond.”
– Trent Lott? – prove it. Strom Thurmond?. I guess theres no statute of limitations on this kind of thing so what about every democrat that sided against Lincoln during the Cival War?
“4. Dubya/GOP is a racist, so you gotta fight fire w/ fire.”
– Yea, ever since PRESIDENT Bush was caught at a clan rally on Mars – its obvious he’s racist.
“5. GOP did the same thing, at XX convention or YY meeting.”
– Please don’t be too specific.
“Did I miss anything?”
– Your pretty much missing everything.
Hows the weather on Planet “We Hate Bush”.
Dorian
Ksec
It was OK when the conservative scum booed Hillary at the 911 meetup. Classy.
Phil
Dorian: Your sarcasm meter is failing and dangerously close to catastrophic breakdown. Please report to the nearest repair station for servicing.
Or, for the chronically stupid: Dean was predicting that *others* would be making those arguments, because the cant on this topic is painfully predictable. He was not making them himself.
Ksec: “Conservative scum” like firefighters and cops who actually survived 9/11 and are actually from New York? Unlike, say, Hillary Clinton, about whom neither is true? Remember, folks, only Southerners and Democrats are allowed to hate carpetbaggers!
Dorian
My appologies for wasting perfectly good sarcasm on the wrong person. It’s was a long day.
Good example of reading the fine print.
Dorian
HH
One thing that no one seems to have noticed.. “longtime civil rights activist” (unless you’re a Jew) Billy McKinney was leading the charge, as well as an NYT-quoted a-hole who once praised the fiery destruction of a school since it would teach white people a lesson. Pond scum indeed.
Bird Dog
Andrew linked to my piece on Free Speech Zones, but I also wrote a piece on the folks who booed Bush when he laid the wreath at Reverend King’s grave, titled ‘No Class’.
Dean
Rereading Andrew’s comments, I just noticed his use of the term “Dear Leader” about Dubya.
While there hasn’t quite been a Godwin-type law, I’d say that comparing ANY Western leader to the likes of Kim Jong-il is about as appropriate as comparisons to Hitler.
Hitler, at least, didn’t come into power anointed by his father, just so he could kill some 5% of his own population (>1M of a population of ~20M) through his continued adherence to useless agricultural policies. And the cult of personality there, of course, has no parallel anywhere in the Western world, ranking down w/ Stalin’s (and probably surpassing Hitler’s).
But, hey, I suppose if it serves one’s hatred, you might as well go all the way, and just compare Dubya to Pol Pot, Comrade Number One, ya know?