Running scared

The Bush crime syndicate is scared.

Scared of dissent. Scared of protests. Scared of free speech. And scared of September 15.

I received an e-mail this morning (not on the web, apparently, so no link available as yet) from the folks at ImpeachBush.org, who are co-organizers of the September 15 March on Washington. The e-mail describes the shocking and wholly unwarranted response of the Bush crime syndicate, represented by the National Park Police, to a small and peaceful press conference yesterday to publicize the September 15 activities:

While the momentum for the Sept. 15 Peace/Impeachment demonstration grows, the Bush Administration is going to extraordinary lengths to suppress the mobilizing for this mass demonstration.

Less than 18 hours ago, National Park Service Police turned a September 15 Press Conference, held in front of the White House, into a chaotic scene. On the pretext that there was no permit for a three foot long folding table that the media placed their microphones on, the police intervened in the middle of the press conference to announce that it was an unpermitted activity. Three people were arrested and are still being held in jail. They include Adam Kokesh, an Iraq war veteran; Tina Richards of Grassroots America; and Ian Thompson an ANSWER Coalition organizer.

The Parks Police even rode a horse directly into the crowd of reporters and shocked onlookers. The National Parks Police is an agency in the Interior Department whose Secretary is a member of George W. Bush's cabinet. In recent weeks September 15 organizers have been fined more than $30,000 for putting up posters promoting the September 15 March on Washington.

We encourage ImpeachBush.org members to circulate this email and the important story from the AFP wire story that documents this outrageous assault against Free Speech rights by the Bush Administration. At the end of this email we are also enclosing a link to a video on YouTube that shows some part of the suppression of the September 15 press conference yesterday.

Bush and company want to prevent people from coming out for a mass action led by Iraq war veterans and their families that will expose his war propaganda as a lie. The Administration wants to suppress the growing movement for impeachment. This is a showdown of great magnitude.

Please make every effort to come to Washington DC on September 15. We will not be intimidated. Join the tens of thousands who are coming to Washington, DC on September 15. Buses, car caravans and vans are coming from more than 100 cities.

If you cannot personally come you can help by making a generous donation. The buses, literature, posters, stage, sound and other expenses are immense. Many have already contributed. Please do your part and make a contribution today by clicking this link.

If you have made a donation today please consider doing so again today by clicking this link.

Here is the outrageous and astonishing eight-minute-long video referenced in the e-mail:


Finally, the e-mail linked to an Agence France-Presse report of the arrests.

Do we live in America anymore? This is not an America that I recognize ... and it just makes me more motivated and more determined to make my own voice heard when I go to D.C. next weekend. I hope you'll join me.