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Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto
Well, I called for this inauguration to pass off peacefully. I don't agree that there should be large protests at all.
But I do believe that "ordering" them not to look directly at President Bush is just silly.
If we accept that these people are employees (as you state), then they should be known to the organizers. SIGNIFICANT background checks will have been made, before they are let take part in this inauguration. In other words, the likelihood of their being an assassin is low. And more importantly, their being ordered to not look at the President is unlikely to increase his safety.
It's just silly and I don't know why many of you are defending it.
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You DO realize that the people marching are from all over the US, and that it's really not possible to screen the thousands of people involved, right? Plus, what are they going to do, say that an invited high-school band can't attend because there's the odd communist or anarchist or black bloc or DemocraticUnderground.com poster there? Look at all the assmunch highschool students that supported Kerry...Are they keeping all of them out?
As for the protests, International ANSWER has an area where they are in control of seating. They're rabidly anti-Bush, and the organization has extensive ties to Saddam Hussein's former regime and to those fun-loving peaceniks the Palestinians. I'd say that, if anything, the Secret Service has been RESTRAINED in it's security procedures. If it was me, I'd have that area surrounded by tanks and APCs and loaded for bear.