From Skippy
readers of this space will remember the
saga of aging hippie brett bursey, the man who was arrested in the columbia, south carolina airport for holding up a sign that said "no war for oil" to protest awol's appearance there.
when told he had to go to the "free speech zone" a mile and a half away, mr. bursey, under the misconception that all of america is a free speech zone, refused, and was thus arrested.
the u.s. district attorney, one strom thurmond junior, has decided to prosecute mr. bursey under the little-used law of entering a restricted area around the president.
that's the background. here's streaming audio of
amy goodman's take on the whole thing, from
democracy now back in july.
mr. bursey's trial
has been delayed, but now there is a bit of movement.
according to
wistv channel 10 in columbia, sc, a federal judge wants to review all "security memos, e-mails and other documents relating to president bush's visit to columbia last october."
bursey's lawyers claim the documents could help his defense. surprise, surprise, the prosecution says there's nothing there that could be of any help (perhaps what they mean is that they themselves don't intend to be of any help).
south carolina's the
state.com reports:
u.s. magistrate bristow marchant will review the information in private to decide whether lawyers for political activist brett bursey have a right to any of them…
bursey and his backers say his is a free speech case. the documents can help show the secret service has a practice of keeping anti-bush forces away from the president to create "a false illusion of support," said bursey attorney lewis pitts.
marchant seemed skeptical that neither the secret service, the state law enforcement division nor local police had any maps, photographs or memos that spelled out its plans to protect the president during the campaign swing to columbia.
"don't pick and choose,'' marchant warned prosecutor john barton about the records. "bring it all."
stay tuned to this space for further updates...
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And noone better say it isn't Bush's fault, that it was all the S. Carolina police/prosecutor's fault that this guy wasn't permitted his free speech rights and peaceful demonstrations.
Bush knows about this. It is a criminal trial pertaining to someone invading Bush's personal no-dissent aura. He knows. He doesn't care and wants this guy in jail as an example. Otherwise he would speak out to the prosecutor and ask him to let the guy go because of the
Coast to coast free speech rights we all share