Monday, January 21, 2013

"It's not a free-speech zone when we did it!"

I did not watch President Obama's inauguration today. There is nothing particularly interesting about a leader with no real vision. Sadly that's a trait that has been shared by every president since Reagan. But I digress...

It does interest me this afternoon however that President Obama continued the tradition established by former president George W. Bush of having a "free speech zone" marked off for the event...

Freedom Plaza is the site of one of the only authorized demonstration zones, where a strip of the plaza is designated a free speech zone.
The "free speech zones" were a routine and chronic practice of George W. Bush. Nobody who protested his policies was allowed anywhere close to him when he was president and out in public. There were many instances when protestors were limited to an area nearly a mile away from Bush.

The "free speech zones" were wrong then. They are just as wrong now on Obama's watch.

But that seems to be going clean over the heads of a lot of self-professed "conservatives" today, judging by how many at the above link on Politico.com are feigning outrage that Obama is keeping those who disagree with him out of sight and out of mind.

Here is what I wrote this past October about Obama continuing Bush's practice.

Now, I defy anyone to argue that it was any more right when Bush had the "free speech zones" than it is for Obama to do precisely the same.

This is but one reason why I have become so disgusted with politics. I like to think of myself as an honest person... and honest people have a problem with sullying their hands with such blatant hypocrisy.

That and as I said earlier: there is no leadership with clear and bold vision in America.

Sometimes I wonder if that might be on purpose. Or even if that's what we the people have come to embrace.

at January 21, 2013

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:47 PM, January 21, 2013

    "The 'free speech zones' were wrong then. They are just as wrong now on Obama's watch. But that seems to be going clean over the heads of a lot of self-professed 'conservatives' today..."

    Um, don't you mean the self-professed 'liberals' who screamed about the zones then should make make some noise now, and ditto the dead who continue to come back from Afghanistan at a pace surpassing Bush's, and Guantanamo Bay being open for business still, and the executive orders, and the signing statements, and the illegal wars, and the wire tapping?

    Even your headline doesn't have verb tenses that agree. You're twisting yourself up. I'm against this abomination whoever does it, and always was, and I think plenty of other people should feel the same. The idea that whatever happens we can only blame the other side, instead of holding our own accountable, is what's keeping us divided while the ruling class marches us right along to hell.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris Knight6:00 PM, January 21, 2013

    "Um, don't you mean the self-professed 'liberals' who screamed about the zones then should make make some noise now, and ditto the dead who continue to come back from Afghanistan at a pace surpassing Bush's, and Guantanamo Bay being open for business still, and the executive orders, and the signing statements, and the illegal wars, and the wire tapping?"

    There is not now, and there has never been, any discernible difference between Barack Obama and his predecessor. And it is worse than ridiculous to pretend otherwise.

    I don't believe this is going to change at all in the near future. If anything, it will probably get worse...

    ReplyDelete