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Denied Entrance to Bush Event in Dubuque
By Matthew Rothschild
On May 7, George W. Bush came to Dubuque to speak at the convention center.
It was billed as a public event, but it was anything but.
Only self-proclaimed Bush supporters could get in. Republican organizers excluded even a World War II vet and the former commander of the local American Legion chapter.
This story of exclusion, broken by the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, is in keeping with other acts of suppression along the Bush campaign trail.
Bill Ward, a member of the 45th Infantry Division during World War II, went to get tickets a few days ahead of time.
Here is his account: "When I got up there, they asked to see my license and so forth, and I showed it to them. And then this young guy asked, 'Are you a Bush backer?'
"And I said, 'No, I didn't vote for him the first time, and I'm not going to vote for him this time.'
"And he said, 'Get out.'
"I said, 'I don't have to take this crap. I'm a World War II vet.'
"He said, 'Escort him out.'
"I said, 'I don't need an escort. I can find my way out.'
Ward proceeded right down to the offices of the Telegraph Herald. "I was teed off," he says.
Nick Lucy is a Vietnam veteran and the past commander of the American Legion in Dubuque. "I blow taps two or three times a week for veterans," he says.
But his service and his patriotism were not enough to get him into the Bush event, either.
"One of my Republican friends, a prominent businessman, gave me two tickets," he recalls. "I promised to go because I've seen almost every President since Johnson."
But once he got to the checkpoint, the security staff said, "You're name is not on the list," he says.
Lucy explained who had given him the tickets, and he suggested that the security staff call up his Republican friend then and there.
"I don't care who you want me to call," one of the security people said, according to Lucy.
When Lucy tried to take the man's picture, "he put his notebook in front of his face," Lucy says. And then the man told the police to get him out of there, Lucy recalls.
"If we can't listen to one another, that's not going to make America better," he says.
Four members of Women in Black were also denied entrance, even though they had proper tickets. Jan Oswald was one of them.
"I went the morning they were giving out tickets," she says. "It was a two-and-a-half-hour wait in the Dubuque Building, which is downtown."
The screening process was obvious, she recalls.
"Everyone was being asked whether they supported the President, or were they registered Republicans, or would they put up a sign in their yard or a sticker in their car," she says. But for some reason, when she got to the front of the line, the woman handing out tickets let her buy four of them without any questions asked, except for the names and phone numbers of all four women, Oswald says.
On May 7, since she had a ticket, she expected to get into the event. "We walked up to the check people, and we had our drivers' licenses out and the tickets, so they looked up our names and they said we were on the list to get in. But then a gentleman said, 'You do not look like the kind of people who are here for the right reasons,' " she recalls.
"I responded, 'You know, I'm an American. I've got a ticket that matches. I have identification, and I want to see the President.'
"The man said, 'This is a private affair. You are not welcome.' At that point, he ripped up our tickets."
Her response to that?
"We told him it didn't seem like the kind of America we wanted to live in, and we walked away," she says.
Matt Trewartha is a student of political science at Northeast Iowa Community College. He stood in line for an hour and a half on May 3 to get a ticket for himself and three friends.
While there, he acknowledged to another person in line that he was not a Republican or a Bush supporter but nor was he a Kerry supporter. When he got to the front, he was told he would not be able to get a ticket because of the comment he made about not supporting Bush, he says.
"I'm a nineteen-year-old political science major, and I thought it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the President in my hometown," he says he told the ticket people.
But to no avail.
Trewartha then asked what he was supposed to do about the three tickets he was trying to buy for his friends.
"Well, as long as they're Bush supporters they can come on down and get their own tickets," the man told him, according to Trewartha.
Trewartha's professor of American history, Ralph Scharnau, upon hearing of his troubles, decided to give him one of his own tickets.
"The day before the event, I went back to the same office and explained the situation and asked whether I could transfer the names on the tickets," Trewartha says. "And they said it was absolutely no problem. But then someone came out and said, 'Sir, you look familiar. You were here Monday. And you couldn't get a ticket then, and you can't get one now.' I said, 'Can I at least have my ticket back so I can give it back to my professor?' And she said no."
Trewartha seethed afterwards. "I was extremely angry and quite frustrated by the whole thing," he says.
Arthur Roche is the coordinator of Dubuque Peace and Justice. He also waited in line for two hours to get his ticket. Unlike Trewartha, he got a ticket.
But he did not gain entry into the event.
"As I was approaching the gate, a guy said, 'You need to have your ID and your ticket out,' so I did that, and the woman asked to see them, so I gave them both to her," Roche explains. "She raised her eyebrows when she saw my name, and she said, 'Just a moment please,' and walked about twenty feet away to confer with three men. She and one or two of those guys came back over to me and said, 'Sir, you're not invited. You'll have to leave.' She handed me my driver's license and my ticket back, and then one of the guys grabbed the ticket out of my hand, tore it in half, and threw it in the garbage."
Roche says he tried to retrieve it, but the man said, "You can't have that. That's our property. You'll need to leave now."
Roche recalls saying, "This stinks," and he walked away.
Steve Bateman, chair of the Dubuque County Republican Party, says this screening policy was not his idea. "I wasn't in charge of President Bush coming to Dubuque," he says. "The Bush campaign ran the event."
The Bush campaign did not return phone calls for comment.
Dear Amy Truax,
One of President Bush's most effective tactics has been to portray those of us who oppose his policies as a small minority of the American public. But poll after poll shows that a large and increasing majority of American citizens disagree with his policies and don't like the direction he's leading our country in. Bush's strategy is to keep us from recognizing just how many of us there are.
That's why we're launching a campaign to demonstrate how popular opposition to George Bush really is. To participate, all you need to do is request a free bumper sticker and stick it on your car or in some other highly visible place. We're willing to send one bumper sticker for free to anyone who wants one - no cost whatsoever, no strings attached. We're also offering 10-packs and 500-packs for a small contribution.
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MoveOn PAC
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How Much Is George Bush's Gas Hike Costing You? When George W. Bush was campaigning in 2000, he said the President of the United States should "jawbone" OPEC leaders to get the price of oil down. Now rising gas prices are costing Americans billions of dollars -- and George's jaw isn't moving.
Why are former oil man George W. Bush and former oil company executive Dick Cheney sitting back and watching oil prices go up to historic highs? What about George Bush's buddy Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, who learned of the war plan for Iraq even before Secretary of State Colin Powell?
Maybe George W. Bush doesn't understand how serious this increase in gas prices can be to middle class Americans who have to live on a budget. Or else he doesn't think the President of the United States should take action on behalf of most Americans if it would mean cutting down on oil company profits -- or taking on his good friends the Saudis!
For more information about the impact of rising gas prices, and the facts about George Bush's ties to big oil companies, go to the new DNC website.
Republican Family Values Leave Low Income Children Out Again. The Republican House is finishing work on their latest tax bill, demonstrating once again the true meaning of Republican family values: The House bill would extend the child tax credit to more well to do families -- while still leaving out children in low income families.
According to this Republican plan, a family with a parent working full time at the minimum wage would get no benefit at all -- while families with slightly higher incomes would get a small one time benefit of $150, far less than the $1,000 per child credit for those better off!
Do Republicans really value children in low income families so much less?
Republican Values, Part 2. In a truly breathtaking demonstration of White House hypocrisy, the Bush administration is now seeking out photo ops claiming credit for programs they are trying to destroy:
The administration has touted awarding $11.7 million in grants to help states provide coverage for people without health insurance. But Bush has tried to end the program for three years in a row.
Administration officials boasted the awarding of $16 million to 11 universities to train blacks and Hispanics as doctors, dentists and pharmacists. At the same time, the administration was urging Congress to kill the program.
And the Justice Department announced it was awarding $47 million to local police departments to hire new police officers, neglecting to mention that President Bush had just proposed cutting the program by 87 percent.
"Definitely A Cover Up." More news this week about the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison -- and why responsibility cannot be left conveniently with just a few low ranking soldiers.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a report by the International Red Cross detailing prison abuse was actually sent to "top U.S. military officials" in Iraq in early November. Donald "superb job" Rumsfeld has said the Pentagon didn't know until mid-January when a guard spoke up. Did it really take sixty days for the Pentagon to hear they had a problem -- or did they just not take it seriously?
Someone was paying attention to the Red Cross report: the New York Times says the military tried to cut off Red Cross's spot inspections at Abu Ghraib. But Members of Congress and the American people did not learn about the case until the CBS story broke last month.
And the questions keep coming: who determined the rules for interrogation? Who was in charge of the prison at Abu Ghraib? And whatever happened to that quaint idea of the President as "Commander in Chief "?
Meanwhile, another news report by ABC News has one witness who talked of more widespread participation in the abuse, saying "There's definitely a cover-up...People are either telling themselves, or being told, to be quiet."
Why are we not surprised??
Dear MoveOn member,
In the weeks since the world first saw the horrible photos from Abu
Ghraib, Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of the Pentagon's senior
leadership has come before Congress to "accept responsibility" for the
scandal. But President Bush has a strange idea of accountability -
instead of asking for Rumsfeld's resignation, he's praised him for
doing a "superb job".
Your Congresspeople are home from Washington this week, and it's a
great chance to let them know whether you agree with President Bush's
opinion of Secretary Rumsfeld's job performance.
Call your Representative and Senators today, and tell them to demand
that President Bush fire Donald Rumsfeld.
Senator Ted Stevens
Juneau, AK: 907-271-5915
Senator Lisa A. Murkowski
Anchorage, AK: 907-271-3735
Congressman Don Young
Ketchikan, AK: 907-271-5978
Please let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callrumsfeld.html?id=2886-1656916-fW3SxCkjQdKCiZEEoInzIA
Americans have long believed that there should be consequences when
leaders make bad decisions. Secretary Rumsfeld's decisions about the
invasion and its aftermath led to the crisis that we face today.
General Anthony Zinni, former commander-in-chief of the United States
Central Command and Bush administration special envoy to the Middle
East said,
"I blame the civilian leadership of the Pentagon directly.
Because if they were given the responsibility, and if this was their
war, and by everything that I understand, they promoted it and
pushed it - certain elements in there certainly - even to the point
of creating their own intelligence to match their needs, then they
should bear the responsibility."
"But regardless of whose responsibility I think it is, somebody has
screwed up. And at this level and at this stage, it should be evident
to everybody that they've screwed up. And whose heads are rolling on
this?"
"Look, there is one statement that bothers me more than anything else.
And that's the idea that when the troops are in combat, everybody
has to shut up. Imagine if we put troops in combat with a faulty
rifle, and that rifle was malfunctioning, and troops were dying as a
result"
"I can't think anyone would allow that to happen, that would not
speak up. Well, what's the difference between a faulty plan and
strategy that's getting just as many troops killed?"[1]
President Bush didn't offer any significant new ideas in last night's
speech -- in essence, he's planning to stay the course. According to
General Zinni, "The course is headed over Niagara Falls...I think it's
time to change course a little bit or at least hold somebody
responsible for putting you on this course." [2]
President Bush showed us again that he isn't willing to own up to the
mistakes of his administration and hold people accountable. If he
won't, it's up to us and our elected representatives to do so.
Thanks for making these calls today.
- Carrie, Joan, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org team
Tuesday, May 25th, 2004
[1] CBS News - http://www.moveon.org/r?507
[2] Washington post - http://www.moveon.org/r?508