Apparently it's illegal to wear any kind of t-shirt now in the United State of America.
The wife of a powerful Republican congressman was also asked to leave.A few points.
Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee was removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."
She was sitting about six rows from first lady Laura Bush and asked to leave. She argued with police in the hallway outside the House chamber.
"They said I was protesting," she told the St. Petersburg Times. "I said, "Read my shirt, it is not a protest.' They said, 'We consider that a protest.' I said, 'Then you are an idiot.'"
1. What they did to the wife of the congressman is disgraceful.
2. You'll note that the congressman's wife was not arrested or manhandled. Cindy Sheehan reportedly was.
But getting back to basics. It isn't okay just because two women had their constitutional rights thrown over the balcony last night at the State of the Union. That just makes it worse. It suggests that what happened to Cindy Sheehan wasn't an accident. We have a government in power that tolerates NO dissent. And making these arrests in the moments before the president's State of the Union address is simply sickening in its symbolism.
Beacon of hope to the world? It's embarrassing what the Bush administration has turned our country into in only 5 years. And the only thing more embarassing is that Republicans, who used to believe in freedom, who pre-Bush would have yelled and screamed about this kind of un-American behavior, continue to sit back silently in order to protect a president who betrays ever principle conservatives claim to endorse.
More from Glenn Greenwald.
