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August 01, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

Who's Afraid of The Denver Three?

  • 36 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

After months of agitation and a continually surprising amount of press coverage, the “Denver Three” liberal activists got last Friday what the White House  hopes is the final answer in their quest to hold somebody responsible for the “Secret Service impersonator” who escorted them out of a Bush “town hall” last March.

Federal prosecutors have declined to press charges of impersonating a Secret Service agent against a White House volunteer who ousted three people from a speech by President Bush in Denver on March 21.

U.S. Attorney William Leone said the investigation was “thorough and complete.”

He added, “Criminal law is not an appropriate tool to resolve this dispute. The normal give and take of the political system is the appropriate venue for a resolution.”

This is a nice way of saying, “Look, kids. It happens all the time, and it’s time to move on with your lives.”

The Three don’t plan on taking that advice, and announced civil suit plans over the weekend. The fact is that this story has had legs well beyond its usefulness to the Dems in making Bush look badand nothing was ever ultimately pinned on Bob Beauprez, even though his office was responsible for organizing the “town hall.” Many observers, even liberal sympathizers, understood right away that this was photo-op politics: that is, business as usual.

Most say this story is unlikely to go much further, but then again we never thought we’d still be talking about it in August.

Comments

36 thoughts on “Who’s Afraid of The Denver Three?

  1. I understand those who infringe on our Civil Rights in the elements of Freedom of Speech.  Indeed, I had that very thing happen to me, with a prominent radio station making threats against me for my discussion about the Karl Rove situation.  The GOP seems to believe that the law only works in their corner for their personal agenda.  I don’t like the infringment on our Constitutional Rights without regard to what our Forefathers designed.  Question, “is the GOP becoming anti to the American way of life?  Choice?  Fairness? Civility? And, Social Justice?

  2. COLORADO: NO CHARGES IN RALLY OUSTER Federal prosecutors will not charge a volunteer who removed three people from at a meeting with President Bush in March after they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker reading “No More Blood for Oil.” The Secret Service investigated whether the volunteer, whose name has not been released, impersonated a Secret Service officer, and William Leone, a United States attorney, said there was not enough evidence for prosecution. A lawyer for the three – Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise and Alex Young – said they planned to sue the volunteer for allegedly violating their free-speech rights and assaulting them. The volunteer, who was wearing a dark suit, radio earpiece and lapel pin, threatened them with arrest if they did not leave the meeting in Denver. (AP)

  3. It is getting out of hand with the GOP.  This is America as I most recently looked.  I have yet to receive a response from the radio station about the threats.  I guess I need a Democrat as a civil lawsuit attorney, since the first attorney I talked with “laughed” about my freedom of speech rights being violated.

  4. No wonder the Democrat party is in such disarray.  This is all they have to complain about.  I?ll show up to the next Democrat function with an earpiece and a lapel pin and scare the bijesus out of them.  No one was muscled, they weren?t carried out – they were asked to leave.  If they were so concerned about the right to free speech they should have asked the ?impersonator? for an I.D.  Quit whining  – get some descent candidates.

  5. That’s all we have to complain about?  No – the reason the Democratic Party is in such disarray is that they’re all slack-jawed at the sheer volume of abuse this Administration and their friends have been willing to commit on all fronts, within such a short period of time.

    *  Discrimination by association
    *  Voter intimidation
    *  Massive vote fraud
    *  Violation of Constitutional provisions for electoral voting
    *  Violation of campaign finance law
    *  Fraud upon the State, contributing to campaign finance violations.
    *  Repeated violation of Congressional Ethics rules.
    *  Attempted and actual bribery.
    *  Willful ignorance of the laws and rules of the State and Nation.
    *  Approval of torture.
    *  Fiscal recklessness.
    *  Subversion of the justice system.
    *  Restricting or removing rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
    *  Vengeful destruction of national security.
    *  Reckless endangerment of our troops.
    *  Lying under oath (multiple counts).
    *  Lying to Congress and the American people to incite war.

    Unfortunately, that’s only a small and generalized sampling.  The GOP has a winning strategy: shock and awe; well, the Democrats have certainly been shocked…

  6. Peter – you don’t have Constitutional rights on a radio show.  Sorry.

    However, the Denver Three most definitely do have those rights at a “public” government event.  The fact that such things happen regularly is a piss-poor reason to drop prosecution, though I can see where a criminal prosecution may be left wanting by the facts available.  A civil suit has no such restrictions, and now that the government has forfeited claim, it should be easier to argue for an FOIA to get the name and position of the person responsible for hauling the Denver Three out of the event without sufficient reason.

  7. Dear We’re Still Laughing,

    We’re laughing at you … since, you have no respect for our American Constitution and Bill of Rights.  And, Bill Ritter said the radio talk show host committed harrassment under the law.  But, he also said, “Good Luck in getting the tape from KOA.”

  8. Which part of my list would you like me to document?

    Let’s go with vote fraud: a report prepared for Ohio SoS Blackwell regarding irregularities in Lucas County in 2004 reveals that Bernadette Noe (wife of  CoinGate racketeer Tom Noe), arranged (a) for a dozen Republicans and a Diebold employee to enter into the warehouse holding election equipment and ballots on the eve of the election for purposes undisclosed (they were escorted out by the police), and (b) for Republican partisans to “help” process returned voter confirmation cards – said help being in part removing the return labels, at which they were caught.

    Noe and other election board members also manipulated the manditory 3% recount, failed to secure ballot boxes and machines, and failed to remove Ralph Nader from the ballot as instructed.

    Noe’s husband Tom is a Bush Pioneer (responsible for raising over $100,000 for the Bush 2004 campaign, some of it apparently “rebated” to donors by Noe from profits he made scamming the Ohio Workmen’s Comp Fund…).

  9. Phoenix Rising –

    Bill Ritter also agreed that these GOP talk show hosts do this to intimidate Democrats and their listeners, to further push their agenda.  Thus far, they have been getting away with it.  Maybe, we should picket infront of KOA’s offices to get the tape and what the talk show host said … I would like Jay Marvin to hear what he said to me on Air America.

  10. Maybe you should get Jay to get the tapes from KOA; aren’t they both Clear Channel?

    Jay’s covering for Springer this week, so unless he covers it with the 6am segment or makes it a bigger issue, he’s limited on time for an actual segment for the moment.

  11. Phoenix –

    The letter I sent to KOA was addressed to the “Station Manager” … sent by FedEX.  They have ignored my letter.  I have wanted an apology, and it was sent with the first paragraph noting that Clear Channel has the responsibility over these issues, along with the FCC.  Again, it has been over two weeks and not a whisper.  I think they just hope the whole thing is just forgotten and covered up.  I don’t know who is responsible for these “tapes,” but after hearing what Bill Ritter said, I don’t know what I should do next about it.  The talk show host made these threats to me very strongly and said them several times.  He then sent me an email with an attachment – a virus.  Pretty dispictable … pretty illegal.

  12. I can back up every single point I made above with documented evidence, and not from some far-off fringe Art Bell conspiracy book.

    The bit on vote fraud I gave above references a non-partisan report to a Republican Secretary of State, and it is just the tip of the documented iceberg in Ohio in 2004.

    It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.  Wake up and smell the crap you’re being shovelled.

  13. Please get over it.
    So three libs got caught and tossed before they could stage a disruption.  Big Deal!

    It really doesn’t matter that they changed their minds not to cause a disruption at the last minute when their original intent was to disrupt the event.  Obviously their intent was known to others, and their attempt was intercepted. 

    I guess now their only recourse is to find someone to blame in a civil suit, because their rights to disrupt a presidential visit (which may be a criminal act) were violated?

    Talk about lame.

  14. If you were to find 3 middle eastern looking passangers carrying box cutters trying to get onto a plane, would you stop them or would you let them get on board because they “changed their minds” and weren’t going to cause a disruption?

    Just wondering.

  15. Phoenix – Half the crap in your list could be said for either party.  This stuff is just as goofy as the Vince Foster was murdered, the list of people close to Clinton who were dead, etc…

  16. If you don’t like a Republican administration, don’t vote for it.  If you don’t like right wing AM radio shows, don’t listen to them.  If you think constitutional rights are being violated at a ‘government’ event, file a civil suit and get on with your life.

    You liberals are a complete riot.  Always whining about who is keeping you down and always manufacturing stupid issues.  You can’t sell your arguments to enough people, nor can you control what people think.  So it drives you crazy, to the point where you think those three Denver idiots are something other than a ploy to get attention.  (think it’s possible they saw someone telling them to leave, so they left as an excuse to say they were kicked out, rather than talk to a cop right then and there?  I do).  Which is typical of liberal activists – always there to scream people down instead of actually once, one time, winning an argument without raising their voice.  By making good points.

    Seems to me the party could use more folks like JFK and RFK, and less people like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  You know what the difference between Ted Kennedy and his brothers?  No way would they have been making Vietnam comparisons on the Senate floor when the only point of an insurgency in Iraq, which can’t possibly succeed militarily, IS TO DIMINISH SUPPORT AT HOME.  Insurgents read that stuff on the web and it makes them kill more troops and recruit more suicide bombers.  Honestly, is there any liberal out there who thinks that their right to public dissent is so important that they have to use it recklessly just to make themselves feel better, and that that’s more important than the actual life of the 23-year-old kid from their neighborhood who’s on the ground in Iraq?  Don’t give me this business about “they shouldn’t even be over there, and our dissent will help make that happen and less kids will die due to a lying administration”.  Give that up, this is the real world, and like it or not, they are over there.  So you maintain a united front until they are back. 

    And if you don’t understand that, that’s exactly what’s not winning the Democratic party any support, whether you agree or disagree with the war.  Until you find a centrist candidate that understands that (for example, a Ken Salazar), there will be no improvement for you.

  17. LL,

    If you want to have some fun sneak up behind a hard core liberal and whisper “Bush”.

    It will send them into an uncontrollable rant. They will shout things like, ?There’s going to be a draft. Bush lied, Carl Rove is behind it?.

    It’s like they’ve been programmed to spout the same litany.

    Have some fun and keep laughing at them!

  18. Guess we now know what happens to those sniveling tattletale kids in the 3rd grade that would run to the teacher when they didn’t get their way…

    They become the “Denver Three”

  19. I actually hope the Denver Three story gets more traction; there is a reason why Republicans support all three branches of government and liberals do not.  The Denver three and the armies of “Deaniacs” like them are that reason.  So…please…keep it up.

  20. Everyone knows that if you walk behind a conservative a whisper “Turd Blossom” … their eyes grow wide and start seeking shelter from CIA Agents … since Karl Rove (spelled with a K and not a C) is not out of danger yet.  Maybe, that is the reason why BUSH needs a very long MONTH vacation.  ATTENTION LESS THAN CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES: Impending Federal Investigation over the release of Valerie Plume’s name is not over …

  21. The level of discourse in this conversation has taken a distinct turn towards the absurd, just on someone posting a list of documented actions of THIS Republican Administration.  I’m sorry it hurts, but it really is true.

  22. Phoenix,
    Get over yourself.

    If you think things are that bad, and the Bush Administration is the cause for all the problems in the world, then get out there, run for office and make a change in the way policies are made, rather than just blogging all day and doing your “Superior Dance” between posts.

    And if you want to discuss irregularities, then please explain the election results in Washington, where previously uncounted ballots kept appearing during a recount, oddly enough, the first recounts didn’t have enough uncounted ballots, so the recounts didn’t stop until the Dem one.

  23. I’ll discuss the Washington irregularities right here: Dino Rossi and the Washington GOP lost its lawsuit despite being allowed to present every shred of evidence it requested be allowed, including the “statistical analysis”.

    My preference in any election is that the results are clean and easily verified.  We’re too cowardly to go out and fix the system the Right Way, so we either ignore it or push half-measures.  It’s a shame that we trust the ATMs that Diebold sells, but Diebold somehow can’t make a voting system that provides exactly the same output mechanism so we can trust it, too.  Voting technology isn’t even rocket-science; several groups now have available Open voting systems, complete with auditable code and standardized, secured hardware.  Why don’t we require them, when anyone could sell one?

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