POLITICS

When President Bush traveled to Pittsburgh in 2002, a protester named Bill Neel who refused to move to the "designated free-speech zone"-a baseball field a third of a mile from Bush's speech-was arrested for disorderly conduct. At Neel's trial, a police detective testified that the Secret Service had told local police to keep "people that were there making a statement pretty much against the president and his views" in the free-speech zone. The judge threw out the charge, saying, "I believe this is America. Whatever happened to 'I don't agree with you, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it'?"

Similar incidents have occurred at Bush appearances around the country. At a Florida rally in 2001, three demonstrators were arrested for holding up signs outside of the designated zone; the next year, seven protesters were arrested outside of a rally at the University of South Florida. At a St. Louis event in 2003, a woman and her 5-year-old daughter who protested outside of the approved area were detained by police and taken away in separate vehicles. This year, a West Virginia couple wearing anti-Bush T-shirts was detained by the Secret Service at a July 4 rally, and on September 17, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was arrested and charged with trespassing at a Laura Bush appearance.

When seven AIDS activists were ejected from a Bush event in Washington, D.C., on September 9, the Secret Service told journalists that if they approached the demonstrators, they would not be allowed to re-enter the event. One agent told a reporter who was prevented from returning to the speech that there was a "different set of rules" for journalists who did not talk to the activists.

Brett Bursey, who held up a "No War for Oil" sign amidst hundreds of Bush supporters at a 2002 appearance by the president in Columbia, South Carolina, was arrested by a police officer who told him that "it's the content of your sign that's the problem." He was charged with trespassing; when that charge was dropped because Bursey was on public property at the time of his arrest, the Justice Department charged Bursey with "entering a restricted area around the President of the United States." He faced six months in jail; in January, he was convicted and fined $500. The federal magistrate, Bristow Marchant, denied Bursey's request for a jury trial, and later ruled that the protester had not been unreasonably singled out among the Bush supporters by police-although other people were there, he said, they did not refuse to leave, as Bursey did.

In a May 2003 terrorist advisory, the Homeland Security Department told local law-enforcement agencies to pay special attention to anyone who "expressed dislike of attitudes and decisions of the U.S. government." In April of that year, after the federally funded California Anti-Terrorism Task Force fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters at the Port of Oakland, a spokesman for the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center said that "if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that protest. You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."

Secret Service agent Brian Marr told NPR that the agency creates free-speech zones because "these individuals may be so involved with trying to shout their support or nonsupport that inadvertently they may walk out into the motorcade route and be injured ... we want to be sure that they are able to go home at the end of the evening and not be injured in any way." The ACLU is suing the Secret Service for suppressing protest at Bush events in Arizona, California, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Texas, and elsewhere.

ON BUSH
Chuck D, PUBLIC ENEMY:
Today is the first day of school for my kids. I got one in eleventh grade and another in fifth grade. The older one looks upon this election almost like it's pop culture. One day she asked me about Fahrenheit 9/11, and she was talking about it like it was the latest Usher concert. You know, it's gonna be her world. And when a bunch of fifty- and sixty-year-olds fuck it up for them, that's not a cool thing. Sending these twenty- and thirty-year-olds overseas to fight and die, what the hell is that all about? The real axis of evil is Bush and Cheney. They have detached America from the rest of the planet by invading Iraq. Whenever people start saying God anointed them to do something, it's a turnoff, because I don't think anyone has God's beeper number.

Adam Horovitz, BEASTIE BOYS:
I don't understand the George Bush argument. If you wanna argue Republican or Democrat, that's one thing, but Bush - I haven't seen the argument as to why this guy should get four more years. I don't see why he should be running a baseball team, let alone be president. At one of the Democratic debates, Al Sharpton said, "I can guarantee that any one of us on the stage right now in his sleep would make a better president than George Bush." What's at stake in this election? War. People's freedoms around the world and here at home. Women's right to choose, prayer in school, my grandmother getting medicine - the list could keep on going. This election really does seem crucial. If Bush gets re-elected, he will feel like the possibilities are limitless, that he can really do whatever he wants.

Jeff Tweedy, WILCO:
When people ask why this election is so close, I can't explain it. It's like trying to figure out how Billy Ray Cyrus sold 10 million records. The Republicans have done an extremely good job of appropriating populist themes. They somehow make it seem as though they're a party of the people, even though their policies hurt some of their most ardent supporters.
Bush's hypocrisy is simply staggering. He argues that stem-cell research is not justified because of the sanctity of unborn life - yet he insists that dropping bombs on innocent people will lead to a better world. I'm also worried that if he is re-elected, he may have the chance to appoint more conservative judges to the Supreme Court. He could undo three generations of progress in this country toward civil equality and women's rights. I will vote for John Kerry, and I'll do it with a good conscience. I believe that he's our only shot at steering this ship back to some calmer waters. I agree that Kerry has flip-flopped on some ideas, but I take that as a sign of intelligence. I trust someone more if he re-examines his positions and has the ability to be introspective. There's no end to the horrific things you can do when you believe you're always right.

Mike D, BEASTIE BOYS:
I have no sense of Bush as a man. It's impossible to distinguish his personal interests from the interests of those closest to him. What is his own agenda, vs. the agenda of guys like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz? I don't think I've ever heard him speak on an issue where it seemed to be coming directly from himself.
John Kerry offers the promise of returning to the democratic system I was brought up believing in. He wants to provide the opportunity and education and health care we deserve. He wants to safeguard the welfare of all citizens, especially the poor - not just those who have the most. He wants to get us back to being a responsible and respected world citizen, as opposed to a careless, misdirected, hated bully. It's really one of history's great lost opportunities that we squandered all the good will we enjoyed from the rest of the world after September 11th.

Moby:
It's important to get swing voters to support Kerry. But it's also important to communicate with conservative Republicans and say, "Listen, by traditional conservative criteria, George Bush is a bad president. His foreign policy is in shambles, his economic policy is in shambles." You can be conservative and still not like George Bush. People like him because they think he seems like a strong guy who would be good to have a BBQ with. But shouldn't you hold the president to higher standards than who would you like to have a BBQ with?

Bob Weir, THE DEAD:
Ralph Nader is the most arrogant and narcissistic guy I've ever met. I had a meeting with him in the early Nineties. I was jazzed going into the meeting, and I was disgusted leaving. I don't think I've ever met a bigger asshole. If he hadn't run in the last election, we wouldn't be in Iraq and thousands of people wouldn't have died needlessly. And still he's well pleased to go in and be the spoiler again!
Harry Truman said that the one crime more heinous than treason is war profiteering, and yet we have the company that our vice president is still on retainer to - which is illegal - making a huge fortune. Every time the terrorists blow up another pipeline over there, Halliburton makes millions of dollars pasting it back together. They don't even have to be pumping oil to be making money. This is who owns our government now. Though I've never really endorsed a political candidate before, I'm going to have to this time. I liked the look in Kerry's eye when I met him. He looks like an aware human being and a guy with a sense of humor. So we're just going to have to hope and pray that the debates go well.

Eddie Vedder, PEARL JAM:
I supported ralph nader in 2000, but it's a time of crisis. We have to get a new administration in. All of us who supported Ralph last time should get down on our knees and say, "Can you bow out on October 3rd? We'll get back to the ideals you're fighting for on November 3rd." A year ago it seemed impossible to criticize Bush, because of September 11th. The Dixie Chicks and Michael Moore were attacked for speaking out. Now you've got books full of facts that show how Bush has failed. Those people dissenting a year ago were right. We have to stop treating the rest of the world like our subjects. What is the only institution more powerful than the United States government - one that can move things in a different direction? It's the American people. It's the voters. That's what I feel most strongly about: encouraging people who don't normally vote to understand their responsibility.

Mike Mills, R.E.M.:
The vote for change tour is a wake-up call. We may alienate some fans over this. I don't like that - I prefer to have music stand apart from political feelings. But this is so important, it's worth it. If I piss a few people off, good. Because, frankly, I'm scared. Unlike a lot of political issues, this is literally life or death. Kerry understands how the world works, in a way that Bush does not. When Bush ran the first time, I realized something: I want my president to be smarter than I am. I don't ask much, but I want him to be smarter than me.