Fargo Forum - City Commissioner Linda Coates says she was shocked to learn she and her husband were among more than 40 area residents on a list of people barred from attending President Bush's speech here Thursday.
The list was supplied to workers at the two Fargo distribution sites, along with tickets and other forms citizens were asked to fill out, The Forum reported.
The list includes critics of Bush or the war in Iraq. It includes two high school students, a librarian, a deputy Democratic campaign manager and a number of university professors.
Coates said she originally was not planning to attend the president's speech, but got a last-minute ticket Wednesday night from Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness, who offered tickets to all city commissioners.
White House spokesman Jim Morrell and Don Larson, a spokesman for Gov. John Hoeven's office, said they knew nothing about a list of people barred from the speech.
"This is the first I'm hearing of it," Morrell said Wednesday.
Coates said she had no idea why she would be on a list, other than the fact that she has been outspoken in her political beliefs.
"I thought that was democracy," she said.
I have a pretty good idea of why Coates was on the list. She is a member of the Fargo/Moorhead Democracy For America Meetup Group. That group's message board is already filling up with complaints from other members who got blocked.
I'm not entirely certain we can conclude that there was a list quite yet, but I can tell you that the Fargo Forum is a viciously biased publication guilty of using yellow journalism on more than one occasion to further a leftist political agenda. The Fargo/Moorhead area itself is a very liberal area given the presence of three major universities. It even claims left-wing mouthpiece Ed Schultz as a resident, someone who will no doubt be harping on this story for the next year or so. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that this was little more than a staged event meant to get some anti-Bush headlines in the papers during his visit.
This is all speculation on my part, of course, but I'm telling you that I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
Even if there was a list I'm not sure I can blame Bush. This post on the Meetup group's message board indicates that they have been planning a protest to coincide with Bush's visit. Given the way the left has conducted itself at some of Bush's other events can one blame the President for being cautious about who he lets in? Especially when it comes to people who are actively planning a "demonstration." Congressional Democrats gave protesters tickets to Bush's inauguration speech so that they could get in and disrupt things.
I'm not sure I'm willing to listen to much carping about "freedom" from a political movement that has made thuggish protest an art form.
(via Oliver Willis)