Don’t puncture his bubble

I must have missed this one: evidently, the “Patriot” Act contains a provision that would allow the Secret Service to arrest or detain any protesters at Bush’s carefully scripted and vetted public appearances:

The Secret Service is authorized to charge suspects with breaching security or disruptive behavior at National Special Security Events, but only if the president or another person under the protection of the service is in attendance, according to a legislative summary.

The bill adds language prohibiting people from “willfully and knowingly” entering a restricted area “where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting.” The measure also applies to security breaches “in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance,” according to the bill.

Penalties for such violations would increase from six months to a year in prison.

To the ACLU, the changes would open the door to even tighter security restrictions at major events and would subject protesters to harassment from federal law enforcement officers. The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism from liberal and civil-liberties groups for disputed arrests and security measures at presidential events.

“It’s cementing the trend of the Secret Service basically acting to arrest or harass or control dissenters, and now not just at presidential events but at other events,” said Timothy H. Edgar, the ACLU’s national security counsel.

This was from December, anyone know what the outcome of this was?

Again, an unsurprising revelation these days. I’m still completely flabbergasted at how the Bush administration gets away with the things they do — and I’m not talking about lying and war and wiretapping, it’s the little things like hand-picking an audience and restricting access to “town hall” meetings and generally creating this bubble of approval around the man.