This article, being discussed here on Plastic, really got me thinking... Have you ever heard anything as disturbing as the term "Designated Free Speech Area?" This implies to me that everywhere outside this zone is designated for censorship...

So here's the story — Bill Neel decided he wanted to protest against Bush while the President made a speech to a carpenters' union. It turns out that the cops herded all the protesters into a baseball field, behind a fence, away from Bush's motorcade. Of course, people with pro-Bush signs were allowed to line the street right while the motorcade passed... Bill was arrested because he refused to stay in his 'designated' area.

Every time something like this happens, I think "Maybe this is it — maybe the country really is going to pot..." But then I remember all the horrible problems we've overcome in the past, and I think that the people of the U.S. will pull us out of this one too, eventually. This scene is deeply disturbing to me though. It's reminiscent of something that would happen in China. Hard-core pro-administration PR, supressing dissent in a not-so-subtle way... I'm just glad that we live in a country where this sort of thing produces an outcry from the citizens. :)