Free Speech--But Only Where and When We Say

Sorry for the light posting of late. This is a short one as well, but take a look at this, which came from JennieBee's comment at Atrios:

Excerpt:

When President Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up "free speech zones" or "protest zones," where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.

When Bush went to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, "The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us."

The local police, at the Secret Service's behest, set up a "designated free-speech zone" on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush's speech.

The police cleared the path of the motorcade of all critical signs, but folks with pro-Bush signs were permitted to line the president's path. Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct; the police also confiscated his sign.

Um--in case anyone's forgotten, I'd like to make reference to The United States' Constitution, Amendment 1. In its entirety, it reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

See more of the Constitution, aka, The Supreme Law of the land, here.

I don't think the amendment leaves much "gray area" in the matter of the rights of people to speak and peaceably assemble FREELY. End of story. Any restriction upon this fundamental right is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

Don't know about y'all, but I'm sick of seeing my rights being trampled upon on a daily basis. If the authorities so brazenly spit on the First Freakin' Amendment, what else do you think they'll do?