July 07, 2008

Elderly librarian ejected from John McCain event! (Don't worry about the details; ProgressNow)

Denver, Colorado's ProgressNow - a group linked to both the Democratic Party and multi-millionaire illegal immigration supporter Jared Polis - is pushing the story of a poor, helpless, 61-year-old part time librarian who was arrested before a John McCain event just because she was holding a sign saying "McCain = Bush" (progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/al/Cqyh).

Except, of course, there's more to it.

The "librarian" (Carol Kreck) works part-time for an "education think tank" (link). I haven't been able to determine which group that is, but it screams "Polis or affiliated" group to me. She's also a former Denver Post reporter (apparently under the name Carol Bell), so she's not a civilian either. There's also the question of whether she was on public or private property and whether they had a right to complain about the sign since no one else was allowed to have one. See the comment from someone who claims to be from Progress Now disputing the Denver Post's take, but for now I suggest putting this in the "Agitprop" category rather than the "Violation of First Amendment" category.

UPDATE: Per this:

It was Sen. John McCain's staff who asked security at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to remove people holding protest signs at the venue — not U.S. Secret Service agents, who were not involved in Carol Kreck's ouster from the galleria... A previous federal appeals court decision determined that the galleria area where Kreck was standing is not necessarily a public spot and that protests can be curtailed there...

The "victim" herself weighs in here. She implies without offering any evidence that the Secret Service is lying. She also says - surprise - the ACLU is on the case.

Video of the arrest:

Posted to Politics at July 7, 2008 08:37 PM