Dissenters bring Bush face to face with a dose of free speech

[UpInArms]

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565334539

President George W. Bush was heckled yesterday in the Australian parliament and responded to his rare encounter with dissent by declaring: "I love free speech."

For a president who typically speaks to controlled crowds of Republican supporters at home and, when abroad, is shielded from protesters, the two Green party senators who stood up and barracked Mr Bush made for one of his few head-on confrontations with public criticism. (emphasis mine)

As well as the separate interruptions by Bob Brown, the leader of Australia's Green party, and Kerry Nettle, the party's other senator, a third member of parliament presented Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, with a petition signed by 41 Labor MPs protesting against the war in Iraq.

Outside the parliament building, closed to the public for the first time in its history, was a crowd of demonstrators which the Australian police estimated at about 5,000.

...more...

the rest of the world knows exactly how "scripted" the cheering crowds are...

[Faygo Kid]

1. The Man Who Reads NO Newspapers

Probably couldn't believe the protesters weren't contributing money to his re-election campaign; that's all he talks to. He is totally out of it. His handlers won't put him in a situation like that again, or they are toast.

[anakie]

2. which means he will never travel overseas again

hooray

[kainah]

3. How is he going to campaign?????

That is what has intrigued me for many months now. Yes, you can do a lot of media buys and, yes, you can get some wonderful scripted scenes. But ordinary, patriotic, out in the homeland, don't have thousands of dollars people actually still do expect to see presidential candidates. I can't figure out how he can stage manage a whole campaign............. My guess is he'll be spending more than normal times in safely red states ... like Wyoming. Except the last time Cheney showed up here, we had a quite a nice protest! So I say, BRING 'EM ON!

[chopper]

4. well, remember...

"to his rare encounter with dissent by declaring: "I love free speech."

remember, this is the same guy who once said "there ought to be limits to freedom" in response to some particularly critical 'free speech'...

[Peace_2_Everyone]

5. I found another article,

w is still embarrassing US with his wild west talk.


http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7652360%255E421,00.html


Whirlwind over, Bush jets out

snniips
October 24, 2003

GEORGE W. Bush boarded Air Force One at Fairbairn airbase last night to fly out of Australia just 21 hours after touching down. The fourth US president to visit Australia, President Bush's trip was unprecedented in both its tight security and its brevity.

During the media call in Mr Howard's office the two men tried to clarify what Mr Bush meant when he called Australia a "sheriff", upsetting some of our regional neighbours. "I was asked the question, is Australia America's deputy sheriff," Mr Bush said.
"My answer was, no, we're equal. We're equal partners in the war on terror."

[anakie]

7. I liked the man of steel bit

that in Texan talk "man of steel" means fair dinkum. So not only are we his sheriff in the region we also have Stalin as a leader.

And I would hope that he would stop comparing us to Texas. We do not have the death penalty, we do not have guns in our society and our gas guzzling SUV situation is no where near what Texan folks drive.

[0007]

6. NewsInternational showed the protesters

and the interruption in the Parliament.

Nothing in the American media that I know of, other than PBS and it was mildly reported on Jim Lehrer News Hour.

[young_at_heart]

8. 10,000,000 marchers last Feb. weren't "rare"

Rare encounters with dissent.......I cannot believe this!