Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

[Player-X]

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?
Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he’d say to President Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance.
That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S. fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500.
Howards says he was taking two of his kids to their Suzuki piano camp in Beaver Creek, Colorado. They were walking across the outdoor public mall area when all of a sudden he saw Cheney there.
“I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.”
Howards says he knew the Administration has a “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.
But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’ ”
Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.”
Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.
“He grabbed me and cuffed my hands behind my back in the presence of my eight-year-old son and told me I was being charged with assault of the Vice President,”Howards recalls.
He says he told the agent, “I can’t abandon my eight-year-old son in a public mall.”
According to Howards, Reichle responded: “We’ll call Social Services.” Before that could happen, however, “my son ran away and found my wife,” who was nearby, Howards says.
“First of all, I was scared,” Howard recalls. “They wouldn’t tell my wife where they were taking me. Second of all, I was incredulous this could be happening in the United States of America. This is what I read about happening in Tiananmen Square. They hauled me away to Eagle County jail and kept me with my hands cuffed behind my back for three hours.”
At the jail, the charge against him was reduced to harassment, he says, and he was released on $500 bond. The Eagle County DA’s office eventually dropped that charge.
On October 3, Howards sued Reichle for depriving him of his First Amendment right of free speech and his Fourth Amendment right to be protected from illegal seizure.
Howards and his attorney, David Lane, have not demanded a specific dollar amount.
“We will go to trial and let a Colorado jury decide what type of damages are appropriate,” says Howards. “This isn’t about anything I did. This about what I said. There is a frontal assault occurring on our constitutional right to free speech. We brought this suit because of our belief that this Administration’s attempt to suppress free speech is a greater threat to the long-term integrity of this nation than ten Osama bin Ladens.”
Reichle did not return my call for comment. Nor did he respond to The New York Times in its article on this incident.
Lon Garner, special agent in charge at the Secret Service’s Denver office, says he has “no reaction” to the lawsuit. “It’s in litigation,” he says. “We have no comment.”
Before his encounter with Cheney, Howards says he had a clean record.
“I was never arrested before,” he says. “I don’t have so much as a speeding ticket.”

I wonder what will happen next.

[Coolsvilleman]

America is progressively going down the drain. Unfourtunately Canada is probably next which sucks.

[dynamicVoidMain]

The secret services arrested a teenage kid for throwing darts at pictures of George Bush, now thats scary.

[shafeen]

Originally Posted by dynamicVoidMain

The secret services arrested a teenage kid for throwing darts at pictures of George Bush, now thats scary.

ooh.........arcade game programmers who make games on george beware otherwise u will be arrested by the secret services of usa lol >>that proud agency that didnt even know their own men are leaking info abt their country<<

[Cid Highwind]

Why didn't Saddam overthrow this regime while he had the time?

[dynamicVoidMain]

He was too busy torchering and killing the people in his one...

[RZetlin]

The man should be grateful that Cheney didn't leave him rot in jail for 1000 years since Habeas corpus is now suspended in the United States.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Coolsvilleman

America is progressively going down the drain. Unfourtunately Canada is probably next which sucks.

We'll just have to go further north.

[darth sephiroth]

that leaves you with three choices; Greenland, Norway and The russian Tundra.
i vote Norway, because we just got rid of the Republicans in our government and are now heading, if not quickly, up

Seriously, now freedom of speech is also beein oppressed in the US? if they don't vote Bush down now he'll have entire 2 more years to completely drain the country. I'd say the only thing still intact is freedom of religion, where this isn't always much freedom for muslims if what i've heard is correct.

[shafeen]

freedom of religion u make me laugh .........yeah seriously

us citizens hate muslims cause of saddam
police come to my aunts house twice a month for checking wether she is holding some terrorist in house

[dynamicVoidMain]

Do they really?

[Player-X]

us citizens hate muslims cause of saddam

I think it's because of Osama

police come to my aunts house twice a month for checking wether she is holding some terrorist in house

Has it really gotten that bad?

I do see some racial profiling in the airports when I arrived here, it seems like they stop the people wearing middle easten style robes and occasional White people and completely ignore Asians. I first noticed this because I wasn't stopped at the security gates along with the other Asians on the flight while Indians and Arabs were almost always stopped.

[dynamicVoidMain]

Player-x, I'v heard in saudi the airport securtiy tends to hastle Americans, I dunno how true it is, but they don't mind English, Australian, Canadians and the like, but if your American they search you and the like.

I suppose you might think its just that they don't like them, I reckon thats true enough, but given Americans will treat Arabs with suspicioun just because of their nationality I think its fair they dislike americans... Still don't know why they don't dislike other nationalities though, particularly the ones that follow the US like dogs *cough* Australia *cough*

[Xtreme2damax]

@Shafeen,

Americans Do not Hate Muslims, As I'm American and I accept all forms of Race/Religions.

What We dislike which is a more polite term, is the extremists, that have absolutely zero respect for the human life, and go around suicide bombing places all in the name of god.

So please do not say all americans are like this, because I'm not, and I take offence when I'm and others are viewed in the same manner as the idiot George Bush, and other polititions.

I'm actually a very laid back, funny, and caring person. I believe in forgiving no matter how harsh or hateful the crime is. I am acceptable of all people, but I do wish others were as accepting of me

[dynamicVoidMain]

I think they are, but in general Americans dislike muslims.

Its funny, the problem is they think muslims are a minority that doesn't integrate, if anything us muslims integrate way too well, to the point its hard to count how many americans are muslims (literally)
They had an article about it on the internet, I don't have the link anymore

[darth sephiroth]

Originally Posted by shafeen

freedom of religion u make me laugh .........yeah seriously

us citizens hate muslims cause of saddam

if you look more closely at mypost that's pretty mcu hwhat i said, apart from the saddam thing.
Only a minority of thosee who do hate muslims, hate them cause of saddam.

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

Americans Do not Hate Muslims, As I'm American and I accept all forms of Race/Religions.

wasn't directed at me, but i have to comment on that.
only a part of the US generalise all muslims as terrorists or something like that. The same part generalises a lot of other things as well.
Since these people generalise a huge mass of people to be what only a small mass is, it is only fair that the generalised masses generalise the US to be generalisers and muslim haters when only a part of the US is.

What We dislike which is a more polite term, is the extremists, that have absolutely zero respect for the human life, and go around suicide bombing places all in the name of god.

yeah i'm all for that, but that is what we believe you "hate" or as you put it "dislike" and we agree to you, but what we're more against is what the US military/government does to counter these extremists!

So please do not say all americans are like this, because I'm not, and I take offence when I'm and others are viewed in the same manner as the idiot George Bush, and other polititions.

in a lot of cultures it is enough for an american to say that bush is an idiot and it'll all be well
it'll physically be all well if you say you like bush also, but mentally and "spoken" it may be a bit more hostile.

I'm actually a very laid back, funny, and caring person. I believe in forgiving no matter how harsh or hateful the crime is. I am acceptable of all people, but I do wish others were as accepting of me

i believe we need more accepting and i'm a quite accepting person myself (or at least try to be) but i also believe there have to be limits.
i'm not talking "we cannot accept terrorists taking the lives of ..... etc." but more things like that we cannot accept greedy people and liars or "rich" thieves (you'd be surprised how many people with good economy still steal just because they feel they're too good for the bill).

[shafeen]

Originally Posted by Player-X

Has it really gotten that bad?

I do see some racial profiling in the airports when I arrived here, it seems like they stop the people wearing middle easten style robes and occasional White people and completely ignore Asians. I first noticed this because I wasn't stopped at the security gates along with the other Asians on the flight while Indians and Arabs were almost always stopped.

yeah its gone way bad in houston and probably in san antonio also yeah indians are stopped on airports i have a bad experience of that i was alsostopped for taking on the cell phone in the airplane or give text messages thru it in an emirates flight back then when i was going to australia

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

@Shafeen,

Americans Do not Hate Muslims, As I'm American and I accept all forms of Race/Religions.

What We dislike which is a more polite term, is the extremists, that have absolutely zero respect for the human life, and go around suicide bombing places all in the name of god.

So please do not say all americans are like this, because I'm not, and I take offence when I'm and others are viewed in the same manner as the idiot George Bush, and other polititions.

I'm actually a very laid back, funny, and caring person. I believe in forgiving no matter how harsh or hateful the crime is. I am acceptable of all people, but I do wish others were as accepting of me

hope every one was like us ie being respectfull to each others cultures civilizations and paticulary religion how the world would have been then

ok i change that to some americans given that americans ""donot blame all muslims""

if my post hurted u then i am sorry

[Xtreme2damax]

Originally Posted by darth sephiroth

yeah i'm all for that, but that is what we believe you "hate" or as you put it "dislike" and we agree to you, but what we're more against is what the US military/government does to counter these extremists!

Yeah I don't agree with that either, but what more can be done than to protest. Even with protesting your voice is sometimes not even heard.
I think more should be done to prevent "Extremism" or rather "Political Extremism" on our own soil and other countries as well

I mean, look at all the people that protested the war in iraq, which did absolutely nothing to stop the war.

That's why I don't vote, I don't want to be the .000000001% of the people responsible that voted a person like George W. Bush into office.

What I don't agree with also, and I believe and have seen, is that if a US Citizen that is a serial killer Bombs Buildings here in the US, they are labled as exactly that I think, a Serial Killer. But a person living outside the US that bombs a foriegn country, or thier own is labled as a Terrorist.

But let's not turn this into a political/war Discussion/Debate, and stay on topic.

As for Criticizing Cheney to his face, if I saw either Bush or Cheney in Person, I'd do more than just say, "Your Policies in Iraq are Reprehensable".

I'd throw it all in thier faces, about how wrong it is what thier doing, and Say to him, "It's People like you, that make Terrorists hate us, and want to destroy us, It's people like you that disgust me".

Then I'd take the quickest plane back home and seek shelter till I was safe to show my face again

[darth sephiroth]

if you don't vote you loose all your rights to speak up about the politics of your own country. Because then you haven't done **** to decide how your contrys politics should be.
Even if your vote barely matters it's better than sitting on your ass doing nothing which you've decided to do. it is also a lot more efficient than protesting.

[jonc2006]

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

Yeah I don't agree with that either, but what more can be done than to protest. Even with protesting your voice is sometimes not even heard.
I think more should be done to prevent "Extremism" or rather "Political Extremism" on our own soil and other countries as well

I mean, look at all the people that protested the war in iraq, which did absolutely nothing to stop the war.

That's why I don't vote, I don't want to be the .000000001% of the people responsible that voted a person like George W. Bush into office.

What I don't agree with also, and I believe and have seen, is that if a US Citizen that is a serial killer Bombs Buildings here in the US, they are labled as exactly that I think, a Serial Killer. But a person living outside the US that bombs a foriegn country, or thier own is labled as a Terrorist.

But let's not turn this into a political/war Discussion/Debate, and stay on topic.

As for Criticizing Cheney to his face, if I saw either Bush or Cheney in Person, I'd do more than just say, "Your Policies in Iraq are Reprehensable".

I'd throw it all in thier faces, about how wrong it is what thier doing, and Say to him, "It's People like you, that make Terrorists hate us, and want to destroy us, It's people like you that disgust me".

Then I'd take the quickest plane back home and seek shelter till I was safe to show my face again

you probably wouldn't make it as far as the nearest door let alone a plane of all things.