Potential protesters manual

A manual put out to White House staffers about how to deal with potential protesters at
appearances by President Bush. See the story here. In part the manual states:

To counter any demonstrators who do get in, advance teams are told to create "rally squads" of volunteers with large hand-held signs, placards or banners with "favorable messages." Squads should be placed in strategic locations and "at least one squad should be 'roaming' throughout the perimeter of the event to look for potential problems," the manual says.

This has come to light because of a law suit filed by two people who wore t-shirts with anti-Bush slogans to a Bush rally:

The lawsuit was filed by Jeffery and Nicole Rank, who attended the Charleston event wearing shirts with the word "Bush" crossed out on the front; the back of his shirt said "Regime Change Starts at Home," while hers said "Love America, Hate Bush." Members of the White House event staff told them to cover their shirts or leave, according to the lawsuit. They refused and were arrested, handcuffed and briefly jailed before local authorities dropped the charges and apologized. The federal government settled the First Amendment case last week for $80,000, but with no admission of wrongdoing.

Here's a great opinion piece on it. One of the comments really hits home:

What is sadder to me still is that in an effort to ensure that no one had any "footage" of the president that showed dissent or implied that anything might be wrong, the president's advisers isolated him from the one advisor it is clear he needed the most: the American People

It again show the influence of Karl Rove. The Bush presidency has been nothing more than one continuous campaign. The problem is at some point they have to govern the country maybe they'll try that sometime before they leave office.