The White House has a a 103 page operations manual, The Presidential Advance Manual, on how to silence or quarantine dissent at Presidential speech sites.
The document also recommends drowning out protesters or blocking their signs by using what it calls "rally squads." It states: "These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators. The rally squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors (USA!, USA!, USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site."
The document offered advice on how to recruit members for such squads: "The rally squads can include, but are not limited to, college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities."
Hence my concern with "civility" and accepting the "frame" provided to us by the Main Stream Media and the Pundits in the Think Tanks. The "New Normal" is not acceptable. Blogging is one the few venues where our voices can be heard without being blocked, drowned out, quarantined or framed out. Let's not censor ourselves simply to make life easy for "rally squads" and our Patriotic Leaders on the Hustings. It is a Free Country after all. Or, did I fail to read the Presidential Directive suspending the Bill of Rights in Time of War?
