pdq, why on earth should any candidate get a restraining order - or be allowed to get one - against someone just because that person 'stalks' them* with the intent to ridicule, question, or embarrass them.

The Right-wing has taken over our courts, intelligence agencies, and the government in recent decades to the point where acts of passive resistance - you know, the kind Gandhi promoted - are labeled as "terrorist" or "terrorist threats."   

Lauren Valle "[chained] herself to Citibank's headquarters building in New York as part of a protest related the RainForest Action Network's dirtymoney.org campaign. Dressed in costume as a Billionaire for Dirty Energy ?" Heavens! How shocking! What an act of wanton destruction!!

"Valle and four other protesters were arrested and detained in China in August of 2008 after illegally hoisting a banner just outside the National Stadium in Beijing's Olympic Park."
And we know the Chinese government would NEVER arrest or imprison anyone for purely political reasons.

And GreenPeace got felony charges and the attention of the New Orleans Joint Terrorist Task Force for not staying away from an area where they were trying to monitor the "clean-up" operations in the Gulf Of Mexico?    Their earlier "serious crime" had boarding a vessel at Port Fourchon and painting messages -- messages directed to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar -- with an unknown substance on different areas of the ship. They were barred from the area -- just as members of the press, scientists and other concerned citizens have been when they try to observe and video what BP et al. are calling "clean-up. So they face felony charges for "criminal trespass" because they are still trying to bring attention to the questionable methods used to "clean up" the massive oil gusher.

I think our country, especially some of the state governments, has priorities totally bass-ackwards!


spray painting messages











*I'm pretty sure following a political candidate around at public gatherings such as rallies and press conferences doesn't legally constitute "stalking."