3 April 2008

Entering the security cocoons of Obama and HRC

If you attend the 5 April 2008 Democratic dinner in Butte, at which Obama and Hillary Clinton will speak, will your name and photograph end up in a Secret Service and/or Homeland Security database?

I think so. While John McCain refuses Secret Service protection (he does have private bodyguards), Obama has had it for over a year, and Hillary Clinton has had it since becoming first lady in 1992. For Democratic candidates, traveling in a cocoon of security has become a way of life.

The evidence is there for anyone who cares to look at it. If you’re going to the dinner in Butte, here are your instructions from the Montana Democratic Party:

If you’re attending the Obama rally in Missoula on Saturday, here are your instructions from the Obama campaign:

Thinking of attending an Obama rally somewhere else? The same rules apply, as a man with a sign opposing the war in Iraq found out when he attempted to attend a rally for Obama in Portland, Oregon.

It’s the same all over the country. Want to attend an Obama rally? You’re welcome — but RSVP, get a ticket, and “For security reasons, do not bring bags. Please limit personal items. No signs or banners are permitted.” It’s exactly the same language everywhere; language straight from Obama’s campaign, which undoubtedly got it from the Secret Service.

Why no bags (what is the operative definition of bags for the event?)? Perhaps because they could conceal a gun (or diapers). What about a bag made of transparent plastic? Good question, but perhaps it could be used as a weapon. No signs or banners? Well they block the view of other people, but somehow I doubt the security types are worried that one’s view might be blocked. No, the signs might be used as a weapon, or, like a banner, be used to conceal an assassin.

Update. Suppose that eleven people sitting together wear the same color of tee-shirt, with each tee-shirt displaying one letter of "No Iraq War." Would they be thrown out for violating the prohibition on banners?

The screen is not perfect. At a rally in Dallas, the Secret Service ordered the local police to stop passing people through metal detectors because that was slowing down the process. The local police, deprived of their fun and sense of self-importance, complained bitterly.

You’re a security threat unless you can prove otherwise

So if you’re planning on seeing the candidates in Butte, or Obama in Missoula, be prepared: you’re considered a security threat until you prove, if you can prove, otherwise.

And plan to be on a list — actually, get used to the idea that you already are on a list. I’m fully convinced that the names of the ticket holders already have been compared to databases such as the terrorist watch list for airlines and people arrested or convicted or suspected of doing something, or thinking of doing something, untoward. If you have more than a parking ticket on your record, there may be people waiting for you if you show up in Butte or Missoula.

I note parenthetically that the first-come, first-served ticket selling scheme that the Montana Democratic Party employed for the tickets for the Butte event is the scheme that would be most useful to the security crowd because it’s the fastest way to get the names of the ticket holders to the constables. In fact, the party may have been directed to sell the tickets in that manner, and required to sign a non-disclosure agreement governing the details. If that’s what happened, we’ll never get a straight answer to the “why didn’t the party use are fairer system to allocate the tickets” question.

And expect to be photographed. You won’t see an agent with a camera clicking away at people as they enter, but there may well be hidden security cameras aimed at all points of entry. It’s not that hard to do. But it would be hard to discover.

Enjoy your dinner or rally. And remember to give Big Brother the proper gesture.