Freedom's on the Move, Dissent is Being Crushed
President Bush has gone on what Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has described as the Bamboozlepalooza tour of the country, following up the cries of Social Security crisis from his State of the Union address last night. One of the first stops was Fargo, ND, where it seems there was a list of people provided to organizers of the event who would not be allowed admittance--including Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates. Here are some of the details via the Dakota-centric blog, Clean Cut Kid

Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates is among more than 40 area residents included on a list of people barred from attending President Bush's speech today in Fargo.

Among the 42 area people on the do-not-admit list: two high school students, a librarian, a Democratic campaign manager and several university professors.

White House spokesman Jim Morrell and Don Larson, a spokesman for the North Dakota governor's office, say they don't know anything about such a list.

"This is the first I'm hearing of it," Morrell said when contacted Wednesday.

But two sources close to Tuesday's ticket distribution confirmed the list exists and includes a handful of names of people who were not to receive tickets to today's event at North Dakota State University's Bison Sports Arena.

The list was supplied to workers at the two Fargo distribution sites, along with tickets and other forms citizens were asked to fill out upon receiving them. People who handed out tickets had copies of the list at their tables to determine if anyone should be denied access, both sources said.

The list contains a wide range of people. Several wrote opinion page letters to The Forum criticizing Bush or the war in Iraq. Others wrote letters in support of gay rights or of Democratic policies.

It's not clear if any one issue links the names together, but several are found on a Web site of a local progressive organization.

You can see the entire list posted to the Fargo/Grand Forks Forum newspaper site (registration required). They include:

Nathan Schoenack: The Moorhead man wrote a letter to The Forum last spring calling the Bush administration's reasons to go to war "disingenuous at best, if not outright lies." The Moorhead man is a member of the Fargo-Moorhead Democracy for America Meetup Group.

Cara Taylor: The Fargo woman wrote in a 2002 letter to The Forum saying, "The pursuit of equality for people of all orientations may be considered a more noble calling."

Mark Folse: The Fargo man wrote a letter to The Forum in November saying Bush has created greater division of the country than ever.

An update on Clean Cut Kid notes that the bad press seems to have gotten the Bush people a little itchy

She was let into the event without any major incident, but she was recognized and spotted by a staffer (she wasn't sure if the staffer was from the White House or a local, but she made it sound like he or she was in some official capacity) who blamed the whole "blacklist" on overzealousness by another staff member. She said it sounded like the list did indeed exist, but was revoked this morning.