17-Year-Old Thrown Out of Bush Rally

We received this news from former Watauga County residents now living in New Mexico (our thanks to Carol), about an incident during El Presidente's recent appearance in Farmington, N.M., written by the 17-year-old who got hassled by Bush's Secret Service:

"At a Bush-Cheney '04 Rally appearance by US President George W. Bush on August 26, 2004, in Farmington, New Mexico, the Secret Service denied me entrance based on the fact that I have voiced opinions against the policies of the Bush administration. They falsely asserted that I was there to protest within the event. At a supposedly public event, I, a minor, was denied access and threatened with arrest. I am 17 years old and will not be old enough to vote in the November election. However, I wished to go and see what the president had to say. When I went to the event, I passed through the first gate with no trouble, but as I approached the second gate and the metal detectors, a man who appeared to be a local organizer came up to me and asked me if I was Nikhil Krishnaswamy. When I said, "Yes," he told me I was not welcome there and tore up my ticket. He then called a Secret Service agent who ripped up my ticket again, then tore up the ticket of the person who I went with and told us both to get out. They said we were on a list of people who were not to be let in. On our way out, we were accosted by a local police officer who told us that the Federal Government had leased the property on which the event was to take place, that since we did not have tickets, we were trespassing, and that if we returned that same day, we would be arrested."

We'd very much like to see what Nikhil Krishnaswamy had written that got the local Republican power base so exercised. What does a 17-year-old non-voter have to say these days to get his rights taken away so swiftly? What words can get a minor child branded an enemy of the people?

And where do they keep the list? And am I on it yet?