Left-leaning, free-speech loving bridge players are especially encouraged! very interesting finishing line to this article. let's not forget the raise fist of 1968 mexico Olympics.

Jan Martel has shut down her email. The board email address apparently is still open, and maybe the emails should go to all the board, who will make the discipline decision about these four women.

I say hurrah for those women, and I hope they're reading about all the support given to them here on CD yesterday:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/14/5233/

The sign was a statement of fact: They did, or they did not, vote for bush.

The sign did not say: "Bush is an evil dictator", nor
" Bush is a pimple on Satan's ass", or "Bush is destroying the USA", all of which are basically correct, but also present an opinion and a point of view.

"I DID NOT VOTE FOR BUSH" is simply a statement of fact, like " I did not eat my wheaties", or "I do not support evil"

One last thought.

It might be interesting to see if we can get the board members to say if they support Bush's illegal surveillance of Americans, illegal warmongering, and the authorized torture of innocents. These were the kinds of questions and comments directed by other participants in the bridge tournament toward the American team. Make 'em show their colors!

I would strongly support a worldwide boycott of the US bridge team, at least under the current leadership. Although I do not want to threaten the ability of these ladies to earn a living, these types of people need to be stopped.
And the Board's email has apparently shut down as well.

The sign should have said:

Impeach Bush and Cheney

Now thats political !

This absence of free speech in the USA is a concept foreign to many of us foreigners. We follow with interest, and mouths agape, the strange stories of the Dixie Chicks, the Chicago teens for peace and the Boston people of conscience. What has happened to free America? How has the world's leader in the democratic way descended to this obsessive fixation on conformity? What has this administration done to the essential freedoms? Where does the pursuit of truth and justice fit into this model?

Since 9/11 millions of us pro-American foreigners are miffed, and very content to stay where we are, in countries where it's still acceptable to voice opinion and to separate individual identity from that of the current administration. Yet we mourn this retrogression, because everything that happens in the US affects the world.

Here's the UCBF's disgusting and patronizing self-justification for their slimy actions. Apparently it all comes down to $ (as usual).

http://usbf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=368&Itemid=167

I love it:
"taken as a whole, I suspect it adds up to a more disturbing picture–of a nation that went quietly mad, except for a few who spoke up and were ostracized for it; of a country where politics became so estranged from everyday life, that the ordinary expression of it was called treason."

This is the slipper slope we are already sliding down- when the madness creeps out of DC and into our personal lives

And thank you, kroenung58, for the link. Oh, how I love Board Members! It is encapsulated in the remark that the "offenders" have not admitted their guilt in a serious offense... though it was only made a serious offense by official reaction!

I imagine most Americans, when introducing themselves overseas, will mention something like "I didn't vote for Bush". No one wants to be stereotyped.

anney---should have read your post before I shot off an email to Jan Martel---it was the second one---the first sent yesterday to the board'e email address.

I don't even playbridge!!!!

I would love to see such an roar of protest that these fascists are forced to back down. I think a boycott of their sponsors should be the next step.

While this whole matter nay seem to some as a "tempest in a teapot", I see it as a tipping point. Where will this assault on our right to free speech go next? We have to fight it like brush fires everytime it flares up, or we will all get burned!!!!

Here are phone numbers to express your disapproval at their disingenuous conduct:

U. S. Bridge Federation

Postal Address 1511 Portola Street
Davis, CA 95616

Telephone 530-758 4088

Fax 901-398 7754

Email usbf.president@acbl.org
janmartel@comcast.net

Web site http://www.usbf.org/

There will be a Bridge Championship in San Francisco Nov 22 to Dec 2

Come on San Francisco...show them how free speech is done and carry some signs out side the San Francisco Marriott.

starofthesea

Did you get an answer from the board?

I got a canned answer from Jan Martel. Here it is:

=====

Thank you for your email.

The USBF Board appreciates everyone's input. I and the other USBF Board members are not participating in discussions of the incident because it is inappropriate for us to do so. But I assure you that we are listening to everyone.

You can read a Summary of Board Actions at

http://usbf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=369&Itemid=167 and

a Statement regarding the Damage to USBF at

http://usbf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=368&Itemid=167

Please note that no penalty has yet been imposed. The matter has been sent to a Hearing Panel of the USBF Grievance & Appeals Committee for resolution.

=====

My email to Jan Martel at USBF:

=====

Dear Folks,

This statement about the "I didn't vote for Bush" sign is outrageous:

"This isn't a free-speech issue," said Jan Martel, president of the United States Bridge Federation, the nonprofit group that selects teams for international tournaments. "There isn't any question that private organizations can control the speech of people who represent them."

It is also not true. No one in America has a right to "control" the speech of people. America is a Constitutional government in a Constitutional crisis created by the GW Bush administration, and you guys think these women should be PUNISHED for saying they didn't vote for Bush at a dinner where he was discussed a great deal?

Really, this is too much and certainly not flattering to the USBF. News travels fast. Maybe you guys should reconsider unless you and your sponsors are all Bush supporters. If that's the case, then the world should know that, too.

Signed by me

Are any other sportsmen and women ready to step up and use their fifteen minutes of fame in the cause of peace and justice?

Poker champions? Chess champs? Winners of bass fishing contests? Rodeo champs? Champion dog & cat breeders?

The imagination reels at the possibilities for grassroots protest.

I wonder if the USBF has bitten off more than it can chew. It might interest you to learn that at least two of the four women shown in the NY Times picture and featured in the report are non-practicing attorneys -- the two Jills who are pictured below:

http://usbf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=115&Itemid=61

What that MEANS is that they're quite likely to know some good attorneys who could represent them if the board decides to suspend them from playing for a year. Bridge provides their INCOME, so they'd be losing their jobs for practicing free speech. I don't know the ramifications of the relationship they have with the USBF as employer-employee, but I'll bet they could cause a LOT of trouble for this idiot board.

Why has the USDF shut down it's email address? I guess they just couldn't handle all those letters of support.

I sent an email to janmartel@comcast.net
..............................................

"I support the women who held up the sign proclaiming they had not voted for Bush. You are anti American in your suppression of free speech.

You should have just let the small protest go and ignored it.

Fire Jan Martel for expressing a political opinion... if you are consistent. Its clear that person supports Bush. Maybe fire your board too.

If nothing else I hope this opens up a political dialogue at all of your bridge tournaments.

Bush and Cheny should both be impeached. Too bad that wasn't on the sign."

............................

and looks like the NY Times agrees with this censorship as being unamerican:

"This sort of censorship is un-American, unsporting and counterproductive. It will only confirm the far-too-common belief that America is no longer committed to free speech — or fair play."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/opinion/15thu4.html?_

except it isn't a "belief" It's what is happening. Americans are being censored if they oppose Bush.

How sad it is that Americans who might consider vacationing, studying, doing business, or playing competitive bridge overseas in places like Shanghai or Venice now experience social pressure to the extent that they feel a need to reassure the locals that they, as individuals, should not be blamed for putting political power into the hands of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Sadder still is the realization that because we do live in a country where it's possible to toss the rascals out through the ballot box or through impeachment, that we have failed to do so, and we may actually come up short again in 2008.

Bill from Saginaw

What was the name of that organization? The US Bridge Fascism? Is that what the letters stand for?

anney----I loved your letter and found the response amazing---it is not appropriate to comment? Are you kidding me???? What a hoot! They already did in the original story and now the heat is on....let's turn it up!!! My letter was much shorter and as of yet, haven't gotten a response, canned or otherwise.
colleen----
I love the idea of staging a real protest in the SF area in front of the Mariott---great heads up! Can youmake it happen? Resistence must be heard! Fascism must be exposed wherever it rears its ugly head!

Good bumper sticker too. Or, "Don't blame me, I did NOT vote for Bush".

star of the sea

I'm in the north east in the US. But if there is a bridge tournament near me I would protest there.

Sad how Americans have been kept quiet. So many of us oppose Bush but we can not get heard.

Sedition is a term of law which refers to covert conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order.

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation.

Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause.

These ladies are clearly allowed to have free speech in America by law, as written in the constitution (1st Ammendment). Since they didn't vote for Bush, they are neither displaying the so-called 'sedition' or 'treason' that the buffoons at the NYT have branded them with. Why do the big newspapers hire such right-wing editors anyways?

I praise their honesty and courage to critique a corrupted presidency. Hopefully this will inspire others in the parlour gaming world to use their celebrity and recognition to unite their fans and get them out to vote next election. I would definatly buy an anti-Bush Rubics cube or deck of playing cards, haha.

04/10/08! Can't wait!

Christ, if some Americans had their way, the rest of us would be sedated 24/7 and hooked up to drool pans, just so they can continue to deceive themselves with their delusions of adequacy.

In what way is saying you didn't vote for Bush an act of treason? If they had proudly announced that they HAD voted for Bush, they'd be receiving public rimjobs courtesy of every frigging organization in the States, and we ALL know that. The typical American seems to believe in the same kind of free speech as Stalin or Mussolini; if you support them, then speak away, otherwise keep it zipped.

Although I worry a lot about the evils of the Republicrat party, my biggest concern is with how stupid most American sheeple seem to be. Even if we were to completely overhaul the electoral system, the fact remains that Americans, on the whole, are thick and ordinary.

We were stupid enough as a nation 20 years ago, electing Reagan and singing Lee Greenwood songs with our erect "flagpoles" firmly ensconced in our fists, but now it seems that those years were a veritable Golden Age compared with the current glut of inflexible and arrogant stupidity.

Glad to see that we're preparing our citizens for dealing with all the coming crises that our collective stupidity has brought us.

These wonderful women certainly put bridge on the map. Their ordeal with the Federation defies description and leaves me breathless. I have enjoyed the richness of collective outrage expressed this column.
I particularly appreciate the street address of the US Bridge Federation in California. So I wrote them a letter and mailed it. Nothing like bulging bags of letters dropped on their front desk. Can't ignore all this incoming paper. You have to do something with it -- it's visible. Email is too easily deleted and ignored.
For those of you who'd like to flood them with bags shaming messages here is the address: U. S. Bridge Federation
1511 Portola Street
Davis, CA 95616

In 1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their famous silent protest. While at the time there was great controversy and knashing of teeth in the USOC and the country generally, now it is applauded as a great, courageous act. Is this not similar?

I believe that as bridge players we represent America and not the American government. With an approval rating at an all time low for any president, it IS representative of America to disapprove of the President. The world should see Americans as people, distinct from the government's foreign policy at the time.

The strength of our country is that we CAN dissent. In saying they did not vote for Bush, they did not even ofer a value judgement--merely a statement of for whom they did not vote.

To put this in context, although it is an international forum, it's a very, very small event in the overall context of global society. If the USBF hadn't overreacted, few people (probably less than 1,000 [and I'm being generous here]) would not even been aware of the protest. Now, it's world news and the bridge governing bodies have made all of us look bad. Perhaps it now hurts the game. If damage is done, it was done by the USBF--they should be sanctioned.

I wonder what sort of sanctions they would have been subject to if they displayed, "I drink Coke!" instead. Probably a hand-slap and a reminder that there is an official soft drink sponsor of the event.

"....the Dixie Chicks and Tommie Smith and John Carlos–US sprinters who raised a fist in salute to Black Power at the 1968 Olympics and were subsequently ejected from the games." I knew the Chicks were energetic but I had no idea they were olympic sprinters....but I have a feeling the girthier Natalie is the slower of the three.