Protesters Arrested at Gonzales Speech
In his first appearance at a university since resigning in August, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was met at UF on Monday with a mixture of cheers, boos and scattered interruptions by protesters, two of whom were arrested.
Gonzales, who resigned from his position after a controversial tenure, spoke to more than 800 people at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
During his prepared speech, Gonzales largely avoided discussing the controversies he faced in office, including his dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys.
Instead, he focused on encouraging students to consider a career in public service while describing his own experiences in that field.
About 15 minutes into his speech, two UF students, Richard Gutierrez and Kevin Hachey, climbed onto the stage wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods on their heads.
University Police Department officers scrambled onto the stage to remove them.
Matthew Cox, an employee of the Phillips Center, wrestled with one protester on the far side of stage, grabbing his legs and pulling him down.
The other stood directly next to Gonzales, who calmly avoided looking in his direction.
As police took the protester away, Gonzales glanced in his direction before attempting to continue his speech while he waited for the raucous crowd to settle down after a few minutes.
A few more protesters climbed onto the stage.
Meanwhile, even more protesters stood up, removed shirts or jackets revealing yellow T-shirts that read “SHAME,” and stood with their backs toward Gonzales.
They remained standing in their positions for the rest of the event.
Eventually, Gonzales continued his speech and then sat across from Henry Wihnyk, a UF law professor, for a question-and-answer session.
Wihnyk read students’ questions, which had been written on index cards before and during Gonzales’ speech.
During Gonzales’ address, the self-described “son of a Mexican immigrant and cotton picker” said his life was evidence of the American dream.
“I love America for all that she has done for me,” he said. “We are not perfect. Sometimes we stumble, but we always get up.”
Gonzales said he was proud of his record and defended his work with President Bush, though there were missteps, he said.
Later, he ignored scattered jeers from the crowd to answer questions about his dismissal of the attorneys, the Geneva Convention and torture.
Afterward, UPD Lt. Stacey Ettel said Gutierrez and Hachey were arrested for disrupting a public event.
Ettel said UPD expected most of the protester’s actions because they received information about some of the plans prior to the event. However, UPD did not anticipate what Gutierrez and Hachey did, he said.
Still, Ettel said he believed most of the protesters’ behavior was acceptable.
“I felt like they were able to express their feelings and voice their concerns from a visual viewpoint,” he said.
Steve Orlando, UF spokesman, said the usual number of four security officers was present. He added that he also thought most of the protesters expressed their views reasonably.
“A few crossed the line, but I think it went pretty well,” Orlando said.
“I think Mr. Gonzales saw a whole lot of First Amendment tonight,” he added with a laugh. “As he said, that’s what this place is about.”
© 2007 The Alligator
Since it doesn’t say it in the article due to obvious embarassment, UF stands for University of Florida. The Phillips Center is part of the Center for Performing Arts at that university.
Alberto Gonzales has no business making speeches especially to our youth. This man should be behind bars right now, not smiling and waving to the cameras. If there was any justice he would be, but he ensured that there wouldn’t during his tenure.
Since they were going to get arrested anyways, they should have walked up and kicked the bastard in the balls.
What balls,*L*
hahahaha canuckchuck, wait a minute, what balls…
I hear Bush pardoned the Thanksgiving turkeys today, but only after he had them tortured first.
The FBI is now on the lookout for Terrorist Mastermind “Gobble al GobbleGobbel”
Sorry Mr. Gonzales, there is a BIG difference between stumbling and royally f@#$ing up, the latter basically describing your career!
Lol…you guys. What impresses me is the fact that these kids were able to get in. Especially the orange/hooded kids. Good Jorb!
I don’t think any of the current adminstration (or recently retired for that matter) are aware of their behavior as wrong. I get a glimmer of it occasionally (Franken-Cheney great example), but for the most part the middle management types actually may think they are doing what is right for us…via the philosopher king mentality that was espoused by Strauss and taken up by his students.
Why would anyone want to hear what Gonzales has to say? Clearly he cannot offer anything intelligent.
This happened in Flordia ” WHOW ”
Just like they took the election.
One more mark on Flordia.
I’m proud of the guy’s that stood up to that pig,
Gonzales. He’s not worth going to jail for.
That PIG belongs behind bars, and throw away the key.
Waterboard him with Feinstein and Schumer.
Peace
Loretta Rosa Brooklyn, N.Y
>>>>> ATTENTION <<<<< Boycott Black Friday
It’s a good thing he seems like an isolated case. If all sons of immigrants grew up to be terrorists who destroyed our Constitution, we would have to seal the borders up tight.
When you get to the point where Mr. Gonzales is, done the things he has done and are still making statements about having lived the “American Dream” instead of asking to be forgiven, it shows there is no redemption for the unconscionable.
encourge public service?
what public service is he talking about?t
Sorta makes you wonder what the “American Dream” is(or was).
Maybe it’s been a nightmare that we are just waking from.
What kind of creep can sit across from this poormouth little neo-Himmler and ask questions instead of punching the bastard out?
But hasn’t Gonzales lived “the American dream” — get in bed with influential people & connive with them to starve, beat, bomb, and spit on the bodies of the rest of humanity?
Wow, these guys are lucky they weren’t Tasered to death for this. UF is where the student trying to ask an impeachment question of Kerry was tasered.
I’m impressed the police didn’t taser the protesters. I thought that was standard procedure these days…
Gonzales hasn’t lived the American Dream, he’s worked hard to destroy it.
Here’s the original meaning of the American Dream …
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”
Or perhaps, think of Lincoln’s dream of an America that is a ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’.
Of course, there’s always african-american poet Langston Hughes’ take on the American Dream…
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home–
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay–
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain–
All, all the stretch of these great green states–
And make America again!
Let America be America Again, by Langston Hughes
found at http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Langston-Hughes/2385
America is the place where felons, war criminals and murderers run around giving speeches at universities while pot smokers go to jail. Maybe we have the stirrings of a protest movement when ports are blocked in the state of Washington and young people demonstrate at UF. Say whatever you will about the state of democracy in Pakistan, those lawyers are out in the street where we oughta be.
If Gonzalez is so proud of his record, why can’t he look a hooded protestor in the.. well the hooded hidden face? I thought he was into that kinky sh*t?!
Congratulations to those protesters for taking a stand! Bravo!
Good on ya boys! Stacey, these kids have a right to non-violent protest. By arresting them you are not only violating their constitutional rights, but stifling protest, a necessary part of democracy.
an “American Dream”
IMPEACH AND PROSECUTE NOW ACCORDING TO THE US CONSTITUTION
that is if there still is a Constitution which means anything
Wow, Goanzales’s speech at FU judging from the post above should be proof that violence is not the sole property of the Right wing.
“Ettel said UPD expected most of the protester’s actions because they received information about some of the plans prior to the event. However, UPD did not anticipate what Gutierrez and Hachey did, he said.”
Actually, its a pretty fair bet they had spies out spying on any non-right-wing political groups on campus. The above is just a euphemism … their ‘information’ were from their Stazi spies who infiltrated the groups.
As usual the cops arrested the wrong guys, but at least they didn’t Taser them this time. I’m sure Gonzo would have heartily approved if they had. If there were any justice in the world Gonzales, along with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz et al., would end up in the dock at The Hague.
i find it amazing that “…more than 800 people” would be in a building where this shit for brains is speaking and actually want to listen to him. please, florida, say it isn’t so.
even sadder is the thought that he’s being paid to speak. certainly, he’s not doing it for free. so with a bit of investigation, who do you think is paying him?
Okay Drones. Now read this carefully and LEARN. Who arrested those demonstrators? Who transports them? Who clubbed, shot beat killed, burned women and children alive?
The very same genre you sheeple so emphatically call “heroes”. Who has murdered 1.7 million human beings for glory, to protect a nation 50 times larger, poured kerosene on tents the families of striking miners were relegated to because the Republican mine owner locked them out for demonstrating against working them 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week, then paying them in corporate “scrip” honored only at company stores? Do the terms Lackey, toady, sound familiar?
So much death and torture. All ordered by Republicans and carried out through the decades by “our boys” and the heroes in the squad cars. You call ‘em what you like I’ll call em what they are; policemen and soldiers. when the shit hits the fan, let’s see how many heroes come over to our side to take back our nation. Have balls enough to call ‘em for what they ARE, not what you WISH them to be. The little toadies shrug and say, “we’re just doing our job”. Well, “hero”, maybe it’s time you got a REAL job?
If he (Gonzalez) condoned torture (and he did) and any of those consequently tortured died as a result of their torture,
like the sleeping bag pummeled and iced down Iraqi general, then he, Gonzalez, and George W. Bush, another high condoner, can be tried and put to death at any time during the rest of their lives.
The source of this information is Former Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, writing about existing and somewhat enlightened American anti-torture law which is already in the books. Reader, I didn’t know about this– did you?
Personally, I don’t approve of capital punishment for anybody and think that life imprisonment or deportation to an isolated Pacific atoll might be enough. The law would have to be changed for that, though.
Gonzalez and Bush gone would make spots for two of the bravest illegal immigrants,
to whom we could award full citizenship.
Gonzales’ ’serviced’ his country as the bull sservices the cow……….. but sneakier.
WOW!!! What a pile on!!!! I,for one, am glad these courageous students/protestors made their stand without violence, not because I think Gonzales hasn’t earned his place in history as an enemy of democracy and decency. I am glad they remained non-violent because to have done otherwise would have undermined their own message. Gonzales would have been seen as a victim, and the protestors as the perps.
Gonzales was a brute, even if he never bloodied his own fists, but acting like a brute to punish him, just makes you look too much like him.
I think they got it right, and I think that if there were these sorts of peaceful ( I’m not saying passive), but dramatic statements made every single time any of these criminals attempted to speak in public forums, they will soon get the message that it isn’t worth the honoraria to have to endure their shame exposed.
And it may serve to raise the consciousness of some of the others who attend such an event.
I can’t wait till Bush gets out in public life so he too can get his share of boos!
Yes! Here is the text of a speech by a public servant. Is he running for president? From Salt Lake!?
“We are here to tell you: We won’t take it any more!” Address by Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah
Address by Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson on October 27, 2007 - Salt Lake City, Utah
Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah’s entire congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: “You have failed us miserably and we won’t take it any more.
While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been pompous, greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great nation to a moral, military, and national security abyss.
You have breached trust with the American people in the most egregious ways. You have utterly failed in the performance of your jobs. You have undermined our Constitution, permitted the violation of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the rule of law.
You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort never before countenanced in our nation’s history as a matter of official policy. You have sent American men and women to kill and be killed on the basis of lies, on the basis of shifting justifications, without competent leadership, and without even a coherent plan for this monumental blunder.
“We are here to tell you: We won’t take it any more!”
You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans who love our country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most cynical, outrageous ways. You have undermined, or allowed the undermining of, our constitutional system of checks and balances among the three presumed co-equal branches of government. You have helped lead our nation to the brink of fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of our nation’s treaty obligations, federal statutory law, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false ‘patriotism,’ our world is far more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and the threat of terrorism is far greater than ever before.
It has been absolutely astounding how you have committed the most horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy in the lives of millions of people, yet you wear your so-called religion on your sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-my-side nonsense - when what you have done flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian tradition. Your hypocrisy is mind-boggling - and disgraceful. What part of “Thou shalt not kill” do you not understand? What part of the “Golden rule” do you not understand? What part of “be honest,” “be responsible,” and “be accountable” don’t you understand? What part of “Blessed are the peacekeepers” do you not understand?
Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, many thousands of people have suffered horrendous lifetime injuries, and millions have been run off from their homes. For the sake of our nation, for the sake of our children, and for the sake of our brothers and sisters around the world, we are morally compelled to say, as loudly as we can, “We won’t take it any more!”
As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and torture human beings around the world, you justify, you deceive, and you cover up. We find what you have done to men, women and children, and to the good name and reputation of the United States, so appalling, so unconscionable, and so outrageous as to compel us to call upon you to step aside and allow other men and women who are competent, true to our nation’s values, and with high moral principles to stand in your places - for the good of our nation, for the good of our children, and for the good of our world.
In the case of the President and Vice President, this means impeachment and removal from office, without any further delay from a complacent, complicit Congress, the Democratic majority of which cares more about political gain in 2008 than it does about the vindication of our Constitution, the rule of law, and democratic accountability.
It means the election of people as President and Vice President who, unlike most of the presidential candidates from both major parties, have not aided and abetted in the perpetration of the illegal, tragic, devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq. And it means the election of people as President and Vice President who will commit to return our nation to the moral and strategic imperative of refraining from torturing human beings.
In the case of the majority of Congress, it means electing people who are diligent enough to learn the facts, including reading available National Intelligence Estimates, before voting to go to war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will jealously guard Congress’s sole prerogative to declare war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will not submit like vapid lap dogs to presidential requests for blank checks to engage in so-called preemptive wars, for legislation permitting warrantless wiretapping of communications involving US citizens, and for dangerous, irresponsible, saber-rattling legislation like the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment.
We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have wronged our country - and the world. They were enabled by members of both parties in Congress, they were enabled by the pathetic mainstream news media, and, ultimately, they have been enabled by the American people - 40% of whom are so ill-informed they still think Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks - a people who know and care more about baseball statistics and which drunken starlets are wearing underwear than they know and care about the atrocities being committed every single day in our name by a government for which we need to take responsibility.
As loyal Americans, without regard to political partisanship — as veterans, as teachers, as religious leaders, as working men and women, as students, as professionals, as businesspeople, as public servants, as retirees, as people of all ages, races, ethnic origins, sexual orientations, and faiths — we are here to say to the Bush administration, to the majority of Congress, and to the mainstream media: “You have violated your solemn responsibilities. You have undermined our democracy, spat upon our Constitution, and engaged in outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought our nation to a point of immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of immense, tragic, unprecedented proportions.”
But we will live up to our responsibilities as citizens, as brothers and sisters of those who have suffered as a result of the imperial bullying of the United States government, and as moral actors who must take a stand: And we will, and must, mean it when we say ‘We won’t take it any more.’
If we want principled, courageous elected officials, we need to be principled, courageous, and tenacious ourselves. History has demonstrated that our elected officials are not the leaders - the leadership has to come from us. If we don’t insist, if we don’t persist, then we are not living up to our responsibilities as citizens in a democracy - and our responsibilities as moral human beings. If we remain silent, we signal to Congress and the Bush administration - and to candidates running for office - and to the world - that we support the status quo.
Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for what’s right and never letting down can we say we are doing our part.
Our government, on the basis of a campaign we now know was entirely fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied a nation that posed no danger to the United States. Our government, acting in our name, has caused immense, unjustified death and destruction.
It all started five years ago, yet where have we, the American people, been? At this point, we are responsible. We get together once in a while at demonstrations and complain about Bush and Cheney, about Congress, and about the pathetic news media. We point fingers and yell a lot. Then most people politely go away until another demonstration a few months later.
How many people can honestly say they have spent as much time learning about and opposing the outrages of the Bush administration as they have spent watching sports or mindless television programs during the past five years? Escapist, time-sapping sports and insipid entertainment have indeed become the opiate of the masses.
Why is this country so sound asleep? Why do we abide what is happening to our nation, to our Constitution, to the cause of peace and international law and order? Why are we not doing all in our power to put an end to this madness?
We should be in the streets regularly and students should be raising hell on our campuses. We should be making it clear in every way possible that apologies or convoluted, disingenuous explanations just don’t cut it when presidential candidates and so many others voted to authorize George Bush and his neo-con buddies to send American men and women to attack and occupy Iraq.
Let’s awaken, and wake up the country by committing here and now to do all each of us can to take our nation back. Let them hear us across the country, as we ask others to join us: “We won’t take it any more!”
I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral breaking point is. How much will you put up with before you say “No more” and mean it?
I have drawn my line as a matter of simple personal morality: I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has voted to fund the atrocities in Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who will not commit to remove all US troops, as soon as possible, from Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has supported legislation that takes us one step closer to attacking Iran. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has not fought to stop the kidnapping, disappearances, and torture being carried on in our name.
If we expect our nation’s elected officials to take us seriously, let us send a powerful message they cannot misunderstand. Let them know we really do have our moral breaking point. Let them know we have drawn a bright line. Let them know they cannot take our support for granted - that, regardless of their party and regardless of other political considerations, they will not have our support if they cannot provide, and have not provided, principled leadership.
The people of this nation may have been far too quiet for five years, but let us pledge that we won’t let it go on one more day - that we will do all we can to put an end to the illegalities, the moral degradation, and the disintegration of our nation’s reputation in the world.
Let us be unified in drawing the line - in declaring that we do have a moral breaking point. Let us insist, together, in supporting our troops and in gratitude for the freedoms for which our veterans gave so much, that we bring our troops home from Iraq, that we return our government to a constitutional democracy, and that we commit to honoring the fundamental principles of human rights.
In defense of our country, in defense of our Constitution, in defense of our shared values as Americans - and as moral human beings - we declare today that we will fight in every way possible to stop the insanity, stop the continued military occupation of Iraq, and stop the moral depravity reflected by the kidnapping, disappearing, and torture of people around the world.
A fantastic and elegant display of civil disobedience. Cheers to the folks at UF.
And a quick comment for TheLorax: The article was published in the Alligator, which is Gainesville’s independent student newspaper. That’s why it refers to the university as UF. That publication’s readers don’t need the name to be spelled out. It’s common Gainesville and Alligator vernacular to use “UF”. (It’s not because of “obvious embarassment.”)
Wow! I’ve been treated to the words of Langston Hughes, Rocky Anderson, Abraham Lincoln, and some spirited patriotic posters.
When I saw this on the news, I thought, “Good protest!” And it was; it was well planned and executed, to the point, non-violent, and they stayed calm as they were led away.
This time, the police acted properly; I am curious as to how the rest of Alberto’s speaking tour will go.
I think Alberto Gonzalez is just a sorry stooge for Bush/Cheney/Rove; those three (now down to two) are the real bad boys, Alberto is too dumb to know what he did.
I wonder how much the American public will learn of this protest. Spread the word. I saw the video of what happened on the stage. The first young man calmly walked onto the state as described with the hood on. A guard or two calmly walked him off, exit state left. Then another young man came up, not in an orange jumpsuit, but holding a big sign reading “Habeas Corpus.” He also was calmly escorted off the stage. On the tape, there was no second orange suit and I saw no struggle or anybody being grabbed by the legs. I wonder what happened. I was very impressed with their mode of protest. Ghandi and King both knew that non-violent protests, facing the wrong-doers calmly and with determination reaches the hearts of all those who love justice.
Wouldn’t it be grand if the cops, walking up to the podium, instead of arresting the truth teller, grabbed Gonzo, cuffed him, and lead him off the stage with a hood thrown over his head?
Tell me our nation wouldn’t stand up and yell - YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
BUSH AND CHENEY, YOU, ARE NEXT …. ,,,,, …..
redjeff- Don’t sell Gonzales short. It was Gonzales who actually testified before Congress that the Constitution contained no right of habeas corpus. It was Gonzales who examined the information of those on death row in Texas and explicitly advised Bush that they should all be executed when there were real legal questions about the guilt or full cupability of some. Gozales learned the shriveled heart of Bush and hitched his wagon for the ride. He used Bush just as much as Bush used him. I hope there is more done about John Yoo, now a law professor in California. He was also an integral part of this as well as writing in unconstitional parts of the Patriot Act that continue to haunt us.
True the protest was powerful, and more power to the students. But at the end of the day, Gonzo still pockets $40k. If you want to have a greater impact, freeze the asshole’s bank account(s)!
How did Gonzo remember that he was supposed to give a speech? When he was testifying he couldn’t remember the location of his ass.
“son of a Mexican immigrant and cotton picker” said his life was evidence of the American dream.
Exactly. We now understand what the “American Dream” is really all about - “success” in the form of power/control in proportion to wealth and/or loyalty to wealth.
“I love America for all that she has done for me,” he said.
Exactly. For what she has done for ME ME ME ME ME!! Indoctrinate those students, Gonzo!! Race to the bottom!!
Good. There is hope. These patriotic protestor/students are the only ones in our population that actually try to protect the constitution. How many of the rest of us have openly protested and stood calmly eyeball to hood with security and later law enforcement?
Too worried about losing your job aye?
Too scared chatless to make a move against this goliath government and it many attrocities aye?
The shame should be on you.
Next time you get an opportunity, throw a wrench in the system. Talk loudly in line at the resturant about war crimes…. fill out corporate surveys and skew all the data on them. Boycott their crap. Vote third party and put an impeach sticker on your car. You will be shocked at all the thumbs up and horns you get from fellow motorist too scared to follow your example.
Fight back for god sakes before you wake up in the U.S.S.R.!
Grow a pair!
The American Dream ….
Where every idiot son of a cotton picker can get a high position in government and do as he pleases ….
And every idiot son of a former president can do the same ….
A dream for anybody who is in a position of power
To our elders who teach us of our creation and past so we may preserve mother earth for ancestors yet to come.
We are the land.
To our brothers and sisters and all living things across mother earth.
Her beauty we’ve destroyed And deniede honor he creator has given each individual. The truth lies in our hands.
All my relations
I am glad there are still enough young people in this country who know it was terribly wrong what Gonzales and the Bush Administration did! I was beginning to wonder if any American’s had enough character left to know right from wrong! This bunch of thugs should be in jail not making speeches to young people! What idiot asked him to make a speech anyway?????????
Interesting thread.
METROLOUISE: Thank you for posting that spellbinding speech! Wish it was on the MSM to wake up the somnambulistic public.
URTHSONG: Right on!
Why arrest the protesters? The cops should’ve grabbed Gonzales by the scruff of his neck, and thrown his crazy arse off the stage! He’s nothing but a Neocon Nut, and he has no business of any kind making speeches any time, anywhere, any place! Belongs in a jail cell with the rest of his buddies in Washington!
“certainly, he’s not doing it for free. so with a bit of investigation, who do you think is paying him?”
According to Democracy Now this morning, Gonzales was paid $40,000 for this speech. The money came from University of Florida funds.
$40,000 for a one hour speech of lies to justify malfesance.
We are truly through the lookingglass, down the rabbit hole….and around the bend.
As George Carlin put it, they call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
claudius wondered “Why would anyone want to hear what Gonzales has to say? Clearly he cannot offer anything intelligent.
I think this falls under the heading “know thy enemy”.
clarkk opined “Say whatever you will about the state of democracy in Pakistan, those lawyers are out in the street where we oughta be.”
The difference between Pakistan and the US may come down to to servile obedience of the American people. Despite all our bleating about “freedom”, we are, in fact, the most regimented society that I’m personally familiar with, and I’m personally familiar with quite a few of them, including Pakistan’s.
If we had the guts to mount protests on the scale of Pakistan’s, we might find that our government is not much different from Pakistan’s after all.
Fortunately, we’re all obediently working and shopping.
Bravo, Rocky Anderson!!!! A man of conviction, decency and courage.
I would rather had the President of UF handcuffed and arrested for giving
this Marquis de Sade the forty grand.
@metroeloise
WOW! That’s the most moving speech I’ve heard (read) that describes the sorry state of affairs America is in right now. Thank you for posting it.
Dammit! Why hasn’t Gonzales been arrested yet? This is ALL backwards.
PENNERBLU: Yeah you are right. This picture is really an oxymoron. The guy in the orange jumpsuit belongs behind the podium and the moron should be in the jumpsuit.Accolades to Whoever the guy is!
Speedy Gonzales,Aunt Jemima Rice and Uncle Tom Powell, proof positive that amerika’s WASP and neocohen power brokers can co-op minority trash to give the shine that amerika’s criminal political elite is an equal opportunity employer.
What’s the difference between Pakistan and amerika?
Musharef put the lawyers in prison…it’s a start!
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”. - (Act IV, Scene II)
Bill Shakespeare