More Free Speech

Now it's not just T-shirts.

DENVER -- The U.S. Secret Service on Monday said it was investigating the claims of three people who said they were removed from President Bush's town hall meeting on Social Security last week after being singled out because of a bumper sticker on their car.

The three said they had obtained tickets through the office of Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., had passed through security and were preparing to take their seats when they were approached by what they thought was a Secret Service agent who asked them to leave. ...

Alex Young, 25, an Internet technology worker from Denver who was among the three removed from the event March 17 at Wings over the Rockies, said officials told them the next day they were identified as belonging to the "No Blood for Oil" group.

Young said they belong to no such group, but the car they drove to the event had a bumper sticker that read: "No More Blood for Oil."

These are law-abiding American citizens who have gotten tickets from their Congressman to a supposedly public appearance of their President, who is visiting to explain and gather support from the electorate from his proposed policy initiative. In a logical world, he would want to have people who didn't already agree with him listening, so he could convince them.

Instead, someone is checking bumper stickers in the parking lot, and matching them with people in the hall and ejecting people, on the assumption that they don't agree?

What's wrong with this picture?

Update: More astonishing details at the Daily Kos.