On The Mark -- Don't Make Me Send You to the Gulag

When President Bush holds a “town hall” meeting in the United States it’s been reported that these events are well-scripted and the attendees are screened and approved in advance (i.e., there won’t be any worries about tough or inappropriate questions). Really, it’s just an advertisement for the administration’s policies disguised as an open meeting.

Abroad, it’s a little more difficult to script these types of meetings. In Holland, while on his way to Moscow for the Victory Day festivities, Bush participated in an unscripted youth roundtable with some of Holland’s citizens.

The first question was from a young woman who (in summary) wanted to know about new laws that have negatively affected civil liberties in the U.S. since 9/11 and if the U.S. would ever revert to the old laws if terrorism concerns lessened. The second questioner said he had recently received a brochure from a group in the U.S. seeking donations to help the poor in America. The questioner wanted to know (after commenting that the U.S. has been involved in many wars) what was the “balance between the U.S. responsibility to the world and the responsibility to your own people?”

The third question…well, nobody knows outside of the attendees from Holland. You see, after the second question, all of the journalists were escorted from the room. They were no longer invited to listen to the queries of Holland’s youth, but more important, they were not allowed to hear Bush’s unscripted responses.

Can you imagine the scene – in the middle of a Q&A conference, men in dark blue suits are walking up to anyone with a piece of paper and pen and whispering in their ears: you must leave now. Or what, be sent to a Gulag? Or what, suddenly disappear and never be heard from again?

Sometimes Russia’s Putin has a point when he says the U.S. should take a look at its own freedom of the press and democracy before it starts criticizing other nations.