The genesis of the lists remains a mystery

We have seen it happen to often to be a local occurrence. People turned away from Presidential appearances. Some were campaigning stops, but others are dedicated to political issues, and promoted as Presidential visits. Some are refused tickets, others have tickets, they are standing in line to get in, and are pulled aside. At this point, their ID is confirmed, and they are refused entry, or given verbal warnings about arrest for being a disruption.

A do-not-admit list similar to the one meant to keep dissenters out of President Bush's town hall talk on Social Security Feb. 3 in Fargo may have turned up this week in Denver.

Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise, both members of Denver Progressives, were turned away at the event's door even though they had tickets.

A doorman stopped the two women and directed them to another man, who said they had "been ID'd" and would have to talk to someone from the Secret Service.

Another unidentified man with a shaved head, earpiece and red lapel pin approached them.

"He said we were allowed to go in but, if we caused any problems, we'd be taken to jail," Bauer, a 38-year-old marketing coordinator, told the Denver Post.

Lon Garner, special agent in charge of the Denver-area Secret Service, said his staff doesn't remove people from presidential events unless they break the law.

He added that the Republican staff may ask people to leave, and some of them may seem like members of the Secret Service.

Garner told the Denver Post he understood Republican event workers had two names on a "list."

Bauer and Weise were later allowed in but, more than an hour before Bush took the stage, they and their 25-year-old fellow Progressive Alex Young, were escorted out of the audience at Wings Over the Rockies Museum.

"We kept asking, 'Why is this happening?' " Young said. "The guy said, 'If the staff asks you to leave, you have to leave. This is a private event.' "

The three who were forced to leave said it was not billed as a private event - rather a "Conversation on Social Security" - and they had tickets legally obtained through the office of Colorado Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez.

The questions is, who makes up this (or these) lists? How do they know who to question, who they select to pull from the lines? Why is it that every time they are caught doing this they claim it is created by unknown persons.

White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said Friday she is not aware of do-not-admit lists.

Jim Morrell, another White House press secretary, said Feb. 4 that Fargo's do-not-admit list may have been the work of an "overzealous volunteer" with a White House advance team made up of local, state and federal officials preparing for Bush's Feb. 3 visit to the Bison Sports Arena.

The list are created and distributed. People are then refused tickets or removed from the event. There is clearly a system in place to assure a friendly and unquestioning crowd, but no one knows how this happens. What is alarming, is that aside from the local media that notice the single occurrence, there appears to be no interest in the (left leaning) main stream media to learn what is really happening.

In the end, we have a spoksperson professing ignorance (believable in the Bush Administration, where ignorance appears to be a job requirement), and more people refused admission.

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an update KCTV Denver indicates that they were banned for the bumper sticker