Democracy Now! asked to leave floor of Ivesco Field while interviewing Rep. John Lewis

While I'm excited about Senator Barack Obama, the Democractic Party still needs to get its act together. It's very difficult to believe in it as a defender of free speech when it so rudely enacts policies to keep independent media from doing it's job. During an interview with Representative John Lewis of Georgia, who marched with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman who had a seat, was asked to leave by security.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: I’m John Lewis, congressperson from the 5th district of Georgia. I feel very, very good. I feel deeply moved by what is happening, what is about to happen. It’s one of these moments in our history that I will never, ever forget. I never thought I would live to see this day.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about this day, forty years ago.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: Well, this day, forty-five years ago—

AMY GOODMAN: Forty-five years ago.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: We were in Washington, more than 250,000 of us, black and white, Protestant, Catholic, Jews, people of different background, rich and poor. And we were on and inspired by the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., that one day we would make it possible for people to be able to register to vote. In many parts of the South, people could not register to vote, simply because of the color of their skin. And we changed that.

AMY GOODMAN: Your speech had to be changed to be toned down forty-five years ago. What were you trying to say?

SECURITY OFFICER 1: Sorry, the interview is over now.

SECURITY OFFICER 2: Ma’am, you’re done. Let’s go. You gotta go this way.

AMY GOODMAN: I have a chair, and I’m sitting.

SECURITY OFFICER 2: Let’s go. Well, alright, you gotta go.

SECURITY OFFICER 1: We gotta keep—start moving.

AMY GOODMAN: Just this last little bit, this last [inaudible].

REP. JOHN LEWIS: Tell them this—

AMY GOODMAN: This is a great man here.

SECURITY OFFICER 1: Secret Service has asked that this area be locked down. So you guys have to go.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: But this is not –

SECURITY OFFICER 1: Get out of his seat, ma’am.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: This is not Chicago in ’68, sir. Don’t create a problem.

SECURITY OFFICER 1: Listen.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: Don’t create a problem.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Congress member John Lewis, as the police tried to take me away from talking to him. John Lewis was there forty-five years ago, when Martin Luther King gave his address on the Mall in Washington, D.C. In fact, John Lewis, as a young civil rights activist, also gave a speech that day.

Just because I believe in their candidate, doesn't mean that I'm going to give the Democratic Party a free ride. As it is, I do have several concerns about Senators Obama and Biden which I will go into at a later time. The most pressing, for the time, revolves around their allegiance to the industrial military complex that is entrenched in Washington and around the world. They can give lip service to curbing our addiction to foreign oil, but truly, the biggest danger to the U.S. and the free world has always been the U.S. industrial military complex. It was disheartening to hear Senators Obama and Biden each promise to promote more military presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with 'defending Israel', after having President Eisenhower's granddaughter Susan Eisenhower come out in support of Senator Obama. It's a slap in the face of President Eisenhower's clear warning against the military industrial complex when he left office.

Nonetheless, I'll take the Obama/Biden administration over McCain/more Bush administration any eight years.