Time For A Pop Quiz!

I was over at Newshounds, reading about the Cindy Sheehan arrest - by the way, the Capitol Police want to drop the charges (more on this later) - and I ran across this quote:

"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Sound familiar at all?

More importantly, who do you think said that? (Answer at the bottom of this post.)

Concerning the arrest of Sheehan, a war protester whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq: Sheehan was invited by a California congresswoman and arrived at the House, where she was directed to her seat by a Capitol Policeman. As she was sitting down and taking off her coat (she only had her left arm out of its sleeve), the same person who seated her came running down the steps, grabbed her arms and put them behind her, and rushed her back up the stairs and out of the chamber. She was handcuffed in the hall. She did not say a word, other than to ask the policeman why he was being so rough.

Why did this happen? Because of the t-shirt she was wearing, which said "2245 Dead. How many more?". See, there are supposedly no protests allowed in the chamber during the State of the Union speech. During a similar incident at one of former president Clinton's SOTU speeches, a guy named Dave Delp was removed from the chamber for wearing a shirt that said "Clinton doesn't inhale. He sucks." The difference, however, is that Delp wasn't arrested.

Another person who wasn't arrested was Beverly Young, the wife of Representative C.W. Bill Young (R-FL). Mrs. Young was asked to leave the chamber for wearing a shirt that said "Support the Troops -- Defending Our Freedom."

Unlike Cindy Sheehan, Mrs. Young did cause a fuss, but she was not arrested or handcuffed or charged. Mrs. Young asked Capitol Police why she had to leave the chamber and was told that there were no protests allowed.

“They said I was protesting,” Young told the St. Petersburg Times. “I said, ‘Read my shirt, it is not a protest.’ They said, ‘We consider that a protest.’ I said, ‘Then you are an idiot.”’

Representative Young this morning made a speech on the floor of the House, holding up his wife's shirt, apparently milking his fellow representatives for some sympathy. While this probably didn't get him any sympathy, it did draw attention to the fact that Mrs. Sheehan's shirt could hardly be called a "protest", and now the Capitol Police are scrambling to get the message out that they've dropped the charges against her. As well, apologies have been issued from the Capitol to Mrs. Young and Mrs. Sheehan.

Now, back to the pop quiz at the beginning of this article. Once more, here's the quote:

"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Did you figure it out? If not, here's the answer for you:

It was Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party.

Think about it.

All the best,
Derek
(DCF)