Secret Service Suggests Self-Censorship: Bush and Guns Pics

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Bush and Guns

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Bush and guns. Seems like a natural fit, like hangman and noose, or bomb and crater. Not to the Secret Service, however. Mixing photos of guns and Dubya will earn you a visit by the S.S. and all of the joy that they can bring, as Jeremy Lassen learned the hard way.

On June 7th, Two Secret Service agents showed up at my place of
employment and asked to speak with me. One agent said they wanted to
talk about something I posted online. I asked what, he one responded
“You post a lot of stuff online, don’t you?” and then showed me some
color printouts of my “Bush and Guns” pictures. I was as helpful as
possible, and explained to them the about the incident in Chicago, and
the context of those pictures.

[...]

After
about 45 minutes, one of the agents said (paraphrased from memory, not
an exact quote) “Let me be frank… I’m having difficulty seeing these
pictures as ‘art’. You’re a publisher,
and a systems administrator. How do you suddenly become an ‘artist’.” I
pointed out that not all art is created formally by trained elites, and
that there are plenty forms of artistic expression like this, such as
stencil and graffiti art.

He then went on to suggest that the
process of digitally manipulating photos of the president, and putting
his image in context with guns was akin to seeking his home address,
and personal information about him(instead of going to his supervisor),
if I had a professional complaint about him. (!?!?!). I was a little
flabbergasted at this, and said, no… it’s a creative process…
Juxtaposing elements that wouldn’t normally be together is a common
artistic technique.

There are lots of pictures of Bush and guns on the web, and why not? He is responsible for pushing forward with two wars where lots of people are being shot at by Americans. I wonder if the Secret Service is busy investigating the creators of the attached images as well?

Link to Jeremy's blog