The Democrats have been resorting to what Al Gore might call "Brown Shirt" tactics.
Medea Benjamin, founder of the left-wing group Code Pink, took to the Democratic convention floor during Teresa Heinz Kerry's speech and unfurled a pink banner: "End the Occupation of Iraq." She "was promptly dragged out of the FleetCenter by the police," says Code Pink's website. The website also said "several anti-war delegates from the [Dennis] Kucinich campaign have been told to take off scarves that say 'delegate for peace.' Outside the convention, those who oppose the Democratic Party position on Iraq are relegated to a 'protest pen,' which is actually a cage surrounded by fencing and barbed wire." Said Benjamin: "We are supposed to have free speech all over the United States, not just inside a pen that looks like a Guantanamo Bay detention camp."