talked about this in their Presidential Debates that included the excluded parties.

ibtl

They were trespassers without, as far as I can tell from the article, credentials. The officer seemed to ask if they had any and they responded that they were on ballots for 85% of voters, which does not serve as a free pass to go into a privately organised, privately funded, private event. They even said as much ("if democracy truly prevailed, there would be no such commission, that the debates would still be run by the League of Women Voters, that the debates would be open with the criteria that the League of Women Voters had always used&quot They came off as pushy and belligerent, refusing to so much as step out of traffic like the officers asked - so that they wouldn't get run over.

Like it or not, these are debates paid, organized, and run by the Democratic and Republican parties. They have zero obligation to invite anybody else on stage. By the same token, Jill and Cheri are more than welcome to stage their own debates and not invite Obama and Romney if they so choose. And if they tried to force their way in, well, I suppose security at their event could charge them with trespassing.

In the transcript above, it's clear that they did not have credentials for the "event". Maybe they showed a driver's license. Who knows?

But their intent was to protest. They sat down right in front of the policemen and refused to move, complete with American flag draped around them. They knew they had no tickets.

What makes you think that these women who are running for President and VP aren't also proud of their country and use the flag to exhibit such? What is it about their clothes and about their use of the flag that distinguishes them from the other candidates?

didn't have credentials to The Event. Read more closely.

and held in hand cuffs for 8 hours.

The first ever all woman slate for President and VP arrested and shackled for 8 hours for trying to participate in our democratic process. If only I could live long enough to talk to my grandchildren about this.

woman slate arrested and shackled.

if they were men, women, or monkeys.
They came fully intending to get removed.

but these women did it this morning.

I couldn't take their whining and then I found myself annoyed at Amy for asking questions that seemed to pander to the two.

She has always been an outlier. And interviewing a presidential candidate that has been arrested and held in hand cuffs for 8 hours is exactly up her alley.

on my way in to work. You can download the show on KPFK.org's website and tell me she isn't pandering especially in the line of questioning about the plastic handcuffs and the chairs.

United States presidential election debates, 2012

The CPD stipulates three criteria for eligibility: constitutionally eligible, appearance on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes, and average at least 15% on five selected national polls. Four candidates achieved the first two criteria: Democratic nominee Barack Obama, Green nominee Jill Stein, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Only Obama and Romney also satisfy the third criterion of averaging 15% in five selected national polls and thus are the only two to appear in 2012 CPD debates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates,_2012

The CPD ensures we get Reagan and Reagan-lite.

Once they presented their agreement over what can and cannot be asked of the candidates in a debate moderated by the League of Women Voters, the League rejected the whole thing out of hand.

There were a bunch of other stipulations as well that both candidates threw upon the League, but the main point is the League felt it was all a fraud being committed upon the voter because no more prickly or uncomfortable questions could be posed to the candidates anymore.

I mean, there were no questions exploring both Obama's or Romney's stances on free trade. I'm sure both are of the mind of being in favor of it. They'd just be fighting over the details.

There are criteria for getting into the debate. They didn't meet the criteria.


Fuck 'em.

My only disappointment here is that Gary Johnson wasn't with them.

You know, Mr Obama (like Deval Patrick) is a "very articulate and dynamic, hypnotizing speaker"

Fuck Jill Stein.