pennies for IRS (or non-dumb JB)

Secret Squirrel secret_squirrel at nym.alias.net
Thu Aug 30 19:48:26 PDT 2001


http://macontelegraph.com/content/macon/2001/08/27/local/ETHREDGE0827.htm

By Rob Peecher Telegraph Staff Writer

EATONTON --- Jesse Ethredge doesn't care much for President Bush, and he
doesn't hesitate to say so.

In fact, if you're following the 57-year-old Eatonton man down the road,
you'll quickly learn just exactly what he thinks of Bush.

"Don't U blame me. Thief --- Liar --- Two Faced Murderer Geo W. Bush. Hell
with Bush and all damn Republicans."

Those are the words printed, in plastic stick-on letters, on the back of
the camper on Ethredge's truck, which is also adorned with a cartoon child
urinating on the word "Republicans."

Those also are the words that earned Ethredge a visit from the U.S. Secret
Service last week.

"They came Tuesday, wanting to ask me what did I mean by that there,"
Ethredge said, pointing to the slogan on his truck. "They asked me a bunch
of questions, like if he was to come into my driveway, what would I tell
him. I said I'd tell him to get out as fast as he come in it. ... They
wanted to see if I was a danger to him."

Bush has been closer to Ethredge than one might expect. During the
campaign, Bush made at least two visits to Reynolds Plantation on Lake
Oconee in Greene County.

Ethredge said he believes the visit from the Secret Service was initiated
by a man who had come to his house the week before. Ethredge, who lives on
Lake Sinclair, has a car with a for sale sign on it parked in his front
yard. A few days before the Secret Service came to see him, Ethredge said
a man stopped at the end of his driveway.

"I come out to see what he wanted; I thought he wanted to buy the car. But
then he started talking about the sign and asked me if I knew I could get
in trouble with the Secret Service for that. I told him if that's all he
was here for, he could leave the same way he came here," Ethredge said.
"If I see him again, I'll give him a mouthful."

Putnam County sheriff's detective Lee Wilson confirmed it was a call from
someone who had seen Ethredge's truck that brought the Secret Service to
Eatonton.

"We got a call from somebody who had seen his truck and noticed a sign
that (the caller said) says 'murder George Bush,' " Wilson said. "I called
the Secret Service, and they sent an agent down, and we interviewed
(Ethredge) as a matter of policy to see what his mind-set is and if he
poses any threat to the president."

Wilson said Ethredge cooperated during the interview.

"Although he didn't have a lot of use for (Bush), he didn't have any
intentions of causing him physical harm," Wilson said. "As far as (the
sheriff's office) is concerned, it's a closed matter. I don't want to
speak for the Secret Service, but based on my conversation with them,
they'll document having contact with (Ethredge)."

It was a similar anti-Bush (though a different Bush) slogan on the same
camper shell that more than a decade ago got Ethredge much attention from
the media and from officials at Robins Air Force Base, where he has worked
as a civilian employee for 34 years.

That sign --- "Read my lips hell with Geo. Bush" --- got Ethredge a ticket
charging him with "provoking speech on a truck" when he drove it onto the
base April 5, 1990.

The ticket was dismissed since there is no statute against "provoking
language on a truck," but in October 1991, Ethredge received a letter from
Col. Robert Hail, then-deputy base commander at Robins. The letter
instructed Ethredge not to come onto the base with "bumper stickers or
other similar paraphernalia which would embarrass or disparage the
Commander in Chief."

Ethredge contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, and a First
Amendment lawsuit naming Hail as the defendant ensued. A U.S. district
judge ruled against Ethredge, saying the base did have the power to limit
bumper sticker content. Ethredge appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals, and the 11th Circuit initially ruled the case moot since Bush
lost the election to Clinton.

So, Ethredge says, he added a line about Bill Clinton "more or less to
keep the case going." While he has no love for Republicans --- the first
sign Ethredge had on a vehicle was about Ronald Reagan --- Ethredge said
he didn't really have anything against Clinton. But he nonetheless added a
slogan to his truck that read, "Hell with Clinton and Russian aid."

The 11th Circuit then ruled against Ethredge, and the lawsuit ended there,
said Gerry Weber, the ACLU attorney handling the case.

"We stopped at the 11th Circuit level," Weber said. "Just within the
context of a military base, people's free speech rights are as restricted
or potentially more restricted than inmates in a jail."

Weber said he was surprised to hear Ethredge had become, if only briefly,
the subject of a Secret Service probe. After hearing the content of the
new slogan, Weber said, "That doesn't sound like it warrants a Secret
Service investigation."

Weber also said a state statute outlawing obscene or lewd messages on
bumper stickers was struck down by the state Supreme Court, so Bush
supporters wishing to silence Ethredge have no recourse there.

Ethredge --- who also is well known at the Putnam County Tax
Commissioner's Office, where he pays his property taxes in pennies --- has
not worked at Robins since 1998 when he left on a workers' compensation
claim after a knee injury. He plans to retire next month.





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