I finally reached the door and explained that I did not have a ticket, but that I spoke to Rep. Saxton's office on Wednesday and was told to keep my fingers crossed.  Stephanie, the woman checking people in took my name and said that she do the best she could to let me in if there was room once all the ticket holders went in, but I'd have to check back once they checked in everyone else on the line behind me; and again I was told to keep my fingers crossed.  

I took this chance to walk up to the main road leading into Burlington County College where Congressman Frank Pallone was addressing the NJCA members and other protestors:

"For nearly two months, President Bush and Vice-President Cheney have traveled all around the nation on the taxpayers dime trying to convince Americans to support their risky Social Security privatization plan. But, the American people aren't buying it -- in fact, the more Bush and Cheney travel, the less popular their plan becomes."  

Also addressing the crowd,  7th Legislative District Assemblymen Jack Conners:

"Good people work hard their entire lives, raise families, and then want to retire peacefully and with dignity. Social Security has allowed Americans to do just that for over seventy years,” said Conners. “The plan to abandon that is reckless, deceptive, and just a bad idea."

 & Assemblyman Herb Conaway :

"The government should be listening to the needs of American citizens, not American investment firms.  The privatization plan is a thinly veiled attempt to once again cater to the wealthy while jeopardizing the most successful social program in our nation’s history."

Also in attendance, Burlington County Freeholder candidate Amy Vasquez.  Everyone at the protest spoke about the importance of preserving Social Security and keeping the peace of mind of American citizens out of the hands of Republicans, who favor turning Social Security funds over to banks for private investment in the stock market.

Passing secret service agents, I turned back towards the college.  My expectations of getting inside were about the same as they were two days ago when I started making phone calls to find tickets, zero percent; still it might be fun to try.  This time, security headed me off before I even got up to the door and, "We'll see what we can do" and "Keep your fingers crossed" soon changed to, "you need to leave this area immediately." There was some contradiction on why I needed to leave the area.  One person told me that the room was full so the fire marshal would not let anyone else in.  Another person told me that I had to have a ticket, and that some people had extra tickets, but I wasn't fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to get one.  While yet another person told me that wasn't correct, and I had to be on the official list to get in.  Hey, if you're going to lie to me, at least coordinate your lie ahead of time.  I was told to go join the protestors, to which I responded, "That's the exact opposite of what I want to do.  I don't want to protest, I want to participate."

Vice President Cheney's visit was promoted as a Town Hall Open Forum on Social Security.  The expenses are paid for by the US taxpayers (that's you and me folks).  It was held at a County College on County land, but the only people allowed to attend are friends and supporters of the local Republican Congressmen.  Not only is that immoral, it's illegal.

It was made abundantly clear that I was not going to get my chance to hear VP Cheney's "discussion" on Social Security.  I walked back to my car, only to find out that for the next 10-15 minutes no vehicles would be allowed to travel on the campus roadways.  Apparently, 19 year old community college students trying to go home after classes pose a security risk to the Vice President.  Even though there was a second exit that would have taken traffic away from the building where Cheney was appearing, students were penned in the parking lots until security got the word from the Secret Service (all on the taxpayers dime)

Students were frustrated. One student was who identified himself as a Bush voter said, "I'm not a Bush voter today, today Cheney sucks."  No one knew anything about Cheney's visit except that the main parking lot (where Cheney's motorcade arrived) had notices that it would be closed on April 15th.  No reason was given to the students.  When I asked if there was any publicity about how to get tickets to attend the so called "open forum" the consensus was that they only knew Cheney was there this morning when they saw the welcome Vice President Cheney signs and the protestors out front.  

Audio:
Interview One (wav)
Interview Two (wav)

Mitch Manzella
NJ for Democracy

Rep. Saxton's Introductory Statement

"The important thing for us is to get the debate started," Cheney said.

With an audience made up of mostly Republican loyalists, he didn't get much disagreement.
Home News Tribune

"The important thing for us is to get the debate started," Cheney said.

However, the 14 people who asked questions _ including Republican Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi _ did not debate the vice president's contention that the private accounts would help solve the financial problems a demographic shift is expected to cause in the Social Security system.
AP

[Smith and `LoBo' didn't even show up]