A "volunteer" police state: "As he aggressively moved the three of us toward the exit, we kept asking why this was happening. He simply replied that it was a 'private event' and we had to leave. An unknown person then led us outside, where we were surrounded by a group of law enforcement agents and other people who repeated that we needed to leave. Intimidated and embarrassed, and getting nowhere with our attempts to reenter the event or get an explanation, we walked back to my car and drove away.

Some questions have been answered since that day. We now know that, despite holding valid tickets and being properly dressed, Alex, Karen and I were removed from the event because of the message on a bumper sticker on my car: 'No More Blood for Oil.' This detail was revealed during a telephone conversation with the Secret Service the day after the incident. A week later, in a face-to-face meeting, the Secret Service also informed us that the man who had removed us was not an agent but a 'Republican staffer' on the host committee responsible for managing security. They would not disclose his identity to us, however."

(Via Salon.)