Yes, you read that headline right. In the distant small town of East Lampeter, PA, Bush has been sighted flipping off a protester:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jiveturky/185733.html
How the protestors even got close enough to the Bush bus to be
seen in the first place puzzles me. The Secret Service usually has a 2-5 mile "Free Speach Zone" around the President at all times, to ensure that he never sees any dissenting opinions. I think this quite effectively debunks the "Bush is ignorant of the existance of his critics" excuse, however. He knows they exist, but his reactions to them are so violent that his handlers have to keep him far, far away from them to avoid unseemly incidents that even the SCLM could not ignore. I really do have to wonder what Bush and his brownshirts... Er... Secret Service bodyguards might've done to these boys had they not been driving by at a fairly decent clip.
Also might be why he's not allowed to read newspapers or watch TV - even the bland, insipid criticism of him found there might throw him into a violent rage. And the last thing Rove wants to see is rumors of battered televisions flying from the upper windows of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, or leaked tales about the pResident tearing apart newspapers or intelligence reports in a fit of blind rage.