Michael Badnarik, self-described step-father of the Constitution and 2004 Libertarian Party nominee for president, covered the Free The Jefferson 1 incident this morning on his Internet radio show, Lighting the Fires of Liberty. You can listen to the episode (May 27th) here.

The liberal Christopher Hitchens! The conservative First Fridays! The libertarian Bureaucrash! All that, and the Jefferson 1 herself will be on hand at D.C.’s Union Pub for a special post-partisan affair, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDST. It’s $5 at the door, which covers the cost of one drink and a one-time donation to the FreeTheJefferson1 Defense Fund. If you’re in the Washington area and can make it out to Capitol Hill for a few hours, we’d love to see you there.

Roughly $3,300 has been raised thus far to assist our own Brooke Oberwetter, as she continues to fight federal charges of “interfering with an agency function” and “demonstrating without a permit,” all brought because she had the temerity to ask U.S. Park Police why she was not permitted to bop silently in celebration of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday.

More info here.

The Jefferson 1 was a topic of discussion today on Slate’s Political Gabfest, with regular podcasters John Dickerson, David Plotz, and Emily Bazelon. The discussion starts at around the 25:40 mark (or, conversely, 3:40 from the end.)

And here’s a transcript:

David: There’s an amazing story making its way through the blogosphere this week. A couple of weeks ago, I guess around April 12, there was a gathering of libertarians at the Jefferson Memorial at midnight to celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. And these group of libertarians were in the rotunda. They went at midnight because there wouldn’t be a lot of people around. And they were dancing silently, they were all listening to iPods, and they were dancing around. And a security officer said…came up to them and said you have to leave…and then one of them said ‘Why?’ And at this point, they arrested this woman, whose name is…what is her name…her name is Mary Oberwetter. And arrested her, charged her with all kinds of ridiculous crimes, for interfering with the function of a police officer, probably disturbing the peace. And it’s…it’s appalling. It’s absolutely appalling. And so you should go and find about the…

Emily: And there’s YouTube video.

David: There’s YouTube video of them…and, you know, they’re doing nothing!

John: And there’s a Web site now called freethejefferson1.

David: Freethejefferson1. It’s ridiculous. You know, the kind of national…you know, as a native Washingtonian, I’m kind of increasingly perturbed about the way this city has been, you know, securitized. And this is just another example of the way that the notions of security and safety and protecting against some vague outside threat have been turned to absurd levels.

John: (sarcastic) Yeah .

Emily: No?

John: I couldn’t sit through the whole video. I got annoyed by the narrator. I’m down with everything David said, I just don’t want to listen to the guy who was going on about it on the video while they were talking to the two cops.

All in all, a great spot, even if one of them wasn’t crazy about Jason’s narration. Let me say welcome to anyone who may have heard of us by way of the podcast, and if you want to help in the legal fight to come, you can donate to the FtJ1 Defense Fund.

Jason discusses the incident with Eric Dondero over at BlogTalkRadio.

The Sam Adams Alliance’s Paul Jacobs devotes the latest edition of Common Sense to the Jefferson 1 case.

Common Sense

Jacobs: “Tom Jefferson once said, ‘Dancing is a healthy and elegant exercise.’ And he didn’t even own an Ipod.

Last night I called up Free Talk Live because I thought that Ian and Mark would be interested in the case of the Jefferson 1. I didn’t realize they covered it at length during the first part of the show.

Listen to it here.

FTL is broadcast on 30 radio stations and is one of the most popular podcasts in the interwebs. Thanks to them and everyone else who is helping us shine a light on the unacceptable behavior of the U.S. Park Police.

I talked to NBC4 about the abusive treatment of the Jefferson 1 by the U.S. Park Police. Learn more about the Jefferson 1 here. If you agree with us that individuals dancing quietly in honor of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday should not be subject to arrest, he hope you’ll donate to the legal defense fund.

UPDATE: For those of you who would rather read, here is the article on the NBC4 website. One clarification on the following:

They arrested one woman when they said she would not stop dancing and became resistant.

The Jefferson 1 stopped dancing when talking to the police, as the video clearly shows. If the U.S. Park Police is the “they” NBC 4 is referring to they are spreading disinformation to cover up their overzealous officers. She simply stood there and asked “why?” we were told to leave. Instead of answering her she was handcuffed and detained for five hours. Our video shows this and when the U.S. Park Service finally releases their surveillance video it will show this also.

The article flat-out gets one fact wrong:

A security guard soon appears, insisting that the group leave.

Oberwetter was among those ushered out and was arrested after she kept returning to the chamber.

The video pretty clearly shows that that’s not the way it happened. Oberwetter did not keep coming back. She was arrested after asking the officer to explain why she had to leave.

As for the quotes from the Jefferson scholar, well, far be it from me to argue with someone who’s spent his entire life studying Jefferson, but I think the guy’s a bit full of himself. Jefferson adamantly warned that liberty is lost incrementally. Government takes over gradually. Not to mention the fact that the dancers still weren’t actually breaking any laws. No one provoked the officers. The dance was meant to be a celebration of Jefferson. No one thought there would be a confrontation.

There a couple of other national media outlets looking at this story, now. Hopefully they’ll cover it a bit better.

Original here.

We’re in the Washington Post. Several of us were interviewed by Michael E. Ruane, the Washington Post’s metro reporter today. Mike seems like a good guy and an honest reporter but we took exceptions to a few things so I sent him this e-mail:

Mike:

Hi, it’s jason Talley, we spoke on the phone this morning. I wanted to reach you as soon as possible so that you could correct an error in you report. You wrote:

“Oberwetter was among those ushered out and was arrested after she kept returning to the chamber.”

I don’t know the source who told you that Oberwetter left and then re-entered the memorial but that is 100% inaccurate. She entered to dance silently in the main chamber just before 11:55 with the rest of us, and didn’t leave until she was in handcuffs roughly 5 minutes later.  She was ushered toward the outer chamber, but did not leave the inner chamber of the memorial of her own volition at any point.

Also, I would imagine that other Jefferson scholars would disagree with the one that you selected. Jefferson wrote that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

We did something far less radical. We just danced, quietly.

It’s worth noting that we respect the differences of opinion out there but there are only one set of facts and we feel confident that those are on the side of the Jefferson 1.

Improv Everywhere: Headphone Dancing Ends in Arrest in DC

The Coparazzi: Woman Arrested for Dancing to Her Ipod

The Dainty Knife: D.C. Woman Arrested at Peaceful Celebration of Jefferson’s Birthday

beka531: Woman Arrested for Dancing at the Jefferson Memorial

CelticBear’s Musings: “Read these walls that you guard!”

Snarky Bastards: Free The Jefferson 1!

The Blog of M’Gath: Asking “Why?” is now a crime

cozcommunio: Is Quiet Dancing Disorderly?

Publius Endures: PSA: Free the Jefferson 1 Video Now Online