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| Bradley Manning |
Obama was speaking to donors at a private event in San Francisco on Thursday morning when a group of 21 led by Naomi Pitcairn – a member of the satirical action Fresh Juice Party – started singing a song about Manning's plight, and asking Obama: "We paid our dues, where's our change?"
"That was a very nice song," Obama is heard replying when the singing ends. "Thank you. we worked hard on it," one of the protesters responds. "You have much better voices than I have," says Obama, "Thank you very much guys."
"Thank you for listening, we love you," says another protester politely. "I appreciate that," says Obama. "Now, where was I?"
Around 200 Democratic donors were at the breakfast held at the St Regis Hotel in San Francisco. The other attendees appear to have listened politely – this being San Francisco, the liberal stronghold of America, they may have even sympathised – while the protesters held up small "Free Bradley Manning" signs.
The Bay Citizen news site reported:
Pitcairn paid for $76,000 of the $105,000 activists spent on tickets to the fundraiser. After several minutes of song, the Secret Service escorted her from the event, questioned and then released her. Jeff Patterson, project director of Courage to Resist, an activist group that took part in the protest, said that Pitcairn "describes herself as a trust-fund brat/artist."
After Obama had finished speaking, Logan Price, a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, engaged the president for several minutes in debate over Manning's charges and the effect of WikiLeaks. "I can't conduct diplomacy on open source, that's not how the world works,"Obama can be heard telling Price on video.
Here are the lyrics:
Dear Mr President we honour you today,
Each of us brought you $5,000
It takes a lot of Benjamins* to run a campaign
I paid my dues, where's our change?
We'll vote for you in 2012, yes that's true,
Look at the Republicans - what else can we do?
Even though we don't know if we'll retain our liberties,
In what you seem content to call a free society.
Yes it's true that Terry Jones is legally free,
To burn a people's holy book in shameful effigy.
But at another location in this country,
Alone in a six by 12 cell sits Bradley.
Twenty-three hours a day and night,
The fifth and eighth amendments say,
This kind of thing ain't right.
We paid our dues, where's our change?
*For non-US readers: a Benjamin is slang for a US $100 note, which bears a portrait of Benjamin Franklin.
