When Is A Town Meeting Not A Town Meeting?

Dick Cheney apparently uses the same tactics a Bush when he has a so-called Town Meeting. While the press reports these meetings as an "open forum", that is hardly the case. These meetings are open only to people that are on a pre-approved list as you can see from this post on John Corzine's website Corzine Connection: Last month, President Bush held a similar Social Security "open forum" in Westfield, where tickets were only distributed to a pre-approved list of supporters through the White House and through Congressman Ferguson's office. I wanted to find out if this was more of the same, if Dick Cheney is also going to hand pick his audience, or if there was any possibility getting a ticket so I could ask some of the REAL QUESTIONS about the Social Security Plan. First, I called Burlington County College to see if the event hosts had information about tickets for the Town Hall Meeting. I was told that the College has nothing to do with ticketing for the event. All that the operator at BCC knew was that it is a CLOSED EVENT that is strictly INVITE ONLY, great concept for an "open forum." As you can see from this persons' experience, he also made calls to the Vice President's office, US Representative offices and the Republican county organization with no success getting tickets to the "open" meeting. It looks like a town meeting is not a town meeting when it comes to the Bush/Cheney team. I think it is about time these guys started talking to REAL PEOPLE with REAL CONCERNS for a change. They just might learn something. The gentleman who posted is still looking. Good luck to him but I really don't think he will succeed in his hunt. They are using the same tactics they used all through the election campaign.