Sludge Watch ==> Colorado Prof in court to defend right to send feces as 'gesture'

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Hmmm...

If the judge rules that the Professor is legally allowed to send poo, maybe
Kern residents will want to take up the gesture and send Los Angeles some
messages of their own.

..............................................

Prof Defends Right to Send Feces

Thursday, January 18, 2007


GREELEY, Colo.  A retired French professor sent dog feces to her
congresswoman's office after becoming angry with receiving too many mailings
_ and her lawyer says she had a constitutional right to do it.

Kathleen Ensz faces a misdemeanor charge of "use of a noxious substance"
after taking dog feces from her backyard, wrapping it in a political mailer
from Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, and leaving the putrid package at the
Republican's office, according to court documents.

Ensz, a Democrat, was angered by repeatedly receiving mailings from
Musgrave. Her lawyer calls the poo delivery a form of free expression,
protected by the First Amendment.

Patricia Bangert, one of Ensz's attorneys, admitted the act was "probably
crude and boorish" but all the same likened it to a form of political
protest such as Thomas Jefferson's criticism of the King of England. At a
hearing Tuesday, she also cited Mr. Hankey, an animated, talking piece of
human excrement depicted on "South Park," as evidence that it is commonplace
to use feces to express disdain.

"Etiquette and propriety aside, it is commonplace in today's society to
equate a distasteful or disliked person, situation or thing, to feces,"
Bangert said.

At the time of the incident last May, Musgrave's camp claimed the gesture
was a political dirty trick and demanded an apology from Musgrave's likely
Democratic opponent, state Rep. Angela Paccione of Fort Collins, who went on
to lose the election to the incumbent. Paccione's campaign denied any
involvement.

Ensz, 63, a retired French professor from the University of Northern
Colorado, is scheduled for trial in Weld County on May 15. Musgrave's
spokesman Aaron Johnson said, "Right now, this issue is between Ms. Ensz and
law enforcement officials."

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan18/0,4670,CongressDirtyTricks,00.html