The "Denver Three" are ready to strike back.

The trio of Denver, Colo., residents who were kicked out of one of President George W. Bush's public forums on Social Security in March kicked off their "Don't Privatize My Freedom" campaign last week to spread the word about efforts by the White House to stifle dissent at public events. Susan Mayer and Carol Shea-Porter, who were kicked out of a Bush event at Pease International Tradeport in February, are joining the "Denver Three" in their campaign.

"I'd like to support them any way I can to publicize what's going on around here," said Mayer. "People won't see it's any kind of danger unless they see it's a pattern."

The campaign started last Friday with a conference call led by Alex Young, Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise, who were removed from the president's Social Security town hall forum in Denver on March 21. Mayer, a writer for this paper, also participated in the conference call.

The three were removed by an unidentified staff member of the host committee because of a "No more blood for oil" bumper sticker on their car. Before entering the event, the three were approached by a man they believed to be a Secret Service agent, according to Young. The man told them they were "being watched" and, 20 minutes later, removed them from the event.

The Secret Service opened an investigation into the incident and confirmed the three were removed because of the bumper sticker; the Secret Service also verified that the man who removed the three was a White House host committee staffer and not an agent, Young said.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has repeatedly dodged questions about the identity of the staffer, according to Young.

"We want to understand why the White House is stonewalling every time they're asked a question about how staff members are trained," said Young. "When the same thing happens in four different states, it's not an isolated incident. It's policy."

In Portsmouth, Mayer and Shea-Porter were removed from the Bush event at Pease shortly after revealing their "Turn Your Back on Bush" T-shirts. During the forum, event staffers sat around Shea-Porter and Mayer, apparently trying to block the media's view of their shirts. When the program wrapped up, Mayer and Porter stood up and turned their backs so that departing Bush supporters could see their shirts. The two then tried to get within sight of the president, but were stopped by two security personnel who did not identify themselves. Mayer said she and Shea-Porter were "shoved out the door."

"I felt bullied and told the man throwing me out he was violating my free speech rights," Mayer said.

Similar incidents happened in North Dakota and Arizona. On Feb. 3, James Holm, a producer for the Ed Schultz Show, a progressive radio talk show in Fargo, found his name on a list of 42 people not allowed into a Bush event that day. The list had been leaked to the Fargo Forum. Holm said he had no intention of going to the event, but was shocked to see his name on the list.

"I feel like this story hasn't been covered by the national media as much as it should have been," he said during the conference call. "If someone like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh's producer was on a list and couldn't attend a John Kerry campaign event...it would have been a much bigger story."

The "Don't Privatize My Freedom" campaign's main goals is to "increase awareness of the White House's pattern of removing citizens from Social Security town hall forums based solely on their viewpoints," Bauer said. The three also want to learn the identity of the staffer who removed them and get answers on how staffers are trained.

The group launched a Web site, www.denverthree.org, and are planning town hall meetings in Washington, D.C., and the four cities where people were removed from Bush events. No dates for the meetings have been set, but Bauer said the group hopes to have a schedule ready sometime within the next month.

Mayer said there are no plans for any events in New Hampshire, but she thinks "a lot of people would just be delighted to support something like that."