People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas, Arch-Conservative Icon Grover Norquist Find Common Ground

People For the American Way president Ralph G. Neas will appear alongside arch-conservative icon and frequent opponent Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform in a panel entitled “Strange Bedfellows: Left Meets Right to Defend the Bill of Rights” on Sunday, October 19 beginning at 11:45 a.m. and ending at 1:15 p.m.

Other panel participants include James X. Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology and David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. The panel, moderated by actor Alec Baldwin, will discuss their shared concern about the state of civil liberties in post September 11 America.

The panel is part of the first national conference of Grassroots America Defends the Bill of Rights. The conference will be attended by conservative and liberal grassroots activists from around the country as well as representatives from national organizations representing the entire political spectrum.

“Grover Norquist and I agree on very little. However, we both believe that the Bill of Rights is endangered by the excesses of the USA Patriot Act and other Department of Justice initiatives post 9/11. We will seize this opportunity and demonstrate that people from across the ideological spectrum agree that the rights of innocent people are at risk from unnecessary and unwarranted invasions of privacy and loss of basic constitutional rights.”

WHAT: “Strange Bedfellows: Left Meets Right to Defend the Bill of Rights”

WHEN: Sunday, October 19 from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.

WHERE: Hilton Silver Spring Hotel, 8727 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910

WHO:

Ralph G. Neas
President, People For the American Way

Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform

James X. Dempsey
Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Technology

David Keene
Chairman, American Conservative Union

Alec Baldwin
Moderator