A modified win for free speech: a couple arrested and handcuffed at a Bush rally in Texas because of the political content of their t-shirts just settled with the government for a cool $80,000, according to the ACLU.

Nicole and Jeffery Rank were busted for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts to a rally in Corpus Christi on the Fourth of July, 2004. No joke: they were arrested on Independence Day for wearing shirts critical of the President.

The offending slogans? “Love America, Hate Bush,” “Regime Change Starts at Home,” and the ever-popular “No Bush,” utilizing the international symbol secretly introduced by the French to compromise our freedoms.

Pretty slick, eh? Bush and his increasingly thuggish handlers get an object lesson in the Bill of Rights. And it only cost 80K of your taxpayer dollars, in addition to the tens of thousands expended occupying government lawyers, to drive it home.

That’s what VDB calls joybuzzer justice.