If someone reports it, they have to investigate it. Threatening the President (any President -- there were quite a number of whack jobs questioned or picked up by the Secret Service under Clinton and his predecessors as well), and certain other elected officials, is a criminal offense. And you never know which investigation will turn up something (imagine if John Hinckley had posted "Would Jodie Foster like me if I shot Reagan?" in his blog -- who would have taken that seriously before he did it?) So you really can't blame the Secret Service (and that blogger quite specifically didn't -- they said the investigators were polite and friendly, etc.)
However, you can definitely blame whoever it was that reported the post to the Secret Service -- that guy is a complete dick. If his identity is ever discovered (no doubt a far-right loon), then someone ought to watch his livejournal, and report anything remotely threatening that he might say next year should Kerry win...
Well, I would actually guess that as part of the increased intelligence-gathering the FBI et al have been engaged in since 9/11, they probably troll and/or use bots to sift through blogs and the like.
anniesj is fairly sure that it was someone with a personal grudge. The Secret Service did not reveal who it was, but did confirm that it was a specific tip from one of her (?) readers.
Yeah, I don't blame the Secret Service in this case either. More amazed that someone would be that much of jerk to report something obviously intended as a joke.
Well, I might as well out myself publicly. I think the current president and his cronies are a bunch of corrupt, jackbooted neofascists who would do damn near anything to hang onto power. They scare the hell out of me, and if there's any administration I've seen in my lifetime that I think would sacrifice the lives of their fellow Americans without a second thought just to stay in office (and I mean on home soil, not in overseas exploits), it's this one. Draping themselves in the robes of religiosity makes them no different or better than most other petty tyrants — but the resources at their command makes them much more dangerous. I'm most concerned about what crap the Bush camp is going to try with this election: I'm still waiting for them to pull something out of their ass to try to keep people away from the polls, or even worse. If we're lucky, Kerry's margin of victory might be so overwhelming that it doesn't come down to the Supreme Court to appoint a president again, but I'm not holding my breath.
Now that that's off my chest...
To be fair to the FBI and/or Secret Service, not having seen the text of the original post (since it's been removed) I cannot judge for certain whether the Secret Service overstepped their bounds or not. I do know that regardless of the administration, the Service is as a rule unwilling to risk the chance that someone making public "threats" against the President is joking. Given that the poster said she'd mentioned firearms, I'm not surprised the Men in Black paid a little visit to her home.
It's nothing new. Friend of a friend story. Sitting in a bar discussing someone they knew. A said to B "someone ought to put a bullet in that old man". At the same table, people were talking politics and the presidents name was mentioned clearly, several times. When A got home, the secret service was there, and wanted to talk to him about the threats he had made, thinking that the old man he was talking about was the president. Someone at the bar had overheard his words, and the presidents name and linked them.
It sucks, but lets not lay the blame on this president. It's been illegal to utter a threat against the president for a long time, and it sounds like the feds were polite and reasonable about investigating the complaint and treating it as it needed to be treated.
I am not sure if they did it down there but here is pasted flyers all over the city that stated I want to kill the President was illegal. I am surprised more people do not know about this or worse chose to disregard it. Frightening indeed. Although with the advent of the Patriot Act it is happening to a lot more people.
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Who knew how close to on the nail Orwell would hit it all.
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However, you can definitely blame whoever it was that reported the post to the Secret Service -- that guy is a complete dick. If his identity is ever discovered (no doubt a far-right loon), then someone ought to watch his livejournal, and report anything remotely threatening that he might say next year should Kerry win...
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I believe that it does...
As to whether it extends any further in the executive branch, or to the legislative or judicial branches I've no idea.
Re: I believe that it does...
Dubya can eat my shorts
Now that that's off my chest...
To be fair to the FBI and/or Secret Service, not having seen the text of the original post (since it's been removed) I cannot judge for certain whether the Secret Service overstepped their bounds or not. I do know that regardless of the administration, the Service is as a rule unwilling to risk the chance that someone making public "threats" against the President is joking. Given that the poster said she'd mentioned firearms, I'm not surprised the Men in Black paid a little visit to her home.
Re: Dubya can eat my shorts
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It sucks, but lets not lay the blame on this president. It's been illegal to utter a threat against the president for a long time, and it sounds like the feds were polite and reasonable about investigating the complaint and treating it as it needed to be treated.
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