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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: tejek who wrote (521498)10/18/2009 1:21:45 PM
From: i-node  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1583682
 
>> There was a report in August that threats against the president have increased 400% since the Bush era

Not saying there is NO truth to it -- but this comment originated from Kessler's "tell-all" book, essentially a gossip column in hardback. Very little credibility.

While one would certainly expect that the first black president would face a higher threat from left and right-wing racist organizations, there is not any real evidence available this is responsible for a substantial portion of the problem.

The likely cause of this increase, if true, is the President's drive toward extremism. These people need to calm down and recognize that he'll be out of office in three short years.



To: tejek who wrote (521498)10/19/2009 7:35:50 AM
From: Brumar89  Respond to of 1583682
 
The Left is Shocked! Shocked! by Facebook Assassination Poll

However, their outrage is nuanced and sophisticated.

Posted by Vladimir (Profile)

Friday, October 16th at 5:05PM EDT

17 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday night/Monday morning, a poll at the social networking site Facebook asked the question: “Should Obama Be Killed?” Here’s a screenshot:

As soon as the objectionable poll was noticed, the site’s management pulled it down. (Actually, they disabled the poll application. DailyKos poster Vann has a diary up at that site; seems he was the app’s developer.) The Secret Service quickly determined that the perpetrator was a kid of unspecified name & age: “There was no intent on the part of this juvenile,” FBI Agent Ed Donovan said. “We’re just characterizing it as a mistake.”

Now, take another look at the screenshot.

Right away, there are two obvious red flags to tell anyone with an IQ above room temperature that the poll’s author was either a kid or a moby: 1) the lack of capital letters, and 2) the poll option “if he cuts my health care”.

Please.

Room temperature IQ not being a registration requirement at the Huffington Post, the Facebook Obama Assassination Poll, and its fantasized connection to “right-wingers” and “the GOP” had HuffPo commenters’ collective panties in a wad for several days.

“Kill Obama” Facebook Poll Investigated By Secret Service

Obama Facebook Poll: “Should Obama Be Killed?” Pulled From Site, Secret Service Investigate - UPDATED (PHOTOS)

GOP Must Disavow the Nut Jobs

Meanwhile, over at DailyKos, one commenter observed: “Can you imagine what would have happened if there had been a FB poll like this about Bush? It would have been taken down in a nanosecond, and the poster would have received a special ‘visit’ from the FBI.”

Can we imagine? Well, as a matter of fact, “Yes, We Can!”

For starters, there are at least three of them.
Technically, not Facebook polls which allow the author and the voters near total anonymity, but Facebook group pages, where identities are on display for the world to see:

Let’s take a closer look, shall we? The first charming and witty page, titled “We all Want To Kill George Bush” is in the category “Just for Fun - Fan Clubs”.

Discussion topics range from the direct “i want to kill the president of the united states of america”, dated January 2008, to the thoughtful “If Saddam gets hung for war crimes… Then Hang George! Who’s wit me?”, last post dated August 2007. Mr. Bush was a sitting President then, by the way.

Mr. Amir Sousi (arabian_legend@hotmail.com) is the Administrator of the page, which has attracted 428 other nitwits to be members. Mr. Sousi apparently graduated from a St. Francis Xavier High School in 2007.

By contrast, the FB group “Who wants to kill bush!!!!!” has only 15 members, but it falls into the category “Community Organizations”. Presumably, its Admin, a Mr. Martin Alexander, can claim to be a “Community Organizer!” His educational affiliations (Oak Park and River Forest HS ‘06 and Lewis ‘10) suggest a Chicago background, so who knows, Martin, the sky’s the limit for your political career!

Lastly we have the droll and urbane “LETS KILL BUSH WITH SHOES”, which implores its members thusly:

JUST UPLOAD EVERY PICTURE OF YOUR BEST SHOES…TO SHOW THAT ITLL BE THE SHOES THAT ULL USE TO KILL BUSH

Gee, do you think it would be expecting too much, uh, consistency, for Facebook to pull these pages? Are you afraid the ACLU will invoke the First Amendment? How about the Secret Service pretending to care?

H/t Jeff Emanuel

redstate.com