I don't know if any of you good people have read about these two "incidents" on the web. They did not make much of an impression on the "media" here in the US. The second, which I'll get to in a moment, did not make it to the TV news at all.
I am referring to two recent items where in Gobomber was verbally threatened.
The first was made by the speaker of the House of Representatives in Kansas, a Mr. Mike O'Neal. He referred to Psalm 109.8 which goes: "Let his be few and brief; and let others step forward to replace him." That verse goes on in Psalm 109.9; "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." Now as this was made in reference to Gobomber, it sure appears to me that this guy is wanting Gobomber dead. How else does one wish for a mans' children to be fatherless and his wife a widow? The only way is for the man to be dead. I would think that any lawyer worth his/her law school diploma would be able to make a case of threatening the president. That is a crime folks.
Even with an apology, it was and is a crime to threaten the president. When will the FBI or some other law enforcement agency investigate this?
The second takes us to a publication; the Atlanta Jewish Times. The editor of that paper was writing about an attack on Iran and how the US appears to not be 100%
on board" with such a folly. He goes on to suggest possible methods to get the US to be fully with the zionist entity to attack Iran and take out its nuclear plants. His third "option" is as follows; "...give the go-head for U.S. based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel, in order for the current vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate the United States' policy includes helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies."
Wow! Now there you have it, in black and white on the pages of a newspaper published right here in the old US of A. A call for the assassination of the president of the United States. How much more unsubtle does one need to be? How much more direct can a person be?
Now, of course the ADL has come out against this article and has called it "irresponsible and extremist " It is all that and more. Very extremist in my view. How nice of the ADL to tell us all how such comments are irresponsible and extremist. As if we could not have figured that out for ourselves. Yes, that last was sarcastic. That is how I see it.
Such comments by these two people just point out the mean, nasty character of the country today. This may upset some people, but it remains true to an extent. Mush of the criticism of Gobomber has to do with his skin color. Yes, racism IS alive and well here in the USA.
None of this excuses such comments by anybody. That an editor of a small paper puts such vile comments in print is one thing, for an elected representative to say such comments out loud and on the record is quite another. Neither are in any way excusable though.
The editor, a Mr. Andrew Adler has resigned according to a according to an item at Talking Points Memos Livewire posted at 2:34PM today, 23 January 2012. How nice of him. Yes, there I go again, being sarcastic. Well, when a person, a US resident in both cases here, issues a threat to the president, I take the "apology" quite sarcastically/cynically. That is just my nature.
Mr. O'Neal has been given a petition signed by 30,000 citizens of Kansas asking that he resign from the state legislature. The petition drive was headed by two ministers from the Topeka, Kansas area. Thank you both and all who signed the petition. They made the following statement; "As people of faith, we believe that scripture should never be used to justify praying for the death of anyone. Speaker O'Neal's hateful abuse of scripture is unacceptable and a disgrace to his office, and he should immediately resign." Again, thank you both and all those who signed.
As many of you know, I do not belong to nor do I follow any religion. I do think that one should give credit where credit is due. In this case, to the ministers who started the petition and those who signed it.
Now onto another question. When will these tow men be investigated by the FBI or some other law enforcement agency? The Secret Service is supposed to protect the president. They should be getting an investigation going into both of them.
There ARE limits to our freedom of speech. Advocating the overthrow of the government is among those limitations. Threats on the life of the president is also unprotected speech, as it should be.
U.S. Code 2385 states: "Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets,advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States .....by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government;....
"Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both......" U.S. Code
The story of the newspaper editor has not been picked up by any TV station that I am aware of. As of now, Mr. O'Neal has yet to apologize. As I said above, Mr. Adler has given an apology and he has resigned from his position with the paper. One further comment on that, he owns the paper where his remark was published. So, he steps down as editor, he still owns the paper, how will he continue to influence that paper?
My personal view, which is what this blog has always been and will continue to be, is that Mr. Adler only made his apology because the ADL and AJC (American Jewish Congress) him out . Both groups have expressed their revulsion to what he wrote regarding Gobomber. So, these two groups get a "congrats" from me today. Again, give credit where it is due.
Again, we all need to ask, when will the FBI and/or the Secret Service investigate these tow people? Comments like these cannot be allowed to stand unpunished. Not is we are a nation of laws. There are recognized limits to our freedom of speech. These limits are known, have been known for years. There is no excuse nor is there any apology that will do here. Both of these people should be arrested and in court on charges for the threats they made.
Some may say, with reason it seems, that these people are a symptom of the racist attitude that still inhabits the US today. There is some truth to that, sad to say. Some of the anger at Gobomber IS due to his skin color. There are those among us who despise his presidency only because he has a beer tan that they have. In my opinion, these comments are in part due to the racism of the people who made them. Some people made comments to this effect about the "tea party" meetings where some who attended brought their guns in plain view to all assembled.
We have candidates running for their party nomination who express racist views. The calling of the president as the "food stamp president" comes to mind. Well, the facts are that more white people receive food stamps than black people get them. It brings to mind the garbage pulled by "saint" Ronnie of Raygun and his "welfare queens" who did not exist in any number.The American voters are bombard by false statements, rumors, and out right lies. And yet, many still buy into the crap. They are too busy or disconnected to not bother to check on the factual information that would prove they are being lied to.
It is the duty of all citizens to stay informed. We cannot ever sit back and let the media do that for us. If we fail to do that, we will end up with a government that cares not at all about "we the people" even more than is the case today. If you think things are bad now, just wait, they CAN get worse. We need to hold our elected officials to account. We need to challenge those running for office when they spout idiotic statements. We all enjoy the freedoms we have as citizens of the US, we need to take to heart, our responsibilities as citizens.
semper fi
