Federal Prosecutors say the conviction of Matthew Hale on charges including trying to have a federal judge killed sends an important message. But don't they always? The "plot" to kill the federal judge in this case consisted of a recorded conversation with an FBI Informant which went something like this... FBI Shill: Are we gonna exterminate the rat? Hale: I'm going to fight within the law and, but, ... if you wish to, ah, do anything, yourself, you can. Uh, right. Emboldened by their latest success in pushing the envelope, the Feebs now plan to monitor so-called "Hate Sites" more closely, and warn that under the new standards, simply publishing someone's address could be considered a murder threat. Meanwhile, a man totally unconnected with the case is under 24 hour Feeb protection because he has the same name as the aforementioned FBI Shill, and someone posted his address on the Web by mistake. Murder plotting is easy. Comedy is hard. In other threat related news, a 15 year high school freshman in Washington was questioned by the Secret Circus after a portfolio of drawings he turned in featured an armed Middle Eastern man holding an oversized Shrub head on a stick. We can all thank God he didn't publish the President's address. So apparently, if someone asks me if I plan to kill the President, and I reply that I intend to conform my behavior to all the requirements of the law, but that I wouldn't cry uncontrollably if Shrub were dropped by parachute into a mob of screaming Iraqi women with cleavers, that's apparently good for a long prison sentence these days. I wonder how long it will be until Americans get their houses pushed over with bulldozers for criticizing the government. Probably at least until after the election. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"