Lowering the Bar for Threats

[Eric Cordian]

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"