I’d have to see what was in your LJ before I can assess whether anyone was overreacting. Your recollection of what you said is helpful but people tend to whitewash their behavior in retrospect.
Before Homeland Security came into being, you might have been investigated by the Secret Service. Vent all you want but stay clear of violent imagery if you’d prefer not to be visited by the authorities.
How does that make me look bad, honestly? That’s venting. I have said that before, in fact, I did say something very similar to that on the day of, after the event, in person to people, while venting. I was very angry that I was that close to her and didn’t have a chance to tell her what a shitty excuse for a human being she is.
Threatening people with violence is a lot different from venting your anger so you don’t do something violent, IMO.
~Tasha
So wait. You’re saying that in order to lead a normal life, I ought to just censor myself and deny myself my first amendment rights to freedom of speech? How is that acceptable?
I am totally willing to take responsibility for my actions, except that in this case I didn’t actually do anything. I’m tired of hyperparanoid governmental figures, and I’m tired of people excusing their actions in the name of safety. You know?
But all in all, the guys were generally very nice and polite. They didn’t threaten me, they just told me policy. And the whole thing amused me so much, because they talked to my dad before me, and honestly, HE’S the conspiracy theorist, he’s probably a much greater threat than I am.
~Tasha
Nah, she’s ok. A friend of mine chased Hillary down the street when she and the then Governor were jogging to report some maleficence at a day care where she worked.
One wonders if some program parsed the blog, saw the word “gun” and reported, or if someone in HS/SS gets paid to read the damn things. 
I think it’s a little of both. A program tags things and then later someone reads through them.
Also, I’m really surprised that they came after me for this; I’ve actually said, in chat, on my blogs, and over the phone, much worse. And I didn’t really mean it then, either.
~Tasha
Oh, I don’t know, something about a gun and how she would get shot because she’s a minority. Except not that minority part, maybe.
I’m suprised you have not received a visit from the folks down at Homeland Ambiguity.
:rolleyes: You try remembering everything you’ve ever said in anger. Like I said, I don’t even have the livejournal account anymore, and it was three plus months ago.
~Tasha
I can’t believe I’m delurking for this, but… you aren’t hard to track down, if http://yesterdaylaughs.livejournal.com/ is yours, there is a big difference between implying Hilary might be at risk from random people if she’s elected, and actually saying on Feb 21st “Bitch is lucky I don’t own a gun.” I’m on the fence these days about how seriously statements like that should be taken - investigate and have people upset about freedom of speech, or don’t investigate and have people asking “why didn’t you investigate?” if someone does snap. Regardless, although it’s just venting to you, I can see the reasoning behind asking “okay, so what if you DID have a gun?”
Oh, come on! I’m not sure how I feel about the whole Homeland Security visit, but calling LiveJournal a diary is useless hyperbole.
It probably took three months for them to get to you simply because they could tell the difference. By their job, they’re obligated to check anyone who both makes a threat, particularly if that person could potentially be in near proximity to The Hillary.
I doubt that they were really worried about you. Just, what else are you going to do when your whole job is to investigate potential wackos except to proceed to do so? If that doesn’t fill eight hours a day, you’re going to have to start shifting low priority checks to the top of the pile.
Man, it’s exactly what Lemur866 thought it was.
Yeah, it still oogs me out, but I can see why they paid you a visit.
You don’t have a first amendment right to threaten people with violence. Threatening people with violence is actually a crime, and people can and do go to jail for it every day.
I know, I know, your website didn’t quite cross the line into threatening Hillary Clinton with violence. And you weren’t charged with a crime, you just got a stern talking to by two security guys who realized after they met you that you were just a parlor pink spouting off, not a dangerous nut.
But you still can’t threaten people with violence, even if they’re really evil people like Hillary Clinton. As for whether you could be arrested just for wanting to kill Hillary Clinton, well, it would depend. But if you posted on your website that you wanted to kill Hillary Clinton, and the cops thought you were serious, you bet your ass they could arrest you. It’s not a crime to wish that someone were dead, but it can be a crime to say or write that you want to kill them, or want others to kill them.
If you wanted to kill Hillary Clinton but kept it to yourself and didn’t take any affirmative steps to advance the murder (like buying a gun, figuring out her schedule, and so forth), then you haven’t committed a crime. But attempted murder is more than just pulling the trigger but missing. Simply planning to commit murder is a crime. As it should be. There is no first amendment issue involved.
You can go on and on about how you hate Hillary Clinton, how she had Vince Foster murdered, and so forth. But maybe you can see that there’s a fine line between predicting someone would get shot, and advocating that someone should get shot. Threatening people sometimes try to create plausible deniability. Yeah, it makes no sense for someone who really wanted to murder Hillary Clinton to post about it on LiveJournal. But surely you can see that someone who really planned on murdering Hillary Clinton probably is fucking nuts in the first place, and so probably doesn’t have the smoothest murder plan down. To the extent that such crimes are prevented they are prevented because the criminals are stupid and crazy, and stupidity and craziness tends to interfere with their master criminal plans.
So those homeland security guys visited you to see if you’re really a psycho, and to let you know that if they ever find out you really do plan to kill Hillary Clinton then you’ll be in big, big trouble.
Nice edit, Tashabot
Was the entry changed? Because I don’t see that.
Uh, that’s not the livejournal they were talking about. I’m pretty sure they’d have flipped over that comment ( edited now that you reminded me about it - thanks :o ). I don’t use that one anymore either, except to read my friends’ stuff, but it’s not a deleted account, which is the one they were talking about. They parroted off the URL and I was like :dubious: cuz I hadn’t used the journal since the end of February, and deleted it mid-March. It was my rarely used ranting journal. The contents were public, but I didn’t tell anyone about it because it was, you know, where I’d bitch and whine about stuff and people.
If you can find THAT journal I’d be impressed, because like I said - it doesn’t EXIST anymore.
~Tasha
Indeed…that blog entry looks rather short now…
Pulled from the Google cache:
:eek:
Thanks. Haha. I forgot about that entry, honest. That was also the day I got married so things were a little disjointed for me.
~Tasha
Original version is in post 36.
Incredibly lame.