Yep, it was, but I see on preview tashabot already addressed that. My apologies for misunderstanding the livejournal account reference and ending up with a different quote regarding the Hilary incident.
The entry said before
ETA removed second part due to superfluity given Tasha’s post above.
I would completely agree. I would certainly assume I was being threatened if someone used such terminology in regard to me. A chat with the authorities seems warrented to me if the mysterious deleted blog had similar language.
Announcing in public that you were two feet away from a high ranking public official, calling them a bitch and stating they are lucky you didn’t have a gun is not the smartest course of action.
Who goes on Livejournal to rant about Hillary on their wedding day?
Why do you hate America?
You want to stick around, send me a PM and I’ll pay the $14.95 to register you.
Because I had to work covering an event with her that day. It was a lousy day to get married, but hey, he picked it. I couldn’t even take the day off - NO ONE was allowed, due to the event, no exceptions except for medical emergency. At least they let me go when the event was over at like 3.
It was a Wednesday and we got married at night. It was freezing and I’ve never quite forgiven him for choosing that day, but we’ll work around it, I guess. Haha.
~Tasha
My brother was once detained for several hours for questioning at an airport after he made some remarks about a bomb. My brother was an incorrigible jokester, and somehow it had not occurred to him that bomb jokes are taken very, very seriously by airport personnel. He missed his plane, had a really rotten afternoon, and never to his dying day would he admit that he’d done anything unwise by making a joke about a bomb.
The airport security folks didn’t know my brother. They didn’t know that he had a wacky, dark sense of humor. They didn’t know that he was a peaceful soul who caught insects and mice indoors and transported them outside instead of killing them. All they knew of him was that several people (including a ticket agent) had heard him say some things that implied that there was a bomb on a certain plane, and that everyone on the plane was doomed.
Being interviewed by Homeland Security was, no doubt, an uncomfortable experience for you. But surely anyone can see why they conducted an investigation, if the quote was as reported above. You were just blowing off steam and making flippant remarks, but how could anyone know that for certain without talking to you?
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The “mysterious deleted blog” didn’t have similar language, but as I stated before, I could definitely understand why someone might have been alarmed by it. I stated that she would be shot within hours of taking her oath. What I didn’t state is that I wouldn’t be doing it; I just thought she would because she’s a woman. I think the same thing’ll happen if Obama gets in, because we have some screwed up people in this country.
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I can call anyone a bitch I want to. I’ll admit that had the HS guys seen the gun quote from there I’d probably have gotten a lot more of a stern talking to (in that post I was jittery about the wedding, more than anything, but obviously you can’t tell that) and it probably wasn’t smart, but I’ll be damned if anyone can tell me I can’t insult politicians. I’ll take my punishment on that one, be it a slander lawsuit or a bitch-slap, but sending HS guys to talk to me wouldn’t be the appropriate course of action for just calling her a bitch.
The point of all of this is, yes, I said something stupid on my main blog, which isn’t the one they were talking about. They took something that was meant one way another way, which happens often enough. Like I said, I don’t mind the investigation, as they’re doing their job; it just bothers me that I, a relative nonentity and nonthreat, is being perceived as such for a comment that I didn’t put any thought behind. I do have that internal censorship button, but that button doesn’t apply to my blog or conversations between my friends and I. It very much disturbs me that now it has to, or I’m going to get into trouble.
~Tasha
Shout out to my homies at Ho-Sec! Boo-yah! This one’s for you:
Gun gun bird Bush kill two hand poker front liquor rear Bush kill Cheney die die die dye Hilary’s hair Obama Osama Lama Allah kill the Miami vice president kill the vice president’s hamster election Dokken Poison gas subway sandwich Laundry Bin Laden cherry bomb bomber bombalombadingdong bombastic plastic explosives fuck the police Rock and Roll forever! Hail Satan!
See you soon!
It could be a drag for your career aspirations, too. Journalists have to have pretty clean backgrounds if they’re going to be allowed access to famous and powerful people.
Not long after 9/11, just when the flights were starting back up again, there was a stupid stupid British couple who made a “jokey” reference to a bomb as they were boarding a flight home from Florida. They were kept in custody for a few days with the prospect of being prosecuted for something or other, and although their family tried to make a fuss about it, I don’t think anyone was terribly sympathetic. They were sent back eventually, much chastened.
Years ago, when Fark was young, someone posted a direct threat to kill President Bush - I can’t remember the exact wording - and Drew (the owner of Fark) was visited by the Secret Service and the poster subsequently spent several very uncomfortable hours in their tender care. Isn’t threatening the President’s life some sort of exception to the US free speech amendment?
If you plan to be a respected, credible journalist – to some extent, yes. If any of the Dope are readers wherever you happen to be working, do you think that any one of us who read your story about Hillary’s presidential run are going to think that you’re being objective in it?
Not a chance.
Well, here you go and say that we’ve got a fucked up country that’s positively overflowing with nuts who would take a shot at Hillary or Obama just because they aren’t white men. And then you freak out because security people investigated you because they thought you might be one of those nuts. So which is it? If the possibility of violence against Hillary is real how can you complain when people investigate threats of violence against Hillary?
It isn’t censorship to refrain from telling people Hillary was lucky you didn’t have a gun when she was two feet away from you. It’s a fucking threat of violence. Is it a credible threat? Knowing that you’re an internet blowhard, probably not. But come on.
And it isn’t slander or a crime to call Hillary Clinton a bitch. She is a bitch. Call her a bitch all you like. Look up “bitch” in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Hillary. And SO WHAT? Haven’t you got this through your head that this wasn’t about calling Hillary a bitch? Can you honestly not understand this? Can’t you get past your self-righteousness and admit that while you didn’t really want to kill Hillary Clinton, posting: “I’m still nervous, but I’m totally calmed down with hatred. lol. I was just about two feet away from Hillary Clinton. Bitch is lucky I don’t own a gun. Grrrr, I hate her.” on a public website is gonna put you on a list of Nuts Who Should Be Watched? Pretending you got on that list for calling Hillary a bitch is pretty disingenous.
I hate to Google too deep, don’t want to be visited myself so my citemight be a bit lacking.
Thanks Lemur, I was trying to come up with a reply to that comment. You put it quite well.
It sure is–if you substitute “anyone’s life” for “the President’s life”. It’s against the law to threaten the President’s life. It’s against the law to threaten a Senator’s life. It’s against the law to threaten a cop’s life. It’s against the law to threaten a homeless bum’s life.
What, you’re under the impression “entities” are the ones who assassinate people or commit acts of terror? How many assassins had you heard of before they assasinated someone? And how are the Feds to gauge you’re a “non-threat”? Seeing as how free you are to post things like “I was two feet away from Hilary . . . bitch is lucky I don’t own a gun,” what, are they supposed to be so incredibly stupid that they don’t draw an inference between your proximity to her, the mention of a gun, and an implied threat?
But wait! It wasn’t that comment, in that LiveJournal – despite being the correct date, correct subject, and correct forum – it was a totally different journal, where you said something completely different, and much more innocent. Right.
Your blog and your conversations between your friends are two very different things. NOTHING you post on the internet is truly private. You should have NO expectation of privacy in ANYTHING you post in cyberspace. If you’ve been posting away in the belief the Web is a private forum, then a visit from Homeland Security was a timely, if sharp, example of just how wrong you are. So, yes, now you have to “censor yourself” on the web. You should have been doing it then.
You posted in a public forum – two of 'em, apparently – readable by any Tom, Dick or G-man, “I was two feet away from Hilary Clinton . . . bitch is lucky I don’t own a gun,” and you are shocked, shocked that you got a visit from Homeland Security?
Sounds like Lemur has it exactly right. And sounds like Homeland Security was pretty on the ball, IMO.
Thanks, and please vote for Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey in '08. 
Wait. I always get confused about this one. Are the cops supposed to wait until the crackpot kills someone before they investigate, so that the whole country can play the blame game about who’s responsible for not babysitting the nutjob, or are the cops supposed to investigate potential threats before there’s a killin’ and try and find the nutjobs before they go off the deep end?
Oh, I can never remember how it’s supposed to work.