Er…my entire post was based upon two things, the fact that someone actually reported this, and the fact that it was taken so seriously that the person now has a permanant record. Although that may have being difficult to see with all the cursing.
I agree with Hiryuu. However…
<b>BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY</b>, I don’t think anybody is considering the fact that the Secret Service didn’t tap into her computer or anything to get the message. I read the very next message she posted, and it explicitely says that another LJ member “turned her in”. And satire is satire, but if political cartoons started popping up where the president was getting decapitated, or people started organizing marches in Washington announcing that Dubya should be killed, the line has been crossed. That’s where the difference is. Making jokes about killing people, even if they’re just jokes, has no place in decent society. I mean, I really, really dislike Michael Moore, but I would never go on the internet spouting off that he should be killed or harmed (physically OR emotionally), because like him or hate him, he’s a human being and has the right to be treated as such (and given the same amount of respect as any other person). But I’m getting off on a tangent. But yeah, if the story is true, it’s still a major over-reaction, and the other LJ user had no business reporting her (she’s just some random LJ user, after all), but the Secret Service does have to take perceived threats seriously, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing their job.
But the most important thing, and I want to repeat it, is that this “incident” didn’t occur because of some Governmental spying (if it occurred at all). It happened because of some snitch. And snitches have plagued mankind for all time, not just the era of the Patriot Act (I’m looking at you, Benedict Arnold!).
But I’m sure none of you care about all that, and just want to use this as another opportunity to insult Bush/Republicans/America.
You tend to make up imaginary targets or put words into other people’s mouths. Who are you arguing against? Nobody stated that the secret service tapped into her phone or computer to find the information. As much as it <i>is</i> the secret service’s job, investigating solely on the basis of a “harshly insulting” LJ entry is ridiculous. You’d think they’d have better things to do.
Those are my two cents (I had a more eloquent response written up before my fucking computer restarted, erasing my previous response). But I do admit it’s almost kind of funny in a perverse way watching everybody over-react all the time like America is under martial law after little or no provocation. And I’m planning on voting for Kerry, but the more I listen to his supporters, the more I DON’T want to vote for him. I now have no real problems with Kerry himself (UNLIKE most of his supporters, ironically), but most of the other people I’ve run into that are planning on voting for Kerry are extremely abrasive, and I do have a problem with that.
That certainly is a problem. No good can come out of a such a polarized nation at this time. However, Bush supporters act just as badly, so, if you want to condemn someone, condemn the “loyal” supporters of both.
True, all kinds of people seem to be going overboard, especially with the elections closing in. And as for that matter, I think it’s repugnant how each side spends most of its time attacking the other’s candidates. On top of that, certain groups seem to be going around the legal limits for air time by making their own ads that are clearly biased towards one of the sides.
Politics are not pretty. I think Hiryuu is right about the Secret Service having to do their job, but since they realized that this person was no real threat and meant no real harm, the permanent file thing was very unnecessary.
this type of thing happened a couple yearts ago to steve jackson games (the makers of the gurps (generic universal role playing system) they were in the process of compiling a cyberpunk manual and the fbi and secret service came in with a search warrant and confiscated all the computers and such as evidence…
“Nobody EVER suspects The Spanish Inquisition!”
Just thought the situation called for it 
Thank you Hiryuu, for enlightening me.
But Lanyx failed to mention the Internet(Directly) in his post, so I may have assumed he was talking about real life.
And I already knew about snitches, but thanks for reminding me…Snitches are bitches who get thrown in ditches and left for dead because they can’t do anything good for themselves or their community.
Getting snitched on is not fun. And it has happened to me more than once. I moved to Colorado to get away from that. Seemed like every year in Ohio, someone was name dropping me for some reason. and I left to avoid getting name dropped again. Fortunately, it never got farther than being questioned. I just said “Sorry, don’t know what you’re talking about,” over and over again until the detectives left me alone.
Most recent situation. My ex-roomie’s ex girlfriend steals money from me(and roomie), fails a drug test while on probation, and drops mine and my ex-roomie’s (and probably many other)names to the cops(over absolutely preposterous charges) to get her thirty-six month prison sentence dropped to 90 days in the county.
But I’m glad I’m not alone about my position on snitches. Thanks again, Hiryuu, for reminding me of how bad snitches are. My paranoia gets the best of me sometimes when I talk politics. Which leads me to make statements based on conspiracy theory instead of fact. And then I realize that Snitches, rather than bad government is to blame for problems as well. Also most snitches are shifty criminals anyway. And will sell you out so they can get ahead of you.
And my final say is.
If you’ve got the cajones to commit the crime, you better be prepared to suffer the consequences. Because if you snitch, you not only ruin your reputation, but you mess up someone else’s life as well. And if the other person that the cops try to get you to namedrop is a hardened criminal, still take the “I don’t know what you’re talking about” approach, because Karma, or street justice will catch them before long.
Seems like a weak hope, to believe in the all-pervading powers of “karma” to catch a criminal.
The entire problem with the “Patriot Act,” though, and with all similar government measures, is that they allow “snitches” to have a much bigger influence than they would otherwise have. The repression of specific individuals is rarely expressly approved by the people who run the government; rather, it is perpetrated at low levels by every asshole who wants to act on a grudge or to feel important. Of course, the assholes have a lot of blame to bear for that. The government measures, and their architects in the government, however, still bear the ultimate fault, because they create an environment in which individuals can be repressed in the first place, by reducing the safeguards that society has against such cases. In our society, the safeguards are the assumption of innocence until proof of guilt can be found, the requirement of “probable cause” before someone can be searched, the right to a fair trial, and so forth. The “Patriot Act” infringes on all of these, thereby making the system much more vulnerable to abuse from “snitches.”
Most people were stating that they were afraid of typing anything on the internet because the government is spying on them due to the Patriot Act, and other such stuff (A good number of the posts previous to mine seemed to be under the impression that some sort of spying was taking place, or sounded like that, anyway). I wasn’t targetting anybody, or putting words in their mouths, I was just reminding them that there was no spy-job, and that it was just some asshole on the internet being a prick and turning somebody in.
I agree. The difference, and this is just for me, is that I don’t have to deal with the abrasive Bush supporters in my day-to-day life. There aren’t any here (since there are no Bush supporters of any kind), and most of the people around my college are liberals too. The conservatives I do know (a few close friends) are very intelligent and respect both sides of the issue, and therefore are not abrasive. They don’t go around over-reacting and saying that Kerry is the anti-Christ or anything, for example. They say what they like and dislike about each candidate, and respectfully make a decision based on that. Of course, I am VERY aware of the existence abrasive Bush supporters. If I spent all my time in an NRA chatroom or something, I guarantee that I would be more pissed off by annoying conservatives than annoying liberals. But since the only politically annoying people I interact with are liberals, of course I’m going to be more pissed off at them, and be more apt to condemn them, based on personal experience alone.
My EXACT thought.
Uhm, offhand, I wouldn’t blame the FBI and Secret Service for this, as I believe they are required by law to investigate such claims. But it would make sense that if they really percieved her as a threat, they wouldn’t have gone to the front door.
I’d blame the wanker.