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Amid raucous protests on health care, some worry about Obama

nonothing

Well-known member
By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press





WASHINGTON - Death threats are part of the job for any American president, but Barack Obama has reportedly had more levelled against him than any commander-in-chief in history.


Concerns about his safety are mounting in the midst of a tense summer that has seen mobs of angry demonstrators showing up to protest Obama's health-care reform plans - including a man openly carrying a pistol on Tuesday in New Hampshire, where the president held a town hall meeting on health care.


It's legal to carry holstered weapons in the state, so long as they're not concealed. The man was also waving a sign that read "It Is Time To Water The Tree of Liberty," a reference to the Thomas Jefferson quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."


Footage of the protester with his gun in a leg holster rapidly made its way to various news websites in the hours before Obama appeared, alarming video in a country that has seen four presidents gunned down in public and attempts made on the lives of 11 others.


"There is, and rightly so, a growing concern about the tone in American politics right now," Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said Tuesday.


"It started with Sarah Palin and the way the crowds responded to her last year, and continued with the tea party gatherings and now the town hall meetings on health care - there is an arc of rhetorical excess that I think is rightly worrying to people."


A new book, "In The President's Secret Service," says Obama receives as many as 30 death threats a day, 400 per cent more than those made against his predecessor, George W. Bush.


Its author, Ronald Kessler, has sent shockwaves through Washington with his allegations that the cash-strapped Secret Service is cutting corners, leaving the first African-American president in U.S. history particularly vulnerable.


"There's no question his life is in danger," Kessler, a veteran investigative journalist, said in a recent television interview. "Tomorrow, Obama could be assassinated ... simply because the Secret Service was not doing what it used to do."


The Secret Service has vehemently denied those allegations, but images of the armed New Hampshire protester amid suggestions Obama isn't being adequately protected are unsettling to many Americans.


"It's a matter of time until someone is shot. And if it's Obama, the country is going to explode in violence," wrote a commenter on the Washington Post's website on Tuesday.


Even Congress representatives have faced death threats this summer over health-care reform.


A Democratic lawmaker from Washington state received a faxed death threat a day after he described enraged town hall demonstrators as "a lynch mob." Representative Brian Baird says he's also received threatening phone calls, and was forced to cancel the rest of the town halls he'd scheduled.


The likeness of a Maryland congressman was hanged in effigy at a recent town hall, and protesters carried the fake tombstone of another Texas politician at a similar event.


Jillson says top Republicans are stoking some of the anger by making statements about Obama's health-care reform plans that are "demonstrably untrue."He pointed to Sarah Palin's recent Facebook message that alleged White House "death squads" would endanger the life of her disabled infant son.


"Any time you whip up people's emotions in a political setting, the result of that is uncertain and uncontrollable," he said.

"The Republican party is on a knife's edge here - they have certainly bloodied the Democrats politically on health-care reform, but they risk going too far."

But one former Republican aide says death threats are always part of the political landscape in the U.S., adding Americans shouldn't be overly concerned right now.

Stephen Hess of the Washington-based Brookings Institution once monitored the mail of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961, shortly after the president left office.

"Here is a man who is a retired two-term president, revered, a five-star general in the last just war, and he's getting dozens of dozens of death threats," Hess recalled with a laugh.

"We're a large country in which there's a certain percentage of nuts, often sick people. I don't think these threats have to do with the times in any special way. Most of these people frankly are just crazy, and they've always been around."

If anything, Hess said, the advent of information technology - e-mail, in particular - means threats are much easier to make now, and the mentally unhinged can level more of them despite having little chance of ever carrying them out.

"It's anonymous and it's instant," Hess said
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
"Any time you whip up people's emotions in a political setting, the result of that is uncertain and uncontrollable," he said.

Who's whipping up emotions and why?

If questions/concerns were answered, would there be as much emotion?

Is falsely labeling people "Racist, Rightwingernut, Un-American etc", without facing their concerns head on, whipping up emotions?

Is being beat down by SEIU thugs, whipping up emotions?

Does planting questions in the Townhalls that meet the administration's agenda, whipping up emotion?



It's a powder keg, as I've mentioned before, and this administration is doing nothing to alleviate the anger.
 

Tam

Well-known member
hypocritexposer said:
"Any time you whip up people's emotions in a political setting, the result of that is uncertain and uncontrollable," he said.

Who's whipping up emotions and why?

If questions/concerns were answered, would there be as much emotion?

Is falsely labeling people "Racist, Rightwingernut, Un-American etc", without facing their concerns head on, whipping up emotions?

Is being beat down by SEIU thugs, whipping up emotions?

Does planting questions in the Townhalls that meet the administration's agenda, whipping up emotion?



It's a powder keg, as I've mentioned before, and this administration is doing nothing to alleviate the anger.

ALLEVIATING anger they are feeding it with their complete and utter denial that a MAJORITY of US citizens are getting tired of being lied to. Even some of those that voted for Change don't want what Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the Dems have in mind and that is showing up at town hall meetings and tea parties. Until the Dems stop the spending and start listening to the meeting goes there is going to be tension. I just hope Obama is man enough to recognize the risks and stop the damage. I fear he is not and I fear even more that somehow this is part of his agenda. Destroy the US as it is and rebuilt it under marshall law into what he wants it to be. :???:
 

Broke Cowboy

Well-known member
Canadian Press - likely a nice left leaning - strong anti gun Canadian bred and born lady - never been out of sight of lights and her personal comfort zone.

Bottom line - if the guy was legal - it was and is not a problem.

However she did manage to sell some copy and at the same time - in my opinion - she also managed to show her bias.

I wonder what happened to "reporting" and not providing opinion?

BC
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
nonothing said:
By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press

A new book, "In The President's Secret Service," says Obama receives as many as 30 death threats a day, 400 per cent more than those made against his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Man are they fast, they can come up with them kind of statistics write them into the book then have the book published and printed all within what a couple months of Obama being in office?

I smell fiction! :roll:
 

Lonecowboy

Well-known member
ALLEVIATING anger they are feeding it with their complete and utter denial that a MAJORITY of US citizens are getting tired of being lied to. Even some of those that voted for Change don't want what Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the Dems have in mind and that is showing up at town hall meetings and tea parties. Until the Dems stop the spending and start listening to the meeting goes there is going to be tension. I just hope Obama is man enough to recognize the risks and stop the damage. I fear he is not and I fear even more that somehow this is part of his agenda. Destroy the US as it is and rebuilt it under marshall law into what he wants it to be

Never fear Tam- the founding fathers had the answer:

Since the Constitution is the limiting document upon the government, the government cannot become greater than the granting power, that is the servant cannot become greater than his master. Therefore, should the Chief Executive or other branch of government, or all branches together act to suspend the Constitution under a rule of martial law, all power granted to government would be canceled and defer back to the granting power, the people. Martial law shall not be possible in this country as long as the people recognize the Bill of Rights as inalienable. The present actions of this country's government have been to convince Americans that the Bill of Rights controls the people. The Bill of Rights has nothing to do with control of the people, nor control of the government established by the people. The Bill of Rights stands as immutable and unaffected by any change determined upon the Constitution by government.

http://www.iahushua.com:80/T-L-J/Militia.html
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Since the Constitution is the limiting document upon the government

It seems more and more are understanding the purpose of the Constitution.

That's why the Government does not respect the Constitution, it limits them, while granting freedom to the people.

It's about control.

and if a person cannot answer the question, Do you respect the Constitution?, with a YES, then you can assume that they value Government control more than they do their individual freedoms. IMO
 

MsSage

Well-known member
Martial law shall not be possible in this country as long as the people recognize the Bill of Rights as inalienable.
What happens when some are willing to hand over those rights for perceived safety and " for the good of all"
Willing to demonize the people keeping their rights and saying they will not hand over their rights.
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
MsSage said:
Martial law shall not be possible in this country as long as the people recognize the Bill of Rights as inalienable.
What happens when some are willing to hand over those rights for perceived safety and " for the good of all"
Willing to demonize the people keeping their rights and saying they will not hand over their rights.

You really don't want to know what happens! Lets just hope we never see what happens.
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Georgia Congressman Paul Broun warned attendees of a town hall event Tuesday that the Obama administration was planning to use a pandemic or a natural disaster to implement martial law in the United States.

Speaking at the North Georgia Technical College auditorium, Broun said that the “socialistic elite,” as well as Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, were planning to exploit a crisis to create a favorable climate for their stalling political agenda.

“They’re trying to develop an environment where they can take over,” he said. “We’ve seen that historically.”
http://washingtonindependent.com/54772/gop-congressman-democrats-might-declare-martial-law

Governors Object to Pentagon Disaster Proposal

The National Governors Association opposes a Defense Department proposal to expand the military’s authority to respond to domestic disasters.

In a letter Friday to Paul N. Stockton, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and Americas’ security affairs, the governors said the proposal could lead to confusion over who’s in charge during domestic emergencies and unnecessarily duplicate response efforts.

“We are concerned that the legislative proposal you discuss in your letter would invite confusion on critical command and control issues, complicate interagency planning, establish stove-piped response efforts, and interfere with governors’ constitutional responsibilities to ensure the safety and security of their citizens,” Govs. Jim Douglas , R-Vt., and Joe Manchin III , D-W.Va., wrote on behalf of the group.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on the letter.

In their letter, the governors elaborate on their concerns over expanding the Pentagon’s independent authority to operate military forces in domestic incidents.

To carry out homeland defense and homeland security responsibilities, governors have to retain control over the domestic use of their National Guard and active and reserve military operating in their states, the letter said.

One of the key lessons of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita was the need for clear chains of command, the governors wrote.

“Without assigning a governor tactical control of [military] forces assisting in a response, and without the use of a dual-hatted National Guard commander to ensure coordination between [National Guard] and [federal] forces, strong potential exists for confusion in mission, execution and the dilution of governors’ control over situations with which they are more familiar and better capable of handing than a federal military commander,” they wrote.

A similar proposal was contained in the House’s version of the fiscal 2009 Defense authorization legislation but was removed in conference because of governors’ concerns, the letter said.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=cqmidday-000003189757
 
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