Secret Service investigates 'free public hanging' of Obama sign...

[ducks]

http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/articles/2008/11/14/news/doc491bc5ab04e78208338058.prt

http://images.townnews.com/bonnercountydailybee.com/content/articles/2008/11/14/news/doc491bc5ab04e78208338058.jpg

[ducks]

Feds called in to review landowner's sign

By KEITH KINNAIRD
News editor

VAY — The U.S. Secret Service is being asked to review a sign a Bonner County landowner put up which suggests a "free public hanging" of President-elect Barack Obama and several other political figures.

The handmade cardboard sign also features a noose fashioned from a length of nylon rope.

"That's a political statement. They can call it whatever they want, a threat or whatever," said Ken Germana, who installed the sign on his property off Golden Gate Road in southwestern Bonner County.

Obama's name is the most prominent on the sign, although it also bears the names of former Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry, current U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and civil rights activist and former presidential candidate Al Sharpton.

Sheriff Elaine Savage said she is referring the matter to the Secret

Service, which is tasked with protecting the lives of presidents, presidential contenders and those who are in a presidential line of succession.

"I'm sure they will be looking into it," Savage said on Wednesday.

The Secret Service agent in Spokane, Wash., who was asked to review the situation was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

The Bonner County Human Rights Task Force said it is outraged by the display.

"Everyone has the right of free speech, unless it advocates the killing or hurting of someone or incites violence, which violates the doctrine of human rights," Christine Holbert, president of the task force, said in a statement.

Holbert called the sign "hateful" and said its content is not protected under the First Amendment.

"I would not want to be in this man's shoes when the Secret Service interviews him," she added.

Germana said he poses absolutely no threat to Obama, but admits he would not lose any sleep if harm did come the president-elect's way. He said he made the sign to protest hypocrisy in two high-profile incidents involving effigies of Republican vice president nominee Sarah Palin and Obama.

The Palin effigy was erected in Los Angeles and the Obama effigy was put up at the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. Both incidents made headlines in the run-up to the general election, but Germana maintains they were treated differently by authorities and the press.

In Germana's view, nothing was done to the creators of the Palin effigy, while those who were involved with the Obama effigy were arrested.

"If other people can make political statements, so can I. Just because I don't live in California doesn't mean I don't have my rights, too," he said.

Germana calls any insinuation that there is a racial tone to his sign malarkey, emphasizing that its message is clearly equal opportunity.

"If these Katzenjammer cops want to pursue it, God bless 'em. But I've got my rights just like everybody else does," he said.

[kwhitegocubs]

Let me guess, ducks, you support this guy?

[Jelly]

it's pretty creepy that you keep posting this stuff.

[ChumpDumper]

If these Katzenjammer cops want to pursue it, God bless 'em.He really went out of his way to fail on that one.

[ducks]

it's pretty creepy that you keep posting this stuff.

who said I support this guy

I post alot of articles
does it mean I agree with it no

some people take theses internet forums to seriously

[Clandestino]

the guy is right though. nobody began investigating the people who hung effigies of palin and bush.

[Oh, Gee!!]

Germana calls any insinuation that there is a racial tone to his sign malarkey, emphasizing that some of his best friends are black.

[Centaur of the Sun]

That's what those people get... I mean, they shouldn't have played the race card first.

[Tully365]

Ducks seems positively titillated by any news stories of Obama being shot, hung, threatened, or in any way harmed. It's a free country, but I agree with Jelly-- it's pretty creepy...

[baseline bum]

Ducks seems positively titillated by any news stories of Obama being shot, hung, threatened, or in any way harmed. It's a free country, but I agree with Jelly-- it's pretty creepy...

Can you imagine the nut ducks would bust if Barack and LeBron were killed in a head-on collision? Especially if Manu was in LeBron's passenger seat?

[Creepn]

the guy is right though. nobody began investigating the people who hung effigies of palin and bush.


Thinkings like this......

And learn how to fuckin read if you gonna try to justify your fantasies. He doesn't mention Bush. Either way effigies are just bad for anybody. White people were hung by the KKK just as well.

[MaryAnnKilledGinger]

the guy is right though. nobody began investigating the people who hung effigies of palin and bush.

Yes. They (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/30/content_10276798.htm). Did (http://www.sanfernandosun.com/sanfernsun/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2916&Itemid=2).

And all of you need to stop acting like hanging a black man has no symbolism or deeper meaning in American society than hanging a white man/woman. It makes it look like you're either lying or unable to open a history book.

Moreover, all of you that are upset the Democrats have been embracing poor minority groups to help get out the vote seem to conveniently forget it was Nixon who stole all the poor white racists from the Democratic party. The right TARGETED racists for their fold. The Democrats are recruiting from underprivileged citizens to help bring them into their fold. Weigh which one of those sides you'd rather be on regarding this issue.

Had the "white" vote been 100% behind McCain/Palin there's no way any minority group could have won. A majority of Americans voted for the man they thought was best to lead us away from the drain we've been slipping down for eight years. Black. White. Latino. Gay. Straight. The majority of Americans voted for Obama. No one was cheated. Nothing was hidden. Unlike the election that was stolen in 2000, there is no controversy to spin here. All the nasty "he hangs out with terrorists and America-hating preachers" commercials got aired aplenty. America opted to take a chance on a guy with a message of hope instead of another old white man and his bimbo with a message of hate. The fact that it's eating some of you up to the point where you're celebrating people who advocate killing a president-elect says an awful lot about you.

I have hated and loathed Bush/Cheney for 8 years as have many of the people I know. I would not shake their hands. I would not invite them into my house. But I have never openly wished for their deaths. This kind of stuff is just ugly. And the more you people cry about race-cards the more you underline exactly WHY race plays a factor and will continue to play a factor for a while yet.

Of course, as we've already established, irony is lost on the vast majority of right-wingers on this board.