lordy.

this is totally insane.

the moment that these eliminationists are allowed to dictate policy outcomes by thuggery is the moment that this country becomes ungovernable. There is a difference between opposition and sedition, and these people are starting to cross that line.

Didn’t the radio announcers in Rawanda get prosecuted for inciting and continuing to incite the genocide? Someone, ideally someone like patrick Fitzgerald should inquire.

sedition – incitement for the extra-constitutional overthrow of the state or the state’s legitimate authority or to illegal action or violence against it’s agents and officers – is not per se illegal in the US (although believe it or not, Gonzo did try to prosecute it against a US civilian on at least one occasion). Just because this is probably protected speech doesn’t mean that isn’t in fact sedition and that it doesn’t pose a fundamental threat to our country. I don’t know what to do about all this. Maybe these people can do us a favor and cheat on their taxes or something, and we can get them that way. In any event, they have to be watched closely, and there has to be an active effort on our part to expose their lies and to impeach their actions.

Remember, hate speech, guns, and even bullets don’t kill people. The holes that magically appear in proximity to speeding bullets and their leakage kill people. Don’t outlaw haters and guns, outlaw holes and leakage…

But the left uses swear words! They’re so bad!

Now that he has been arrested and charged (he has been charged, hasn’t he?), maybe we can just let 12 folks honest and true decided whether he has committed a crime.

The First Amendment protects speech. But it does not require access to a megaphone. And radio is a megaphone. And if it is broadcast radio, the station is regulated by the FCC.

I suppose the real equivalency is a lefty advocating doing in Rush and providing online the security codes to Rush’s house and studio. Haven’t seen that yet.

i think the same thing needs to be done here as was/is being done to glenn beck .. decent people should let the advertisers who put these folks on the air know they won’t buy their products if they sponsor “crazy on the airwaves” ..

If we only knew how many wingnuts have perished as a result of bruised feelings…

Could you imagine if this kind of logic was applied to criminal law?

“Yes your honor, my client robbed three banks and killed 2 people. But both of those people were convicted of marijuana possession, so it was a public service homicide and all charges should be dropped.”

OMG…. its Ernie on KO….. until he said his last name ……. Ernie used to come to all progressive events. NEVER armed…….shocked just shocked….

Could be a lot. Their feelings bruise a lot more easily than they think ours do.

I suppose congress could try to pass a law imposing severe fines on media organizations that air incitements to violence against the government or government officials, but this’ll mean imposing the same type of regulation free-to-air stuff gets from the FCC onto cable and talk radio. Still.. its something to think about. Fundamentally, I don’t see why the nets should be subjected to multimillion dollar fines for the wardrobe malfunctions of pop stars, and then get away with it when their employees call for violence against judges or, for that matter, the Speaker of the House.

Historically, such proposals for laws against sedition have not fared well in Congress. Can you imagine the blowback from rethugs if a Dem were to introduce such legislation? These are the same people who blew a gasket when DHS tried to release a report on right-wing terrorists.

And I’m still incredulous that we are at the point where we even need to be having this conversation.
.

I recall that a l3 year old Carmichael (Calif) girl was somehow hunted down by the secret service for having the words “Kill Bush” on her MySpace page and showing a cartoon image of of a knife being placed into a hand. It seems one of her frenemies spotted this, reported it to her conservaparents, who then contacted the FBI. Someone else mentioned it to the girls folks, who had a discussion about it, then had her take it down. Several months later two Secret Service agents show up, first at the parents, met with mom, and agreed to return to the home later to speak with the girls. Instead the go to her school, have the Principal call the girl out of class, and then, without anyone else present. give the girl the Third Degree and made threats about her going to jail for a decade.

The local letters to the Editors were jam-packed by the “send the girl to jail” right-wingers. “He’s our President…she should be expelled from school or have her citizenship revoked, etc. .”

If the SS under Bush can do this to a 3 year old who had already realized her mistake…then why can’t they haul in adults who really should know better – and really find out if they are tangible treats?

It’s also very interesting that Turner is part of the government’s counterintelligence program and functioned as an agent provocateur. Read the AP story

yeah.. revoking her citizenship. That’ll be real constitutional, like. arsehats.

One thing I will say, though. We might not be able to prosecute these people, but there shouldn’t be anything stopping Congress from censuring or impeaching those of their own members who’ve been publicly endorsing this type of non-sense. That much we CAN do.

At what point does one regard such speech as fomenting an insurrection. Clearly a private conversation regarding actual actions that might lead to a crime is prosecutable. It constitutes conspiracy TO PERFORM an act. But what if the same conversation is held “in public” hoping to hit that one or few unbalanced individuals, or groups, to do the actions suggested.

When is it like “shouting fire in a theater”?

Michelle Bachman+Hal Turner = “Bachmann Turner Uberdrive”

Don’t pick on Michelle. She’s going to be president some day if gawd wills it – that’s what she said.

as I understand it, this type of behavior (sedition – inciting insurrection or making general exortations for others to do violence) is legally quite different from both directly and personally threatening the President or shouting fire in a cinema. It would definitely require new legislation to sanction, and such legislation has not fared well in Congress in the past, going all the way back to the early republic, probably because it was always the supporters of one side of Congress that was committing the sedition, motivating that side to move to block the legislation. Constitutionality would be a question, of course, but as no such law was ever tested, that issue has never yet come up to my awareness.