First Amendment Takes Another Hit

CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Bashing Bush costs Mars Hill student his computer:

"Bashing Bush costs Mars Hill student his computer
Secret Service punishes freshman after ‘threatening’ post
by Clarke Morrison, STAFF WRITER
published March 16, 2006 6:00 am


MARS HILL — The U.S. Secret Service seized a computer from the dorm room of a Mars Hill College student after he posted a message on a Web site apparently deemed threatening to President Bush.

Freshman Tim Willis said he meant no real harm in using modified song lyrics describing the violent death of the president on myspace.com, a site popular with millions of young people as a place for personal expression."

Back during the salad days of the Clinton presidency, when it seemed the nation had very little to worry about, our Senator, the righteous Jesse Helms, advised Clinton that it would not be safe for him to come to North Carolina. Let's see-- is that threatening the President? Around that same time I wandered into an Army surplus type store and there on the wall were targets superimposed on Clinton's picture. Among the musty old gun belts and dented canteens I noted a fresh rack of camo t-shirts emblazoned with "Kill Bill." (Long before the movie, of course.) I asked who Bill was and the owner nodded toward the targets. He assured me the shirts were "NRA," though in all honesty I couldn't find anything on them to indicate that.

The store has long since vanished but I wonder if they would still carry merchandise advocating the murder of our president? Did the Secret Service ever investigate any of the threats against Clinton by the average citizen or did they reserve their time for serious threats?

This latest ploy by the Secret Service seems to be aimed more at intimidating the citizenry than in protecting the president. Someone needs to remind them who pays their salaries and who they are actually working for. Song parodies do not rise to the level of a serious threat and contrary to what they think-- the United States is a free speech zone.

In the Great Housecleaning Upcoming, another little corner that needs to be attended to is apparently lurking within the Secret Service.

More details here.