There’s a superficial resemblance between the two incidents, certainly. Ramirez, however, was investigated and, I believe, interviewed by the Secret Service; Spencer was summarily arrested on federal felony charges.

But the secondary similarity of both occurrences happening relatively quickly after failures in Secret Service PPU security procedures does lend a bit more credence to Paradigm’s hypothesis – well, since there’s a bit of evidence now, I should probably call it a theory.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oh, yeah. http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2973

Whats more interesting to watch is how Western media criticize Russia’s interaction with her media. While tactics are different, the end result is the exact same.

You’re fairly close to right in your assertion that “they’ve” been walking over the rights as defined by American law for some time – when “they” don’t just up and change the laws to suit “them” better.

It’s been a generational slide into Statist country, with more authoritarian components of the Right vying with the nanny state of the Left for who can strip the most liberties from we, the People.

Paradigm,

The media’s silence bothers me, but it doesn’t surprise me. This is the sort of story that could make Obama look bad and that’s the last thing the media other than Fox News is going to do. Of course Fox has been silent on this as well…

The silence from the media bothers me the most. Are all these papers, networks and others just puppets on a string? And if so, who is pulling those strings?

They have been walking over the rights as defined by law for some time now, well before Obama’s time.

As long as people cop an attitude “I have nothing to hide” and “it’s for our own good” and “they are doing it for our protection” they are helping big bro take over, much like George Orwell’s novel described.

The problem is, most young people don’t what they have lost for they grew up with this system and their parents thought people like me, who were warning of this decades ago “extremists”

Yes – what little data we have shows a disturbing level of fear and/or paranoia on the government’s part in this, a level of fear that seems unwarranted and a response to that fear which is unsustainable.

The only reports we have all link back to AP, which ran the story but few news outlets – Washington Post being the only National one – chose to run it. That AP story is the one that cites the arrest warrant saying the poem was posted in 2007, a claim that New Saxon doesn’t dispute.

Mason,

I can certainly blame Obama, especially since he claimed during his campaign he was going to change a lot that behavior.

As for the Patriot Act – I was in favor of it, but only with the original “sunset clause” in place and an actual review of it after 6 or 12 months months. As it stands, it turned into a sad example of why you have to always look into how a law will be abused by the government.

AS for the semi-myth of Americans being held at Gitmo – we’ve only captured three American citizens in the course fo the war against Islamic Terrorism: Yasser Hamdi, John Walker Lindh, and Jose Padilla.

Of those three only Hamdi was ever detained at Gitmo and that was because nobody knew he was an American and he didn’t claimed to be one when captured.

When it was found out that Hamdi had been mistakenly sent to Gitmo, he was released and repatriated – exiled really – to his longtime home of Saudi Arabia once he agreed to renounce his US citizenship and never return.

Lara,

Firstly, welcome and no apologies are needed. This is not a sugar-coated blog and I’m not particularly thin-skinned.

My verbiage was “permissive” because Obama’s administration in the form of his federal law enforcement agents – purely executive branch in the chain of command – operated in a manner that gives the appearance of tyranny.

I’m not subtle, Lara. If I believed that this definitively constituted a “tyrannical-interventionist violation of Rule of Law” I would say so in no uncertain terms.

I cannot, however, with the limited data available to me go beyond speaking to those appearances, but those appearances are not good.

I do find it sad and worrisome that they’ve chosen to act in this way though, and ironic that Spencer had already fantasized about Obama’s tyranny.

Paradigm,

Funny and oddly significant. You present an alternative hypothesis, perhaps without intending to.

If – though, given the personal nature of the perceived threat, it’s a big if – Obama was unaware of the investigation this might be an overzealous response / reaction to the Secret Service’s failure at that White House party.

All,

Thanks for commenting. One question though – what do you find more worrisome: Spencer and New Saxon, the feds’ response to it, or the media’s silence about it?