White rage: The rednecks out to kill Obama (Gumbel / Independent - UK)

[struggle4progress]

When millions watched Barack Obama give his history-making victory speech in Grant Park on election night, one thing stood out starkly – the bulletproof screen surrounding him. But just how serious is the threat of assassination to the President-elect?

By Andrew Gumbel
Sunday, 16 November 2008

... Four days before Obama's acceptance speech, Gartrell was pulled over for drunk-driving in the Denver suburb ' of Aurora after a patrol officer spotted his rented Dodge Ram truck swerving erratically, and the whole plot, such as it was, fell apart almost instantly. Certainly, the officer found plenty inside the truck to sound alarm bells – the two high-powered rifles, a silencer, a bulletproof vest, camouflage clothing, and three fake identification cards. But it was also clear that Gartrell was high on meth as well as drunk. The truck contained enough drug-making equipment to be considered a mobile meth lab.

Gartrell ratted out Johnson and Adolf almost as soon as he was taken in and photographed for his singularly striking mugshot. (With his bleached blonde hair, heavy silver earrings and pierced lip, he looks like the neo-Nazi from central casting.) Johnson was in the room at the Hyatt Regency, and wasted no time in talking himself – insisting he had no idea about any assassination plot while almost simultaneously telling the world Adolf was planning to "go down in a blaze of glory" and take Obama with him.

Adolf was a tougher proposition, the only one of the three with a serious criminal record, including burglary, forgery, drugs and weapons raps. At the time of his arrest he was wanted on eight outstanding charges and had recently skipped out on a $1 million bail payment. He was staying at a different hotel in the Denver suburbs. When the police arrived, he jumped out of his sixth-floor room on to the roof of the hotel kitchen four floors below, then jumped again to the ground, breaking his ankle as he landed. He didn't make it far. He, too, was found to be high on meth. When asked why he was wearing a bulletproof vest, he said he was convinced someone wanted to kill him.

We will no doubt learn more colourful details about the trio of would-be assassins when their trial begins this week. Intriguingly, though, they are being prosecuted on drugs and weapons charges only. Their prosecutor, Troy Eid, has said he is absolutely confident the "meth heads", as he calls them, never posed a risk to Obama or anyone else ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-rage-the-rednecks-out-to-kill-obama-1017497.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Okay, I'm seeing this same news repeated over and over and over in the media and everywhere

Why must the media repeat itself endlessly? It really concerns me that they're repeating this so much that maniacs who hadn't thought about doing such things as this, might start.

I swear I hate the media.

[silverojo]

5. Trust me, the media isn't giving anybody new ideas

It's been the first thing on the mind of every racist psycho, since before November 4th.

[peacebird]

2. Eid is the Bush appointee who decided to prosecute a man who mailed McCain white powder...

from Wikipedia: "In August 2008, Troy Eid charged Marc Garold Ramsey, 39, for sending a threatening letter with white powdery substance to 2008 Republican Party presidential nominee Senator John McCain.<17> The letter read, "Senator McCain, If you are reading this then you are already DEAD! Unless of course you can't or don't breathe."<18> Although the powder was not lethal, Ramsey could face at least five years on charges of knowingly mailing a threat. Later that month, Eid also assessed an alleged assassination plot against Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, after alleged plotters Shawn Robert Adolf, Tharin Robert Gartrell and Nathan Johnson were arrested just prior to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Although the trio were charged with drug and weapon charges, Eid determined the racist statements the suspects made following their arrests had not risen to the legal standard that would have allowed the filing of federal charges for threatening a presidential candidate.<19> At an August 26 press conference, Eid dismissed the trio as drug addicts and said the "meth heads were not a true threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado."<20>
Eid was accused by some of showing a political bias by prosecuting Ramsey without charging Gartrell, Adolf and Johnson, but Eid defended the decision; in a letter responding to the criticism, he wrote, “It would have been disgraceful for me or any other prosecutor to charge someone for a crime he didn’t commit. ... There was no probable cause to support such a charge. To the extent you challenge my motives or those of the many investigating agents and career prosecutors who all reached this conclusion in this matter, you’re mistaken.”<21> Eid aides admitted, however, that the decision not to charge was at least in part because they did not believe a jury would convict them based on the reliability of Johnson's testimony; Jeffrey Dorschner, Eid's spokesman, said a defense attorney “would tear him apart.”<21>

[melody]

3. Gee, a major publication using an ethnic slur

And the people depicted aren't even rednecks!

[BrklynLiberal]

6. True...and remember the Rednecks for Obama. So this is really bad.

http://rednecks4obama.com/

http://rednecksforobama.net/

[peruban]

4. This is sick.

Imagine someone with intention to kill George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or JFK. Oh, wait, not a great bunch of examples.

[Cheap_Trick]

7. These mouth-breathing morans don't seem to understand

that they'd be lighting a powder keg that'd explode like an atom bomb. Every white supremacist would be target numero uno with a bullet(hopefully many). It would shine a light on them I think they'd rather have left off.

[Skittles]

8. can't they make it WHITE IDIOT RAGE

please