Mr. "Easy Rider," Peter Fonda, Makes Veiled Threat About Shooting The President

[ChoppinBroccoli]

Did Peter Fonda commit federal crime by 'long-range rifles' threat to Obama?

May 25 (ANI): Peter Fonda shocked many at the Cannes film festival after indirectly threatening US President Barack Obama, an act that could be considered a federal crime.

"I'm training my grandchildren to use long-range rifles," the actor said, and on being asked "for what purpose?, the actor added: "Well, I'm not going to say the words 'Barack Obama,' but ..."

Although he did not go further with his comment, Washington based attorney Ross Nabatoff said those words could prove to be 'offensive'.

"Clearly, there is a federal law that prohibits threatening the president. Now, the question is, is that a threat as opposed to him expressing his First Amendment rights? But you could conceivably construe that as a threat-he names the president. It's a federal offense. He could be incarcerated," Fox News quoted Nabatoff, as saying. He also said that Fonda's comments could attract the attention of the Secret Service. They take threats against the president pretty seriously these days. There's a lot of angry people," he added.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/did-peter-fonda-commit-federal-crime-long-range-122755539.html

[murielm99]

1. Did they make him apologize? n/t

[fishwax]

2. wow -- i'd heard about a ranting email he said he sent to Obama, but hadn't heard this latest

:wow:

[sasha031]

3. does Peter Fonda belong to the tea party now

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. What a douchebag

I did not know he was such a right wing POS asshole

[provis99]

5. Peter Fonda is a liberal.

[RandomKoolzip]

6. Still an asshole.

Plus, Easy Rider is THE most overrated hunk of shit movie ever filmed.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

8. You Were Able To Watch It Without Falling Asleep?

Because I certainly wasn't. I'm actually a pretty big Jack Nicholson fan, but every time I try to watch that movie, I fall asleep before Jack makes his appearance. I like Dennis Hopper too, but even those two couldn't save that movie. That's just another example of a movie that the critics love and cinefiles brand a "classic" for reasons that are baffling to me. I've found nothing redeeming about that movie at all. Then again, I've never really seen it all the way through, but I always figured that if I've tried several times to watch a movie and can NEVER make it to the end without falling asleep, that's an indication of the movie's quality right there.

[RandomKoolzip]

11. People love it because they love the IDEA of it.

The execution stinks, the acting stinks, the pacing, editing, etc. stinks. Easy Rider would have been forgotten as just another bad biker exploitation flick had it not been for the sanctimonious and self-righteous hippie zeitgeist that declared anything in the mainstream that reflected their "lifestyle" to be "right on, man." Watch it again, divorced from its historical context, and it's a boring hunk of garbage.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

7. How Many More Gabrielle Giffords Do We Need...............

.............before we can start accusing right-wingers of doing what we all know they're doing: encouraging the nut-bags of their Party to start offing their opponents? How much more "plausible deniability" are we going to put up with?

[liberalmike27]

12. I never could figure out

why anyone would shoot a right-of-center politician anyway. If one was to really try to affect change, wouldn't you go for Rush, or O'Reilly, or Beck, or a right-wing court member, to change this nutjob court back to a slightly less con-servative group, who perhaps would roll back this corporate tidal wave of money? Lots of better targets than some powerless congresswoman. But seriously, that guy was just crazy anyway.

[saras]

9. I just don't see the direct threat

Obama is responsible for not stopping, at least, a lot of Bush-era stuff that could cause some people to feel the need to be able to defend themselves. I didn't see anything to indicate that Obama himself was an intended victim, but if the country falls apart seriously as a result of Obama handing the last of our money over to the bankers instead of prosecuting them, then you could easily name him as being at the top of the chain of responsibility without implying in any way that Obama himself is going to try to break into your house and steal your food and guns.

His words COULD be offensive, given the extreme oversensitivity we're showing in lieu of actually addressing the real physical threats, but I think it's just another thing the rest of the world will laugh at.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

10. Did You See The Direct Threat When Sarah Failin Put Crosshairs On Congressmen?

Maybe not. Was it a DIRECT threat? Not really. Does that mean Gabrielle Giffords was any LESS shot in the head?

So I must know, then, why do you think he said it? A joke? Oh yeah, my friends and I get a few drinks in us and say things like, "I'm going to train my grandchildren to kill the President," and just LAUGH and LAUGH and LAUGH! A political statement? I know I ALWAYS tell people I'm training people to kill ANYONE who I personally disagree with (i.e. "my neighbor told me my grass was too long, so I'm having my kids throw hand grenades at a cardboard cut-out of him.") An attempt to ingratiate himself to the international/European community that LOVES President Obama? If it wasn't a threat, then what exactly WAS it?

And what makes it even more dangerous is the fact that the Secret Service won't ever be able to FIND Peter Fonda because nobody knows what he looks like. The only relevant movie he's ever been in was "Easy Rider," and that was 40 years ago.