I found this threat chilling. Obama has recruited a couple of prosecutors in missouri who have threatened criminal libel charges against anyone who says something about obama they consider untrue. It would be hard to come up with a more direct violation of the First Amendment, except maybe if obama sent some of his thugs over to deal with it directly. I suppose that will be next, after all, that's the way his role model Hugo Chavez handles it. This is just a hint of what we'll get with Obama the supposed constitutional scholar in office. Forget talk radio, forget internet boards like this, they will be outlawed, just like free speech has been snuffed out on university campuses. This is the way the hard left operates.
That would be my fear. If this was something that was instigated from the McCain campaign there would be riots in the street.
Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails. Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I come to the conclusion that, men loving according to their own will and fearing according to that of the prince, a wise prince should establish himself on that which is in his own control and not in that of others; he must endeavour only to avoid hatred, as is noted. http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince17.htm The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli CHAPTER XVII Concerning Cruelty And Clemency, And Whether It Is Better To Be Loved Than Feared
So nothing to be feared if someone speaks the truth. They have freedom of speach. But if someone spread a lie to make someone elses image bad, then they shoud be fearful of the law. This is the same as the law of defamation of character.
Who is determing what the "truth" is here? The Obama supporters are. Does anything think this would stop if Obama became President? Nope. Not with the power of the FBI at his command.
Does that mean all the presidents have power of the FBI, and no one can go against a president in past and now?