Right wing groups create threats of violence, then criticize the President for having protection against their threats of violence.—
Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 19, 2013
Actually, the point of that controversial NRA ad that Moore called “disgusting” wasn’t to criticize the president for having armed protection, but for attempting to deny his constituents the same means of protection that he enjoys.
In any case, having a “limitless” budget for the Secret Service certainly sounds like a wish for a lot more people carrying a lot more guns around the White House and President Obama and his family. As we’ve learned from Matt Yglesias and others, the president’s children are more important than our own, and if it takes guns to keep them safe, so be it. The kids invited to read their anti-gun letters to the nation were certainly under armed protection as they shared the stage with the president.
So, what is the right-wing threat to the president’s life that requires a ramp-up in Secret Service staffing? Moore points to an email forwarded by Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal reading, “Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8.” That verse is, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” The threat, it seems, is in Psalm 109:9, which continues, “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” It doesn’t seem as stark a threat as the one posed to the deputy director of AFP-Michigan. Oh, and as The Right Sphere points out, O’Neal’s story is a year old, and he’s no longer in office.
Others called the Bible verse “scary.”
Yeah, how about that “freedom of speech” thingie? It’s right next to the Second Amendment, about the same distance as Psalm 109:8 is to Psalm 109:9. Nothing but trouble, that Constitution.