Cenk's Take On Man with a Gun Near Obama Rally -- Hell No!

[ihavenobias]

By Cenk Uygur

There is a man with a gun near an Obama rally. . They're just letting him sit there and wait for Obama. This is insane!

Did you see his sign? "It Is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty." That is from this :

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

This is the same exact quote Tim McVeigh was referencing in a shirt he wore ... before bombing the Oklahoma City federal building.

Now, imagine if there was left-winger with a gun waiting for Bush holding a sign that the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood tyrants? How long would that guy have lasted? You think they'd let him just sit there and wait for Bush? And say, "Hey, it's perfectly legal!"

Is anyone stupid or disingenuous enough to believe that? They would have taken his ass down in a flat second. They would have infiltrated whatever group he belonged to and monitored his ass for the rest of time.

Now imagine he was Muslim and waiting for Bush with a gun. What do you think would have happened then?

UPDATE -- In responding to the points below I wrote this in one of the replies and I think it's important in explaining my perspective:

This shouldn't have gone down like this. I understand all of the people saying we didn't want to make a political martyr out of this guy by arresting him -- it's a valid point. And in this case, nothing happened anyway. But here's what I'm more interested in -- keeping Barack Obama alive. What are you going to do the next time someone else shows up with a gun at an Obama rally? And how about when two of them show up or ten of them?

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Seems there's quite a double standard

when it comes to protecting some presidents v. protecting other ones.

Part white/black, part puke/Dem, but quite a double standard!

[BlooInBloo]

6. Yep. Part of that "dissent is patriotic" doube-standard squawking we've heard so much of.

[abelenkpe2]

2. that should not have been allowed

The sign is a veiled threat. Threatening someone is a crime. The man needed to be arrested.

Forget the martyr baloney.

Geez.

[louis-t]

3. They are testing the waters.

Watch for more of this.

[ihavenobias]

15. Agreed.

It's a very dangerous "win-win" or no-lose situation from the perspective of the hard right base. I'll leave it at that.

[Myrina]

4. ... As much as I hate it, I think its time to start screening crowds ...

and making them go thru metal detectors etc on their way into an event ... for his own safety.
And if the Wingers whine, reply to them that its their own nutbags who are making it necessary.

[ihavenobias]

16. Can you imagine from the reaction from the right wing media?

They're heads will explode over the slightest safety precaution, no matter how sensible, reasonable and logical.

[oldtime dfl_er]

5. Where the hell was the Secret Service?

It may be "legal" under NH law to have that stupid thing strapped to his leg but the Secret Service has its own way of dealing with things like this. It's an open threat to the security and safety of the POTUS.

[Fleet]

9. People are capable of stupidity, guns are not.

The SS kept an eye on him, he wasn't a problem, life goes on.

[LeftinOH]

12. They know who he is now, and he has probably been "rolodexed" for future reference.

[izquierdista]

7. Each one gets his own sharpshooter

3 paces behind him.

[BlooInBloo]

11. (snarfle)

[Bonhomme Richard]

8. What church allowed this man to carry a gun on its property.

I'd like to know so I can let them know what I think of their christian values.

[BlooInBloo]

10. They're making us walk a fine line - between bonafide personal freedoms...

creating a political martyr, and our President's safety.

We seem to be doing alright with that fine line so far.

[chelsea0011]

13. remember when the Black Panthers carried weapons at their rallies?

The public was not only scared shi^less but appalled. This clown shows up at a political rally with the President (and don't tell me how far away he was. He was at the rally and did this only as a threat) and it is an exercise in rights. The Panthers, I quess, were just exercising their free rights. If I remember corectly, the Panthers claimed to be "in a state of war" and thus able to carry arms for protection.

[pleah]

14. If this idiot had been at a bushit rally/town hall meeting he would have been shot.

End of story.

[ihavenobias]

18. If this idiot had been wearing a John Kerry shirt at a Bush rally/meeting he would've been taken

away.

[Wednesdays]

17. K&R

:kick: