Is the rhetoric of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh placing President Obama's life in danger?

The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission.

To answer my own question, yes. The anti-American, racist tinged rhetoric coming from Fox news, and other conservative media outlets is certainly inflaming the passions of individuals who are under educated, deeply racist, and frightened by visions of a government that will take away their freedoms. Some of these individuals are obsessed with the idea that they have to fight to protect themselves from an out of control federal government and fantasize about taking up arms and defeating the Army of Obama.

This is much, much more than simple opposition to a President. This is war being declared on our country by those who feel disenfranchised, and whose paranoia is purposely being fed by Fox News.

Two days before Obama’s appearance at San Francisco fund-raisers on Thursday, a 59-year-old Northern California man was indicted on charges of sending a racist, profanity-filled e-mail threatening to kill Obama and his family. The rambling e-mail included specific references to Michelle Obama and the phrase, “do it to his children and family first in front of him,’’ according to the indictment.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says that antigovernment militias and white supremacist groups have strengthened in recent years, responding to an increasingly diverse population and what they see as an expanding government.

A center study released in August found a nearly 35 percent growth in racially based domestic hate groups since 2000 - from 602 to 926. The center concluded that opposition to Obama’s election has only increased the phenomenon.

“A key difference this time is that the federal government - the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy - is headed by a black man,’’ the report said. “One result has been a remarkable rash of domestic terror incidents since the presidential campaign, most of them related to anger over the election of Barack Obama.’’

Threatening language has also found its way into talk radio broadcasts and social networking websites, raising fears that individuals not normally considered threats to the president could be incited to violence.

For example, the Secret Service in recent months has investigated a poll posted on Facebook about whether Obama should be killed. It has interviewed a Florida radio talk show host after a caller mentioned ammunition, target practice, and the president, and federal officials have raised concerns about several instances in which protesters carrying weapons showed up at Obama events, including a man at an August town hall in New Hampshire.

“The racist extremist fringe is exploiting themes that strike a chord in the mainstream more than we have seen in the recent past,’’ said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, citing several elected leaders who have questioned whether Obama is a US citizen eligible to be president.

Freedom of speech is one thing. And I certainly believe that it must be protected. But inciting violence against the President of the United States is completely indefensible.

Fox News organized those Teabagger rallies, and then filmed them as if they were real grass roots protests that sprang up organically, thus attempting to send the message that these were REAL Americans who were standing up for their rights. And as Max Blumenthal brilliantly pointed out in his video's, they were not exactly sure what rights they were in danger of losing, but they were beyond angry at the possibility losing them.

"We can't kill Obama" one says with a distinct look of dissatisfaction on his face.

"ACORN supports the Obama Revolution" says one clearly deranged man who then goes on to compare Obama to Hitler.

These are not ideas that occurred to these people on their own. These are fears and concerns implanted in their heads purposefully by Fox News and Right Wing radio hosts.

Everyday on their programs Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the false journalists on Fox and rabid radio wing nuts, tell millions of unsophisticated Americans that they are in imminent danger of losing their freedoms at the ands of a man who is NOT a real citizen of America, who has a private army called ACORN, and who has been sent by the forces of Islam to destroy the United States of America.

So my question is, if somebody takes a shot at my President, do the talking heads at Fox News get locked up for conspiring to assassinate the President of the United States?

Update: As I sat down to eat my breakfast I suddenly remembered where I had first seen the racist mob mentality.

The excitement that Sarah Palin brought to the McCain campaign that Republican strategists are always bragging about was this racially charged, hostile energy that seemed drawn to Palin.

Before McCain picked Sarah he had fairly traditional Republican support, but after Sarah.....

So I think it is fair to say that the spark which started this angry inferno came from Palin herself, Fox News just fanned the flames into what we see today.