A 10-year-old Atlantic City boy allegedly made a death threat against former President George W. Bush this week, sources say.
The fifth grader, who attends Dr. Martin Muther King, Jr. School in Atlantic City, called the George W. Bush Presidential Library near Dallas, Texas earlier this week.
The boy left a voicemail saying that he was going to kill the former president, sources confirmed to NBC Philadelphia’s Ted Greenberg.
The Secret Service investigated the death threat and spoke to the child, but it does not expect to file any charges, sources told Greenberg.
Now once again let me reiterate that what this young man did is wrong. There is simply no excuse for making death threats against ANYBODY, but especially not against one of our presidents.
However there are a couple of things about this story that really bother me.
For one thing death threats against our current President, Barack Obama, are up 400 percent over what George Bush received while he was in office. When asked why there was such a disparity, investigative journalist Ronald Kessler replied: “Many of the threats are from racists who have no connections with politics.”
So to be clear the majority of these threats to our sitting President are coming from white people who hate him based solely on his skin color.
Now let's get back to this young fifth grader, but first watch this video.
View more videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com.
Now obviously the school this young man attends, Martin Luther King Jr. School, serves primarily African Americans. So it stands to reason that the student in question, who is not identified for obvious reasons, is also black.
So a single young black child threatens one of our white ex-Presidents, and that is considered national news? While Barack Obama, our current President, receives up to thirty death threats a day, predominantly from white racists, and it is so common that the news media rarely even bothers to report it. Do I have that right?
Okay so does this fact bother anybody else, or is it just me?
I had to laugh when I saw that picture of Bush because he has the same pout as Sarah Palin. You should put the two pictures side by side.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me too, but maybe the news-worthiness is due to the age of the one delivering the threats. I assume most of the threats to our current president are from deranged racist adults.
ReplyDeleteHaving to listen to BOTH Bushes for 12 years of my life is what makes me so passionately anti-Palin. I can't bear listening to her and am so looking forward to a time when I am as oblivious to her as I was 2 and half years ago.
ReplyDeleteBTW- I have completed 2 days of no HuffPo or Politico and it has been great not to have her forced on me beyond my own choosing. I guess I'm relying on my fave Blogs to filter info about her so I don't have to. It's the only way to go until the media gets their act together.
If the 10 year old had been a student at George Washington Public School, it would receive no mention.
ReplyDeleteIf the 10 year old had threatened Palin, she would sue him and he would be facing a prison term.
That said, my guess is that Andrew Breitbart was hanging around the school yard, followed the 10 year old, kidnapped him and made him make the call.
Or maybe one of the Koch brothers told him that they would give his mom a year's supply of Brawny paper towels if he would just made a teensy joke phone call.
Or maybe...do you think I'm just watching too much of Glenn Beck?
Speaking of Beck, can't wait to hear his take on this. I'm sure part of his harangue will be blaming those evil, soon-to-be-billionaire public school teachers.
Could some of the threats against President Obama be from non-real Americans resentful at his Kansan mom?
ReplyDeleteLeading with a comment that "at least he (the child) knows who caused our problems" is really inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteTruly, violence and violent talk should never be winked at simply because you don't like the object of the threat.
The point of why this is newsworthy is that these were words coming from the mouth of a 5th-grader, regardless of color.
Our society is too hot, too violent and we need to cool down.
Our president could ask that all his threats be made public, but he doesn't. He is the epitome of cool and rational and probably believes that releasing that information would just get some people more worried and frothed up than they already are.
Obama has it under control and we should all try to emulate his demeanor. Every day, wile I wish things were going better in our country, I, at least, can be thankful for the intelligent, calm, capable president I can look to as an example.
Wow. I think you make a valid point. It's pretty blatant, the raCIS And hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteand speaking of dictator wanna bees
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqnOeatbDWs&feature=player_embedded
What is amazing is that the Black community is so accustomed to being threatened, and saw so many Black leaders and citizens murdered in the last century, that there are ot more death threats against white racists.
ReplyDeleteDuhbya, though a buddy of the elite of Mexico was/is no friend to anyone except his white elite class.
It is like missing white girl syndrome.
ReplyDeletePity parties for poor put upon white people.
Tragic things happen to white people,
everyone else gets what they deserve,
so no one cares.
I'm white, BTW.
No Gryphen, it's not just you!
ReplyDeleteA lot of people are upset with the President because he hasn't gone to Madison and stood with the union workers. Part of me thinks that it would be difficult for him to do that because he would then have to go to Ohio, and New Jersey, and Florida and Indiana, and every other state where workers rights are being threatened. I just don't think that's practical.
ReplyDeleteBut part of me also wonders if the Secret Service hasn't advised him not to go to rallies like that for safety reasons. I think when we wonder why the heck the President isn't at this or that event we should keep that in mind. It may not be his choice.
It bothers me too, Gryphen. As soon as i read the name of the kid's school, I knew exactly why this made the news.
ReplyDeleteyes bothers me too. You are right to note it.
ReplyDeleteIt devastates me. i just listened to 15 minutes of Thom Hartmann telling his audience again how the wealthy, mega wealthy, for those of you who believe you are the wealthy and none of this will ever touch you, are able to control the government and how very sad it is that they just do not care about even the middle class, much less the poor. I was already depressed and this is just another thing that blows my mind, and all my sensibilities.
ReplyDeleteps...our news is nothing but entertainment and a grab for advertising dollars and it is geared to the rascist fools out there, simply because there are more of them who watch garbage on TV.
ReplyDeleteI think this was more along the lines of... "omg a 10 year old kid is threatening to kill a president? Whaa?" instead of a death threat against GW.
ReplyDeleteThis nation has just taken the first step in the fulfillment of "We shall overcome . . ." which is why it is imperative to confront and eradicate the racist hatred being spewed by Spalin's teabaggers and the Gophers. These blatant assaults are not only occurring in Wisconsin folks. The GOP has launched their evil devices across this nation (all the way up to the SCOTUS) ~ and we must be more determined than ever to thwart these attempts to take us BACK.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture. He and Scara, both pouting children.
ReplyDeleteIn some pictures you can see Dick Cheney and Scara share a certain cruel movement of their lips when they are speaking about subjects about which they have no compassion.
Anon9:43am and I share the same PalinNews habits. I very rarely click on any links regarding the contemptible women. I don't want the Huffington Post or any other site to give her any attention.
There are only two or three private blogs I visit and comment on for this subject.
I expect she and her dysfunctional brood to be fodder for many more issues of the National Enquirer, however.
O/T I made an exception to my PalinNews habit for a current article that names her condition correctly: she is a Narcissist. This is a serious personality disorder.
ReplyDeleteI pray daily for the safety of our President and his family.
I hate the threat.
ReplyDeleteBut, damn, I'm reassured that this child has learned enough US history
to understand the travesty that was President George W. Bush!
It's mighty impressive that the kid called the George Bush Library. I have really smart grandkids around the same age (all enrolled in gifted programs)and none of them know squat about presidential libraries.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the kid's mother or father was wounded/killed in Iraq or out of a job and he's heard adults blame GWB.
The news coverage creeped me out with the emphasis placed on the name of the school.
I hope the kid gets caring attention.
@anon 11:52 a.m. - I agree. President Obama, if he weren't the president would most definitely be at these events. PO stands up for unions; he must be shaking his head that us stoopid people elected stoopid governors. Some things he can't fix, it's up to voters.
ReplyDeleteThis is a threat against a former President. Slightly different.
ReplyDeleteTo report the number of death threats against our current President just might inspire someone to act on one of the threats. And no doubt someone with a media voice would use the number of threats to fan the flames of racism that certainly need no stoking. Our President is up against enough stuff as it is; he doesn't need these threat numbers handed over to his opponents who would use them for their own selfish/racist aims.
Okay, this stinks to high hell. AZ Governor Brewer is on vacation in Alaska.
ReplyDeleteSomething is fishy about this.
Any thoughts?
Alaskan's be on the lookout.
This story doesn't bother me at all. When someone threatens a sitting or former president, it should be investigated. It's not like they arrested the boy and led him off in shackles. I'm sure all of the threats to President Obama are looked into as well to see if they are credible.
ReplyDeleteAhem Anon 3:30........this is a kid, probably a black kid making a threat against a white non sitting President, and it makes news?
ReplyDeleteAnd, all of President Obama's death threats are hopefully taken seriously and investigated, but how many makes news? huh? any by children?
Get it?
This is weird -- I submitted a note earlier, but it wasn't posted.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, in my opinion, this is considered national news because a YOUNG CHILD threatened a former president. His age is what is unusual in this situation.
As you clearly stated, his skin color has not been mentioned in stories. Therefore, it's a real stretch to jump to the conclusion that that is the factor that makes it newsworthy.
6:09--Don't patronize me. I am black and have a black son. If my son threatened the president or a former president I would expect a call from the secret service. If the threat made the news, that's not so unusual given our sensationalistic news media.I stand by my former statement that this story is not a big deal. People should not be threatening public officials and all threats should be looked into to determine whether they're credible. Period. In this case, they rightly determined they shouldn't pursue it.
ReplyDeleteBefore all the Palinbots start screaming about what would happen to anyone who made a death threat against Obama (you know they'll ignore your stats, Gryphen), let's not forget the old fart that was cheered on by Paul Broun and his TPers when he asked "Who's gonna shoot Obama?" The Secret Service just wrote it all off as a "bad joke".
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't condone what this young child did, I'm impressed that he knew how to call the Bush library. Let's hope he learned a valuable lesson about threatening anyone.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right-on about the racists out there who really are intent on doing harm to Pres Obama, though.
It is not just you. It 's gotten to the point that I am expecting the MSM to drop the ball on all sorts of issues. They're looking for what sells, not what's the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteBigtoe
I see you leftwingnuts are still blaming Bush for everything from AIDs to your erectile dysfunction.
ReplyDeleteWhen B. Hussein Obama was elected, the Left gushed about a “post-racial” America. It was one of those hopey-changey things; we would instantly morph into a color-blended “diverse” society. Except for white people who apparently have a corner on the “racist” market, and would not be included because well, in spite of our own hyphenated heritage, we’re not “diverse enough”.
Lookie what happened since the election of the “post-racial” Obamessiah.
Racial epithets are okay…as long as it comes from the mouth or the writings of a liberal.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/the-lefts-spin-on-its-own-racism/
TheRoot.com, a blog owned by the Washington Post, and edited by Henry Louis Gates (yeah, that Henry Louis Gates), lumps conservative blacks Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, and Michael Steele in with a list of truly despicable world dictators and mass murders as, “Black Folks We’d Like To Remove From Black History.”
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/22/website-lists-clarence-thomas
More: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/02/23/wapo-blog-compares-black-conservatives-genocidal-dictators
More on Gates: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/on-henry-im-important-because-im-black-gates/
CNBC’s Donny Deutsch smears Republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio as a “coconut.” You know, “brown on the outside, white on the inside”.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2010/02/23/cnbcs-donny-deutsch-slams-marco-rubio-racially-charged-attack-hes-co
And then to accentuate the incredible double standard on the Left, we have the moonbats who pick and choose their definition of racism.
Here's where the blame belongs:
Obama and his merry band of neo-socialist Dems have created a downward spiraling economy: 16.2% unemployment, (that number includes those who simply stopped looking for work), a $14+ trillion debt, an enormous waste of $814 billion “stimulus” and $787 billion dollars in taxpayer funded bailouts. The government takeover of 2/3rds of the auto industry, insurance corporations, and health care. The engineered collapse of the housing and banking industry,(Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac/TARP),and a spending/borrowing orgy that resulted in the losss of our AAA credit rating.
Obama is a corrupt little man with corrupt friends and associates. He was raised with a resentful grudge against America by communist parents and he uses his position to wreak havoc.
B. Hussein uses the Oval office as a conduit for his corruption, Marxist economics, and kowtowing foreign policy. His graft, obstruction of justice, constitutional violations, the authoritarian takeover of healthcare and 2/3rds of the auto industry, gunrunning to Mexican thugs, eco-scams, affinity for Islamofascists, and feeding the maws of his Keynesian economic agenda with billions of dollars in taxpayer’s money, should have Americans angry enough to send his scrawny ass packing back to Chicago.
But morons who populate blogs like this will vote for him again because you choose pigment over substance.
In other words, "Violent Crazy Kid Wants to Kill President Who Isn't As Bad As Obama."
ReplyDelete