Bad Deeds for 6-28-2009

Conservative Internet Radio Host, Arrested For Inciting Violence Against Public Officials – Hal Turner, an occasional talk show host on internet radio and blogger, was arrested today by the FBI in his New Jersey home on charges he threatened to murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago following their recent ruling upholding handgun bans. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, postings on Turner’s web site included photos of the judges and addresses for them, with statements such as: “Let me be the first to say this plainly; These judges deserve to be killed.”

A day after Turner posted the original threat, urging readers that “it appears another lesson is needed,” he posted an update with the names of the judges, along with photographs, phone numbers, and work addresses, right down to office numbers. In the update, Turner wrote: “Judges official public work addresses and a map of the area are below. Their home addresses and maps will follow soon. Behold these devils.”

Michael Savage Makes Threats, Does Cyberstalking – Michael Savage has decided to engage in a tidy bit of web-stalking of his critics at Media Matters, threatening to put up the pictures and “pertinent information” of the organization’s employees. What’s strange about this is that Media Matters has been making the case for some time now that right-wing voices have been ramping up rhetoric that specifically urges violent acts and intimidation. So now, Savage is talking about a running a web-stalking campaign against them?

Democratic Detroit Council Member Guilty in Taking Bribes – City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for supporting a sludge contract with a Houston company. Prosecutors accused Monica Conyers of accepting two payments from a Synagro Technologies official in late 2007 in exchange for supporting a wastewater sludge contract. They said Conyers received envelopes containing cash on Nov. 20, 2007 in the parking lot of a Detroit community center and on Dec. 4 of that year in a McDonald’s parking lot. In November 2007, Conyers voted in favor of the Synagro contract.

Bachmann Compares Census To WWII Internment Camps – Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is taking her refusal to fully fill out her Census form, which is a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine, to a whole new level on Fox News: “If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps … I’m not saying that that’s what the Administration is planning to do, but I am saying that private personal information that was given to the Census Bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up, in a violation of their constitutional rights, and put the Japanese in internment camps.”

Regards,

Jim