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"Death to Obama" Sign Holder in Maryland Detained

Thursday 13 August 2009

by: David Dishneau  |  The Associated Press

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Man holds a sign saying "Death to Obama" outside a town hall meeting on health care. (Photo: WHAG-TV)

    Hagerstown, Maryland - The Secret Service is investigating a man who authorities said held a sign reading "Death to Obama" outside a town hall meeting on health-care reform in western Maryland.

    The sign also read, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids," referring to the first name of President Barack Obama's wife, said Washington County Sheriff's Capt. Peter Lazich.

    Lazich said deputies detained the unidentified, 51-year-old man near the entrance to Hagerstown Community College about 1 p.m. Wednesday after getting calls from a number of people attending the meeting held by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Obama was not at the meeting.

    The sheriff's office turned the man over to the Secret Service, Lazich said.

    Barbara Golden, special agent in charge of the agency's Baltimore field office, said Thursday that an investigation is ongoing but declined further comment. A spokesman at the agency's Washington headquarters also declined to discuss the investigation.

    Police said there were no other arrests among the nearly 1,000 people, some carrying protest signs, who came to the college for the meeting or demonstrated off-campus.

    Cardin's national communications director, Sue Walitsky, called the incident "unfortunate." She said she was unaware of it until Thursday morning.

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Comments

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Advocating violence against

 Fri, 08/14/2009 - 13:42 β€” radline9 (not verified)
Advocating violence against the president is a criminal offense and the man should go to jail for a long time.

Not very subtle, not very

 Fri, 08/14/2009 - 14:29 β€” Henk in Maryland (not verified)
Not very subtle, not very subtle at all. However, it did get attention, just not the right kind. He could have held up a sign that said as follows: "Cardin's constituents are United Health Care, Blue Cross..." etc. But a sign like that would be ignored completely.

There is something so

 Fri, 08/14/2009 - 15:57 β€” Jane (not verified)
There is something so bizarre in this 'up is down' campaign against health care reform, that i find it impossible to comprehend. How can so many people be so influenced to carry water for corporate interests? You would have to be devoid of all faculties to be unaware of corporate policies and politics. Advocating for them is to self-inflict a wound. Imagine the dismay for the man with the sign, next year, when his child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and he is left to beg for care. The biggest problem in America, and the world in general, is the adversarial approach to life. We just can't seem to understand that we're all in this together and nothing can be good for you, unless it is also good for me. We the people, all of us, provide excellent health care benefits for our public servants. How could it be possible that we have less for ourselves?

There are a lot of lunatics

 Fri, 08/14/2009 - 16:04 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
There are a lot of lunatics out there goaded by desparate interest groups at the Obama and Democratic leaders rallies. All the crowds in town- hall meetings must be screened for weapons. We do not want another Kennedy type assasination. This time, we might end up in a civil war. I pray that the FORCE protect our leaders from the lunatic fringe who mistakenly believe a world view that is fairy tale and fantasy.

Let us hope and pray that

 Fri, 08/14/2009 - 16:09 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Let us hope and pray that such sickos will receive the careful surveillance they need. Threats like this and the others we are hearing about need to be taken VERY seriously. As the hate groups in this country grow stronger they endanger the security of every one of us.

The GOP has become the

 Sat, 08/15/2009 - 00:21 β€” mysterioso (not verified)
The GOP has become the beacon for redneck yahoos who now can vent their racist anger at rallies for health care. They seem to think its anything goes and that thought is promulgated by the GOP itself. It's "how could we actually have lost the election" ranting has taken the form of the party of NO, the party of Deathers and Birthers, the party of carry signs saying anything and guns to rallies. What the hell has happened in this country? Just how pompous and entitled are the Republicans? Is the White House theirs to keep? Is lying and getting paid for votes now the everyday job of Republican elected officials? What has happened to this country I love and served? The world laughs at us and the Republicans don't care. The Republicans are on a mob high. Their blood is flaming and being stoked by officials who should have more sense. Just how dumb do you have to be to get elected to congress? Or, just how greedy?

It looks more and more

 Sat, 08/15/2009 - 05:20 β€” captain pneumo (not verified)
It looks more and more likely that some covert "spook" group, funded by one of our 'black ops budgets", will "off" our new President, using any one of these ten thousand Right Wing hecklers as the fall guy, purportedly "acting alone". Yeah, right...just like Oswald and Sirhan were "acting alone". It could happen, and it gets more and more likely with each passing day. Gun sales now are at an all-time high....

I'm afraid the HATE GROUPS

 Sat, 08/15/2009 - 14:04 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I'm afraid the HATE GROUPS are not being exposed, and most of the times, they are being called as SOME LUNATICS, but in fact, some of them have been hired by the Insurance Companies!! Why are we so afraid to spell out the giant greedy companies' interests or their criminal tactics?? This battle of the corporate giants against the interests and well being of the majority got to be stopped or at least exposed in prime-time; I mean reported as headlines on major newspapers across USA. I feel helpless as a citizen when the media just dismissed some of these fanatic-right wingers as some small fringe population, but some are hired hands!! When are we going to learn from history, after the assasination of 2 Kennedys, ML King...and we are just calling these thugs some lunatics!! There's an organized paid mob out there ready to take down a democratic USA!!! I'm not exaggerating. I'm ringing the ALARM BELL.

The special interests

 Sat, 08/15/2009 - 19:11 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
The special interests (read:blood-sucking health care providers) are using a big stick to stir up the bottom of the cess-pit. Let's hope their plan backfires and they end up covered in the evil they have stirred up.