People can mouth off about things, but when you threaten to kill the president, the Secret Service comes knocking at your door because it’s their job to determine whether you’re a threat or just an idiot.
Elwyn Nels Fossedal of Wisconsin, age 81, reiterated his threat to the Secret Service that if “President Obama was here I would shoot him right there and kill him right now,” so reads the criminal complaint filed in Wisconsin federal court this past Thursday. Fossedal is said to be proficient with firearms. The initial threat was reported in October.
Threatening the president is a violation of the US Code Title 18 § 871.
Fossedal gets both birther and “ditto-head” creds from a comment at the Western Center for Journalism web site back in 2009:
Rush, You should show up and EMBARASS THE LIVING DAY LIGHTS OUT OF THEM. President Obama does not need a BIRTH CERTIFICATE, why should you need an invitation. Other people can get into White House Parties without an Invitation, why not an Icon in the MEDIA?
And unsurprisingly enough the inmates at BR are defending him.
Absolute idiots. Get out the straight jackets and get the padded rooms ready. Their world of reality is spinning out of control. Any day now…..
Some of the non-homicidally-insane ones appear to believe that Fossedal’s defense will be their chance to finally shovel their Mountain of Damning Evidence™ over the Wall of Lack Of Standing, and into the courtroom.
I feel sorry for the judge that catches this case. Most likely, it’ll end either in a plea deal that trades a suspended sentence/probation for counseling, or a trial in which all the evydunce will be excluded. Either way, he’ll be accused of being part of the conspiracy, and face his own death threats.
What he thinks, and/or believes about the President would be just as irrelevant to his trial for threatening as the birth certificate mumbo jumbo was in Laken’s trial. The threat is and will be the issue, and that is the only thing that will ever be heard, and all that should be, about at trial. I am rather expecting that a competency hearing will be, or at least should be, the next order of business. I am equally certain that when he finally comes up before a magistrate, that he’ll give them every reason to order a competency review. I personally think he is a senile old fool, but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous.
Neither the judge in this district (we are currently down one judge due to repub filibustering) nor the magistrate (should it go that way) are known for suffering fools. Our District has also had a fair bit of experience with posse comitatus and other sov-cit loons types in the past. This won’t go well for the defendant.
Off with his head!
Seriously though, I can’t imagine what is must feel like to be 81 and verbally incontinent.
A lifetime of having to spell out his name has driven Mr. Fossedal crazy.
Q: Name please.
A: Elwyn Nels Fossedal
Q: Ellen the Fossil Doll?!
He wouldn’t have that problem if he had a name like Robert Logia!
That’s R, as in, Robert Logia…O as in Oh my God, it’s Robert Logia…
The consequences of suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome can be pretty severe. Going to prison at 81 years old is not going to be a good time.
He might just be fined.
If he’s lucky and the court has mercy on him due to his age.
I doubt prison. A rest home for the mentally challenged perhaps, but not prison.
At 81 years of age, he should be worried about what’s left of his pension if he is fined.
I think he’s just a fool as well. But I never just discount a nut due to age anymore. Not since the Holocaust Museum shooting. James Wenneker von Brunn was 88 when he did that.
Having hit bottom, this birther is starting to dig.
His threats are just a sign of the level of despair and hopelessness the birthers are sinking to…they have lost their case in the courts of both law and public opinion, are objects of ridicule and amusement to the media, and ignored by the citizenry.
This, sadly, is all they have left. And as mimi pointed out…age is no barrier to appalling violence.
In a related story, a “Christian” militia claims to have the authority to Kill Obama:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/23/1257923/-Facebook-Christian-Militia-Group-Makes-Death-Threats-Against-Obama?detail=email
They have obviously missed 18 USC 871 (b) – even if Obama somehow wasn’t eligible, he’d still be the “President-elect” as defined by that section (“the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections“) and therefore any death threats against him would be just as punishable as against an eligible President.
By that reasoning alone, any attempt to relitigate the President’s eligibility this way is doomed to fail (as it’s simply irrelevant to the criminal liability in this case).
People are saying this ”Wilhelmsen” is actually Bill Finlay, better known as Wild Bill:
http://www.wildbillforamerica.com/
Hold on, let me try something:
Christian
American
Patriot
Militia
See, most of those words are fine on their own, even militia isn’t too bad under some circumstances, but when you blend them all together like that they’re way too ominous.
And what about Christian Right American Militia People’s Security? Because I know when the revolution comes there will be CRAMPS waiting.