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Big Brother Obama
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 A Lufkin woman received a surprise visit from the Secret Service last [month] because of a "death threat" comment she reportedly made about Sen. Barack Obama to a campaign volunteer asking for her support of the presidential candidate.Two federal agents arrived at Jessica Hughes' home Thursday to ask her if she said, "I will never support Obama and he will wind up dead on a hospital floor." Hughes said her words were deliberately twisted by a volunteer who was apparently unhappy Hughes was rude during a phone conversation the two had. The Lufkin mother, a Republican, said she received a call on her cell phone Wednesday from a woman with the Obama Volunteers of Texarkana. "She asked if I was an Obama supporter, to which I replied, 'No, I don't support him. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the state Senate to let little babies die in hospital closets; I think you should find something better to do with your time.' (And then) I hung up." (Hughes is referring to a "born alive" Illinois bill that did not pass in the Illinois state Senate in 2005 and had previously been opposed by Obama because he said it undermined Roe v. Wade, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan organization. A federal version of the bill, which Obama said he would have supported, passed by unanimous consent and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002.) Obama Campaign Communications for Texas director Josh Taylor declined to comment Monday, refusing to answer any questions and referring the matter to the Secret Service, which he said is conducting an investigation. A message left with a Secret Service agent in Houston was not immediately returned. Hughes said she was surprised to see two Secret Service agents at her door, and upset to learn that the conversation she had with the volunteer apparently had not been recorded. "I find it hard to believe that (campaign volunteers) don't tape these calls. They call people unsolicited and they aren't monitoring the calls or recording them? I think that is absolutely ridiculous," she said. "I mean, how often must this happen — that someone is rude to a volunteer that they don't want to talk to?" Hughes said she wants to file a countercomplaint against the volunteer. "She has made a charge that will follow me the rest of my life," she said. "I find that repugnant and violating — that some person got her undies in a bundle because she didn't like what I had to say." |
Here's "the rest of the story," in Jessica's own words, e-mailed to a neighbor and forwarded to me:
The last time I checked being rude wasn’t a crime in America. Luckily the big file they had gathered on me didn't indicate mental instability or a past life of stalking/crime, however they did want to know how I felt about Obama. That was my limit. I told the Agent in no uncertain terms that my thoughts were not pertinent to their investigation, that this was America and the last time I checked I was allowed to think whatever I wanted without being questioned by the Secret Service. In fact, even if I had said what she claimed, that isn't a threat. I told them (again) and my husband verified that the statement reported by Obama's volunteer was a lie. I asked them if there was a tape of the call and they said no. I said, "So on the word of a ticked off Obama supporter you are on my porch with no other evidence and you want to question me about my THOUGHTS!?" They informed me that there was no evidence she was an Obama supporter . . . someone calling from his campaign . . . are you kidding? [The woman identified herself as being from the Obama campaign, and the number that came up on Caller ID was registered to "Obama Volunteers of Texarkana" (Texas).] I was not allowed to know the name of my accuser, at which point they informed me that it wasn't like I was in a court of law, YET, as if this was a good thing. I recognized this as a veiled threat. I told them I would happily go to court since I did nothing wrong and at least then my accuser would have to face me rather than sending the "thought police" to my house. They then said they were trying to do me a favor, that they came to me first before "embarrassing you by going to all your neighbors and family," -- another threat? I told them to be my guest and talk to whomever they wanted, but they weren’t going to investigate my thoughts on my porch. They also informed me that it would be easier if the next time a supporter calls me I just say "Yeah sure count me in, or just hang up" apparently so she won't get her undies in a bundle and give them more useless trips. Yeah, right. I said "Look, someone calls me unsolicited on my cell phone to ask me to support their candidate and I can't tell them why I don't?" I said I was sorry they made a wasted trip, but if they had a problem with some made-up lie, they needed to go talk to her about it because it wasn't my fault they had to drive from Houston for nothing. At one point I went inside and got a notepad to record their badge numbers and they refused to show me their badges. They had done the quick flip when they arrived. I asked for a card and the female Agent refused to give me one stating "You’re not going to get a card." The male Agent gave me a card and told me I could contact Houston with any questions. [This unprofessional behavior would make us wonder if they were in fact Secret Service, or if perhaps they were just a couple of goons posing as federal agents, but Jessica says the car they were driving had U.S. government license plates.] The fact that the volunteer lied, the fact that the Secret Service came to my house to question me about my thoughts and feelings and threatened to embarrass me to my neighbors and go to court if I didn’t cooperate is not really the tragedy here. Because that girl on the phone doesn’t have the pull to send the Secret Service to my home. Someone high in the ranks of a campaign working for a man who may be the next President of the United States of America felt comfortable bringing the force of the Federal Government to bear on a private citizen on nothing but the word of a partisan volunteer. I want to file a counter complaint that false charges were made, that a false report was given to a peace officer. The Secret Service told me I cannot because they will protect the identity of the complainant. I also want the file they have on me destroyed and I want to know that my phone isn’t tapped, et cetera. I am hearing a lot of "Out of my Jurisdiction." Do I also hear jackboots? Jessica Hughes |
What isn't mentioned in either of these accounts, but was brought out when Roger Hedgecock interviewed Jessica on his San Diego radio show, is that when this campaign worker called Jessica's cell phone (which we didn't think they were allowed to do), Jessica and her family were in their car on the way home from the emergency room. Her 9-year-old had suffered a mild concussion, but was OK.
Could that perhaps have had something to do with her annoyance at being called on her cell phone by a political campaign? Might she be forgiven for being curt with the volunteer? Personally, we see nothing wrong with what Jessica said, and we think it was the campaign that was being rude by calling her cell phone, a call she had to pay for.
We doubt seriously that Big Brother Obama himself was responsible for the overreaction by a ticked-off volunteer. But as Jessica pointed out, this volunteer would not have had the clout to "sic" the Secret Service on her. Someone higher up on the totem pole would have had to report the incident to the Secret Service. And between the time that the Secret Service showed up on Jessica's doorstep on Thursday afternoon and the media contacted the Obama campaign on Monday morning, the senior person in the Obama campaign in Texas was transferred to Virginia, so is out of state and unavailable for comment. Hmmmm . . . how convenient.
You can listen to Roger's interview with Jessica here:
One of the really scary things that is happening on the far left is their attitude that they are the only ones entitled to free speech. If you disagree with them, you have no rights to express your ideas. In a scenario that has been repeated in several places around the country, "truth squads" have been formed to discourage criticism of Big Brother Obama.
After the CBS affiliate in St. Louis reported, "Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad during the presidential campaign," Missouri governor Matt Blunt's office released this statement:
JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on news reports that have exposed plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics. St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign. What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment. This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson's thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election. Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society. |
This all reminds us of an important lesson from history we need to remember.
When asked how the Nazis were able to get away with the horrible things they did in Germany in World War II, and why the good German people didn't stop them, a pastor famously responded,
| When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, When they came for the trade unionists, When they came for the Jews, When they came for me, |
So when you go to the polls today, speak up for Jessica,
before you find that there's no one left to speak up for you.
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