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Example: [Collected via e-mail, October 2008] This is not a forward from me, this actually happened. I am hoping people will send this on so that Americans can know the sort of fascist tactics being used by the Obama Campaign:On Wednesday the 1st of October I received a call on my cell while in the car with my husband. It was a woman who identified herself as calling from the Obama Campaign. The phone # she called from was 903-798-6020 which lists as Obama Volunteers of Texarkana (Texas).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. I hung up.Thursday, October 2, I answered the front door to find the Secret Service. Immediately I thought of the call and was furious that apparently you are not allowed to call Obama a Socialist without the Secret Service coming toinvestigate. Instead, they asked me about the following comment, relayed by the Obama Volunteer of Texarkana who called me, unsolicited on my cell phone:I will never support Obama and he will wind up dead on a hospital floor.My husband laughed and told them No, she called him a socialist but she never said a word about him dying. I gave them my actual quote. The woman asked insolently Oh? Well why would she make that up? I replied that I supposed she wasn't happy about what I said about her candidate and the Agent said That's right, you were rude! 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?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.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 threaten 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.Do I hear jackboots?Jessica HughesLufkin, TexasOrigins: This October 2008 account was written by Jessica Hughes of Lufkin, Texas, who maintains that: She received a phone call from an Obama campaign volunteer.She expressed disdain for Barack Obama to the volunteer.The following day she received a visit from Secret Service agents for purportedly making a threat against Barack Obama's life.The volunteer worker had deliberately misreported a non-threatening comment she had made during their phone conversation.The Secret Service agents were dispatched to her house by someone high in the ranks of the Obama campaign.At this point, all we can ascertain is that the issue has been brought up to the Obama campaign and the Secret Service: Obama Campaign Communications for Texas director Josh Taylor declined to comment, 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.Whether the substance of the phone call (and the subsequent conversation with the Secret Service agents) occurred as reported by Ms. Hughes, whether the matter was the result of malice rather than misunderstanding, and whether someone high in the ranks of the Obama campaign was involved in dispatching federal agents to visit Ms. Hughes are all questions that await further investigation.
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