hreats against Bush at public protests
A protester with a sign saying “Kill Bush” and advocating that the White House be bombed, at the March 18, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
“Save Mother Earth, Kill Bush” says this sign from a November 20, 2003 protest.
(Source: Innovative Minds
A recommendation that Bush should hang, from an October 27, 2007 protest in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures
“Bush is the disease, Death is the cure,” says this protester at an anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: People’s Cube
“I’m here to kill Bush (shoot me)” reads this protest sign (location unknown).
(Source: I found this image several years ago in an online report about an anti-war protest, but I unfortunately failed to note down where or when the protest happened, and the Web site that originally hosted the report is now defunct.)
Two different pictures of the same sign saying “Bush — the only dope worth shooting,” at the March 15, 2008 anti-war rally in Los Angeles.
(Source: photo on the left from Ringo’s Pictures
A sign showing Bush being shot in the head, at the March 15, 2008 anti-war rally in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures
Remember the guy in our first picture? Here he is again, with another explicit death threat against the president, this time calling for “Death to…Bush” at the October 27, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
And here he comes again with a third message, this time brazenly calling for “Death to…Bush” at the March 18, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.); original source unknown.)
Bush being beheaded by a guillotine, at an Obama campaign rally, Denver, October 26, 2008.
(Source: Looking at the Left
Bush’s head in a basket after being decapitated by a guillotine, at an Obama campaign rally, Denver, October 26, 2008.
(Source: Looking at the Left
A sign saying “SMITE BUSH” at the June 5, 2004 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
Protesters call for Bush to be beheaded with a guillotine, at a protest against Bush’s second inauguration, January 20, 2005, in New York.
(Source: Fred Askew Photography
An effigy of Bush being killed, at the April 10, 2004 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
Bush being burned in effigy, at a November 3, 2004 post-election anti-Bush rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
There are literally hundreds of videos currently viewable on YouTube of Bush being burned in effigy. I’ve posted a screenshot of one above, but rather than clog up this post with several embedded YouTube videos (which slows down the page loading), I’ll simply post links to several of the videos here:
bush you liar we’ll set your ass on fire
Burning George Bush
George W Bush burns in effigy (Washington DC)
And for a little variety: Bush getting smashed
(On the “Related videos” sidebars for all of these you can find many additional burning-Bush-in-effigy videos.)
In case you feel that burning Bush in effigy “doesn’t count” — just imagine the outcry there would be if even a single instance ofObama being burned in effigy was filmed (claims of “lynching,” etc.).
Bush being lynched by an American flag at a rally in New York on September 19, 2006.
(Source: Fred Askew Photography
A protester with a shirt that said “Death to all posers” with a picture of Bush superimposed, at the October 27, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
This sign from a protest in Chicago says “Lee Harvey, where are you?” at the bottom, referring to JFK’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
(Source: Chicago Indymedia
A protester in Denver calls for Bush to the get the Louis XVI treatment — i.e beheaded by a guillotine
(Source: Looking at the Left .)
Woman holding a puppet of Bush being hung by the neck, from a March 17, 2007 protest in Hollywood, California.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures
Fantasy of Saddam Hussein killing Bush, from an October 27, 2007 protest in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures
A sign implying Bush should be killed for being a war profiteer. From an October 27, 2007 protest in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures
A child holding Bush’s tombstone, at the February 16, 2003 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)
Threats in other settings (i.e. not at protests)
.)
As far as I can tell, no one was ever stopped or investigated by the Secret Service for displaying this bumper sticker. Compare that to what happened to a man in Oklahoma on February 12, who had a sign in his car saying “Abort Obama Not the Unborn” — which not only caused the police to pull him over and confiscate the sign, but which eventually led to the Secret Service searching his house
looking for evidence that he was a threat to the president. Double standard? You decide.
Wider-angle shot showing the bumper sticker above in context, with a pro-Obama sticker on the same car, proving that the sticker was displayed by a Bush detractor, not a supporter.
(Photo by Last Mohican
(Source: USA Today .)
Threats against Bush by celebrities which were never investigated
John Kerry
The picture above shows John Kerry as he was being interviewed by Bill Maher in October of 2006 on the HBO show Real Time . As can be seen in this video exclusively on the ongoodmove blog
, starting at about one minute into the clip Kerry says what can only be interpreted as a threat to kill Bush:The picture above shows John Kerry as he was being interviewed by Bill Maher in October of 2006 on the HBO show Real Time . As can be seen in this video exclusively on the ongoodmove blog
Maher : You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.Kerry : Or, I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone .
Full transcript of the interview here
.Was John Kerry ever questioned or investigated for making a threat against Bush? No.
(Source: National Review
.)Betty Williams (Nobel Peace Prize winner)
On July 11, 2007, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams gave the keynote speech to the International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas, Texas, and said (to laughter and applause from the audience):
On July 11, 2007, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams gave the keynote speech to the International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas, Texas, and said (to laughter and applause from the audience):
“I mean right now, I could kill George Bush , no problem. No, I don’t mean that. I mean — how could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that .”
You can hear the audiotape of her threat on Breitbart.TV
. Despite the fact that threatening to kill the president is a crime, the Secret Service refused to question her or detain her; according to the Dallas Morning News , “Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren in Washington declined to comment, but a Dallas agent said Ms. Williams had not been questioned and there were no plans to do so.” However, the people who emailed the conference in anger about her threats — they were the ones investigated: “Conference organizers reported that a Dallas police detective was working with hotel security to review about 40 hateful e-mails received in response to Ms. Williams’ speech.”Earlier, Betty Williams said essentially the same thing
in a speech in Australia on July 24, 2006, proving that this was not just a slip of the tongue but something she thinks about frequently:“I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence,’ because I don’t believe that I am non-violent…. Right now, I would love to kill George Bush …. I don’t know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief.”
Was Betty Williams ever questioned or investigated for making a threat against Bush? No.
(Source: wikipedia
.)Craig Kilborn
On August 4, 2000, when Bush won the Republican nomination (but before he was president), Craig Kilborn on CBS’s The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn ran a graphic of the words “ SNIPERS WANTED ” under George Bush as he gave his acceptance speech. Although CBS belatedly apologized five days later
, Kilborn was never investigated, questioned or punished , and continued to host the show for four more years.On August 4, 2000, when Bush won the Republican nomination (but before he was president), Craig Kilborn on CBS’s The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn ran a graphic of the words “ SNIPERS WANTED ” under George Bush as he gave his acceptance speech. Although CBS belatedly apologized five days later
Was Craig Kilborn ever questioned or investigated for making a threat against Bush? No.
(Source: The Smoking Gun
.)Also see:
said during a June 1, 2006 speech that Senator Charles Schumer “will put a bullet between the president’s eyes if he could get away with it.” Hevesi later apologized for the statement.Death threat t-shirts
Look at the two pictures above. Which do you find more offensive? Which is more obviously a threat to kill or disrespect a president?
If you’re an Obama supporter, the answer seems to be, “The picture on the left,” because that’s the picture that has caused storms of outrage across America. But both these images are of t-shirts currently available for sale on zazzle.com
, the user-generated customized product site:The outrage over the Obama Joker shirts and posters has reached a fever pitch; whereas there has been a deafening silence about the “execute Bush” shirts. Why is that? Critics point out that the designer of the Joker shirt goes by the name “thelibertytree,” which some critics are claiming might be seen as a menacing reference. And critics also claim that portraying Obama as the Joker from a recent Batman film reeks of racism. (Though those critics have suddenly fallen mute now that it has been revealed that the person who made the original Photoshop was a Palestinian-American
.) But in both these aspects the offensiveness is very subtle and requires interpretation, and can’t be said to be an overt threat. But look at the shirt on the right: “ We don’t need to impeach Bush. We need to execute him! ” Can you get any more overt than that?Where is the outrage? If people really and truly cared about threats to the president, then they’d be complaining about shirts like the one depicted on the right, not just the one on the left. But it’s obvious many Obama supporters don’t really care about the threats — they just want to score political points.
For a while, CafePress allowed violent anti-Bush paraphernalia (such as this “Kill Bush” shirt) to be sold by users on its site, but after they were publicized by the Drudge Report
(Source: Lifelike Pundits .)
Another “Kill Bush” shirt that didn’t get nearly as much publicity as the one above.
(Source: mirrorgirl
“Wanted” posters
Wild-West-style “Wanted” posters about Bush were commonplace at rallies as well. Since historically these posters usually implied (or overtly stated) that the target was “Wanted — dead or alive,” such posters were often the equivalent of a death sentence for the person named, at the hand of vigilantes. Because of this, I regard these “Bush Wanted” posters as implicit threats. Only a few examples are given here, since these were so common at anti-war protests during the Bush era.
Protester carrying a “Wanted” poster for Bush, at the G-8 summit in Sapporo, Japan, July 5, 2008.
(Source: AP, via topplebush.com
Prototypical Bush “Wanted” poster at a protest, with a bonus Hitler mustache.
(Source: National Review
One of many Bush “Wanted” posters that proliferated after the invasion of Iraq.
(Source: evergreen.edu
Graffiti
Graffiti is inherently anonymous, so there’s no way to “investigate” who wrote these threats; but even so I thought I’d give a small sampling of some of the extreme graffiti that could be seen during Bush’s term in office.
“I will kill Bush” says this graffiti spotted on the New York Subway “C” Train in 2005.
(Source: Jackie Clarke Loves Graffiti blog
This wall-art poster reads “The World Needs More People Like You: Kill Bush.” Location unknown.
(Source: Flickr
Graffiti that says “Kill Bush!” Unknown date and location.
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