More Secret Service Bullshit

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-11-12 10:54am

BOULDER - Two secret service agents paid a visit to Boulder High School Thursday to investigate rumors that a high school band had been practicing a song that contained lyrics threatening President Bush.

The band, which had planned to call itself "Tali-Banned," was set to play a cover of Bob Dylan's Masters of War at the school's "Talent Expose" Friday. The final verse of the song includes the words "Your death will come soon." During the song, the students planned to use images of President Bush and war in the background. The band has since decided to call itself "Coalition of the Willing"

The school's principal says the band never threatened President Bush. He says the students in the band were merely expressing their political views.

"Students have an opportunity to express different opinions - political and otherwise - in the talent show, and have done so for years," said Ron Cabrera, Boulder High School principal.

Two Boulder High School teachers, who had planned on playing in the band, have decided not to do so. One of the teachers also helped a group of students last week who stage an overnight sit-in in the school's library.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2004-11-12 10:57am

You may consider it bullshit but that is their job description. They investigate all possible threats to the president. It's not like they arrested anyone, they just went down to confirm a rumor.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2004-11-12 10:59am

Tali-Banned

What the? You know the Taliban got what it deserved kids, picking them has their mascot doesn't give me good vibes on their grasp of things.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2004-11-12 11:01am

"Your death will come soon"? Are they fucking stupid or something?

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2004-11-12 11:07am

Sigh. There's a reason I want to get out of Boulder once my lease is up. It full of fucking idiots.

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2004-11-12 11:08am

BTW, Zod, where exactly are you?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-11-12 11:10am

Alex Moon wrote:BTW, Zod, where exactly are you?

downtown denver right now. boulder's not exactly next door for me but it's close enough.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-11-12 11:40am

*sigh* Oh god, those evil SS guys are doing their job!!!!!!!

Think, dumb ass. "Your death will come soon"? is a damn threat. Threatening bodily harm is not protected speach nor is it political discourse, and your a dumbass for thinking it is.

Notice the acticle doesn't say anyone was arrested. The SS were doing their job, following up on a threat. I bet a dollar or a donut they really didn't want to go down there, but had to because its their damn job.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-11-12 11:51am

Knife wrote:
Think, dumb ass. "Your death will come soon"? is a damn threat. Threatening bodily harm is not protected speach nor is it political discourse, and your a dumbass for thinking it is.

remind me again how it's a threat when it's the lyrics of a fucking song? nor does it actually mention anywhere in the article they actually threatened bodily harm. chances are this could have been avoided had the teachers simply gone over it with them as opposed to calling the secret service. it simply isn't necessary.

Notice the acticle doesn't say anyone was arrested. The SS were doing their job, following up on a threat. I bet a dollar or a donut they really didn't want to go down there, but had to because its their damn job.

what threat? since when do the lyrics of a song that happen to end with the line your death will come soon constitute a threat? admittedly their choice of name was idiotic, but this strikes me as overreaction on part of the teachers.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-11-12 11:54am

Darth_Zod wrote:
remind me again how it's a threat when it's the lyrics of a fucking song? nor does it actually mention anywhere in the article they actually threatened bodily harm. chances are this could have been avoided had the teachers simply gone over it with them as opposed to calling the secret service. it simply isn't necessary.

what threat? since when do the lyrics of a song that happen to end with the line your death will come soon constitute a threat? admittedly their choice of name was idiotic, but this strikes me as overreaction on part of the teachers.

Explain to me how couching a threatening line like ""Your death will come soon" in music some how makes it not a threat?

Putting threatening language in a song doesn't make it protected speach, or approprate.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2004-11-12 11:57am

Doesn't the article say these are lyrics of a bob dylan song they are covering?

The song presumably is political. They are using images of bush DURING the song... theres nothing in there to lead me to believe that the song contains a threat to bush. I guess the secret service came to the same conclusion seeing as no one was arrested.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-11-12 12:01pm

Knife wrote:
Explain to me how couching a threatening line like ""Your death will come soon" in music some how makes it not a threat?

how is it couching a line if it was already apart of the song they picked? had they played the song using imagery of anyone except bush, i doubt anyone would've said shit.

Putting threatening language in a song doesn't make it protected speach, or approprate.

except it was already apart of the song. it's not something they just added in at the last moment.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2004-11-12 12:01pm

Explain to me how couching a threatening line like ""Your death will come soon" in music some how makes it not a threat?

Putting threatening language in a song doesn't make it protected speach, or approprate.

its not specified at any point who the line is referring to. it could be referring to the audience in relation to what they percieve as a questionable foreign policy, or even to america as a country. Its only a direct threat if they are stupid enough to put an image of bush up at the exact moment the line is sung. the article doesn't give us enough info to know if this is the case or not, but somehow i doubt it is.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-11-12 12:03pm

Zac Naloen wrote:Doesn't the article say these are lyrics of a bob dylan song they are covering?

The song presumably is political. They are using images of bush DURING the song... theres nothing in there to lead me to believe that the song contains a threat to bush. I guess the secret service came to the same conclusion seeing as no one was arrested.

True, but my objection is to the idea that the SS swooped down on law abiding citizens and some how leaned on their rights.

If the students (and quite frankly the teachers) are stupid enough to let them sing ""Your death will come soon", then a visit from people whose job it is to investigate stupid shit (and more serious shit) shouldn't be unexpected.

The SS does not have a choice. They are mandated to investigate possible threats to the President. Stupid or serious. They investigate them all. Its their damn job.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-11-12 12:05pm

Knife wrote:
True, but my objection is to the idea that the SS swooped down on law abiding citizens and some how leaned on their rights.

If the students (and quite frankly the teachers) are stupid enough to let them sing ""Your death will come soon", then a visit from people whose job it is to investigate stupid shit (and more serious shit) shouldn't be unexpected.

my main objection is to the fact that some moron thought it actually did constitute a threat and felt it was necessary to inform the SS rather than going to the teachers themselves. as i already pointed out above.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2004-11-12 12:05pm

Knife wrote:
True, but my objection is to the idea that the SS swooped down on law abiding citizens and some how leaned on their rights.

If the students (and quite frankly the teachers) are stupid enough to let them sing ""Your death will come soon", then a visit from people whose job it is to investigate stupid shit (and more serious shit) shouldn't be unexpected.

The SS does not have a choice. They are mandated to investigate possible threats to the President. Stupid or serious. They investigate them all. Its their damn job.

Exactly. This case is hardly "More Secret Service Bullshit"

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2004-11-12 12:06pm

Darth_Zod wrote:
my main objection is to the fact that some moron thought it actually did constitute a threat and felt it was necessary to inform the SS rather than going to the teachers themselves. as i already pointed out above.

Well, if that's your opinion then this is just a big misunderstanding. Your title didn't help that though.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-11-12 12:08pm

Darth_Zod wrote:
how is it couching a line if it was already apart of the song they picked? had they played the song using imagery of anyone except bush, i doubt anyone would've said shit.

except it was already apart of the song. it's not something they just added in at the last moment.

If they had someone up there but Bush, then the Secret Service wouldn't have been sent to see. Though, I guess if a complain was phoned in to the local police, they'd have been duty bound to do the same.

Its an implied threat. Thats why the SS came.

Whats that Dixie Chick song? Kill Bob, or some such. Same thing, the song is about a chick killing her abusive husband. If they sang that song with Pictures of Bush behind em, it's still an implied threat. Its not protected speach.

Its still silly and I'm sure not one single person there advocates killing Bush, but it was still enough to warrent the SS to investigate. Its not some civil rights abuse as you wish to imply.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-11-12 12:08pm

It's a cover song. You also need to look at it in context.

The relevant portion says "And I hope that you die/ And your death'll come soon." From what I can tell it would be saying I hope that the person dies soon.

I can see why the Secret Service would be concerned, however, from what I can tell it doesn't actually threaten anyone. And the imagery of using Bush is appropriate considering the lyrics of the song.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-11-12 12:52pm

Let's see

"I hope that you die. and that your death will come soon. because not even Jesus could ever forgive what you do."-Bob Dylan, re-the vietnam war.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-11-12 04:34pm

Zac Naloen wrote:Doesn't the article say these are lyrics of a bob dylan song they are covering?

The song presumably is political. They are using images of bush DURING the song... theres nothing in there to lead me to believe that the song contains a threat to bush. I guess the secret service came to the same conclusion seeing as no one was arrested.

No, but someone called them in. When they are called in they HAVE to investigate, no matter how obvious the harmlessness of the threat is.

My guess is that some student or teacher didn't like the band and reported them.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-11-12 06:36pm

Kamakazie Sith wrote:
Darth_Zod wrote:
my main objection is to the fact that some moron thought it actually did constitute a threat and felt it was necessary to inform the SS rather than going to the teachers themselves. as i already pointed out above.
Well, if that's your opinion then this is just a big misunderstanding. Your title didn't help that though.

realized the bit about the title only after i posted though. *shrug*

mainly it's just troublesome seeing how often these types of reports are getting in the news lately. i can't remember it happening so much with other presidents.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2004-11-12 06:44pm

Darth_Zod wrote:
realized the bit about the title only after i posted though. *shrug*

mainly it's just troublesome seeing how often these types of reports are getting in the news lately. i can't remember it happening so much with other presidents.

Well, as long as they don't get out of hand then I have no problem with it. I blame the media, for all we know this happened a lot before Bush they just didn't consider it a big deal. Now certain media groups are attempting to paint their own picture.

Just like the 6 year old that got tasered, today I think. Why add the 50,000 volts comment? That can have several different meanings for the uneducated.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-11-12 07:42pm

Oh my god! That guy in the dark suit and glasses just gave me a dirty look! SS! OPRESSION!
HE OPRESSED ME!

Burn this cryptofascist nazi state to the ground!! YEEEEAAARGH!

Q'APLA! Q'AAAPLAAAAA!

FLICKATCHAHOO!

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2004-11-12 10:33pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:Let's see

"I hope that you die. and that your death will come soon. because not even Jesus could ever forgive what you do."-Bob Dylan, re-the vietnam war.

You've got two verses mixed up. The verse in question is "I hope that you die / And your death will come soon. / I'd follow your casket / On a pale afternoon. / I'd watch as you're lowered / Down to your deathbed / And I'd stand by your grave 'till I'm sure that you're dead."