It would really gladden my heart if the folks such as Obama, Gates, and others, decided to take people like ichMael and haul the whole bunch of them into court for slander and libel and sue their sorry butts off.

I'm sure that icky-Mickey is unaware that by peddling this kind of maliciousness, he, and others doing the same thing, are just begging to be slapped with such law suits. And he can be sued for damages to the extent that, to pay off the damages, he'd have to hock everything, including his fillings. I'm talking hundreds of thousands of dollars here. Or more.

And he is also probably under the impression that hiding behind a pseudonym on the internet, he is relatively anonymous and can't be found. Not so. In addition to his postings here, he has a number of web pages, all spewing the same kind of venom about a whole lot of people, and such web pages and postings are traceable. Computers connected to the internet all have identification numbers, and although it might take a court order to do so (and in the case of a law suit, this could easily be obtained), tracing the source of such messages would be no more difficult than tracing a telephone call. In fact, easier.

Even without having the facilites to trace, by cross-checking a couple of web pages and comparing URLs, then browsing a few different web sites and comparing such things as layouts, fonts, and general style, I think I have a pretty good idea, not only of who ichMael really is, but where he is as well. Not very difficult.

Yes, there is freedom of speech in this country. But with that freedom goes commensurate responsibility. And if what one says damages someone else's reputation or holds them up to public ridicule and obloquy, they can be sued in court.

And the only defense against a suit for slander and/or libel is for the defendant to prove that what he is saying is true.

And there is no way in hell that ichMael and the others can do that, because there is overwhelming evidence that it isn't!

There are some pretty nasty people out there, but I'm really amazed at the magnitude of sheer malice emanating from creatures like ichMael.

Don Firth

P. S. A propos of nothing in particular, but just for kicks, can you say "swiftboaters?"