So, how was your MLK Day?
Joshua Black, a candidate running for a Tampa Bay-area seat in the Florida House, posted some offensive attacks against President Obama on his Twitter and Facebook accounts. When one of Black's followers tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high," Black simply wrote back: "agreed."
He was then asked to clarify what he meant, and, of course, it didn't get any better from there.
"@civilwarcometh: @BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. http://t.co/Li1e0fzCLi" Agreed
@ChrisLatvala Execution is the appropriate punishment for traitors. #BenedictArnold #ReadAmericanHistory #criminalpoliticians
He then took to Facebook to unleash a much longer criticism about a drone execution of an American citizen overseas.
Black is referring to Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen who had terrorist ties to al-Qaeda and had called for a jihad against the United States while living overseas. Obama authorized the CIA to kill him because of his terrorist links, and an unmanned drone did just that in an attack during September 2011. This decision has been scrutinized and debated on since the event took place. Al-Awlaki's son was killed in a separate drone attack, but he wasn't the target in that event.
Yet, the hashtag Black used, #BenedictArnold, was a little out of place. Arnold, a traitor during the American Revolutionary War, wasn't executed by the United States, and instead lived the rest of his life across the pond.
Well, I need to make this clarification: I was wrong about Benedict Arnold. I apologize for the confusion.
As the saying goes, "there no such thing as bad publicity," and whether that's true or not, Black is now up to 476 followers on Twitter, up from 454 an hour ago. So that's that.
[via Gawker]
