Instead of protecting free speech--especially political speech--the Dept. of Justice is going to spend time and resources prosecuting hyperbolic comments on the internet.  Ken White of Popehat.com, who exposed this latest idiocy by our overbearing Gov't joins us to discuss his latest article at Popehat.com 
Ken White, partner at Brown White & Osborn in Los Angeles, former federal prosecutor, current criminal defense attorney and First Amendment litigator.  Twitter handle:  @popehat
The United States Department of Justice is using federal grand jury subpoenas to identify anonymous commenters engaged in typical internet bluster and hyperbole in connection with the Silk Road prosecution. DOJ is targeting Reason.com, a leading libertarian website whose clever writing is eclipsed only by the blowhard stupidity of its commenting peanut gallery. Why is the government using its vast power to identify these obnoxious asshats, and not the other tens of thousands who plague the internet? Because these twerps mouthed off about a judge.   Click here for the full story. Are the Reason.com Comments "True Threats?" No. NO. AND HELL NO! "True Threats" are those threats that are outside the protection of the First Amendment; they are not mere political hyperbole or bluster. For instance, in 1967, when Mr. Watts said that if he were drafted the first man he'd want in his rifle sights was President Lyndon B. Johnson, that wasn't a true threat: it was conditional political hyperbole. In other words, it was mere angry bluster of the sort no reasonable person would take to be a serious threat.3 What of these comments on Reason.com, then? I submit that they are very clearly not true threats — that this is not even a close call. Click here for the full story.