Posted on 03/01/2007 8:54:28 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Secret Service agents have questioned an Alameda man about a display in his front yard featuring a cardboard cutout of President Bush with a knife through his head.
Michael McDonald said he was grilled for about 90 minutes by two agents who asked about his personal history and his political views. They also asked him to allow access to his medical records, he said.
The cutout also shows painted blood running over the president's eyes and down the bridge of his nose.
McDonald said the federal agents asked if he interpreted his work as a threat against the country's chief executive. He said he didn't.
"They said, 'You've got a knife sitting in the head of the president of the United States,'" McDonald told The Oakland Tribune. "I said, 'No, I got a knife in a piece of cardboard.'"
McDonald, 55, said he has been placing art in his front yard for 13 years. He rotates the pieces monthly.
The Bush piece remains in place. He painted over the president's likeness in yellow and penciled in a swastika on the chest. The knife still pierces the forehead, running through a recently added sign that says, "Anonymous."
ap follow-on to your
Alameda artwork crossed line with Secret Service ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791945/posts
Posted by SmithL
On News/Activism ^ 02/27/2007 8:01:55 AM PST · 18 replies · 822+ views
McDonald said the federal agents asked if he interpreted his work as a threat against the country's chief executive. He said he didn't.
"They said, 'You've got a knife sitting in the head of the president of the United States,'" McDonald told The Oakland Tribune. "I said, 'No, I got a knife in a piece of cardboard.'"
Probably got NEA funding.
Well, any seriously threatening type would not be wasting his time, and showing his hand, in such childish displays. But just to be sure, he is to be entered into a database, and maybe checked on now and then.
Sounds like a real fruitcake, glad he's not my neighbor.
It doesn't say much for his neighborhood, if ya ask me.. not much good anyway
What would be fun is doing a cardboard cutout of this guy with a noose around its neck or on a gurney with an IV going into its arm. I'm sure he wouldn't see it at threatening at all.
I wonder if this is the same guy???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_McDonald_(actor)
The FBI said that the art was really quite good and that he should get off of welfare and get a grant from the government to do this kind of thing full time, thus making big bucks and buying a big speed boat so that he could entertain all his welfare friends with tons of booze at the tax payers expense and drive around like a big shot "artiste" with a whole lot to say about everything... It happens all the time, don'tjuknow.
Now you know why I no longer live in Alameda. ;*)
Maybe he's getting "Instructions from God" from the message lady in San Mateo.
Hiya Justa. And I'm glad you no longer live there, several miles away would be too close. :-)
It appears that he's too young to be the yard "artist".
The story says the guy is 55, while your Wiki link shows the comedian to be born in 1964.
He would be the one screaming the loudest that his "Rights" have been violated and demand that something be done about it.
Sometimes I miss the Bay and the scenery...then I remember the kooks! ;*)
"I said, 'No, I got a knife in a piece of cardboard.'"
Much as I already hate this guy, I gotta admit that's a pretty good answer.
Actually, I admire his spirit; the office of president is not the man who occupies it but the people who acknowledge it.
While tasteless, it serves as a reminder of our break from totalitarianism and perhaps as a caution against returning to it.
I hear ya..
It was pretty crude, hardly a work of art ... he got his 'message' across, he has since reworked it a bit,, added swastikas and such but the message is the same..
tasteless it remains.
I love Michael Mcdonald, so I was really disappointed to hear this. I'll never listen to The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan the same way again...:(
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