The former British colony of Virginia which staged a French backed terrorist coup against its lawful government, has been clamping down on polls on Facebook. The “for the people, by the people” revolution in what became the United States of America was spun to the great unwashed as a victory for self-expression and freedom.

However it turns out that if you publish a poll on Facebook asking if President Obama should be killed you can expect to have your door kicked in by secret service people. The US Secret Service is investigating a poll posted on social networking site Facebook, asking people if they think President Obama "should be killed". The poll, posted on Saturday, was taken off the site as soon as the company was made aware of it.

US Officials will take "the appropriate investigative steps," a spokesman said. Facebook said that the poll was offensive. It had four options, yes, no, maybe and “yes if he cuts my health care”. The spooks claim that this represents a threat to the President's life and must be dealt with in the same way that someone pointing a gun at the head of State is dealt with. Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman said that we take these things very seriously.

Facebook said that it will give the name, address and GPS co-ordinates of the terrorist who posted the poll. We guess the IP addresses of all those who responded to the poll will also end up in the “no-fly” database. Does anyone feel that this is getting out of perspective? It is clearly a poll on health care. It seems that a jokey phrase “the president should be killed for his policies” is now a high level thought crime.

We wonder if such thoughts about King George III popped into the heads of George Washington or Benjamin Franklin. Like many tyrannies, once in power the revolutionaries never want people to ever think like them again. (I'll just forward you your hate mail. sub.ed.)