This has got my BS detector pegged:

WASHINGTON – Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but the Nov. 4 election, from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president’s security is so sensitive. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating.

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

I’m going to say that this probably isn’t true.

Obama, who is arguably the most liberal President we have ever elected, is a polarizing figure no doubt and things like his moves toward a new Fairness Doctrine and his decision to ostracize gun owners from his administration aren’t helping.

But cross burnings?  School kids chanting for assassination?  Where and when are these things happening?  The article contains a few actual news reports of stupidity such as nooses in trees, but outside of that it’s mostly anecdotal evidence.

For instance, those schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama?” Here’s how the article substantiates it:

Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: “I hope Obama gets assassinated.

So it’s a third-hand account filtered through a nine-year-old.  Color me skeptical.

A lot of the other claims being made are similarly anecdotal, and given that there are no official numbers for any of this anywhere I can’t help but believe that this is just a bunch of nonsense ginned up by some liberal reporter who thinks it probably is true but can’t really find any actual evidence to prove that it is.  Everything in this article is either sourced to anonymous informants who can’t even give numbers on the number of threats against Obama being investigated (you’d think they’d be able to at least give raw numbers given that investigations into threats against President Bush were routinely reported on), or strictly anecdotal.

This isn’t reporting.  This is story telling.  We just game through eight years of liberals burning President Bush in the streets in effigy, and we’re supposed to believe Obama hatred is something new?

Give me a break.