Why isn't Maine's governor under arrest?

We don't favor arresting or jailing people for threatening jokes, but if it's going to be the standard these days, why isn't Maine governor Paul LePage under arrest? According to the Portland Press Herald, "The Republican governor made the offhand remark while participating in a fighter jet simulation at Pratt & Whitney, a defense contractor in North Berwick. In video footage from the event, LePage is asked, 'What would you like to do?' He replies: 'I want to find the Portland Press Herald building and blow it up.' "

As a tweet on the Maine League of Young Voters put it, "In all seriousness: If a middle schooler said this you know the FBI would be all over it."

A few cases in point, involving young folks far less dangerous than Paul LePage

Tech Crunch, 2010 - A man who threatened on Twitter to blow up Doncaster airport has been found guilty of sending a “menacing electronic communication”. He is thought to be the first person in the UK country to have been arrested for comments on Twitter. On January 6 Paul Chambers joked on Twitter “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” He was annoyed that snowfall threatened to delay his plans to travel to Ireland on January 15.On January 13 the local police came to his house and arrested 26-year-old Chambers under the Terrorism Act and produced a piece of paper, showing him a print-out of his Twitter page.

Daily Caller - A Texas teenager who has been in jail since March faces an eight-year prison sentence because of a threatening joke he made while playing an online video game. In February, Justin Carter was playing “League of Legends” — an online, multiplayer fantasy game — when another player wrote a comment calling him insane. Carter’s response, which he now deeply regrets, was intended as joke. “He replied ‘Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk,” said Jack Carter, Justin’s father, in a statement to a local news channel.

Black Youth Project - 20-year old former Georgia Southern student has been in jail for 6 months after threatening to shoot up his school in a satirical Tumblr post. Caleb Clemmons – a high-achieving, scholarship student – posting the following back in February: “hello. my name is irenigg and i plan on shooting up georgia southern. pass this around to see the affect it has. to see if i get arrested.” Clemmons had no intentions of actually bringing a gun to campus. But someone didn’t find it funny; and Caleb has been in jail ever since.