"Look Out! He's Got a Bob Barr Button!"
Eric S. Harris
Sheesh.
This makes ordinary government waste -- the pointless (e.g. "bridge to
nowhere") or inefficient (e.g. MetroLink) or corrupt (e.g. bailouts and
subsidies) -- look good in comparison. -Eric
Look Out! He's Got a Bob Barr Button!
Jesse Walker | March 14, 2009, 5:30pm
A few days ago, the conspiracist site Infowars posted a "strategic
report" by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), a police
"public safety partnership" that collects "incident reports of
suspicious activities to be evaluated and analyzed in an effort to
identify potential trends or patterns of terrorist or criminal
operations within the state of Missouri." The document is a throwback to
the great militia panic of the '90s, a time when all sorts of
libertarian and populist organizations were conflated with domestic
terrorists, and when the threat posed by the latter was wildly
exaggerated. Among other things, the MIAC paper declares that "It is not
uncommon for militia members to display Constitution Party, Campaign for
Liberty, or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters
of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob
Barr." It also warns that the Gadsden Flag, bearing a coiled rattlesnake
and the slogan DON'T TREAD ON ME, "is the most common symbol displayed
by militia members and organizations."
Infowars isn't always reliable (to put it mildly), but this time it
broke some real news: Missouri authorities admit the document is genuine.
The entire article is here: http://reason.com/blog/show/132250.html
--
Replace the "w" with a "y" when replying via e-mail. If I haven't
replied to an alleged rebuttal (yet), it may not be the most deserving
of correction; it's a big Internet: http://xkcd.com/386 May 2008: The
yahoo.com address has technical difficulties. Dec: Yahoo is fixing ...
Robert of St Louis
I hope they get all the folks with HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS bumper
stickers.
Eric S. Harris
> On Mar 21, 8:46 am, "Eric S. Harris" <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> wrote:
[shipped]
>>Infowars isn't always reliable (to put it mildly), but this time it
>>broke some real news: Missouri authorities admit the document is genuine.
>>
>>The entire article is here:http://reason.com/blog/show/132250.html
>>
>>--
>>Replace the "w" with a "y" when replying via e-mail. If I haven't
>>replied to an alleged rebuttal (yet), it may not be the most deserving
>>of correction; it's a big Internet:http://xkcd.com/386 May 2008: The
>>yahoo.com address has technical difficulties. Dec: Yahoo is fixing ...
>
>
> I hope they get all the folks with HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS bumper
> stickers.
Wow. I haven't seen one of those in ages. I do see WWJD bumper and
window stickers now and again, and lots of BHO stickers.
A local news piece on the MIAC document. -Eric
http://www.kmov.com/localnews/stories/kmov-stlouis-news-090318-militia-report-concern.4b83e394.html
The Ugly Republican Brand is Dead
"Robert of St Louis" <free....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:964360ae-e0d4-4c70...@a39g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
Hey! I got one of those. Except it sez...
"HONK IF YOU ARE JESUS"
Eric S. Harris
Looks like there's been some movement on this.
http://lpmo.org/media/releases/2009/MIAC-BrittLetterToBobBarr.pdf
One view is that legislators' ire -- and the upcoming budget battles in
which that ire might express itself as reduced funding -- inspired this
apology and the promise to edit out certain offensive (and apparently
illegal) parts. I have to admit, I share that view.
That's not to say the apology isn't sincere. However, as someone once
said, "Sincerity is a much overrated virtue." -Eric