On February 20, the Statistical Analysis Center of the Missouri State Highway Patrol released “The Modern Mililtia Movement”, which seems to suggest that dangerous and possibly illegal activity is correlated with support for Ron Paul, or for 2008 presidential nominees Bob Barr and/or Chuck Baldwin. In the last few days, the report has received considerably publicity. See this Associated Press story, or this blog commentary at antiwar.com. The Statistical Analysis Center has a webpage but the Center’s webpage does not mention the February 20 report, nor the controversy it has engendered.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
My God, what a clever and evil way to chill free speech and freedom of association! I guess were on the verge of “Guilt by POLITICAL association.”
Average folks who hear of this report may well hesitate to join or be public about supporting legit (and nonviolent) political groups critical of the two-party duopoly and their control.
Didn’t the tiny Socialist or Communist parties get to keep their membership or donors secret due in part to government generated “propoganda” against them? Hmmm? Will the LP, Const. Party and Cong. Paul supporters now be allowed the same privacy options?
Since a long-term sitting Congressman is specifically mentioned by name I would hope he takes Congressional and legal actions (many pointed subpoenas and discovery motions) to get to the heart of exposing who compiled this report, how similar reports/warnings were used in the past, and what data/studies prompted it!
Congressman Paul sure has (legal) standing now!
Back in the 1950s were the now-infamously regarded Mcarthyism, “Red Scare” and black lists. This report sure seems like its modern manifestation — though how ironic that the Const. Party, LP and Dr. Paul are widely regarded as the antithises of communism/collectivism.
k…
ps —
Interesting that the report didn’t mention some “liberal” or “progressive/green” groups like EarthFirst.
pps —
Wonder what percetage of perps who shoot police/gov agents are actually involved in politics and in which their politics were psrt of the motivation for the shooting? I suspect that the vast majority of police shootings/agression are from totally a-political bad guys.
I guess since the military gave more money to the Ron Paul campaign than any other canidate, they are not welcome in Missouri. I guess us contractors, and military are bad guys now. hmm. I guess I won’t be visiting MO. anymore…I’ll spend my money elsewhere. I’ll have to apologize to my wife family.
And some didn’t think it could get this bad if Obama won the election. Folks, we are now on the very edge of a straight out Authoritarian America. If this doesn’t scares us Libertarians into action, nothing will.
I sincerely hope that Bill Redpath, and the Missouri Libertarian Party TOMMOROW! holds a press conference in St. Louis, Jefferson City or Springfield to denounce this horrendous violation of civil liberties.
ALL LIBERTARIANS! must unite against this.
“Eric Dondero Says:
March 15th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
And some didn’t think it could get this bad if Obama won the election.”
I never said that Obama wasn’t a turd, where we differ is that I don’t think that John McCain would have been any better.
The Missouri Libertarian Party sent out the below press release Sunday evening:
http://www.lpmo.org/media/releases/2009/PR-20090315-01.shtml
Something similar happened in, I think, Colorado, a few years ago. A Libertarian was detained as suspicious.
I don’t remember the details, but somehow the non-violence pledge helped make a difference.
But this kind of statist threat should be a wake-up call to every liberty-minded person.
Michael @#6:
Yes, it did happen. I was there, and it involved the Denver Police spying on Rick Stanley, who was CO’s 2002 Senate candidate and a certifiable nutcase–he makes Dondero look normal and Milnes look like Obama. Short form is that while Stanley was aligning himself with militias, getting himself thrown in jail for threatening a judge, and in general making a fool of himself (I was one of his most vocal opponents while doing LPCO Media and I got him more TV time than he did!), he was chonricled by the DPD as a problem and the ACLU got the records and exposed it.
The bad part is was that it was avoidable in the first place, but the 2002 LPCO Convention screwed up and inadvertently violated the national bylaws at the time (and nobody noticed until I figured it out ten months later and reported to the 2003 LPCO Convention!), which gave him the nomination.
And yes, the Pledge makes a difference, which is why I continually oppose removing it.
since when is being in a militia a bad thing ? Militias are in our constitution and in Iowa every male between the age of 18 and 45 and able to carry a firearm is part of the Iowa militia.( it’s in our state constitution) I guess Iowans should stay out of Mo. I wonder if the Mo. dept. of tourism knows about this ? There is really an effort nationwide to make people think that a militia is a bad thing. Every 4th of july we celebrate the efforts of militias!
The Libertarian Party pledge opposes the INITIATION of force, not RESPONDING to force with force in self defense. Therefore, the right of rebellion against oppressive government is consistent with the Libertarian Party pledge, which is one reason why the government fears libertarians.
“Yes, it did happen. I was there, and it involved the Denver Police spying on Rick Stanley, who was CO’s 2002 Senate candidate and a certifiable nutcase–he makes Dondero look normal and Milnes look like Obama.”
I don’t know Rick Stanley, but from what I’ve read it sounds like he was more libertarian than Dondero and Milnes. Whether or not he was a nutcase I don’t know.
Stanley may have been a nutcase, but he ran an interesting, passionate, regularly updated email newsletter that more or less turned me on to libertarianism. It wasn’t just angry “red meat”, either. He brought together all kinds of people.
He deserves admiration for the good he did and the righteous causes he stood up for.
Interesting, given that Missouri was one of the states where the “Obama Truth Squad“ was planning to use law enforcement and prosecutors to harass those who were effectively opposing the Anointed One.
Looks like my home state is becoming a police state.
Andy and Matt:
He was nuts, period. He may have been more libertarian than Milnes or Dondero, but he was still nuts. The LPCO was glad to be rid of him after that cycle.
And her really didn’t bring together all kinds of people, except in opposition to him. He was and still is the only CO LP candidate to ever have a hearing to have his candidacy certification removed.
You can Google him (and me) and find a ton of info on what happened back then. He did more damage than positive things to the LPCO.
As far as the Pledge goes, Andy, you’re right, but the government pukes don’t see it that way, since they don’t see their actions as initiating force against the people. They think they’re the ones in the right and it clouds their thinking in almost everything.
“As far as the Pledge goes, Andy, you’re right, but the government pukes don’t see it that way, since they don’t see their actions as initiating force against the people. They think they’re the ones in the right and it clouds their thinking in almost everything.”
This is the problem, Mike. The most dangerous type of people are the types who do wrong but don’t even realize that they are doing wrong. They initiate force & fraud against us on a daily basis, yet according to them we are just supposed to sit back and take it. We have every legal and moral right to fight back.
Any terrorists in the Donkey and Elephant parties ???
The EVIL monsters who did genocide on the old American Indian tribes, had slavery, have accumulated about 13 Trillion in govt debts, have undeclared wars, have high taxes systematically destroying older cities and suburbs, etc. ???
This is nationwide from DHS, NORTHCOM, & ADL.