Check this out. Another honest academic, a species as rare as hen's teeth.

CPT R.A. Bear sez: "I think I'm in love."

The transcript:

All right. This is an interesting topic. You may not have been thinking that this was a big deal, but it is. I want to bring in Amy Cooter. She's working toward a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan, and that has meant two years of research into the Michigan militia and similar groups. She joins me now from Ann Harbor.

Amy, this is not news to you, but it is news to a number of Americans, the degree and the scope and the scale of these anti- government groups and how many of them are willing to take up arms to do what? What is the aim? What did you learn? What do these people want to achieve?

AMY COOTER, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PH.D. CANDIDATE: You know, the vast majority of this movement aren't so antagonistic toward the government that they're ready to start a fight. I think what we've seen with this group that's been in the news these last few days is sort of the extreme of this movement.

Most of the militia movements see their involvement as more of a political protest than anything. They do practice. They do target practice and general training with firearms. But for the most part, they're not particularly afraid of the government and aren't worried about them banging down their door and coming after their individual rights.

VELSHI: So in this fight that may happen between them and the government, where do the rest of us fall? Is this a fight? Do they imagine it to be a war? Or is it a "we're armed, and don't -- don't interfere in our lives"?

COOTER: You know, for the most part, like I said, most of these groups don't see this war as coming. For those that do, I think that they see themselves as a last line of defense for their communities. They don't see the average, everyday citizen as being on the side of the federal government or as being a target of their activity, for the most part.

VELSHI: Amy, stay right there. I want to talk about how these people we recruit, who's joining them and whether or not there are people who might be our neighbors. Stand by.

Amy Cooter is with us from Ann Harbor, Michigan. She's a doctoral candidate. She's studying -- she's doing -- she's studying for her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. We're going to talk about these groups that may or may not be a threat to you. She'll tell us whether those extremist groups are, in fact, a threat. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: In the case of this group, it was all cast in terms of the coming of the anti-Christ, which the group seemed to associate very closely, in fact, with the United Nations. So it's really quite similar to other militias' ideology but with a very particular biblical kind of twist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: We're rejoined by Amy Cooter. She's a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan.

Amy, you have spent time with -- have you spent time with the Hutaree or other groups?

COOTER: Mostly with other groups, since the Hutaree is this fringe element that isn't representative of the overall movement.

VELSHI: All right. So the people you've spent time with, I would almost say you've been embedded with them; you've spent sort of really good time with them, a lot of time with them. How would you describe them? Would they -- would they strike us as sort of everyday, normal Americans with concerns about too much government, or is there something more? Do they have more of an edge to them? COOTER: I think that most people would be surprised at how normal they are. Some of them have government jobs. In my interviews with them, most of them are actually slightly more educated than the average U.S. citizen.

The overall movement, they're not particularly religious. Most of them are married, have kids. And you wouldn't know they were militia members if you encountered them in the grocery store, unless they happen to have their militia T-shirt on.

VELSHI: And what -- so what drives them? What's their big concern here? Is it too much government or is it something more than that?

COOTER: You know, a lot of these militia members are a little concerned about big government. They feel that the Constitution isn't being followed to the letter of the law. They usually don't see it as a living document.

And for a lot of them, their militia involvement is kind of a political statement, as well as a way for them to continue military service in this patriot sentiment that a lot of them share.

VELSHI: Are they attracting sort of fringe folks who like weapons and might be sort of hoping that there's some kind of battle? Are they -- is there an element in there like the Hutaree that may be sort of not what you're describing?

COOTER: To be honest, that's pretty rare. If those people show up to the meetings of the main group, they're usually either asked to leave, if they're very forward about their ideology, or they quickly figure out that this group isn't going to offer them the opportunity to do that, and they fall out. They may find another group like Hutaree, but those groups are fairly rare.

VELSHI: What -- so what, then, is the motivator? If you feel like the Constitution is not being followed, that there is too much government, what is the motivation to join one of these militias? What are you going to get out of it? What's the takeaway for them?

COOTER: Well, as I mentioned, a lot of it is sort of this protest activity. They feel like they're not especially represented in the Tea Party system, and this is their way of saying, "Hey, we want to hold onto our guns. Don't infringe upon our Second Amendment rights."

And I think you have to be -- pay attention to the camaraderie element, too. In any social group people will band together...

VELSHI: Sure.

COOTER: ... with people who are like-minded. And a lot of the media folks who have been out to the trainings recently say, "Well, these guys look like grown-up Boy Scouts," and they're really surprised at the image they convey. VELSHI: But did you encounter anything that was like the Hutaree -- the Hutaree groups that were that much further off sort of the mainstream?

COOTER: It's pretty rare. Including the Hutaree here, there are one or two groups that look a little bit like that, yes.

VELSHI: OK. Interesting. Amy, great conversation. Thanks very much for joining us. Amy Cooter is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Michigan.

"Forever, there will be in my heart the lust to kill evil men."

Why, when this finally comes down to the muzzles of rifles, you may blame the "Dead Elephant Party."

Gen. Buford: You know whats going to happen here in the morning? The whole damn reb army is going to be here. They'll move through this town, occupy these hills on the other side and when our people get here Lee will have the high ground. There will be the devil to pay! The high ground! Meade will come in slowly, cautiously. New to command. They'll be on his back in Washington. Wire hot with messages 'Attack! Attack!'. So he will set up a ring around these hills. And when Lee's army is nicely entrenched behind fat rocks on the high ground, Meade will finally attack, if he can coordinate the army. Straight up the hillside, out in the open, in that gorgeous field of fire. We will charge valiantly... and be butchered valiantly! And afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chest and say what a brave charge it was. Devin, I've led a soldier's life, and I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this. It's as if I can actually see the blue troops in one long bloody moment... going up the long slope to the stony top... as if it were already done... and already a memory. An odd, set... stony quality to it. As if tomorrow has already happened and there's nothing you can do about it. The way you sometimes feel before an ill-considered attack... knowing it will fail... but you cannot stop it. You must even take part and help it fail. . .

They'll be coming in force. There could be 20,000 coming down that road in the morning. If we hold this ridge for a couple of hours, we can keep them away. We can block that road until our main body gets here. We can deprive the enemy of the high ground!

Colonel Devin: The boys are ready for a brawl. No doubt of that.

Buford: We'll force the rebs to deploy. That's a narrow road they'll be coming down. If we stack them up, it will take them a while to get on track to get into position. Is Calef's battery up yet?

Staff officer: His six guns are deploying now.

Buford: How far back is Reynolds with the main force?

Staff officer: About 8 miles, sir. Not much more.

Colonel Gamble: Sir, you were right. My scouts report the rebel army is coming this way for sure. They're all concentrating in this direction.

Buford: We'll hold here in the morning. Long enough for Reynolds and the infantry to arrive. If we hang on to the high ground, we have a chance... to win this fight that's coming. Understood?

Gamble, Devin, Staff Officers: Yes, sir.

Buford: Post the cannon along this road, the Chambersburg Pike. The rebels will hit us at dawn. I think we can hold them at least 2 hours.

Devin: Hell, General, we can hold them all the livelong day.

Staff officer: He's right, sir.

Devin: At Thoroughfare Gap, you held against Longstreet. You held for six hours.

Gamble: And they never came. We held for nothing.

-- Gettysburg, 1993.

My friend Bob Wright and I were talking this morning after his successful training exercise in the New Mexico desert. His recruits were so eager and committed that the instructors, mostly older guys, had trouble keeping up. They absorbed the new lessons, these men without military experience, so fast that the instructors had to add material to the curriculum.

But in the larger picture, the political picture, Bob was frustrated.

Twice in recent memory, Bob pointed out, popular political movements have breached the wall of the federal leviathan. The first in 2005, when the Minutemen embarrassed the Bush administration along the southern border and then a popular uprising of activists rammed the Amnesty Bill back down the throats of the Bushies and their allies of both parties in Congress. A well-timed alternate bill without amnesty could have secured the border at that point and ended the argument for a while. The GOP, allowing the Minutemen to be denounced as "vigilantes" and the natural outrage at the destruction of the rule of law to be characterized as racist and xenophobic, just stood there.

The people, without the GOP, had successfully breached the wall but the GOP dithered and the moment passed.

Then came the "Health Care" Bill, the townhalls and the Tea Parties. Once again the GOP allowed the protesters to be characterized as racist "teabaggers." The GOP pretty much stood and watched once more as the Dems, rocked back on their heels by popular outrage, were allowed to recover their equilibrium. The momentum to kill the bill was lost, and we apparently made the breach, once more, for nothing.

The GOP's failure in the first instance happened because the president was a member of their own party, I suppose. And what is their excuse in the second? Or the third, when amnesty once again rears its ugly head? The undeclared war on the border goes on and on, people are dying, and what has the GOP done about it?

I suppose I expect too much. The GOP is a political party and is only worried about the next election, not defending principle or even the Constitution. They are, by temperment, inclination and even institution, incapable of exploiting breaches. They are not fighters, they are cheerleaders. They wait until the opinion polls tell them it is safe to make a statement.

Wars come about because of political failures. When they write the history of the political failures that led up to the next American civil war, the GOP will garner much of the blame.

I suppose when I issued my call, it would have been more just to have asked people to break the windows of both political parties, for surely they both bear responsibility.

It takes neither crystal ball nor divine revelation to see the bloody road this country has veered off on thanks to the corrupt misfeasances and malfeasances of both political parties.

After it is over, each side will blame the other.

And they will both be right.

I do not expect to live to see that day, but I do expect more than one survivor will understand the follow excerpt from Cecil Brown's book, Suez to Singapore.

Brown was a freelance journalist and later, CBS radio correspondent, who covered the civil war in Spain, the anschluss of Germany and Austria, the partition of Poland, the destruction of the Poles, the fall of France and later, from his assignment in Mussolini's Rome, the Nazi campaigns in Greece and the Balkans. Expelled by the Italians, he took ship for Turkey on his way to the Middle East, which is where the excerpt below comes from. Later he covered the North Africa campaigns of the British against Rommel and then made his way to Singapore, covered the fatal arrogance of the British in the days leading up to December 7, 1941, survived being sunk on the H.M.S. Repulse, and barely made it out of Singapore alive ahead of the Japanese. But here, the Middle East and Singapore and merely in his future. He had made it onto a Roumanian freighter headed for Turkey.

I stood on the deck watching the shore, closing and opening my eyes, adjusting them to the hot glare of strangeness, the way you do when you emerge from a cave into sunlight. I gazed idly at the brightly colored lateen sails of the small fishing vessels, heeled over and moving gently away from our wake. My mind, like my eyes, struggled to absorb new scenes to impinge them on old. I wanted to pour from my heart these words:

For the rest of my life, peace will be unnatural. Forever in my nostrils will be the smell of death. Always there will be in my ears the scream of Stukas and always in my eyes the crash of bombs, and mangled bodies torn apart and streets splattered with blood. Forever, there will be in my heart the lust to kill evil men, the consuming desire for vengeance against men who had sown misery and murder in this world.

I hope that in the war crimes trials at the end of our upcoming civil war, we see in the dock the men of both political parties who by their actions or inactions made it necessary.

When these men dangle at the ends of the hangman's ropes, will someone say a little prayer -- a small kaddish -- for me?

The undeclared guerrilla war on the border goes on. Here's a tip: we're losing.

Robert N. Krentz, Jr.

June 3, 1951 - March 27, 2010


Published/Last Modified on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 3:26 PM MDT

Robert N. Krentz, Jr., 58, left our world Saturday, March 28, 2010.

Rob was born June 3, 1951 in Douglas, Arizona. He attended elementary school in Apache, AZ, played football for the Douglas Bulldogs when they won the State Championship in 1968 and graduated from Douglas High in 1969.

After completing two years at Cochise College, Rob attended the U of A graduating with honors and a degree in Animal Science in 1975. Upon graduation he received a fellowship to Cornell University but chose instead to come home.

Rob returned to the family ranch where he worked for his father, Bob, and his uncles Stuart and Jules Krentz. He married his sweetheart, Susan Kimble in 1977, after which the family bought out the uncles and continued to build their dreams in partnership with Bob and brother, Phil Krentz. At the time of his parents’ death he shared the partnership with his sister Susan Pope.

Always active in his community, Rob served as President of the Cochise Graham Cattle Growers from 1993-94 and served on their Board of Directors. He also served as a Board member for the Arizona Cattle Growers from 1993 to 1994. Rob was currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Malpai Borderlands Group and President of the Whitewater Draw National Resource Conservation District. Rob was a kind and gentle man, a husband, brother, father, grandfather and good friend to all. He will be sorely missed.

He is survived by his wife, Susan, two sons, Andy (wife Amanda) of Las Cruces, NM and Frank Krentz, Douglas, AZ, daughter, daughter Kyle Gutierrez (husband Brandon) and two grandchildren Robert and Madyson Gutierrez of Green River, Wyoming, a sister, Susan Pope (husband Louie), brother Phil (wife Carrie), nephews Ed Pope (wife Kami and son Cole) of El Paso Texas, and Ben Krentz, niece Kathy Pope Hall (husband David Joe) of Atoka Oklahoma, and numerous other relatives of the Krentz and Kimble families.

Rob was preceded in death by his father Bob Krentz and mother Louse Kennedy Krentz.

A Rosary will be recited at St. Luke’s Catholic Church, Douglas, Arizona on Friday, April 10, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated on Saturday April 10, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. also at St. Luke’s Church. A Celebration of Rob’s Life will be held at the Gadsden Hotel following the services. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Rob Krentz Memorial Fund: The Cowbelles: c/o Carol Riggs/ 4466 N. Brooks Road; Douglas, AZ 85608 or the ACGA’s Litigation Fund: c/o Patrick Brey 1401 N 24th St # 4; Phoenix, AZ 85008-4638.

Pallbearers are: Robbie Sproul, Bill Martin, John Zamar, Don Kimble, Gerry Bhomfalk and Frank Adams Honorary Pallbearers are: Dr. Roland Snure, Bill Snure, Clay Snure, Ben Snure, Billy Ben Snure, Tom Husted, John Robbins, Trey Reed, Fred Davis, Bill Wendt, Lynn Carchner, Zane Alba, Bob Boss, Gary Thrasher, Edward Elbrock, Don Steiman, Bill Kimble Sr., Bill Kimble Jr, Wes Kimble, Jon Kimble, Steve Kimble, Rob and Stevie Kimble, Jim Phippard, Dr. Stuart Strhal, Mark , Ethan and Cody Percell, Louie Pope, Ed Pope, Ralph Pope, Don Pope, Marshall Rice, Dick Rice, Bill and David White, David Jo Hall, Frank Krentz, Jess Gutierrez, Brandon Gutierrez, Brian Gutierrez, Doug Rogers, Homer Deen and Don, Steve Brooks, Dennis Brooks, Spencer Brooks, Randy Rice. Bryan Gutierrez and Gary McBride. Dr. Mike Krentz, Matt Krentz, Mark Brooks, Rich Wagner, and Andrew Rogers.

Brown Page Mortuary is in charge of arrangements, 364-3434

Folks,

When I helped work the Minutemen's border vigil line in Hachita, New Mexico in October of 2005, I came to understand first-hand what a state of fear border residents live in 24-7. There are things you cannot allow yourself to see, especially on your own property. If you do, if you piss off some pollero or drug coyote, your stock will be killed, your fences and waterlines cut, your stock tanks breached, you outbuildings, barns or even your house burned. No one except the folks who live on the border understand the nature of this grinding, unrelenting fear.

Bob Krentz did, and now he's dead.

His death will go largely unnoticed by the state-run media.

We could defend the borders and the rule of law, but we don't.

We could throw the employers of illegals in prison, but we don't.

We could legalize drugs and take the steam out of the cartels, but we don't.

Government needs criminals to justify its existence. Thus the horror for folks like Bob Krentz goes on and on, government grows bigger and bigger, the police get more and more militarized and alienated from the people by the day.

And GOP pukes like Lindsay Grahamnesty just want this to continue, unless the price we pay for them doing their damn jobs is more taxes to support the Leviathan state and less liberty in the form of a biometric ID. "Ausweiss, bitte?"

Damn them all to hell.

Mike
III

Updated March 29, 2010

Arizona Rancher's Killing Sparks Calls to Beef Up Border Security

FOXNews.com

Three members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have asked for an increase in the Border Patrol's presence, and former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo called on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to dispatch the National Guard to the Arizona border.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is under pressure to beef up border security in the Southwest in the wake of Saturday's killing of a rancher in southeastern Arizona.

Three members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have asked for an increase in the Border Patrol's presence in the Boot Heel of New Mexico, about 10 miles from where the rancher was shot to death over the weekend. U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, along with Rep. Harry Teague, say Napolitano's agency needs to take more security steps.

And former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, called on Napolitano to "reject politics and do the right thing" by dispatching the National Guard to the Arizona border.

Cochise County Sheriff's Office deputies and detectives responded to an area northeast of Douglas on Saturday after searchers found the body of 58-year-old Robert Krentz inside his all terrain vehicle on his property. Detectives were able to determine that Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was fatally shot and his dog was wounded.

Cochise County investigators said Monday that Krentz likely was killed by an illegal immigrant, but there's no evidence to suggest there was any confrontation that led to the shooting.

Bingaman, Udall and Teague urged a forward operating station for the Border Patrol in the region. Such outposts put agents closer to the international border. Teague -- whose district includes the border area -- says a station in the Antelope Wells area would better protect people and property.

Tancredo, who attended a Tea Party event over the weekend in Arizona, blasted Napolitano for not doing more to secure the border.

“As governor of Arizona, Napolitano deployed the National Guard to help the Border Patrol do its job… Three days ago, Napolitano told an audience at Arizona State University that the border is more secure than ever," Tancredo said Sunday through his Rocky Mountain Foundation. "I challenge her -- no, I dare her -- to come to this community and try to sell that lie.”

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., whose Congressional district covers the area, described the rancher as a pillar of the community who was recently inducted into the Arizona Farming and Ranching Hall of Fame.

"The cold-blooded killing of an Arizona rancher is a sad and sobering reminder of the threats to public safety that exist in our border communities," Giffords said. "It has not yet been determined who committed this atrocity or why, but I know that federal and local authorities are mobilizing every possible resource to locate and apprehend the assailant."

Giffords said if Krentz's killing is connected to drug cartels or smugglers, the federal government must respond appropriately.

"All options should be on the table, including sending more Border Patrol agents to the area and deploying the National Guard," Giffords said.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said government has a clear responsibility to aid law enforcement resources at all levels along the border.

"I call on our federal and state governments to work together to bolster the law enforcement resources needed to better protect Arizonans living on the border," Goddard said

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Omar Candelaria told the The Arizona Daily Star that if Krentz's killing was tied to such border crime, it would be a first for the area, to his recollection.

At a news conference Monday, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said Krentz was out checking water line and fencing on the land Krentz's family has ranched since 1907. Dever says Krentz had weapons with him in his all-terrain vehicle but didn't use them.

Investigators say Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was shot. While Krentz was still in his vehicle, mortally wounded, he managed to drive the ATV away from the scene at a high rate of speed before becoming unconscious.

Sheriff's deputies, U.S. Border Patrol trackers and Department of Corrections dog chase teams followed footsteps approximately 20 miles south to the Mexican border. No suspects have been apprehended.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For those of you who took me to task for saying the Hutaree had a provocateur within. . .

The indictment made that clear if you could read between the lines. Here it is spelled out in the Wall Street Journal. When are you going to stop doubting your old Uncle Mike?

Mike
III

MARCH 30, 2010, 8:11 P.M. ET

Militia Probe Included Undercover Agent
Group's Leader Described as Private Man Who Nurtured Mistrust of Government

By ALEX P. KELLOGG, LAUREN ETTER, KEITH JOHNSON and TIMOTHY W. MARTIN

The leader of a Michigan militia group charged this week with conspiring to kill law-enforcement officers was described Tuesday as a private, family-oriented man who nurtured a festering mistrust of governmental authority, according to people close to the family.

"On the inside of this man's brain, something evil lurks, and until you get to know him, you don't know it," said Andrea Harsh, who was engaged to David Brian Stone Sr. until the couple broke up last year.

She described Mr. Stone, a trim 45-year-old man who wears his whitish hair cropped short over spectacles and a bushy gray mustache, as having a "bubbly personality." But he become consumed by the Hutaree, she said, a southeastern Michigan militia group that described its members as "Christian warriors."

In an indictment Monday, federal authorities named Mr. Stone as leader of the Hutaree and accused him and eight members with plotting to spark an uprising against the U.S. government by killing police. Along with Mr. Stone, seven other men and one woman from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana are in being held without bond on weapons and sedition charges.

The indictment said Hutaree had practiced attacks and other military maneuvers for more than a year, and had planned to kill a law-enforcement officer, then use homemade bombs to attack officers who attended the funeral.

An undercover agent played a role in the investigation that led to Monday's indictments. Grand jury testimony by a law enforcement officer referred to an "undercover FBI agent" who worked on the case. The FBI declined to comment, but infiltration is a common tactic for law-enforcement officials targeting domestic militia groups.

Those charged in the case included Mr. Stone's current wife, Tina Mae Stone, 44; as well as two sons, David Brian Stone Jr., 19; and Joshua Matthew Stone 21. Attorneys for Ms. Stone, David Jr. and Joshua declined to comment Tuesday; the senior Mr. Stone had no attorney as of late Tuesday.

The Hutaree appears based at Mr. Stone's home, a pair of dilapidated house trailers near the intersection of dirt roads in rural Clayton, Michigan—population 303—about 85 miles southwest of Detroit. The yard this week held three cars, a dog house, debris and a gun leaning on an old washing machine.

Family members and acquaintances said Mr. Stone doesn't curse, smoke or drink alcohol and was a strict disciplinarian with his sons, whom he home-schooled from a young age. While he rarely attended church, he studied the Bible nightly, memorizing long passages, said Ms. Harsh, his ex-fiance. Several scripture passages appear on the Hutaree Web site.

On his page on the MySpace social-networking site, Mr. Stone, using the alias of "(RD) Merzonik," listed his interests as "GOD, Guns and Girls." He said he liked action and science-fiction movies and writes, "only dead people are true heroes ... so I guess I don't have any." He listed his hometown as, "Wasteland, America," and 73 MySpace friends include several state and county militias.

Mr. Stone is listed as a 1982 graduate of Sand Creek High School on an alumni Web site. Donna Stone, his ex-wife, said she met Mr. Stone in the mid-1990s when she worked at a deli counter and he was a customer. They enjoyed the movies, she said, and he was charming and funny.

But Mr. Stone increasingly displayed a stubborn streak, as well as an affinity for guns. Ms. Stone, 44, said she left him after about a decade together. "When he went from handguns to big guns, I said, 'Enough,' " she said.

Court documents reveal an undercover FBI agent was part of the investigation of a Michigan-based Christian militia group that allegedly plotted to spark an uprising against the government by killing police officers. Plus, in a major push against the health overhaul, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to spend $50 million to sway election outcomes; and the News Hub discusses how a six-year high in the number of stocks hitting 52-week highs is not necessarily a bad sign for stocks.

Ms. Harsh, 40, said she began dating Mr. Stone in 2008 after meeting him at a plastics recycling factory where they worked. Mr. Stone showed her a Hutaree business card when they met, but otherwise said little about the group while they dated for several months.

After moving in together, Ms. Harsh said, he spent hours on the computer, building the group's Web site and searching online for weapons. "His life was pretty much consumed by the Hutaree," she said.

Mr. Stone despised authority, Ms. Harsh said, particularly "anyone with a badge." She said his temper finally drove her away last year. Mr. Stone remarried a few months later.

Ron Gaydosh, 62, said he had known Mr. Stone for more than 15 years, and frequently invited the Stones over for barbecues. He described Mr. Stone as a "good guy," with "all-around good kids," and said the family enjoyed hunting, fishing and trapping.

He said Mr. Stone was easily upset by talk of the government. "Some of the things that upset Dave also upset me," said Mr. Gaydosh, who belongs to another militia group with no ties to Hutaree. They frequently discussed survivalist techniques and poked fun at government officials, he said, but "there was never any violence planned."

Mr. Gaydosh said Mr. Stone didn't like law enforcement officials driving by and shining lights at Mr. Stone's house, adding that he always referred to police as "feds." Mr. Stone also didn't like neighbors complaining about his target shooting, Mr. Gaydosh said.

It's not clear whether Mr. Stone had money troubles. Ms. Harsh said he was working at Demlow Products, an auto-industry supplier in Clayton; a person who answered the phone at the company declined to comment. Mr. Stone and his ex-wife, Donna Stone, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 1999.

Over the past couple of years, Mr. Stone attracted more Hutaree members, Ms. Harsh said: "His goal was to have all of the states have at least one group of Hutaree."

But he scared off some potential recruits. Jon Killman said he visited Mr. Stone and his sons in December because he was interested in joining a militia to practice survival skills.

He said Mr. Stone was a gracious host and offered him coffee. But soon Mr. Killman "got a bad vibe" as the Stones started joking about police officers who'd been shot in a coffee shop in Washington state.

The family's dining room table was strewn with shotgun shells, Mr. Killman recalled. The elder Mr. Stone said the shells would be filled with gunpowder and tied to trip wires to simulate landmines.

At first "they just seemed like a down-to-earth hillbilly family," he said. "After 20 minutes into the meeting, I realized these guys are not dealing with a full deck."

Matt Savino, commander of the Lenawee Volunteer Michigan Militia near Mr. Stone's home, said in recent months Mr. Stone became "paranoid" and began asking other militia groups to join in military exercises.

Mr. Stone began talking more about how "the federal government was coming down on them" and the need to be on the offensive and retain the element of surprise, Mr. Savino said.

Ms. Harsh said Mr. Stone "always thought he could hide from the government. He thought he was invincible."

Wow! Now I'm a British secret agent! With new lyrics to the song, "Secret Agent Man."

Who knew?

More importantly, where's my MI-6 back pay for the past 15 years?

Heck, I'd just settle for the $2 million Janet Reno owes me for identifying John Doe II.

WHO IS MIKE VANDERBOEGH IN THE ATTEMPT TO DESTABILIZE THE U.S. THROUGH AN OBAMA ASSASSINATION
By peeltheonion
March 30, 2010, 10:21AM

British Agents Caught (Again) In Terrorist Provocations Against U.S.

March 30, 2010 (LPAC)—British-run provocations are aiming to divert widespread hatred of Obama and his deathcare by a potential assassination and martyring of the President, as he is in their view, disposable damaged goods.

A British agent named Mike Vanderboegh, self-styled as an anti-government "militia" leader, boasted to the news media last week that he was behind the notorious bricking of Democrats' windows. This same Vanderboegh is organizing an armed provocation near Washington, planned for the anniversary of the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

He claims publicly he is not aiming at Obama's assassination. But Vanderboegh vilifies Abraham Lincoln as a mass murderer and says when the coming civil war starts, we on the anti-government side won't make the same mistakes the Confederacy made — we'll make sure the government starts shooting first.

- Creating a British "Militia" Agent -

Vanderboegh's entire career was created by the infamous British anti-U.S. operative Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

While resident in the U.S. in the mid-1990s as Britain's Daily Telegraph Sunday Washington bureau chief, Evans-Pritchard set up a web of paramilitary groups tied into British intelligence and into corrupted U.S. military elements. Mike Vanderboegh and another Evans-Pritchard agent named Jon Roland, worked together as sub-leaders of the British gang running outright agents and deluded populists in the "militia" movement, which Evans-Pritchard and other British manipulators said was directed against then-President Bill Clinton.

In Evans-Pritchard's 1997 book The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, the Brit describes how he himself boosted Vanderboegh into the public eye, as his loyal follower in the wake of the 1995 terror-bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Evans-Pritchard put Vanderboegh into action in the British attempt to control public perception of covert criminal activities, and to blunt possible exposure of the British role.

Evans-Pritchard wrote that with "the abdication of the grand press, Americans have had to turn elsewhere for a more illuminating perspective [on what was behind the bombing], notably the John Doe Times. It is an Internet cyber-journal published by a warehouse manager in Birmingham, Alabama — Mike Vanderboegh — dedicated to exposing evidence of a broader conspiracy."

Evans-Pritchard relates that Vanderboegh was a militia man — he doesn't let on that it was in the "Constitutional Militia," created by Jon Roland and the Evans-Pritchard gang beginning in 1994. He writes that Vanderboegh was put onto the bombing case in "a cordial meeting" with a Federal agent. "Vanderboegh's militia group had done a favor for the feds, helping them crack a case involving theft from a military base."

Vanderboegh began putting out his John Doe cyber-journal "explaining" the bombing after reading an Evans-Pritchard article, and getting in touch with Evans-Pritchard's contacts. The entire output of Vanderboegh's British-bilge John Doe Times from 1996-1997, is accessible on Jon Roland's website.

- The Murderous Provocation — A Rerun -

This April 19, the 15th anniversary of the terror bombing that killed 168 people, various witting and/or deluded participants plan to bring loaded automatic weapons to a rally at Fort Hunt National Park, south of Washington, D.C., to be incited by Mike Vanderboegh and his collaborators. They will then bring their weapons on buses up to Gravelly Point, directly across the Potomac River from the Washington Mall, seeking to goad a response from the Feds.

On his own website, Sipsey Street Irregulars, where Vanderboegh instructs readers on how to prepare for inevitable civil war, he has posted a current article from his "old compadre Ambrose Evans-Pritchard"—British propaganda piece pushing conflict between the U.S. and China.

The planned armed instigation repeats previous criminal actions by Evans-Pritchard's gang. A few days before the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, Jon Roland forwarded to militia participants a report put out by Lord Wiliam Rees-Mogg of the London Times, that the Clinton Administration would begin oppressing militia people, and would carry out a big terror bombing and blame it on the militias. He induced deluded militia men to turn out to a March 25, 1995 rally in Cuero, Texas, to see if they would be arrested or shot.

Roland himself subsequently told this news service that Evans-Pritchard had put him "in touch with intelligence agents from around the world," and they had together set up various agents in charge of militia groups in the Midwest and Texas. One of these agents, self-proclaimed former Naval Intelligence man Brad Glover, was arrested in July 1997 on charges of plotting to bomb a military base.

Jon Roland, a professed "world federalist," now takes part with Vanderboegh, a professed "former Maoist," in the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog, boosting the end of the United States for their "old compadre" Evans-Pritchard.

Their British manager comes by his role with foreign dupes by family tradition. His father, Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, studied the irrationality of African native religions that would make them vulnerable to British imperial control, and later ran native troops for the British Intelligence Service, MI6.

LATER: Threeper Eric sends this:

There’s a man who lives a life of danger
Lefties tellin’ lies and he’s no stranger
With every move he makes
The SPLC conflates
Odds are he’ll be on Hardball tomorrow

Secret, AAAygent Man
Secret, AAAygent Man
A few more windows broken
And he gets all the blame

Beware the old man’s on disability
Takes his cane so he can walk the street
Be careful what you say
He might post it right away
We’ll see you on Sipsey Street tomorrow

Popping caps at Knob Creek range on Monday
Marching on the DC mall on Friday
“Now paging R.A. Bear!”
They’re running everywhere
Odds are he can’t end Absolved tomorrow

Secret, AAAygent Man
Secret, AAAygent Man
A few more windows broken
And he gets all the blame

LA Times story on Hutaree quotes yours truly.

Here.

Militia members indicted on conspiracy, weapons charges

The anti-government Hutaree group, which described itself as a 'Christian warrior' group, allegedly planned to kill a police officer, then attack others during the funeral.

By David G. Savage and Richard Fausset

March 30, 2010


Reporting from Washington and Atlanta - Nine members of a Michigan-based anti-government militia that posted its military exercises on the Internet and allegedly plotted to kill police officers were indicted in Detroit on Monday on conspiracy and weapons charges.

The indictment said the Hutaree, which describes itself as a "Christian warrior" group, viewed all law enforcement as the enemy. It said members planned a violent act to get the attention of the police, possibly by killing an officer at a traffic stop, then attacking the funeral procession with explosives.

Federal agents said the small group of extremists had hoped to trigger a military clash with the government, but did not suggest they were part of any larger movement.

In recent months, Hutaree members had conducted military exercises with live ammunition and allegedly tried to obtain materials for bombs that could be used as "weapons of mass destruction." The group also had discussed carrying out an attack in April, authorities said.

The arrests of the Hutaree members comes amid what the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama nonprofit that tracks extremism, has called "an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation." The organization has cited the economic downturn as a major reason for the change, and contends that the far right has been particularly animated by the election of the nation's first black president.

Those groups "came roaring back after years out of the limelight," Mark Potok, director of the SPLC Intelligence Project, wrote in the group’s latest report.

The group's activities were hardly a secret. It maintained a website with videos of its men slogging through the woods and playing war games in military attire. Prosecutors also said David Brian Stone, the group's leader, used the Internet to obtain information on explosives.

Detroit U.S. Atty. Barbara McQuade said agents moved to arrest the nine over the weekend rather than wait for them to attack.

The indictment accuses them of conspiring "to levy war against the United States." Charges include seditious conspiracy, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.

"The safety of the public and of the law enforcement community demanded intervention at this time," McQuade said.

"This is an example of racial and extremist fringe groups which can be found throughout our society," said Andrew Arena, the FBI special agent in charge of the Detroit office. "The FBI takes such extremist groups seriously, especially those who would target innocent citizens and the law enforcement officers who protect the citizens of the United States."

Among those indicted along with Stone, 45, were his wife, Tina, 44 -- both of Clayton, Mich. -- and two sons, Joshua, 21, and David Jr., 19, of Adrian, Mich.

The Hutaree wore uniforms with the letters CCR, which stood for Colonial Christian Republic. Their members stood out as extremists even among other militia activists in eastern Michigan.

The group's website, hutaree.com, describes its philosophy.

"We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Antichrist," the site says. "All Christians must know this and prepare, just as Christ commanded. . . . Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment."

The site features video clips of camouflage-clad people firing weapons and running around in the woods. But unlike some militias, which emphasize the 2nd Amendment's right to bear arms and other constitutional rights, the Hutaree peppers its site with a mix of biblical references and conspiratorial language.

One blog post on the site argues that government unemployment checks are "critical for the government to starve off revolution." A section called "Beast Watch" warns against the "10 Horns of the European Super State."

The Southern Poverty Law Center first became aware of the group last year, when researchers discovered its MySpace page. In February, the SPLC included two chapters of the Hutaree, in Utah and Michigan, on a list of militia groups.

The SPLC, in its recent report, noted an "explosion of new extremist groups and activism" fueled by "broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America." The group identified 512 "patriot" groups that were active in 2009. The group defines such groups as those that "engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme anti-government doctrines."

Some other members of the militia movement distanced themselves from Hutaree on Monday.

"They talk about fighting the Antichrist and things like that," said Michael Vanderboegh, a former militia member and leading voice of the constitutionalist militia movement in a phone interview. "I'm a Christian, OK? But that's so far around the bend I can't see that bend from here."

Vanderboegh, 57, of Pinson, Ala., has played a part in the debate over the anger and frustration that is sweeping the American right. To protest the new healthcare law, he called "for the breaking of local city and county Democrat headquarters windows," and documented such vandalism as it made headlines around the nation on his blog.

Vanderboegh denounced the Hutaree militia group's "nuttery" on his site, but also wrote that the federal government was wading into sensitive territory with their arrests. "If, God forbid, shots had been exchanged, people killed, or buildings burned down a la Waco, we would be looking at a nationwide mobilization and civil war," he wrote.

david.savage@latimes.com

richard.fausset@ latimes.com

Now I'm a "blogging buffoon." -- "2 Minutes Hate" from Jonah Goldberg.

Here's the link.

I'll have more comment in a bit.

Opinion

The hostility follies

Democrats are overreacting to overheated rhetoric and one blogging buffoon.

By Jonah Goldberg

March 30, 2010

Apparently there's a self-proclaimed militia leader named Mike Vanderboegh who runs an obscure, low-traffic blog out of Pinson, Ala. (population 5,007). Mr. Vanderboegh recently called on his fellow "sons of liberty" to break the windows of Democrats who voted for healthcare reform.

So let's start with the obvious: Vanderboegh is an idiot, and anyone who followed his advice is an idiot too. These people are buffoons, not just because such tactics help Democrats but because such behavior is simply wrong, reprehensible and clownish.

Equally wrong, reprehensible and clownish: The reaction to Vanderboegh and his alleged ilk.

The Daily Beast's John Avlon insists that Vanderboegh's rallying cry, combined with some threats and broken windows, make "the parallels, intentional or not, to the Nazis' heinous 1938 Kristallnacht . . . hard to ignore."

Actually, it's really, really easy to ignore the parallels. During Kristallnacht, Nazi goons destroyed not just 7,000 store windows but hundreds of synagogues and thousands of homes. Tens of thousands of Jews were hauled off to concentration camps by the Nazis, who had been in total power for half a decade.

This combination of state power and murderous, genocidal intent is nowhere on display in America today, not in the Obama administration (contrary to what some overheated right-wingers claim) and certainly not among out-of-power conservatives and "tea partyers." It's amazing anyone needs to point this out, but a few libertarians throwing bricks is not the same thing as the tightening fist of the Third Reich. Indeed, it's an anti-American slander to suggest anything like it is going on here, and it cheapens the moral horror of the Holocaust.

Don't tell that to the Democrats and their media transmission belt, who largely turned a blind eye to partisan vandalism and extremist rhetoric against Republicans for eight years but now express horror at what they claim to hear from the right.

Columnist Paul Krugman, who encouraged liberals to hang Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in effigy, is concerned about right-wing "eliminationist rhetoric." The Washington Post's Courtland Milloy can't stand the incivility of the tea partyers, which is why he wants to "knock every racist and homophobic tooth out of their Cro-Magnon heads." Frank Rich says the mantra "take our country back" is now code for a white racist backlash -- though it was an apparently fine Democratic applause line when George W. Bush was president.

So what's the evidence for this new reign of terror? Those broken windows, some nasty voice and e-mail messages (not counting those aimed at Republicans, naturally), a coffin "left" at a Missouri congressman's home, a few repugnant signs at rallies and allegations from Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.)and John Lewis (D-Ga.) that they were spit on and insulted with the "N-word," respectively.

But wait. The coffin was part of a protest over the death of "our freedoms" and was toted by the protesters, not left anywhere. And videos make it clear that what Cleaver called spitting was a protester spraying too much saliva while talking, the racist pig.

As for the epithet aimed at Lewis, if it happened, it's disgusting. But going by the video, there's nothing to back it up, and Rep. Andre Carson's (D-Ind.) claim that the N-word was chanted 15 times is pure dishonesty.

Let's assume it is true. I thought liberals rejected guilt by association as McCarthyism. Or are we to believe that every opponent of Obamacare is a racist?

On March 3, Politico broke a story about a leaked PowerPoint presentation delivered at a GOP retreat in Florida. It laid out, in cartoonish terms, a fundraising strategy exploiting "fear" of President Obama's "socialist" agenda. Ranking Republicans condemned and repudiated it.

Now, Obama's political arm, Organizing for America, is fundraising based on fear, sending out e-mails insinuating that Republicans are unleashing a lynch mob to repeal Obamacare. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democrats' Congressional Campaign Committee, insists we all should be very scared.

Heaven forbid anyone suggest a coordinated strategy is at work here. That would be distracting us from the Kristallnacht unfolding before our eyes.

jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com

Hutaree Raid: An extremely well-executed federal operation aimed at the threat represented by the revitalized militia & Oath Keepers.

As a powerful political counter-stroke it was masterful. You have to give them credit. Putting a provocateur into a group of not-very-well wrapped Millennialists (see Churchill, To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrants Face) and assisting them to:

a. build and distribute pipe bombs and

b. talk about plots to kill cops that involve killing innocents, family members, etc.,

was well thought out, perfectly targeted, craftily planned, brilliantly executed and impeccably timed.

I realized this when I was outside talking to the three cops who showed up at my door to collect the birdshit Easter card. To begin with, the phone rang. Would I please meet the officer outside? Sure.

So I walked out in my shirtsleeves, thinking I would simply hand the guy (remember, I had been told they would send one officer) the ziplock bag, fill out a report, and then could go turn in after a very exhausting day.

I wasn't even off the porch before I understood something very different was going on here. Three deputies, not one. Spread out, hands on weapons, bright light in my face, commanding me to come to them. It was so ludicrous I laughed and said, "What? You want me to put my hands in the air?"

They didn't but they weren't laughing either.

Look, I told them, I just called you guys because that's what the Coroner's Office told me to do. They were tense as hell. Two of them knew me from local Pinson events, political and otherwise. The other, the one with the least experience, was the most obviously nervous and he's the one who approached from the side always training the light in my eyes.

So, after I get them calmed down and explain what is going on, it becomes obvious that they are concerned that I am a maddog militiaman. The Hutaree business was fresh in their minds. "Christian militia." "Kill cops at the funeral."

They're "militia." I'm "militia." I actually think they expected me to defend the assholes. As we had some time before the fire department trucks got there (and then they decided they weren't equipped to handle the situation so they asked for HAZMAT backup), I started talking about the many death threats I have had over the years and about my belief that it is better to be despised by the despicable than admired by the admirable. We talked about death threats in 90s, and my ever expanding list of enemies. I told them about how the FBI had been letting certain neoNazi terrorists run free back then, and how we -- the constitutional militia -- embarrassed them finally into arresting the pukes. I told them how we worked with state and local law enforcement to prevent racist-terrorist initiated clouds of pink mist here and across the country.

They just kept coming back to the Hutaree.

And it wasn't, I sensed, merely because it had just happened. The details of the thing as reported in the media and passed along by "cop telegraph" -- based entirely on the word of a federal provacateur at this point -- had seized their imaginations. "Christian Militia." "Assassinating a police officer." "Mass killing of cops' families at a funeral." "At a FUNERAL."

"Militiaman" = "Cop killer" As obvious as two plus two.

For the Imperial Feds, this was a propaganda coup of the tenth order of magnitude.

For this wasn't really about the Hutaree. It was about the revitalized constitutional militia movement and Oath Keepers. It may not have started out to be, when they began their operation against the Hutaree back in 2008, but at some point along the line, I'll bet, somebody saw the opportunity and took it.

Based upon the nervousness, fear and hatred of the Feds for Oath Keepers (as evidenced by the number and frequency of their verbal attacks on it), we knew that at some point they were going to feel compelled to get serious about dealing with the threat OK posed to their strategic certainty. (That is, "if I issue this tyrannical order, will these people carry it out -- or turn on me?")

Gentlemen and ladies, you just witnessed the seriousness of their intent to discredit Oath Keepers. The Hutaree meme strikes at the seam between the military and police who are attracted by the Oath Keepers' simple message, and the armed citizenry who are their natural allies in supporting and defending the Constitution and in the maintenance of order in society as a whole.

The Hutaree, apparently useful idiots to a man, may indeed not be guilty of what they are charged. It does not matter. Even if all the charges are later expoosed to be the fevered imaginings of snitches and provocateurs (and I don't think they will be), the Feds have reaped an incalculable benefit from the exercise.

They have, in the minds of every cop in America, equated the word "militia" with the word "cop killer."

From now on, every cop will approach us with that in mind. Every conversation about militia will have to deal with the Hutaree first. The Feds have put us all on the ideological defensive. The fact that it enunciates a lie does not matter. People will "know" from now on that all militiamen and women are copkillers.

Brilliant. You must give them credit. It was brilliant.

More on this subject later.

Mike
III

A third milestone today: Highway to HAZMAT Hell.

Folks,

I'm beat but I have to get this out now. Tomorrow I won't want to do it.

So, here I am, at 1500DCT, with an Easter card with brown and white powder in it. I bag it up. After about an hour and a half I reach a doctor friend by phone to find out what I should do. We agree that the principal potential threats are ricin and anthrax. "Probably just birdshit," he says. "Right." "Just watch for symptoms and get to the hospital if you start to develop any." "Right." "I'll call (someone in the Coroner's office) to find out what to do with the card and call you later." "Thanks a lot."

Sometime after five he calls back. I'm to call 9-1-1 for a cop to come by, pick it up and take it to a postal inspector. Sounds simple, right?

Hoo, boy, howdy.

The last fire truck, cop car and the SUV containing the FBI WMD expert finally left about 23:30CDT. There were at one point 14 vehicles with flashing lights outside, a neighborhood crowd, a cameraman from Channel 13 and a reporter from the Pinson News. (Everyone will spell my name right in their reports but the Pinson News.)

Remember the scene in Monsters, Inc. when the sock from the human world gets stuck on some hapless monster? You now have some sense of what it was like. Oh, they didn't do the strip and dip on me, but they approached my beat-up Blazer like it contained the entire Iranian nuclear program.

At one point, I offered to go fetch the zip-lock from the Blazer myself and drop it in one of their HAZMAT diaper bags. They looked stricken, as if I had just proposed that each of them take off all their clothes and run down the street screaming, "Look at me!" "What?" I asked. "You don't do trick-or-treat?"

No, they all assured me, they did not, and the youngest cop who took the report, looked like he would shoot me if I went near the vehicle.

I'm going to leave out most of the crap I had to go through, but the next time this happens, rather than go through what I just did, I'm going to mutter under my breath that the public health folks can go diddle themselves and I'm going to bury it in the front yard under the bushes. Sheesh.

The FBI, it seems, has jurisdiction for all WMD, even if it is birdshit, which it may not be, so OK. Said birdshit is now on its way to the lab in Montgomery. And I will have to be answering some Fibbie questions tomorrow by phone. (Yes, I will tape it.)

What a day.

Mike
III

Standoff near North Adams MI with Hutaree holdouts.

MI Confirmed. LA raid report awaiting positive confirmation.

My recommendation: Stand fast. Await word. But be ready if this turns into another Waco.

LATER:

ADRIAN, Mich. (WXYZ) - Law enforcement officials may have found the last suspect in the "Hutaree" case.

Sources tell Action News that the FBI is involved in a standoff in North Adams Village, about 30 miles from the site of Saturday's raid in Adrian. They are believed to be looking for Josh Stone, the son of the group leader David Stone.

The younger Stone has been on the run since the raid. So far the FBI has not commented on the standoff.

Several members of "Hutaree," a religious militia group based out of Lenawee County, are in court facing federal charges that include conspiracy and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

Nine people group members have been charged with a list of federal crimes. Seven of the suspects appeared in court Monday morning to be indicted.

Arrests were made over the weekend after the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Terrorism Task Force took part in raids around Adrian that may be connected to a religious militia group known as "Hutaree."

In a federal indictment, the government says the group is an anti-government, extremist organization that planned war with the United States. It is also alleged that the group wanted to kill members of law enforcement.

Federal charges include Seditious Conspiracy, Attempt to Use Weapons of Mass Destruction, Teaching/Demonstrating Use of Explosive Materials and two counts of Carrying, Using and Posessing a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence.

The nine people named in the indictment are as follows:
David Brian Stone, 45
Tina Stone, 44
Joshua Matthew Stone, 21
David Brian Stone, Jr., 19
Joshua Clough, 28
Michael Meeks, 40
Thomas Piatek, 46
Kristopher Sickles, 27
Jacob Ward, 33

The leader of the group is David Stone Sr., and is known by group members as "Captain Hutaree."

His ex-wife, Donna Stone, talked with Action News about Stone.

"He's got a temper. He can get radical. He wants things done his way," Donna Stone told Action News.

Investigators say group members have been meeting regularly to conduct military-style training in order to prepare for war with the government, law enforcement and federal workers.

Brittany Bryant, the woman who is engaged to David Stone Jr. - son of the group's leader, says the group isn't dangerous.

"I don't think they're dangerous. If they wanted to do something they would have already done something," says Brittany Bryant.

The FBI conducted multiple raids throughout Saturday and into Sunday, with one of them centered on a property where known members of the militia live.

Helicopters were spotted in the sky for much of the night Saturday, and agents set up checkpoints throughout the area, including in Sand Creek and Clayton in Lenawee County. Witnesses tell Action News that it was like a small army had descended on the area.

A command center, including two satellite trucks and a radio tower, had been set up at the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department in Ann Arbor. It has since been dismantled.

Sunday, authorities also blocked off roads in Dover Township, while they gathered evidence from a home.

The group's web site shows training videos of men wearing camouflage, carrying rifles, and maneuvering through rough terrain. The site also includes information similar to a manifesto, that says members need to be ready for the Anti-Christ and that Jesus wants members to be ready to defend themselves with the sword.

Authorities are expected to release more information about the investigation early this week.

An official with FBI has also said two people were arrested Saturday in Ohio, and one person was arrested in Illinois.

Report from a commander in Michigan I respect: Looks like the Hutaree had a fed embedded with them for at least a year and a half.

The Window War in Alaska: Now HERE'S an antidote for death threats, birdshit Easter cards and blacklisting!

Brick, Liberty Tool, Model Mark One dash A.

Yee-hah! Thanks to Irregular BF for sending this.

Vandals break window at Democratic Party offices

By LISA DEMER
ldemer@adn.com

Published: March 29th, 2010 02:34 PM

Someone vandalized the Alaska Democratic Party headquarters over the weekend, knocking a hole in the front center window of the Midtown office, according to Anchorage police.

A Democratic Party official, David Metheny, said he arrived at the office around 11:45 a.m. Sunday, and called police.

The window's metal frame was bent and it appeared to have been struck by a hard object, according to Anchorage police Lt. Dave Parker. The office is on Fairbanks Street between Fireweed Lane and Northern Lights Boulevard.

The damage spiderwebbed from the top of the big glass window to the bottom. The outer pane was broken but not the inner pane. No one got inside the building, according to police.

Metheny, a statewide party organizer, "had no leads on who may have broken the window but stated that since the health care vote in Congress, the office had been receiving threatening calls," Parker said, reading from the police report.

On Monday, Metheny said the office had gotten maybe 20 calls from people upset about health care reform, and that most of the people were reasonable and simply wanted to articulate their displeasure with how the vote occurred. But six or eight were more venomous.

"People sometimes express their political discontent inappropriately," Parker said.

"That could have been it. Or it could have just been somebody who decided they needed to break a window."

No other businesses were vandalized in the area.

Patti Higgins, state Democratic Party chairwoman, said officials don't know if the party was being targeted but she thought the recent wave of heated political rhetoric -- which ramped up after congressional reform of the country's health care system -- should be toned down.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin, who says the discontented should not retreat, but rather should "reload," and other Fox News commentators need to make public statements calling for the rhetoric to be tamped down, Higgins said.

"I think the call is out there to create violent acts," Higgins said. "I think they need to knock it off."

Palin has said she's not trying to incite anyone to violence.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.

Well, two milestones in one day. "There ain't no live and let live with bugs."

Wyatt! Wyatt! They hit Clum's house too, shot up his wife. His wife! Whoever heard of that? They're bugs, Wyatt. All that smart talk about live and let live. There ain't no live and let live with bugs. -- Tombstone, 1993.

Folks,

When I opened the mail today, I got a surprise. An Easter card with what was apparently dried birdshit in it, i.e., an unidentified brown and white powder that had been placed in the card when wet.

I was careful opening the card, figuring it was a threat. Didn't figure on that though. If I breathed any of it it was only a particle or two. So, having consulted the experts here and after two hours having experienced no ricin symptoms (and I immediately began taking Cipro in case of anthrax), I will simply turn over the letter tomorrow to the local law along with the other death threats.

I was on my way to pick up my daughter at school. If this was weaponized anything it might have killed her too. These assholes didn't care whether they killed or terrorized her. Bugs.

I could panic and hit the emergency room, but I don't have the co-pay and that would be giving the filthy collectivist prick a victory. I must admit that I am starting to develop a healthy hate, one that I must guard against if I do not want to become the same kind of beast that collectivism apparently manufactures so easily out of these godless assholes. Acting like bugs, they've just about got me convinced of their absolute lack of any humanity.

As I have written before, when you can think of them as bugs, as they think of us, it makes it easier to kill them. I am now to the point where I almost DO think of them as bugs. Like Zander to the Brain Bug in Starship Troopers, I want to scream,

"One day, somebody like me is going to kill you, and your whole fucking race!"

Collectivism has finally convinced me that it is a race unto its own. They have also demonstrated that this is an existential war of extermination, one way or another.

Them or us.

I vote them.

They still have to shoot first. But it will be the last temporary advantage they get.

There ain't no live and let live with bugs.

Mike
III

I am now a blacklisted enemy of the people. Can unpersonhood be far behind?

A blacklist (or black list) is a list or register of persons who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle. -- Wikipedia.

Folks,

Today I made the blacklist.

After I became disabled thanks to congestive heart failure some years ago, I tried to find something to do that would allow me to remain active. Because I had a knowledge of history and a gift for telling stories, I was asked to help with a living history program at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve.

With my re-enactor friend Eric (who did everything from Alabama Creek War through to World War I), we would put on historical programs for homeschoolers and inner city kids. Eric would do first person, I would tell stories from Alabama's history -- stories like Sam Dale and Caesar at the Canoe Fight, Aunt Jenny's Soapdish, or the fighting rearguard action fought by Bouton's Black Brigade of United States Colored Troops after the battle of Brices' Crossroads.

I never asked for a dime for the time and effort and neither did Eric. Eventually, we began doing the same thing for Pinson High School history students as well. We both love seeing kids open up to history and we were looking forward to this spring, when I got word that Taylor Steele, the director of the park for Birmingham Southern College which runs it, wanted to see me.

I was informed this morning that the park must "distance itself" from me. These orders came from Taylor's higher ups at BSC, so I don't blame him. He obviously hated doing it.

So, I'm fired from a job I never took a dime for.

It was perfectly predictable and I am actually amazed the collectivist academics took so long.

Still, it hurts.

It hurts a lot.

Mike
III

"Obama's Private Army!" "Fed Admits Reichstag Fire Plot!" Debunking the bunk. Mark Koernke isn't the only guy passing disinformation.

Folks,

Two pieces of disinformation that have been filling up my In Box in multiples are the claim that "Obama got his private army slipped into the health care bill" and "We're being set up for a Reichstag Fire. An anonymous Fed says so!"

Lynn Stuter deals with the first claim:

From: "lmstuter"
Subject: Hoaxes, more hoaxes, hoaxes galore
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:46:40 -0700

Dear All,

Hoax e-mails are flying, fast and furious. They are getting very annoying.

The first one claims that the health care bill passed, signed into law by the resident in the Oval Office on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 is HR 3200. "You've got to check this out" with a link to a YouTube video expounding on the horrors of HR 3200.

This is not true. The bill signed into law on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, is HR 3590.

HR 3200 was introduced in July 2009; the last action was in October 2009; it has not moved since. This does not mean we should ignore it; but please, do not mistake it for the actual bill signed into law.

The next hoax, circulating, is that "via section 430" of HR 3590, Obama got his "own private army."

The actual language in HR 3590 starts at Section 5209 and amends a bill passed in 1993 establishing a commissioned medical corps by striking "not to exceed 2,800". The hoax e-mail leaves out the following language from HR 3590:

"SEC. 5209. ELIMINATION OF CAP ON COMMISSIONED CORPS.
Section 202 of the Department of Health and Human Services
Appropriations Act, 1993 (Public Law 102–394) is amended by
striking ‘‘not to exceed 2,800’’."

In other words, the commissioned medical corps was established by Public Law 102-394 passed in 1993, amended by striking "not to exceed 2,800" in HR 3590.

The bill people need to be concerned about, regarding "Obama's private army" is HR 1388 (P.L. 111-13) signed into law on April 21, 2009.

Folks, I know there are a lot of scared people out there; I understand.

But there are ways to check this stuff out. Let me go through it one more time.

All federal legislation introduced can be found on the Congressional Legislation website at http://thomas.loc.gov. This is their official site. All amendments and actions on a bill are listed on this website under the bill number.

If you go the that website, in the search field, input "H.R. 3590", above the search field click on the button for "bill number", then hit "go", the bill will come up. . .

From this page you can obtain a searchable .pdf of the bill under "Text of Legislation" or simply by clicking .pdf behind GPO (Government Printing Office) directly above it.

Please, in the interests of not spreading disinformation or misinformation, check these things out before hitting the "forward" button.

They are a colossal waste of time and only serve to muddy the waters with disinformation and misinformation. They make the people in the conservative cause look like a bunch of neophytes who will believe anything that shows up in their inbox.

Lynn M Stuter

And then there is the "Reichstag" report.

Unfortunately Douglas J. Hagmann has a reputation for being less than honest, both about his own work and the facts. See Debbie Schlussel here.

Money quote from one of her readers:

Your research and analysis on Islamic Fundamentalist Terror is well done. However, I believe another “investigator” located in Pennsylvania is attempting to capitalize financially on “intelligence investigations” throughout the electronic world by using open source information gathering techniques. These techniques include, but are not limited to, subscribing to news alerts from sources abroad, surfing weblogs, and watching broadcasts. Unfortunately, Mr. Douglas J. Hagmann, Director, Northeast Intelligence Network, and his site www.homelandsecurityus.com is using these techniques to misrepresent his personal analysis, and those of his supposed “investigators.” I also believe he is attempting to latch on to those already climbing the ladder of success independent of others.

Recently, he posted an “investigation” which he cited you as a source. I understand the professional courtesy extended by citing your information is prudent. However, Douglas J. Hagmann, and a few of his “investigators” mimic at times, usually more often than not, the practices of [Jerome] Corsi [DS: who similarly plagiarized a column I wrote]…plagiarism.

This is definitely not the first time Douglas J. Hagmann of the Northeast Intelligence Network has published plagiarized information, nor do I suspect the last. He does not appear to be a credible person, nor would I want him citing any of my work as a source period. Prior to September 2001, Mr. Hagmann was using his investigative prowess to look for “Bigfoot” and “UFO’s” in, and around Northeast Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania. Ashtabula, Ohio to be specific. Mysteriously, the links to the story in the “Star-Beacon” in Ohio have been removed and or deleted. Mr. Hagmann was cited as a private investigator who reviewed the video tape of the incident, and then affirmed it was real and credible.

Referencing the above stories [DS: see below about the stories] regarding terrorism, it has now been reported to me that WorldNetDaily [DS: Whatta coincidence! WND is the site that ran Jerome Corsi's plagiarism of my work, and refused to do a thing about it] has now picked up the story of Mr. Hagmann. I believe they will be next on my list today for e-mail. I believe Douglas J. Hagmann, of the Northeast Intelligence Network, at www.homelandsecurityus.com, is a complete and utter fraud period.

'Nuff said?

Mike
III

Big day yesterday, thanks to the Feds and the Hutaree

Over thirteen thousand hits and the sitemeter hasn't finished counting in the 23rd hour. (Don't know why it is so dilatory. Something about being located in California, I think.)

And based on the comments, most of these visitors were NOT foam-at-the-mouth collectivists trying to get an insult or a death threat in edgewise over their outrage at the Window War, but members of the armed citizenry trying to figure out what was going on in the Midwest.

For those of you new to Sipsey Street, welcome!

Mike
III

Darth Vader's Understudy

Look's like the Obamanoids are studying up on the evil Empire.

Threepers (and Rand Paul!) at the Open Carry Rally in Frankfort, Kentucky

"Speakers stressed the importance of guns for self-defense, drawing cheers from about 300 people at the rally where American flags were plentiful." This is the photo that accompanied the FOX News story below.

My sincere thanks to a several Irregulars for forwarding me
this story:

Updated March 27, 2010

Gun Rights Supporters Tote Weapons at Rally Outside Kentucky's Capitol

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Gun rights supporters unabashedly toted weapons at a rally outside Kentucky's Capitol on Saturday in a show of political muscle aimed at sending a message to policymakers to protect the Second Amendment.

Speakers stressed the importance of guns for self-defense, drawing cheers from about 300 people at the rally where American flags were plentiful.

Many in the crowd had weapons holstered at their sides or strapped to their backs while attending the Kentucky Second Amendment March. The event is part of a national, grass-roots campaign culminating with a planned rally next month in Washington.

Rex Bartley, state coordinator for the march, said bearing arms is a "God-given right," and said gun rights supporters are a "silent majority" who need to speak out.

Bartley said gun ownership is the "one right that protects all others," and said it's invaluable for self-protection.

"A well-trained man or woman with a firearm in their hand, when they encounter a criminal, it makes a difference between going home to your family ... or going to the morgue," he said.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul said he would never waiver in his support of the Second Amendment, pledging that if elected he would oppose any federal regulation of firearms.

Paul called guns a "great defense," telling the crowd that "had we had one armed teacher or student at Virginia Tech, we might not have had a massacre." He was referring to the 2007 shooting rampage that left 33 people dead, including the student gunman.

Nikki Goeser, whose husband was fatally gunned down at a Tennessee restaurant in 2009, told the crowd that police have a difficult job and cannot be everywhere. "No one can take care of you like you can," Goeser said.

She urged people to be equipped to defend themselves if ever confronted by an assailant.

"If you don't have a handgun carry permit, get one," said Goeser, of Nashville, Tenn. "If you don't have a firearm for self-defense, get one."

In the crowd, Rob Lotz III of Georgetown said he worries about efforts to chip away at the Second Amendment. He said the rally sent a strong message to politicians to preserve gun rights.

Eric Nichols of Berea said he values the Second Amendment, even though he's never owned or fired a gun. The closest he's come is firing a paintball gun.

"Every person should have the right to defend themselves," he said. "We don't have one police officer for every citizen in this country."

In Kentucky, the gun rights lobby has been a powerful force in a state where hunting is a cherished tradition.

Recently, Kentucky House leaders balked at a proposed rule change that would have barred visitors from carrying guns in the Capitol. Some House lawmakers pressed for such a ban after a man wore a holstered gun into the House chamber and sat through an afternoon session.

And to ORD for forwarding this link to these images:

These guys were pretty typical of the OC advocates at the rally, right down to their Rand Paul stickers.

And here's a Rev War re-enactor with Rand Paul.

And it figures that the most serious OC advocate there would be a Threeper.

Hutaree Raid Militia Response Interim After Action Report: Some Preliminary Lessons Learned.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. -- 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse 11, King James Bible.

Background:

Previous Sipsey Street posts on this subject --

Here.

And here.

Update posts from Drudge --

Here.

Here.

Here.

And here.

Now that I've had a little sleep, let's examine what just happened and what didn't happen. The lessons are mostly good and reflect well on the expanding constitutional militia of the 21st Century.

OPFOR: Intentions of the Enemy.

There seems to me to be little doubt that Main Justice was eager to ping us back after the past week or so when a few broken windows on our part and other threats not of our making caused over a hundred congresscritters to call the FBI down on the capitol building carpet to verbally beat up the Fibbies for not doing their job and to demand that they do something about the threats they perceived to their imperial personages.

The Hutaree, who by their previous nuttery over the past two years set themselves up as low-hanging fruits -- wannabe John Browns with a persecution complex -- made a perfect target. Yet even moving on the Hutaree had many risks for the Feds. If, God forbid, shots had been exchanged, people killed, or buildings burned down a la Waco, we would be looking at a nationwide mobilization and civil war. There are analysts deep in the Hoover Building who understand that there are no more free Wacos. Yet the Feds, prodded by the Dems in Congress were willing to risk it.

They were willing to risk it -- OR THEY WANTED IT.

We'll learn more as time passes and more details emerge, but the upshot now is that they got lucky -- very lucky for them indeed, for the Hutaree have long sworn they would die rather than surrender.

Yet there were apparently no shots, no innocent deaths, and thus no retaliatory spasm of an open source insurgency using 4th generation warfare to target the war-makers and war-leaders -- and those are the stakes of the game they are clumsily playing. I doubt the Dem politicians who urged them to do SOMETHING had their own deaths in mind. Unintended consequences indeed.

OPFOR: Show of force demonstrates their inherent weakness.

I have asked for an intelligence estimate of what it took to mount this huge operation in three states against a piddling number of people. Preliminary guesses are in the many hundreds, if not low thousands, of federal, state and local cops. The raiders were backed up by armored vehicles and air cover. All to arrest 7, count 'em, 7 individuals for allegedly distributing destructive devices -- pipe bombs.

(No doubt the Feds had several confidential informants and agents provocateur in the Hutaree and allied units. Another reason to be damn careful, you militia commanders, about who you ally with. You have a duty to protect your people from stupid decisions. This begins with your choices of personnel, friends and allies.)

Now, I admit that it takes a hell of a lot more folks to arrest someone as opposed to merely killing him, but the fact of the matter is that the same risk-aversion we see in the U.S. military these days is even more true of federal law enforcement.

If what they wanted to do was overawe us with this massive show of force, the fact of the matter is that it just demonstrated how overly-concerned they are about putting their own asses on the line and taking the risk of not living until retirement.

Militia and "Patriot" Responses:

Failures --

1. Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia.

Read this excerpt from one of the Drudge links:

Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, said one of his team leaders got a frantic phone call Saturday evening from members of Hutaree, a Christian militia group, who said their property in southwest Michigan was being raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"They said they were under attack by the ATF and wanted a place to hide," Lackomar said. "My team leader said, 'no thanks.' "

The team leader was cooperating with the FBI on Sunday, Lackomar said. He said SMVM wasn't affiliated with Hutaree.

Now, knowing from the reports of militia folks I trust in that area something of the lack of judgment and border-line criminality of the Hutaree, I do not fault the SMVM team leader for refusing to allow his people to be drawn in. I would have the same reaction if the MS-13 types in my neighborhood were raided and in desperation asked for my help. Thanks, but no thanks.

What I do fault SMVM for, and not just this team leader, is cooperating with the FBI at all. I have had this conversation with folks in Michigan before. To my mind, the proper reaction is to call your local county sheriff or, at least here in Alabama, the state police, and report that the ATF/FBI is raiding folks and let them know you and your friends are watching. A general warning about federal misconduct, put in the form of a question to them about what do they, the peace officers of the area, intend to do to prevent Waco misadventures, would go a long way to discharging your responsibility and putting the Feds on notice to mind their manners.

The Hutaree have the right to live through the service of federal warrants without being killed. This is one reason why the constitutional militias first organized in early 90s. It is our duty to attempt to protect despicable characters even if we disagree with them. SMVM, by "cooperating" with the FBI, presumably to help them make their case against the Hutaree, has crossed this line.

2. Mark "Disinformation Specialist" Koernke

An excerpt from earlier this morning:

SITREP LISTEN NOW

[04:13] I just left a shouting match about 20 minutes ago with a little over a hundred militiamen who are on the move right now. The arguement was over not if but rather where to hit them. Trying to calm them down was useless and they are not going to let this lie. They will identify the straglers or pickets first and wipe them out. By what the radiio crew said the recon teams have all of the hiddy holes

[04:14] …IDed for those they moved in and the group is infiltrating to site as we speak. I hope the locals are smart enough to step out of the way.

[04:16] this is interesting for we may have live vids from the epicanter as it developes.

[04:16] …epicenter…

This is typical of the Koernke I have known and despised for 15 years, Why anybody pays attention to this disinformation artist who does his very best to incite folks into crossing lines and committing Fort Sumters is beyond me. Given his history, he did not disappoint. The only good thing that came of this was the overwhelming number of people who ignored it and went around, over and through the disinformation to find out what actually was going on. Subsequently, he has calmed down and acts now as if he wasn't demonstrating my Michigan Grandpa's ditty making fun of folks who panic:

When in peril or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout.

And in Koernke's case, flapping your arms like a chicken attempting to make airspeed velocity.

Leaders, if they ARE leaders, have a duty -- an absolute duty -- to be the calmest guy in the CP tent when everything is falling apart. 'Nuff said.

3. Myself.

I criticize myself for going public with the fact that I couldn't get in touch with my folks in Michigan and thus jumping to the conclusion that they might have been targets. I should have kept my mouth shut about that until I heard. Yes, I know, I put in caveats and didn't Koernke on you (yes, he has become a verb), but I still scared a number of folks for a short period of time who I shouldn't have. Mea culpa.

Successes:

1. Local militia response.

Having received briefings from local formations in the intervening hours, it is plain that the best units in the southeast Michigan Area of Operations and contiguous areas understood what was happening almost immediately, that it was targeted at the Hutaree (who they had all been shunning for very good reasons for some time) and used their proximity to try to understand the OPFOR's movements and playbook. Some people were monitoring federal, state and local communications, others, unarmed and dressed in civvy's circulated around, testing the federal perimeters, noting force levels, agencies, armament. Testing, prodding, notetaking, learning. By doing this they learned far more about what was going on than the media knew at any given point. Some of this information I passed on to news organizations to help them ask the Feds the right questions.

2. National militia response.

Some units mobilized at the first reports, but gradually stood down as the facts became clear. Other, smarter commanders, merely did a commo check with their members, assigned themselves or their S-2s to gather info, mostly from the Internet, and awaited events.

The interesting thing to me is how Well many newbie formations reacted to this, better than I experienced with others in similar situations in the 90s. For example, Bob Wright, 1st Brigade New Mexico Militia was in the middle of training fifteen or so newbies at Camp Proctor (formerly known in the 90s vernacular as "Fort Stinking Desert") in southeast New Mexico. He received my report on his cell phone when he awoke. At reveille, he briefed trainees that a federal raid was happening in the Midwest and asked if anyone wanted to cease training and look to their homes. WITHOUT HESITATION, not one trainee evinced any interest in leaving. Bob reports they told him that they had come to get training and they wanted that most of all.

These are not childish reactions, taking counsel of fears, as we often saw in the 90s. These are the reactions of men and women who understand the situation and are willing to see it through.

3. Sipsey Street and other Internet militia boards such as AWRM.

In large measure we reported what we knew and did not Koernke on anybody. For my part, I was very early on in communication with news outlets who were covering the story. I provided them with context and information as I was able to glean it from my own sources. This synergy worked well. The questions I kept asking over and over again -- Have shots been fired? Has anyone been killed? Has any property been burned? -- these were answered to the best of the news organizations ability to cover their own local beats.

In addition, the one time a news organization spotted a Hummer filled with hard-faced, dangerous looking men dressed in camo and carrying, according to the report, "a bazooka" in the back seat, I was able to reassure them that the vehicle was filled with federal raiders. They affirmed this by calling 9-1-1.

The 2nd Amendment exists to protect the First and all the rest. Federal misconduct most often takes place in the dark. To the extent that we can support the news media and help them understand what is happening in a situation that the Feds are tight-lipped and unresponsive, this both helps them understand what we are really about and helps us shine a bright light on the cockroaches.

Conclusion:

This could have been one hell of a lot worse than it was. Today we avoided the beginning of a civil war. I do not know how long we will be able to do that in the future, given Fed cowboy clumsiness, but the fact that we were the ones who did not take counsel of our fears -- and who "put away childish things" and did not overreact -- bodes well at least for ensuring that we don't lose the moral high ground when the Feds, finally, in frustration at our refusal to submit to their diktats, open fire on us.

After that, it will be an open source insurgency using Fourth Generation Warfare.

And we WILL win.

Not as children, but as free men and women of the armed citizenry.

Mike Vanderboegh