Thursday, June 05, 2008

Tools in the shed.

I'm going to go out on a limb with a prediction:

IF we get eight years of a Democrat in the White House AND the Dems retain control of congress for the next four to six years THEN we will see at least one of the fringier gun/freedom groups get investigated for terrorism, membership and donor rolls seized, assets frozen, members put on the no-fly list, the whole Patriot (ha!) Act shebang.

It'll be KABA or the Michigan Militia or everyone who's ever posted at the Claire Files, or the records of everyone who has chipped in to help Oleg buy a lens to take those seditious pictures, maybe even as big a target as the JPFO.

And all the Bush Derangement Syndrome folks are going to miss the point, saying
"Ooh! It was those evil NeoCons and their Patriot Act! And now they're hoist by their own petard!", completely ignorant of the fact that the Patriot act was nothing but a laundry list of failed law enforcement gimmes, some dating back to the Carter administration, that was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority during the Rah-Rah Government! days while the rubble from the towers was still cooling.

Meanwhile, the Law & Order GOP types will still be chanting "If you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about?" since they wouldn't be members of such a loony fringe organization anyway. (They're not even sure if their Ducks Unlimited membership is still up to date, but they must be okay with the NRA since they haven't stopped getting American Rifleman.)

Oh well, at least the conspiracy theories are more entertaining when the Dems are in control. The Truthers have nothing on the guys who swore that Clinton had a million Chinese troops across the border under UN command that were going to drive into the country on the wrong side of the road (because they were furriners, that's why there are secret code stickers on the backs of traffic signs) and round us all up in detention stalags made from WalMart garden centers.

15 comments:

theirritablearchitect said...

Yes, well, Barry getting in the Whore House is reason enough for me to pack my bags and head to Idaho, hopefully getting lost in the process.

GeorgeH said...

I see that in the first term, building a panic like that after the Oklahoma city bombing. If he gets a second term it will be the NRA and everyone who has ever clicked through a gun blog.

Tam said...

Nonononono.

See, "Guns" is a non-starter of an issue right now, politically.

"Terrorism", on the other hand, is still Page One stuff. Have you read some of the stuff out there at the places I mentioned? Some of it is outright seditious. If the Clinton justice department had some of the Patriot Act powers (and they did ask for some of them) the internet would be a very different place right now...

HokiePundit said...

You leave Fred Thompson out of this!

Jenny said...

I have to admit, I never did quite lose the feeling we're due for another "Late Unpleasantness" sometime in the next couple generations. As you've noted before, once the stakes get high enough with federal power, at some point one side or the other may well not wish to step aside gracefully.

Thing is, I think Senator Clinton has learned enough from the early 90's and her husband's missteps to be clever and subtle enough not to force any Concord Green moments.

Obama? Not so much.. he just seems too insulated to even know when he'd be pushing too hard, too fast.

Whether in the long run that'd be for good or ill I've no idea.

Anonymous said...

I've already started stockpiling ammo that I expect to be threatened (well, immediately threatened - eventually all of it will be if Obama is in office long enough). I even broke down and bought an EBR (albeit not an AR).

Maybe the best thing Ashcroft ever did was scrap the background check records Reno illegally held, but I've no doubt that the new wave of goons will have no trouble tracking down Dangerous Elements. As Tam notes, membership lists of various gun rights groups are vulnerable, as will be marketing data from the likes of Cabela's and CTD. CMP may be forced to turn over their sales records... there's just too much damning information out there for the grabbers to get their hands on, and you can bet a paycheck they will get their hands on it in an Obama administration.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't be surprised if Obama was martyred by the Lizard Queen and it's blamed on the southerners. Racist crackers, and all that. They could work the domestic terrorism angle as well as finish off the last vestiges of southern culture they didn't get in the last 16 or so years.

In the meantime, I predict a spike in Confederate flag sales starting in November.

John A said...

The passage of the "PATRIOT" Act actually confirmed something I had long suspected: news accounts at the time noted, buried near the bottom of coverage, that only one Representative, and no Senators, had read it and indeed there was only one copy.

Anonymous said...

So which organizations should I join? I'd hate for the Feebs or the BATF#*%ers to miss me on any of their lists. I guess it's time to send donations to the JPFO and GOA, just to make sure.

Aw, heck, all they'd have to do is check with the local sheriff's office for a list of CCW permits. After all, anybody who's paranoid enough to want to actually have the means to defend themselves while in public is probably crazy enough to think that they have a right to their life, liberty and property.

Tam said...

A lot of folks seem to be missing my point here.

This isn't going to be "Der Tag" that the sweaty-palmed keyboard jockeys dream of, where all the gun owners get rounded up and put in camps.

I don't see congress even having the traction to pass major gun control at the federal level in the next two years; it still has a "third rail" flavor to many.

What I'm talking about is, given four to six years of employee and appointee turnover at the level of various federal bureaucracies, somebody without a sense of humor is going to read a "Vote From The Rooftops" post of the kind that were all over the 'net in the era of Waco and Elian, and now they have the Patriot Act to swing back with, and some dumbass poster is going to get Guantanamoed...

Roberta X said...

Mmmmm, "camps." Yummm...

Heck, Tam, parts of it have probably already happened. How would we know? ;)

Anonymous said...

Kudos Tim.
"Foolish liberals who are trying to read the 2nd Amend. out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like." - Alan Dershowitz (at one time a left winger's left winger). When one considers the present administration's legalization of torture, extraordinary foreign renditions, the nullification of Habeus Corpus, the zoning of free speech for presidential motorcades, etc., Mr. Dershowitz' words appear sadly prophetic.

waypasthadenough said...

I can't believe many 'patriots' don't already realize this. Yes it may amount to only one or a handful of people like me getting arrested for writing that "If we're not fighting for the right to fight back, what are we fighting for?" or "When guns are outlawed, "Liberal" season must/will begin,” which I do all the time.

When they succeed in scaring us back into the ‘crime argument’ for the 2nd Amendment, which they will find a way to win, by saying ‘self-defense(our most basic right) is no reason to own a gun,” because after all, “No one has the right to shoot legally elected, hired or appointed government employees,” they will have us right where they want us and soon we will be like England:

http://www.willowtown.com/reality/britsinsane.htm

On the day one of these people or groups are arrested and sent off to wherever or convicted, we must begin killing our authoritarian types, regardless of what label they hide behind. If you don’t think so you are not prepared for what is coming and not willing to kill for your Liberty and thus don’t deserve it.

Anonymous said...

The U.S. Government is out of control. DEA, BATFE, EEOC, etc. While superficially these are organizations fighting crime and bigotry, they are, in actuality, organizations that monitor peoples' actions and mandate, to the extent that they can (and often illegaly), peoples' lives.

Two generations ago, one quarter of a million Americans died in combat to defeat two other governments whose actions in suppressing liberty presently are not much different than our own.

Thirty percent of all prison inmates incarcerated in this country are non-violent drug offenders. In other words, there are are more political prisoners in the US that in the rest of the world combined.

The vast majority of Americans today, are as naive as to what constitutes liberty, as were the overwhelming majority of Germans in the 1930's.

When will, if ever, the citizens of this country wake up, repeal the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution and, in the process, return this country limited government.

Jimmie Jones

PS: The CATO Institute has some excellent literature on the suffocation of liberty in America.

Elias Alias said...

The Claire Files forums changed hands back in September 17, 2007, and is now the forums for The Mental Militia. Check us out...

http://www.thementalmilitia.com

... 'tis time to speak up, while we still can, yes? :)

Salute!
Elias Alias