Suckers for Cox

photo by D Petri from the PC

It was just two years ago when Schaeffer Cox (the dapper gent in the hat pictured between Bob Bird and Tom Wagoner) came to the Kenai to promote his philosophies of unrestricted gun-ownership and sovereign citizen political action.  He was welcomed with open arms by Bob and Tom and given an email endorsement by Dave Carey.  Since then, Cox has been arrested a few times.  Once for beating his wife and then once for not informing a cop that he was packing heat as Cox responded to a Liberty Bell (the Sovereign Citizen phone tree) call when a fellow member was arrested.  Then yesterday, Cox was one of five arrested for plotting to kill five AK state troopers and a judge.  You can read about that incident here.

Those in the Sovereign Citizen movement claim that they are above the law and don't need to follow any rules.  There's been an uptick of SC related incidents since Obama became president including the shooting deaths of two policemen in Arkansas and the shooting of Gabby Giffords and others in Arizona a couple of months ago.

But this blog post isn't about Cox, it's about peninsula politicians.  Obviously, Wagoner and Bird are suckers for Cox's, um,  ideas, but so is Mayor Dave Carey.  Norm Olson and Mike McBride of ACT were among Cox's handlers and Gary Superman was recognized.

While Congressman Don Young isn't from the Kenai, he does represent us down in DC and Don has been a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment Task Force, of which Cox is the president of the Alaska chapter.

And why all of the political support?  Do they all really believe that we all need to be locked and loaded at all times?  Do they really believe that we should disobey the law?  Do they think that we should kill the representatives of the law?

Maybe they were just pandering for votes among from the right wing-nuts here on the peninsula.  Remember, we voted overwhelmingly for Joe Miller this last election.

If peninsula politicians don't really buy that gov't conspiracy black-helicopter stuff,  maybe they shouldn't pal around with those who do.

The New US Health Plan: Courtesy of Bob Bird

I'd take a bet that not one of the 13,113 Alaskans who voted for Nikiski's Bob Bird would have voted for Mark Begich. But if Bob didn't run, most of his votes would have gone to Ted Stevens who trailed his opponent by a little over 3000 votes.

Without Mark Begich in the US Senate, the Democrats would not have had the 60th vote needed to quell Republican efforts to filibuster. The defeat would have been,as the Republicans pledged, President Obama's Waterloo.

No matter your political bent, it's way too early to evaluate what the new policy will bring, after all there has been no melding of the House and Senate bills yet. I've yet to see a (sane) critique of the either proposal that doesn't have a both a good/bad position. Well, maybe more bad than good, but that argument is for another post.

Regardless, Bob Bird will have had the most important role in passing whatever health care legislation that does become law. Has it ever happened in US History when one so insignificant on the national scale, might change the course of the nation?

And can you imagine that Bob, a history teacher at Nikiski High and one of the most conservative gentlemen that you will ever meet, might not appreciate his place in the books?

I think I will rub it in the next time I see him!

(Numb)Nutz for Guns

The Second Amendment Task Force (T2ATF), a group determined to fight any laws that they perceive would violate the second amendment, met at the SOLdotna Sports Center this past Tuesday (see the PC story). Bob Bird, one of the local organizers, stated, "This is not the National Rifle Association..."

OK, let's stop right there. It IS the NRA - here's the link to the NRA website that promotes T2ATF.

Bob, if you can't be honest, everything you have to say is immediately suspect. But we already knew that about you.

Anyway, they met and in attendance was a who's who of losers and incompetents: Bob B, who was resoundingly defeated twice for US Senate; Wayne A Ross, S. Palin's Attorney General selection who was overwhelming rejected for the job by a bipartisan vote; Schaeffer Cox, the 25 year-old who lost a bid to represent Fairbanks in the state house; Tom Wagoner, the current state senator for the central peninsula who for the 3rd session in a row, sat on the sidelines and did nothing but complain (see the posting on him below); and Davey Carey, the current KPBSD mayor, who is determined to pander to every winger group on the peninsula.

Cox, the main organizer, is worried about all the gun control laws and restrictions that are coming our way. Which ones? Who knows, but the government, especially the Obama administration, is out to get our guns.

While there is a grass-roots feel to the Alaskan group, the T2ATF was founded by U.S. Congressman Dan Boren, (D-OK) and U.S. Congressman Paul Broun, (R-GA), both recipients of considerable NRA funding.

T2ATF seems to gathering strength as a push back to the resounding election of President Obama. They are convinced that the president is out to get their guns. (read KSRM's view).

The Obama administration is proposing re-instating the ban on assault weapons. Um, that's about it.

There is more to the Alaskan T2ATF. Check out their agenda. Here are some of their tenets:

1) If any new gun laws are enacted, they will "alter or abolish them and institute new government."
2) That self defense is a God-given right. (Hmm, what about turn the other cheek, blessed are the peacemakers [not a nod to S. Colt's famous .45 revolver], and thou shalt not kill?)
3)Abolish the Federal Reserve because they print money.
4)To use force against the government if they don't get their way.
5)If selected to be on a jury, not to convict someone on a firearms offense. (I guess they would have freed Harold Pence of Kasilof who was just convicted for assaulting his wife and others during a drunken escapade involving rifle fire last summer)

Does this group bring Timothy McVie to mind?

Of course we Alaskans own guns and hunt and target shoot and no one has ever has proposed restricting that sort of ownership. But what is unreasonable about banning assault weapons? And if we don't draw the line with assault weapons, should we be allowed to own RPGs? Heat seeking missiles? Dirty bombs? IEDs?

I'm concerned that groups like this are all paranoid about the Obama administration, but had nothing to say about Bush and his cronies and their policies of torture, stripping our civil liberties, conducting an illegal war...Oh, that list goes on and on.

It seems it's all good to groups like T2ATF until there is a perception that their weapons of mass destruction might be taken away.