Well...it's hard to find an appropriate comment here. It should be more than obvious to anyone that teabaggers like Joe Miller have no real interest in the workings of democracy. This should also surprise nobody. Joe Miller cannot hide from the public like Sarah Palin does quite successfully, so he needs some goons around him to arrest the unruly journalists."Alaska Dispatch founder and editor Tony Hopfinger was grabbed and handcuffed by a private security detail working for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller on Sunday while trying to ask the Fairbanks Republican questions following a town hall meeting at Central Middle School in Anchorage on Sunday.
Hopfinger was reportedly pressing Miller on whether the candidate had ever been reprimanded for politicking while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. Alaska Dispatch and other media have sued for the release of records related Miller's time at the borough. Various accounts of what happened next generally agree on this course of events:
- Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.
- Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.
- Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.
- Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. He was told, "You're under arrest."
- Anchorage Police arrived on the scene shortly after.
Police were still trying to sort things out as this was written."
Alaska has it's biggest scandal now since Sarah Palin resigned, and I am glad that the journalists from Alaska Dispatch are taking their job seriously and are not willing to accept the restrictions which are imposed on them. That's what any good journalist who takes his job seriously should do. Unfortunately, as we all know, Alaska isn't really known these days for journalists with guts. It's great to see that Alaska Dispatch starts to make a real difference.
In addition, Immoral Minority reports that Joe Miller has sympathy for solutions like the Berlin Wall. While he discussed erecting a fence at the border to Mexico, Joe Miller said:
"If East Germany can do it, we can do it!"
Oh yeah, the East German communists were great in building fences, conveniently fitted with automatic machine guns and mines - to keep the "fascists" out, as they claimed, but "inexplicably" they detained their own population as well...
The communists didn't like critical journalists either, which is why no critical press existed in East-Germany. Sounds like Joe Miller's dream world. Did you know that East-Germany also had regular elections, several parties and a parliament? Does this sound like a dictatorship to YOU? Apparently, everybody was very happy there, according to their newspapers. So it's understandable that Joe Miller is looking in this direction for "alternative" solutions, isn't it...?
I photographed Joe Miller's dream 22 years ago:
Berlin, Potsdam Place, 1988
+++
UPDATE:
The Miller campaigns claims that Tony Hopfinger "physically assaulted another individual" at the event, without giving any details.
But that's not all: He was "irrational, angry and potentially violent."
The statement by Joe Miller's campaign sounds like it was written in communist China after the student protests. By the way, critical reporting is now an "assault" as well, in case you didn't know yet:
"While I've gotten used to the blog Alaska Dispatch's assault on me and my family, I never thought that it would lead to a physical assault. It's too bad that this blogger would take advantage of a "Town Hall" meeting to create a publicity stunt just two weeks before the election."
The Miller campaign was required by the facility to provide security at the event. Even though Joe had spent more than 40 minutes answering questions from those in attendance, the blogger chased Miller to the exit after the event concluded in an attempt to create and then record a 'confrontation' with the candidate. While Miller attempted to calmly exit the facility, the blogger physically assaulted another individual and made threatening gestures and movements towards the candidate. At that point the security personnel had to take action and intervened and detained the irrational blogger, whose anger overcame him. It is also important to note that the security personnel did not know that the individual they detained was a blogger who was engaged in the campaign. To them, the blogger appeared irrational, angry and potentially violent."
+++
UPDATE 2:
The first video of the incident is available, and you cannot see on it what happened before the arrest, but the arrest itself is partly visible. You can hear Tony Hopfinger asking "Who are you though? Are you police officers?" and then saying, as the security people escort him away: "That camera belongs to me!"
+++
UPDATE 3:
We should be very thankful for this incident, as it provides unique insights into right-wing, or should I say, "wingnut" thinking and their attitude towards a free press and towards dissent.
The statements by the Joe Miller campaign and by the Palinbots on C4P really sound like they were statements made by some sinister dictatorship for example in Africa or Asia. These statements are incredibly revealing, and hopefully some people will finally wake up now and will stop treating Sarah Palin and Joe Miller as "ordinary" politicians! Because that's not what they are. They are both extremists and don't give a damn as far as the freedom of critics and dissenters is concerned.
Here is the complete statement by Joe Miller (h/t Progressive Alaska):
Here is a picture of the arrest of Tony Hopfinger, also found on Progressive Alaska:
Photo taken by Bill Roth - Anchorage Daily News
But now comes the "best" part: Sarah Palin's fanatical followers on C4P not only defend the actions of Joe Miller's goons, but in classic Palinbot fashion combine this with a direct threat to everyone who thinks that disagreeing with politicians like Joe Miller and Sarah Palin is a good idea - note the last paragraph:
Please note that according to C4P, you can commit a "fourth-degree assault" which would justify an arrest through "words" alone.
But, but...we love our freedoms, don't we?
You have the freedom to worship Sarah Palin and the "Tea Party elite" like Joe Miller. Apparently, that should be enough freedom for everyone.
+++
UPDATE 4:
The public myspace-album of a security guard gives some insights into the work of "Dropzone Security Services":
This anti-Obama-poster was hanging in the window of the company, which caused some controversy in the past:
+++
UPDATE 5:
I am beginning to think that Joe Miller is secretly in love with the old East-Germany, the long gone "German Democratic Republic." Big, well secured fences, no pesky journalists, "law and order", prison cells for dissenters, tight surveillance - and don't we know that Joe Miller secretly just loves free Government healthcare! East-Germany would have been his dream country!
Therefore, Joe, in your honor, the beautiful East-German national anthem with English translations - have your tissues ready, old fellow!
+++
UPDATE 6:
Here is the news-clip from KTUU. So the main charge is "trespassing." If a journalist is being asked at a public event to leave and he doesn't, then he "trespasses." Authoritarian rule has never been so easy!
Sometimes I think that the laws for an authoritarian rule in the USA are already "there", they just have to be "applied."
+++
UPDATE 7:
A little sensation! Steve Aufrecht, a blogger from Alaska, taped the outrageous remarks of Joe Miller about the East-German border!
This is what Joe Miller said:
"The first thing that has to be done is secure the border. . . East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could."
Audio:
Can you believe it! Joe Miller seriously recommends to build an "East German style" defense line at the border to Mexico. The East German border was successful in the first place because it was deadly. I get the impression that this won't concern Joe Miller too much.
Some impressions from the former East-German border to West-Germany:
Replica SM-70 directional anti-personnel mine
mounted on a section of border fence on the former inner German border.
The iron curtain was dividing villages as well -
Photo used with kind permission by our reader Brian Rose - www.brianrose.com
Peter Fechter, killed while trying to cross the border in 1962.
Chris Gueffroy, last person to be shot at the border, 20 years old.
+++
UPDATE 8:
The Anchorage Daily News published excellent footage of what happened immediately after Tony Hopfingers's arrest - see Joe Miller's security goons in action:
+++
UPDATE 9:
The Palingates-community shows it's strength again!
Due to the discovery of our reader Older_Wiser we can reveal that the business license for "Dropzone Security Services", 3701 SPENARD ROAD, ANCHORAGE AK 99503, owned by William F. Fulton expired on 31/12/2009 and was NOT renewed!
The company belonging Mr. Fulton, who was pictured in the above clips, is currently not licensed for providing security services. Joe Miller therefore employed the services of a "rogue" security company, so to speak. ;-)
Let's take a closer look:
The business licence search in the Alaska Government database for the business name "dropzone" under all possibles codes gives the following result:
"Dropzone Security Services" has an expired business license with the following details:
"Dropzone Security Services" has an expired business license with the following details:
Note that the code for the primary activity is "561612."
This is the NAICS number for "Security Guards & Patrol Services."
William F. Fulton currently has only one current business license, for the company "Dropzone."
William F. Fulton currently has only one current business license, for the company "Dropzone."
However, this company has nothing to do with security services. It is a license for a trade company!
That's the business license for "Sporting goods stores":
And that's apparently what Mr. Fulton is officially doing!
GUESS WHAT:
Mr. Fulton received the trade license TODAY!
This trade company lacks the necessary license for a security company, and he hasn't had one since 01/01/2010. Mr. Fulton owns no security company under another name, as the records show:
It is therefore proven that Joe Miller employed a security firm which is unlicensed.
We do hope that the IRS will now take a closer look at Joe Miller's dark-shirt friends from Spenard Road.
Re-tweet the news: http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/27781021078
+++
.
No comments:
Post a Comment