If your blood doesn’t boil after watching this video, it never will.
Joe Miller, Republican candidate for United States Senate, holds an event at a public school in Anchorage. A reporter for the Alaska Dispatch named Tony Hopfinger is arrested and cuffed by Miller’s prive security detail for asking questions that, apparently, annoyed the candidate (who has made it clear he doesn’t want to deal with the media—which is understandable, because a lot of juice is apparently there). Then other members of the press gather to report on the story—and they’re detained by the thug guards.
As if that’s not enough, the thug guards tuen out to be active-duty members of the military. And, according to the Anchorage Daily News, Miller lied about their presence. From the newspaper:
Was Joe Miller required to bring a security detail to his town hall meeting Sunday at Central Middle School?
That’s what Miller, the Republican Senate candidate, told two national cable news networks Monday in the wake of the arrest by his security squad of an online journalist at his public event.
But the school district said there was no such requirement made of Miller . . . “We do not require users to hire security,” she said. . . .
Meanwhile, the Army says that two of the guards who assisted in the arrest of the journalist and who tried to prevent two other reporters from filming the detention were active-duty soldiers moonlighting for Miller’s security contractor, the Drop Zone, a Spenard surplus store and protection service.
The soldiers, Spc. Tyler Ellingboe, 22, and Sgt. Alexander Valdez, 31, are assigned to the 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Fort Richardson. Maj. Bill Coppernoll, the public affairs officer for the Army in Alaska, said the two soldiers did not have permission from their current chain of command to work for the Drop Zone, but the Army was still researching whether previous company or brigade commanders authorized their employment.
To quote Glenn Greenwald from Salon.com: “The fact that Joe Miller has been defending the conduct of his private guards in handcuffing a journalist and threatening others with handcuffs should be disqualifying by itself. That reveals a deeply disturbed authoritarian mind. But the fact that these guards are active-duty U.S. soldiers makes this entire incident far more disturbing. Shouldn’t American journalists of every stripe be vehemently protesting this incident?”
Here’s the worst part: The idiot Tea Party dolts who support Miller will love this. Blame the media! Damn the media! The same exact fools who fear government involvement in their lives—who literally stash guns for fear of a government takeover—will see no problem with this craziness.
And Miller will win …
PS: Miller is truly the worst of the worst. Need more proof? Enjoy.
