It might seem obvious to you, but it isn’t obvious to the Republican party of Benton County: their April newsletter includes the following from Chris Nogy (husband of the party secretary) :

“We need to let those who will come in the future to represent us [know] that we are serious. The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives.”

Gentle Reader, you surely know that walking up to government officials and shooting them is assassination.That is what people did to Ronald Reagan, MLK, RFK, and many others throughout history. The writer of that editorial is saying that the 2nd Amendment is a license to commit such crimes. And why does he think he should start assassinating people?

Again from the website, referring to a recent vote in the Arkansas legislature regarding health care financing: “The legislature approved the ‘private option’ health plan with 75 percent majorities in both the Senate and House. It’s called the ‘private option’ because it takes Medicaid dollars and uses them to purchase private health insurance for people whose yearly income is less than138 percent of the federal poverty level. The goal was to not simply expand a government program, as the federal government had initially directed, but instead to provide health coverage through the private sector and thus allow the free market to hold down costs.”

Got that? The Repubs voted to take public money and give it to the private sector. “Conservatives” tend to approve of such arrangements. But evidently it has sent Mr. Nogy (among others) over the edge: indeed, he is now advocating the murder of elected officials. All because Arkansas is taking Federal money???? That is crazy.

Now, other members of the Benton County GOP have disavowed Mr. Nogy’s remarks, but as of this writing have not removed them from the webpage: http://talkbusiness.net/2013/04/benton-county-gop-newsletter-suggests-shooting-legislators/ This would seem to indicate at least a certain level of tacit agreement on the part of the Republican Party.

Here’s the link to the party site: http://www.nogy.net/bcgop/Apr_2013/index.html Oh, and this writer took screen shots of the page, in case they decide to delete it. He will add them to this post if need be.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky