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Minuteman Founder Being Chased By Bounty Hunter, Ex-Minuteman
Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Project, in 2005
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The man who owns a bounty hunting firm tracking Minuteman founder Chris Simcox is himself a former Minuteman, one who has personal beef with Simcox.
Simcox, who co-founded the Minuteman Project in 2005 to protect the U.S.-Mexico border from illegal immigrants, has been court-ordered to stay away from his ex-wife and to surrender his firearms to the Scottsdale Police Department. His ex-wife requested the order after, she says, Simcox pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her and her children.
According to news reports, Simcox has not been officially served with the order. A spokesman for the Scottsdale PD told TPM that they have no record of Simcox turning in his weapons.
A state-licensed bounty hunting firm is now searching for Simcox. The firm, Fugitive Recovery Services, is owned by a former Minuteman himself who was booted from the group after fighting with Simcox.
Stacey O'Connell was once the director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps' Arizona chapter. He left in 2007 after accusing the Minutemen of misusing and hiding finances, and he has called for a criminal investigation O'Connell said Simcox's ex-wife hired him.
"I'm the perfect person that could track him down," O'Connell told TPM in a phone interview. "I know what his heart's about, I know what his soul's about ... I know where he hides out on the border."
There is no warrant out for Simcox. O'Connell muses why Simcox is running from a restraining order: "It's an embarrassment to him ... He also enjoys, is proud of his firearms. he doesn't want to have those taken away."
O'Connell said Simcox has been sending him "taunting" texts every day. The bounty hunter said he believes he's closing in on his quarry.
Simcox -- who is also an erstwhile Senate candidate and a former adviser to J.D. Hayworth's Senate campaign -- could not be reached for comment.
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Signalman
June 16, 2010 4:14 PM
It's a beautiful thing when wingnuts collide.
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Nutter
June 16, 2010 4:20 PM in reply to Signalman
As long as I don't killed when the finally notice that guns plus being psycho-pathetic (not a typo) does not result in good aim.
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bill d berger
June 16, 2010 10:31 PM in reply to Signalman
Divorce can be one of life's greatest personal trials.
I feel sorry for anyone having to live through that and unlike the party of Hate and Racism will say a prayer of compassion for some obviously hurting people.
If anyone has had their family torn away from them then they know what I mean. It must be a leader if not the number one reason for acts of insanity that one wouldn't normally commit.
I see the libturds here have mostly taken the low road in their remarks. No surprise there.
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AJM
June 17, 2010 8:36 AM in reply to bill d berger
While we recognize that this man is suffering, it is also clear that he was cruel and harsh towards immigrants and we suspect that he was cruel and harsh to his family was well. If someone's notion of how to settle family problems is to threaten them with guns, they have only themselves to blame if "their family is torn away from them."
If you were brought over as a three year old, never knew any other country, get a job, work hard all your life, marry and have kids and THEN get deported, that's being torn away from your family.
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Signalman
June 17, 2010 9:25 AM in reply to bill d berger
"Divorce can be one of life's greatest personal trials."
Irrelevant. Wingnuts chasing each other with firearms has nothing to do wwith divorce. But good try at muddying up the waters.
"I feel sorry for anyone having to live through that and unlike the party of Hate and Racism will say a prayer of compassion for some obviously hurting people."
Yes, Democrats do say and do more to help others than the members of the Grand Old Party of Hate and Racism will.
"If anyone has had their family torn away from them then they know what I mean. It must be a leader if not the number one reason for acts of insanity that one wouldn't normally commit."
Can anyone understand what this wingnut is bleating about? WTF is he trying to say?
"I see the libturds here have mostly taken the low road in their remarks. No surprise there."
Anyone who uses cutesey terms like "libturds" is right there on the low road themselves and has no standing to complain. You're pathetic.
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rynato
June 17, 2010 7:59 AM in reply to Signalman
"Simcox could not be reached for comment."
Fucking hilarious!
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expat46
June 16, 2010 4:27 PM
"From my cold dead hands!"
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tinsk
June 16, 2010 4:54 PM in reply to expat46
If there's a God?
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chameleon
June 16, 2010 6:46 PM in reply to tinsk
There isn't.
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Hobbes83
June 16, 2010 9:50 PM in reply to chameleon
Amen.;)
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Lestatdelc
June 16, 2010 5:32 PM in reply to expat46
That reminds me, do we get to take Chuck Heston's guns now?
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Bolshevik in Jesustan
June 16, 2010 11:34 PM in reply to Lestatdelc
are his hands cold and dead?
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kirenos
June 17, 2010 7:21 AM in reply to Bolshevik in Jesustan
weren't they always?
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NerdRage
June 16, 2010 6:07 PM in reply to expat46
and the saddest part is that Simcox probably sees that one statement there as the beginning of the New World Order take-over of the US
instead of what it actually is...an attempt to disarm a violently dangerous person in a legal manner...
i think we all know how this is going to end...sigh
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June 16, 2010 4:33 PM
"The bloodiest conflicts in history have always been by members of the same sect....."
Truer words were never spoken!
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hepular
June 16, 2010 4:34 PM
Nominee for best understatement of the year:
"Simcox -- who is also an erstwhile Senate candidate and a former adviser to J.D. Hayworth's Senate campaign -- could not be reached for comment."
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barrelhse
June 16, 2010 6:30 PM in reply to hepular
lol
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henryh
June 18, 2010 12:57 AM in reply to hepular
One of the great endorsers of JD Hayworth. JD cannot pull in a respectable peer or organization to endorse him so he left with these shallow people. It does send a loud message to Arizona that JD's history still lives in him today and that is the reason he is not favored. Let us keep the earmarking blowhard out of Congress Arizona.
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twirling fartknocker
June 16, 2010 4:44 PM
Yes, yes, yes, more wild west. Those were the good ol' days. Manifest destiny. Genocide. Slavery. A gun in every pot. Er, somethin' like that.
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Virginia
June 16, 2010 4:51 PM
Norman Mailer is no more, but Quentin Tarantino could do wonders with this.
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billmc
June 16, 2010 5:06 PM in reply to Virginia
Cormac McCarthy, yup.
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wendynyc
June 16, 2010 5:09 PM in reply to Virginia
I'd give it to Elmore Leonard
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Humpback
June 17, 2010 11:42 AM in reply to Virginia
I recently saw this movie. Simcox was played by Jennifer Aniston.
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LadyBlahBlah
June 16, 2010 4:55 PM
Funny! One nutbag chasing another. LOL
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inniss326
June 16, 2010 4:59 PM
Rambo 6....Desert Teabag.
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free2bme
June 16, 2010 5:04 PM
They deserve each other.
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pakaal
June 16, 2010 5:16 PM
"Vote for Chris Simcox, candidate for State Senate and fugitive from Justice!"
(Please leave campaign donations in the bushes behind the telephone pole just before Nogales--US side--Route 19.)
Now there's a campaign platform!
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Bass
June 16, 2010 5:22 PM
I suggest that AZ has just pulled ahead of SC or NV in the wingnut derby.
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Richardxx
June 17, 2010 7:03 AM in reply to Bass
Arizona ahead of South Carolina or Nevada in the wingnut derby? Ha!
Arizona and Nevada both were just a patches of sand and sagebrush avoided by coyotes when South Carolina was starting massive civil wars. South Carolina was providing its segregation legal code as a guide to South Africa when the renamed Apartheid legal code was being created there. It'll be a while before either Arizona or Nevada have enough crazies to do more than fill out two normal counties of South Carolina crazies.
Arizona is where South Carolina sends its failed crazies and wingnuts. If wanna-be wingnuts complete wingnut basic in Arizona, then the best of them are scouted by Joe Wilson and Jim DeMint to be recruited to the South Carolina big leagues. Nevada is just a backwater to both states. If you want untutored and raw crazies, then maybe Nevada has a few to offer.
It'll be a while before either AZ or NV pulls ahead of SC in the wingnut derby.
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glblank
June 16, 2010 5:29 PM
Shoot first and let God sort out the pieces.
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June 16, 2010 5:30 PM
Actually, I wish Gore Vidal would do an essay on the Tea Party (or, as I call it - correctly - the right wing of the Republican party).
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Bass
June 16, 2010 5:38 PM in reply to Peter
Didn't Richard Hofstadter say it all in "The Paranoid Style in American Politics"?
Also, Digby yesterday had an unnerving post about the full-page JFK "Wanted for Treason" ad that appeared in a Dallas paper the day Oswald killed him. The listed grievances against JFK in that ad sound like a crazy Teabag rally if you update 'communism' to 'socialism'.
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chameleon
June 17, 2010 8:39 AM in reply to Bass
Yes, every time a democrat wins an election, the crazies get crazier. Elections having consequences means nothing to them.
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DancingBear
June 17, 2010 8:32 AM in reply to Peter
Isaac Davis: Has anybody read that Nazis are gonna march in New Jersey? Ya know? I read it in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some guys together, ya know, get some bricks and baseball bats, and really explain things to 'em.
Party Guest: There was this devastating satirical piece on that on the op-ed page of the Times, just devastating.
Isaac Davis: Whoa, whoa. A satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the point of it.
Party Guest Helen: Oh, but really biting satire is always better than physical force.
Isaac Davis: No, physical force is always better with Nazis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCb2Le3wtIk
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Signalman
June 16, 2010 5:39 PM
Does this guy look like David Spade or what?
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Lono65
June 16, 2010 5:50 PM in reply to Signalman
David Spade is ALSO from AZ...hmmm.
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billmc
June 16, 2010 5:51 PM in reply to Signalman
Not really, but there is a little Cruise-crazy in the eye.
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bvd
June 16, 2010 6:26 PM in reply to billmc
I vote Edward Norton.
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RoboticSpacePenguin
June 16, 2010 7:44 PM in reply to bvd
Yup, you got it.
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sheerahkahn
June 16, 2010 5:46 PM
/popcorn
so...when does the movie come out?
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MoCrash
June 16, 2010 6:27 PM
After proudly claiming the mantle from Texas, South Carolina is now holding off hard-charging Arizona for the coveted Loopiest State Award.
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barrelhse
June 16, 2010 6:28 PM
These people are all about not taking responsibility for their lawlessness, because "FREEDOM". The little bitch Simcox has run off to the desert with his little guns- what a man! So now he'll kill someone instead of facing the consequences of his own actions; this scumball is a real piece of work.
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Hobbes83
June 16, 2010 9:53 PM in reply to barrelhse
+1.
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mikevillers
June 16, 2010 6:46 PM
This reminds me of the old Gallagher joke about watching a boxing match and "rooting for both of them."
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pbuchberg
June 16, 2010 7:57 PM
Update: The Republican National Committee has decided that the winner of the impending shootout will get Michael Steele's job.
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Hobbes83
June 16, 2010 9:52 PM in reply to pbuchberg
Nah, it will be Ken Blackwell. The Republicans need a token black buy to attack Obama. Blackwell follows the Republican standards of hypocrisy and lying to a T.
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Schmed
June 16, 2010 8:41 PM
O'Connell said Simcox has been sending him "taunting" texts every day. The bounty hunter said he believes he's closing in on his quarry.
Pride goeth before a GPS tracker....
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Bolshevik in Jesustan
June 16, 2010 11:37 PM in reply to Schmed
lol wouldn't it be ironic if he got caught by having the phone company cause his phone to report its position whenever he sends a text.
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HarpoSnarx
June 16, 2010 10:14 PM
Oh please, let the Gooper flee to Mexico and get arrested as an illegal.
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chitowner
June 17, 2010 9:20 AM
Still playing cowboys there in the wild west - at all ages.
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