Governor Jay Nixon Wants us to Believe Governor Blunt is Responsible for the Anti-Conservative Language in the Modern Militia Movement Report

Chad Livengood has an excellent article today in the Springfield News-Leader which he shows the inconsistencies in Governor Jay Nixon’s claim that Governor Matt Blunt is responsible for the anti-conservative rhetoric in the Modern Militia Movement Report. As someone who has known Governor Blunt for since I was a child and goes to the same church as Governor Blunt, I am not buying it. I doubt Blunt would allow the attack on Christianity with the language this report uses. This is obviously the same strategy Obama is currently using when things go wrong in his administration—blame Bush.

Before, I reprint the story, I have called Governor Nixon’s office three times today requesting information on meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations which his office has collected under the rights the Sunshine Law provides me, and each time, the person responsible for the records wasn’t able to take my call nor have they called me back today.

Here’s Livengood’s story:

JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Jay Nixon said today that lax oversight from former Gov. Matt Blunt's administration led to the distribution of a now infamous state intelligence report on the modern militia movement," which his administration retract on Wednesday.

Nixon noted the Missouri Information Analysis Center was "formed under my predecessor."

"I was not governor, I did not hire any of the people there and nobody in my administration -- the director of public safety -- saw this stuff before it went out," Nixon told reporters gathered in his office after signing his first law as governor.

Created in 2005 under Blunt's watch, MIAC is part of a nationwide network of fusion centers that combine federal and state resources to keep police officers informed about criminal activity and terror threats.

Nixon said the state fusion center displayed "overzealousness" in churning out a militia member profile report that has no sources, yet makes broad statements about small government-minded conservatives.

"We've got enough bad guys to catch. We shouldn't spend our time looking at good guys," said Nixon, who spent 16 years as Missouri's attorney general before being elected governor last year.

On Thursday, the head of the Missouri Highway Patrol retracted the report and disclosed that only the author and director of MIAC saw it before it was distributed to law enforcement officials across the state.

Until the report was leaked to the media and caused an uproar among conservatives who feel maligned by it, Nixon said his administration was unaware of the process of how the MIAC goes about putting out intelligence reports about criminal and terrorism threats.

However, just two weeks ago, Nixon "briefed" U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "on the workings of the fusion center," according to a Department of Public Safety news release.

It was Napolitano's first tour of a state fusion center since she became President Barack Obama's head of Homeland Security.

During the March 11 tour, Napolitano was quoted by reporters as saying: “Fusion centers are not domestic spy agencies and not designed to invade the privacy of citizens."

Nixon agreed, saying the fusion center has been an important tool for bringing justice.

“We're not out there snooping on anybody,” Nixon was quoted as saying. “This isn't about snooping. Fusion centers take existing law enforcement resources and analyze information.”

Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. James Keathley said Wednesday he would reform the process of distributing MIAC reports to ensure that he and Department of Public Safety Director John Britt get to actually read a copy, which did not happen with the militia report.

Nixon called the process under Blunt "simply not acceptable.”

“Under a previous system, MIAC would prepare and distribute these reports to law enforcement agencies without review or approval from the colonel of the Highway Patrol or the director of Public Safety,” Nixon said.

Nixon praised Keathley's reforms to add more oversight to the process.

"I think this action is being handled in a law enforcement way, not a political way," Nixon said.

The report is dated Feb. 20; Blunt handed over the reins of state government to Nixon on Jan. 12.

But there are indications in the report that it was authored before Barack Obama became president on Jan. 20. It refers to Obama as "president-elect." The official report on state letterhead also misspells Obama's first name: "Barrack."

So far, MIAC, DPS and Nixon's office have not answered questions about why the report was created in the first place.

At today's news conference, Nixon defended the important of having MIAC compile intelligence information for the law enforcement community.

"We're not in the business nor is law enforcement in the business of doing anything to hamper individual rights..," Nixon said.

Republicans say the Democratic governor is still not answering basic questions about the contents of the report, which labels fundamentalist Christians, members of third-party political movements and people who oppose abortion and illegal immigration as possible members of militias. The report makes no mention of left-wing terrorists.

“Nixon’s ridiculous new defense is particularly troubling and disingenuous since he has stood by the controversial report encouraging political profiling even as members of his administration began to back away from it,” Cassville attorney David Cole, chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, said in a statement.

Governor Blunt may have created the MIAC center, but there is no way he is responsible for this report. MAIC centers aren’t the issue. It’s the language in the report. With the friction between Governor Blunt and then Attorney General Jay Nixon, wouldn’t Nixon stop any Blunt policies including the creation of reports in order to carry out his own agenda? This report came out over four weeks after Nixon took office. I am sure Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder will have something to say about this. I am also curious if the media will reach former Governor Blunt for comments. I have no doubt Jay Nixon is working to weasel his way out of this, and if enough people put pressure on the Governor’s office for the documents concerning Nixon’s role in this, (providing Nixon plays by the rules which he attempted destroy Governor Blunt with) I have little doubt Nixon’s name is all over this.