Huckleberries Online

Idaho GOP Panel Wants State Militia

Posted by DFO

June 25, 2010 11:06 a.m. • 10 comments

Could Idaho get an all-volunteer state militia that’s out from under any federal control? A Butte County delegate to the state Republican Party convention in Idaho Falls on Friday got his compatriots on a committee to go along with the plan - at least on paper. The idea must still win full convention approval Saturday. Butte County delegate Guy Mongan says such a force could assist in the event of natural disasters and wouldn’t be subject to a military call-up, such like the Idaho National Guard/Associated Press. More here.

Question: Would you like to see the state of Idaho form an all-volunteer militia? Why? Why not?

10 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Soaf on June 25 at 11:13 a.m.
Just what Idaho needs. A bunch of pot bellied beer guzzling arm chair generals running around with real weapons playing cowboys and indians.

Idaho GOP = National Joke
Sisyphus on June 25 at 11:18 a.m.
Um, don’t we have a National Guard unit? Last I checked we did.
stacyp on June 25 at 11:22 a.m.
At first glance I thought the militia thing was a joke. Kind of regret I kept reading. Wow.
acemart on June 25 at 12:07 p.m.
I understand his logic perfectly. Guy “Bubba” Mongan knows that the Idaho National Guard can be federalized by Presidential order. I’m sure he worried that the Idaho National Guard would not be able to defend Idahoans when the federal government invades Idaho to confiscate everyon’s weapons.
Does anyone remember “F Troop?” Because that’s about what this would create.
kamm on June 25 at 12:11 p.m.
I’m getting nervous around here. I’m looking for houses across the state line. Not what I want to do but…
Bubblehead on June 25 at 12:17 p.m.
Yes! This is great! I’m really glad the Republicans didn’t close their platform debates to the press; now we get to see just how wacky some of the member are, which we couldn’t necessarily see with the Democrats. I’ll be interested to see how they’ll pay for it. (And, if they say they won’t fund it, how they’ll handle the payouts for the inevitable lawsuits when people get hurt.)
scootermom on June 25 at 12:40 p.m.
With all the real problems facing Idaho, this is what they come up with?
simpleton on June 25 at 1:58 p.m.
Bubblehead has a great point: how do they propose to pay for this? Last I checked supporting a standing army is an expensive proposition. Perhaps we could scrap secondary education in Idaho and just funnel all of the teenagers into the militia. This way they could learn valuable real-life skills like how to kill, rather than all that useless reading and writing. Makes as much sense as anything else I’ve heard from them yet.
scootermom on June 25 at 2:04 p.m.
How are they going to pay for this? Easy. Magic.

Isn’t that what the convention is all about, according to Butch.
IDHound on June 25 at 2:50 p.m.
LOL - I can see it now…. they don’t need to worry about paying for it… The same folks who think that abolishing zoning is a good idea won’t want to have any standards with regard to a militia either, everyone can wear what they want, bring the weapon of their choice, etc… Spencer’s looking for something to do so they can put him in charge, Hart can handle the finances, and Nelson can do her smoke & mirrors thing to make the whole thing seem like something it’s not, and there we go….

Beam me up, Scotty - it’s gettin’ scary down here!

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.