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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Law and Order / Politics / Woods Is Dick Cheney Running the TBI Now? Agents Check 'Terrorist Threat' from Affable Activist

Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 7:06 PM

click to enlarge Bernie Ellis: Does this guy look like a terrorist to you?
  • Bernie Ellis: Does this guy look like a terrorist to you?
The last time lawmen rolled onto Bernie Ellis' Middle Tennessee farm, they were there to arrest him for growing medical marijuana. For that crime, growing a little herb to ease the agony of a few sick and dying people, Ellis spent 18 months in a halfway house. The Scene told that story in this article. Today, the law returned. This time it was two TBI agents. According to Ellis, they were there to investigate whether he made a "terrorist threat against a government official," namely Secretary of State Tre Hargett or possibly Elections Coordinator Mark Goins. The good-humored Ellis is the founder of the group Gathering to Save Our Democracy, which has been working for state legislation to assure that all votes are counted in elections. The TBI agents said they were told Ellis had threatened violence against the Secretary of State's office in an email. Ellis said he's never sent an email to that office, and the agents seemed satisfied and left after a little polite conversation. In an email to friends and supporters about all this, Ellis adds:
I also asked the two TBI agents to deliver a message from me to whoever had caused them to have to drive to my farm today. Before they left, the lead agent repeated my message verbatim to make sure he had it right: "Mr. Ellis would like whoever issued the complaint against him to grow a pair of balls, 'man up' (the agent's words) and call him at any time to discuss any concerns they may have with him or with anything Mr. Ellis has ever said." The agent looked to me like he is going to be happy to deliver that message personally.
Mary Mancini has posted Ellis' full email here. If this is true, it sounds like an attempt at political intimidation. Hargett and Goins have a few questions to answer.

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He's my kind of terrorist: friendly, principled, lovable and caring.

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Posted by sueyyyy on June 23, 2009 at 10:42 PM

Is this misuse of power or is it just me?
They get the TBI to visit a guy for sending an email to the Sec. of State?

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Posted by Anonymous on June 23, 2009 at 10:57 PM

The Democrats who run the TBI had every opportunity to tell Republican Hargett no, this doesn't look serious to us. So they sent their agents out to see Mr. Ellis either (a) to investigate a potential threat they took seriously, or (b) to set up a Republican rising star for the kind of cheap shots listed above.

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Posted by Charles on June 24, 2009 at 8:29 PM

If Tre Hargett is a "Republican rising star", we have truly entered a black hole here in Tennessee. Hopefully, with the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act by 2010, we can crawl out of it, one verifiable vote at a time.
Love ya', Tre. Really.
You live in a beautiful state.

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Posted by Bernie Ellis on June 24, 2009 at 9:06 PM

Don't know much about the man but he sounds like a bad@ss...

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Posted by Kevin on June 25, 2009 at 10:17 AM

And who will ask Goins and Hargett those questions they need to answer?

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Posted by Shannon Williford on June 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM

Did Dick Cheney ever send the FBI or such to intimidate someone who disagreed with him? I don't remember such an incident.

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Posted by DADvocate on June 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM
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