It is amazing how the people who claim that the American system of government is corrupt are always the ones who try to use the freedoms offered by that same system to their advantage.
Take Robert Joos.
It was just 10 years ago that the white supremacist pastor's arrest on a weapons charge started a chain of events that led to the shooting of Missouri Highway Patrol trooper Bobby Harper. The damage done by that shooting eventually led to Harper's death two years later.
The man who allegedly shot Harper (forensics evidence linked the bullet that wounded Harper to one that had been fired from his rifle earlier), Timothy Coombs, supposedly did so to avenge Joos' arrest. A $10,000 reward was recently offered for information leading to Coombs' arrest. Coombs has been on the run for the past decade and is rumored to be living in Canada.
Joos, meanwhile, has followed up his weapons arrest with a series of arrests for driving without a license. The most recent, his third such arrest, is being categorized as a felony and Joos is doing everything he can to manipulate the freedoms offered by the society that he so hates.
He has filed papers in McDonald County Circuit Court, with Missouri State Supreme Court, and with the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri asking a writ of habeas corpus.
According to the petition in the case of Robert Joos vs. McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson, filed Nov. 19 in U. S. District Court, Joos claims that the time he has lost due to his most recent incarceration is time "which I can never recover." And, of course, it violated his right to due process, he says.
He claims that he never received official notice of the community service he was sentenced to perform after his second driving without a license arrest, and even if he had, it was illegal anyway, for as everyone knows, "Forced labor violates the cruel and unusual clauses of both U. S. and Missouri constitutions." Joos adds, "The sentence of community service under threat of jail is forced labor."
The cruel and unusual punishment, this evil forced labor Joos is talking about, is described in his petition. The judge had the nerve to expect Joos to pick up trash along the roadway
Joos has been singled out because of his lack of wealth, he said. He couldn't afford to pay a fine so he had to do community service. Besides, as everyone knows, or at least so Joos claims, the law that forces people to have driver's licenses is unconstitutional anyway.
Joos filed his writs as he was being held in the McDonald County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond. "Time is of the essence," he said, "as I lose both unrecoverable time and possibly my health as I have eaten nothing and drank but one liter of water since Nov. 14 and will eat nothing until heard on this petition.'
What has been done to him, Joos said, is a "manifest injustice against an innocent person, jailed by cause and prejudice." He is requesting an immediate hearing and his release.
The Nov. 28 Neosho Daily News reported that Joos had been hospitalized at Freeman Neosho from symptoms resulting from his hunger strike. Joos, described in the article as a "self-proclaimed white supremacist pastor" of the Sacerdotal Church of David has said in past interviews that his religion keeps him from getting a driver's license because he is a "servant of God and can have no covenant with the heathen government."
Apparently, a writ of habeas corpus ranks somewhere below a covenant.
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The Sears-K-Mart merger may not be a done deal.
The Tuesday Chicago Sun-Times reports that Vornado Realty Trust, a New York-based trust that recently bought a 4.3 percent stake in Sears could still team with a private equity partner or another retailer to bid for Sears and even if that falls through, there is still a possibility that another dark horse bidder could emerge.
Another possibility, the article said, is that Sears could offer Vornado prime real estate in exchange for Sears stock.
The Sears-K-Mart deal has already drawn the wrath of shareholders, who have filed lawsuits saying the deal is unfair. K-Mart's purchase of Sears is scheduled to close in March.