Oppressed and Censored - The Story of Militious-Redneck Roulette

PART II

As if Sovereign Society's (pending) breach of contract wasn't enough, Militious Redneck-Roulette had to overcome another foe before their CD would be released, but this foe was a familiar one: The United States Government.

Recognizing (or perhaps having a premonition?) that their songs could be manipulated in ways that might obfuscate their message, the band decided to take steps to protect their work. Following months of study, the band completed an official US Copyright Application Form, only to learn that they were not eligible for a copyright. You see, a copyright application requires the signature of a US citizen, but the band legally disavowed all such ties years ago. No one in the band has a "social security number" (or other governmental "bar code") indicting them into the 14th Amendment federal corporation. Similarly, the application required that a "processing fee" be paid by personal check, and no member of the band would ever trust a bank with their money!

Seeking direction, the band (unfortunately) turned to Sovereign Society, who gladly offered to submit the copyright application and fee on their behalf. (We can only assume that Sovereign Society believed the profit potential of this CD outweighed the costs of the lawsuit that would follow as soon as the band heard the manipulated songs.) Sovereign Society's "top legal minds" poured over the application for weeks before it was finally signed by one of their employees and submitted (without a single change). All the band had to do now was wait for the government to register the copyright...

And wait they did...

In fact, several months passed (and the band was well into recording their second CD) when Sovereign Society meekly announced that they "believed the copyright request had been denied by the government..." And while they could "acertain no legal reason for the denial" the lengthy delay caused their distributors to lose faith in the CD's release, and re-launching a new marketing campaign was cost prohibitive. Sovereign Society indicated that their remaining distributors would drop the CD, unless the copyright was secured in very short order.

This turn of events made it obvious to the band that the government was once again behaving true to form. By withholding the copyright, the government was, in effect, eliminating any profit potential for the band. (This explains why there are vitually no CDs available anywhere from bands with grass roots messages like sovereign citizenship, and the virtues of common law.) "Certainly this will cause Militious-Redneck Roulette to break up", some greedy, cigar-chomping beaurocrat probably thought.

While profit isn't a motivation for this band, purity of their message is. Fears of their works being corrupted or used in tennis shoe commercials drove Cletus to the point of calling the US Library of Commerce to demand their copyright be granted! Unfortunately, he underestimated the insidious ability of a beaurocracy to derail anyone seeking "customer service". Only seconds into his first phone call, Cletus was stopped in his tracks by "touch-tone" phone menus (Cletus only owns a rotary phone).

The Colonel took a similar path, but was derailed even earlier when his phone company (a heavily regulated entity) suddenly switched his two-party phone line partner, forcing him to share access with a teenaged girl!

Now we all know Jeremiah would have been similarly enraged by these events, but what he did remains a mystery. Through a combination of rumor, conjecture and inuendo, this reporter has sufficient evidence to suggest the following scenario (but claims no first-hand knowledge): On the night following Sovereign Society's announcement, Jeremiah is believed to have called a meeting of a group known only as "The Real Regulators" at a place called "The Big House". While names of "The Real Regulators" are hard to come by, it is known that Colonel Bo Gritz was not in attendence at this particular meeting. (I cannot say for certain whether or not he has attended other meetings.) Anyway, reliable sources have indicated that this meeting was held to vote on whether to initiate an armed insurrection in response to the government's oppression of the band. While the outcome of the vote is not known, what is known is that the vote was unanimous, and shortly thereafter, the US Library of Congress issued a copyright to Militious-Redneck Roulette. You fill in the blanks for yourself...