With one of the greatest blogging stories sitting right under their collective noses, Wisconsin bloggers sat on their collective behinds and allowed the mainstream media, the CBS Evening news with Katie Couric, to scoop them on the biggest stories of the departing year, the Shawano -SIST story of international intrigue:
Alleged Murder-For-Hire Rattles Small Town:Placid Midwest Town Turned Upside Down By Alleged Hit List And Secretive Group
All a reaction to news of an alleged hit list and claims by a so-called hit man, now telling his story for the first time.
"And I said, 'you want me to kill 60 people? You want me to kill the whole town of Shawano?" said Canadian businessman Bob Cameron.
Keteyian asked: "They were hiring you as a hit man?"
"Yes, they were," Cameron said.
"You're talking about the mayor, the city administrator, the city treasurer, the city attorney, the police chief, judges, investigators, fire commissioners," Keteyian asked.
"Uh huh," Cameron assentedCameron says in late October he received $175,000 in wire transfers from people known to be part of a secretive group long run out of a house near Shawano called SIST.
Its is a story that could never be fabricated. The cast of characters are from the next great movie, a combined effort of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino.
The mayor (Kathy Bates) tops the list of sixty potential local victims. The Canadian hitman (Martin Short) was trying to do no more than collect some unpaid bills from the local cult when asked to wipe out half the town. The cult leader (Samuel L. Jackson in a reprise of his role of Jules in Pulp Fiction) is responsible for the investment of over $15 million in local real estate.
The real estate holdings fail and the county treasurer (Johnny Depp) is now foreclosing. The sheriff (Ben Stiller) and his deputy (Owen Wilson) manage to keep the town on edge as they tail two SIST members (Mike -Wayne-Meyers and Dana -Garth- Carvey), who prowl the city streets with a camcorder filming anyone they suspect is in cahoots with the town leaders.
SIST spokesman and attorney (Johnny Depp or should that be Robert Downey Jr.?) manages to bring some semblance of reality to the entire story claiming this was all a misunderstanding.
Sanity is maintained. The FBI agent (Brad Pitt) brings calm and peace to Shawano.(Pronounced Shawn-o as in Shauno of the Dead).
All this going on in plain view. Badger bloggers are writing about Republican committee assignments in the legislature, the performing arts, and Lake Michigan.
Phooey.
Shawano, not Shawno.
Cheers!
Posted by: | December 18, 2008 at 01:54 AM
Sorry, technology is the bane of my existence. Feel free to delete all but one - or all - if that suits you.
Cheers!
Posted by: | December 18, 2008 at 01:56 AM
Wisconsin bloggers have ignored the story because it doesn't seem like news here. Our state has a long history of hosting crazy cults (Endeavor Academy in Wisconsin Dells and the Immaculate Conception Chapel in Necedah spring immediately to mind). It isn't news until at least one corpse is found (as in Necedah).
I am extremely skeptical of Bob Cameron's story. I suspect he is in trouble with U.S. authorities (probably for tax evasion on his U.S. business transactions) and is bluffing his way into a deal in exchange for his help in bringing down SIST. Just as he claims to have conned SIST into believing he was "connected," he is probably conning the FBI into believing he was part of an anti-government conspiracy.
Even if his story is true, it wouldn't even be the most serious anti-government conspiracy in Shawano County history. Compared to the Tigerton-based Posse Comitatus 30 years ago, SIST are a bunch of amateurs.
Posted by: Ordinary Jill | December 27, 2008 at 01:22 PM