Gold! Guns! Spam! Molon Labe - The Business Model

February 23 has been designated as a National Day of Resistance to Protect the Second Amendment. Gun advocates and supporters around the nation are participating in rallies, including folks right here in NH.

This Facebook page gives the information about today's NH rallies. There was one in Nashua this morning, sponsored by the Liberty Alliance/Free State Project. The afternoon rally was in front of the State House in Concord, brought to you by Molon Labe, NH.  (For those unfamiliar with libertarianspeak, Molon Labe is an ancient Greek phrase, used by King Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae.)

The NH Facebook event page has a  link to this site: http://www.dayofresistance.com  where one can register for an event today. At the bottom of the page is this disclaimer:

Paid for by Stop This Insanity Inc., a 501 c4
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee
www.TheTeaParty.net

Mother Jones Magazine had a story about this group yesterday:

On Saturday, gun rights advocates will be organizing at least 121 rallies across the country in a "day of resistance" to President Obama's gun violence prevention proposals. But some tea party activists are questioning the credentials of the group organizing the rallies, a Mesa, Arizona-based outfit called TheTeaParty.net that's been criticized as a data-harvesting operation designed to vacuum up contact information and credit card numbers from unsuspecting and largely clueless conservative activists. They've complained that the group raises tons of money under the tea party name but doesn't spend much to further the movement, and they're skeptical of its move into the gun debate.

and

TheTeaPary.net was founded by Todd Cefaratti, an Arizona man who is the CEO of a "lead generation" company for the reverse-mortgage industry and who has inserted himself into tea party politics in recent years. In 2011, TheTeaParty.net sponsored a truck at NASCAR'sCamping World Truck Series, and it made a big splash by sponsoring a tea party "unity rally"at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, last year. It's been a sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference in DC this year and last, raising its profile among conservative activists.

and more:

For years, tea party activists have complained that the group was ever so interested in collecting their personal information and their money, without spending much to support tea party political candidates. Activists griped that signing up with TheTeaParty.net would earn them nothing but spam from gold companies and other advertising. (In 2011, Roll Callreported that the group was indeed renting out its email list to gold companies and soliciting clients through NewsMax, the conservative news service, though a spokesperson says the group no longer works with NewsMax.)

It seems that TheTeaParty.net is a way to gather information and money from Tea Party/libertarian types, while making big bucks renting out their mailing list. They've made big bucks scamming the Tea Party crowd. Now that the Tea Party is on the wane, they're moving in to scam the gun nuts. Molon Labe isn't just a slogan, it's a business model.