This episode is inspired by The Idaho Green Party, the city of Emmett police and the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) but the main inspiration was this article, Protester=Criminal?, from The Progressive. You know the oft quoted and even more often paraphrased "they came for so and so and I just chilled, then they came for so and so and I was like, it's not my problem, then they came for me and there was no one left to watch my back"? Well, they came for the clowns in 2003 so watch yer back.
I couldn't bear to change the Flying Rutabagas cool name for this episode but the members names and other details are, of course, tweaked for fiction. I'm not sure what the organization or its founding members are up to these days but the original Cycle Circus website is still up.
It is true, however, that Idaho Green Party member, Kevin Bayhouse, ran for Ada County Highway District with a logo featuring a unicycle on his website, pamphlets and road signs. Unfortunately, we never managed to arrange for a real unicyclist to help promote our cause.
Furthermore, although the real Rutabagas didn't protest the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). I'm pretty sure they would agree with our own Bucky Buckaw's anti-NAIS sentiments. NAIS uses the flimsy excuse of disease control as a rationale for a widespread program of microchipping and databasing of poultry and livestock that would be a boon to agribusiness but would most likely smother small farming and backyard animals. After several years of protest from small farmers, homesteaders and "hobbyists," the USDA has officially toned down their rhetoric about mandatory, universal implementation. However, it seems NAIS proponents simply changed strategies to make it appear as if it's not a federal plan but one being implemented by a each states Department of Agriculture. For more on how the NAIS two recommended starting points would NO NAIS and Stop Animal I.D.
The bit about the FBI going through people's trash and the nerdy agent putting a "trash cover kit" in the secret santa pool came from the Sagebrush Variety Shows mole in the Bureau so we can't give you any more details on that. We've said too much already but we thought it was too good to pass up.
And finally, the Sagebrush Variety Show Players have, indeed, been stopped by the Emmet police on flimsy pretexts - at least 3 times. "Technically not breaking the speed limit but failure to slow down well in advance of a new posted speed limit" was one of them and the fictional "interrogation" scene is actually edited down considerably from the interminable and pointless ones we experienced. Tune in next week for Level Red based on Ken Krayeske's outrageous arrest at the hands of his local CIU (it can happen here, folks, Boise's CIU is no doubt spying on your local group as we speak).
