Waiting for John Brown, Redux

Seein’ as how Pacific Northwest Howie Rich operative and Freedomworks buddy Ted Piccolo has decided to smear me again, accusing me of creating the current, dangerous, toxic atmosphere, let me redirect your attention to what I said in 2009 and 2007 about all this. (Oh, and note how widespread the tactic is.)

And, as the astroturf “Tea Party Express” and Sarah Palin (perhaps in her black leathers as she was today) are looking for a Saturday “Conservative Woodstock” in their Searchlight, Nevada attack on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his own hometown, let us recall that this current atmosphere of incipient violence has been carefully nurtured for a long time. From August 23, 2009: “Waiting for John Brown.” I think you may find it more than a little spooky, viewed through the prism of NOW….

Two years and a month ago, I was savaged by the Right Wing blogosmear (who, conveniently, don’t allow for rebuttal on their blogs),  Faux Nooz™ and WorldNutDaily’s editor, Joe Farah in their ‘pages.’ And I wrote this later that month [emphasis added]:

… And that’s just ONE front of this ‘War on Terra,’ (never mind the climate or clean air and water). There is a push to intimidate and silence the blogosphere. Perhaps to provide cover for the next link in the chains of fascism that this country is descending into. (Ask not for whom the chains are forged, Lefties. They are being forged for thee.)

Welcome to the battle of the bulge. The Morlocks are out for brains to eat, and if you’re reading this, probably brains like yours. Morlocks get very hungry with all that strenuous blogosmearing. Michael Moore, Scott Thomas, Daily Kos, Me, The New Republic, and there are more. The offensive (in both literal senses) is under way. Will we defend? Will we curl into a fetal position and whimper? I’ll not hazard a guess. But if ever there were a time ….

(For some odd reason, WorldNetDaily has not devoted a word to the story, so far. But then again: so many targets, so little time.)

And I heard them to shriek

between conniption fits

we hate you all and

to all a Happy Apocalypse.

America is a nation waiting for a John Brown. Let’s hope that it’s a longer wait than I fear it will be.

Now, for you Doubting Thomasinas out there, I will note that the Weakly Stranded’s Michael Goldfarb — the “point man” for the attack on the New Republic –  became McCain’s point man in his attempt to become president by way of dastardly deceits and dissimulation — No doubt BASED on his ability to coordinate the blogosmear.*

[* And, thus, the new coordination of Koch Brothers astroturf groups to kill health care.

Did you know that Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks were, formerly, Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation and Citizens for a Sound Economy, (dis)respectively? If anybody out there is interested, I have the paperwork, the tax returns, the photographs. But I'm doing something to put food on the table right now, and my sense of personal survival is in conflict with my sense of social responsibility. ]

Seemingly, literally if possible. These a**holes don’t believe that words have consequences. And they’ve gone back to the playbook that gave us the Oklahoma City bombing — which, despite all their anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racism, they have never particularly decried: it’s OK for home grown terrorists (as long as they’re not “leftists” or “socialists” or, ghod help us all, “communists), but don’t let none a them furriners join the fun. Nosirree. The Nine-Twelve movement to return to the “unity” we all felt the day after Nine-Eleven-Oh-One doesn’t include y0u or me, frankly.

It is the unity of the fanatic. The return, using coded racist and hate speech, of “the lost cause” of secession. One a**hole* governor (OK, Rick Perry of lunatic Texas) even parsed around it: If we don’t get what we want, we’ll secede.

[* I apologize for the language, but sometimes, you have to call a spade a spade, and "a**hole" is the only word that comes close to characterizing our self-obsessed "patriots," whose sacred writ and only ideology seems to be "no taxes." How noble! This is generally the mind-set of the three-year old, as any mother can tell you. "ME!"]

But listen to Frank Rich today in the New York Times:

On Monday — the day after he gave a pass to those threatening violence — a dozen provocateurs with guns, at least two of them bearing assault weapons, showed up for Obama’s V.F.W. speech in Phoenix. Within hours, another member of Congress — Phil Gingrey of Georgia — was telling Chris Matthews on MSNBC that as long as brandishing guns is legal, he, too, saw no reason to discourage Americans from showing up armed at public meetings.

In April the Department of Homeland Security issued a report, originally commissioned by the Bush administration, on the rising threat of violent right-wing extremism. It was ridiculed by conservatives, including the Republican chairman, Michael Steele, who called it “the height of insult.” Since then, a neo-Nazi who subscribed to the anti-Obama “birther” movement has murdered a guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington, and an anti-abortion zealot has gunned down a doctor in a church in Wichita, Kan.

This month the Southern Poverty Law Center, the same organization that warned of the alarming rise in extremist groups before the Oklahoma City bombing, issued its own report. A federal law enforcement agent told the center that he hadn’t seen growth this steep among such groups in 10 to 12 years. “All it’s lacking is a spark,” he said.

At the risk of patting myself on the back, that’s what I’ve been talking about. The slow ratcheting up of the hatespeech, as we have tolerated angry, hateful, ain’t-never-beens like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, whose vocal histrionics might SEEM enchanting, but whose life history does not bespeak any familiarity with the actual practices that they advocate. They talk the talk, but they’ve NEVER walked the walk.

Well, when they talk about not wanting any taxes or regulations, they ARE speaking from the (stone) heart. I will give them that.

Slowly, things that were once unthinkable have become not merely thinkable, but actual practice, and we, in embarrassed silence now let them CONTINUE because we’re “too polite” to say anything.

Well, p0lite comes from the same root as politics or polity.

And consider these senses of the term politics:

4. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Intrigue or maneuvering within a political unit or group in order to gain control or power: Partisan politics is often an obstruction to good government. Office politics are often debilitating and counterproductive.

6. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Because that’s what’s happened. Our interpersonal relationships have been poisoned by the fangs of Limbaugh and Hannity, and Joe Farah, who is currently primping the Right’s new Barbie Doll™, Chuck Norris™ (hoping to regurgitate a Reagan, in the way that Fred Thompson failed to expectorate) through his fake, ghost-written column— first in WorldNutDaily, and then SYNDICATED through Creators Syndicate, who syndicate most of the real columnists, like Mark Shields, or the late Robert Novak, who, whatever bastardliness rotted in his festering soul, was a REAL columnist, and not another faker putting his photograph over someone else’s words. Farah has turned this little trick into a cottage industry, having done it for the likes of Bill O’Reilly.

Joe Farah made his living during Clinton with Richard Mellon Scaife money funding the endless “Vince Foster” investigations (his reporter now heads NewsMax), and now he’s making a good chunk of change off of “Birther” movement morons, even though WND already debunked the story, they have now REbunked it. (After disingenuously backing off their debunk, HERE.) So it wasn’t surprising that Farah’s ghostwriters whipped up the birther story in Chuck’s column last week.

Why debunk and rebunk?* Why, because “news” to this “Christian editor” is entirely malleable when it comes to making cash. WND reported BEFORE they realized that this conspiracy was a cash cow.* Then, suddenly, amazingly facts changed.

[* I strongly urge you to go read "Obama Amnesia" by Terry Krepel for a dissection of the WND birther pretzel logick. The "debunking" copy has had an "editorial note" added, to extend the web of lies and rationalizations. I can't say when this happened, except that it seems to have been added in the LAST TWO MONTHS -- undoubtedly to counter the embarrassment factor. Several other blog postings collaborate this negatively. HAD the "editorial note" been present, the rationalization WOULD have been commented on, and yet it is NOT. Quote:

ORIGINAL:

However, FactChecker.org says it obtained Obama's actual certification of live birth and that the document was indeed real. The site discredited some of the claims of Internet bloggers, such as that the certificate as viewed in a scanned copy released by Obama's campaign lacked a raised seal. FactChecker.org also established that many of the alleged flaws in the document noted by bloggers were caused by the scanning of the document.

A separate WND investigation into Obama's certification of live birth utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic. The investigation also revealed methods used by some of the bloggers to determine the document was fake involved forgeries, in that a few bloggers added text and images to the certificate scan that weren't originally there.

ADDED/NEW:

(Editor's note: WND's investigation into the certification of live birth did not include inspecting the actual document, but only asking experts to evaluate the online image. Those experts, therefore, could not "prove" the document's authenticity. The experts told WND merely that many of the forgery claims made against the image were inconclusive or falsified, leaving them no evidence that would cast doubt on the image's authenticity.) ]

You will note that, while WND originally AGREED with a separate FactCheck.org (a non-partisan and reliable site) investigation, the “Editorial note” undercuts only WND’s investigation and, by implication the FactCheck.org finding is implied to be false. This is the sort of weasel Farah is when it comes to facts. Ye shall never be Free if ye believe Lyin’ Joe Farah’s  “truth,” folks.

“A Free Press for a Free People” the masthead brays. It really OUGHT to read “A Cash Cow for a Cowed Sheeple.”

Does anybody really think that this Grant’s Pass, Oregon “Christian” Survivalist Cultist won’t flog this puppy for all it’s worth over however many years that he can invoke Obama hatred to squeeze hard-earned cash* out of naive people who actually believe the tabloid swill of paranoia, prurience and platitudes that he bottles for them daily?

[* scroll to the bottom of the page after it loads]

No, he’s making money off of a phony conspiracy that his own online “newspaper” debunked last summer. Just the same way that he made money off of the suicide of Vince Foster, shamelessly desecrating the grave for cash. Do you really think he’ll quit on this? A serpent like that?

Joseph Farah, 2008, moderatin’

No: this is exactly what they did to Clinton, and if we allow it, they’ll steal another legitimately elected presidency. Did you know that less than HALF of Obama’s top appointees are in office yet? The GOP strategy is to completely stymie the art and practice of governance until they can (they hope) retake the government by WHATEVER means, and you who were born before the 2000 election know precisely what I am talking about.)

Again, if anyone’s interested, I’ll fill in the details, but, as I said, I’m extremely conflicted on the $ubject.

And so, we’ve come to the dangerous point where the cranky zillionaire has a mild conniption, calls his phony “foundation” in Washington D.C. or, more likely, Arlington, Virginia, and they mobilize the idiots they’ve isolated (or even paid) to show up at healthcare rallies with guns.

Yes. We’re just waiting for a John Brown.

Little Theodore Nugent – actual mug shot

Now, let me reiterate the statement I made that caused Sean Hannity to wet the bed, and Ted Nugent to go ON Hannity, his lower lip tremulously quivering in fear that “his family” is in danger from “assassins” like me. And no, I didn’t sue the bastards for libel, because they’d have settled, and I wouldn’t have been able to talk about it, as part of the deal.

I’m mercenary, but I won’t sell my integrity. The price is too high for any of ‘em to bear.

Here is the IN CONTEXT version of what caused the Freepers to bounce off the walls like chimpanzees on crystal meth:

… Don’t you get it? These people wouldn’t mind if we all showed up dead tomorrow (as long, in most cases, as THEY didn’t have to do the dirty work). They have expressed their contempt in terms as clear as John Hancock’s signature. Will we appreciate the magnitude of the insult? (They probably just think it’s all in good ‘ol boy fun, like the cheap sophistries that that whore of the Right, David Brooks, is spinning over the Scooter Libby case in the pages of the formerly reputable New York TIMES.)

How we can remain “civil” in the face of this is beyond my ken.

I will only reiterate what I’ve said before: WHEN they manage to inevitably push their litany of hatespeak into actual bloodletting, and full-blown civil war (for there is no other place that this hatred of American against American can go), well …

I’ve got dibs on Rush, as soon as it’s legal and lawful to shoot him.

Whoever wants Ted Nugent is welcome to him, but I would prefer that you would call it now, so as to conserve on ammunition. We will need to manage it prudently.

But when the day comes that they have finally set brother against brother, and sister against sister in the name of their pocketbooks, I won’t approach exterminating them with anything approaching remorse. They’ve already told me what they think of me, of my friends and of my peers.

Now, I’m returning the favor.

Put that in your pipe and have the WSJ editorial staff show you how to smoke it, Nugent.

Courage.

And, when Lyin’ Joe Farah decided to smear me, in the first headline and subheader — fifteen words —he managed to get two straight up facts wrong:

Democrat blogger wants to shoot Rush Limbaugh

Also calls for volunteer to assassinate Ted Nugent

I was very publicly registered as an Independent or NAV, and NOT as a Democrat. Whoops. And, I didn’t call for a volunteer. I just suggested, as in baseball, that someone call it, rather than the festival of gunfire that undoubtedly would accrue, should it become legal to shoot little Theodore Nugent, the draft dodger patriot of the NRA.

That’s some kind of ‘journalism,’ Joe. Boy howdy.

And they then accused ME of trying to start a civil war.

Let me warn you, would-be John Browns: if we DO get into a civil war, I’ll be anything BUT civil.

So, consider the price of civility to barbarians, and then consider whether you like the relative peace and plenty of where you live. Or whether you’d like to trade it in for refugee status, random slaughter, disease, and all the plagues that come with war. Ask any Afghan. Ask any Iraqi.

I’ll bet they’ll tell you it sucks.

Courage.

==============

UPDATE: While bloggers like myself are conflicted between making money and trying to keep the John Browns at bay, it turns out that Howie Rich’s “Americans for Limited Government” is advertising for bloggers to go with their “free” editorial cartoon service.

Ever since I (and other bloggers) took them on in 2006 and whupped them real good (as they say) they have recruited an army of bloggers to propogate their lies.

Lyin’ Howie Rich

Lies? Yes. Right now, Howard Rich claims, on the brand new “Howard Rich – Fighting for Freedom and Limited Government” in his “Who is Howard Rich” page that [emphasis added]:

In 1992, Howie founded U.S Term Limits, which now stands at the forefront of the term limits movement. He later founded Americans for Limited Government. In 2006, Howie had great success in limiting governmental use of eminent domain. His initiatives were passed in nine states: Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Michigan, North Dakota, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. Bill Wilson, the President of Americans for Limited Government, called it “…an amazing first step in the long walk away from big government.

Just in case you wonder when Americans for LimitedGivernment was founded, go to the  ALG home page, and hit “SOURCE” on your browser. The following will pop up:

META name=”description” content=”Americans for Limited Government, founded by Howard Rich in 2006, is dedicated to protecting the rights and liberties of the individual. (etcetera) …

What does this mean? Well, I live in Oregon, and it’s a damned lie. The Oregon Measure 39 ballot initiative didn’t have a PENNY of Howie’s cash, which you can see here*.

[* Scroll down to chart 4. Note that Measure 39 had not a penny (groups listed cover 100.10% of all monies. Howard Rich financed Measures 41, 48 and  45 . All three got creamed. But Rich claims "victory."]

The three ballot measures he DID bankroll went down to disastrous defeat.

Here are the actual results from Ballotpedia, which was created by the Howie Rich Crowd: Eric O’Keefe, Leslie Graves, Paul Jacob, John Tillman, Bill Wilson, et al.:

• Measure 45
• Measure 48
• Measure 41

Which seems to have, er, um,  won?

• Yes: 483,443
• No: 818,452

OK, here’ s the facts:

Howie Rich won in only one state, Arizona. He lost his shadowy financial backers (none of his personal money was involved, according to the Center for Public Integrity) at least $18 million, and probably much, much more. It was one of the greatest electoral Waterloos in modern campaign history, but they claim “great” successes. Really?

Ironic, because ALG is trumpeting that ALG Chairman Bill Wilson’s being quoted in Politico is at the top of their homepage.

What is he upset about? He claims MSNBC didn’t tell the truth.

Whether MSNBC did or did not “tell the truth” (and I’m so used to ALG lying, that I’ll wait for Keith to sort it out Monday) virtue begins at home, Bill.

And lying and cheating and underhanded tactics have been the HALLMARK of ALG’s short existence in the astroturf world.

I caught them lying about their “victories” in 2006 and outed them. And, so to my pixellated Bernstein did my cosmic W00dward, at Daily Kos, Sandlapper, whose exposé of ALG’s post-election rationalizations is so hilarious that I excerpt it here in large chunk:

… Now, amid all that boogedy-boogedy chest-thumping, constant reader, notice the attribution to ALG Executive Director Bill Wilson. Bill Wilson? Is this the same William Wilson whose name has been listed on ALG’s Board of Directors? But I thought ALG’s executive director was the tireless and longsuffering Eric O’Keefe of Spring Green, Wisconsin, whose relationship with Rich goes back to their ill-fated attempt to take over the National Libertarian Party in the late 1970s and early 1980s. What happened to O’Keefe? Was there an Election Night purge? Was O’Keefe removed in anger because his wife’s nascent petition-circulation company failed to deliver the keep-`em-barely-alive amendment and the TABOR measure in Nebraska? (That did cost Rich more than $1.4 million, after all…)

The release continued: “Voters in Florida, Oregon, Michigan, North Dakota, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Arizona and Nevada also supported proposals to prevent the government from unfairly imposing land-use measures on private property.”

Notice the absence of reference to the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, careful reader. That’s because voters gave TABOR the broom on Election Day in the three states where they remained: Oregon, Nebraska and Maine. But notice further the addition of states where ALG played no real role beyond the writing of checks to political action committees: Florida, Michigan, North Dakota, New Hampshire, South Carolina. It is as if, dear friends, Howie Rich has adopted the posture of the rooster who takes credit for the sunrise.

Rich crows in his own release, “I’m proud of the work that ALG and its state partners and allies have done in promoting the ideals of liberty. Our efforts have successfully raised voters’ awareness about the need for fiscal restraint in the face of unchecked government spending and land grabs. We have helped lay the foundation for real advocacy on behalf of small landowners and taxpayers across the country, and our movement will only get stronger as more Americans awaken to the fact that state and local governments nationwide are out of control.”

Can the Thomas Jefferson Prize for Nation Founding be far behind? Or perhaps the Mark Twain Award for Hyperbole?

O, there’s more from Rich, in his own words: “Where we have succeeded, as we have in Georgia, you can be sure that we’ll continue to build on that success. Where the initiatives to limit spending and protect homes and churches have come up short, you can be sure that we’ll be back, stronger than before. This is a movement that will continue to grow.”

As mold on wet newspaper, no doubt.

[... MORE]

click for larger, clickable map

And now ALG is advertising for bloggers.

* By: admin

* On: 08/20/2009 09:21:11

A Call for Pens from Liberty Features Syndicate

Americans for Limited Government’s Liberty Features Syndicate (LFS) is looking for new highly motivated guest writers. Newly selected writers will get a chance to join a very talented writers group and our award-winning cartoonist William Warren at having their work published in everything from national and local newspapers.

All you have to do is submit a written column or op-ed, no more than 600 words, to jwilliams@libertyfeatures.com with a brief bio about yourself. The editors at LFS will help each writer make sure that the piece is compatible and effective for newspaper publication.

While most syndicates have big names like Pat Buchanan or George Will, here at Liberty Features Syndicate we believe that every centre-right American has a voice that is being ignored by the mainstream.

Advertising for bloggers, no doubt to shut up the likes of me, who doesn’t get paid, nor have a professional PR flak pimping my every column to newspapers.

Uh, wait.

“here at Liberty Features Syndicate we believe that every centre-right American has a voice that is being ignored by the mainstream.”

“centre-right”?  That’s the British/Canadian spelling for “center.” Either they’s hirin’ furriners, else the “professionals” at ALG’s “Liberty Features Syndicate” can’t be bothered to proofread their own 128-word call for submissions.

And EVERY “centre-right” American is being ignored? That’s a lie on the face of it. Period.

And Howie’s up to his old tricks. “Wealthy New Yorker backing South Carolina races” (14 October 2008)

But, ever since I and Sandlapper and a few other resourceful bloggers mopped the floor with Howie Rich and his astroturf gang (one group of which split off into the Sam Adams Alliance, without so much as changing their office address in Chicago), they have been absolutely fanatical about recruiting all the bloggers they possibly can, to drown out the voices of reason in the blogosphere.

Just look at how prolific Howie is on the internetses tubeses:

• Howard Rich
• Howard Rich’s Linkedin
• Howie Rich’s Blog
• Howie Rich’s Townhall Column
• Howie Rich Facebook page
• Howie Rich Myspace page
• Howard Rich Wikipedia page
• Howard Rich Ballotpedia page

They seem to be paranoid about never allowing a few motley bloggers to administer an ass-whupping on the order of Agincourt or San Jacinto to them electorally, ever again. (Then again, they COULD just try to play fair.)

But, as I’ve noted and Sandlapper has noted, Howie claims to have defeated King Henry V, and routed Sam Houston’s army. And that wasn’t his ass handed to him, it was a cake sent to him by his Great Aunt Griselda.

Just the tip of the astroturf iceberg

Howie himself has at least two blogs and had a column in TownHall.com, which he “gave” over to their old treasurer, Bill Wilson.

But it’s no big deal, because NEITHER of them ever actually wrote those columns. They have very well paid amanuenses who do that.

Just as Joe Farah’s scribes scribble Chuck Norris’ columns for the Creators Syndicate and his WorldNutDaily feature.

So, why am I conflicted? Because I have to watch these weasels slither their snake oil past the newsmen and pundits because I can’t afford to go after them. Literally. And, increasingly, many of us can’t. But they are paying their bloggers. Can’t we come up with some way of assisting ours?

I know that getting progressives to work together is like trying to herd cats, but dammit, we have a mutual interest here, and it’s too overwhelming for us to ignore. All of our other dreams depend on keeping the agents of chaos and dissimulation at bay. And please note that I’m not alleging that these people are liars. I am TELLING you that they are liars, and I’ve provided you with the PROOF that “facts” mean nothing to them.

Only sunshine can disinfect this rot. And that means journalists (or those who follow the obligations and professionalism of journalists) who can afford to spread that sunshine of truth, facts and good investigative reportage.

The left had better figure out how to compensate its bloggers, else the righties will buy up this medium, just like they bought up radio, television, and, sadly, too many formerly great newspapers.

Courage².