Charles Johnson Completes Auto-Excommunication From the Entire Conservative Blogosphere

I guess this completes the circle, "Why I Parted Ways With The Right."

I was never that big a fan of Charles Johnson, but last year I was amazed at his ability to weed out the most vile comments and posts at Daily Kos, and so I visited there routinely. C.J. hadn't fully transmogrified into the premiere enemy of everything-not-LGF, but the writing was on the wall with the early attacks on Pamela Geller, and the wierd denunciation of must about any European criticism of Islam as "fascism."

Anyway, there's lots of attention to C.J. auth-excommunication. See ...

Ace of Spades HQ, "Obligatory: Charles Johnson Makes it Official."

Another Black Conservative, "Little Green Footballs Officially Goes Left."

The Daley Gator, "Charles Johnson is not man enough to watch SEC football."

Da TechGuy, "FLASH! Charles Johnson trolls for hits: Lobbies to be an MSNBC regular…"

Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels, "Charles Johnson Explains Why He Parted Ways with Right Wing Nuts."

Indecision Forever, "Little Green Footballs Joins the Liberal Elite America Haters."

Israel Matsav, "Say it isn't so: Charles Johnson trivializes the Holocaust."

James Joyner, "Charles Johnson ‘Breaks’ From the Right."

JammieWearingFool, "Driver of Crazy Train Comes Clean."

Jawa Report, "You'readouch you'readouche Can You Do the Fandango."

Jules Crittenden, "Charles Johnson Explains The Crazy Hating."

Left Coast Rebel, "Little Green Footballs: Charles Johnson Jekyll and Hyde."

Legal Insurrection, "Someone Needs Attention."

Moonbattery, "Charles Johnson Explains Himself."

Neocon Express, "Charles Johnson is a Low-Life Who Abuses the Holocaust to Make Cheap Political Points."

Pirate's Cove, "Speaking of barking moonbat unhinged crazy...

Right Wing Nut House, "CHARLES JOHNSON’S WORLD."

Riehl World View, "For Chuckles Johnson, It's Meltdown Number Two."

Robert Stacy McCain, "Charles Johnson Parts Ways With Reality."

Saberpoint, "Charles Johnson Jumps the Lizard."

Snooper's Report, "Little Green Turtle Turds Is DOA."

Stop the ACLU, "Speaking of barking moonbat unhinged crazy..."

Tom Maguire, "Pale Riders."

YidWithLid, "A Sad Day in the Blog World The "Death" of a Legend; Little Green Footballs."

Wake Up America, "The Right's Present To The Left- Charles Johnson."

All good stuff. I especialy like the brilliant Exurban League's, "Why I Parted Ways With Little Green Footballs":

1. Calling everyone to the right of LGF "fascists," both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan [He's European?], and 56 other microscopic splinter parties no one has ever heard of.)

2. Seeing bigotry, hatred and white supremacism in everything (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, occasional Fox News viewers, etc.)

3. Confusing pre-Roe legal arrangements with "the Dark Ages," and faith for "fanaticism" (see: Christians, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness while pretending to be pro-science (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.). And writing phrases like "anti-science bad craziness."

5. Support for Christophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.) ...

Check the original post for the rest.

I'm not linking, but Andrew Sullivan confirms that he and Charles were indeed separated at birth. See, "Leaving the Right."

If I missed anyone's post in the roundup, just drop your link in the comments, or send me an e-mail.

Charles Johnson Attacks Robert Stacy McCain as Racist

As of this moment, Charles Johnson has over 1,000 comments on a "private" afternoon comment thread devoted to smearing Robert Stacy McCain as racist:

Here’s a private open thread, restricted to registered LGF users, for a mind-boggling Monday as the right wing blogosphere unites to support an open racist who associates with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, Robert Stacy McCain — a man who believes Abraham Lincoln was a “war criminal” who should have been tried for treason.

Charles Johnson's free to do what he wants with his own blog, but he strains legal and moral boundaries with his libel-blogging against Robert Stacy McCain. And I am happy to disabuse Charles of the notion that R.S. McCain is an "open racist who associates with white supremacists and neo-Nazis." There is no proof for the allegation, not one shred of it. I have known R.S. McCain for two years now, and there's nothing in him that remotely reeks of racist sentiment. Indeed, R.S. McCain represents the epitome of a gentleman and a scholar, and I testify to his unimpeachable integrity on civil rights.

The sources for the common attacks on R.S. McCain as "racist" have long been discredited. Most recently by Stogie at Saber Point, a personal friend of R.S. McCain's during the period of the allegations of racism, "Robert Stacy McCain: I Know Him Better Than Charles Johnson Does." Stogie cites three posts that R.S. McCain has written:

1. "Point One: Charles Johnson doesn't know me from Adam's house cat."
2. "Point Two: Charles Johnson is prejudiced, and subscribes to stereotypes."
3. "Point Three: Charles Johnson will regret it but once, and that will be continually."

I wrote recently that Little Green Footballs "was getting pummeled from all sides." I noted at that entry that it was never personal with Charles Johnson. It's been more a fascination to watch someone who I read and linked to many times descend into cowardly incoherence and megalomaniacal infirmity. It's no longer fascinating; it's now a matter of concern, if not pity. A look at Johnson's blog over the last week shows a search for fringe elements to validate a warped theory that the GOP is taken over by extremists. Sure, the fringe is out there, and these elements include myself, if you want to be technical. It's called the conservative/libertarian base, and it's diverse. I hardly agree with the most unhinged allegations against President Obama and the Democrats. But I endorse many of the charges against them, and I'll defend my positions competently and with ease.

It gets ridiculously boring listening to people like Charles Johnson demean common folks as racists and Nazis. Such smears reveal a shallowness of character and a flickering of ideological commitment.

The "right wing blogosphere" has noticed. See:

* "Goodbye Little Green Footballs, Hello Powerline."
* "Talkin' Charles Johnson Paranoid Blues."
* "Little Green Footballs' Johnson Sinks Further Into the Abyss."

Image Credit: Saber Point, "Charles Johnson Rides Into the Sunset."

The Vise Tightens Around Charles Johnson!

The vise grip of the conservative blogosphere is tightening around Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. Things are practically to the point of DEFCON alert. Always the control freak, C.J. has long banned commenters for disagreeing with him, and now he's also banning people for simply correcting him -- on other blogs. And that's not to mention C.J.'s escalation to legal threats against folks who're simply rebutting him around the 'sphere.

Another Black Conservative has some information on the "racist" Obama-Palin shoeshine controversy from the last couple of days. There's a link there to Patterico's post, where we find that he's been locked out at LGF for pointing out to Charles that the women who e-mailed the politically-incorrect photoshop is a registered Democrat. For someone so "scientific" real facts must have caused nasty bouts of cognitive dissonance and psychological displacement:

AOSHQ has the links as well, "Charles Johnson Pushes 'I Win' Button On Patterico."

Plus, Johnson's blathering about legal threats against Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. Here's the screencap, available at Jim's post, "A New Low… Charles Johnson Now Supporting Child Porn in Classrooms & Fisting Kits at School Functions":

Sick. Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs reached a new low yesterday.Johnson attacked this blog for reporting again on Barack Obama’s safe schools czar. According to Charles, if you point out anything about Barack Obama’s “Safe” Schools Czar Kevin Jennings’ sordid record of promoting explicit, outrageously age-inappropriate sexual filth in the classroom you are a “homophobe.” He must have started reading the Soros-linked Media Matters since he flipped ....

Yesterday, I reported here that a Bulgarian website had enough courage to report on the Jenning’s scandal, one of the most underreported stories of 2009. This infuriated Charles Johnson who labeled the Bulgarian website a conspiracy website for its previous reporting. Like many leftists Charles believes that by labeling websites (even when the facts don’t back him up) you neuter their arguments. Of course, this is not true. Leftists like Charles believe if you can’t win an argument then smear the source instead.

Just the other day, Little Green Footballs published an attack against Andrew Breitbart's blog, "Breitbart's Big Government: Not Strong on Fact Checking."

But as you can see today, the hypocrisy is so devastating for Charles Johnson that perhaps he'd at least just back off, and perhaps add a little wonkish non-partisan policy analysis to his overnight shoreline photography posts.

See also, Verum Serum, "Charles Johnson: The Hypocrisy is Strong with This One."

UPDATE: Just found Charles Johnson's more formal, yet equally lame, threat of legal action against Gateway Pundit, "Jim Hoft, First Things, and Libelous Accusations."

Also, Charles Johnson links this post in the comments at LGF, here.

Is Charles Johnson Gay?

I recently found this comment on one of my posts on Little Green Footballs:

Charles Johnson did a lot of good early work in exposing Islam. However, Charles is now in an awkward place ideologically due to his own homosexuality and the contradictions of this position vs the outlook of the rest of Western Conservatism/Rightwing thought.

Interestingly, I've actually noticed something of a meeting of the minds recently between Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan, who is gay (see, "Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan: Separated at Birth?"). I don't see any mention of Johnson's sexual orientation at his Wikipedia entry. Neither is there mention at a Washington Post essay cited therein. It notes at the New York Sun that Johnson was "profoundly scarred by a bitter divorce in the late 1990s." But as he's in California, it's safe to assume that was a heterosexual marriage.

Johnson's sexual orientation is his own business. AND TO REPEAT: To each his own. My interest here is that a confirmed homosexual orientation would tell us a great deal about Johnson's blogging. Like Andrew Sullivan, Johnson's a Catholic who's losing his religion (Wikipedia identifies him as "agnostic").

A Google search turned up a mention of Johnson's possible homosexuality here: "I had heard several times that Johnson is homosexual, but knew nothing about it and never commented on it."

Apparently, the readers there were involved in a flame war with Little Green Footballs, and Johnson redirected the incoming links to A BRIGHT FLASHING WEBSITE WITH THE MESSAGE "YOU ARE AN IDIOT" (so, DON'T CLICK the link if you're a photosensitive epileptic). As a result, one reader with a neural disorder suffered a seizure. Check the entire thread, here.

In any case, I was thinking about Charles Johnson's blogging in the wake of the shooting at the Holocaust Memeorial. At his first post, Charles reports that "A white supremacist is the suspect in a shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum." In the updates, he notes that the suspect, James von Brunn, is a "nirther" (an Obama birth certificate activist) and a Holocaust denier. Yet he concludes by noting that how Brunn's attack would "vindicate" the DHS report warning of right-wing extremism.

If so, that would "vindicate" all the agitation against the extreme right at Little Green Footballs. Funny, notice how Johnson introduces his post on Nick Griffin, the new British National Party MEP who was egged the other day:

The Holocaust-denying leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, now a member of European Parliament, was forced to abandon a press conference today when demonstrators showed up throwing eggs.

Basically, a U.S. Holocaust denier gets a boost if he "vindicates" widely rebuked the DHS report, but a British Holocaust denier get a Scarlett Letter before his name, since such identifcation would further Johnson's jihad against Pamel at Atlas Shrugs, Robert at Jihad Watch, and Sammy at Yid With Lid.

I'll have more later. As my friend Shoprat once said of Johnson, at this post, "He's done an Andrew Sullivan. No other way to put it."

And that's that thing. If he's really done an "Andrew Sullivan," then he's not really a conservative blogger any more ...

See also, "Charles Johnson and the Truth about Atheism."

The Madness of King Charles

Pamela Geller provides this screen capture from Little Green Footballs:

It's obvious that anti-jihad conservative bloggers now have another jihad to deal with: Charles Johnson's pathological obssession with folks like Pamela and Robert Spencer, and now Michelle Malkin and Robert Stacy McCain.

This conflict is not really about Geller and Spencer's alleged ties to neo-fascist groups.

This story is about Charles Johnson losing his mind. If you check Robert Spencer's response to LGF yesterday, "Charles Johnson's latest libels answered," you'll find that Johnson has blocked the outgoing hyperlinks coming from Jihad Watch. As Robert suggests, "paste the link into your address bar and it will work."

So much for the free exchange of ideas and debate?

It's one thing to disagree with others on the issues, and to defend your positions vigorously. It's quite another to have some psychological syndrome that demands the elimination of competing information that might cause cognitive dissonance. Charles Johnson's a bloody tyrant.

I keep seeing notes at various blogs from former LGF commenters who've been banned. I had one last week at my page, but Always on Watch jumped into my thread the other day with this update:

Despite my having taken a strong and public stand against ethnic supremacism, the same stand as Charles Johnson took (See this post I did back in 2007), I was banned at LGF some time back, around the time I interviewed Robert Spencer on The Gathering Storm Radio Show. As far as I know, nothing in that interview was in any way directed at Charles Johnson, nor had the great rift between Spencer and Johnson yet occurred.

Charles Johnson bans commenters based on those bloggers' blogrolls. Link to anything of which he disapproves, and out you go. I wonder if he bans bloggers who link to Christian sites? LGF has taken a decidedly anti-Christian turn in the past several months.

Also, check out this commenter from Atlas Shrugs from a couple of weeks ago:

Ok, I just got banned from LGF. I'm sure I'm one of many. Actually, it wasn't that hard to do. Simply posit an opinion different from the "Lizard King" and you're "Banned".

So much for.....

"Welcome, newcomers. Our community is enriched by numerous differing points of view and perspectives. Those who are unable to obey the rules will find the deletion and banning sticks wielded rather quickly. Those who can follow the rules will find that we can have lively discussions, so long as the rules posted above are followed. No personal attacks, and no advocacy of violence."

You never get a chance to explain yourself. They take your post out of context and immediately you get banned, before you can even clarify what you're talking about. Over the past few months, his site has been getting really weird. All this evolution crap and bashing Talk radio.... not what I expected from a conservative blog. I'm sure it's going down hill very quickly. Personally, I'm done with LGF.

Pam, your site is great. I read it everyday! Thanks for letting me speak my mind.

Robert Stacy McCain has a post up on the controversy, and he notes:

Charles Johnson seems determined to travel the same road that took David Brock from being a famous investigative reporter to being the hack-in-chief at Media Matters. It saddens me.

More later...

**********

UPDATE: McClatchy Watch was just banned at LGF yesterday. See, "Weird ... erratic blogger Charles Johnson blocks my account at Little Green Footballs."

Little Green Footballs Pummeled From All Sides!

I just got word from YidWithLid that Charles Johnson is taking it on the chin yet again this week. See, "Little Green Footballs' Johnson Sinks Further Into the Abyss:"

For the last two years Johnson has been like the crazy old man who tries to alienate his family, but in his case he has been throwing bloggers out of his site. For some of them like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer he not only cast them asunder, but he has continued to attack them.

The sad part of it is that he used to be a blogging giant, and when it comes to traffic, I am sure he still is. But with the growing list of people that he has banned from his site for the simple reason of disagreeing with his opinions or maintaining friendships with people he didn't like, Charles is losing the respect of much of the community.

Check the whole thing, here. It turns out that Robert Spencer has a new post up just hammering Johnson in what's the latest, but certainly decisive, offensive in the ongoing anti-jihad blogger wars. See Spencer's post here: "Libelblogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs Digs Deeper, Adding New Lies to His Original Ones."

One must step back and wonder: what is this man's game? Why would he make up lies, see them refuted by people who were present at the events he claims to know about, and then instead of backing down or at least falling silent, pile more lies upon his original ones? Inevitable questions arise about why he has embarked on this desperate smear campaign, intent on demonstrating that I and others are "fascists" or "fascist sympathizers," without a shred of actual evidence that I sympathize with or agree with any positions that are fascist, racist, etc., associate with any people who really are those things, or hold any positions other than the ones I have publicly avowed

Spencer provides personal testimony from folks who ultimately destroy Johnson's credibility, so be sure to check the post. But I love this concluding flourish:

He's a conscience-free smear merchant, a thuggish paranoid and a liar, but at least Charles Johnson is good for a few laughs.

I've actually been meaning to write something about recent flame war between Ace of Spades HQ and Johnson's Little Green Footballs. See AOSHQ, "And There You Go: Charles Johnson Spins for Van Jones," and "White House Politely Declines to Express Support in Van "Astronaut" Jones ... Bonus: Charles Johnson's Dan Rather Moment."

Also Ace notes that "This isn't personal. CJ has never done anything wrong by me." (See, "Information on Truthers Zinn, Lerner, and Jones Comes from 'Hate Sites'?")

And you know, I'd bet most folks would say the same thing with respect to Charles Johnson. I've never had an issue with him, but I have noticed how he's lost his marbles in his endless campaign against conservatives and those whose politics are informed by faith. Johnson's got issues, that's for sure. We all do, of course, but there's that uncomprising my-way-or-the-highway mentality at LGF that puts Charles in a class all by himself.

Charles Johnson Browbeat Forbes' Abigail Esman After She Correctly Noted That Anders Breivik Voluminously Cited Little Green Footballs

"I've never seen such craven, dishonest spinning."

That's Charles Johnson attacking Bill O'Reilly. But it's actually a perfect self-description. And a textbook case of psychological projection. King Charles has been working feverishly to not only destroy his political enemies following the Norway massacre, but to also obliterate the facts of his post-9/11 counter-jihad blogging. And it's astonishing, but I don't think there's a single person more invested in the crass exploitation of these murders — and that's saying a lot. The other day, Forbes writer Abigail Esman wrote an analysis of the Norway killings: "What Really Lies Behind The Oslo Attacks – And Why It May Happen Again." Discussing Anders Behring Breivik, Esman wrote:

... he frequently praises a writer who goes by the name “Fjordman” and who is well known on the conservative, largely anti-Islam circuit; and he often cites posts from the site Little Green Footballs and Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugged, both of which are popular not only among anti-Islam activists, but amon[g] even more moderate types concerned about the rise of radical Islam in the West.

She linked to both Little Green Footballs and Atlas Shrugs at the quote, and The Lizard King fired off a blog post as soon as he checked his traffic stats: "Forbes Writer Gets Oslo Terrorist Story Very Wrong."

Actually, no. Folks should cruise around at Diary of Daedalus blog, which has chronicled just how intimately the work of Little Green Footballs played into the deranged mind of a killer. See "Rescued from Memory Hole: The Lost LGF “Fjordman” Articles," and especially, "Little Green Footballs, Anders Breivik’s and the United States Blog-based Anti-Jihad Movement":

The political left has been gleeful poring over the many references to certain anti-Islamist blog personalities mentioned in the document, and these sites have been diligently mining the 1500 plus page manuscript for juicy references to their favorite adversaries on the conservative right.

Unfortunately, most of these leftist bloggers and news sources are either myopic in their journalistic skills, or worst, just plain dishonest actors. Over and over they have pounced on every reference in the manifesto to persons such as Bat Ye’or, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, the mysterious writer “Fjordman,” Daniel Pipes and MEMRI, while at the same time, almost totally ignoring the former leader of this “movement” of anti-Islamic sentiment, the blog Little Green Footballs and it’s founder Charles Johnson.

No doubt. (And continue reading here.) Diary of Daedalus notes that since 2007 Charles Johnson has been aggressively attempting to "convince people that he was never the person imagined on LGF, pre-2007, that he was always “fair and balanced” and that he never harbored any animosities toward any aspect of Islam or the political left." It's a mind-boggling thing.

In any case, Little Green Footballs is cited a number of times by Anders Behring Breivik. Abigail Esman was absolutely correct to note that Charles Johnson's blog was a major source for the murderer. But King Charles couldn't handle the truth. He apparently berated and browbeat the Forbes author, harassing her by e-mail on several occasions, until Esman removed his name hoping to end the abuse. See the comments at Esman's essay:

I can understand Esman's desire to prevent further attacks from Charles Johnson. Yet it serves as one more example of those who stand for the truth being beaten down by the progressive destroyers of reason. At his post calling out Esman, King Charles writes:

I’ve had nothing to do with the “anti-Islam” blogosphere for years — in fact, they absolutely hate my guts. And Breivik did not cite posts from Little Green Footballs — he republished old articles by “Fjordman” that cited LGF, and he also cites many articles viciously attacking me.

That's an epic lie. Breivik did indeed "cite posts from Little Green Footballs." The fact is, Charles Johnson was one of the very most important counter-jihad bloggers and it was less the four years ago that he initiated his abandonment of the right. I mean, seriously. Breivik cited Little Green Footballs voluminously. Check this one again: "Little Green Footballs, Anders Breivik’s and the United States Blog-based Anti-Jihad Movement." Also: "The Charles Johnson / LGF Connection."

Folks can also go right to the source: "2083 – A European Declaration of Independence."

Charles Johnson Denies Obsession with Pamela Geller While Organizing Book Defamation Campaign Against Her on Amazon

Charles Johnson responded to my essay, "Obsessed Much? Charles Johnson Has Written Ten Posts Attacking Pamela Geller Since Anders Breivik's Norway Massacre."

Via Diary of Daedalus, "Charles Johnson’s Blatant Lie."

Charles denied he’s obsessed with Pam yet he is organizing a campaign to label Pam Geller’s book hate speech on Amazon. If he didn’t care about her, why does he track her every move? Why doesn’t Charles Johnson do a book? The answer is easy, there are enough children’s coloring books.

Charles, be a man and get over her!

He can't be a man. He's sick. Seriously. He needs psychiatric help.

Pamela responded to this on Wednesday, "LITTLE GREEN ASTROTURDS."

It's weird, demonic even, but progressives have a deranged penchant to attack the livelihood of conservatives. Amy Alkon wrote about the Sadly No! attacks on her, "The Attack On My Book." And of course, Charles Johnson tried to get Patterico fired, "Charles Johnson Impotently Tries to Threaten My Job."

And as readers know, I'm quite familiar with how progressives seek to destroy. See: "W. James Casper is a Coward, a Fraud, and a Liar." That post follows my lengthy attempt to get RACIST = REPSAC to denounce his previous recruitment and sponsorship of workplace harassment and intimidation. Perhaps, if he had a decent soul, he'd try to undo some of the damage he's caused, and that of his progressive blogging cohorts and allies. More on this coming. One of these days I'll get my book manuscript finished, and no doubt we'll be hearing more about this kinda stuff.

RELATED: "Progressivism Incompatible with American Values."

Charles Johnson "Explodes"

Charles Johnson ran a disclaimer today at the introduction to his post on President Barack Obama and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. The two heads of state were being photographed together hanging out like old friends. Johnson's brief caption to the photo read:

I know some people think that because I refuse to jump on the bandwagon with some of the more ridiculous, exaggerated attacks against Barack Obama, I’m suddenly on his side.

But this ... is absolutely sickening.

The obvious problem here is that a genuinely conservative blogger shouldn't have to apologize for past comments when criticizing President Obama for his sashays with brutal Latin American dictators.

I've already noted that Andrew Sullivan's a big fan of Little Green Footballs, and that's a huge red flag to any traditionalist who's raised the battle standard against the cultural heathens on the left. But now Media Matters is on board the Johnson gravy train, for example:

Here's a key quote though, from LGF's Charles Johnson, surveying Fox News' militia media movement [emphasis added:

I just wish everyone would take a step back from this extremist brink. It can't lead anywhere good. At best, it will bring the right-wing blogosphere into disrepute, and at the worst it could lead to violence if you encourage these real nuts out there.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the unhinged anti-Obama rhetoric broadcast on so many right-wing blogs since January 21 has already drowned the community in disrepute. The Fox News-driven "tea parties" and the DHS nervous breakdown this week only cemented it.

Shorter version--as long as Michelle Malkin's at the head of any movement, it's going to be a joke.

That's not all.

Johnson's got a series of brief entries at the blog, trying to scruff off all the attention on the left to his own overboard obssession with the current outpouring of robust conservatism:

* "Heads Explode at Reddit.com."

* "Heads Explode at Daily Kos."

* "Heads Explode at Washington Monthly."

* "Heads Explode at Ace of Spades."

* "Heads Explode at Media Matters."

* "James Wolcott's Head Explodes."

* "Heads Explode at Fox News."

* "Heads Explode at Gawker.com."

* "Heads Exploding Everywhere."

As one who sees Johnson doing more harm to conservatism than the fringe elements he's scourging, I have to admit it's not like I didn't anticipate this. See my series of posts, for example:

* "On Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs."

* "Core Cultural Values."

* "Charles Johnson's Strange Alliance with Andrew Sullivan."

* "Glenn Beck Hammers Charles Johnson."

Something's going to happen soon. Maybe we'll see Johnson form a 527 organization with Sully and Markos Moultisas: "The Little Green and Gay Smear Merchants Coalition."

Concerning the "Anti-Jihadist" Blogosphere

I need to set out some positions regarding the flame up that's been roiling the conservative blogosphere in recent weeks.

As readers know, Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has taken something of a rigidly intolerant turn in recent months, attacking any vestige of robust right-wing activity as "extremist." A number of Johnson's own commenters have begun to ignore him, being burned out on the "Lizard King's" attacks on Christian traditionalists and neoconservatives as "fundamentalist wackos."

I first wrote about this a month or so back, in "On Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs." My initial inclination was mostly fascination at how Johnson could turn off so many people who were previously intensely loyal followers. What happened? Who changed?

Well, despite his protests to the contrary, it does seem that Johnson's lost some of his raison d'etre with the Democrats in power, and now he's attacking bloggers on the right as the new enemy.

Well, the battles continue to escalate.

Here's Johnson's latest: "Pamela Geller: Poster Girl for Eurofascists." And Robert Stacy McCain responds to Johnson: "Pam Geller: 'Poster Girl for Eurofascists' or Just Another 'Rightwing Extremist'?"

And a couple of days ago, Michael van der Galien commented with his post, "Civil War Raging in the Right-Wing Blogosphere."

That one caught my attention, since I'm identified, along with Stacy, not as "anti-jihad," but as a "foreign policy hawk":

Let one thing be clear: in the battle between Gates of Vienna, Atlas Shrugs on the one hand (I do not count Donald Douglas as truly being on their side for he is much more than an “anti-Jihad blogger” and he is not a xenophobe) and LGF on the other hand, I stand by the latter. I do not always agree with Charles - I’m pro-tea party for instance - but he meant such a great deal to the (international) conservative movement in years gone by that turning against him would be a sign of despicable ungratefulness.

Furthermore, GoV and AS have gone off the deep end, and Charles is right to point out that they have and continue to associate with far-right parties and individuals. “Anti-Jihad” bloggers, as they call themselves, have become Anti-Muslim, Anti-Islam, Anti-Tolerance, and Anti-Equality. Reading the comment sections of these websites is a horrific experience for all who care somewhat about common decency and tolerance. These people - again, I am not talking about people like Donald or Robert S. McCain for they are not “anti-Jihad bloggers” but simply conservative bloggers who are also foreign policy hawks - have become radicals in their own right. Associating with them does not merely destroy one’s credibility, it is also a crime against decency.

To conservative bloggers like RSM and DD I have only this to say: make no mistake about it, AS and GoV are not ‘conservative blogs.’ Nor are they websites you should be associated with. They are ignorant radicals driven by hate. Conservatives everywhere are wise to distance themselves as much as possible from them.

I don't know Charles Johnson, but I'm friends with all the other parties to this debate. I communicate with Pamela Geller by e-mail every few days. Robert Stacy McCain is the coolest "blogfather" out there, and we talk by telephone in addition to e-mailing. And I've been friends with Michael van der Galien for a couple of years now, sharing blog posts and what not.

Pamela is passionate and vigilant in what she does, but to attack her as "fascist" is beyond the pale. I know fascists. I've been attacked by fascists. I've repudiated fascists. Pamela is no fascist. She points out that Michael van der Galien is a convert to Islam, however, which might explain why he's so quick to choose up sides (see, a bit on Michael's views at "'Pure Islam' and Michael van der Galien").

Now, to be clear: I'm not out to ruffle feathers, and not Charles Johnson's by any means. But sometimes you have to take a stand: I think Michael's wrong on this one: Little Green Footballs gives aid and comfort to the enemies of conservatism, or as The Educated Shoprat notes at this post, "He's done an Andrew Sullivan. No other way to put it."

But I'm going to let Robert Spencer have the last word on Johnson's latest screed:

Today he is once again attacking Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, whom he clearly fears a great deal (inasmuch as she tells the truth about him), along with Paul Belien and me for being invited to speak at an anti-Islamization conference by the group Pro-Köln. Pro-Köln, he says, is a neo-Nazi group, and he has a photo of some guy who is not involved with Pro-Köln but is wearing a Hitler-style overcoat to prove it. And if Pamela, Paul and I are speaking there, well, we must be Nazis too, right?

In reality, the fact that we were invited to speak indicates in itself that Pro-Köln is not a neo-Nazi group. We are known to be pro-Israel, and if I go I would speak in defense of Israel and against neo-Nazism, Holocaust denial, etc. Outside of Charles Johnson's fantasies, no one has ever actually seen a pro-Israel neo-Nazi. Racist parties such as the BNP and antisemites such as Jean Marie LePen's National Front are not welcome and have not been invited.

Moreover, as John Rosenthal reported in Pajamas Media last year, the German intelligence service in Hamburg has found that real German neo-Nazis despise Pro-Köln because it is ... pro-Israel.

And finally, this whole line of inquiry is absurd. The idea that if someone speaks somewhere, he must therefore hold all the same views that the other speakers hold, is not worthy of serious consideration. Question for Charles Johnson: as he well knows, since I met with him at the time, I once spoke at the same event at which the featured speaker was none other than Hillary Clinton. Does that make her a neo-Nazi as well? (Or does it make me a Leftist and a socialist?) After all, she spoke on a bill with someone who once spoke on another bill with someone who was accused of being in the same room with someone who was once photographed at a funeral with someone who...

For that matter, is Johnson a neo-Nazi as well, since he met with me then also? Of course not - because after all, he renounces all neofascism, race supremacism, etc., right? He sure does. And so do I.

It is astounding that otherwise reasonable people fall for his sort of "analysis."

Related: Gates of Vienna, "Expedition to Cologne."

Sleaze-Blogger E.D. Kain Interviews Despicable Libel-Blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs

E.D. Kain, the dirtbag blogger who once giddily published my work at his now defunct "hardline" neoconservative portal, Neo-Constant, has an interview with Charles Johnson at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, "The Evolution of Blogging: An Interview with Charles Johnson."

With the exception of perhaps the harebrained Conor Friedersdorf, I can't think of more perfectly suitable blogger to interview the Mad King of LGF (Charles pumps up the interview here). It turns out E.D.'s now a featured contributor at True Slant. It notes there, at his bio-blurb, that he's also a "writer at David Frum's site, New Majority" (now called the "Frum Forum," and circling the drain as I write this). Beyond his abject dishonesty and spinelessness (discussed here), E.D.'s made a name for himself with his incoherent ramblings at the Ordinary Gentlemen. He's a stream-of-consciousness smear-master who's never learned the meaning of terms like "concision" and "parsimonious." Not only that, he's an Andrew Sullivan myrmidon, which raises obvious questions of integrity (if not sanity) all by itself.

So now, with the interview of C.J. at Ordinary Gentleman, E.D.'s now gone all in, breathlessly and irreversibly, with the weasely so-called postmodern conservatives who are increasingly being revealed as mindlessly useful idiots for the radical left. A quick case in point is Andrew Sullivan, who gleefully links the interview (off a hat-tip from airhead Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum).

And you know what? All of these folks have unsurprisingly found a consensus focal point on this gem of a libel-quote from the interview with King Charles (compete with the softball lead-in question):

At that point in time you were fairly well aligned with much of the conservative blogosphere which unified behind the war on terror. Lately that seems to have changed. More and more LGF seems to be distancing itself from the right. What’s changed? Has national security become secondary to economic issues, or does it run deeper than that?

National security is still an important issue. But the main reason I can’t march along with the right wing blogosphere any more, not to put too fine a point on it, is that most of them have succumbed to Obama Derangement Syndrome. One “nontroversy” after another, followed by the outrage of the day, followed by conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, all delivered in breathless, angry prose that’s just wearying and depressing to read.

It’s not just the economic issues either. I’ve never been on board with the anti-science, anti-Enlightenment radical religious right. Once I began making my opinions known on issues like creationism and abortion, I realized that there just wasn’t very much in common with many of the bloggers on the right. And then, when most of them decided to fall in and support a blogger like Robert Stacy McCain, who has neo-Nazi friends, has written articles for the openly white supremacist website American Renaissance, and has made numerous openly racist statements on the record … well, I was extremely disappointed to see it, but unfortunately not surprised.

I’ve always written the truth about my opinions, and I have no intention of changing that policy now, just to fit in with a “movement” that has gone completely off the rails.

Robert Stacy McCain is currently in Orlando, Florida. He texted me today to give me the heads up on his son Jim's scuba-diva lessons at their fabulous hotel. Robert hasn't responded at his blog to the Ordinary Gentlmen smears. He's busy, mostly likely, having a fun-filled business trip, although it's possible he's not aware of the latest salvo in Charles Johnson's campaign of libel smears. Of course, Robert's replied numerous times to these scurrilous attacks before (see, "Charles Johnson's Quantum Physics"). What's interesting here is how E.D.'s essentially given Johnson's ravings the patina of credibility outside the fetid fever swamps of the LGF commentariat and of the dungeons of a few hangers-on across the neo-communist blogosphere.

For the truth is that this campaign of fabrications of Robert Stacy McCains' "racism" is actually unintelligible except among those trolling the narrow ideological confines of the radical, unhinged postmodern left. No serious writer on the right today gives these allegations credibility. (No offense, but A.J. Strata recently proved, in his attack on Robert, that he doesn't know WTF is going on, so cross him off the list of right-wing respectables).

Interestingly, the first comment at the Ordinary Gentlmen post -- no doubt from a friendly but brainless "post-mod" -- sums up perfectly the non-conservative bone fides of Charles Johnson's leftist sycophants:

My theory on LGF ... is that he was never really a conservative at all. His original understanding was that the War that began on 9/11 was ultimately a LIBERAL war, i.e., a defense of those Enlightenment values he mentions above.

There's more of that (classic) comment at the post; and notice how it's a essentially an attack on the "evil" neocons as "illiberal" -- with the added bonus of smearing the reputation of former President George W. Bush. No doubt we'd find similar rants in the totally fubar comment threads at Daily Kos.

It's worth noting that Serr8d showed his mettle with a comment there as well, where he suggested that:

Charles Johnson is a hateful, spiteful little man who uses his ‘custom-designed software’ to form and shape his hand-picked commentariat to echo his own thoughts. It’s a classic methodology to assauge his desire for positive feedback. He’s selected Robert Stacy McCain as his target du jour, and in fairness, Ordinary Gentlemen, you should give RSM an interview as well.

Indeed, in fairness, by all means.

Charles Johnson Descends to Banning LGF Visitors by Blocking ISP Addresses

I visit Little Green Footballs once in a while, mostly to get a look at the latest libel campaign Charles Johnson is waging against someone (today he's running yet another attack against Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer). Recall that C.J. came out the other day, basically announcing that he's total flaming Rocky Horror fanboy leftist.

And this past few weeks, King Charles has been defending the IPCC scientists currently involved in one of greatest scientific scandal in decades. No surprise there, it turns out. But don't try to argue Climategate with the Lizard-Master, even by e-mail -- unless you're looking to get ISP-banned, like Lee Doren over at Right Wing News, "Could Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs Get More Absurd?" (with emphasis added):

Within the last two weeks, to help inform Charles about the data, I sent Charles a lecture from Richard Lindzen, Ph.D. M.I.T. Climatologist (a higher quality lecture with better sound will be uploaded next week), and earlier today I sent him phenomenal analysis from the American Thinker about what "Hide the Decline" actually means. I advise everyone to take a look at both.

Well, after sending Charles the American Thinker link this afternoon, I am now banned from Little Green Footballs.

No, I don't mean I cannot comment. I don't mean I cannot share links. I mean I cannot view his website. Instead, I get a 403 Forbidden page.

Evidently, sending Charles a lecture from a professor about climate science, during a week when he is writing about climate science, and a link about the tree ring data to explain what "hide the decline means," conflicts too much with his religious, yes religious, beliefs.

No doubt, Lee's not the first, but C.J.'s going pretty far to control the entire Internet prevent critics from repudiating his lies.

And a liar he is, it turns out that Charles Johnson was for climate skepticism before he was against it. Check Weasel Zippers, "Charles Johnson Shocked, SHOCKED to Learn There are Actually People Who Don't Believe in Man-Made Global Warming ....":

And this is something that's pretty common among ideological opportunists who've switched from (purportedly) right to left. Andrew Sullivan nearly lost all he had with the RawMuslGlutes scandal and his bareback licentiousness; and that's not to mention the demands that Sullivan be deported for criminal possession of controlled subtances (which but for his status as an Obama wannabe-squeeze would have resulted in his expulsion from the country).

There's also the piss-ant E.D. Kain, who possesses the moral backbone of a leech. In speaking about C.J.'s crazed machinations, E.D. suggested, "If you are honestly committed to conservative principles, you simply don’t abandon them because of the reasons Johnson lists." Ha, and that's coming from a guy who used to run a neoconservative blogging platform entitled "Neoconstant," but who burned all his bridges to the writers he recruited there when he developed a man-crush on Andrew Sullivan himself!

The ridicule just writes itself!

It's just obvious that this kind of pathological deceit is routine among the ideological invertebrates who've slithered over to the left, or who just wormed their way back to familiar ground after a period of rank political duplicity.

Either way, these are just really bad people.

Charles Johnson Attacks Pamela Geller for Defending Rifqa Bary!

Here's the screencap from Charles Johnson's post, "'No Evidence' Rifqa Bary's Parents Want to Kill Her":

Johnson writes:

The anti-Islam blogs have been hyperventilating for months over the case of Rifqa Bary — a Muslim teenager who converted to Christianity, ran away from home, and found a new home with a radical fundamentalist Christian preacher, Blake Lorenz of the “Global Revolution Church.”

People like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have injected themselves into this case, judged her parents, and found them guilty of intended murder — because they’re incapable of imagining that Muslim parents might not be murderous monsters. In their twisted paranoid world, all Muslims are honor killers, and that’s all there is to it. Evidence be damned. If her parents say they love her and would never hurt her ... well, that’s just what a lying Muslim would say, isn’t it?

Charles links to a CNN story on the a Florida Law Enforcement report claiming that there was "no clear evidence of criminal activity" against the parents. Yet, Rifqa Bary recorded new testimony indicating her dreadful fears for her life:

I am sixteen and I love Jesus, um... crazy how I found the Lord but, people were blown away but, my parents are Muslims, radical, radical Muslims. You guys don't know the history of Islam, it's really hostile towards Christianity and the mere word of Christian can bring such a hatred in them right. I'm a secret Christian, I've been hiding for a long time, three of four years. They can't know of my faith, because if they do know, the consequences are really hard. Just the culture and background they come from like, is so hostile towards Christianity ... the consequences are great.

Check Pamela's post as well, "Libel blogger Goes Anti-Rifqa Bary."

And isn't big ole' Charles Johnson supposed to be a firm advocate for truth and reason. Boy, look at this smear: At the screencap for LGF at top above, you can seen this sentence at the bottom of the post, in parentheses:

(I’m fairly sure that Spencer and Geller will now attack me, but that’s standard fare for them when they’re caught out espousing bigotry and inciting hatred.)

Well, call me a bigot or something, because I believe Rifqa Bary when she says she fears for her life. And her fear is certainly justified. She was threatened with death by her father and allegedly abused by her uncle. (And see Jihad Watch, "12-Year FBI Veteran Says Serious Flaws in FDLE Report Claiming Rifqa Bary Wasn't Abused.") A Facebook message from a Muslim group threatened to kill Rifqa Bary ("Rifqa Bary Facebook Fatwa: 'We Need to Kill Her'"), and the CAIR-backed Muslim community erupted in outrage in August when Florida Judge Daniel Dawson granted a stay on Rifqa's threatened return to Ohio. See a full report at Red County, "Muslim Assault against Apostates: the Rifqa Bary Case."

See Jihad Watch for additional information.

*********

UPDATE: ... I've made some adjustments to the post. Pamela did not link Charles, although Johnson routinely redirects those who link to him. See, Jihad Watch, "Charles Johnson's Latest Libels Answered."

ADDED: Saber Point, "BAN CHARLES JOHNSON: Don't Read or Link to 'Little Green Footballs'."

Charles Johnson Silent on Jihadi Evidence in Fort Hood Murder Rampage

Perhaps we're seeing final confirmation of Charles Johnson's shift to the terror-backing left? This would be a major event, since Johnson made his name as a premiere anti-jihad blogger in early 2000s. So, who knows what's up? Johnson could be traveling today. Perhaps he had a medical procedure scheduled? Or, maybe he's just sick and tired of blogging and decided to take most of the morning off? What we do know is that Johnson's last two posts at Little Green Footballs include a hard science entry and an open thread. Not a word on Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous jihadi rampage at Fort Hood.

Screencaps provided here. The most recent post, "Overnight Birds," went up at 11:07:44 pm PST. The second one below, "Hubble: Birthplace of Stars," was published at 7:54:27 pm PST. There's another LGF entry at 5:23 yesterday on Apple's new "magic mouse," and then at 2:36 Johnson was moved to clarify the military rank of Nidal Hasan, "Fort Hood Shooter Identified As a Major." (I'm not linking to Little Green Footballs, but help yourself to clicking on LGF in your browser.)

Contrast Charles Johnson to those he's attacked as Nazis and racists, like Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs, "Arab Street is Rejoicing at the Slaughter of US Soldiers - Give 'em Billions! Give 'em Nukes! But most of all, Give 'em Respect!"; Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, "Killer’s Imam Stunned– Describes Nidal Malik Hasan As Quiet Man Who Attended Mosque Daily ... Update: Killer Shouted “Allahu Akbar” During Shootings"; Robert Spencer, "Fort Hood jihad shooter handed out Korans the morning of his attack"; and Robert Stacy McCain, "Another Belgian-American Goes Berserk."

This really should be final confirmation of Charles Johnson's leftist transmogrification. AND, as I'm about to hit the publish button, Johnson's posted a new entry on ... wait for it, an office center shooting in Orlando, Florida. Perhaps, being in Florida, there's a KKK connection on that one, or something?

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who have been grieved by yesterday's tragedy, and in Orlando today. (Fox News is reporting that two have died in the attack; added, as many as six may have died, and the gunman has been arrested. See, "Orlando Police Reportedly Arrest Suspect Who Allegedly Shot Six, One Fatally, in Office Attack.")

Charles Johnson, Ron Paul, Stormfront, and Glenn Greenwald

I've forgotten all about Charles Johnson this last couple of months. He may have peaked with the fawning Los Angeles Times piece a while back, but he was doing some serious damage control on his blog following the surprisingly non-fawning New York Times write up sometime thereafter.

But King Charles is looking for "racists" and "Birchers" as intensely as the likes of Keith Olbermann, and in the case of the latter that interest is mainly a periodic one to keep in good graces with the Daily Kos hate-masters. For Charles Johnson, the search for the ever-elusive key to the alleged GOP/white supremacist connection is all consuming. And because of that, this post (a safe Google link here) is extremely fascinating, "Neo-Nazi Sites Love Ron Paul." Here's the Stromfront quotation from King Charles' post:

Polymath
Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 3,966

Re: Ron Paul Wins CPAC Poll

There is a Jewish Supremacist hate site called “Little Green Footballs” and this kind of thing drives them crazy, because they PRETEND to be conservatives and when a real conservative and all-American man like Dr. Ron Paul wins so many conservative polls, they go crazy with whining.

These LGF Jews are the most unpatriotic Israeli-first traitors the United States sees in the blogosphere. They are vile and disgusting rats. “Charles Johnson” is the shabbat goy that fronts this obvious Zionist hate site, and even if this “Charles Johnson” moron claims to be Christian, he could care less about Christianity in the Holy Land, which is getting wiped out by Zionists, and it fared far better under the Arabs before the Khazar (Ashkenazi) fakes came to the Middle East.

Now reading this, it's extremely perplexing to figure out the lines of ideological affilation or repudiation.

Charles Johnson wants to destroy the tea party movement as an extremist neo-Nazi falange. But this Stormfront guy -- if that's who he really is -- is smearing King Charles with the worst anti-Semitic hatred. Which itself goes to show, frankly, that the tea partiers have absolutely nothing in common with such legitimate hate groups.

It's ridiculous, but that's not all. Glenn Greenwald, the radical leftists who claims to be a constitutional libertarian, has a post up today claiming that the original tea party activists were "Paulbots." See, "The GOP's "Small Government" Tea Party Fraud":

There's a major political fraud underway: the GOP is once again donning their libertarian, limited-government masks in order to re-invent itself and, more important, to co-opt the energy and passion of the Ron-Paul-faction that spawned and sustains the "tea party" movement. The Party that spat contempt at Paul during the Bush years and was diametrically opposed to most of his platform now pretends to share his views. Standard-issue Republicans and Ron Paul libertarians are as incompatible as two factions can be -- recall that the most celebrated right-wing moment of the 2008 presidential campaign was when Rudy Giuliani all but accused Paul of being an America-hating Terrorist-lover for daring to suggest that America's conduct might contribute to Islamic radicalism -- yet the Republicans, aided by the media, are pretending that this is one unified, harmonious, "small government" political movement.

The Right is petrified that this fraud will be exposed and is thus bending over backwards to sustain the myth. Paul was not only invited to be a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference but also won its presidential straw poll. Sarah Palin endorsed Ron Paul's son in the Kentucky Senate race. National Review is lavishly praising Paul, while Ann Coulter "felt compelled [in her CPAC speech] to give a shout out to Paul-mania, saying she agreed with everything he stands for outside of foreign policy -- a statement met with cheers." Glenn Beck -- who literally cheered for the Wall Street bailout and Bush's endlessly expanding surveillance state -- now parades around as though he shares the libertarians' contempt for them. Red State's Erick Erickson, defending the new so-called conservative "manifesto," touts the need for Congress to be confined to the express powers of Article I, Section 8, all while lauding a GOP Congress that supported countless intrusive laws -- from federalized restrictions on assisted suicide, marriage, gambling, abortion and drugs to intervention in Terri Schiavo's end-of-life state court proceeding -- nowhere to be found in that Constitutional clause. With the GOP out of power, Fox News suddenly started featuring anti-government libertarians such as John Stossel and Reason Magazine commentators, whereas, when Bush was in power, there was no government power too expanded or limitless for Fox propagandists to praise.

A long quote, I know. But the context is needed when reading Greenwald's next passage:

These fault lines began to emerge when Sarah Palin earlier this month delivered the keynote speech to the national tea party conference in Nashville, and stood there spitting out one platitude after the next which Paul-led libertarians despise: from neoconservative war-loving dogma and veneration of Israel to glorification of "War on Terror" domestic powers and the need of the state to enforce Palin's own religious and cultural values. Neocons (who still overwhelmingly dominate the GOP) and Paul-led libertarians are arch enemies, and the social conservatives on whom the GOP depends are barely viewed with greater affection. Sarah Palin and Ron Paul are about as far apart on most issues as one can get; the "tea party movement" can't possibly be about supporting each of their worldviews. Moreover, the GOP leadership is currently promising Wall Street even more loyal subservience than Democrats have given in exchange for support, thus bolstering the government/corporate axis which libertarians find so repugnant. And Coulter's manipulative claim that she "agrees with everything [Paul] stands for outside of foreign policy" is laughable; aside from the fact that "foreign policy" is a rather large issue in our political debates (Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia), they were on exactly the opposite sides of the most intense domestic controversies of the Bush era: torture, military commissions, habeas corpus, Guantanamo, CIA secrecy, telecom immunity, and warrantless eavesdropping.

Now you can really see the ideological lines coming back together. Charles Johnson hates the tea parties, and links them to neo-Nazi Ron Paul websites. Glenn Greenwald hates the tea parties BECAUSE he thinks the movement's trying to co-opt Ron Paul. It's amorphous, but I'll tell you: I've been to dozens of tea parties, political rallies, and protests over the last year, and the only place I saw a major Ron Paul (antiwar) contingent was at the communist ANSWER demonstration at the Wilshire Federal Building last October. Indeed, the folks from Antiwar.com were marching, and their organizer, Nick Hankoff, commented at my report.

So folks can now figure out where they'd like to draw up ideological lines: Would you prefer to be associated with the leftist/Ron Paul/Stormfront strange-bedfellows alliance (that in fact includes all of these folks, C.J, Greenwald, and Ron Paul) or with Sarah Palin and the tea parties? For despite Greenwald's long list of indicators suggesting that the tea party movement is going all in for Ron Paul and his protege, it's foreign policy that'll be the dividing line. Ann Coulter said it best, and I noticed this over the weekend: "she agreed with everything he stands for outside of foreign policy." Exactly!

And pay special attention to Greenwald's excoriation of the "neocons." Stormfront folks hate the neocons (for their support of Israel). But Sarah Palin's a neoconservative hero, as I've long noted. And that makes it easy to figure which side of the ideological line you'll find me. Genuine conservatives favor a strong national defense, for without security, all of our freedoms here at home are at risk.