Paul Lemmen at 'An Ex-Con's View' Targeted For Writing About Brett Kimberlin

Popehat has a lengthy must-read essay on the left's ongoing campaign of lawfare: "Shut Up, They Explained: Another Blogger Threatened With Imprisonment For Writing About Brett Kimberlin."

The latest blogger to be targeted is Paul Lemmen from "An Ex-Con's View."

I first learned about (and interacted with) Paul through Zilla Stevenson's blogging. Zilla has been organizing free speech blogbursts for awhile. And I exchanged a few emails with Paul after Zilla sent out some posts through her contact list. I was skeptical  about interacting with Paul at first. He's a felony ex-convict and one of his crimes was impersonating U.S. military personnel. I think that's too much for a lot of people to accept, but once I exchanged a few emails with Paul I found that he is a genuine man of repentance. And the more I read of Paul's opinions the more I'm convinced that his is an exceedingly necessary voice in the conservative battle against the left's totalitarian anti-free speech jihad.

Folks need to read the whole Popehat post at the link. The essay includes an interview with Paul, and I like this passage especially:

I asked Paul Lemmen what he felt he had to bring to the discussion of Kimberlin, and why he thought it was important that his voice be heard.

I believe that as a career con-artist, I have quite a bit of insight into what he is doing. . . . [I believe it is] necessary to show up the differences between myself, an ex-con that has accepted responsibility for his crimes and Brett Kimberlin, someone who has not, who has in fact, avoided his responsibilities as he has avoided paying the civil judgment levied against him. I feel that if there is to be future acceptance of ex-cons that have made the very difficult decision to adhere to the lawful conduct expected by society, those who resist in their unlawful conduct must be exposed and the public made aware of them.

And so Paul Lemmen will continue to write.

Following the link takes to Paul's most recent entry at the blog, "Brett Kimberlin’s Parole (or Lack Thereof)."

And for the record, Paul is on probation and under the supervision of an officer. His commitment to keep on blogging while under attack carries potentially grave consequences. And note that there is no hard evidence that Brett Kimberlin or his henchmen are the ones responsible for making threats to his freedom. Yet, as Popehat writes, the coincidental and inferential nature of the threats are overwhelming. This episode has the Kimberlin network written all over it. Whatever the case, this is one more example of what's at stake for people standing up for right.

And I want to reiterate my argument that this is indeed a partisan battle. Kerry Picket has a report on Florida GOP Congresswoman Sandy Adams, who has issued a new letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into the recent SWAT-ting of conservatives. See: "PICKET: FLA Congresswoman leads 87 member effort demanding Swat-ting investigation from DOJ" (via Memeorandum). There are no Democrat signatories to the letter. And while some Democrats may still get on board, so far it's a Republican effort to bring attention to the matter. That is, it's a partisan response to what Republicans see is a left-wing attack on the freedom to blog. As always, I will update my views on this when I see evidence that the effort to expose the Kimberlin network has bipartisan support.

More this at The Other McCain, "Florida Rep. Sandy Adams Leads 85 House Republicans in ‘SWATting’ Letter."

IMAGE CREDIT: Michelle Malkin, "Bloggers under fire: Arizona conservative lawyer/activist targeted by left-wing Arizona State Bar."