Freedom to Blog Update: June 15, 2013

I haven't done a Freedom to Blog update in awhile.

It turns out that Robert Stacy McCain has been updating us on the developments with the ultimate harassment troll Bill Schmalfeldt.

See, "Peace Order Against Bill Schmalfeldt: A Defeat for the ‘Troll Rights’ Movement," and "Hoge’s Victory Lap."

Hoge is John Hoge of Hogewash. And at his blog, "WOOT! Peace Order Granted Against Schmalfeldt," and "My Side, Part 2."

'Some people, ah, are willing to go to jail for their beliefs...' http://t.co/Xo6lcACDgZ @RSMcCain
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

'... but I see that as a risk in this, ah, ongoing exploration of Internet First Amendment rights...' http://t.co/Xo6lcACDgZ @RSMcCain
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

.As long as Donald Douglas is posting a public blog that accepts comments, I'm going to continue to comment on what he posts...' @RSMcCain
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

That's what my troll rights harasser @ Repsac3 wrote after I banned him, and he never stopped, even after I went to the police.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

So, yeah, the Hogewash post hits pretty close to home: https://t.co/ESpsaLxgnJ @RSMcCain
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

.@RSMcCain Repsac3 Banned from American Power http://t.co/QCmTjk1xNR @Smitty_One_Each
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

'As Stacy McCain has often said, you don't have to let trolls use your own bandwidth against you." via @Stogie2 @RSMcCain
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 15, 2013

I've amended this post in response to Mr. Hoge's comment.

Added: Here's a quote from my deranged criminal stalker admitting that he'd been banned from my blog -- but also claiming that since I had continued to comment about about him at my blog, he had a right to continue to harass me in the comments section. This is, in fact, the definition of troll rights harassment:

Donald did very clearly announce that I was banned from commenting on his blog ... As he did not choose to ban himself from attacking me ..., however, I did not take his verbal banning very seriously, and continued to submit comments to those posts where he referred to me or my blog by name or other identifying feature.

Stalkers have no right to directly address you after they have been warned to cease and desist. But left-wing stalkers like Repsac3 are very determined in their vile programs to harm and torment their ideological opponents.

Mr. Hoge has updated his blog, for example, "#BillSchmalfeldt, Anti-First-Amendment Troll":

Let me state this one more time: I fully support Bill Schmalfeldt’s First Amendment right to write whatever he wishes about me so long as he stays within the law’s usual limits regarding threats and defamation. However, I do not wish for him to contact me, attempt to contact me, or harass me, and I will seek enforcement of the peace order if I believe that it has been violated.

More at Aaron Worthing's, "BREAKING: Brett Kimberlin Ally Bill Schmalfeldt Threatens Me (and Mr. Hoge) With a Peace Order (Update: Schmalfeldt Bravely Runs Away!)."

Freedom to Blog Update July 21, 2012

I just wanted to post a brief update on Brett Kimberlin and related blogging.

Aaron Worthing continues to push back against the left's repulsive lawfare campaign, "Exclusive: Brett Kimberlin Threatens to File Criminal Charges Against Me, Again," and "Exclusive: My Virginia Complaint Against Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser and Ron Brynaert."

And the background is at Michelle's, "Going dark to urge congressional action: Who will protect the freedom to blog?", and "Freedom to blog updates: Aaron Walker fights Brett Kimberlin gag order; the Left and endless lawfare."

And at Camp of the Saints, "The #BrettKimberlin Report D+52: Brad Friedman’s Fit."

Now, in related developments, my friend Karen at The Lonely Conservative has been subjected to a vicious hate campaign. Really, it's unbelievable the degree of abuse she's been fighting. See "Connecting the Dots on the Ongoing Harassment." RTWT and see also The Other McCain, "Poison Pen E-Mail and the Harassment of the Lonely Conservative."

And God bless Mare Zilla for her undaunted defense of those under assault: "Because Darkness Hates the Light – ROLL CALL!", and "Oh, Those “Compassionate” Leftists!"

Both Karen and Zilla have links to those joining the call of liberty.

And it this point, I can't recall a more vicious campaign of destruction. Prayers for Karen.

And that's saying a lot, considering:

* "The Lies of Scott Eric Kaufman — Leftist Hate-Blogger Sought to Silence Criticism With Libelous Campaign of Workplace Harassment."

* "Carl Salonen Libelous Workplace Allegations of Child Pornography and Sexual Harassment at Long Beach City College."

* "Intent to Annoy and the Fascist Hate-Blogging Campaign of Walter James Casper III."

* "Roundup on Progressive Campaign of Workplace Intimidation and Harassment."

Previous "Freedom to Blog Updates" are here.

California Penal Code Section 646.9 on Criminal Harassment and Cyberstalking: Statement of Warning to Hate-Blogger Walter James Casper III

Okay, this has gone on long enough.

I am herewith setting out my policy on harassment and stalking and I'm affirming for the record that I'm playing for keeps.

For some reason racist hate-blogger Walter James Casper III thinks this is all fun and games. I warned him not to comment here and that if he does comment I will approve those as a record of harassment, which I will report to Google. Casper's contacts here at this blog are unwanted and unsolicited. I am within my free speech rights to post commentary and criticism on politics and ideology. And I am particularly within my rights to identify and highlight criminally derogatory and racist speech directed against me. And thus I will continue to monitor Casper's hate blog American Nihilist. Importantly, since Casper sponsored workplace attacks against me, and since he has contacted me personally by email with threatening statements, I ceased all direct contact with him at his blog or elsewhere online. And I have also repeatedly warned Walter James Casper III not to contact me or to comment at this blog. It's all on the record.

As is within my free speech rights, I highlighted Casper's dishonesty and stupidity in an essay today: "Oops! MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Spews Hatred of American Exceptionalism: Racist Attack Blogger Walter James Casper III Caught Lying Again!"

Comments are closed at that post to prevent harassment. Casper commented at an unrelated post, against my wishes, since he is banned from commenting here. After I updated the post, Casper ignored the admonitions yet again with another comment in violation of my rights:

repsac3 said...

"Walter James Casper is now in likely violation of Google's terms of use. He is banned from commenting here and he is abusing his Google privileges. I am now approving all of hate-blogger Walter James Casper's comments and submitting them to Google as a record of the harassment."

I'll get around to the rest of Dr. Douglas' nonsense if / when I have the time, but I did want to briefly comment on this bit...

There is no "term of use" that forbids anyone from submitting comments to any blogspot blog, and I find it awful hard to believe that anyone at Google is going to reprimand a person for one for one [sic] comments in response to posts where that person is called out by name, no matter how vociferously the blog owner asserts his right to malign a person at his blog without being called on it at that same blog. (I'm willing to bet I could submit a comment or two in response to every post at this blog, and Google still would not act -- Dr. Douglas should consider himself lucky I only submit comments to some of the posts where he attacks me by name.)

That said, if Google does agree with Dr. Douglas, and contacts me pointing out the term I am violating, I will most certainly stop doing so. I suspect, however, that should Google respond to Dr. Douglas' specious "Mommy, he's making faces at me!! Make him STOP!!!" pleas at all, it will be to tell Dr. Douglas that he ought to grow up and stop whining. One cannot throw the first punch, and then scurry to hide behind his mother's skirt complaining about the return punch.

And seeing as he intends to approve of my comments, anyway, perhaps Dr. Douglas would be so brave as to not delete the comment sections on posts mentioning me--or maybe, just not moderate his blog in the first place. (though the latter'd prolly take more guts than Dr. D. has, anymore... Golly forbid folks actually disagree with him on his own blog...)

Say hi to our Google overlords for me... ...and thanks for approving my comments...

January 27, 2012 5:53 PM

Actually, there are indeed "'terms of use' that forbid" Casper from harassing me in the comments. According to Blogger's "Terms of Service":

2. Proper Use. You agree that you are responsible for your own use of the Service, for any posts you make, and for any consequences thereof. You agree that you will use the Service in compliance with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations, including any laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from your country of residence and all United States export control laws.

Walter James Casper is engaged in a malicious, persistent, and willful pattern of abuse that is prohibited under California state law (see below). As such, Casper's comments here are a violation of Blogger's terms of service. Moreover, here's the statement from Google's "Reporting abuse - Blogger Help" page:

We strongly believe in freedom of expression, even if a blog contains unappealing or distasteful content or presents unpopular viewpoints. We realize this may be frustrating, and we regret any inconvenience this may cause you. In cases where contact information for the author is listed on the page, we recommend that you work directly with this person to have the content in question removed or changed.

Here are some examples of content we will not remove unless provided with a court order:

Personal attacks or alleged defamation
Parody or satire of individuals
Distasteful imagery or language
Political or social commentary

Thus, this is to inform Walter James Casper III of my effort to "work directly with this person" to stop his comments on this blog. THIS IS A FORMAL LEGAL WARNING TO CEASE AND DESIST FROM COMMENTING AT THIS BLOG. Hereafter, I will consider any new comment posted here a "personal attack" within the purview of the terms of service and I'll append the comment to this post and send it to Google as a legal complaint and report on abuse, harassment, and cyberstalking.

Here's California Penal Code Section 646.9 on Criminal Harassment and Cyberstalking:

646.9.

(a) Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family, is guilty of the crime of stalking, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

(b) Any person who violates subdivision (a) when there is a temporary restraining order, injunction, or any other court order in effect prohibiting the behavior described in subdivision (a) against the same party, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years.  

(c) Every person who, having been convicted of a felony under this section, commits a second or subsequent violation of this section shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three,
or four years.

(d) In addition to the penalties provided in this section, the sentencing court may order a person convicted of a felony under this section to register as a sex offender pursuant to subparagraph (E) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 290.

(e) For the purposes of this section, "harasses" means a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, torments, or terrorizes the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose.  This course of conduct must be such as would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and must actually cause substantial emotional distress to the person.  

(f) For purposes of this section, "course of conduct" means a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose. Constitutionally protected activity is not included within the meaning of "course of conduct."

(g) For the purposes of this section, "credible threat" means a verbal or written threat, including that performed through the use of an electronic communication device, or a threat implied by a pattern of conduct or a combination of verbal, written, or electronically communicated statements and conduct made with the intent to place the person that is the target of the threat in reasonable fear for his or her safety or the safety of his or her family and made with the apparent ability to carry out the threat so as to cause the person who is the target of the threat to reasonably fear for his or her safety or the safety of his or her family.  It is not necessary to prove that the defendant had the intent to actually carry out the threat.  The present incarceration of a person making the threat shall not be a bar to prosecution under this section.  

(h) For purposes of this section, the term "electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to, telephones, cellular phones, computers, video recorders, fax machines, or pagers. "Electronic communication" has the same meaning as the term defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of the United States Code.

See the full text here or here.

I will also report new instances of abuse and harassment to the Irvine Police Department and the Long Beach Police Department. Here is the record of harassment published previously, with one of Casper's emails warning me to "reconsider" or else: "Continuing Lies by Cowardly Hate-Blogger W. James Casper in Left's Demonic Workplace Intimidation Campaign." And American Nihilist's long pattern of abuse, intimidation, and workplace harassment is chronicled at this post as well.

The harassment stops now. Walter James Casper III has no right to comment on this blog. If he feels he has been maligned or libeled he can take proper legal recourse. I have legal representation and I am prepared to defend my free speech rights in a court of law.

And folks might weigh Ann Althouse's comments policy in relation to the policy I'm setting forth here. She writes:

I have started deleting all the comments of one of our most conspicuous commenters for reasons I am not going to discuss. I ask all of my commenters to take some extra care with your comments now. Don't be a troll and don't feed a troll. If you are a troll, I may target you for deletion next. If you feed a troll, you may soon find that your comment refers to a comment that has been deleted. Let's raise the level of discussion around here. I have many great commenters that I love having as my guests. Others are being destructive and need to stop. If you're someone I'm targeting for deletion -- and I'm deleting all your comments regardless of content -- you need to go away permanently. You are on notice that I consider you to be harassing me, and I will contact Blogger about your account if you do not desist.

Althouse is a professor of law, so she certainly knows something about harassment and stalking. And recall that Walter James Casper III has long been trolling my comments. Indeed, I went to comment moderation to help prevent his trolling. But comment moderation has not been effective, and I have had to disable comments to some posts on occasion to prevent malicious attacks. When I did that, Casper then started harassing me by email. These emails I consider personally threatening to me and my family. And as such they're considered criminal activity under California state law. Hereafter I will update this post with any comment here from Walter James Casper III, or with any other form of unwanted personal contact, and I will submit a complaint of abuse and criminal harassment to Google and to the proper legal authorities.

Walter James Casper III is hereby notified under the law.

Comments on this post are closed.

UPDATE: (1-28-12 8:20am PST) Walter Jamers Casper III is on record that he wants to be known as a criminal harasser. Here's is his comment in violation of this policy:

repsac3 said...

In reply to: California Penal Code Section 646.9 on Criminal Harassment and Cyberstalking: Statement of Warning to Hate-Blogger Walter James Casper III

Sorry, Dr. Douglas, but I will not allow you to attempt to intimidate me with specious threats. My answer now is the same as it was the last time you made this kinda noise, back in September (and probably before that too, though it ain't worth the search):

If you really believe I am in violation of any federal or state law or ISP/Google/??? term of service because I submit a comment or two to your moderated blog against your expressed wishes, often in reply to American Power blog posts where you discuss me by name, I cordially invite you to make your reports to Google, the Irvine / Long Beach police department, Homeland Security, or whoever you feel you need to.

The time has come to fish or cut bait.

January 28, 2012 4:22 AM

UPDATE: (1-28-12 8:45am PST) Here's the complaint sent through the Blogger help page:

A man named Walter James Casper III used to be a commenter on my blog years ago. He became obsessed and abusive and started an entire blog to attack me personally and to threaten me with harassment. His co-bloggers at the blog, called "American Nihilist," have contacted my workplace to complain about my blogging, trying to get me fired. These attacks are violating my free speech rights and causing me and my family personal strife and emotional duress. Walter James Casper has also sent me personal emails of a threatening nature. These are completely unsolicited, as I have never exchanged emails with him at any time. I have written about the harassment and threats at my blog and Walter James Casper claims he has a right to respond in the comment section at my blog. While I have moderated comments, or even disabled comments, Casper continues to harass me with additional attempts to comment, with threats, and by email. I will also be filing police reports and contacting my attorney about these issues. My complaint is in no way an attempt to suppress Casper's free speech rights. This is only to notify Blogger of a terms of use violation, since Casper's threats are illegal under California state law, Penal Code Section 646.9, which makes cyberstalking and online harassment a crime. Casper's Blogger profile name is "Repsac3" and this is his Blogger profile URL: http://www.blogger.com/profile/15458282944035344707. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I will also be notifying the police of Walter James Casper's harassment next week.

Professor Charli Carpenter Quits Lawyers, Guns and Money! — UPDATE!! Repsac = Racist = ASFL = Lying Asshat!!!

And I'm claiming credit for forcing her to abandon that demonic progressive stinkhole.

I noticed that Charli's name had been removed from the blog's masthead, and then new LGM blogger Erik Loomis introduced himself a few weeks ago, noting, "... how intimidating it is to be replacing someone as superb as Charli Carpenter. Those are some big shoes to fill. I know I’ll miss reading her posts."

Charli quit immediately following the publication of my essay, "Dr. Charli Carpenter and the Laws of War." I had long suggested to her that blogging at LGM was harmful to her academic reputation, and of course Charli's ambitious within the field of political science. She dismissed my advice and admonished me not to involve her in flame wars. But I offered legitimate criticism at "Dr. Charli Carpenter and the Laws of War," and she nevertheless ignored the post and then fled the scene of battle. Maybe it was the Serr8d Photoshop of Charli in a bikini, sporting what looks like to be a terrorist's bombing set-up. Feminists hate that stuff. (The bikinis, that is. The pro-Palestinian terrorism? Not so much.) And note how plugging "Charli Carpenter and International Law" or "Dr. Charli Carpenter" into Google pulls up my post at the #1 and #2 ranking. That's gotta hurt.

And that tells you something. Charli was listing Lawyers, Guns and Money at her biographical information on her Foreign Affairs articles, and she's still blogging at The Duck of Minerva, more than ever it seems. Charli likes blogging and wouldn't have quit LGM on a whim.

Frankly, it must have been damaging to be associated with a hate dump like Robert Farley's Lawyers, Guns and Money. And especially so now that LGM has emerged as a big outlet for progressive anti-Semitism in recent months, led by the idiot juvenile Scott Lemieux and his ill-considered blogging on Israel-bashing playwright Tony Kushner.

It's telling all around. Not only had blogging at LGM become a liability for Charli, but it goes to show that when challenged, progressives are cowardly when forced outside of their demonic cocoons.

I'm going to have lots more on the bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Money. They've been attacking me and this blog for years, and recently those attacks took a very personal turn, which required me to retain an attorney. I'm still holding off on reporting on that, but it's going to be blockbuster when it comes out. One of the bloggers over there is going to be outed as evil once and for all. He'll be even more discredited than he already is, and while this has been costly, it's nothing that I initiated. Cheap kicks while it lasted it, but not anymore. Basically, don't fuck with me, assholes. You reap what you sow and it's very ugly. And you deserve the ignominy that's coming your way.

Stay tuned.

*****

UPDATE (2:25pm PST): I've been out taking my kid skateboarding, so a little late getting back to the blog. Not only that, I'm trying desperately to pull myself up after ROTFLMFAO, because REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL has responded to this post, and writes hilariously that Charli Carpenter is "paying little if any attention to Donald Douglas." Perhaps not, but stalker REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL sure the hell is!!

See: "Professor Donald Douglas is Envious of Professor Charli Carpenter."

And more lulz. Note how Charli Carpenter quit blogging precisely while coming under withering fire at this blog. Yep, perfect timing. The so-called "Grad Director" gig is a convenient out for pulling her name off the masthead at LGM, and totally transparent. God, that's pathetic, but expected, since she no doubt found she could no longer blog at a premier progressive anti-Semitic hate dump. It's pretty self-explanatory. And she's meanwhile blogging up a storm at Duck of Minerva. Yep, that "Grad Director" gig sure is taking up a lot of time, yuk yuk!!

And wrong, not envious in the least, RACIST REPSAC3 ASFL. I'm a tenured professor at a college without a grad program, so "Grad Director" is not something I'd be doing. And I have no need to publish, since community colleges are teaching institutions. But WE KNOW progressives like you hate teaching and denigrate those who do, cuz ur a typical asshat. And I'm raising two kids myself, not to be demonic left-wing terrorist wannabes, of course. Unlike you, freaking stalker.

Plus, I'm not "outing" anyone's identity, you idiot. I plan to report and document the moral degeneracy and evil of one of the bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Murder. Still waiting for the go-ahead from the attorney, but you've got skills in this area, so it'll be interesting to demonstrate a past pattern of collaboration on your part. See: "DEFAMATION - DONALD STYLE --- Another year, another UPDATE: 2/17/2011." At the update, that's where hate sponsor RACIST = REPSAC = ASFL denies that he had anything to do with the campaign of workplace intimidation directed against me at my college, which of course is a lie, because RACIST = REPSAC = ASFL personally administers the blog and he personally recruited the progressives who published all of my workplace contact information, with the exhortation:

We know these behaviors all too well, and why some of you bother with this pinhead is beyond me. The Coward is not welcome at The Swash Zone; we delete his comments immediately. More disturbing are the comments and e-mails left by his followers: Profane, racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic … worthy of report to the FBI. What to do?

If the Coward or any of his followers harass you online you, contact President **** ****** at (562) ***-**** or Executive VP of Academic Affairs ****** **** at (562) ***-**** and describe the harassment. For serious online abuse or defamation, there is always this option (case file in progress).

This was published at REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL's blog, American Nihilist, Feb 12, 2009. (See here.) And REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL is fully implicated in this initial campaign of workplace intimidation, and he's now even doubled-down about how he thinks I should be fired for practicing my First Amendment rights to freedom of the expression, the right to be free in my private personal affairs. It's pretty bad, but this is what progressives do. And when I'm able to report fully on recent legal developments with my blog, REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL may well be implicated in the moral deviance, evil, and libelous activities that have been recently launched to destroy the moral clarity of myself and American Power.

Freedom to Blog Update July 3, 2012

Apologies up front, but my blogging's been a little off these past couple of days. It's hard to keep up with the left's war on bloggers, but conservatives are fighting back, and there's more today.

First, catch up a bit with Camp of the Saints from yesterday: "The #BrettKimberlin Report D+38: The Madness Of King Sockpuppet."

And then the big news today from The Other McCain, "Brandon Darby Defamed by Kimberlin Associate Neal Rauhauser; Pursues ‘All Legal Remedies’ Against SWATting Charge." And at Robert's previous entry, "Freedom Is Under Attack: Help the National Bloggers Club Fight Back." I commented there, mentioning why I wouldn't be contributing to Ali Akbar, and cited my entry: "Bloggers Against #BrettKimberlin Fracture Over Ali Akbar and the National Bloggers Club." And here's Robert's reply:

Donald: You go into battle with the army you have. The battle has been underway for more than six weeks. Personal criticisms against Ali have been aired widely, but do not detract from the valuable work that the National Bloggers Club has done, and will continue to do, to win this battle. There is a lot of backstory, of which you almost certainly are not aware, and I do not have time or inclination now to explain everything. However, you have my personal assurance that contributions to the National Bloggers Club are crucial to the effort now under way, and will be carefully utilized for that purpose.

There's a lot of "backstory" I don't have, actually. But that doesn't mean I'm incapable of an informed opinion on Ali. One lengthy Twitter exchange was really all it took, plus the non-replies to the update I posted: "Update on Ali Akbar and Bloggers Against #BrettKimberlin." Film Ladd posted a couple of times as well: "Good Luck National Blogger's Club: And See Ya Later." "Convicted Felon Ali Akbar: Kneel Before Zod." And I don't know the motive, and I don't know about the author (other than he's on the left), but folks can take a look at this piece, which was linked at The Other McCain and then removed: "Is There Anything Ali Akbar Has NOT Lied About?"

Enough about that. The main thing is that folks are fighting the battle, and with reference to Robert's comment above, I'm reminded of Winston Churchill's famous quote on Britain's alliance with Stalin against Hitler:

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.

Now, there's been a lot of blogging at Patterico's as well. Check the link. I especially like Patrick's "accuse the accusers" post, "Stacy McCain on Accusing the Accusers":

The post is titled Lying Felon Brett Kimberlin Scores a Draw in Maryland Hearing, but the key part is Stacy’s description of the Rauhauser/Kimberlin strategy of accusing the accusers:

It is genuinely amazing to think that anyone could read that 1981 article by Indianapolis Star reporter Joe Gelarden — please print it out and read the whole thing — without recognizing that Kimberlin’s characteristic modus operandi has scarcely changed in the past 30 years.

By accusing others of wrongdoing, Kimberlin seeks to evade responsibility for his own wrongdoing. What I’ve called the “accuse the accusers” strategy – which is also witnessed in the actions of Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser — looks very much like obstruction of justice.

And Patterico's own flourish:

Stacy also has an interview with Brandon Darby which is very important ...

See how it works? If they think you’re about to reveal something about them, they start accusing you first so they can portray your reveal as retaliation. If they are going after someone associated with the FBI, they may be trying to set up a pre-emptive defense in case they are arrested by the FBI. “You guys are prosecuting us because we were revealing the truth about your informant Darby!” Something like that.

I posted on this previously: "'Accuse the Accusers': How It Works." Also here and here.

Finally, at Aaron Worthing's, "Exclusive: The Police Report on my SWATting," and "The Story I Couldn’t Tell, Part III: The May 22 Hearing and Brett Kimberlin’s Bigotry Towards Me."

And one more thing. Don't miss this Twitchy entry: "Brooks Bayne targets conservatives with Brett Kimberlin-style tactics." Books will be written later about this latest phase of the blog and Twitter wars, and the stakes have gotten extremely high. I suspect people will be going to jail when it's all done, and I hope that's soon.

The Lies of Scott Eric Kaufman — Leftist Hate-Blogger Sought to Silence Criticism With Libelous Campaign of Workplace Harassment

ICYMI, here's yesterday's entry: "Scott Eric Kaufman Hates Smokin' Hot Babes — And Negotiated Legal Agreements Too, Apparently." And here's the relevant post at Lawyers, Guns and Money: "Because really important news always involves bikinis."

Hopefully this will be the only update, but SEK continues to lie about everything that went down previously, so as usual, I need to get this out for the record. It's all lies. You have to fight the endless stream of malicious progressive lies.

SEK has posted a purported "order of operations" in response to commenters. This so-called order of operations is the basis for all of the libelous allegations that both he and Carl Salonen have made. Read the lies here. I'll state the facts:

1) I wrote in 2009 that I used to occasionally use an ACADEMIC BLOG POST as a lecture launcher in class. And IN THE PAST, I placed my blog's URL in the syllabus. But shortly thereafter I stopped making any reference to my blog in writing or in class, because people like Erik Kain had launched campaigns of workplace intimidation at my college.

2) In 2010, SEK began a series of attacks alleging that I had "festooned my virtual office" with pictures of "scantily-clad" women, and that created a hostile work environment for my female students. (This kind of stuff is an obsession, obviously.) By this time, after Erik Kain tried to get me fired, I had already met with my vice president of academic affairs. Blogging WASN'T A PROBLEM for my college, but I chose to no longer make reference to the blog in class. This is a matter of record. In February 2010, libel-blogger David Hillman launched his campaign of workplace harassment, alleging that I was "racist." At that time I had then met with the college's vice president of human resources, who handles civil rights and sexual harassment complaints. It turns out now that BLOGGING COULD BE A PROBLEM, not because any student complained, but because progressives with absolutely no business at the college filed false allegations of racism and sexism.

3) I kept blogging as usual, and in May 2010 I noticed the SEK was awarding points to students in his classes who used profanity in their work. This practice --- awarding class credit for profanity --- is highly inappropriate, in my opinion, and it's clearly not good teaching practice. SEK thought he could blow this off as if I'd caught him "cursing." See: "Busted!" Seeing that, I called bullshit in a follow-up: "Scott Eric Kaufman ASFL!!" As I noted at the entry:

"BWAHAHA!!! 

Only the dolts at LGM would fall for Scott Eric Kaufman's witless dodge, "Busted!" 

And since Scott's a member in good standing of the left's Israel-bashing ASFL cadres, I'll spell it out for the idiots: It's not SEK's deployment of f**king profanity, but his AWARDING students college credit for vulgar language, which for the assignment in question replaced anything remotely requiring hard thinking. In other words, that's sh*tty instruction, if folks catch my drift."

4) Clearly alarmed, SEK decided to take action. Note that he'd previously claimed that he wasn't "actually petty enough" to file sexual harassment complaints (ain't that a laugh riot). But I had drawn blood pointing out his hypocrisy, and SEK apparently had plans to hit the job market for a full-time academic position. He planned on going balls out at the Modern Language Association's annual conference (and I use "balls out" loosely here) and he couldn't afford me blogging about him any longer. So what could he do to protect his job market prospects? He could launch a campaign of lies designed to intimidate and harass me at my workplace. SEK submitted his letter to my department chairman on June 3, 2011 --- exactly 10 days after he'd posted his stupid "Busted!" post. (And ICYMI, the letter of complaint is here.)

5) That's the factual record, not this bullshit "order of operations" SEK's been claiming. The f-ker attacked me because I had blogged the truth about him --- and THAT WAS THREATENING. The timing of his complaint to my college is no coincidence. And I thus ended up dealing with legal issues for the remainder of summer 2011, and of course entered into a (bogus) legal arrangement to stand down from blogging about him. But now it turns out that SEK was locked out of the academic job market --- he apparently can't find a full-time position in the current down-market --- so he's apparently decided to leave academe altogether, or he's at least abandoned any hope of become a tenure-track professor. That's why he's felt free to violate any purported legal agreement to stand down --- he's got no prospects on the tenure-track and any past agreements don't mean jack.

Now, recall that I've had about a half-dozen episodes of left-wing assholes contacting my college in a sustained effort to silence me with threats of loss of employment. That's why I'm extremely firm on my contention that the whole Brett Kimberlin controversy is indeed a partisan fight. And while I agree in principle that it's a matter of free speech, I contend that progressives hold entirely different conceptions of what the First Amendment should protect --- and from that follows Democrat-progressive policy commitments to repeal free speech provisions for conservative political advocacy. It's as simple as that. The Kimberlin affair is of a natural piece of the left's ideological commitments. Conservatives need to think clearly about this point.

And despite the claims of racist ringleader Walter James Casper (commenting at LGM), my battles with the left are intimately related to the attacks to which folks like Aaron Worthing and Robert McCain have been subjected. As Mandy Nagy wrote on Twitter last night:

@AmPowerBlog Glad you wrote about this. Been telling some folks about your own harassment experience, trying to get ppl to see all sides :)
— Mandy Nagy (@Liberty_Chick) June 22, 2012

Mandy wrote a blockbuster piece on the Kimberlin network in 2010: "Flashback: Progressives Embrace Convicted Terrorist." Since that time Mandy's life has been a never-ending nightmare of intimidation, harassment, and threats to her safety. And over the last year, Mandy's been a source of encouragement for me in standing my ground against the left, as has Robert Stacy McCain, who wrote about the left's attacks on Amy Alkon early last year: "Carl Salonen & the Left-Wing Trolls Who Smeared ‘Advice Goddess’ Amy Alkon."

I continue to blog the Kimberlin story, and contribute financially, because I personally know what it's like to have a target on your back. And most of all, I know from personal experience that the left will do anything to stop good people from speaking the truth. It's a simple matter concerning the freedom to blog, as Michelle Malkin has pointed out. Progressives are being beaten badly, online and at the ballot box. And violence and threats of violence and intimidation against conservatives are escalating by the day. But conservatives are rallying. As Ladd Ehlinger pointed out today, "The Best Defense is Offense." To see where that began, recall Aaron Worthing's post from May 17th: "Summary/Preview of my Post 'How Brett Kimberlin Tried to Frame Me for a Crime (And How You Can Help!)'."

For more information, see: "Bloggers Defense Team Goes After the Left's Criminal Harassment Network."

TOP PHOTO CREDIT: Ralph Nowell, SEK's father-in-law.

Freedom to Blog Update June 28, 2012

First, ICYMI, see "Obsessed Progressive Who Shall Not Be Named Is Ideological Kith and Kin to Brett Kimberlin, And I Suspect He'd Like to Put Me Under Just As Fast."

And in no particular order, here's a few choice bits on developments.

From Laughing Wolf at Black Five, "KIMBERLIN, RAUHAUSER, SWATTING, AND SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS ON FREE SPEECH":

Before I go into more discussion, let me make my opinion clear:  the person (or persons) doing the SWATting is not merely a coward and bully, they are without honor, integrity, and provide the definition of moral and intellectual cripple.  They not only lack significant testes or ovaries, I can state that in my opinion I've met four-year-old girls with a bigger pair than they will ever have.  No one need fear them doing anything face-to-face, for such pathetic creatures would only do so as part of a mob, and even then they will most likely be to terrified to be in the front of the mob.  I sincerely doubt they have the capability to shoot one in the back from a distance, as they must always depend on others for anything other than talk.

That said, this is exactly why I write about the subject here, a military blog.  If you go through military crests, you will see words that often talk about protecting various rights and liberties, and opposing despots and despotism.  If you take your oath seriously, it applies not only overseas, but here at home as well.

Efforts like this are designed to intimidate, to brutalize, and to destroy those who would exercise their right to free speech.  This is the tactic of tyranny, and has no place in the Republic or the marketplace of ideas.  This I am sworn to fight....

Free speech is never free.  It is something bought and paid for in blood by our troops. It is bought and paid for by the blood of those who continue to speak despite threat, pain, suffering, and loss.  It is bought and paid for by the courage of those who stand against thugs and other tyrants.

Do you have it in you to make even a token payment by reading and sharing?

Okay, now see Bob Belvedere, "The #BrettKimberlin Report D+32 33: Ring Around the Rauhauser." And The Web Agents, "The Long Game of Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd."

Also at Patterico, "Brett Kimberlin Threatens Even More Unconstitutional Peace Orders Against Aaron Walker."

More at Lonely Con, "Brett Kimberlin Used Picture of Glenn Reynolds as Exhibit E in Response to Aaron Walker’s Motion."

And The Other McCain, "‘The Gaped Crusader’: Brett Kimberlin Associate Neal Rauhauser Stalked and Taunted SWATting Victim Patrick Frey."

Plus, at Aaron Worthing's, "Exclusive: Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin’s Associate Neal Rauhauser’s Attempt to Manufacture the Appearance of a Conspiracy." Also, "My Motion and Convicted Perjurer Brett Kimberlin’s Response."

BONUS: From That Mr. G. Guy's Blog, "An Incomplete Transcription of #Webinair By the #FranklinCenter."

More later...

Freedom to Blog Update November 25, 2012

I haven't abandoned my "Freedom to Blog" series. We've had a political campaign and so forth, although there remains considerable activity growing out of the left's summer assault on conservatives online.

For now folks should read Robert Stacy McCain, "The Dishonesty of Bill Schmalfeldt," and "Pray for Ten Thousand Angels."

And here's one more, "@Karoli: Weiner Truther? And Other Questions of Remaining Interest."

Never cave to these fuckers, because it empowers them.

RELATED: "The Lies of Scott Eric Kaufman — Leftist Hate-Blogger Sought to Silence Criticism With Libelous Campaign of Workplace Harassment," and "Progressives Are the Biggest Threat to Freedom of Speech in America."

Will People STFU About How Brett Kimberlin Affair is 'Non-Partisan'? This is an Epic Partisan Battle Over How 'Free Speech' Will Be Defined

Sorry to ruffle feathers here, but I'm going to dissent from some folks who continue exhorting bloggers "to resist the partisan urge" to turn the Kimberlin saga into a left vs. right political war. Patterico, bless him, has repeatedly stressed that right-wing activism against Kimberlin is not "a partisan issue." That's noble sentiment, but naive. Brett Kimberlin and his allies are attacking conservatives. With the exception of Seth Allen (who was one of Kimberlin's first victims) and a few sympathetic progressive voices online, the Kimberlin network has been silencing conservatives who have dared to speak out as a matter of free speech.

I'm not by any means discounting the importance of conservatives promoting the better angels of their nature.  It's simply that I see virtually no evidence, outside of the couple of random left-wing voices I mentioned, of progressives attempting to reciprocally elevate this battle to the preservation of everybody's rights to freedom of speech. More often than not, conservatives are being mocked mercilessly as whining little babies, or even blamed for organizing a lynch mob to terrorize "social justice" activists. Martin Longman made no attempt to hide his utter disdain for conservatives in a post this week, basically arguing that they had it coming. No More Mister Nice Blog has repeatedly argued that it was important to deny conservatives a political win. That's to be expected, right? These idiots are hardcore progressive partisans and to them it's high time for a comeuppance against the right. Okay, fine, but I'm hard pressed to find countervailing voices on the left championing the free speech rights of "everybody." It just ain't happening.

As I reported after Wisconsin, one of the major goals of the Democrat Party is the suppression of conservative speech. Such top figures as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are advocating for a constitutional amendment to limit political speech. I'm surprised it's necessary to say this, but PELOSI IS NOT KIDDING. And believe you me she's got plenty of backers for her bid to crush the voices of the right. The left will not tolerate dissent from its agenda. When it can't win using conventional political means, it resorts to thuggery, intimidation, and government extremism to silence dissent.

Since Aaron Worthing was arrested in Maryland (discussed by Matthew Vadum at the clip above), we've been seeing an outpouring of support for Brett Kimberlin on the left. If there was ever a chance to stand up for free speech, Worthing's case is it. Recall that Worthing's alleged crime was simply providing legal assistance to Kimberlin-target Seth Allen --- and then having the temerity to blog about it. Take a look at this piece from Legal Schnauzer, for example, "Liberal Activist Brett Kimberlin Engages Right Wingers In a Battle of High-Stakes Hard Ball."

One of my ongoing concerns with Democrats is that too many of them are timid, distracted, disorganized, and generally wussy.

Liberal activist Brett Kimberlin is none of those things, and that apparently is why the radical right has launched an extraordinary online jihad against him. In a delicious example of "turnabout is fair play," Kimberlin has used right wingers' tactics against them--causing the recent arrest of one thug, the outing of another as a criminal, and the transmission of a notice to others that they face possible legal action.

According to press reports, Kimberlin has some troubling incidents in his past. But by all accounts that I can find, he has served his punishment for any misdeed. And as a target of right-wing thugs myself, I can't help but admire Kimberlin's spunk--and his effectiveness.

Kimberlin actually has right wingers whining that he is using the court process against them. As a resident of Alabama who has held a front-row seat for the Bush-era political prosecution of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, I can only marvel at the hypocrisy of conservatives claiming that the justice system is not working in their favor.

Right-wing bloggers have become so exorcised about Kimberlin that about 150 of them recently launched an "Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day." They even got Fox News and ABC News to cover the story and enlisted the help of such conservative luminaries as U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), author Michelle Malkin, and attorney Jay Sekulow in battling Kimberlin.

Anybody who can cause that many conservative panties to get into a bunch must be doing something right. So we decided to take a closer look at Brett Kimberlin and how he managed to rile the far right into a state of mass hysteria.

See what I mean? You can continue reading at the link, but the main point to note is that Kimberlin is the kinda fighter that progressives are looking for --- someone, not a "wussy," who can get conservatives "into a bunch." Never mind that Kimberlin's targets are not Democrat governors but generally small-time bloggers who must bear enormous costs to defend themselves. If someone like Kimberlin takes out people on the right, hey, let's pump it up as a model to emulate. For example, check out this diary at Daily Kos, "Profiles in Activism: Brett Kimberlin." You've gotta love it:

Brett Kimberlin is the founder of Justice Through Music, a non-profit organization that "uses famous musicians and bands to organize, educate, and activate young people about the importance of civil rights, human rights and voting".  This is a great cause and they're doing wonderful things over there with the young people.  The Justice Through Music website has some really powerful music videos on the subject of Bush torture and bigotry toward gay-marriage.

But more important is his Activist organization, Velvet Revolution. This is Change you can believe in!  Just two days ago, he won another victory, jailing right-wing hate spewer Aaron Walker for his venom. Kimberlin helped create Brietbart Unmasked, a fantastic website about what a piece of shit asshole motherfucker he was.  Velvet Revolution is also geared toward young adults of the Occupy generation, the future of this country.

Kimberlin has been very effective at countering the right-wing hate spewing machine.  Robert Stacey McCain (no relation but just as fascist) decided to attack him for his Activism with children for Justice.  Lets just say Robert Stacey McCain is on the run these days.  Erick Erickson of CNN fame got a nice little knock on the door. Seth Allen get the message as well.  This is what Activists do, shutting down hate speech one individual at a time.  If Brett Kimberlin can make a difference by himself, we all can.

Of course, with success comes more attacks, and of course the racist GOP is attacking Kimberlin for teaching Civil Rights to children.  On June 6, Senator Saxby Chambliss requested that Attorney General Eric Holder investigate Kimberlin and his non-profit education organization.  Activists should expect such attacks from racists when teaching Civil Rights, but you can trust the masters like Kimberlin to handle it.

Like Activists such as Brandon "Skabby" Baxter and Bill Ayers, Brett Kimberlin began his Activist career with explosives.  Being a true master of Alinsky's wise advice of "using your enemies rules against them", Kimberlin actually bought explosives while impersonating a DOD official (wow).  In 1978, he was accused by the fascist corporate police of murdering a co-worker.

Activists act. Kimberlin began a string of six bombings over the next few days, eventually taking a man's legs off.  He was convicted of bombing, attempted murder, perjury, drug trafficking, and impersonation of a federal officer, and sentenced to 51 years in prison.

An Activist's job is constant, and imprisonment was no obstacle for Kimberlin.  In 1988, he made news on NPR, admitting that he had sold marijuana to then Vice President Dan Quayle, a major revelation sending shock waves through the highest levels of the racist GOP.  From prision, ce coordinated with other Activists to continue the bombings to prove his innocence.

He studied how to use the system against his enemies, and used the legal system to his advantage.  By 1992, he had filed over 100 motions and lawsuits against his hate-spewing opponents, including some people he bombed. In 1994, after 13 years of unjust imprisonment, a wise Judge recognized Kimberlin for his Activism and released him on parole.

Continue reading.

For progressives, Brett Kimberlin's entire life of crime and deceit is justified in the name of destroying political opponents. For this Daily Kos diarist, even a campaign of domestic terrorism is justified --- and the "SWAT-ting" of folks like Erick Erickson is described as a "nice knock on the door." Even the innocents Kimberlin bombed are ridiculed as "hate-spewing opponents"

So I'll say it again: Folks need to just STFU about how this is all about "everybody's" free speech. It's not. It's ultimately a war over how "free speech" is defined and who's speech will be protected. Conservatives advocate fidelity to the First Amendment on principled grounds. Free speech is a birthright as an American, for friends and foe alike. For progressives, protected speech is advocacy that advances the leftist agenda, the agenda of state-building and raw power. Anyone who speaks out against that is branded a racist and criminal. This is someone who has to be silenced. The left will wage "lawfare" to do it, and if they have the power they'll change the laws to criminalize dissent and incarcerate opponents.

Does that sound extreme? It's not. Just take a look at Michelle Malkin's report out today, "Bloggers under fire: Arizona conservative lawyer/activist targeted by left-wing Arizona State Bar." (Via Memeorandum.) Folks can read the whole thing, but Michelle nails it at the conclusion:

Make no mistake: This is just another nasty battle in the Left’s long war to marginalize, demonize, and criminalize conservative dissent. The selective protection of free speech is unconscionable. The freedom to blog is under assault on so many fronts. It has to stop.

It is unconscionable. And I think it's equally unconscionable for people to minimize the partisan implications of the fight by holding progressives to a "better angel" standard that is not in their nature. I'll update my views when I see some of the heavyweights on the left standing up for people like Aaron Worthing and Patrick Frey. Maybe we'll see a few Democrats come out next week in favor of a Justice Department investigation of the SWAT-tings. I'll make note of it if they do. In the meantime, I'm not holding my breath.

The Death of Collaboration in the Independent Blogosphere

Robert Stacy McCain published an interesting post the other day, "Where Were You in 2002?"

He's asking about where folks were 11 years ago when the independent blogosphere was the vital forum for news reporting and analysis independent of the mainstream media. 2002's a long time ago. I don't think I was reading blogs intentionally at that point. It was still early in my career at LBCC and I was focused mostly on teaching and  research in political science. It was Dan Drezner's 2004 blogging piece in Foreign Policy that turned me on to the blogosphere and there's been no turning back (see, "Web of Influence"). At that time I was reading Drezner and Virginia Postrel. A little later Althouse became my favorite blog, and by 2006 I decided to get my blogging feet wet. American Power went live in October 2007. I've had a good run so far and I expect to be plugging away until I get bored or the progressives are successful in getting me fired. (Hell, that wouldn't stop me anyway, so WTF).

I've never considered myself an influential blogger (although my inbox, filled with all kinds of free books and promotions from publishers and blog newbies, often tells me otherwise). It was during the 2007 GOP primaries when I got really serious about having an impact and in 2008, when John McCain won the Republican nomination, I felt some vindication for my efforts. One result was that I got picked up by RealClearPolitics later that year. But honestly, I've had more fun these last few years following The Other McCain's advice on "How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog in Less Than a Year." Sure, the babe blogging around here's become a major pastime, but actually, the idea of building community through "reciprocal linkage" has been one of the more important elements of my program. Folks need to exercise the "The Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around":

Reciprocal linkage is the essential lubricant that makes the blogosphere purr with contentment. If somebody's throwing you traffic, you should either (a) give them a link-back update, or at a minimum (b) keep them in mind for future linkage. Because you don't want to end up on the wrong end of a kharmic unbalance in the 'sphere, where you're always taking and never giving.

As blogging has become almost exclusively professionalized in the last few years, the notion of "The Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around" seems kind of quaint. But don't be fooled. We've still got lots of independent bloggers out there doing what the mainstream press refuses to do. For example, Robert mentions Professor William Jacobson's Legal Insurrection as a model of high-impact professional blogging to which we should all aspire. And of course Glenn Reynolds continues to plug away at Instapundit, resisting the lucrative lure of a huge corporate sponsor (even more lucrative, that is, as Glenn's already got great model of monetization). There are lots more examples --- and apologies to some of the great new blogs, like Rebel Pundit and SOOPER Mexican, for not highlighting their work more often --- although it's clear there are increasing sustainability issues for smaller "mom and pop" blogging outfits. Here's how Robert describes the problem at The Other McCain:

This network/community concept seems to have been lost by (or, more likely, was never known to) newer arrivals in the ‘sphere. The idea that each of us is contributing to a common project is not just some kind of “Stone Soup” idealism, but is in fact the only way to build any genuinely meaningful alternative to that pathetic exercise in groupthink we call the Mainstream Media. Bloggers who don’t help build the alternative can complain about the MSM “borg” all they want; they aren’t really making a difference. There are two ways in which bloggers actually help sabotage the blogosphere:

Turn your blog into a series of lectures...

Never link another blogger. It’s weird that some bloggers would rather link a story in the New York Times or the Washington Post than to link a fellow blogger. Why this is, I don’t know. Sometimes it seems like everybody has the same idea: Grab an MSM headline off Drudge, link it, include a brief blockquote and add some political snark. Not only does this effectively surrender content control to Drudge — so that bloggers are merely replicating the headline selection there — but nobody’s snark ever goes beyond their own readership, because no blogger ever quotes another blogger.

Be sure to read the rest for additional insight.

Those bloggers who "never link another blogger" are the kinds I generally avoid. Sure, few bloggers can worry about linking all their buddies all the time, but throwing some hits to your friends once in a while is the friendly thing to do, especially when you've been a mensch yourself, linking and forwarding your posts with breaking news and so forth. Which is why I was surprised yesterday at popular pro-life blogger Jill Stanek. I woke up about 4:00am and wrote a post on WND's piece on Planned Parenthood's grotesque sex education promotions ("Sex-ed cartoons 'too graphic' for N.Y. Times." I later tweeted it to Robert and cc'd Jill:

.@rsmccain Planned Parenthood Sex Education Graphics Too Grisly for the New York Times is.gd/HBetXJ @jillstanek @directorblue
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 29, 2013

Then checking back on Twitter about an hour later I see Jill in my timeline with a new blog post:

Ew, gross! @nytimes,@washingtonpost reject THIS @amerlifeleague ad of Planned Parenthood sex ed images jillstanek.com/?p=122100
— Jill Stanek (@JillStanek) April 29, 2013

Jill's post is time-stamped at 4:14pm in the afternoon, 1:14pm Pacific time, 50 minutes after I tweeted my link to her. Now, perhaps Jill had her entry all queued up or was already familiar with WND's reporting. I don't know. I can say that Jill isn't a big proponent of the Full Metal Reach Around community-building strategy. I've sent her lots of stuff in the past and have been linked perhaps a couple of times at her blog. I don't know. Perhaps she wanted to have this Planned Parenthood "scoop" all to herself, with no hat tip to WND, much less myself. That's how some bloggers roll. It's not the best way to build community, in any case.

Again, maybe Jill got that post going without ever seeing my tweet. But if it were me, I'd probably have replied on Twitter in the first place and then posted a hat tip if I blogged it. Your mileage may vary.

Either way, I couldn't help thinking that yesterday was one good example of the lack of collaboration in the blogosphere. And it's not an insignificant issue. Now more than ever American democracy needs alternative voices. American politics needs citizens to upend the establishment narrative. People frankly need to build on the social media revolution to bring greater accountability to government at at time when the press has abdicated its historic role as freedom's watchdog. Bloggers are upsetting and will continue to upset the accepted memes and force big media to report real news that's important to real Americans. Along with other forms of citizens' social media, blogs promote accountability and deliberation. William Jacobson had something on that yesterday, "If not for prior #Gosnell Twitter campaign, would MSM be covering Bronx and DC revelations?"

But "social" means you can't do it alone. The best of the top bloggers recognize the vital role newbies play in keeping the 'sphere an essential place for alternative reporting. And new bloggers entering the arena might heed the warnings of The Other McCain (and others) on the dangers of the death of collaboration in the independent blogosphere.

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."

Why the Right Wing Blogosphere Doesn't Cover Islam — UPDATE! 'Weasel Zippers' is Mystery Blogger

At Atlas Shrugs, "The Right's Dirty Little Secret."

Actually, it's a big dirty secret.

I could not help but notice, over the past few years, the right wing blogosphere's silence on jihad and Islam. When I started blogging back in 2004-2005, there were literally scores of counter-jihad blogs in an already crowded field. Seven years later, it is a paltry few, save for Jihadwatch, Creeping Sharia, and political bloggers like Logan's Warning, IOTW, American Power blog, Zilla, .....

It's an excellent essay. Continue reading.

IOTW has this: "Creeping Silence – How the Elite Right-Wing Blogosphere is Selling You Out." Big Fur Hat offers some clues as to the mystery blog cited at Pamela's post. Actually, I don't think it's Weasel Zippers. Sounds more like Red State to me, but frankly, I don't care. I'm not a big monetized blogger. I blog for myself and I blog what I believe, which is freedom and American moral leadership in the world. That kind of stuff is actually politically correct even for some on the right, so I don't worry about it after a while. I keep plugging away to take advantage of my right to freedom of speech while I still have it.

Photo: "Pamela Geller Book Signing!" And it's not Robert Stacy McCain either. He pisses off everybody!

UPDATE: Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch confirms the report at iOWNTHEWORLD. According to Robert:

Big Fur Hat over at iOwntheWorld has figured it out: the blogger being discussed below is Weasel Zippers. Zip and I had once been friendly and actually had been planning to meet again for lunch when he wrote me and asked me to stop linking his posts at Jihad Watch, because then when Pamela Geller would link my posts, a link to his site would show up at Atlas Shrugs, and he didn't want to have anything to do with her because of her exposure of Rick Perry's Islam curriculum. When I responded incredulously, he grew progressively more abusive, finally ending up by repeating the Leftist/Islamic supremacist smear that I was responsible for the Norway murders. He still does cover jihad issues at Weasel Zippers, but not in a way that would trouble anyone who buys the propaganda line, purveyed by both Leftists and Fox, that Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been Hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists.

Check Robert's post for the links.

I think I mentioned it at the time, but I was going easy on the right-side blog wars during the GOP primaries. I'd been there done that in 2008, and losing friends during the nomination period isn't worth it. Apparently Weasel Zippers, and Ace of Spades, got into it with Pamela over the Rick Perry curriculum --- and hard feelings remain. I actually blogged the curriculum story and it checked out. See: "Is Rick 'Perry Pro-Sharia'?" Follow the links. Pamela was facing a huge backlash at the time. I had little expectation that Perry was going anywhere, and so I focused on other candidates. I wanted Michelle Bachmann, in any case, who is back in the news for seeking an investigation on Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the Obama administration. So folks know where my loyalties stand.

That said, if there's been a de-linking campaign against Pamela's it's been a pretty big fail. Her blogs still ranks among the top sites on the right side and she continues to pound the opposition with outstanding coverage. I link her sight regularly, and that ain't enough.

And a funny thing is that Weasel Zippers got hacked last night on Wordpress, and Zip's switched the site over to the old Blogspot address until he gets things taken care of. Strange coincidence, I guess. Someone's not digging the Zip, and it's a bummer he had to deal with it. I read Weasel Zippers pretty regularly too. It's more of a rapid-fire aggregation blog than a commentary site. But it's first rate, in my opinion. I'm sorry to hear of the conflict. I know Pamela and Robert personally, and I communicate with Zip. As always, I"m about getting the truth out, even if it ruffles some feathers. Still, t'was a good idea laying low during the primaries. It's hard out there for a neocon!

Melanie Phillips Quits Britain's Spectator Magazine

She has two announcements, "Why I left the Spectator," and "My blog's new home."

There's very little written regarding an explanation why, although Phillips writes: "Those interested to learn more can do so in the update on this CiF Watch post, the original quote from which led to this apology." The apology issued was to Alastair Crooke, Director of Conflicts Forum, "an international movement which engages with Islamist movements broadly ..."

Given Mr. Crooke's background, folks probably have an inkling as to what happened: Melanie blogged about Crooke, he got mad, launched legal action, harming the Spectator financially, and Melanie Phillips felt it necessary to resign.

That just the line of logic, but let's see if I can piece some of this together. For one thing, reports indicate that Alastair Crooke, a former member of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, had direct and ongoing contacts with Hamas as part of his official business at the British consulate in East Jerusalem. A 2007 blog post by Israeli Eliyahu m'Tsiyon has the details, including a quotation from Melanie Phillips which is no longer available elsewhere. And London's far-left Guardian reported on this, "UK recalls MI6 link to Palestinian militants." These are some really sinister dealings, and Phillips wrote about them. See Jihad Watch, "Melanie Phillips on Alistair Crooke." And following the links takes us to FrontPage Magazine, "Alistair Crooke's Meeting with Sheikh Yassin." I don't see the exact date of Crooke's departure from MI6, but even left-wing sources report on his deep ties to global terrorism. See Mother Jones, "The Spy Who Loved Hamas. And Hezbollah. And Iran."

Now note that the Spectator published an apology to Alastair Crooke, cited by Roy Greenslade at the Guardian:

A blog by Melanie Phillips posted on Jan 28 2011 reported an allegation that Alastair Crooke, director of Conflicts Forum, had been expelled from Israel and dismissed for misconduct from Government service or the EU after threatening a journalist whose email he had unlawfully intercepted. We accept that this allegation is completely false and we apologise to Mr Crooke.

Again, I'm piecing things together, but it looks like Spectator issued the apology as part of a legal settlement, which has the New Statesman's Mehdi Hasan jumping for joy:

... was this a voluntary or enforced departure? The blogger Guido Staines beat me to it, but I can't help but notice how the Spectator has had to apologise to Alastair Crooke, director of Conflicts Forum, on its website this week, after a blogpost by Phillips made "false" allegations about Crooke's past. Phillips's decision to move on might just be a coincidence but a well-connected source tells me that the payout to Crooke cost the Spectator "tens of thousands of pounds" and left Fraser Nelson and Andrew Neil "furious" with her.

So we're now back to Melanie Phillips' blog entry, where she writes, "For legal reasons, I cannot go into the details."

The legal reasons appear to be (further) threats of legal action, but Melanie Phillips has rejected the premise of the apology. And CiF Watch says Phillips made "no such" allegation regarding threats from Alastair Crooke.

Well, we know that Alastair Crooke's collaborating with terrorist organizations, and as Melanie Phillips was writing about it, my sense is that someone made threats, and since this controversy involves people at the highest levels of British power, clearly some pro-jihadists had strong incentive to destroy Melanie Phillips. And what's more fascinating is that so called right-wing outlets are simply crippling under threats and apparent litigation. Indeed, Mehdi Hasan can't contain his glee:

Blinded by their monomaniacal obsession with Islamists under every British bed, members of the UK media's neoconservative faction have been the subject of other (successful) legal complaints and libel actions in recent years.

These legal complaints look sketchy, "successful" or not, given all that we know about Alastair Crooke. Clearly, if Melanie Phillips was speaking truth to power her own health and livelihood became increasingly at risk. And this is something I've been writing about quite a bit, since Scott Eric Kaufman and Carl Salonen launched campaigns of workplace intimidation against me, including libelously false allegations of sexual harassment, with potentially very damaging personal consequences, simply for speaking truth to their evil deeds. And while I'm not an author of such prominence as Melanie Phillips, some allegations against me have gone all the way to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat. So the similarity is to the lengths at which progressives will go to literally destroy those who speak the truth. Remember, for radical leftists and jihad enablers, "truth is the new hate speech." And I want to remind people of my report on Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who announced on Canadian television:

The thing is, you don't care about freedom of speech until you've lost it. But I'm here to tell you that I will never, ever give up the fight for freedom of speech.

Neither will I.