Batty As A Moonbat In A Belfry…
So, now we see the fallout of ABC’s "Memogate", and if it weren’t so spiteful, I’d have to laugh at the moonbats attacking some of the finest minds among the blogosphere. This all erupted over a story that ABC ran about a memo supposedly circulated to Republicans in the Senate. It supposedly came from the GOP leadership. These were assertions made by ABC News at the time, and later the Washington Post. Both made the allegations, yet like the typical MSM, they couldn’t provide the proof.
Worse yet, they refused to print a retraction. And it was not until weeks later that the papers that carried the original Post story started adding that there was no addressee or signer for it. ABC admitted it from the outset, and claimed that their assertions were validated by the wording in the memo. The misspellings within the memo obviously pointed to an amateur. No one could really pinpoint an author, or orders by any lawmaker to put such a memo together. The memo itself had been authenticated as being "real", but neither news organization refused to back off of their assertions.
So the blogosphere went into action. PowerLine was already hammering on both, and Michelle Malkin stepped up to the plate for some batting practice. Both just continued to pound. They wanted answers. In short, it was a "put up or shut up" moment for both. Neither side budged. PowerLine and Michelle Malkin continued to dig, and kept pulling up ripe little pieces of information. Now both the Post and ABC feel vindicated on the heels of the admission of one Ron Darling—out of Sen. Mel Martinez’s office—that he was the author. Martinez was incensed that the memo had originated from his office, and he had even questioned why Darling had not stepped forward immediately.
And today, the Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum writes a scathing piece of what can only be termed as "partisan commentary". He chastises both Malkin and PowerLine for their vehemence in the story. Better yet, I will let you read it.
SCHIAVO MEMO UPDATE....Washington Post reporter Mike Allen — who's been a punching bag for conservative windbags for the past week — today revealed the source of that mysterious "Republican talking points memo" about Terri Schiavo. Guess what? It came from a Republican:
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
....Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)...said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points — something that we're working on here," Harkin said.
....At the time, other Senate Republican aides claimed to be familiar with the memo but declined to discuss it on the record and gave no information about its origin.
In other words, it's not the second coming of Rathergate. It was a real memo, written by a real Republican, and distributed to other real Republicans after it was drafted. (Harkin apparently got it by mistake. Martinez thought he was giving him a different document.)
(I got this one, sweets.) This was not the "second coming of Rathergate". Dan Rather and CBS News got caught in a lie, and that lie was made manifest in a memo that both claimed to be "authentic". There is no such this as "authentic" when typewriter experts—numerous ones, at that—come forward to proclaim the document a forgery. And that is what happened on the cusp of PowerLine and Little Green Footballs outing it as such within hours of it’s release. They had experts ready and willing to step forward to proclaim it as such, but it took Charles Johnson only a few minutes on MS Word to truly prove it. And he did so. (Anyone want a laugh? Go to his site. The Flash Media’s still up there)
So, the blogosphere already admitted that the memo was "authentic". Their questions revolved around the questions that the MSM obviously skipped. That would be who wrote it and who distributed it? They had answers for neither. The blogosphere responded accordingly: "If you cannot prove what you allege, then drop the assertions until you have proof." Naturally, the MSM responded in similar fashion to how Rather and CBS did. They shut up, and refused to speak of it.
That’s all this has ever been about. But those at the Washington Monthly have caused a firestorm they may not want to be involved in. See, just as one can on a blog, someone can comment on the column they ran. And some of the comments, to say the least, have been pretty bad.
I have considerable knowledge of this Charles Johnson, the regular bloggers on his site, and their connections to longtime Republican operatives in Washington D.C. Iron Fist is not Charles #2 (He’s just some loser with delusions of criminality). That honor belongs to a shady Washington D.C. lawyer and Occasional Reader. He is a conduit between Charles and the RNC and Karl Rove. Another individual who goes by the charming nickname Dirk Diggler a Houstonian who has contacts through his family directly to the Bush clan and prominent wealthy Republicans.
At this point I am unable to say more (I am a freelance journalist with sources to protect) but rest assured when the time comes I will publish what I have found.
The explosion of rightwing weblogs and their new found "credibility" in light of the Rathergate fiasco is no accident.
Posted by: The Eye That Sees All on April 8, 2005 at 4:26 PM
Another freelancer…When will they ever learn. I personally do not know Charles, but what I have heard from him through interviews, and from his writing, I can honestly say that I trust his word. He is not out to steer people wrong. He is as cool and deliberate as any of the "barons" in the blogosphere. (Thomas and I treat Hugh Hewitt as the "King of the Blogosphere"; those like Charles and the guys at PowerLine are considered "barons/baronesses". And no, we’re not padding egos.) But the allegations he makes are pretty harsh. I do hope he has enough to back up his comments. It would be wise to remind him that as he has not identified these allegations as opinion, he could be subject to a libel lawsuit. Not a smart thing for a journalist to do. You may have freedom of the press, but you do not have the right to malign good people because you are pissed. And what does he mean by that last statement? Is he accusing the bloggers for being responsible for the TANG memos?
Can someone look up the IP address of the Lizards and other far rightwingers who are posting here? Please post them if you can.
I want to find out where they live and work...pay them a visit. The only way to stop fascism is to confront it...To quote Malcom X.... "by any means necssary."
Posted by: JCR on April 8, 2005 at 2:55 PM
Can you say "looking for an ass-beating"? If this guy shows up on my doorstep, he might be biting off far more than he can chew. But to request such an act, what more can be gleamed from these idiots other than they are certifiable, 100%. And as for fascism, what this idiot is proposing is exactly that. These were the same tactics that Hitler Youth and SS used. Yes, those moonbatty Left can sure emulate that which they claim to oppose with such vehemence.
STOP THE HATE! WE NEED TO SHUT DOWN HATE FILLED FASCIST BLOGS LIKE MALKEN AND LGF. Hate speech is agains the law! The Internet is PUBLIC property! We need to shut down these hatemongers along with Bushco Rovian whores like Instanpundit. WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON OR SENATOR TODAY! FAIR REGULATION OF THE INTERNET! Posted by:
STOP THE HATE! on April 8, 2005 at 9:06 AM
I’ll take this one too…Can anyone see what we’re dealing with here? There is so much vitriol within the Left it’s amusing. But these people are nuts. As is more than evident over the last couple of months with conservatives being attacked on college campuses. Sure, it’s pies and salad dressing, but how much longer before it’s a firearm being leveled at them? This has to stop now. Look at the above comment and tell me that there isn’t cause for concern. With all the misspellings in the comment (It’s spelled M-A-L-K-I-N, A-G-A-I-N-S-T-, and I-N-S-T-A-P-U-N-D-I-T), one might think this was Ron Darling posting a pissed-off rant. And isn’t it typical that their side is the site that has posted all the hate, all the spite, and is the first one to point to the fact that the Internet is technically public property—a public guaranteed their right to free speech—but they’re the first ones to scream for regulation.
It is not regulation they desire. It is silence. They want our side silenced, now more than ever. Their side—their ideology—has been in steady decline since 1994. They have taken the proverbial beating at the ballot box. And now, on the cusp of a possible new day dawning in the judiciary, they feel threatened more than ever. And these rants from the moonbats, the trolls, and the psychos will only get worse. But Thomas is right. This needs to stop now before a minor prank, or flared tempers give rise to something other than a pie in the face. These people—at this point—are deadly serious. And they are completely unhinged.
And that is why, despite any possible repercussions, we stand with the bloggers on the side of truth. It can’t be silenced. And as long as we keep winning in the war of ideas, there will be others willing to stand up and be heard. And we will defend those like Charles, like Michelle, and the great guys at PowerLine. They did nothing wrong, other than question what someone was telling them because it didn’t sound right. Can they be blamed? Wouldn’t anyone else have questioned it? I think we would, but then again, I guess questioning the powers-that-be constitutes "fascism".
Publius II & The Bunny ;)
So, now we see the fallout of ABC’s "Memogate", and if it weren’t so spiteful, I’d have to laugh at the moonbats attacking some of the finest minds among the blogosphere. This all erupted over a story that ABC ran about a memo supposedly circulated to Republicans in the Senate. It supposedly came from the GOP leadership. These were assertions made by ABC News at the time, and later the Washington Post. Both made the allegations, yet like the typical MSM, they couldn’t provide the proof.
Worse yet, they refused to print a retraction. And it was not until weeks later that the papers that carried the original Post story started adding that there was no addressee or signer for it. ABC admitted it from the outset, and claimed that their assertions were validated by the wording in the memo. The misspellings within the memo obviously pointed to an amateur. No one could really pinpoint an author, or orders by any lawmaker to put such a memo together. The memo itself had been authenticated as being "real", but neither news organization refused to back off of their assertions.
So the blogosphere went into action. PowerLine was already hammering on both, and Michelle Malkin stepped up to the plate for some batting practice. Both just continued to pound. They wanted answers. In short, it was a "put up or shut up" moment for both. Neither side budged. PowerLine and Michelle Malkin continued to dig, and kept pulling up ripe little pieces of information. Now both the Post and ABC feel vindicated on the heels of the admission of one Ron Darling—out of Sen. Mel Martinez’s office—that he was the author. Martinez was incensed that the memo had originated from his office, and he had even questioned why Darling had not stepped forward immediately.
And today, the Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum writes a scathing piece of what can only be termed as "partisan commentary". He chastises both Malkin and PowerLine for their vehemence in the story. Better yet, I will let you read it.
SCHIAVO MEMO UPDATE....Washington Post reporter Mike Allen — who's been a punching bag for conservative windbags for the past week — today revealed the source of that mysterious "Republican talking points memo" about Terri Schiavo. Guess what? It came from a Republican:
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
....Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)...said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points — something that we're working on here," Harkin said.
....At the time, other Senate Republican aides claimed to be familiar with the memo but declined to discuss it on the record and gave no information about its origin.
In other words, it's not the second coming of Rathergate. It was a real memo, written by a real Republican, and distributed to other real Republicans after it was drafted. (Harkin apparently got it by mistake. Martinez thought he was giving him a different document.)
(I got this one, sweets.) This was not the "second coming of Rathergate". Dan Rather and CBS News got caught in a lie, and that lie was made manifest in a memo that both claimed to be "authentic". There is no such this as "authentic" when typewriter experts—numerous ones, at that—come forward to proclaim the document a forgery. And that is what happened on the cusp of PowerLine and Little Green Footballs outing it as such within hours of it’s release. They had experts ready and willing to step forward to proclaim it as such, but it took Charles Johnson only a few minutes on MS Word to truly prove it. And he did so. (Anyone want a laugh? Go to his site. The Flash Media’s still up there)
So, the blogosphere already admitted that the memo was "authentic". Their questions revolved around the questions that the MSM obviously skipped. That would be who wrote it and who distributed it? They had answers for neither. The blogosphere responded accordingly: "If you cannot prove what you allege, then drop the assertions until you have proof." Naturally, the MSM responded in similar fashion to how Rather and CBS did. They shut up, and refused to speak of it.
That’s all this has ever been about. But those at the Washington Monthly have caused a firestorm they may not want to be involved in. See, just as one can on a blog, someone can comment on the column they ran. And some of the comments, to say the least, have been pretty bad.
I have considerable knowledge of this Charles Johnson, the regular bloggers on his site, and their connections to longtime Republican operatives in Washington D.C. Iron Fist is not Charles #2 (He’s just some loser with delusions of criminality). That honor belongs to a shady Washington D.C. lawyer and Occasional Reader. He is a conduit between Charles and the RNC and Karl Rove. Another individual who goes by the charming nickname Dirk Diggler a Houstonian who has contacts through his family directly to the Bush clan and prominent wealthy Republicans.
At this point I am unable to say more (I am a freelance journalist with sources to protect) but rest assured when the time comes I will publish what I have found.
The explosion of rightwing weblogs and their new found "credibility" in light of the Rathergate fiasco is no accident.
Posted by: The Eye That Sees All on April 8, 2005 at 4:26 PM
Another freelancer…When will they ever learn. I personally do not know Charles, but what I have heard from him through interviews, and from his writing, I can honestly say that I trust his word. He is not out to steer people wrong. He is as cool and deliberate as any of the "barons" in the blogosphere. (Thomas and I treat Hugh Hewitt as the "King of the Blogosphere"; those like Charles and the guys at PowerLine are considered "barons/baronesses". And no, we’re not padding egos.) But the allegations he makes are pretty harsh. I do hope he has enough to back up his comments. It would be wise to remind him that as he has not identified these allegations as opinion, he could be subject to a libel lawsuit. Not a smart thing for a journalist to do. You may have freedom of the press, but you do not have the right to malign good people because you are pissed. And what does he mean by that last statement? Is he accusing the bloggers for being responsible for the TANG memos?
Can someone look up the IP address of the Lizards and other far rightwingers who are posting here? Please post them if you can.
I want to find out where they live and work...pay them a visit. The only way to stop fascism is to confront it...To quote Malcom X.... "by any means necssary."
Posted by: JCR on April 8, 2005 at 2:55 PM
Can you say "looking for an ass-beating"? If this guy shows up on my doorstep, he might be biting off far more than he can chew. But to request such an act, what more can be gleamed from these idiots other than they are certifiable, 100%. And as for fascism, what this idiot is proposing is exactly that. These were the same tactics that Hitler Youth and SS used. Yes, those moonbatty Left can sure emulate that which they claim to oppose with such vehemence.
STOP THE HATE! WE NEED TO SHUT DOWN HATE FILLED FASCIST BLOGS LIKE MALKEN AND LGF. Hate speech is agains the law! The Internet is PUBLIC property! We need to shut down these hatemongers along with Bushco Rovian whores like Instanpundit. WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON OR SENATOR TODAY! FAIR REGULATION OF THE INTERNET! Posted by:
STOP THE HATE! on April 8, 2005 at 9:06 AM
I’ll take this one too…Can anyone see what we’re dealing with here? There is so much vitriol within the Left it’s amusing. But these people are nuts. As is more than evident over the last couple of months with conservatives being attacked on college campuses. Sure, it’s pies and salad dressing, but how much longer before it’s a firearm being leveled at them? This has to stop now. Look at the above comment and tell me that there isn’t cause for concern. With all the misspellings in the comment (It’s spelled M-A-L-K-I-N, A-G-A-I-N-S-T-, and I-N-S-T-A-P-U-N-D-I-T), one might think this was Ron Darling posting a pissed-off rant. And isn’t it typical that their side is the site that has posted all the hate, all the spite, and is the first one to point to the fact that the Internet is technically public property—a public guaranteed their right to free speech—but they’re the first ones to scream for regulation.
It is not regulation they desire. It is silence. They want our side silenced, now more than ever. Their side—their ideology—has been in steady decline since 1994. They have taken the proverbial beating at the ballot box. And now, on the cusp of a possible new day dawning in the judiciary, they feel threatened more than ever. And these rants from the moonbats, the trolls, and the psychos will only get worse. But Thomas is right. This needs to stop now before a minor prank, or flared tempers give rise to something other than a pie in the face. These people—at this point—are deadly serious. And they are completely unhinged.
And that is why, despite any possible repercussions, we stand with the bloggers on the side of truth. It can’t be silenced. And as long as we keep winning in the war of ideas, there will be others willing to stand up and be heard. And we will defend those like Charles, like Michelle, and the great guys at PowerLine. They did nothing wrong, other than question what someone was telling them because it didn’t sound right. Can they be blamed? Wouldn’t anyone else have questioned it? I think we would, but then again, I guess questioning the powers-that-be constitutes "fascism".
Publius II & The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 1:12 AM
4 Comments:
Really good entry! I check LGF everyday, and it might surprise the lefties to know that until 9-11, Charles was just as lefty as they were. I wonder if he knows about the threats made to his blog. Yes, they most certainly do want to silence us, the unwashed masses, because nobody is listening to them anymore.
Good blog. I confess to posting in a chat room that the memo was written by a DNC staffer. I erred. I offer no excuses. But I do have some questions. What was the memo doing in Senator Mel Martinez's pocket? Is Ron Sterling a Republican or is it an assumption because he was working for a republican? Is he in fact a lawyer? It seems to me that is more than an aid. The democrats will try to make a mountain out of this but I suggest that they look in the mirror. Rawriter
Jen,
I know about Charles' prior ideology. But many on that side did see the light on 9/11.
Marcie
What did I tell you guys the other day. The memo story is identical to Rathergate in that the media covered it irresponsibly.
The left is making alot of hay about the origin of the memo, but as usual they are missing the point entirely.
Someday we will be challenged by an opposing party that offers real arguments and real solutions that are worthy of debate.
Until then, I refuse to play in their sandbox anymore. Here's the latest of their infantile behavior:
http://lesenfantterrible.blogspot.com/2005/04/strange-days-indeed.html
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