Year: 2011

Ruh-Roh, Rod: Dreher’s Pseudonymous Postings Could Cause Him Big Trouble

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Using an online pseudonym is always a dangerous game, and now it is being alleged that former National Review/Dallas Morning Journal writer Rod Dreher has jeopardized his career with pseudonymous posts at a religious blog.

A round-up of the story at Est Quod Est blog may leave some readers confused, but it identifies Dreher as “Muzshik” (Russian for “peasant”) on the Orthodox Christian blog OCATruth.com. (OCA = Orthodox Church in America.) The blog launched on March 3 in defense of OCA primate, Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen, who is opposed by some Orthodox clergy and laity, including Mark Stokoe, who blogs at OCANews.org.

On April 30, Stokoe published a series of e-mails purporting to show that Dreher had been instrumental in establishing OCATruth.com, which included this message attributed to Dreher:

“Please, please, please don’t tell ANYBODY that I have anything to do with this site. . . . But really, I am taking a big risk here.”

To say the least! Dreher is publications director for the John Templeton Foundation. He left the Dallas Morning News in January 2010 to take that job, and the kind of pseudonymous activity at OCATruth.com is definitely not within Dreher’s job description. He hasn’t blogged at BeliefNet since July 2010, and the blogger at Est Quod Est suggests Dreher’s bosses at Templeton may have forbidden him from further outside blogging.

As soon as OCANews.org published the e-mails, “Muzhik” stopped blogging at OCATruth.com. (His last post on April 30 was about a synod of Orthodox bishops in Chicago shunning Paffhausen.) So it at least appears that Dreher may have some ‘splainin’ to do.

In case you don’t remember who Rod Dreher is, he made a big splash in March 2009 by bashing Rush Limbaugh’s CPAC speech. In May 2009, Mark Levin took on Dreher in a guest-post at Riehl World View.

UPDATE: Linked at Riehl World View — thanks!

UPDATE II: A reader helpfully points out that Dreher’s BeliefNet attack on Limbaugh’s CPAC speech has been taken off-line, but was substantially quoted in Tim Graham’s rebuttal at NewsBusters.

UPDATE III: Thanks to another reader for pointing out where Dreher distilled his anti-Limbaugh sentiments into a newspaper column:

[T]he GOP and the conservative movement are stuck on stupid. . . . [I]f Limbaugh’s vision represents the future of American conservatism, count this conservative out.

OK, Rod: You’re out. And no one in the conservative movement will defend you in your present predicament, nor lift a finger to help you if you get fired by Templeton, because you are so damned important — and so much smarter than the rest of us — that you clearly have no need of anyone’s help.

You are an autonomous Movement of One. And good luck with that.

Herman Cain: Viva Las Vegas!

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Mike Chamberlain at Cranky Hermit has a report of Herman Cain’s appearance at Chuck Muth’s “First Friday” event in Vegas:

The day after an impressive performance in a Republican Presidential debate, Herman Cain left little doubt about his future intentions. He told the assembled local bloggers and print journalists at a briefing in Las Vegas, “Hold the date of May 21st . . . in Atlanta, Atlanta’s Centennial Park. Hold the date. Now do you think I’m going to be holding the date and having a rally at Centennial Park on May 21st to tell you that I am not running? You make the call. Last night exceeded our expectations.” . . .
Cain, who described himself as “proud to be an American, black conservative,” dismissed race as an issue. “Color is off the table whether I run or not,” he said, adding, “Did Barack Obama open the door for me because I’m black? No. The door was already open. He just happened to get through it first.” . . .
Later that evening one of the largest crowds ever attended the First Friday event, primarily to see featured speaker Cain. Many came to see him despite not knowing who he was a mere 24 hours earlier. After delivering his speech he was deluged with requests for photographs and autographs by an adoring crowd.

Read the whole thing. Among other things, Cain pointed out that Nevada is the first western state to hold a 2012 primary — and he loves Las Vegas.

Isn’t it time you joined the online grassroots army at Citizens for Cain?

Your Irregular Rick Moran Update

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You may have asked yourself, “What’s Rick Moran been up to lately?”

Or perhaps you’re now asking yourself, “Who the heck is Rick Moran?”

Circa 2009, Smitty would occasionally kick Rick around a bit just for fun, but that was then and this is now, and Smitty’s found more lively amusement in Afghanistan lately. So in case you’re a longtime readers with a long memory who pines for the old days of Moran-bashing, here’s an update:

Thursday, when Obama visited Ground Zero, Jake Tapper of ABC News sent out this Tweet:

One minute to air and they decided to take the flag down from the live shot! http://twitpic.com/4tv4br

This created instant outrage among conservative bloggers, who interpreted Tapper’s message as saying that someone — the stage managers for Team Obama, perhaps with politically correct motives? — had decided to remove the U.S. flag from the background of the president’s appearance.

Au contraire, as it turns out that Tapper sent that message after the president had already come and gone from the Ground Zero site. What Tapper was complaining about was that workers cleaning up the site after Obama’s appearance had removed the flag right before the post-event “live shot” in which Tapper would be interviewed on-camera to give his report of the event.

In other words, the workers had deprived Tapper of the camera-friendly background he had hoped for — but this took place after the presidential event. The flag had been present throughout Obama’s Ground Zero appearance.

Meanwhile, however, the misunderstood Tweet caused a huge blow-up on the blogosphere, regrettably handing Oliver Willis of Media Matters a “nyah nyah” moment.

So where does Rick Moran fit into this narrative? During the flag brouhaha, Doug Ross had used the phrase “Marxist left” to describe Obama’s supporters. This led to a stern lecture by Moran, which Doug Ross describes for your edification.

Me? I had nothing to do with any of that.

My coverage of Obama’s appearance at Ground Zero was pre-empted by a much-needed nap. I get in less trouble that way.

You should hit my tip jar.

From Ace’s Sidebar Headlines

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Kinda classic:

This Just In: Andrew Sullivan Is Illogical, Irrational, Inconsistent, Inconstant, Hypocritical and Hysterical and Unprincipled and Unhinged
But he’s a “great writer”? I once again refute this claim by posing the Andrew Sullivan Challenge: Name one thing he wrote that really sticks out in your mind as insightful or well-crafted… He’s always been a blathering, hyperemotional borderline-lunatic. It’s just at one time he employed those dubious gifts to push Bush.

The headline links to an item by Pejman Yousefzadeh, who really ought to change his name to “Pete Young” or something easier to spell, because I keep having to cut-and-paste it. This isn’t personal, Pejman — I’d offer the same advice to my friend Wlady Pleszczynski, except he’s been at it 30 years already. Also, he’s kinda my boss.

VIDEO: Gingrich Fatigue?

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It seems that Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign isn’t generating much excitement down home in Georgia:

This week Newt Gingrich made news by opening a campaign headquarters in a Buckhead office building — with word that he expected to announce his presidential candidacy in the coming week.
The response has been underwhelming. On Peach Pundit, a conservative political blog, a post responded by using the word “yawn” three times in the first two sentences.
“I think it’s time for a campaign, not for a pre- pre- pre- campaign,” said Charlie Harper, the site’s editor.

And which Peach Pundit blogger yawned at the Gingrich news? That would be our good buddy Ginny of Obi’s Sister fame.

Why the lack of Newt Fever? Two words: Dede Scozzafava.

(What? You didn’t think we were going to forget that, did you?)

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Imams on a Plane

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Apparently it’s not just Juan Williams who has this problem:

An airline is investigating the removal of two imams from a flight headed to North Carolina, ostensibly because passengers felt uncomfortable with their presence of the pair — both clad in Islamic attire.
The incident occurred Friday on an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight from Tennessee to North Carolina and it involved Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were wearing traditional Muslim dress, CNN affiliate WCNC reported.
The two — who hold high religious positions in the Muslim community — were headed to North Carolina for a conference on prejudice against Muslims, or Islamaphobia.

Dear Islamic clerics:
Maybe next time you should have one of your wives drive you to the Islamaphobia conference. Just sayin’ . . .

In case you’re forgotten the famous moment that got Juan Williams fired from National Public Radio:

“When I get on a plane, I gotta tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb . . . I get worried. I get nervous.”

Some things you just can’t say out loud, no matter how true it may be.

VIDEO: Charlie Crist Helps Sarah Rumpf (Finally) Get Her 15 Minutes of Fame

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How could someone with the Twitter handle “Rumpfshaker” not be famous? I don’t know, but she toiled in semi-obscurity until she captured this video of former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist hustling business for ambulance-chasers:

“Have you destroyed your Republican political career by embracing Barack Obama’s policies? Call Charlie Crist now!”

So the video went viral, was mentioned by Politico and New York magazine and even showed up on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

You’re probably thinking to yourself: “Wow! They showed her blog URL on TV! That must have been worth a gazillion hits!” Alas, you’re wrong:

So it’s not like getting re-Tweeted by Alyssa Milano or something. But don’t worry, Sarah: We’re talking to Greg Gutfeld and Andy Levy about getting you into the Red Eye “leg chair.” It’s just a matter of time.