The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Jesse Jackson Jr. and Wife in Court Today

Posted on | February 20, 2013 | 4 Comments

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has the bulletin:

Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. is scheduled to appear in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia at 10:30 a.m. . . . Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013.
Sandra Stevens Jackson is scheduled to appear at the same courthouse at 2:30 p.m. . . . Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013.
Both are to appear before the Honorable Robert L. Wilkins.

Associated Press supplies the background:

Both the former Illinois congressman and his wife, Sandra, have agreed to plead guilty in deals with federal prosecutors. Jackson is charged with conspiracy and his wife with one count of filing false joint federal income tax returns for the years 2006 through 2011 that knowingly understated the income the couple received. . . .
Jackson, 47, used campaign money to buy a $43,350 gold-plated, men’s Rolex watch and spent $9,587.64 on children’s furniture, according to court papers filed in the case. His wife spent $5,150 on fur capes and parkas, the document said.

Remember: “Corrupt Democrat” should be avoided as redundant.

 

Category: Chicago, Congress, Corruption, Crime, Democrats, Illinois

Enforcing the Liberal Media Omerta

Posted on | February 20, 2013 | 13 Comments

The other day, Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen of Politico published a long story about the dysfunctional relationship between the Obama administration and the White House press corps, saying that the lack of access and deliberate manipulation were making it difficult for reporters to do their jobs.

A basic rule of life: If you volunteer to be somebody’s doormat, you forfeit the right to complain about the footprints on your back.

The White House has merely exploited the unabashed fandom of the journalistic elite, which is so overwhelmingly liberal that they were only too happy for the opportunity to publish daily valentines to their presidential heartthrob. Predictably, this posture of eager sycophancy has not earned reporters the respect of those they flatter, and so White House correspondents — journalists at the very peak of professional prestige — are shocked to find themselves treated like rent-boys by the administration’s P.R. machinery. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection is unsympathetic:

It certainly is true that Obama is good at manipulating the media, but I’m taking Obama’s side on this one. The media has proven itself willing subjects, with tingles and oohs and ahhs running wild since before Obama was elected the first time. . . .
Don’t blame Obama for your own failings.
Look in the mirror and ask why you are such a bunch of hypocritical sycophants who abandoned all pretense of journalistic integrity in order to get Obama elected twice.

Ah, but here comes The Enforcer:  Charles Pierce at Esquire attacks Vandehei and Harris from their left flank, signaling that even the mildest media dissent against Dear Leader is unacceptable. Anyone in the D.C. press corps who actually does stray from the fawning pro-Obama herd will be targeted for destruction by MSNBC, by the left blogosphere, by Media Matters and Think Progress.

It’s these enforcer types — Commissars of the People’s Information Bureau, as it were — who make media reform impossible. That’s what Journolist was all about, and you may notice that the Washington Post hasn’t exactly kicked Ezra Klein to the curb.

 

Category: Media Bias

LIVE AT FIVE: 02.20.13

Posted on | February 20, 2013 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE: 02.20.13

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Two Missing, Fourteen Hurt In KC Gas Blast

Blaze continues to burn in Century City Plaza

Blaze continues to burn in Century City Plaza

Foul play not suspected in explosion at restaurant


Parties Begin Blame Game As Sequester Nears
Obama trying desperately to avert blame for what he asked for

Hollande Visits Greece To Show Support
Encourages French companies to invest



POLITICS
Pregnant Teen Wins Legal Battle To Stop Abortion – Against Parents

The dope's that there's still hope

R.E.K. and her boyfriend successfully defend their unborn child

Parents enjoined from threatening or coercing 16-year-old daughter

Review Team: Detroit Faces Financial Crisis Without A Plan To Fix It

VP Biden: Get A Shotgun

Supreme Court To Hear Case On Campaign Donation Limits

McConnell Ad Mocks Ashley Judd, Obama, And Democrats

Did Obama Supporter Vote Six Times? Ohio Poll Worker Under Investigation

Marines Introduce Next Mascot (Video)



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Prices Continue Mixed: NYMEX $96.72, Brent $117.38
Strike Vote Looms At Boeing
Abe Says No Need For Foreign Bond Buys Under New BOJ Chief
Dell Earnings Fall But Beat Expectations
Maker’s Mark Reverses Decision To Water Down Bourbon
Atlantic City’s Revel Casino Files For Bankruptcy
Walmart Sales Slump May Indicate Cooling Consumer Spending
Conflicting Reports About Origin Of Mac, Facebook Hacks
PRC Military Denies Hacking Allegations
Republic Wireless = Bargain Wireless
Hackers Take Jeep’s Twitter Account For A Joyride
Microsoft’s New Outlook E-Mail Service Officially Launches
Microsoft Forges Skype, Linc Into Enterprise Communications Platform
T-Mobile Launches GoSmart Budget Wireless Service
Big Changes Coming To “Far Cry 3”



SPORTS
#1 Hoosiers Beat #4 Michigan State, 72-68

Indiana's Will Sheehey shoots against Michigan State's Travis Trice

Indiana’s Will Sheehey shoots against Michigan State’s Travis Trice

Victor Oladipo leads the way

Blackhawks Match Record In Win Over Canucks

Nyets Top Bucks In OT

It’s Pavelic For The Defense As Jets Snap Losing Streak

Clippers Trade Rumors End As Celtics’ Garnett Refuses To Waive No-Trade Clause

Habs Rally To Beat Rangers

Missouri Wins Rematch Against #5 Florida

Kings 3, Oilers 1


NCAA Accuses Miami Of Lack Of Institutional Control

Ryan Zimmerman Making Progress, Likely To DH In Spring Games



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Kelly Clarkson Sticks It To Clive Davis

"Clive Davis? Who?"

Kelly Clarkson at Mardi Gras

Posts open letter on website ripping famous music company exec


Clive Davis Comes Out Of The Closet


Hilary Mantel Roasted For Duchess Of Cambridge Slur


Dr. Drew Speaks Out On Mindy McCready’s Death

Britney Spears’ Mystery Valentine’s Day Date Revealed

David O. Russell To Direct Jennifer Lawrence In “The Ends Of The Earth”

“Arrested Development” Season Four To Feature Guest Stars Kirsten Wiig, Seth Rogen

Scarlett Johansson Flashes Giant Rock On Engagement Ring

Unspeakable Armenian Claims Sister Not Fired From “X Factor”

Jason Clarke To Star In “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes”



FOREIGNERS
Pistorius Witness Heard “Non-Stop” Argument Before Shooting
Bulgarian Government Resigns Amid Growing Protests
Tunisia In Turmoil After PM Resigns
$50 Million In diamonds Stolen At Brussels Airport
Cameron Promises India Cooperation In Probe
Jihadi Group Promises More Attacks On Shiites In Baluchistan
Greece Hit By New Strikes As Unemployment Soars
Rebels Say Loyalist Rocket Kills 19



BLOGS & STUFF
The Looking Spoon: Ten Democrat Tips For Avoiding Rape Without Needing Guns
Volokh Conspiracy: Supreme Court Sides With Drug Dog In Probable Cause Case
BizzyBlog: Politico Pair Cry Crocodile Tears Over “Obama, The Puppet Master”
Examiner: Speakeasy – Esquire Bops Politico
Heritage Foundation: Simpson-Bowles Redux – Another $600 Billion Tax Increase
Gateway Pundit: Bill By Missouri Republican Makes It A Felony To Propose Gun Control Legislation
AmSpecBlog: All’s Well That Ends Well
Riehl World News: Half-Right But Half-Assed – Cupp And Scarborough
Weasel Zippers: Presidential Debate Co-Chair Happy With Debates, Except For Candy Crowley
Power Line: Hagel Reportedly Said Israel Headed For Apartheid
Israel Matzav: Another Day, Another Anti-Israel Chuck Hagel Speech Discovered
American Thinker: Norks Threaten “Final Destruction” Of South Korea
WSJ: The Coming Failure Of “Accountable Care”
Scared Monkeys: Ohio Poll Worker Who Boasted Of Voting Twice For Obama May Have Done It Six Times
Twitchy: #WarOnWomen – Press Secretary Carney Sneers At Female Reporter – “I Know You Are Just Filling In”
Ed Driscoll: California Dreamin’ At The Washington Post
Protein Wisdom: These Are The Republicans Leading The “Bipartisan Compromise” On “Common Sense” Gun Control
Ace Of Spades: Semi-Review – “The Dark Knight Returns”, Parts 1 & 2


Category: Live at Five

Kooky Tuesday Continues: Is Social Media Breeding Monsters? Oh, Hell, Yes!

Posted on | February 19, 2013 | 30 Comments

Having begun the day with a post about deranged cyberstalker Bill Schmalfeldt, followed up with a post about a maniac professor at Columbia University, and then added a discussion of the (allegedly) felonious kook Barrett Brown, let’s stick with the theme, eh?

In a post at Breitbart.com’s new group-blog thingie, Mandy Nagy asks “Is Social Media Breeding Monsters?” and offers this sampling of evidence in support of the answer, “Oh, hell, yes”:

Facebook Postings Prompted Stabbing, Accused’s Sister Says
Facebook argument escalates into real-world crime when boy grabs gun
Facebook gangbanger turns himself in after threatening Brooklyn’s cyber crime-fighting captain
Briton charged over Facebook threats to kill 200 US children
Police investigating Facebook predator
Man pleads guilty to sexually assaulting underage girls he met on Facebook
Tulsa Man Arrested For Using Facebook To Solicit Sex From 12-Year-Old Girl
Facebook Sting Nets Illinois Perv On Federal Rap
FACEBOOK MURDER CASE: Defendant concocted “sinister plot,” prosecutor says

Kind of an obvious pattern there. Ace of Spades comments:

The downside of the internet’s egalitarianism is that people who have no social peers in their own lives — because, most likely, they are insane or too repulsive in character to attract real-life friends — flock to the internet. They’ve alienated everyone they’ve ever known in real-life; now it’s time to try out their off-putting schtick on the millions of new potential victims at their fingertips.

Exactly so. And it’s also a fact the Internet facilitates deceit, impersonation and fantasy role-playing, all of which involve blurring the line between perception and reality. As a famous Steiner cartoon pointed out, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog,” and people with an appetite for fraud or make-believe therefore find the Internet irresistible. Not all of these people are criminals or nutjobs, but there are enough of the insane/dangerous types to create a critical mass whenever they find some cause for common action and — no matter how narrow their fringe appetites — it’s possible in an international communication matrix with hundreds of millions of users for a few dozen of them to cluster together and bask in the warm support of their fellow crackpots.

For example, feminists: Tracy Clark-Flory writes about the “labia pride movement,” as if this were something significant.

If there is a critical mass for that kind of delusion, then you see why Bill Schmalfeldt may believe there must be an eager audience for his bizarre fixation, as Lee Stranahan reports:

Bill Schmalfeldt shows no signs whatsoever of stopping public discussion of his sexual obsession with me and my family. He’s been writing about my wife Lauren for months, in insulting and prurient terms that have including fantasizing about having her perform sexuals acts on him and then do menial labor before discussing the death of our daughter Collette
Somehow today, he’s gotten even worse.
On today’s podcast, Bill Schmalfeldt had not one but two new ‘comedy’ pieces, both of which make explicit sexual references to my minor daughter in deranged fake commercials that are about me selling her.
Remember: Bill Schmalfeldt has said repeatedly that he is a serious journalist following a story as any professional would.

Meanwhile, as Stranahan further notes, Bill Schmalfeldt had Neal Rauhauser as a special call-in guest on his two-hour podcast.

Yes, I said, two-hour podcast.

Five days a week, Schmalfeldt rants for two hours about his selected list of enemies which — curious coincidence — exactly matches the Kimberlin-Rauhauser enemies list.

For example (and here we close the circle, as it were), the title of Schmalfeldt’s Feb. 12 podcast was, “It’s Mandy Nagy Day!” Reasonable people may ask, Why would Bill Schmalfeldt single out Mandy Nagy for an entire day of abusive podcasting?

A reasonable answer might be that Mandy Nagy wrote an October 2010 article entitled, “Flashback: Progressives Embrace Convicted Terrorist,” about “Speedway Bomber” Brett Kimberlin. In other words, it is a fair assumption that Schmalfeldt’s entire extravagant oeuvre of harassment — dating back to June, when he began cyberstalking Aaron Walker — was undertaken to defend Kimberlin.

Brett Kimberlin, who reportedly became obsessed with a pre-teen Indiana girl whose grandmother’s murder is still an open case.

Coincidence, probably.

Did I mention that Brett Kimberlin threatened to sue Mandy Nagy? Did I mention that Brett Kimberlin also threatened to sue Patrick “Patterico” Frey, who had also written about Kimberlin’s criminal career? Did I mention that Bill Schmalfeldt also occasionally lashes out at Patterico on his podcast which seemingly serves no other purpose than to attack Brett Kimberlin’s enemies?

Some of these random coincidences crossed my mind today after I received an e-mail from Schmalfeldt with the subject line, “DENOUNCE THIS, OR OWN IT!” The e-mail included a screen-cap of a death threat to Schmalfeldt from a Twitter account. But when I checked the Twitter account — which I  suspected of being bogus — the account had been suspended. So I replied to Schmalfeldt’s e-mail:

STOP CONTACTING ME. FURTHER CONTACT WILL BE CONSIDERED AS EVIDENCE OF HARASSMENT.

By the time I got back on Twitter, Schmalfeldt was already sending me unsolicited messages and trumpeting to various others my reply to his e-mail as proof that I endorse death threats. But there was no way for me to verify that the Twitter account which sent the threat is anything but another of Neal Rauhauser’s notorious collection of sockpuppets.

This morning, I remarked on “Schmalfeldt’s lack of self-awareness, his failure to understand the transparency of his own motives” — he seems to think he is cleverly deceiving people when, in fact, no intelligent person could be deceived by him. In the vastness of the Internet, there may be a sufficient audience of stupid people to justify Schmalfeldt’s daily podcasts, but what are the chances that all these stupid people are also obsessed with Brett Kimberlin’s enemies? Not very good, really.

So many crazy people, so little time.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! The indefatiguable psycho Schmalfeldt has kept at it, so that there is already new cyberstalking craziness, chronicled by Lee Stranahan.

 

Category: Ace of Spades, Bill Schmalfeldt, Patterico, The Kimberlin Files

‘The Kook Who Knew Too Much’: Heroic Fantasy, Paranoia and Barrett Brown

Posted on | February 19, 2013 | 19 Comments

Sept. 12: Barrett Brown rants on YouTube about his plan to ‘destroy’ an FBI agent

Ever since former “Anonymous” spokesman Barrett Brown freaked out on video and got himself arrested, various kooks have floated conspiracy theories to explain Brown’s arrest in terms of the paranoid delusion that Brown was an “enemy of the state” who got too close to the hidden truth about government wrongdoing. He’s like the pasty-white geek version of Chris Dorner or something.

No matter how often I’ve pointed to the far more mundane and obvious explanation — that Neal Rauhauser as “Carlito2000” provoked Brown’s final meltdown — Brown’s defenders keep pushing conspiratorial explanations that reflect their anarchist worldview wherein (a) shadowy government secrets are protected by illegitimate means, and (b) threatening to “destroy” an FBI agent is no big deal.

One typical manifestation of this phenomenon is Patrick McGuire’s article “Why Is Barrett Brown Facing 100 Years in Prison?”

Some of the charges against Brown are related to the hacking of Stratfor by the Anonymous splinter known as LulzSec. (The trial of the lead suspect in that crime, Jeremy Hammond, will reportedly “focus on the alleged theft of around 60,000 credit cards from which, say the prosecutors, charges of more than $700,000 were illegally made.”) McGuire pushes the “hidden secrets” theory of the hacking:

It’s obvious by looking at the most recent posts on Barrett Brown’s blog that while he is highly interested in Stratfor, it wasn’t the credit card information that motivated him. When those five million emails leaked, a product called TrapWire, which was created by a company called Abraxas, was revealed to the public at large. And it caused a media sh-tstorm. In 2005, the founder of Abraxas and former head of the CIA’s European division, Richard Helms, described TrapWire as software that is installed inside of surveillance camera systems that is, “more accurate than facial recognition” with the ability to “draw patterns, and do threat assessments of areas that may be under observation from terrorists.” As Russia Today reported, one of the leaked emails, allegedly written by Stratfor’s VP of Intelligence, Fred Burton, stated that TrapWire was at “high-value targets” in “the UK, Canada, Vegas, Los Angeles, NYC.”
TrapWire has since largely been dismissed as nothing to “freak out” over, and that hopefully is the case. However, far beyond what the surveillance software itself can or can’t do, the revelation that TrapWire exists has caused a chain reaction of discoveries that have seemingly revealed a mob of very powerful cybersecurity firms.
Barrett Brown was doing some very serious investigating into a company called Cubic from San Diego, that was alleged to own TrapWire as a subsidiary of their firm. This is an allegation that they officially denied. However, these tax filings from 2010 that Barrett uncovered clearly state that Cubic had in fact merged with Abraxas Corporation.

“Barrett Brown was doing some very serious investigating” — and, to finish McGuire’s insinuation, that’s why the feds busted him!

All this scary Big Brother-ish noise about “surveillance” and “threat assessment” — and OMG! the CIA! — permits McGuire to portray the merger between two software firms as a dark secret the feds are so eager to keep under wraps that they would arrest and prosecute Barrett Brown on a bogus pretext, because he was getting too close to the hidden truth. McGuire extends this theme:

Barrett started ProjectPM, a wiki that is completely dedicated to piecing together all of this information about surveillance companies in the United States. . . . Without Barrett Brown, tons of this research would likely have gone unearthed. Besides a few journalists, not many people have been looking into this information. The one other group that does is called Telecomix . . . They operate the Bluecabinet Wiki, and they worked very closely with Barrett Brown to uncover more information about the network of cybersecurity firms.
I talked to one of the volunteers at Telecomix, who strongly believes in the work that Barrett did to connect all of these very confusing dots: “I haven’t seen reporters really taking a hard look at what Barrett Brown, the investigative journalist, was researching and where it leads to. His discovery that TrapWire = Abraxas and that there is CIA involvement is very important. Do you know in Berlin right now a game was started to destroy surveillance cameras in public places? Barrett apparently was reading through the emails of HBGary and Stratfor, linking the data to the specific surveillance companies and contractors . . . It is an extremely time consuming task.”

Here’s a simple question: Who do you suppose, apart from avid civil libertarians, would be interested in uncovering “more information about the network of cybersecurity firms,” especially those firms working to protect government computer systems?

Here’s a simple answer: Criminal hackers, cyber-terrorists and hostile foreign governments, that’s who!

Even if you are willing to accept protestations of noble “information freedom” motives by the Anonymous hackers, you have to recognize that there are reasonable limits to how much penetration of computer systems the feds can ignore without risking truly serious consequences, perhaps with national security implications.

So there are good reasons why law enforcement would take the activities of Anonymous and LulzSec seriously, and why illegal intrusions targeting a “network of cybersecurity firms” might arouse especially intense law-enforcement scrutiny. Nevertheless, the indictments against Barrett Brown do not charge him with being an “enemy of the state,” but rather specify three sets of crimes:

  1. Threatening harm to an FBI agent and the agent’s family;
  2. Illegally accessing credit card information from the Stratfor hacking; and
  3. Obstruction by attempting to conceal evidence.

The fact that the cumulative potential prison time for these federal crimes amounts to 100 years behind bars may seem shocking, but (a) it’s highly unlikely that Brown would be put away for the maximum term, and (b) don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

It’s not as if Barrett Brown had no warning that there were risks involved in his very public association with Anonymous. But Barrett’s flamboyant arrogance — giving interviews to NBC News and signing a book deal — would permit no heed to caution. Less than two weeks before he was arrested, I tried to warn him:

You don’t need a lawyer, Barrett. You need a psychiatrist, or perhaps a priest to exorcise your demons. You are traveling a road to destruction, as harmful to yourself as to any of your chosen enemies. Get help.

Obviously, he didn’t listen, and it was therefore scarcely surprising to learn from his hearing in federal court last month that Barrett is being treated with Zoloft, an anti-depressant, and another drug, Risperidone, an anti-psychotic medication used to treat symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Didn’t I tell you he was crazy? Maybe not legally insane — he was, after all, ruled competent to stand trial — but certainly it would not be libelous to describe Brown with the colloquial term “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”

The unabashed media love affair with Anonymous — their depiction as crusading progressive activists — plays into the heroic fantasies of demented people like Barrett Brown, who saw this movement as his best shot at that big narcissistic payoff, the Moment of Glory.

Some people have seen too many spy thrillers in which the evil government/corporate conspirators are exposed and brought to justice by the Misunderstood Lone Protagonist, and the Internet is a convenient vehicle by which they can pursue that heroic fantasy.

It’s never enough for these Moment of Glory chasers to do mere reporting or commentary. No, they’re conducting an “investigation” that will expose the Hidden Evil and Corruption! A sort of outlaw-vigilante mentality grips their imagination. They exaggerate their own importance and, as confirmation of that delusion, cherish the idea that sinister powerful forces are arrayed against them.

This narcissistic fantasy is inspired by elements of popular culture — The Last Honest Man as a heroic ideal — and also involves the paranoid fears that were stoked by the Left after 9/11: Endless scaremongering about “warrantless wiretaps,” portraying the Bush administration as engaged in unconstitutional domestic surveillance. A 2005 Daily Kos headline, “Echelon, the NSA, and Bush’s wiretapping initiative,” captures the climate of fear engendered by the Left in the post-9/11 era. We are therefore not surprised that the amateur enthusiasts who nowadays play-act the role of “investigative journalist” are mostly found on the Left.

Memo to the media: Stop indulging their fantasies.

As an example of coverage that portrays these “hactivists” as heroes, here’s an excerpt by Karen McVeigh in the U.K. Guardian:

Jay Liederman, an attorney who has represented a number of high-profile hackers, accused the government of employing the [Computer Fraud and Abuse Act] to stifle dissent.
“It’s as if with the explosion of hacktivists and activism, this is the government’s new toy. It seems like they took a new look at the CFAA and realised they can chill this type of activism that they don’t like,” he said.
Liederman has represented Commander X, a hacker who is on the run from the FBI for an attack on a website in Santa Cruz, California, and Raynaldo Rivera, a suspected hacker from LulzSec, accused of stealing information from Sony last year. He has described illegal hacker activities such as Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) as “digital sit-ins” or ” the equivalent of occupying the Woolworth’s lunch counter during the civil rights movement” and has called for the law to be changed.
He sees a common thread running through prosecutions of activists for DDoS attacks and those of Swatrz, Auernheimer and Barrett Brown, a former affiliate of hacktivist collective Anonymous currently in prison facing charges under the CFAA, whose prosecution has also attracted criticism.
“They are very closely related,” said Liederman. “It is one rich tapestry of prosecutorial overreach and government oppression.”
Brown faces 45 years in prison and $3m in fines for charges relating to a Christmas Day attack in 2011 against Stratfor, a US intelligence-gathering firm, in which Anonymous hackers stole 5.5m emails, some of which were later published on WikiLeaks.
Brown was not involved in the hack, but allegedly facilitated it by posting a link in a chatroom, thereby providing others with credit card information and identities of thousands of individuals in the Stratfor database.
He has also been charged with internet threats to FBI agents, relating to his Twitter and YouTube feed. All three were “popular, free-thinking information activists” facing “stunningly abusive” prosecutions, according to Liederman.
“With [Aaron] Swartz, with Weev [Andrew Auernheimer] with Barrett, there was no hacking, yet they are being prosecuted by statutes that were made for hackers.”
Each took a “contrarian notion” against established principles, he said.
“Aaron Swartz had the outrageous notion that information should be free, and that future generations should be allowed to enjoy and learn from academic articles. Weev had the outrageous notion that companies like AT&T, because they are sloppy with your information, should be called out on it. Barrett had the outrageous notion that governments and those private security companies that act like the black hand of the government should be transparent and the public should have the right to know.
“These were virtues extolled by our forefathers in this country and all of a sudden they are lost to us.”

What a load of self-serving bovine excrement! And oh, “private security companies that act like the black hand of the government” — that is to say, firms hired to help the government protect information that might be very dangerous in the wrong hands — do the names Julius and Ethel Rosenberg ring a bell here, Liederman?

Is it not possible that the technology that protects government computers, or which enables the government to detect terrorist threats, would be as valuable to America’s enemies as the secrets of the atomic bomb were to Stalin’s Soviet Union? And isn’t it therefore a valid analogy to say that hackers targeting private firms which develop this cybersecurity technology are engaged in crimes as potentially serious as the espionage that sent Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair?

Now, I don’t mean to say that Barrett Brown deserves the death penalty, but I’m sick and tired of people trying to pretend that Anonymous is just a bunch of harmless pranksters, or that attacks on “private security companies” are benign civil disobedience.

Perhaps a more relevant criticism, however, is the simple fact that Barrett Brown is nuttier than squirrel farts. Just in case you’ve forgotten what a lunatic in full rant mode looks like, here’s the 13-minute YouTube meltdown that landed Barrett in jail:

Yeah, he had an “outrageous notion” or two, but what the public really has the right to know is, Barrett Brown is a dangerous kook.

 

Category: Barrett Brown, Conspiracy Theories

Of Course It’s Not A Single Dime: It’s Trillions If Dimes

Posted on | February 19, 2013 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

President Obama’s humor is so subtle as to be unknown. But he’s kind of a funny guy, if you approach his schtick with a certain diabolical, bloody-minded literalness:

AFP has a spending accountability project that is interesting. I wonder, though, if we’re not focusing too much on symptoms, and not the disease here. It seems like corruption is a function of concentrated power. Thus, if we want to talk about reducing corruption, we need to talk about removing power from the federal government. If we were less than an exceptional nation, this would be a silly thing even to talk about. But we are who we are. So, how do we do this?

Update: linked at Jackie Wellfonder

Category: Uncategorized

Lunatic Asylum Overcrowded? There’s Always Room at Columbia University

Posted on | February 19, 2013 | 32 Comments

Jennifer Kabbany reports on a typical Ivy League professor:

A science professor at Columbia University on Monday began a quantum mechanics lecture by stripping into his boxers and eating a banana while rap music played in the background.
Then it got weird.
The professor, Emlyn Hughes, proceeded to redress himself in black, complete with sunglasses, and hug himself on stage at the front of the classroom, a large theater.
As Hughes sat in the fetal position, two “actors” dressed in ninja costumes walked onstage and placed white stuffed animals — lambs — on stools before the audience . . .
The ninjas blindfolded the lambs, then a ninja impaled one of the stuffed animals with a long sword and banged it against the stool — right as an image of a plane hitting one of the Twin Towers on 9/11 started rolling on a large screen behind the performance.

Read the whole crazy thing. Don’t forget that Columbia University is not only Barack Obama’s alma mater, but also employs Professor David Epstein, the Palin-hating HuffPo blogger who carried on a three-year incestuous sexual affair with his own daughter.

Remember: The academic elite are our moral and intellectual superiors.

 

Category: Education, Intellectuals

‘Beware the Ides of March’: Bill Schmalfeldt Threatens Lee Stranahan?

Posted on | February 19, 2013 | 32 Comments

Bill Schmalfeldt of Elk Ridge, Maryland, a.k.a. “Liberal Grouch”

“Healthy minds do not delight in plotting evil against others, and wholesome spirits do not endlessly threaten others with harm they intend to inflict.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Nov. 4, “Monsters on the Internet: Sociopathic Sadism and Bill Schmalfeldt’s Madness”

Last week, Lee Stranahan filed online harassment charges against deranged cyberstalker Bill Schmalfeldt, and now Schmalfeldt has recorded a bizarre rant that also references Aaron Walker, John Hoge and Patrick “Patterico” Frey:

“It’s all horsesh-t. It’s all absolute horsesh-t. And I and my family have been put through pain and suffering because Lee Stranahan has a grudge. Because somebody, in my opinion, is paying Lee Stranahan to file these charges against me, in the hopes that I will either break or die. I got some f–king news for you, Stranny — Walker, Hoge, Frey — beware the Ides of March.”

What famously happened on the Ides of March? An assassination. And March 15 this year occurs during CPAC, which Stranahan will be attending (he’s nominated for a Blog Bash award).

Why is Schmalfeldt dropping the names of Walker, Hoge and Frey into this threat? And why does Schmalfeldt imagine someone would pay Stranahan to file these charges? Stranahan explains:

Nobody paid me to file charges. It cost me about $140 total to go to Maryland. . . .
It was my idea to file criminal charges against Bill Schmalfeldt but I admit it was not my idea alone. My wife Lauren was adamant about filing harassment charges, especially after Bill Schmalfeldt spent days telling lies and raising ugly, bizarre questions about the death of our daughter as part of his ‘investigation’ of me. There was also the fact that Bill Schmalfeldt called child protective services on us plus the bizarre and constant sexual talk about my wife.
Trust me; after months of Bill Schmalfeldt stalking, harassing, threatening, annoying, and directly contacting us dozens of times, nobody had to talk us into filing criminal charges against him.

There’s also Schmalfeldt’s megalomanic persecution complex, as evidenced by his claim that the harassment charges were filed “in the hopes that I will either break or die.”

No, Bill: You were charged with harassment because — wait for it — you were engaged in harassment.

The obsession, the fixation, the inability to step back from the situation and view it with anything like objectivity — these are symptomatic of a deranged mind, and why Schmalfeldt focused his madness on Lee Stranahan is somewhat mysterious. Schmalfeldt started cyberstalking Aaron Walker in June, and peripatetically hopscotched around to attack various other enemies of Brett Kimberlin over the course of ensuing months. In November, Schmalfeldt’s stalking of me escalated to the point that he threatened to contact my wife and sent me more than 200 harassing Twitter messages in the span of 48 hours. And through it all, Schmalfeldt has insisted that his targets deserve his malicious attention, that they are guilty of some heinous wrongdoing that Schmalfeldt is obligated to “investigate” and “expose.”

It seems nothing can dissuade Schmalfeldt from his persistent delusions of grandeur adequacy. Schmalfeldt’s response to being charged with harassment? Threats of retaliation:

“They thought they had chosen the weakest one in the herd, culled me from the herd, and now they think they’re going to break me. I face two misdemeanor charges in criminal court, and that is supposed to break me. I got news for you boys: I’m bringing down the thunder. I’m bringing up the hellfire. I’m rolling the bomb out to the Enola Gay, and I’m loading it into the bomb bay. I’m taking off for Hiroshima. You won’t know when. You don’t know where. You won’t know how. But you will know why.”

This vague threat to unleash “hellfire” upon his enemies at some future time typifies one of Schmalfeldt’s psychiatric traits I noted in November: Sociopathic sadism. Schmalfeldt enjoys inflicting punishment on those he dehumanizes into hate-objects whom he attacks remorselessly as undeserving of sympathy. He relishes the idea that he inspires fear, and the vague threat of future harm — “You won’t know when. You don’t know where. You won’t know how.” — is intended to vindicate Schmalfeldt’s self-image as someone dangerous to his enemies.

One might also observe Schmalfeldt’s lack of self-awareness, his failure to understand the transparency of his own motives as revealed by the characteristic psychological projection: “They thought they had chosen the weakest one in the herd, culled me from the herd, and now they think they’re going to break me.”

No, Bill, that is what you thought you were doing to Stranahan: You believed Lee was particularly vulnerable to your persistent harassment, and so you kept piling up the attacks, the threats, the smears in expectation of destroying him. And now that Stranahan feels compelled to file criminal charges to end your harasssment, you are projecting your own sadistic motives onto Lee.

You’re a sick freak, Bill Schmalfeldt, and every decent person watching your bizarre behavior regards you with utmost horror.

UPDATE: John Hoge reports the latest development:

Yesterday evening, evidence was presented to a District Court Commissioner in Westminster, Maryland, and the Commissioner found it sufficiently persuasive that he issued summonses to Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and Bill Schmalfeldt for Harassment and Misuse of Electronic Communication. A summons was also issued to Bill Schmalfeldt for Unauthorized Access to a Computer.
On 19 April, preliminary hearings will be held in Westminster to determine if there is probable cause to try these individuals for the crimes indicated.
I will have no further statements concerning these matters until I am advised to do so by the State’s Attorney or my lawyer, except to say that 1.) continuation of past behavior could result in additional charges and that 2.) other investigations continue.

Exactly what this means — does “unauthorized access to a computer” mean hacking? — I do not yet know.




 

 

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Category: Bill Schmalfeldt, Blogging, Crime
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