The Other McCain

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

#TCOT #BrettKimberlin #SWATting Important Event 9:30 p.m. ET Tonight!

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 21 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Somebody forwarded to me this e-mail announcement from Tabitha Hale of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Intergrity:

Tune in for tonight’s important webinar!
SWATtings and lawfare impact all of us. Our freedom to blog the truth is being compromised, and it’s our duty to fight back. Tonight, we’re hosting a webinar with Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, and Aaron Worthing to discuss the tactics being used to silence bloggers and what is being done to fight back.
All the details are below — please register and help us tweet it out. Any help with promotion is a help.
Thanks for all you do. Keep fighting.
– – – – – – –

June 26, 2012
For Immediate Release

Franklin Center Joins Lee Stranahan, Popehat, Aaron Worthing, Mandy Nagy And Others To Discuss Protection Of The Free Press
Tonight at 9:30pm EDT, The Franklin Center joins Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, and last night’s SWATting victim Aaron Worthing on a webinar to discuss recent attacks on bloggers and the suppression of free speech.
Convicted domestic terrorist Brett Kimberlin and his associates have repeatedly terrorized bloggers and others who highlight his story with over 100 frivolous lawsuits and 4 SWATting attacks. SWATting is a dangerous tactic that involves calling a police department to report a false crime to get a SWAT team dispatched to the victim’s house. The attacks have included bloggers Patterico, Erick Erickson, and as recently as last night, Aaron Worthing.
Yesterday, Rep. Sandy Adams of Florida and 87 cosigners sent another letter to AG Eric Holder urging investigation of costly SWATting tactics. In her statement, Adams said “SWAT-ting is quickly becoming a scare tactic used against political bloggers in an effort to stifle their First Amendment rights.”
Tabitha Hale, New Media Director at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Intergrity, says “These tactics are just appalling. A free press is essential to a free society, and attempts to silence those who are telling the truth are entirely unacceptable. We are glad to have a small part in the fight to protect the First Amendment by supporting victims of these attacks. We will always err on the side of free speech.”
Information on tonight’s webinar is below. Learn what is at stake and learn how to protect yourself and your act of journalism.

Title: Fighting for a Free Press

Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Time: 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM EDT

Reserve your space at the following link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/630051426

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

* * * * * * * *

Everyone familiar with the phrase “Not Good Enough for BlogCon” understands why the New Media Director of the Franklin Center made damned sure that I cannot participate in this event.

However, given the enormous importance of the subject, I sincerely urge you to participate in this event, and also ask you to help promote participation on the largest scale possible.

Tell everybody you know: BE THERE!

Just because I’m persona non grata doesn’t mean you should be, too.

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Conspiracy Theorist ‘Qritiq’ Conspires Against Neal Rauhauser’s Targets

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 29 Comments

Neal Rauhauser at the ‘Netroots Nation’ Conference

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
How stupid does “Qritiq” think we are, huh? The day after Aaron Walker is SWATted, why would Qritiq (who, several people claim, is actually a New York City schoolteacher named Lane Lipton) decide to publish contact information clearly aimed at getting complaints lodged against Patrick “Patterico” Frey?

Do I even need to cite all the evidence that indicates Qritiq is someone who has been doing the bidding of Neal Rauhauser? Is it necessary for me once again to reference those posts from August 2010 in which Neal Rauhauser explained his entire strategy?

What Rauhauser has been aiming to do, for nearly two years, is to gather (or perhaps we should say, manufacture) “evidence” of a right-wing conspiracy, so that he and his allies, by claiming they are targets of “harassment,” can file civil lawsuits or criminal complaints. Then, as Neal has quite explicitly explained, he expects to use the discovery process (in civil action) or subpoena authority (in criminal cases) to acquire information that can be used to continue this strategy.

Rauhauser is, in essence, attempting to use the legal process to engage in the same kind of “hacking” that LulzSec perpetrated against HBGary (a crime with which Neal was obsessively interested). Apparently now in cooperation with Brett Kimberlin’s 501(c) Velvet Revolution, Rauhauser wants to pursue a fishing expedition that will have the result of putting vast caches of e-mails — private, personal, business, politics, government — into Neal’s hands.

This was, for example, the strategy we saw in action when Rauhauser boasted of hand-delivering a subpoena for James O’Keefe’s e-mails, from the New Hampshire attorney general’s office, to a New Jersey courtroom where there was a case between O’Keefe and Nadia Naffe.

By publishing the contact information for Patterico’s employer, Qritiq is doing her part to advance Rauhauser’s strategy, generating a new wave of complaints and attempting to prompt some kind of investigation that might ultimately make Patterico’s e-mails legal “fair game.”

Anyone who will take the time to research Neal Rauhauser’s conspiracy theories (and his own descriptions of his motives and methods) will understand how everything fits together. Are Rauhauser’s claims of a right-wing conspiracy so ludicrous and implausible as to suggest that Neal is quite literally insane? Yes, but . . .

Despite all that, if Rauhauser can ever get courts and law enforcement agencies to buy into any of his claims, so that Neal gets hold of private information he can use against his enemies, the kookiness of his theories will ultimately be irrelevant: Neal wins.

Having spent 40 days reporting this story — and I was on the phone with four different sources this morning — I am just now beginning to see clearly what is actually happening. The “accuse the accusers” strategy, whereby Rauhauser and Kimberlin introduce zany conspiracy claims via criminal complaints and civil actions, strikes most rational people as lunacy. Yet it is actually much shrewder than it looks, because this tactic steadily creates a sort of bread-crumb trail of legal “evidence” for the existence of the (alleged and entirely imaginary) right-wing conspiracy that would be the premise of a RICO claim.

Google “RICO + Rauhauser,” and you find that Patterico understands exactly what Rauhauser & Co. have been up to, the evidence of which has been piling up on the Internet for months. Why do you think, dear reader, that Rauhauser has been so wildly obsessed with “Zapem”? Because going back to the TwitterGate episode in 2010, Zapem and her friends have been witnesses to how Rauhauser operates, and have been monitoring Neal’s operations ever since — and Neal damned well knows it. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

  • It’s impossible to know everything that people are doing behind the scenes to manipulate this situation. Rauhauser claims to have frequent (friendly) contacts with law enforcement, and may be using those contacts to spread disinformation. But of course, Rauhauser lies so routinely that even when we have e-mails or “scrubbed” online documents in which Neal says he’s done something, these statements might be just more lies and crazytalk. (The possibility that Rauhauser’s trying to prepare an insanity defense is something I can’t rule out.)
  • Law enforcement’s reluctance to take action against what I’ve come to think of as the Kimberlin-Rauhauser Axis may be the result of honest confusion. Neal and Brett seem to think they’re crafty enough to fool the FBI, which I don’t think they are. But they’ve managed to spread enough confusing nonsense — the “Christian Infowars Militia” cell! — that it might be difficult for agents to make a clear-cut case of criminal wrongdoing that they can take to a federal grand jury.
  • We don’t know the extent of cooperation among Kimberlin, Rauhauser and others, including the people behind various “sockpuppet” accounts. For all we know, Rauhauser’s been pushing his nutty schemes independently, without telling Kimberlin what he’s doing, even though we have clear evidence of a client-consultant relationship between them. So pointing the finger of blame at Kimberlin may be a mistake, at least until there is genuine proof that Rauhauser did X, Y, Z at the direction and with the approval of Kimberlin. “Plausible deniability,” you see.
  • The SWATtings are the tip of the iceberg, and we do not yet have clear proof that Rauhauser or Kimberlin were in any way responsible for or complicit in these dangerous hoaxes. There is, of course, evidence that seems to suggest that Rauhauser had early knowledge of the SWATtings, but publicly engaging in speculation beyond the basic facts of this limited evidence is extremely unwise.

A lot of people are working behind the scenes to gather and sort through the evidence. There are ongoing private investigations and, I have been told by multiple sources, the FBI is carrying out its own investigation. Citizen-journalists trying to move the story forward must be careful to stick to the facts, and avoid making any false accusations or jumping to premature conclusions.

Finally, to any law enforcement personnel who may read this: The “accuse the accusers” strategy is aimed most directly and intensively at those who pose the greatest threat to Rauhauser’s operation. Patrick “Patterico” Frey has published vast amounts of facts regarding this case, and is prepared to publish much more, and there is every reason to believe that Qritiq’s post is part of an effort to silence Patterico.

UPDATE: Patterico examines some very interesting evidence. Read that and ask yourself, “Why are Kimberlin and Rauhauser acting worried?”

UPDATE II (Smitty): Welcome, Instapundit (AKA ‘Exhibit E‘) readers!

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

 

 


Category: Conspiracy Theories, Patterico, The Kimberlin Files

Spec Ops SuperPAC? Really?

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 28 Comments

by Smitty

I don’t really go for concern trolls, as I was relating to Mataconis on Twitter earlier. But, as noted byhat tip to Nice Deb, there is a Rubicon being crossed when veterans as such become politicized.

Granted, the one driving that politicizing is none other than #OccupyResoluteDesk himself. Incapable of leadership in any positive way, Barack stoops to victory laps over a killing. BHO should emulate the troops who actually conducted the operation, and shut up about it.

And so now the troops are going to break that silence. The military will pursue some political leverage. The Military-Industrial Complex already swings a mighty, yet passive bat in the budgeting and economics of the country. Now military members will drive politics actively?

Sure, there were Swift Boat Veterans for Truth trying to help John Kerry’s ailing memory in 2004. That was a historical point. With the focus kept narrowly on the Osama bin Laden raid, this SuperPAC could be a simliar ray of sunshine to disinfect a corrupt campaign.

However, this is one SuperPAC that could lead to wildly unforeseen consequences. Not wishing to sound all Rick Moran about this, but this is worrisome. One hopes that the organizers of this SuperPAC don’t lose site of the American tradition of military subservience to elected officials and the voters who put those individuals in office, even if those individuals are corrupt pieces of work.

Update: promoted from the comments:

Larry Bailey wrote:

I am one of the founders of the “Super Pac,” and I can assure you that no line has been crossed or will be crossed regarding the separation of the military from its commander-in-chief. Special Operations Speaks Out explicitly excludes active-duty personnel from affiliating with it.

Excellent news. Roman empire comparisons are tedious, so the further away we steer from a Praetorian Guard picking our POTUS, the better off we are.

Category: Barack Obama, Military

We Need More Like Diana Irey-Vaughan Running for Offices Like PA Treasurer

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Diana’s campaign for state treasurer of Pennsylvania made news at a PA State GOP gathering:

But none delivered a speech that roused the crowd more than State Treasurer candidate and Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan.
Don't let the attractive appearance distract--she's tough as nails.
She began with her record and performance as Commissioner, jumping on a key moment to tie her opponent Rob McCord to the President, which the GOP believes is key to picking up seats in the fall.
“Even though I’ve done much of the same kind of work as my opponent, he’s made comments that he doesn’t believe I’m qualified to do this job. You see, my opponent has a Harvard degree and I don’t. But I can think of another elected official on Pennsylvania Avenue with the same Harvard degree and how’s that working out for you?”

Irey-Vaughn is married to a U.S. Army LtCol serving in Afghanistan. When Diana promises to “win the election the Army way,” this blogger is certain that she refers to a deep, patriotic willingness to leave her opposition feeling like a wall of HESCOs landed on them.

DIANA IREY-VAUGHAN
for Pennsylvania Treasurer!
She packs more heat than Timothy Geithner.

Category: Election 2012, Pennsylvania

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.26.12

Posted on | June 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Supremes Strike Down Most Of Arizona Immigration Law

Activists in Phoenix cheer as decision is announced

Portion of law requiring state & local police to check status of suspected illegals upheld; Scalia caustically dissents from the bench on the remaining sections of the law which were struck down

NATO Nixes Intervention In Syria
AWACS planes will be dispatched to Turkey, but that’s it

Israel Urges Putin To Lean On Iran
No sign of concessions from Russian president



POLITICS
Obama Claims Outsourcing Is Part Of Romney’s Economic Vision

Obama on the stump in Boston

Romney campaign: Obama resorting to false and discredited attacks to divert attention from his abysmal economic record.

Supremes Strike Down Montana Ban On Corporate Contributions

Justices Rule Out Mandatory Life Sentences For Juveniles

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Takes Leave For Exhaustion

DNI Clapper Announces New Measures To Stem Leaks

FBI Rescues 79 Teens From Prostitution, 104 Alleged Pimps Busted

Charlie Rangel’s Moment Of Truth



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Continues Slide: NYMEX $78.91, Brent $90.80
European Shares Claw Back Losses But Concerns Persist
Asian Shares Fall Over EU Summit Skepticism
Stocks Dive As Spain Seeks Help For Banks
News Corp Considers Splitting Publishing, Entertainment Businesses
Porsche Looking To Close Sale Of Sports Car Unit To VW As Fast As Possible
Microsoft Purchases Yammer For $1.2 Billion
Facebook Irritates The User Base Again
Microsoft Late To The Tablet Game, But Its Strengths Could Make The Difference
Orbitz Guides Mac Users To More Expensive Hotels
Angry Birds Drives Quietly Into Formula One
Google Claims More Than 500 School Districts In US, Europe Now Using Chromebooks
Two British LulzSec Hackers Plead Guilty



SPORTS
Wildcats Begin CWS Dynasty By Beating Cocks

University of Arizona starting pitcher James Farris

Arizona beats South Carolina 4-1 in Game 2 to win College World Series

Mets’ R.A. Dickey Hopes Sandusky Trial Opens Peoples’ Eyes To Sex Abuse

Youk Not Enough For Sox As Liriano Leads Twins In 7-1 Romp

Ortiz Lone Bright Spot From Red Sox In 9-6 Loss To Jays

Tomlin Tagged Early, Yankees Juggernaut Crushes Tribe 7-1

Byrd Banned 50 Games For Using Tamoxifen


Fish Blow Late Lead, Fall To Cardinals In 10th

Zito Ends Skid, Giants Come Through With Offense In 8-0 Thrashing Of Dodgers

Latos Fans 13, Gets Two Hits As Reds Beat Brewers 3-1

Strasburg’s Streak Ends As Nats Fall To Rockies’ Rally, 4-2



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Paris Hilton Makes Big DJ Debut In Brazil

THIS IS NOT A REAL DJ, OKAY?

And by “big” we mean utterly awful.

Jenny McCarthy On The Cover Of Playboy
Anti-vaccination scam must not be paying off

Vile People Being Deposed On Disgusting Topics

Aubrey O’Day: I Have Mental Issues

“Magic Mike” Star Denies He Stole Stripper Moves From Former Co-Workers

Travolta Sued By Former Cruise Ship Employee

Meet Zooey Deschanel’s New Guy Jamie Linden



FOREIGNERS
Turkey Warns UN Over Syrian Threat To Security
Greek Finance Minister-Designate Resigns, Citing Health Problems
Mumbai Terror Attack Suspect Captured By Indian Police
Japan’s Lower House Approves Doubling Sales Tax
MI5 Chief Discusses Terrorist Threat Before Olympics
Al-Baghdadi Extradition To Libya Sets Off Row Between Tunisian President, PM
Afghan Jihadis Kill 13 Pakistani Troops, Behead 7
Ukraine Court Hears Tymoshenko Appeal
Nigerian President Seeks New Tactics Against Boko Haram



BLOGS & STUFF
Lonely Conservative: Homeland Security Cancels Arizona Immigration Enforcement Agreements
AmSpecBlog: Pinning Romney Down On Arizona
Valley Of The Shadow: Prepping The Battlespace Against SCOTUS And Election 2012
Volokh Conspiracy: Let’s Play “Spot The Logical Fallacy” (James Fallows Edition)
Jammie Wearing Fools: Crackpot James Fallows Says USA Undergoing A Coup Or Something
Riehl World View: “Scalia Rages Against Obama” – Nonsense.
Babalu: Obama’s Oath Of Obfuscation
Wake Up America: Oh FFS – Voter ID Laws Stop Voter Fraud = Better Results For Republicans, DUH
Weasel Zippers: No Joke, Government Spending $2.5 Million To Advertise Food Stamps
Sister Toldjah: #FastAndFurious – Conspiracy Or Stupidity?
Brendan Nyhan: Thomas Friedman’s Law Of Cliche Recycling
Jawa Report: Welcome To The Club, GOProud
Jim Treacher: Maurice Sendak’s Murderous Fantasy

Category: Live at Five

Aaron Walker SWATted?

Posted on | June 25, 2012 | 93 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
The escalating insanity has apparently reached new heights. Just when Aaron Walker achieved a court victory — this:

 

 

Readers will excuse the intensity of my reaction, but I simply cannot imagine that any criminal would be so stupidly overconfident to attempt such a thing, at a time when there is so much public attention on the subject. It boggles the mind.

UPDATE: Patterico reports:

It happened around 6 p.m. Eastern. I briefly talked with one of the police officers at the scene, who confirmed that someone had called saying he had shot his wife, and sent officers to Aaron’s address.
I just got off the phone with Aaron and he and his wife are a little shaken up but OK. The officers had machine guns but did not point them at Aaron. They were quickly able to determine it was a hoax.

More reaction at Twitchy. Memo to The Washington Post: This is now what they call “local news.” Get on it.

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Perhaps now readers understand why I’ve spent the past five weeks at an Undisclosed Location.

Handing off the “night desk” to Bob Belvedere for further updates.

UPDATE III: Cops with M-4 automatics knocked on the door. Aaron said to the cops, “Let me guess, someone claimed I shot my wife…?”

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

Category: Aaron Worthing, The Kimberlin Files

Healing Butt-Hurt: Theory and Practice

Posted on | June 25, 2012 | 32 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Today Mrs. Other McCain got the news that we had been turned down on a rental application for what we had hoped would be our new home, which is rather a bitter pill, considering that we now have less than five days to find a new home. Selah.

It has been five weeks today since I published “Never Doubt That God Answers Prayer,” my first post from an Undisclosed Location, and I’ve been Whereabouts Unknown since then. Also, today is the one month anniversary of “Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day,” when this story occupied the top eight threads on Memeorandum.

No guts, no glory, eh?

When you decide to go “all in,” you play the hand you’re dealt. I’m grateful for everyone who has hit the tip jar to assist in this unexpected emergency relocation, and tip-jar hitters will please accept my apologies for failing to send thank-you e-mails. I figured you were contributing to keep me reporting on “The Kimberlin Files,” and so I have kept reporting, rather than taking time to thank each of you individually.

Sunday, unfortunately, I wasted several hours composing a reply to an “Open Letter” posted by Seth Allen. About 2,000 words into my reply, I figured it was a waste of time, abandoned the draft and moved on. But this afternoon, during a phone call with a source, I was grumbling about the storm of infighting and recriminations among bloggers over the Kimberlin saga, an unfortunate development that has been a distraction and an emotional drain for the past several weeks. I’ve written nearly nothing about it, simply because it was fundamentally irrelevant to the important story I’ve been trying to cover.

Not to whine, you understand.

Mandy Nagy, Patrick “Patterico” Frey and others have been coping with these problems far longer than I have. Since October 2010, there has been a nearly incessant (but unseen) wrangling over the Kimberlin story, engendering much bitterness, weariness and demoralization. When I jumped onto this story May 17, I had no inkling of the background, and found myself inexorably drawn into a bunch of tedious personal drama that other people have facing for months.

Here I was, thinking we were trying to cover an important news story. Instead, I’d wandered into the International Championship of Butt-Hurt.

You. Have. Literally. No. Idea. Read more

Category: Blogging, How This Here Internet Thingy Works, How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog

Insanity as an Ideology

Posted on | June 25, 2012 | 10 Comments

Ace of Spades comments:

Remember what I was saying in the comments on Friday, about the psychological shock of the coming repudiation, and how it would become a Concern (capital intended) as some people simply went crazy?

He speaks of the increasingly deranged James Fallows, but it could equally apply to any number of liberals. As they were utterly graceless in victory, we cannot expect them to lose with dignity.

Category: Ace of Spades
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