The Other McCain

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

‘Real Reporter’ @NYT_JenPreston vs. Blogger @Prepostericity (Seth Allen)

Posted on | June 14, 2012 | 28 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Last night — as everybody on the blogosphere is now aware — Juan Williams got all snotty with Michelle Malkin on the Sean Hannity show:

“I’m a real reporter, not a blogger out in the blogosphere somewhere.”

Which is to say, he’s got a job at Fox News after having gotten fired from National Public Radio for bluntly expressing his concerns about terrorism, a fight in which bloggers — not “real reporters” — came to Juan’s defense. But this ingratitude for their efforts is something that bloggers have come to expect, eh?

Earlier today, I mentioned that Jen Preston of the New York Times might be one of those “big media” reporters whom Patterico accuses of being afraid to report about Brett Kimberlin.

Whether or not Patterico was aiming that remark at Preston, and whether or not the allegation of being scaredy-cats is fair to reporters who have ignored the Kimberlin saga, part of the problem is that the story may at first glance seem to be one of those silly ginned-up Left-vs.-Right dramas. This is why I keep returning to the same point: Seth Allen (@prepostericity) was the first to be sued by Brett Kimberlin.

With some assistance from Aaron Walker, Allen was able to settle that $2 million suit for the nominal fee of $100. [Please see the clarification in UPDATE III below. — RSM] It was Walker’s involvement in the Kimberlin-vs.-Allen case that exposed Walker to harassment from Kimberlin (and Kimberlin’s vicious associate Neal Rauhauser), ultimately resulting in the May 29 courtroom farce in which Walker was arrested.

There are many other aspects to this story. The SWATtings of Mike Stack, Patterico and Erick Erickson have gotten the most attention, but the fact that it started with Seth Allen, a progressive who persistently called B.S. on the activities of Kimberlin’s Velvet Revolution, is important to keep in mind.

Seth got banned from site after site because he kept pointing out not just Kimberlin’s criminal record, but also the fact that Velvet Revolution (and Kimberlin’s VR partner, Brad Friedman) kept raising money with bogus allegations of GOP wrongdoing. All those claims of Republican vote fraud in Ohio, the conspiracy-theory stuff that Karl Rove had threatened a Republican operative (who subsequently died in a plane crash), the stuff about the Chamber of Commerce, etc. — nothing ever came of any of that. Liberals kept throwing money at Velvet Revolution, and Velvet Revolution kept failing to prove its accusations.

Seth Allen called B.S. on all that, and even after he was sued for blogging about Kimberlin, he has kept reminding readers at his blog, DFQ2 (named for one of Allen’s progressive blogger heroes, “Dave From Queens”) about what kind of rotten dishonest hustles Kimberlin and Friedman have promoted over the years. In February, citing a post in which Friedman urged his readers to support “the independent, progressive, aggressive, and investigative media,” Seth called attention to Friedman’s relentless hype of the Clint Curtis conspiracy theory.

To make a long story short, Velvet Revolution got a lot of attention in 2005 by offering a reward for evidence proving that the 2004 election had been stolen by Republicans. And as a result, Florida resident Clint Curtis became a celebrity on the moonbat circuit:

Curtis said he developed a program that included invisible buttons on touch screen machines that could alter vote totals, but he does not know whether it was ever used. He said he gave the program to one of his bosses, Li Yang, but did not keep a copy….
Curtis said he wrote the affidavit after reading about a reward for anyone who could verify vote fraud. He didn’t want the money, Curtis insists, but wanted to prove the elections had been stolen. He presented copies of his affidavit to several congressional staffers and testified before a Democratic committee looking at fraud allegations in Ohio.

Curtis’s claims were relentlessly flogged at BradBlog , capitalizing on the left-wing resentments going back to the contested Bush-Gore 2000 recount in Florida. That allegedly “stolen” election helped fuel a million e-mails from MoveOn.org, which spent years demonizing Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al., as Grand Conspirators of an illegitimate “regime.”

Much of the toxicity of our current politics stems from the fanatical mindset of leftists who bought into that misleading rhetoric. The point that Seth Allen kept trying to get across was that the Clint Curtis claims — like all the conspiracy theories promoted by Velvet Revolution — were never proven.

As Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times wrote in 2005, Friedman and others “fashioned something of a political thriller out of a series of apparently unrelated events they say prove the elections really were stolen,” allegations in some cases clearly contradicted by facts. For example, touch-screen computer voting machines were not in widespread use at the time — 2000 — that Curtis claims a Republican asked him to create the “invisible button” software. Yet as late as 2010, BradBlog was still promoting Curtis as a hero of their so-called “election integrity” crusade.

It’s a free country, and if people want to pay money for snipe hunts and wild-goose chases, that’s their business. Hell, it might even be legitimate political “activism” under IRS 501(c)4 rules. But when somebody starts denouncing such conspiracy-theory stuff as a hoax and a waste of time, as Seth Allen did, it is clearly wrong — if not actually illegal — to try to silence the critic via harassment.

Does a “real reporter” like Jen Preston have any interest in a fascinating story like this? Or will she continue being scooped by “a blogger out in the blogosphere somewhere”? You should ask her: She’s @NYT_JenPreston on Twitter.

UPDATE: David Horowitz and Jacob Laskin:

Kimberlin’s seamless transition from prison inmate to the beneficiary of left-wing philanthropy offers a stark illustration of the radical course that progressive foundations have adopted.

Hat-tip: The Lonely Conservative.

UPDATE II: We are grateful to Michelle “Out in the Blogosphere” Malkin for reminding us about the real Velvet Revolution, which was a heartbreaker for Stalinist scum everywhere. Please link the Original Velvet Revolution blog — and read their explanation of why this matters.

UPDATE III: Clarification about Kimberlin’s lawsuit against Seth Allen, sent in an e-mail by . . . an informed reader:

First, Seth didn’t settle anything. He had a default judgment against him. Then on November 14, 2011 he had a hearing to determine damages. The $100 plus court costs was a judgment against him.
So he was found to have defamed Kimberlin because… he didn’t show up to fight. Then when he did show up to fight, it was only $100 damages. And the judge made it clear that it was only a nominal sum.
And frankly [Aaron Walker’s] slight help contributed almost nothing to that victory. Which makes Kimberlin’s decision to come after [Walker] even more absurd.

There are many absurd things in the world, including the ruling of Judge Cornelius Vaughey that infringes First Amendment rights not merely for our informed reader, but ultimately restricts freedom for everybody else, too.

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Patterico: ‘Certain Big Media Reporters Are Scared to Write About Kimberlin’

Posted on | June 14, 2012 | 29 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
When I read that sentence, it brought me up short.

“Scared”?

Is Patrick Frey referring to Jen Preston of the New York Times, whose coverage of the Anthony Weiner scandal was controversial?

Brett Kimberlin’s online attack dog Neal Rauhauser has claimed to have a good relationship with Preston — he CC’d her in the September 2011 e-mail he sent to “Occupy Boston” leaders on behalf of Velvet Revolution — but (a) Rauhauser is a notorious liar, and (b) someone told me that, in fact, Preston thinks Rauhauser is as loony as a fruit bat.

Which he is, quite obviously.

Frankly, I am sympathetic to any reporter who might want to write about the Kimberlin story, but dreads the challenge of trying to explain it in a brief, concise news story that makes sense. I’ve written two American Spectator articles about it:

Both of those articles were quite an ordeal to write because the story is so complex, and it’s easy to get “lost in the weeds.” In terms of understanding the basics of Brett Kimberlin’s criminal history, the best resource is arguably Mandy Nagy’s 3,600-word article from October 2010. which cites several other articles, including the thorough 1981 account by Indianapolis Star reporter Joe Gelarden and an excellent 2007 article by Massimo Calabresi of Time magazine.

Very few reporters, however, have even tried to tell the story in any detailsed way, and the temptation to dismiss it as “just an Internet thing” — involving no political big names — is nearly as strong as the temptation to portray it as a mere squabble between Left and Right, which it most assuredly is not. Read more

Category: Mrs. Other McCain, Shoe Leather Fund, The Kimberlin Files

Separated At Birth? JR/WJ Edition

Posted on | June 14, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Dallas is back tonight. Peering into the future, I see a show that is mostly a retread of the classic I watched in my youth, with a heavy subtext of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney bashing.

I could be wrong. The show might play an even hand, and show that capitalism is what makes a first-rate country tick, in addition to showing that money doesn’t buy virtue. Maybe I’ll TiVo it.

What we can be confident about is that the show won’t make any comparisons along these lines:

His Sliminess His Slickness

At least the new Dallas can’t be the first to put George W. Bush’s head on a pike. As though that ‘just kinda happened’ and there was no thought of free advertising involved. None.

via Breitbart

Update: linked by Daily Pundit, who says that capitalism was bashed in the original iteration. I admit to having been young at the time.

Category: Democrats

Norquist And His Pesky Pledge

Posted on | June 14, 2012 | 20 Comments

by Smitty

[Clip below the fold, to preclude auto-play disaster.]

A few notes:

  • The Left cannot make a positive point. The caller has to insinuate that there is evil afoot when influence and money are used to constrain Leviathan. I’ll bet the beverage of your choice that the caller is some civil servant, GS-14 or better, whose dreams of bureaucratic utopia are hampered by Grover the Hobbit and his crew. Make a positive case, lady! Start from first principles and explain why giving money and power to the likes of our federal government isn’t like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
  • Ah, the sound of the Left hand clapping. Is the audience supposed to overlook the fact that the Left lobbies just as hard, or harder? Understood, everything the Left does is predicated upon the assertion: “The people are stupid.” Conservatives will continue to beat the Left with the Wisconsin stick until the Left grasps that this assertion is like Lincoln’s quote about fooling people. The internet has limited “some of the time” considerably, Lefty jackwagons.
  • Editorial question to Breitbart: how do you decimate an individual?

Read more

Category: Andrew Breitbart, Video

LIVE AT FIVE – 06.14.12

Posted on | June 14, 2012 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
SecState Clinton Warns Russia Over Syria Policy

Syrian villagers gather for the funeral of a man allegedly killed by Assad loyalists

Reproves Russians for continuing arms shipments to Assad regime

R. Allen Stanford To Be Sentenced For Role In $7 Billion Swindle
Could get 200-year term for bilking investors

Federal Prosecutors Drop Charges Against John Edwards
Former Presidential candidate won’t face retrial



POLITICS
Casino Mogul Adelson Gives $10 Million To Pro-Romney PAC

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson

Outside contributions to pro-Romney PACs could top $1 billion

Federal Judge Stops Union Organizing Election At American Airlines

Alleged LulzSec Member Indicted For Hacking Fox, PBS Websites

Abortion Bill Passes Michigan House

NY Lawmakers Back Parental Consent For Piercing

Obama Taps Entertainers To Replace Wall Street Money

Conservative PAC Hits Democratic Senate Candidates In Six Battleground States

Battered Tarkanian To Chip Away At Horsford In NV-4



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Trades Near Eight-Month Low Before OPEC Meeting; NYMEX $82.62, Brent $96.80
Troubled Nokia To Cut 10,000 Jobs By End Of 2013
Spanish Bonds Close In On 7% After Moody’s Cuts Rating
May Foreclosures up 9%, Rise Above 200K Annualized Level
Troubles In Europe Sink US Stocks
Asia Stocks Fall As Europe Debt Turmoil Worsens
BDO Agrees To Pay $50 Million In Tax Shelter Case
Target Board approves Dividend Increase
Dot-mayhem: The Domain Landgrab, By The Numbers
Retina MacBook Pro “Least Repairable” Laptop Ever
DOJ Probing Cable Companies’ Internet Data Limits
Asian Electric Car Consortium In Talks To Buy Saab
Time Inc. To Sell Its Magazines On Apple’s Newsstand



SPORTS
Matt Cain Pitches First Perfect Game In Giants History

Matt Cain celebrates with his catcher and first baseman

Personal-high 14 K’s and two great catches later, it’s 10-0 for Cain and the Giants over the hapless Astros

Mets’ Knuckleballer Dickey Holds Rays To One Hit, Wins 9-1

Parise Spurns Rangers, Hopes To Stick With Devils

Dodgers Lose 2-1 To Angels On Homers By Aybar, Callaspo

NBA Approves Sale Of Hornets

Campbell, Kelly Returning To Bruins

Yankees Sweep Braves For Sixth Straight Win


Clarke Targets World Domination For Australia In Cricket

There Was A Big Baseball Scandal…Sorta

Stephen Strasburg Is First Pitcher To Reach 100 K’s This Season

Moore Fills In, Blasts Two Dingers To Help Nats Complete Second Straight Sweep



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Second Miss USA Contestant Comes Forward

Miss USA 2012 finalists

Anonymous contestant supports allegations that the Trump pageant was rigged

Is Kanye’s Nude Twitter Pic K-Dash Or (Some Other) Porn Star?

Our Long “Twilight” Nightmare Is Nearly Over

Miley Cyrus Sports Super Trim Bikini Bod

Cox And Arquette Have No Prenup; He Could Walk Away With Half Her $75 Million Fortune

Showtime’s “Weeds” To End This Year

Julianne Hough Talks Stripping & Pole Dancing

Some Jerk In A Bar Suing Bristol Palin



FOREIGNERS
New Evidence Of War Crimes In Syria
Bangladesh Rebuffs UN Call To Admit Refugees From Rakhine State Violence
Syrian Ambassador To Russia Accuses West Of Sabotaging Annan Plan
Aung San Suu Kyi Begins Triumphant Tour Of Europe
Death Toll In Iraq’s Shiite Pilgrimage Bombings Reaches 72
UN Sustainable Development Conference Opens In Rio
NATO Chief Praises Afghan Forces’ Professionalism
Merkel: Germany Cannot Save Eurozone On Its Own
Breakthrough On Civilian Nukes Boosts US-India Ties
Japan Has Evidence Nork Mobile Missile Launchers Came From PRC



BLOGS & STUFF
Jawa Report: Former President Bush’s Severed Head Used In “Game Of Thrones”
Legal Insurrection: Is Shellie Zimmerman Indictment More Prosecutorial Overreach?
WyBlog: Affirmative Action Stupidity
American Power: Chris Matthews Sucks Up To Fauxcahontas In Slobbering Interview
Conservative Hideout: Union Bosses Abandoning Obama?
PJ Tatler: Leaked Document Hints Obama Would Grant Foreign Companies In US Advantages Over American Companies
S. E. Cupp: The Real Ronald Reagan
Hit & Run: Obama’s Secret Weapon? Voters Too Stupid To Realize His Drug Policies Suck
Fire Andrea Mitchell: CNN Continues To Crumble
AmSpecBlog: Liberal Anti-Mormonism On The Rise
Lonely Conservative: After Shelling Out $32K To Private School, Parents Discover Kids Can’t Read
Mickey Kaus: We Don’t Recriminate Like We Used To
Maggie’s Farm: First They Came For Your French Fries…
Ed Driscoll: Just NBC The Reason Old Media Is Dying
Volokh Conspiracy: Auto Bailout Or UAW Bailout?
Riehl World View: Bloomberg’s NYC Health Board May Expand Reach To Popcorn, Milkshakes

Category: Live at Five

Nigel Farage Sugarcoats The Euro Situation UPDATE: Daniel Hannan Also Has Vague Pleasantries On Offer

Posted on | June 13, 2012 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

Here, watch this. See if you can figure out Farage’s real opinion of Brussels under all of the whitewash and indirection:

Via American Power.

UPDATE, via Zero Hedge, that other famous British MEP also seems unwilling to commit to any tangible opinion on the Euro:

I just wish these Brits could somehow communicate what it is they’re on about a little better.

Update II: welcome, Instapundit readers!

Update III: transcript of Nigel and more at AoSHQ.

Category: Europe

#GOPEstablishmentIn4Words For Users Craving Knick-knacks

Posted on | June 13, 2012 | 23 Comments

by Smitty

 

 

Update: in reply to the query about “undermining and sapping the GOP voting base” in the comments, I’ll tell the GOP the same I’d tell BHO: respect is an earned commodity, Mike Foxtrot. Via RedState. Nicking the summary:

  • Only 20 members of the House have voted for every amendment to cut spending. All are Republicans.
  • 50 members of the House have voted against every amendment to cut spending. 49 are Democrats. One is a Republican (Bonner).
  • The average Republican voted for spending cuts 59% of the time. (Republican Freshman are only slightly better at 60%.)
  • The average Democrat voted for spending cuts 6% of the time.
  • The nine Republicans, including four freshmen, who have least often voted to cut spending are: Bonner 0%, Meehan 4%, LaTourette 4%, Bass 4%, Simpson 4%, Lucas 4%, King, P. 4%, Grimm 4%, and Dold 4%
  • The eight Democrats who have most often voted to cut spending are: Matheson 32%, Rush 31%, Kucinich 30%, Polis 28%, Cooper 20%, McIntyre 17%, Velazquez 17%, and Honda 17%
Category: GOP

Time to Ask: What Did Brett Kimberlin Know and When Did He Know It?

Posted on | June 13, 2012 | 19 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Following up on the tipster who tells Brooks Baynes he has identified one of Neal Rauhauser’s “beandogs” as a prime suspect in the SWATting of conservatives, please take time to examine — also via Brooks Bayne — the e-mail Rauhauser sent to SWATting victim Mike Stack on May 24.

This involves, as Brooks says, a lot of “crazytown” and “paranoia” from Rauhauser, but it also evidently involves a New York City school-teacher named Lane Lipton who repeats malicious falsehoods about me, as well as a repetition of Rauhauser’s assertions that he is privy to information obtained from FBI agents.

How long has Neal Rauhauser been on Brett Kimberlin’s payroll at the non-profit Velvet Revolution? Were Rauhauser’s efforts to influence Mike Stack part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice?

To what extent were Rauhauser’s secretive poison-pen e-mails — including the spreading of defamatory disinformation about me, Patrick Frey and others — approved, authorized and paid for by Kimberlin and/or Velvet Revolution?

Go read that e-mail at Brooks Baynes’s site. Surely, what Rauhauser has been doing for the past 10 months cannot be defended as tax-exempt non-profit “activism.”

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

THE KIMBERLIN FILES

 

Category: The Kimberlin Files
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