"It is analysis that strikes me as having borne no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and web sites is a remarkable failure of that news organization. Charles Babington, find a new line of work."
Charlie Babington is a reporter for the Associated Press. He is a reporter with a lengthy resume, one who has worked for a variety of publications (including The Washington Post -- and as long noted here, Ava and C.I. know Babington). The critique above may not bother you.
You may think it was made at a blog or on talk radio. Standard fare for either.
But it was made on a cable network. And it wasn't a guest making it.
It was Keith Olbermann, on MSNBC.
In making the remarks above, he explained to anyone still confused why he is not on the short list to host NBC's Meet The Press.
In making the remarks, he also demonstrated why MSNBC is becoming increasingly leery of The Mouth That Bored.
Those are not the remarks of an anchor. Those remarks are, in fact, completely unacceptable.
MSNBC is the sewer but even NBC news honchos were startled by the latest swill Olbermann issued on air.
For far too long, Olbermann (who is not a trained journalist) has been egged on and petted. His keepers (General Electric) thought he was a good mammal because he brought in ratings. Foolishly short-sighted 'lefties' (such as Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation) applauded him (and, in fact The Nation made him a cover boy).
Some on the 'left' saw him as the left's answer to Bill O'Reilly.
And that goes a long way towards explaining the rot of the left in this country.
For those who have forgotten, the problems with O'Reilly including his blovating, his blustering and his fact-free approach.
The idea that the left needs an O'Reilly goes against everything the left believes in.
We don't want to shout our arguments louder, we want to make them better and sound. We want to enlighten, not bully. We want to persuade, not terrorize.
As Olbermann continues his descent into Howard Beal madness, it may be time for the left to reconsider the idea that he's the public face needed.
Nothing has changed.
You're not supposed to notice that, but nothing has changed. 'Fresh' faces have popped up in the last few years but there is nothing new about what they offer. They are either more fact-free right-wingers or they are the 'left' equivalent.
They are major images of one another and demonstrate that the fabled media project (that so many Soros dollars built) was never about anything of importance.
War Hawk Rachel Maddow, under a ton of makeup, can be seen on the screens. She's gay! So what. She's a blood thirsty War Hawk who, in 2004 and 2005, spent hours and hours badgering callers and guests who stated the US needed to leave Iraq. Rachel Maddow was not "change you can believe in." Rachel Maddow was more of the same damn thing.
To her credit, Maddow badgers. She's yet (that we're aware of) taken it to blovating.
(Although reports that she call Hillary Clinton a "vain bitch" on MSNBC Tuesday night, if confirmed, would have us rethinking that call.)
Maddow is the Chachi to Olbermann's Fonz. In their minds. He took her under his wing and did so because she was happy to make sexist attacks on Hillary. No one's supposed to notice that.
All this time after, no one supposed to question Olbermann. MSNBC is increasingly questioning him and questioning exactly how out of control he's going to be next? A risk assessment meeting was held following the Thursday night nonsense.
We think it's doubtful Olbermann would be canned (that was discussed), but we know he's a time-bomb and think it's past time the left started acting like a "bully for our side" was something to take pride in.
Olbermann has demonstrated that the center-left can be as insane as the right-wingers on Fox.
Last week, he also had an on air altercation with another MSNBC personality and, at the meeting on Friday, it was pointed out that the other personality is on the rise, with higher approval ratings than Olbermann currently. It was pointed out that if some money was invested into promoting him, MSNBC would be in a stronger position when Olbermann next goes nutty on air.
MSNBC has lousy ratings. It has always had lousy ratings. It may continue to have lousy ratings. Olbermann struts around because he's the highest rated thing on the network. We never saw Vicky Lawrence swagger around when Mama's Family was the highest rated program on the former Pax Network. There's a reason for that, the ratings weren't impressive. In the real world, outside of MSNBC's pondscum, Olbermann's aren't either. (Especially when you factor in what he's being paid to 'produce' those ratings.)
Olbermann didn't like Charlie's report. So he felt the need to scream and hiss on air and to end it by suggesting Charlie find another line of work. Charlie's profession is journalism.
Olbermann strangely assumes he and Charles Babington are doing the same thing. They are not. Charlie is a reporter, Olbermann is a cable mouther. Olbermann's background is in sports (where you can yell like a loon and few will notice). Olbermann depends on the actual work that people like Babington do. It's not as if Olbermann's ever reported a single story, let alone known how to.
Earlier, Olbermann made an ass of himself (it happens so often) that had people at all three network news divisions laughing. That's when he went to town on Katie Couric for Couric daring to note that a reporter who states on air that he can't be objective about the topic he's assigned to cover needs to find another line of work. Real journalists (not Olbermann) agreed with Couric. You are supposed to be objective in the MSM. Not only are you supposed to be objective, you are not supposed to anything that even makes your objectivity suspect.
Declaring on air that you can't be objective about your topic (Obama), demonstrates that you need to, at the very least, ask to be assigned to another topic and, at most, consider getting another job.
Couric was right.
Olbermann screamed and hissed at her. As usual, our watchdogs played dumb.
CounterSpin (which hates CBS News but hates Couric even more) refused to call Olbermann out. They refused to call the journalist Couric was referring to out when he stated he couldn't be objective.
The left is not just losing the high ground, it's surrendering it to wallow in a cesspool.
When CounterSpin (FAIR's weekly radio show) refuses to call out a MSM reporter confessing on air that he can't be objective, there's a serious problem. When Olbermann screaches at Couric (yet another woman he's screamed at non-stop this year) for making a very valid point, CounterSpin better be there. It refused to do so. (Olbermann is also a CounterSpin pet and FAIR co-founder Jeff Cohen finds him 'groovy.')
Do we have a media critique or don't we?
If we have a media critique on the left, why aren't things being called out?
Earlier, we noted the reporter in question was confessing on air not to have any objectivity about his subject ("it's hard"!!!!) and we noted his subject was Barack's campaign. Olbermann's attack on Babington? Also over Barack.
FAIR, CounterSpin and many more watchdogs have proven that they are not interested in a media critique. They have no journalistic objectives or, if they once did, they surrendered them to try and put Barack in the White House. It wasn't always that way. It is that way today and it's damn embarrassing.
The damage FAIR is doing will last beyond an election. Regardless of the outcome, FAIR has made it very clear to the MSM that they are not about truth or a journalistic critique. Week after week, they are about spinning Barack. That's not why the organization was found. When you abandon your principles, it's difficult to pick them up later.
Even if you manage to, no one's going to trust you for a very long time.
Barack or John McCain in the White House could very well mean war with Iran. If there's a new war coming and the time comes to call it out, it's going to be very difficult for certain Panhandle Media outlets to do so because they've sold their souls to Team Obama and that has not gone unnoticed.
The first step to reclaiming the principles the left used to hold dear is publicly rejecting Olbermann's antics.
-------
Olbermann's antics can be read about in Greg Mitchell's "MSNBC Host Rips AP Reporter's Analysis" (Editor & Publisher).
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The overview of Gutter Trash's attack
[This article is written by Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Rebecca, Ruth, Marcia, Betty, Cedric, Wally, Mike, Elaine and Kat.]
Remove the damage done to C.I. kids by Gutter Trash's posting (and set aside the feelings of Jim, Dona, Jess, Rebecca, Mike and C.I.) for a second and look at the rest of what she Gutter Trash did last week.
A judge would wonder, "She found this upsetting? She really found this so upsetting that you broke the law?" A jugde might recommend she get an evaluation to determine her mental health.
Those e-mails from Jess, Dona and Jim are not threatening. Those e-mails do not express violence. The most Gutter Trash can argue is that they disagreed with her. Disagreeing with her sends her into rages? Again, a judge might recommend she receive an evaluation and might also sentence her to counseling.
The judge would also point out the very obvious fact that if she found Jess' e-mail so upsetting, why did she continue e-mailing?
She broke the law by posting Jess' e-mail and it apparently brought her no satisfaction. She continued e-mailing and she never notified that she was posting those e-mails.
That's where, if e-mails fall under the regulations for telephone calls and not letters, she is in serious trouble because her actions would be the equivalent of taping a conversation without informing the other party they were being taped.
Did we all miss something and she's actually part of the police force or a federal agency? We're having a hard time believing she got a warrant for that sort of behavior.
Most likely her boring, little life got too much for her so she decided she needed some self-created drama. That's how it plays on the outside. Her comments she posted to her own entries express very clear malice. That's not good for her either.
The judge would wonder, "All of this because someone didn't rush to praise you?"
Read the e-mails.
Don't read them with all the vective she has surrounding them. Just isolate the e-mails, without her interpretations. She broke the law. But if you just read the e-mails themselves, you'll wonder what had her so outraged to begin with. Someone doesn't like her? Was this the first time someone didn't like her in her entire life? Someone didn't want her to e-mail?
On that point, a judge would ask her why she continued e-mailing when she was told not to?
A judge would say, "You were informed that they didn't have time for your e-mails but you wrote how many times before Dona responded? And then, after you posted her response, you continued to e-mail. Ma'am, could you explain to me what you were thinking when you were doing that?"
Because clearly, if you don't like an e-mail response, if it so upsetting to you that you break the law, you don't keep e-mailing.
Clearly, if you're as outraged as you say, you don't keep e-mailing. You say, "Well screw them." And you get on with your life. (Of course, there is the possibility that Gutter Trash has no life to get on with.)
If you look at the difference in comments from when she first posted Jess' e-mail to when she posted Dona's, you see a serious decline in the quality of comments and that those who were exploring the issue (in agreement with her or opposed to her) disappear. You're left with only her tiny cheering section. Why do you think that happened?
We know she refused to allow Rebecca's comment (Gutter Trash moderates comment) up at her site and possibly she received many complaints (we know she received some from the e-mails that have come in to all sites). But equally true may be that those willing to explore the issue of whether she was right or wrong with regards to posting Jess' e-mail (she was wrong) no longer felt it was worth it to even bother with her site anymore because there was no longer even her pretense of being torn about posting.
She posts the first e-mail (from Jess) and plays injured party. Then it's time for Dona, then it's time for Jess. From the outside, it becomes a question of, "Why did you keep e-mailing them?" Even with all her lies, it's very clear that each e-mail she posts is in response to what she's been sending out.
She wasn't harassed. No one (that includes Rebecca and Mike in 2007) ever initiated contact with her. If she's truly so outraged and insulted why does she keep e-mailing?
And what lunatic excuse does she make for herself for posting Mike's e-mail (from 2007!) at her site without his permission?
There is no excuse.
When the cat's finally out of the bag about what she did, she proposes the novel defense of 'I have an evil twin.'
That may just be the voices in her head or possibly her sock puppets.
She is asked to take it down and she refuses to do so.
She plays injured party even after she is aware of how much pain and suffering she has inflicted.
She treats it all as a joke at her site.
Even after she can't claim to be unaware of what her actions caused.
Sociopath is the term that should be applied here for how Gutter Trash comes off looking.
The 'organization' depends upon confidientiality when exchanging e-mails with anyone in the US. If the 'organization' can't guarantee that, they aren't a great deal of help in their single issue.
But the 'organization' has expressed no concerns or remorse that their representative is posting private e-mails without permission that were sent to their representative in her role as their representative.
One of the people they 'help' became 'concerned' on Saturday. He had joined in on the trashing. He has trashed on Saturday. He has blogged at his own site on Sunday. He should have been concerned the second private e-mails went up if he gives a damn about his organization.
For the 'organization,' that's where the damage starts.
It certainly doesn't help that they're not involved in attacking a woman with cancer. It certainly doesn't look good that, even after being requested to take down the posts, they haven't.
What it looks like is the 'organization' refuses to take any responsibility.
Not surprising when they allow complaints on this to be 'handled' by Gutter Trash's boyfriend.
No, that doesn't look 'good' or 'professional' either.
Nor do his responses attacking people who e-mail the 'organization' to complain about what Gutter Trash has done.
The 'organization' depends upon making a plea for sympathy and justice.
Their actions last week (which are still ongoing) are likely to create a backlash against them.
That's THEIR actions.
We didn't create this problem. They did.
And no judge will see it any different.
Of Gutter Trash, the question he will ask himself is, "Even after she knew the harm her postings had caused, even after she knew the woman had cancer, she refused to take her posts down? She broke the law, she created a scandal for the 'organization' and none of that bothered her?"
Remove the damage done to C.I. kids by Gutter Trash's posting (and set aside the feelings of Jim, Dona, Jess, Rebecca, Mike and C.I.) for a second and look at the rest of what she Gutter Trash did last week.
A judge would wonder, "She found this upsetting? She really found this so upsetting that you broke the law?" A jugde might recommend she get an evaluation to determine her mental health.
Those e-mails from Jess, Dona and Jim are not threatening. Those e-mails do not express violence. The most Gutter Trash can argue is that they disagreed with her. Disagreeing with her sends her into rages? Again, a judge might recommend she receive an evaluation and might also sentence her to counseling.
The judge would also point out the very obvious fact that if she found Jess' e-mail so upsetting, why did she continue e-mailing?
She broke the law by posting Jess' e-mail and it apparently brought her no satisfaction. She continued e-mailing and she never notified that she was posting those e-mails.
That's where, if e-mails fall under the regulations for telephone calls and not letters, she is in serious trouble because her actions would be the equivalent of taping a conversation without informing the other party they were being taped.
Did we all miss something and she's actually part of the police force or a federal agency? We're having a hard time believing she got a warrant for that sort of behavior.
Most likely her boring, little life got too much for her so she decided she needed some self-created drama. That's how it plays on the outside. Her comments she posted to her own entries express very clear malice. That's not good for her either.
The judge would wonder, "All of this because someone didn't rush to praise you?"
Read the e-mails.
Don't read them with all the vective she has surrounding them. Just isolate the e-mails, without her interpretations. She broke the law. But if you just read the e-mails themselves, you'll wonder what had her so outraged to begin with. Someone doesn't like her? Was this the first time someone didn't like her in her entire life? Someone didn't want her to e-mail?
On that point, a judge would ask her why she continued e-mailing when she was told not to?
A judge would say, "You were informed that they didn't have time for your e-mails but you wrote how many times before Dona responded? And then, after you posted her response, you continued to e-mail. Ma'am, could you explain to me what you were thinking when you were doing that?"
Because clearly, if you don't like an e-mail response, if it so upsetting to you that you break the law, you don't keep e-mailing.
Clearly, if you're as outraged as you say, you don't keep e-mailing. You say, "Well screw them." And you get on with your life. (Of course, there is the possibility that Gutter Trash has no life to get on with.)
If you look at the difference in comments from when she first posted Jess' e-mail to when she posted Dona's, you see a serious decline in the quality of comments and that those who were exploring the issue (in agreement with her or opposed to her) disappear. You're left with only her tiny cheering section. Why do you think that happened?
We know she refused to allow Rebecca's comment (Gutter Trash moderates comment) up at her site and possibly she received many complaints (we know she received some from the e-mails that have come in to all sites). But equally true may be that those willing to explore the issue of whether she was right or wrong with regards to posting Jess' e-mail (she was wrong) no longer felt it was worth it to even bother with her site anymore because there was no longer even her pretense of being torn about posting.
She posts the first e-mail (from Jess) and plays injured party. Then it's time for Dona, then it's time for Jess. From the outside, it becomes a question of, "Why did you keep e-mailing them?" Even with all her lies, it's very clear that each e-mail she posts is in response to what she's been sending out.
She wasn't harassed. No one (that includes Rebecca and Mike in 2007) ever initiated contact with her. If she's truly so outraged and insulted why does she keep e-mailing?
And what lunatic excuse does she make for herself for posting Mike's e-mail (from 2007!) at her site without his permission?
There is no excuse.
When the cat's finally out of the bag about what she did, she proposes the novel defense of 'I have an evil twin.'
That may just be the voices in her head or possibly her sock puppets.
She is asked to take it down and she refuses to do so.
She plays injured party even after she is aware of how much pain and suffering she has inflicted.
She treats it all as a joke at her site.
Even after she can't claim to be unaware of what her actions caused.
Sociopath is the term that should be applied here for how Gutter Trash comes off looking.
The 'organization' depends upon confidientiality when exchanging e-mails with anyone in the US. If the 'organization' can't guarantee that, they aren't a great deal of help in their single issue.
But the 'organization' has expressed no concerns or remorse that their representative is posting private e-mails without permission that were sent to their representative in her role as their representative.
One of the people they 'help' became 'concerned' on Saturday. He had joined in on the trashing. He has trashed on Saturday. He has blogged at his own site on Sunday. He should have been concerned the second private e-mails went up if he gives a damn about his organization.
For the 'organization,' that's where the damage starts.
It certainly doesn't help that they're not involved in attacking a woman with cancer. It certainly doesn't look good that, even after being requested to take down the posts, they haven't.
What it looks like is the 'organization' refuses to take any responsibility.
Not surprising when they allow complaints on this to be 'handled' by Gutter Trash's boyfriend.
No, that doesn't look 'good' or 'professional' either.
Nor do his responses attacking people who e-mail the 'organization' to complain about what Gutter Trash has done.
The 'organization' depends upon making a plea for sympathy and justice.
Their actions last week (which are still ongoing) are likely to create a backlash against them.
That's THEIR actions.
We didn't create this problem. They did.
And no judge will see it any different.
Of Gutter Trash, the question he will ask himself is, "Even after she knew the harm her postings had caused, even after she knew the woman had cancer, she refused to take her posts down? She broke the law, she created a scandal for the 'organization' and none of that bothered her?"
How it started and who started it
[This article is written by Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Mike, Wally, Cedric, Ruth, Rebecca, Elaine, Marcia and Kat.]
Last week, a woman launched a prolonged attack on Dona, Jess, Jim, Mike, Rebecca and C.I.
Mike, Rebecca and C.I. had not had any contact with her Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, through Thursday evening. (C.I. had never had contact with the woman. In 2007, Mike had replied nicely to one of her frantic fan mails and ignored the rest as she turned complete whack-job. In 2007, Rebecca and she had exchanged angry e-mails.) But every day she attacked all of us at her blog, sometimes in a new post, sometimes in new comments she left to her own post.
The backstory is that she e-mailed both Mike and Rebecca in 2007. With both of them she started off cordial or so it seemed. Rebecca sensed right away what was going on and was very clear in her replies (there were several) that she wasn't in the mood for Gutter Trash's crap. Mike caught on after he made the mistake of replying originally. He wrote a kind e-mail. He received multiple replies which he wasn't aware of because they'd gone into his "spam" folder and not his "inbox." "Nutcase," was his dismissal of her and he never replied to her other than his original e-mail.
For anyone who doesn't know this (readers of this site know it), we do share which nutcases e-mail. When C.I. found out about the run-ins, Gutter Trash was no longer linked to at any community site (only C.I. had ever linked to her) and that was the end of it.
On our end.
Monday Jess, pulling e-mail account duty at The Common Ills, found an e-mail from Gutter Trash and she wanted to play the 'nice' game. She represented herself as part of "organization" and wanted to say "thank you" to C.I. for C.I. doing her part to get the word out on war resisters but, oh, by the way, you're wrong about Robin Long being extradited.
C.I. is not wrong about that. Judge Anne Mactavish initiated an extradition and called it a "deportation" because to call it what it was would kick it up for review (she neither has the power to extradite, nor does she have any laws or treaties backing her extradition up). It was an illegal extradition and legal scholars have weighed in publicly calling it that and the international press has reported it as such.
But Gutter Trash knows everything. Or think she does.
Jess wrote her back only because she was part of the 'organization.' He explained to her that we don't have time for her e-mails unless they are about an event or news to highlight, so don't write for any other reasons.
That was apparently difficult for her to understand because she wrote repeatedly. Dona saw them the next day. She read through all that garbage. In her final e-mail, Gutter Trash's meds appeared to kick-in and she was on even keel. Thinking she could make the point better by explaining slowly, Dona e-mailed her back.
Had Dona known (no one did) that Gutter Trash had already posted Jess' e-mail online (without his permission), Dona wouldn't have written back. Gutter Trash was spoiling for a fight and the mistake made on the part of Jess, Dona and Jim was in not ignoring her in the first place. Had she not been a representative of the 'organization,' they never would have replied her to begin with.
Dona's post goes up and includes a single sentence that mentioned C.I.'s recent week of exams. That comes into play shortly.
Gutter Trash still hasn't gone away despite being asked not to e-mail unless it was news of or event of the 'organization' she represents. Jim had e-mail duty at the public account of The Common Ills next. He was already fed up with Gutter Trash and, being Jim, didn't have much to say to her to begin with. He wrote her a short e-mail that repeated the main point of when it was acceptable to write.
She posted Jim's e-mail.
During all of this, Gutter Trash was actively trashing Jim, Dona and Jess. She broke the law posting their e-mails but that wasn't enough for her. Early on, a commentator who either never came back to her site (she was the first to post when Gutter Trash published the first e-mail) said she didn't think it was appropriate to be posting an e-mail without the sender's permission. She either stopped visiting Gutter Trash's posts trashing everyone or else Gutter Trash stopped allowing her comments to be published. We have no idea which.
Because, Jim, Jess and Dona had mentioned they knew what Gutter Trash had pulled with Rebecca and Mike, Gutter Trash decided to produce an e-mail to Rebecca and two to Mike. That's her right, she wrote those e-mails. She wasn't being honest (Rebecca and she had a lengthy e-mail exchange) but posting her e-mails to them didn't break any laws.
However, Gutter Trash also decided to post Mike's e-mail responding to her. (Mike says today that had he seen all of her e-mails that ended up in the "spam" folder as they came in, he would have written another reply and it would have given her something to whine about.) Mike's not said anything rude in that e-mail and Gutter Trash was delighted with it.
Her argument for posting Jess' e-mail (and later Dona and Jim's) without their permission (and breaking the law) was that they were 'mean' to her. There is no such excuse when it comes to Mike. And, strangely, at that point she didn't even feel the need to offer excuses for breaking the law and ethical behavior.
And her sock puppet squadron (a very dumb crowd) never thought to ask, "Gutter Trash, did you ask Mike for his permission?"
As Mike has pointed out, she felt so 'powerful' in getting away with her first lie, she started forgetting them as she rushed to her next lie.
Thursday, Ty received a phone call from C.I.'s oldest son.
Gutter Trash's week long trashing paid off. She finally got some attention. A man stumbled across it and called C.I. son to ask if the cancer was back? The son had been trying to call around (Ava, Kat, Rebecca, Wally and C.I. were speaking about Iraq and have their ringers turned all the way down during speaking engagements) to find out. He called Ty, who called (and texted) an emergency call to ask C.I. to call immediately.
To be clear, the cancer was back. The bulk of us didn't know that. C.I. told Elaine and Ava and told Ava that, if she needed to tell someone, she could tell Jess but swear him to privacy. C.I. had Dona (who didn't know anything was wrong) cancel all of September and October's speaking events. Dona did and we all assumed that C.I. was just sick of being on the road (C.I. had stated it was time for a break). That's not surprising since the schedule since August 2006 has seen them on the road every week except for one week in July 2007 and one week in July 2008 (both weeks, they spoke locally). Kat has been saying for months (to us and her site) she needs a break. So in that context, it didn't strike us as odd that the calendar would be cleared.
This was Parents Weekend at C.I.'s. C.I. had long floated that we needed to do that. While Dona was clearing the calendar, C.I. made plans for that. Jess, Ava, Dona, Jim, Ty and Wally live at C.I.'s. Their parents were invited (Wally's father is deceased -- it was his mother and his grandfather -- and Ty was raised by his grandparents who were invited and did show up). Except for Wally and Ava, everyone's visitors came in on Friday because Ava and Wally were on the road and would be returning Saturday with Kat and C.I. Everyone would leave Sunday afternoon. C.I. had invited her three kids to take part and has asked that they stay through Monday (leaving on Tuesday). She had explained that to them as the family day being planned. Sunday afternoon, after people's relatives left, C.I. was to break the news to her children and Ava would break the news to Jim, Dona and Ty (Jess already knew).
That had been the plan.
That all changed due to Gutter Trash's attacks.
Already one person had called C.I.'s oldest son. C.I. had to break the news over the phone to him. C.I. then had to do the same with her daughter and youngest son to avoid them learning elsewhere.
Rebecca got on the laptop somewhere in there ("I was in shock, I have no idea when it was, late Thursday afternoon or evening, we were in the Mountain Time Zone"), went in search of Gutter Trash's site, found it, logged into Blogger/Blogspot and attempted to leave a comment.
"I said that C.I. has cancer and the post needs to come down right away. I said that the woman wasn't telling the truth about her interation with me and that there were many replies from me to her and from her to me in 2007 that she wasn't honest about," Rebecca remembers.
By signing in via Blogger/Blogspot, Rebecca's comment would be linked to with her name. There would be no confusion as to who left it unless someone had stolen or figured out Rebecca's pass word. The comment never made it up. That's important in terms of Gutter Trash's sock puppet crowd. It's also important in a later detail.
C.I. e-mails Gutter Trash to tell her to pull it. C.I. contacts the 'organization' expressing dismay and asking if the woman is indeed part of their 'organization.' (Dona had already written them telling them that it needed to come down. C.I. had no idea.) The head of the organization e-mailed Dona and C.I. (though he thought he was e-mailing one person -- reading is fundamental) in a lackadaisical manner where he praised Gutter Trash and said he'd pass the concerns on to her.
C.I. was legally advised Friday to e-mail the 'organization' again and state that it needed to come down. C.I. sent that e-mail and received no response (to this day).
Thursday, C.I. dictated the snapshot and went through with the other speaking engagements scheduled. The snapshot went up the latest it ever has. It was dictated and it was held.
It alludes to what happened and though many in the community knew (Shirley went into overdrive getting the news out after Ty gave his okay), not everyone did. Kat and Rebecca broke the news to Betty over the phone. C.I. was going to have Elaine break the news to Mike. (Mike doesn't handle illness well. He's blogged about that many times and, last month, blogged about how difficult it was to move out of his parents' home and shared about how it reminded him of when his dog died senior year of high school). C.I. called Mike's father and mother to see if Mike had said anything to them yet. He hadn't called them and C.I. knew they'd be the first he'd called after Elaine. So C.I. asked Wally to call Mike (who was at Elaine's office; Elaine was doing her Thursday night group session with Iraq War vets) and to keep him on the phone, make up a problem, anything to keep him on the phone and off the computer. As soon as Mike indicated that Elaine was done (Wally was to say he really wanted Elaine's take on it -- for those interested, Wally invented a story that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant with his child) and was putting her on the phone, the snapshot could go up. (And did.) Wally explained to Elaine briefly what had happened, that she needed to tell Mike and please call C.I. in a few hours.
[Others? Trina drove to Ruth's to tell her in person. Ava broke the news to Cedric over the phone. Ruth and Trina drove to Marcia's to tell her in person. Ty learned of it from C.I. when C.I. returned Ty's call. C.I.'s response to the rumor was such that Ty knew it was true. C.I. confirmed it and asked Ty to figure out how to let the community members know and that she thought Jess already knew so check with him and then inform Dona and Jim together. Kat and Rebecca learned it as C.I. was on the phone because they were standing right next to her. Ty and Shirley made every effort possible to contact as many members as possible.]
Gifting the woman with "Gutter Trash" as a name, C.I. wrote about it late Thursday night.
Since that time, many e-mails have come in expressing disbelief and anger at the stunt Gutter Trash pulled. That's visitors and community members. Two never heard from outsiders have written to ask 'Can't we all just get along.'
It's a funny concern and one never posted to Gutter Trash's site.
No concerns posted at Gutter Trash's site. She's the representative for the 'organization' and she's got all that crap at her site and no one ever explained to her, "Hey Gutter Trash, when Audrey Hepburn was a UNICEF ambassador, I don't think she would have done this. I'd think she'd worry about how this would reflect on herself and the UN."
'Concern' only came when C.I. responded about the harm caused to her kids by this garbage.
Gutter Trash wrote late Thursday and Ava saw it and pointed out that C.I. was correct. Shortly after C.I.'s Thursday night entry posted, Gutter Trash and/or boyfriend and/or sock puppet showed up with an e-mail. How was C.I. correct? C.I. had said Gutter Trash was a drama queen and would come up with some way to make it all about Gutter Trash which is exactly what Gutter Trash did shortly after C.I. finally responded.
If you read C.I.'s entries on the topic, you're aware that C.I.'s kids were the focus. The harm done to them. The horror that they had to find out over the phone.
C.I. had planned this all out and it was her news to break. She was going to do so in person. Days before she could, Gutter Trash made that impossible.
But she/he/it did manage to write and make it all about her. Expressing no remorse for what she'd done, admitting no guilt over her own actions, Gutter Trash offered that there was this troll out there, this evil twin posing as her.
Gutter Trash doesn't like it that this is being discussed. Tough s**t. She started it and Jim, Dona and Jess will reply next week. This group piece was too hard to write. Finally, Ava and C.I. excused themselves from it (to work on the TV commentary) and Dona polled everyone on what they felt needed to be said right now.
Betty's always been the most gifted with reaching readers with her no-nonsense, from the Deep South, let it all hang out so we quickly jotted down her comments which seemed to sum up the main posts being made by all.
Betty: I guess I would first say, "Kiss my Black ass, Gutter Trash." I would then scream at her, "Do you know suffer any guilt for what you did?" I would ask her where she thought she could get away with breaking the law? I would tell her that no mother 'needs' to tell their kids they have cancer. But when they have to, they shouldn't be forced to because of something that is online. I have three kids myself. After Rebecca and Kat's call, I just got my kids to sit on the couch with me. I told him I got some bad news I didn't want to talk about but just sit with Mommy for awhile. Does that insane woman have no idea what it's like to be a parent? Does she have no idea what it's like to be a child? I would ask if her if she was happy with being so disgusting and filthy? I would point out that even after learning what had happened due to her actions, she was still tearing apart C.I. online. I would tell her there's no justification for what she did, that it was illegal and that she has the morals of an alley cat for keeping those posts up there and for continuing to write new ones. The woman that wrote pleading to all get along is an idiot and sounds that way in her e-mail. As for the one who showed up pretending he just learned about it, in the church I was raised in, we call that "lying." He pulled that in my community, we'd be planning a "Come to Jesus" moment for him right about now. We'd be telling him to get honest about his actions and point out that if you walk in on a trashing and don't call it out, you're at fault. If you walk in on a trashing and add anything to it that is not "Stop it!" then you have participated. It's very Judas like and I'm guessing that a man who can't take accountablity for his actions in a trashing really doesn't know the story of Judas. What kind of people are these? And what kind of an 'organization' is that? These people are disgusting freaks. They are trying to win public support for an issue and they're caught online publishing private e-mails and having ha-has about a woman with cancer. They're freaks. They live in their own little amoral world. And apparently without any adult supervision. That's my real question, is there no damn adult in that country? There's certainly no adult in the 'organization,' but is there no damn adult in that country that can step in and say, "You went too far. You went way too far."
They are an amoral bunch.
The claim that C.I. 'started' anything is insane.
Gutter Trash has revealed her malice. Jim, Dona and Jess already knew how she was. That's why they repeatedly told her, no news or event, don't e-mail us again.
Most people who receive an e-mail they don't like, move on with their lives.
It was never about her not liking an e-mail. It was about her wanting to start a fight. It was about her wanting to get attention.
She started it and continued it for days (and has continued it since). Don't try to pin this on C.I.
Next week, if nothing's done, Jim, Dona and Jess respond. If more garbage continues, you will read about it on community sites.
C.I.'s kids want Gutter Trash exposed and much more. We were all in holding position until knowing where they stood. And while C.I. may play high minded, the rest of us will not.
If you think this is 'bothersome' now, you haven't seen anything yet.
Jim, Dona, Jess and C.I. have been trashed all last week at Gutter Trash's site. It wasn't just posting those e-mails, it was non-stop trashing.
Last week, a woman launched a prolonged attack on Dona, Jess, Jim, Mike, Rebecca and C.I.
Mike, Rebecca and C.I. had not had any contact with her Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, through Thursday evening. (C.I. had never had contact with the woman. In 2007, Mike had replied nicely to one of her frantic fan mails and ignored the rest as she turned complete whack-job. In 2007, Rebecca and she had exchanged angry e-mails.) But every day she attacked all of us at her blog, sometimes in a new post, sometimes in new comments she left to her own post.
The backstory is that she e-mailed both Mike and Rebecca in 2007. With both of them she started off cordial or so it seemed. Rebecca sensed right away what was going on and was very clear in her replies (there were several) that she wasn't in the mood for Gutter Trash's crap. Mike caught on after he made the mistake of replying originally. He wrote a kind e-mail. He received multiple replies which he wasn't aware of because they'd gone into his "spam" folder and not his "inbox." "Nutcase," was his dismissal of her and he never replied to her other than his original e-mail.
For anyone who doesn't know this (readers of this site know it), we do share which nutcases e-mail. When C.I. found out about the run-ins, Gutter Trash was no longer linked to at any community site (only C.I. had ever linked to her) and that was the end of it.
On our end.
Monday Jess, pulling e-mail account duty at The Common Ills, found an e-mail from Gutter Trash and she wanted to play the 'nice' game. She represented herself as part of "organization" and wanted to say "thank you" to C.I. for C.I. doing her part to get the word out on war resisters but, oh, by the way, you're wrong about Robin Long being extradited.
C.I. is not wrong about that. Judge Anne Mactavish initiated an extradition and called it a "deportation" because to call it what it was would kick it up for review (she neither has the power to extradite, nor does she have any laws or treaties backing her extradition up). It was an illegal extradition and legal scholars have weighed in publicly calling it that and the international press has reported it as such.
But Gutter Trash knows everything. Or think she does.
Jess wrote her back only because she was part of the 'organization.' He explained to her that we don't have time for her e-mails unless they are about an event or news to highlight, so don't write for any other reasons.
That was apparently difficult for her to understand because she wrote repeatedly. Dona saw them the next day. She read through all that garbage. In her final e-mail, Gutter Trash's meds appeared to kick-in and she was on even keel. Thinking she could make the point better by explaining slowly, Dona e-mailed her back.
Had Dona known (no one did) that Gutter Trash had already posted Jess' e-mail online (without his permission), Dona wouldn't have written back. Gutter Trash was spoiling for a fight and the mistake made on the part of Jess, Dona and Jim was in not ignoring her in the first place. Had she not been a representative of the 'organization,' they never would have replied her to begin with.
Dona's post goes up and includes a single sentence that mentioned C.I.'s recent week of exams. That comes into play shortly.
Gutter Trash still hasn't gone away despite being asked not to e-mail unless it was news of or event of the 'organization' she represents. Jim had e-mail duty at the public account of The Common Ills next. He was already fed up with Gutter Trash and, being Jim, didn't have much to say to her to begin with. He wrote her a short e-mail that repeated the main point of when it was acceptable to write.
She posted Jim's e-mail.
During all of this, Gutter Trash was actively trashing Jim, Dona and Jess. She broke the law posting their e-mails but that wasn't enough for her. Early on, a commentator who either never came back to her site (she was the first to post when Gutter Trash published the first e-mail) said she didn't think it was appropriate to be posting an e-mail without the sender's permission. She either stopped visiting Gutter Trash's posts trashing everyone or else Gutter Trash stopped allowing her comments to be published. We have no idea which.
Because, Jim, Jess and Dona had mentioned they knew what Gutter Trash had pulled with Rebecca and Mike, Gutter Trash decided to produce an e-mail to Rebecca and two to Mike. That's her right, she wrote those e-mails. She wasn't being honest (Rebecca and she had a lengthy e-mail exchange) but posting her e-mails to them didn't break any laws.
However, Gutter Trash also decided to post Mike's e-mail responding to her. (Mike says today that had he seen all of her e-mails that ended up in the "spam" folder as they came in, he would have written another reply and it would have given her something to whine about.) Mike's not said anything rude in that e-mail and Gutter Trash was delighted with it.
Her argument for posting Jess' e-mail (and later Dona and Jim's) without their permission (and breaking the law) was that they were 'mean' to her. There is no such excuse when it comes to Mike. And, strangely, at that point she didn't even feel the need to offer excuses for breaking the law and ethical behavior.
And her sock puppet squadron (a very dumb crowd) never thought to ask, "Gutter Trash, did you ask Mike for his permission?"
As Mike has pointed out, she felt so 'powerful' in getting away with her first lie, she started forgetting them as she rushed to her next lie.
Thursday, Ty received a phone call from C.I.'s oldest son.
Gutter Trash's week long trashing paid off. She finally got some attention. A man stumbled across it and called C.I. son to ask if the cancer was back? The son had been trying to call around (Ava, Kat, Rebecca, Wally and C.I. were speaking about Iraq and have their ringers turned all the way down during speaking engagements) to find out. He called Ty, who called (and texted) an emergency call to ask C.I. to call immediately.
To be clear, the cancer was back. The bulk of us didn't know that. C.I. told Elaine and Ava and told Ava that, if she needed to tell someone, she could tell Jess but swear him to privacy. C.I. had Dona (who didn't know anything was wrong) cancel all of September and October's speaking events. Dona did and we all assumed that C.I. was just sick of being on the road (C.I. had stated it was time for a break). That's not surprising since the schedule since August 2006 has seen them on the road every week except for one week in July 2007 and one week in July 2008 (both weeks, they spoke locally). Kat has been saying for months (to us and her site) she needs a break. So in that context, it didn't strike us as odd that the calendar would be cleared.
This was Parents Weekend at C.I.'s. C.I. had long floated that we needed to do that. While Dona was clearing the calendar, C.I. made plans for that. Jess, Ava, Dona, Jim, Ty and Wally live at C.I.'s. Their parents were invited (Wally's father is deceased -- it was his mother and his grandfather -- and Ty was raised by his grandparents who were invited and did show up). Except for Wally and Ava, everyone's visitors came in on Friday because Ava and Wally were on the road and would be returning Saturday with Kat and C.I. Everyone would leave Sunday afternoon. C.I. had invited her three kids to take part and has asked that they stay through Monday (leaving on Tuesday). She had explained that to them as the family day being planned. Sunday afternoon, after people's relatives left, C.I. was to break the news to her children and Ava would break the news to Jim, Dona and Ty (Jess already knew).
That had been the plan.
That all changed due to Gutter Trash's attacks.
Already one person had called C.I.'s oldest son. C.I. had to break the news over the phone to him. C.I. then had to do the same with her daughter and youngest son to avoid them learning elsewhere.
Rebecca got on the laptop somewhere in there ("I was in shock, I have no idea when it was, late Thursday afternoon or evening, we were in the Mountain Time Zone"), went in search of Gutter Trash's site, found it, logged into Blogger/Blogspot and attempted to leave a comment.
"I said that C.I. has cancer and the post needs to come down right away. I said that the woman wasn't telling the truth about her interation with me and that there were many replies from me to her and from her to me in 2007 that she wasn't honest about," Rebecca remembers.
By signing in via Blogger/Blogspot, Rebecca's comment would be linked to with her name. There would be no confusion as to who left it unless someone had stolen or figured out Rebecca's pass word. The comment never made it up. That's important in terms of Gutter Trash's sock puppet crowd. It's also important in a later detail.
C.I. e-mails Gutter Trash to tell her to pull it. C.I. contacts the 'organization' expressing dismay and asking if the woman is indeed part of their 'organization.' (Dona had already written them telling them that it needed to come down. C.I. had no idea.) The head of the organization e-mailed Dona and C.I. (though he thought he was e-mailing one person -- reading is fundamental) in a lackadaisical manner where he praised Gutter Trash and said he'd pass the concerns on to her.
C.I. was legally advised Friday to e-mail the 'organization' again and state that it needed to come down. C.I. sent that e-mail and received no response (to this day).
Thursday, C.I. dictated the snapshot and went through with the other speaking engagements scheduled. The snapshot went up the latest it ever has. It was dictated and it was held.
It alludes to what happened and though many in the community knew (Shirley went into overdrive getting the news out after Ty gave his okay), not everyone did. Kat and Rebecca broke the news to Betty over the phone. C.I. was going to have Elaine break the news to Mike. (Mike doesn't handle illness well. He's blogged about that many times and, last month, blogged about how difficult it was to move out of his parents' home and shared about how it reminded him of when his dog died senior year of high school). C.I. called Mike's father and mother to see if Mike had said anything to them yet. He hadn't called them and C.I. knew they'd be the first he'd called after Elaine. So C.I. asked Wally to call Mike (who was at Elaine's office; Elaine was doing her Thursday night group session with Iraq War vets) and to keep him on the phone, make up a problem, anything to keep him on the phone and off the computer. As soon as Mike indicated that Elaine was done (Wally was to say he really wanted Elaine's take on it -- for those interested, Wally invented a story that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant with his child) and was putting her on the phone, the snapshot could go up. (And did.) Wally explained to Elaine briefly what had happened, that she needed to tell Mike and please call C.I. in a few hours.
[Others? Trina drove to Ruth's to tell her in person. Ava broke the news to Cedric over the phone. Ruth and Trina drove to Marcia's to tell her in person. Ty learned of it from C.I. when C.I. returned Ty's call. C.I.'s response to the rumor was such that Ty knew it was true. C.I. confirmed it and asked Ty to figure out how to let the community members know and that she thought Jess already knew so check with him and then inform Dona and Jim together. Kat and Rebecca learned it as C.I. was on the phone because they were standing right next to her. Ty and Shirley made every effort possible to contact as many members as possible.]
Gifting the woman with "Gutter Trash" as a name, C.I. wrote about it late Thursday night.
Since that time, many e-mails have come in expressing disbelief and anger at the stunt Gutter Trash pulled. That's visitors and community members. Two never heard from outsiders have written to ask 'Can't we all just get along.'
It's a funny concern and one never posted to Gutter Trash's site.
No concerns posted at Gutter Trash's site. She's the representative for the 'organization' and she's got all that crap at her site and no one ever explained to her, "Hey Gutter Trash, when Audrey Hepburn was a UNICEF ambassador, I don't think she would have done this. I'd think she'd worry about how this would reflect on herself and the UN."
'Concern' only came when C.I. responded about the harm caused to her kids by this garbage.
Gutter Trash wrote late Thursday and Ava saw it and pointed out that C.I. was correct. Shortly after C.I.'s Thursday night entry posted, Gutter Trash and/or boyfriend and/or sock puppet showed up with an e-mail. How was C.I. correct? C.I. had said Gutter Trash was a drama queen and would come up with some way to make it all about Gutter Trash which is exactly what Gutter Trash did shortly after C.I. finally responded.
If you read C.I.'s entries on the topic, you're aware that C.I.'s kids were the focus. The harm done to them. The horror that they had to find out over the phone.
C.I. had planned this all out and it was her news to break. She was going to do so in person. Days before she could, Gutter Trash made that impossible.
But she/he/it did manage to write and make it all about her. Expressing no remorse for what she'd done, admitting no guilt over her own actions, Gutter Trash offered that there was this troll out there, this evil twin posing as her.
Gutter Trash doesn't like it that this is being discussed. Tough s**t. She started it and Jim, Dona and Jess will reply next week. This group piece was too hard to write. Finally, Ava and C.I. excused themselves from it (to work on the TV commentary) and Dona polled everyone on what they felt needed to be said right now.
Betty's always been the most gifted with reaching readers with her no-nonsense, from the Deep South, let it all hang out so we quickly jotted down her comments which seemed to sum up the main posts being made by all.
Betty: I guess I would first say, "Kiss my Black ass, Gutter Trash." I would then scream at her, "Do you know suffer any guilt for what you did?" I would ask her where she thought she could get away with breaking the law? I would tell her that no mother 'needs' to tell their kids they have cancer. But when they have to, they shouldn't be forced to because of something that is online. I have three kids myself. After Rebecca and Kat's call, I just got my kids to sit on the couch with me. I told him I got some bad news I didn't want to talk about but just sit with Mommy for awhile. Does that insane woman have no idea what it's like to be a parent? Does she have no idea what it's like to be a child? I would ask if her if she was happy with being so disgusting and filthy? I would point out that even after learning what had happened due to her actions, she was still tearing apart C.I. online. I would tell her there's no justification for what she did, that it was illegal and that she has the morals of an alley cat for keeping those posts up there and for continuing to write new ones. The woman that wrote pleading to all get along is an idiot and sounds that way in her e-mail. As for the one who showed up pretending he just learned about it, in the church I was raised in, we call that "lying." He pulled that in my community, we'd be planning a "Come to Jesus" moment for him right about now. We'd be telling him to get honest about his actions and point out that if you walk in on a trashing and don't call it out, you're at fault. If you walk in on a trashing and add anything to it that is not "Stop it!" then you have participated. It's very Judas like and I'm guessing that a man who can't take accountablity for his actions in a trashing really doesn't know the story of Judas. What kind of people are these? And what kind of an 'organization' is that? These people are disgusting freaks. They are trying to win public support for an issue and they're caught online publishing private e-mails and having ha-has about a woman with cancer. They're freaks. They live in their own little amoral world. And apparently without any adult supervision. That's my real question, is there no damn adult in that country? There's certainly no adult in the 'organization,' but is there no damn adult in that country that can step in and say, "You went too far. You went way too far."
They are an amoral bunch.
In one of the most laughable remarks posted online about this is the claim that C.I. has troubled the 'organization' with this.
That's a completely rewriting of history. C.I. had no contact with the woman until she had launched four days of public trashing of C.I. All C.I. did was respond to what was taking place. And the response wouldn't have even gone up to begin with if the woman had done what she was requested. Seven hours before C.I. responded online, seven hours after learning that for four days in a row, that woman had been attacking.
And they want to talk about the trouble they think C.I. caused?
C.I. has not responded to this personally. C.I. has never written, "I'm going to tell you how this makes me feel." C.I. has consistently focused on her children and the damage this has done to them.The claim that C.I. 'started' anything is insane.
Gutter Trash has revealed her malice. Jim, Dona and Jess already knew how she was. That's why they repeatedly told her, no news or event, don't e-mail us again.
Most people who receive an e-mail they don't like, move on with their lives.
It was never about her not liking an e-mail. It was about her wanting to start a fight. It was about her wanting to get attention.
She started it and continued it for days (and has continued it since). Don't try to pin this on C.I.
Next week, if nothing's done, Jim, Dona and Jess respond. If more garbage continues, you will read about it on community sites.
C.I.'s kids want Gutter Trash exposed and much more. We were all in holding position until knowing where they stood. And while C.I. may play high minded, the rest of us will not.
If you think this is 'bothersome' now, you haven't seen anything yet.
Jim, Dona, Jess and C.I. have been trashed all last week at Gutter Trash's site. It wasn't just posting those e-mails, it was non-stop trashing.
If someone's concerned about the 'organization,' they should have the sense to realize Gutter Trash's actions weren't helping the 'organization' on Monday, or on Tuesday, or on Wednesday or on Thursday. C.I. has yet to name the woman or the 'organization.' Gutter Trash didn't invent names for us. She named us, she named our sites. She ridiculed us, trashed us and slimed us. And did all of that while it reads on her site that Gutter Trash is a part of that 'organization.' Her actions should have worried you.
Don't drop the problem Gutter Trash created in our laps. Like Bully Boy, she decided to launch her own little war. We have every right to defend ourselves and we will. Again, Dona, Jim and Jess are waiting until next Sunday to respond. (At C.I.'s request.) When they air their responses, they won't be as kind as C.I. They won't say "Gutter Trash," they'll name her. They won't say, "The 'organization'," they'll name it. The three of them were trashed all last week. Gutter Trash started that. Not them.
A rare moment when John Edwards told the truth
First of all, let me be absolutely clear about this. I think I said it a few minutes ago. Nobody on this stage is pure, and that absolutely includes me.
-- Democratic Presidential debate, October 30, 2007, Philadelphia.
-- Democratic Presidential debate, October 30, 2007, Philadelphia.
Highlights
This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.
"The sock puppet master calls" -- Betty was able to create a chapter when she didn't think she could. Due to crap pulled on this community (this community didn't start it), it was not a 'fun' weekend. Betty found a way to work through it with a chapter that's a readers' favorite and one of our own.
"What Elaine said" -- Trina echoed Elaine and, judging by the report on e-mails from Ty, a lot of you are echoing Elaine as well.
"I don't support the War Resisters Support Campaign..." -- Elaine's post. Mike giving the backstory here, Elaine spent forever transcribing the interviews. She originally planned to do a series of summary paragraphs based on her interviews on background but she didn't have the time. It's a powerful post and we love it too.
"Laura Kaminker: Her own little fan club" -- Marcia offers much needed media criticism.
"Denver and bust" & "THIS JUST IN! THE DENVER SUICIDE PACT!" -- Cedric and Wally call the travesty in Denver.
"Taxi ride" -- Kat's very well written post.
"Gutter Trash Is a Damn Liar" -- Mike responding to a year-old e-mail being posted last week without his permission and the claim that the e-mails posted represented the full exchange. All Mike sent was one e-mail. Gutter Trash e-mailed him non-stop and he didn't know until he saw them in "Spam." He ignored them. But they were sent and Gutter Trash is a Damn Letter.
"chatty e-mail" -- Rebecca's post which proves Gutter Trash is a damn liar. This went up Monday. "Ned-ette" is Gutter Trash. Back when Gutter Trash was (unknown to us) playing dumb on who Rebecca and Mike were, Rebecca was reminding her readers of the creep who wrote her. Rebecca points out that her readers know all about Gutter Trash from 2007 when the idiot wouldn't stop e-mailing her and Rebecca would blog about the psycho (without naming Gutter Trash or posting Gutter Trash's e-mails). Her readers have e-mailed her non-stop all weekend with various posts from 2007 where Rebecca was addressing one e-mail after another from Gutter Trash.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Change You Can Believe In" -- Went up last Sunday and documents the Dem ticket. Very funny.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Softer Side of Narcissism" -- Went up Tuesday morning. Isaiah did not intend to take the weekend off. He's so upset by the news about C.I. and so sickened by Gutter Trash's actions, he can't think right now. But he asked us to inform that whenever he can calm down, Gutter Trash will most likely be his next comic.
"Eleanor's Smear" -- One of the three most requested pieces. (See note at end.) It's a masterpiece. C.I. wrote it.
"Naomi Wolf," "Kate Michelman," "Rachel Maddow," "Laura Flanders" and "ellie smeal, katha pollitt and red betty " -- Ruth, Kat, Marcia, Mike, Elaine and Rebecca doing Wednesday's theme posts.
Note that if there was something C.I. or Ava wrote last weekend beginning Thursday evening you wanted highlighted, we weren't ignoring you. Ava and C.I. asked that those things not be highlighted.
"The sock puppet master calls" -- Betty was able to create a chapter when she didn't think she could. Due to crap pulled on this community (this community didn't start it), it was not a 'fun' weekend. Betty found a way to work through it with a chapter that's a readers' favorite and one of our own.
"What Elaine said" -- Trina echoed Elaine and, judging by the report on e-mails from Ty, a lot of you are echoing Elaine as well.
"I don't support the War Resisters Support Campaign..." -- Elaine's post. Mike giving the backstory here, Elaine spent forever transcribing the interviews. She originally planned to do a series of summary paragraphs based on her interviews on background but she didn't have the time. It's a powerful post and we love it too.
"Laura Kaminker: Her own little fan club" -- Marcia offers much needed media criticism.
"Denver and bust" & "THIS JUST IN! THE DENVER SUICIDE PACT!" -- Cedric and Wally call the travesty in Denver.
"Taxi ride" -- Kat's very well written post.
"Gutter Trash Is a Damn Liar" -- Mike responding to a year-old e-mail being posted last week without his permission and the claim that the e-mails posted represented the full exchange. All Mike sent was one e-mail. Gutter Trash e-mailed him non-stop and he didn't know until he saw them in "Spam." He ignored them. But they were sent and Gutter Trash is a Damn Letter.
"chatty e-mail" -- Rebecca's post which proves Gutter Trash is a damn liar. This went up Monday. "Ned-ette" is Gutter Trash. Back when Gutter Trash was (unknown to us) playing dumb on who Rebecca and Mike were, Rebecca was reminding her readers of the creep who wrote her. Rebecca points out that her readers know all about Gutter Trash from 2007 when the idiot wouldn't stop e-mailing her and Rebecca would blog about the psycho (without naming Gutter Trash or posting Gutter Trash's e-mails). Her readers have e-mailed her non-stop all weekend with various posts from 2007 where Rebecca was addressing one e-mail after another from Gutter Trash.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Change You Can Believe In" -- Went up last Sunday and documents the Dem ticket. Very funny.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Softer Side of Narcissism" -- Went up Tuesday morning. Isaiah did not intend to take the weekend off. He's so upset by the news about C.I. and so sickened by Gutter Trash's actions, he can't think right now. But he asked us to inform that whenever he can calm down, Gutter Trash will most likely be his next comic.
"Eleanor's Smear" -- One of the three most requested pieces. (See note at end.) It's a masterpiece. C.I. wrote it.
"Naomi Wolf," "Kate Michelman," "Rachel Maddow," "Laura Flanders" and "ellie smeal, katha pollitt and red betty " -- Ruth, Kat, Marcia, Mike, Elaine and Rebecca doing Wednesday's theme posts.
Note that if there was something C.I. or Ava wrote last weekend beginning Thursday evening you wanted highlighted, we weren't ignoring you. Ava and C.I. asked that those things not be highlighted.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Truest statement of the Week
And I decided in around November of 2005, that, you know, this is just -- this is just ridiculous. I -- I -- I cannot morally, I cannot do what they are asking me to do. If I were to deploy to Iraq I would basically -- I felt like I would be a liability because there's no way I could shoot somebody who was simply trying to defend their own home from a foreign invader. They did all this mock training exercises in which we were in full battle gear and we were raiding mock houses -- mock houses with, you know, actors yelling out Arabic and that sort of thing. I had like my rifles and everything. And during the exercise, I shot two unarmed civilians with the blanks of my rifle and I -- and no one said anything to me about it. I don't know if anyone even saw me. But I realized at that time, you know, that if this was Iraq, those people would be dead. All they were doing was trying to defend their home. So I almost just threw away my rifle and just ran right there but, you know, I sort of needed a plan so I decided that I'd wait a few days. And on November 23, 2005, the date my original contract was set to expire, that's when I went AWOL.
US war resister Tim Richard speaking to Courage to Resist about his decision to self-checkout after being stop-lossed through 2031.
US war resister Tim Richard speaking to Courage to Resist about his decision to self-checkout after being stop-lossed through 2031.
Truest statement of the week
One of the dumbest things I've seen was a panel with that chick from the Nation, Kristen van Whatever, at Emily’s List. It was the day that Dean finally -- FINALLY -- said something about the sexist media coverage, after Hillary had conceded of course and when she referenced it as if this was some great thing, Dean's name got booed. She seemed surprised by it and asked if it was about Florida and Michigan. It clearly was not. Finally, someone explained to her that it was because Dean had sat silent until the primary was over and then acted like he suddenly discovered the sexism. To her credit, Salon's Rebecca Traister knew exactly why women were angry with Dean and the party and said that one of the things that needed to be discussed was how not all of the misogyny came from the media and the right and why it was only after Hillary conceded that the sexism could be discussed at all.
BDBlue noting Katrina vanden Heuvel in "A New Agenda" (Corrente Wire)
BDBlue noting Katrina vanden Heuvel in "A New Agenda" (Corrente Wire)
A note to our readers
Hey --
8:00 a.m. our time? For us this is finishing an edition early!
First, let's note who helped:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.
and Dallas who locates links, offers advice and does more than we can ever thank him for. (I am tired -- "I" is Jim -- I pulled a C.I. and typed "thank for him" -- we need to wrap this note up quickly.)
Let's move to what we have.
Truest statement of the Week -- Tim Richard is an Iraq War Resister in Canada. Check out the interview Courage to Resist did with him.
Truest statement of the week -- We do so love noting all the 'raves' Katrina vanden Heuvel gets. We should print them all up and paste them in a scrapbook.
Editorial: Support War Resisters -- This wasn't the planned editorial. This isn't the planned edition. What happened was Dona pointed out at 5:30 this morning that we were running out of time. When that happened, this article became the editorial. It may or may not work as such (we're too tired to know) but being dubbed the 'editorial' does allow Robin's story to be the first article to show up.
TV: Cyborgs or gasbags, which is worse? -- Ava and C.I. wrote this and when they came back with it, we were already on fumes with several floating the idea that we bail. That's because two different features we had worked on tanked completely. (So, of course, we put them in our print edition.) I asked Ava and C.I. how good this was? I knew they were tired and didn't want to go straight to reading this out loud if it wasn't great. Their call was "It sucks" which is how I knew it would be incredible. (They are always the worst judges of their own work.) Reading this out loud rallied everyone's spirit and gave us a good four hours of motivation. Knowing how hard they'd worked (covering all the issues we didn't think we could get to elsewhere) in the past weeks, I made no last minute requests that they include a topic or two (or "Four!" Ava yells). And I had no idea what they were going to write about. As I started reading it out loud, I thought it was going to be one thing and then they flip it. And then they flip it again. The last sentence, by the way, is a modification of Linda Hamilton's last line in the voice over at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Denver Super Rally: Putting the issues on the table -- As we were trashing various ideas for features because time was gone, we were looking for a short feature. I'd seen (but not read) the latest Spin and knew Patti Smith was interviewed in it. I suggested it thinking we could maybe have something from that. In line with Dona ("short features!"), Ava and C.I. agreed thinking it might contain a "truest" or maybe we could just plug a documentary. I was reading this out loud (so those participating by phone could hear) and at first thought Ava and C.I. were laughing at me. Then we all realized they were laughing about Patti. When I got to her comments on the 2008 election . . . It wasn't pretty. As that went on, Ty and Jess pointed out that we had to do a Ralph article of some kind. (We'd forgotten to include it on our list.) Dona had been recording the whole thing because everyone was too tired to take notes. She suggested we make it a Ralph thing and open with Patti's ridiculous statements and then go to the response Ava and C.I. offered. They agreed if the 1978 quotes by Patti that they referenced could be pulled. Longterm Patti watchers will know what the quotes were about. Others can research on their own.
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (1949 - 2008) -- It was 8:00 p.m. here Saturday when Jess decided to help out by downloading a photo from Stephanie Tubbs Jones' Congressional website. Problem was, it's gone. The whole website. You're redirected to a new website. Ava and C.I. got on the phone to friends to find out exactly what was going on. Nancy Pelosi was going on. C.I. wants it noted that while Amy Goodman couldn't mention Stephanie Tubbs Jones' support for Hillary, Aileen Alfandary did on KPFA Thursday morning.
vanden Heuvel doesn't do corrections -- Katrina, Katrina, have you no shame? Katrina gets caught out being wrong at least twice in one article and she can't offer a legitimate "clarification," let alone a "correction." Pay attention to what amounts to research for The Peace Resister.
Barack's Running Bud -- We were somewhat limited in what we could say here. We could have addressed it in a roundtable. When Dona noted how late it was (at five this morning), we crossed off doing a roundtable. Maybe next weekend.
Barack, the little s**t -- We had to cross off a lot of things that would take more time than we had. While we were writing the Tubbs Jones article, Dallas was asked to see if Barack issued any statement on the passing? It's there somewhere on the site but he found a release of Barack speaking about the Family Medical Leave Act that he wanted to tell us about. Dona and Betty compete each week to see who can quote the soap opera producer in Tootsie first: "It's okay. The girls saved it." They usually say that over Ava and C.I. And Betty was the first out of the gate with it this week. How did Ava and C.I. save it? This wasn't even a planned feature. Ava and C.I. explained to us who signed the act into law (a detail not in Barack's press release) and how Poppy Bush had refused to sign it. C.I. dispatched Jess to the bookcases with instructions on what books to pull while we quickly started this piece. Jess returned with the books just as we were finishing it. It went faster than anything else this edition. And it was completely unplanned ahead of time.
Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Betty, Kat, Cedric, Rebecca, Ruth, Marcia and Wally wrote this and picked all highlights unless noted otherwise. We thank them for this.
And that's what we have. We'll see you next week.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
8:00 a.m. our time? For us this is finishing an edition early!
First, let's note who helped:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.
and Dallas who locates links, offers advice and does more than we can ever thank him for. (I am tired -- "I" is Jim -- I pulled a C.I. and typed "thank for him" -- we need to wrap this note up quickly.)
Let's move to what we have.
Truest statement of the Week -- Tim Richard is an Iraq War Resister in Canada. Check out the interview Courage to Resist did with him.
Truest statement of the week -- We do so love noting all the 'raves' Katrina vanden Heuvel gets. We should print them all up and paste them in a scrapbook.
Editorial: Support War Resisters -- This wasn't the planned editorial. This isn't the planned edition. What happened was Dona pointed out at 5:30 this morning that we were running out of time. When that happened, this article became the editorial. It may or may not work as such (we're too tired to know) but being dubbed the 'editorial' does allow Robin's story to be the first article to show up.
TV: Cyborgs or gasbags, which is worse? -- Ava and C.I. wrote this and when they came back with it, we were already on fumes with several floating the idea that we bail. That's because two different features we had worked on tanked completely. (So, of course, we put them in our print edition.) I asked Ava and C.I. how good this was? I knew they were tired and didn't want to go straight to reading this out loud if it wasn't great. Their call was "It sucks" which is how I knew it would be incredible. (They are always the worst judges of their own work.) Reading this out loud rallied everyone's spirit and gave us a good four hours of motivation. Knowing how hard they'd worked (covering all the issues we didn't think we could get to elsewhere) in the past weeks, I made no last minute requests that they include a topic or two (or "Four!" Ava yells). And I had no idea what they were going to write about. As I started reading it out loud, I thought it was going to be one thing and then they flip it. And then they flip it again. The last sentence, by the way, is a modification of Linda Hamilton's last line in the voice over at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Denver Super Rally: Putting the issues on the table -- As we were trashing various ideas for features because time was gone, we were looking for a short feature. I'd seen (but not read) the latest Spin and knew Patti Smith was interviewed in it. I suggested it thinking we could maybe have something from that. In line with Dona ("short features!"), Ava and C.I. agreed thinking it might contain a "truest" or maybe we could just plug a documentary. I was reading this out loud (so those participating by phone could hear) and at first thought Ava and C.I. were laughing at me. Then we all realized they were laughing about Patti. When I got to her comments on the 2008 election . . . It wasn't pretty. As that went on, Ty and Jess pointed out that we had to do a Ralph article of some kind. (We'd forgotten to include it on our list.) Dona had been recording the whole thing because everyone was too tired to take notes. She suggested we make it a Ralph thing and open with Patti's ridiculous statements and then go to the response Ava and C.I. offered. They agreed if the 1978 quotes by Patti that they referenced could be pulled. Longterm Patti watchers will know what the quotes were about. Others can research on their own.
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (1949 - 2008) -- It was 8:00 p.m. here Saturday when Jess decided to help out by downloading a photo from Stephanie Tubbs Jones' Congressional website. Problem was, it's gone. The whole website. You're redirected to a new website. Ava and C.I. got on the phone to friends to find out exactly what was going on. Nancy Pelosi was going on. C.I. wants it noted that while Amy Goodman couldn't mention Stephanie Tubbs Jones' support for Hillary, Aileen Alfandary did on KPFA Thursday morning.
vanden Heuvel doesn't do corrections -- Katrina, Katrina, have you no shame? Katrina gets caught out being wrong at least twice in one article and she can't offer a legitimate "clarification," let alone a "correction." Pay attention to what amounts to research for The Peace Resister.
Barack's Running Bud -- We were somewhat limited in what we could say here. We could have addressed it in a roundtable. When Dona noted how late it was (at five this morning), we crossed off doing a roundtable. Maybe next weekend.
Barack, the little s**t -- We had to cross off a lot of things that would take more time than we had. While we were writing the Tubbs Jones article, Dallas was asked to see if Barack issued any statement on the passing? It's there somewhere on the site but he found a release of Barack speaking about the Family Medical Leave Act that he wanted to tell us about. Dona and Betty compete each week to see who can quote the soap opera producer in Tootsie first: "It's okay. The girls saved it." They usually say that over Ava and C.I. And Betty was the first out of the gate with it this week. How did Ava and C.I. save it? This wasn't even a planned feature. Ava and C.I. explained to us who signed the act into law (a detail not in Barack's press release) and how Poppy Bush had refused to sign it. C.I. dispatched Jess to the bookcases with instructions on what books to pull while we quickly started this piece. Jess returned with the books just as we were finishing it. It went faster than anything else this edition. And it was completely unplanned ahead of time.
Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Betty, Kat, Cedric, Rebecca, Ruth, Marcia and Wally wrote this and picked all highlights unless noted otherwise. We thank them for this.
And that's what we have. We'll see you next week.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
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