The Other McCain

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VIDEO: Conservatives ‘Humping the Leg’ of Violent Extremism, Markos Says

Posted on | October 8, 2010 | 20 Comments

The Blaze features this video of Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga at a book event last month:

Markos describes “right-wing extremists and an uprising of violence from those groups in the wake of Obama’s election.”

Of course, no such “uprising” has been documented. Markos is referring to the now-infamous April 2009 Department of Homeland Security report. The DHS was shown to have based its report on seriously flawed information provided by left-wing propagandists who count every state chapter of the Constitution Party as a dangerous “Patriot” group. 

Such reports would suggest, for example, that Rhode Island is a hotbed of neo-Nazi extremism, and these absurd exaggerations tend to discredit those who “would paint a box of Wheaties as an extremist threat if [they] thought that would help it raise money,” as Jesse Walker of Reason magazine said.

So the premise that Markos uses to set up his subsequent statement is false. And then, he says “the right wing went crazy. They went nuts.”

Brilliant, see? An agency of the federal government issues a report smearing millions of honest law-abiding citizens and, if you complain, you’re “nuts.”

But if conservatives are not allowed to complain about this, neither are they permitted to joke about it with self-deprecating T-shirts to mock the accusation that they are Right-Wing Extremists.

“So, instead of distancing themselves from their extremists, I mean, they literally were like humping its leg,” says Markos, in an incoherent mishmash that sends his pronouns “literally” wandering lost in search of their antecedents.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. There is no way, in the mind of Markos, for conservatives to avoid the accusation of “extremism.”

The Irrelevance of Evidence

Facts are immaterial to this accusation, as Markos continues by saying that “inevitably, we had right-wing extremists start shooting up cops, Minutemen down on the Arizona borders started shooting up immigrant families . . . random acts of violence, you know, like people just crazed by Obama’s election.”

Markos does not cite one specific fact to substantiate the existence of this purported pandemic of violence he attributes to “right-wing extremists.”

As for people “shooting up” others in Arizona, for example, Markos takes no notice of the murder of rancher Robert Krentz, or the out-of-control border violence fomented by Mexican drug gangs? To what specific incident does Markos refer when he says right-wingers have been “shooting up cops” for the past two years? I’m unaware of any such thing, but if that claim is intended to substantiate Markos’ assertion that since November 2008 America has been “inevitably” plagued by murderous violence from Republicans “crazed by Obama’s election” . . .

It’s preposterous. No such pattern can be shown.

Yet in response to the perfectly reasonable protest from conservatives — “Why are you putting us in the boat [with violent criminals]”? — Markos answers: “It’s because you humped their leg.”

It’s like blaming the Beach Boy and Doris Day for Charles Manson. Those familiar with the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders will recall that in 1968, ex-con Manson showed up in the L.A. area strumming a guitar like some kind of hippie troubadour. He and his little cult of drugged-out hippie girls managed to meet Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, an acquaintance that Manson unsuccessfully tried to exploit.

Manson similarly failed in an attempt to exploit his acquaintance with music producer Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day. But these incidental associations with Manson did not implicate Wilson or Melcher as accessories to the crimes subsequently committed by Manson and his followers. Neither were Paul McCartney and the Beatles responsible for Manson’s twisted interpretations of “Helter Skelter” and other songs on the White Album.

At some point, people are responsible for their own actions — a thought that might shock progressives like Markos — and thus, you can’t blame Glenn Beck if a bunch of Kentucky hillbillies lynch a Census worker, especiallly when it is eventually proven that the dead man committed suicide.

Scapegoating and Demonization

Does anyone remember the finger-pointing over Pentagon shooter J. Patrick Bedell, whom so many rushed to portray as an example of “right-wing extremism“? But when it was discovered that he was a chronic mental case with a marijuana habit — “Whatever happened to crazy?” — the finger-pointing lefties just changed the subject as if they hadn’t been caught once again playing their familiar game of scapegoating conservatives.

What shall we make of such scapegoating? If conservatives are not guilty of inciting and excusing violent extremism — “humping the leg” of criminality and terrorism — then why does Markos wish to convince his listeners otherwise?

Let’s leave that question hanging, while we consider the “TwitterGate” video featured here last night:

After I posted that, some of my friends — including Dan Riehl — suggested that I was being irresponsible. The criticism was that the apparent role of DailyKos contributor (and Democratic political consultant) Neal Rauhauser in organizing a Twitter harassment campaign against conservatives was not clearly proven by this video, or by the blog articles of Greg Howard and Patrick Read. The key evidence that appeared to connect Rauhauser to these Twitter trolls was this:

We must then consider what sort of things “GuerrillaWLogic” has done on Twitter. We must consider the Twitter activities of the others with whom Rauhauser communicated via his “Beadogs” hashtag. We must examine Rauhauser’s “WingNutWatch” list of “Legumes of Mass Destruction.” And we must consider the kind of demonization Rauhauser (“StrandedWind”) has employed against conservatives:

  • The Tea Party movement — “the Birchers reborn; hatefilled violent crackpots. The phrase Dolt Revolt has been applied to describe them and it’s quite apt.”
  • Arizona SB 1070 – “A hateful, unconstitutional law which has brought economic ruin to Arizona due to widespread boycotts. The original authors were connected with Stormfront . . .”
  • Sarah Palin — “a dangerous, irresponsible religious fanatic. She was unfit for the mayor’s office in Wasilla and certainly has no business either seeking or picking folks for higher offices.”
  • Arizona Republican David Schweikert — an agent of “economic ethnic cleansing.”

Rauhauser obviously considers conservatives so “hatefilled,” “hateful” and “dangerous” as to deserve whatever ill treatment they receive. So we certainly would not be surprised to learn that someone who thinks this way would ally himself with those who habitually directed insulting language at conservatives on Twitter.

Attack of the Twitter Trolls

Perhaps people who aren’t regular users of Twitter don’t understand what has been happening, and therefore some explanation is in order. Conservatives were early adopters of this technology and popularized a number hashtags — including “#tcot” (Top Conservatives on Twitter), #teaparty, etc. — that make it simple for users to keep track of their favorite topics.

“Progressives” have responded to this in two purposefully destructive ways: First, they send out obscene or disruptive messages with popular conservative hashtags; and second, they follow these hashtag streams and target conservative Twitter users for personal abuse. Here are examples involving “progressive” Jeff Koopersmith:

Here, @MsMarineMom sought to share a news item from Washington Examiner with her fellow followers of the #TeaParty hashtag, to which Koopersmith responded with a hateful personal message toward her, including the same hashtag to insure that this slur would be seen by all other #TeaParty followers. Another example:

Here, without any evident provocation, Koopersmith puts an outrageously insulting message on the #TeaParty hashtag.  Koopersmith is a 62-year-old liberal lawyer who is a founder of the liberal Web site American Politics Journal. You may see, for example, how he writes about Ann Coulter as engaged in ” libel and slander against majority American values.” Koopersmith has now adapted his act to Twitter. Here is how he responded to my Tweet mentioning him in connection with the TwitterGate video:

So while Koopersmith does not hesitate to tell the mother of a Marine that her son’s service is in vain — a message that he sends to everyone following the #TeaParty hashtag — the minute someone accuses him of acting in bad faith, he threatens to sue.

Reasonable Questions

That such Twitter-troll activity is purposefully disruptive, no one can deny. The real question is whether it is deliberately organized and if so, how?

Were all of Rauhauser’s “Beandogs” acting in accordance with a conscious and systematic plan to smear, provoke and harass conservatives? Did Rauhauser’s message about “hiring a replacement” indicate that some of the “Beandogs” were not merely volunteer participants in such a plan but were actually paid to participate? And was the funding for such an effort provided by the Democratic politicians (including Arizona Rep. Raul Grijava) for whom Rauhauser and his partner Beth Becker worked as a consultant?

There is not sufficient evidence to answer these questions, and I do not pretend that the producers of the TwitterGate video have answered them. Yet the actions of Rauhauser and his associates arouse suspicion especially when you consider the video’s claim that (a) Rauhauser uses multiple “sockpuppet” alias and (b) he and his associates have used malware, trojans, etc.

Rauhauser describes himself as a “software developer and network engineer,” and it would seem unlikely that such a sophisticated user would host malware by accident. Frankly, this is the type of activity that is associated with hackers. And when someone starts acting that way online, people can scarcely be blamed for wondering, “What else has he got going on?”

Rauhauser’s partner Becker has talked about doing online consulting for Rep. Raul Grijalva, and  Rauhauser has bragged about getting a thank-you note from Grijalva. What connection, if any, is there between Rauhauser’s paid consulting work for Progressive PST and this pattern of disruptive harassment by Rauhauser’s “Beandogs”?

It’s a good question, and conservatives who have endured months of these Twitter attacks cannot be called “nuts” for asking it. Certainly, there is more evidence for that suspicion than Markos Moulitsas offers to support his accusation that conservatives are “humping the leg” of violent extremists.

UPDATE: Wow, talk about closing the circle: Daily Kos plans Astroturf campaign to smear Republican candidates.

UPDATE II: Neal Rauhauser Switches Account to ‘Protected’ Status.

Category: Blogging, Daily Kos, Tea Party, Video

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