The Other McCain

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

Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again

Posted on | May 28, 2012 | 80 Comments

“The tale-teller was a short fellow who needed to be looked up to, who consistently sought relationships with females much younger than himself, who could boast to an eighteen-year-old woman he’d just met on a bus that he was ‘one of the strongest men in the world.'”
— Mark Singer, Citizen K: The Deeply Weird American Journey of Brett Kimberlin (1996), Page 312

“In e-mails and Web postings from Kimberlin’s two organizations, Justice Through Music and Velvet Revolution, he intersperses occasionally useful pieces of information . . . with a hefty portion of bunk, repeatedly asserting as fact things that are not true. . . . Kimberlin has found a home in the blogosphere . . .”
— Massimo Calabresi, Time magazine, “The Wizard of Odd,” Jan. 5, 2007

“Using two popular leftist blogs, the 56-year-old from Bethesda, Md., has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public and left-leaning foundations by promising to put conservatives he disagrees with in jail, often with offers of large rewards. So far — without success — he has called for the arrest of Karl Rove, Andrew Breitbart, Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue, Massey Energy Chairman Don Blankenship and other high-profile public figures.
“A review of tax filings for Kimberlin’s blogs, ‘Velvet Revolution’ and ‘Justice Through Music,’ raises troubling questions about whether his ‘nonprofit’ operations are dedicated to public activism — or are just a new facade for a longtime con artist.”
— Ed Barnes, Fox News, “Leftist Blogger’s Criminal Past Raises Questions About His Real Intent,” Oct. 19, 2010

“In sworn testimony in a court proceeding involving Seth Allen, Kimberlin falsely claimed to have been ‘secretly exonerated’ (???) of the heinous crimes for which he was convicted in 1981.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, “Lying Felon Can’t Stop Lying,” May 24

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
In the fall of 1988, when convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin was still locked up in federal prison and claiming to have sold dope to GOP vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle, every political reporter in the country wanted to write about Kimberlin. In his 1996 book, Mark Singer recounts how National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg spoke to Kimberlin two or three times every day in late October and early November 1988.

So why, 24 years later, are Nina Totenberg and the rest of the elite media ignoring what their old friend’s been up to lately? Tom Blumer of Newsbusters asks, “Where Is the Establishment Press?”

Leading blogger Robert Stacy McCain has decided that he and his family must leave their home and that they can’t go back; he officially describes his location as “whereabouts unknown.” On Friday, Patterico, an assistant DA by day, revealed a campaign of harassment involving “workplace complaints, publication of personal information such as home addresses and pictures of residences, bogus allegations of criminal activity, whisper campaigns, frivolous legal actions, and frivolous State Bar complaints.” Oh, and he was “SWATted” — he had his home stormed by a SWAT team, complete with a police helicopter and a spotlight. Someone pretending to be him “called the police to say I had shot my wife.” An audio expert Patterico hired concluded that “it is probable” that the hoax call was placed by a Kimberlin associate known to have tweeted a public threat against himself and his family.
Erick Erickson of RedState got “SWATted” Sunday evening; this time, “Someone called 911 (pretending to be) from my address claiming there had been an accidental shooting.”

This is a complicated story and difficult to tell. So far as I know, it started in October 2010 when Mandy Nagy of Breitbart.com published her 3,600-word article about Kimberlin. Also in 2010, Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser, a Democrat campaign consultant, was accused in the “TwitterGate” episode of targeting Tea Party activists for obscene harassment online. (Also see, “Democrat Cyber Stealth Revealed: Neal Rauhauser & Radical E-Thugs,” Patrick Read, Oct. 13, 2010.) In 2011, one of the online activists who helped push the Anthony Weiner scandal into the news, Mike Stack got “SWATted” and has subsequently pressed charges of harassment against Rauhauser.

Liberal blogger Seth Allen (@prepostericity) was critical of Kimberlin and Brad Friedman, partners in the tax-exempt non-profit Velvet Revolution. Allen was sued by Kimberlin. Allen got legal assistance from attorney Aaron Walker, who blogged under the pseudonym Aaron Worthing. Walker then became a target of Kimberlin’s harassment, with the result that both Walker and his wife lost their jobs.

Such is the story that I learned on May 17, when Walker published his 28,000-word account of his entanglement with Kimberlin. Immediately recognizing this as a newsworthy story, I began reporting about it on my blog. Four days later, on May 21, Kimberlin contacted my wife’s employer, raising security concerns for the employer and causing me to leave my home in order to be able to continue reporting the story without potentially endangering others.

Reacting to Kimberlin’s harassment of Allen, Walker, myself and others, Lee Stranahan declared that Friday, May 25, would be “Everybody Blog Brett Kimberlin Day” — with remarkable results. As a journalistic fugitive, I continued reporting the story:

The story continues gaining momentum. The Sunday “SWATting” of Erickson, a CNN contributor, guarantees that this story won’t go away soon. Michelle Malkin has published a “to-do list” for those who want to put a stop to the intimidation and harassment:

The massive blogburst about convicted bomber and online terrorist ringleader Brett Kimberlin ended on Friday, but this is an ongoing legal, financial, and emotional morass for the targets. And it has now entangled new victims. It is precisely because each and every blogger, Twitter users, activist, talk show host, and podcaster is potential new prey for sicko Kimberlin and his cabal that we must all stand together.

“Online terrorist ringleader” is a rather strong term. I prefer Jimmie Bise Jr.’s neutral objective phrase, “Lying Felon Brett Kimberlin,” but why quibble over semantics at this point?

What we have here is a remarkable news story, and the story is not about me. It’s not about Aaron Walker or Mike Stack or Seth Allen or Patrick Frey or Erick Erickson or Mandy Nagy.

This is a story about Brett Kimberlin. What is truly dumbfounding is that Kimberlin’s old media buddies like Nina Totenberg think we’re too stupid to notice them ignoring it. 

 Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

 

UPDATE: Linked by Andrea Shea King at Radio Patriot, Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints, That Mr. G. Guy, Da Tech Guy, That Innocuous Girl and The Lonely Conservative — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

Thanks also to all the many readers who have contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund to help defray the expense involved in this unexpected road trip to the Undisclosed Location.

 




 

THE KIMBERLIN FILES:

 

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Comments

80 Responses to “Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    May 28th, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

    I downloaded a PDF of the entry last evening.

  2. Bob Belvedere
    May 28th, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

    The rats always find another nest.

  3. Bob Belvedere
    May 28th, 2012 @ 7:43 pm

    Thanks, Wombat.  The bloody ‘Flag’ button’s not working for me today.

  4. JeffS
    May 28th, 2012 @ 7:45 pm

    Thanks, Wombat!

  5. neills
    May 28th, 2012 @ 8:28 pm

     I couldn’t find Totenberg’s original piece, but this nugget from People on 10-19-92 is a timely distortion:

    ‘Within a few years, Kimberlin had moved into the big leagues of
    drug-trafficking. In 1979 he was busted in Texas in a major smuggling
    case. He pleaded guilty, but that was not the end of his troubles.
    Authorities back in Indianapolis got him convicted for setting a series
    of pipe bombs (one of which seriously injured a man) in the nearby town
    of Speedway. Kimberlin has adamantly denied the bombing charges: “I sold
    drugs. I didn’t set bombs.”
    ‘

    http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108850,00.html

  6. Bob Belvedere
    May 28th, 2012 @ 8:32 pm

    Now a Memeorandum thread:
    http://www.memeorandum.com/120528/p53#a120528p53

  7. The Heat Is On #BrettKimberlin « That Mr. G Guy's Blog
    May 28th, 2012 @ 9:35 pm

    […] -Stacy McCain has filed another report that includes information on Nina Totenberg’s involvement with Brett Kimberlin. […]

  8. Are You Feeling The Heat Yet #Brett Kimberlin? « That Mr. G Guy's Blog
    May 28th, 2012 @ 10:16 pm

    […] Also, today at NewsBusters is a post by Tom Blumer asking “Where is the establishment press.” Good question. It’s not like NPR’s Nina Totenberg isn’t aware of Brett Kimberlin’s past. […]

  9. ThePaganTemple
    May 28th, 2012 @ 10:41 pm

     Oh so, his incarceration is cause for grave moral and legal concern even if Kimberlin IS guilty? Why, of course, because Kimberlin was a presumed “liberal”.

    Fuck Gary Trudeau.

  10. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » DaTechGuy on DaRadio with Jack Mitchell & Phillip Hines & Memorial Day wth Stacy McCain now Available » Datechguy's Blog
    May 28th, 2012 @ 11:26 pm

    […] thereof to this story even as one of their own Erick Erickson has become a target. Stacy later on asked this question: Mark Singer recounts how National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg spoke to Kimberlin two or […]

  11. Adjoran
    May 28th, 2012 @ 11:53 pm

     The problem is the President only gets to name the political appointees, the civil “servants” who constitute the permanent bureaucracy  actually run most of the agencies, and any attempt to change personnel is portrayed as putting politics into the government.

    Since bureaucrats tend to be Democrats, they will always tend to dominate the bureaucracy.  The only remedy is to cut the money and power.

  12. Bob Belvedere
    May 29th, 2012 @ 7:53 am

    What Adjoran wrote.

    For a primer, please watch episodes of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.

  13. Classical Values » If they can SWAT free speech, our freedom is gone
    May 29th, 2012 @ 8:35 am

    […] a very serious situation, and it needs to be addressed. Brett Kimberlin is the issue right now, as Stacy McCain (who also says he was forced to leave his home because he wrote about Kimberlin) argues, but the […]

  14. Instapundit » Blog Archive » KATHY SHAIDLE: Brett Kimberlin and the Future of Blogbursts. “Fighting back works.” Related: S…
    May 29th, 2012 @ 8:35 am

    […] Related: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again. […]

  15. Flap's Blog - FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog » Day By Day May 29, 2012 – I Fought the Ma
    May 29th, 2012 @ 8:55 am

    […] The latest abut Brett Kimberlin is here. […]

  16. Saul
    May 29th, 2012 @ 9:01 am

    In sworn testimony in a court proceeding…Kimberlin falsely claimed to have been ‘secretly exonerated’….

    The phrase you quoted, “secretly exonerated,” does not appear  in the blog post to which you linked. Where does that come from?

  17. Aaron1960
    May 29th, 2012 @ 9:09 am

    It’s amazing what you can do from a prison cell.

  18. The SWATting of Bloggers Continues | All American Blogger
    May 29th, 2012 @ 10:11 am

    […] as Stacy McCain says: What we have here is a remarkable news story, and the story is not about me. It’s not about […]

  19. Flap's Blog - FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog » The Morning Flap: May 29, 2012
    May 29th, 2012 @ 11:10 am

    […] Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again – […]

  20. Rollory
    May 29th, 2012 @ 11:26 am

    “In his 1996 book, Mark Singer recounts how National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg spoke to Kimberlin two or three times every day in late October and early November 1988.”

    You’re going to have to give more detail than this.  I have spoken two to three times a day for months on end with people I did not much like.  This is the one and only sentence in this article actually trying to connect Totenberg to this guy.  Guilt by association isn’t valid when liberals do it either.

  21. Wombat_socho
    May 29th, 2012 @ 11:54 am

     Go read the book yourself, you lazy bludger.

  22. ROLYAT136
    May 29th, 2012 @ 12:30 pm

    The similarity in “feel” between “Charlie Manson” and 
    Brett Kimberlin is spooky.

  23. ThePaganTemple
    May 29th, 2012 @ 1:32 pm

     Well, one big difference might be that Manson could get girlfriends without having to pretend to date their mommies.

  24. REPORT: Aaron Walker Arrested After Maryland Hearing on Kimberlin Case : The Other McCain
    May 29th, 2012 @ 2:57 pm

    […] Heiress Aunt Helping Fund His Tax-Exempt HarassmentMay 27: ERICK ERICKSON GETS SWATTEDMay 28: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News AgainMay 29: Matthew Vadum Talks Brett […]

  25. Zefal
    May 30th, 2012 @ 2:21 am

    Nina didn’t talk to Paula Jones, Juanita Broderick, Eilleen Wellstone, Gennifer Flowers even once but talked to a convicted felon, who had nothing to corroborate that he sold drugs to Dan Quayle, multiple times a day over the course of a month leading up to the 1988 election. 

    Same for gary trudeau. Did cartoons on the allegations of a convicted terrorist but nothing on Juanita Broderick rape allegations. A woman who was a nurse who owned her own business with a stellar reputation.   trudeau did  the same when a website in complete tongue-in-cheek manner claimed George Bush had an IQ of 91 and clinton’s was exactly twice that at 182. After the people behind the website came forward to tell it was done in humor and had no basis in fact trudeau apologized. The guy believed anything bad about a Republican, no matter the source, and ignored everything bad said about a democrat, no matter how credible the source. nina fits into this category. But what do you expect from a serial plagiarizer like nina totenberg.

  26. Aaron Walker Court Hearing Confirms Kimberlin-Rauhauser Collaboration : The Other McCain
    May 31st, 2012 @ 11:07 am

    […] Heiress Aunt Helping Fund His Tax-Exempt HarassmentMay 27: ERICK ERICKSON GETS SWATTEDMay 28: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News AgainMay 29: Matthew Vadum Talks Brett KimberlinMay 29: REPORT: Aaron Walker Arrested After Maryland […]

  27. When Neal Rauhauser Complained About ‘Menacing’ and ‘Cyberstalking’ : The Other McCain
    June 2nd, 2012 @ 10:37 am

    […] Heiress Aunt Helping Fund His Tax-Exempt HarassmentMay 27: ERICK ERICKSON GETS SWATTEDMay 28: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News AgainMay 29: Matthew Vadum Talks Brett KimberlinMay 29: REPORT: Aaron Walker Arrested After Maryland […]

  28. My Letter to My Congressman Regarding Convicted Domestic Terrorist and Perjurer Brett Kimberlin
    June 8th, 2012 @ 11:06 am

    […] of it in an op ed, with Senator Carl Levin registering his outrage on the Senate floor. At PBS, Nina Totenberg was a frequent communicator with the convicted domestic terrorist and perjurer, now become (in the […]

  29. Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and Their Transparent Empire of Lies UPDATE: ‘Anonymous’ Connection : The Other McCain
    June 11th, 2012 @ 2:48 am

    […] Heiress Aunt Helping Fund His Tax-Exempt HarassmentMay 27: ERICK ERICKSON GETS SWATTEDMay 28: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News AgainMay 29: Matthew Vadum Talks Brett KimberlinMay 29: REPORT: Aaron Walker Arrested After Maryland […]

  30. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » Never go after a real reporter » Datechguy's Blog
    June 11th, 2012 @ 11:11 am

    […] May 28: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again […]