In previous posts, I detailed how Larry Johnson's No Quarter deliberately inflamed the public with a false story about the allegedly "forged" Obama birth certificate. That site published as established fact -- without any caveats or "maybes" -- the claim that a professional image analyst was able to discern the name of Barack Obama's sister in the candidates much-disputed Certificate of Live Birth.
Did No Quarter publish a single image backing up this assertion? No. The site published all sorts of other images, but not the one that mattered.
No-one has replicated these "findings." No Photoshop professional found the details comprehensible. The source of the claim, "Techdude," has now been exposed as an utter fraud.
Has No Quarter issued an apology? Nope.
Johnson and his confreres (Texas Darlin' and Susan UnPC) maintain an aggressive, belligerent stance, despite having about as many legs to stand on as Monty Python's black knight.
Think about it: If your blog published a major piece of false information -- one that sparked a firestorm of public interest -- wouldn't you show a little humility when the whole thing was revealed as a crap-fest of deception?
Johnson's approach exactly recapitulates that of Markos Moulitsas. Remember how Kos promoted the "darkened video" smear, and then refused to apologize after he was proven wrong?
That video smear was, for me, the spine-cracking straw -- the moment when I turned against the Obots. (And don't misunderstand: I still despise them, and always shall.)
So why should we view Johnsonian smear tactics with greater lenience?
Behind the scenes, Johnson's crew has been sending me messages accusing me -- me! -- of ethical breaches.
Dig it: These scoundrels published a fake story. They endorsed the fake wholeheartedly -- on their site and on the radio. They did not double-check it, even though Techdude wrote as though any mere child could follow his loopy instructions and recapitulate his results. Johnson surely knows people -- in the CIA or elsewhere -- who could have performed a competent analysis, but no such analysis occurred. Johnson and company did not show any of the skepticism that any decent journalist would have displayed. They refused to budge when the problems were pointed out to them.
They refused -- and they still refuse -- to apologize for foisting a fake story on the public.
And yet these creeps question my ethics...!
Johnson is acting just like a con-man who, when exposed, tries to bluff and bluster his way out of a jam. Remember this bit of dialogue from Citizen Kane?
Have him tell Mr. Silverstone he's a detective from the Central Office. If Mr. Silverstone asks to see his badge, your man is to get indignant and call Mr. Silverstone an anarchist. Loudly, so that the neighbors can hear.Johnson, like Kane, specializes in journalism as yellow as a urine-stained fire hydrant.
Just now, I received the following from Susan UnPC, relaying a message from smear merchandizer Texas Darlin (god, how I hate that smarmy nickname):
She writes: Tell "Joseph Cannon" that I will grant him a telephone interview and answer all questions honestly if he sends a phone number, and takes down everything he published about me on his blog immediately. It is all false.Unbelievable! She demands a rewrite as a condition for an interview. No writer in the world would agree to such a stipulation. Naturally, she will never inform her own readers of this outlandish proposal.
If he declines, I will post something on my blog saying that he declined to interview me by phone, as offered.
Hypocritically, TD's paranoia about her personal information is considered justified. Meanwhile, I am supposed to have no problem with sending my personal phone number to a lying spook.
And if I do not cooperate with these outrageous demands, the Johnsonites will write that I turned down their sweet offer of cooperation, and that I spread false stories without attempting to learn the truth.
Texas Darlin' does not publish any contact info on her site -- as I do -- yet she chides me for not contacting her. What a hypocrite!
These people are despicable, manipulative liars. They dare to act as though I must justify myself, even though they are the ones who whipped up hysteria with a bogus conspiracy claim.
Alas, I had no choice but to print the message above. I have never before published any piece of private email without prior permission.
A lot of people turned against the Obama movement because they did not care for the vile tactics of the Kossacks. Let me ask you: How does Larry Johnson's behavior differ from the stomach-churning antics of Markos Moulitsas and his barbarian hordes during the Obama/Clinton battle? Let's go down the list...
Spreading false stories: Check.
Trading in paranoia: Check.
Refusing to apologize when proven wrong: Check.
Showing arrogance when humility is required: Check.
Printing a stream of thuggish comments: Check.
Encouraging a mob mentality: Check.
Seeding the left with right-wing/libertarian memes: Check.
Everything Moulitsas did, Johnson does. Those two guys are doing the "mirror" routine better than Groucho and Harpo did it in Duck Soup.
Interestingly, both Moulitsas and Johnson are known to be "Company" men.
No Quarter is no longer an antidote to Daily Kos. No Quarter is Daily Kos. Same shit; different candidate.
Johnson considers me "a joke." He thinks that nothing I say against him will in any way affect his interactions with others in the PUMA movement. Perhaps. I have no illusions about myself. Perhaps his presumption is true.
We shall see.
But I am hardly the only one who has had a snootful of Larry "Whitey" Johnson and his canary-colored "journalism."
Added note: By the way, Susan UnPC also accused me of being an attention-seeker. Yes, that tired accusation -- again. Let's look at the record...
I've turned down many requests to do radio: Has Larry Johnson done likewise? I've turned down requests to speak in public: Has Larry Johnson done likewise? I've asked Raw Story and other sites not to link to my blog, even though most bloggers would kill for an RS listing: Has Larry Johnson done likewise? I've turned down all requests to write for larger publications: Has Larry Johnson done likewise? I do nothing to build readership, and would prefer for my stats to go down: Can Johnson make that claim?
He's the one with a Paris Hiltonian hunger for publicity. I write to write -- art for art's sake.
Added added note: After "Steve Diamond" talked about Texas Darlin's Freeper background, No Quarter claimed that the embarrassing comment actually came from a Diamond imposter. How conveeeeeenient. Of course, the front-paged "imposter," elsewhere in the same thread, bragged about Diamond's resume in a fashion that strikes me as very un-imposter-like.
Well, that's one way to re-bag the cat. Remember when Crispen Glover claimed that it was actually an imposter who appeared on the Letterman show?
Every time you get anywhere near the Johnson crew, you enter a strange realm of fake handles, impersonations, shared email addresses, and lord-knows-what-else. I have no idea what game this spooked-up crew is playing, but I wasn't very surprised to learn that Larry Sinclair (or someone posing as him) used Texas Darlin's IP address.
24 comments:
Leave a phone number where? If it's sent to SusanUnPC, it's 'a' phone number, any phone that you'll answer. Isn't this like too cool? Like All the President's Men! Aside from THE PRINCIPLE of the idea, so what if you expunge the record? It's implicit in the bargain that Texas Darlin will provide a satisfactory interview, if not, you're not bound anymore by the agreement. Leave the gub, tape the cannoli.
Veronica
I'm fairly new to blogs and politics, but for what it's worth, I think you're doing the best job out of all the political bloggers I've been involved with for the last few months - mostly because you sound quite rational and plausible. Some of the others seem to be bordering on insanity.
I've noticed anyone who dares to question the Cult of the COLB gets attacked like this.
I suspect they have so much wrapped up in it emotionally they can't consider the idea of being wrong. "Polarik" gets disproven, bring in "TechDude". He gets his ass handed to him, have him "go into hiding" and bring back "Judah Benjamin" I'm starting to think of it as a shell game. And Larry Johnson's claiming of "Techdude's" report was WAY too close to the "Whitey video" crap
Personally, I most don't agree with you politically except for the "Cult of the COLB" stuff. But you argue your point thoughtfully and well, and personally I'd rather deal with someone who disagrees with me rationally than someone who agrees with me blindly.
Can you direct me to your email address?
Anon: For the addy, eyes north. Look at the logo. Just beneath the Bondarchuk-ian 1812 imagery.
So sorry to have to break it to you, but intrepid reporters have uncovered irrefutable proof that TexasDarlin, TechDude, Flowbee, etc., have cracked this election wide open.
Click and weep: http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_true_story_of_blackazoid/
You've done an exceptional job in sorting through this mess -- what a venal and whack crew you've contested. Sorry you haven't had time to report on the continued spookiness of the Ivins/anthrax mystery, the murder of Webb's aide and the fall of the house of Edwards (my candidate too...).
Cannonfire - you may even be right, substantively, in this whole thing, but you are the one coming across as a major a--hole. And, an obssessed one at that. NQ has maybe one post a day about this stupid "controversy." You claim there's nothing to it, but you are now posting constantly about it. Sometimes people just disagree - they're not necessarily out to get you.
Wow, that last anonymous guy is a total moron.
The link goes to a comic birth certificate. Snark.
John
I find this turn of event really funny but I don't understand the problem !
They are simply doing the same thing you do all the time since you started your stupid war with ALL Obama supporters : distort reality, de-contextualize quotes, cherry-pick information, peddling any rumour and fabrication of the right as "speculative information", caricature opponents as stupid subhumans and present an over simplified Manichean world view worthy of a Spieldberg movie (where you always mysteriously end up on the side of "good" against "evil"). It's only because you have photoshop skills that you're not peddling that story among the other smears found here.
Your recent affirmation that ALL Obama supporters were and are vile toward Hillary is just another manifestation of the hallucinations you confuse with reality. I fear you're confusing a lot of stuff in your dementia. It's not because we're vile with a smear merchant like you that we're vile toward Hillary. Even Hillary would not approve your unfair smearing of Obama.
If you apply to Hillary crazy supporters the same standard you applied to Obama crazy supporters, you should be writing articles about Hillary being a crook, how all her supporters are racist bigots and how she played the misogynistic card (maybe publish a cartoon of a dumb girl with a PUMA t-shirt picking up her nose).
AR.
http://slicedbreadtwo.com/images/uploads/COLMKBTWL.gif
I have performed a complex analysis of the Kenyan COLB document and was able to determine it's a fake ! if you follow a long series of confusing steps I will eventually publish in a 20 pages documents, you will find that the original name on the document was Larry Johnson !
Anonymous wrote:
Cannonfire - you may even be right, substantively, in this whole thing, but you are the one coming across as a major a--hole. And, an obssessed one at that. NQ has maybe one post a day about this stupid "controversy."
No he's not obsessed at all - he's just doing a thorough job.
Also, there were over 300 posts on NOQuarter for the Techdude fiasco yesterday alone, so you wrong about that too.
Ray
Joseph I believe you have prevented another Dan Rather/Bush AWOL documents diversion. All the folks who wishy wishy the fake COLB is true might have eventually found a mainstream outlet. It would have quickly been shot down and yet another layer of teflon would adhear to Hosanna Obama.
I agree with your findings but hey it would be cool if you were wrong. Perhaps techdud has a trick or two he prefers to keep proprietary (like Jesus and his water-to-wine stunt) so he withheld a key step.
Lastly, I personnaly tried your Shakespeare challenge and after 1/2 hour or so of messing with various tools I did not actually SEE a result but FELT it - "The miserable have no other medicine but only hope". - ( Measure for Measure, Act III, Scene I).
Anonymous danny said...
Danny wrote:
Joseph I believe you have prevented another Dan Rather/Bush AWOL documents diversion. All the folks who wishy wishy the fake COLB is true might have eventually found a mainstream outlet. It would have quickly been shot down and yet another layer of teflon would adhear to Hosanna Obama.
Yes, and imagine how good B.O. would have looked if the TV news had run a new "discovery" or anomaly every night of the week for 38 nights (like those below) and run an apology for the previous night's mess-up before presenting each new bit of *breaking news*.
1. Too many light coloured JPG artifacts.
2. Mohammed removed from COLB
3. The race "African" could not be valid
4. COLB provided in colour = sign of forgery
5. Not enough space in one of the dates
6. Different sized fonts used to other COLB's
7. Different typefaces used in the one name
8. Obama COLB had diff. border to DeCosta
9. Wrong border (manufactured)
10. Smudged border = forgery
11. Grey in border = forgery
12. Crooked border = forgery
13. Overlap in border = forgery
14. Borders not equal widths = forgery
15. The name "Obama II" = suspicious
16. The date stamp was bought at a shop
17.. COLB image too far left comp with others
18. No seal showing through from the back
19. No certification stamp showing through.
20. Problem with two "S's"
21. No line up between all the text
22. Kos version altered before upload
23. Kos version smaller than Factcheck
24. Obama woudn't give COLB to Kos first
25. Polarik is a forensics expert
26. Hawaii Heath didn't know COLB
27. No other evidence B.O was born in Hawaii
28. Smears site COLB had no seal showing
29. B.O's people not verified the Kos image
30. Called "Barry" at school and not "Barack"
31. Hawaii didn't have laser printers in 1961
32. A 1961 COLB would have a "2001 laser"
33. Adopted in Indonesia after age 5
34. Adopted in Hawaii.
35. Techdude is a forensics expert
36. Sister got a Hawaii COLB illegally
37. Sister's name visible in Obama COLB
38. Barack Soertoro COLB found in Hawaii
----------
Yeah, I've felt that NoQuarter has no credibility left ever since the Whitey thing, but this proves it. The people in charge of the site are gullible at best and the comment section is usually an echo-chamber.
But there are many fishy people in the PUMA movement.
The RNC registered the domain clintonsformccain.com which proves that the RNC is trying to use people to pose as Clinton supporters to influence real Clinton supporters.
This blog has some interesting info on some of the people (that are experts in public relations) who are proclaiming to be PUMA's but probably never supported Hillary in the first place. (The blog then gets stupid at the end.)
And this post shows that Stop-obama.org which pretends to be a Clinton site (and didn't come into existence until this Februrary) has the same registrar info as John McCain's website.
And this is probably just the tip of the iceburg.
In my opinion the PUMA movement has been infiltrated by shadowy types and Republicans eager to take advantage of it. I also think that PUMA is misguided, but sincere PUMA's need to recognize that there are many fake PUMA'a out there and denounce them.
rjarnold
"Your recent affirmation that ALL Obama supporters were and are vile toward Hillary is just another manifestation of the hallucinations you confuse with reality."
Thank you Anonymous #639. I read this blog every day and I completely misconstrued what Joseph said. I could have sworn that he was merely reprinting SOME the vile comments made by SOME so-called Obama supporters against Hillary Clinton, all of which most of us have witnessed or experienced ourselves, making the point that SOME of Obama's supporters are his own worst enemies. What is confusing is:-
"It's not because we're vile with a smear merchant like you that we're vile toward Hillary."
Did you not just say that your vileness is hallucinatory on Joseph's part?
"Joseph I believe you have prevented another Dan Rather/Bush AWOL documents diversion. All the folks who wishy wishy the fake COLB is true might have eventually found a mainstream outlet. It would have quickly been shot down and yet another layer of teflon would adhear to Hosanna Obama."
For the record, there is NO evidence whatsoever the Killian memos were forgeries. NONE whatsoever. People are buying into the rightwing spin when they spew such nonsense.
I found No Quarter when I was first searching for like-minded people, around Super Tuesday. I determined that it was no better than the crap on HuffPost or the others, and I didn't want to be associated with that kind of yellow journalism.
I didn't think there was someone with my same mindset until Cannonfire.
I despise Markos (and I can't even stand typing his name - I'd spit on that asshole if he came anywhere near), and the rest of the neophyte-politico's calling themselves Obama supporters.
But, I have been very disappointed with No Quarter as well. He turned me off as soon as he didn't admit he was wrong or at least say that he might be wrong about the birth certificate.
Really Larry? The "invalid" birth certificate would do what? Put Hillary in immediately?
Larry is not helping hillary whatsoever.
TexasDarlin is a terrible person. She should be sued and financially ruined.
Oh scratch what I said about the site with the same registrar info as McCain's website. It doesn't mean anything since they are both domains from GoDaddy, which operates from Scottsdale, Arizona.
But that website, Stop-obama.org, which claims to be a PUMA, is still bizarre, since it didn't even come into existence since February, and the four people who write it seem to blog the same way, and have oddly generic names.
rjarnold
Here's where logic can help you: if the Republicans were behind PUMA, PUMA would be swimming in money.
Though there is, not surprisingly a certain right-wing presence in PUMA, these people are laughably easy to spot. They're the ones who think Obama is a commie.
Crazy people help us define "sane."
When you find yourself agreeing with certain people, it's time for a check-up.
[HONOLULU ADVERTISER TODAY]:
Health officials contacted the Obama campaign a few months ago in response to the persistent inquiries "to see if they could try and resolve the issue with the people who were asking questions," she said.
"They responded and apparently it isn't good enough that he posted his birth certificate," Okubo said. "They say they want it because they claim he is not a citizen of the United States. It's pretty ridiculous."
Post a Comment