Yes, this is another post devoted to Pilate's Question. As on previous occasions, our topic is the political mythology that deforms so many online "debates."
Myths seem to be quite popular on sites like No Quarter, Atlas Shrugged and the other right-wing anti-Obama sites. As you will recall, NQ chieftain Larry Johnson called me a "clown" because I had corrected a false story he had published about Barack Obama's birth certificate. An obvious case of projection: Larry was the one wearing big floppy shoes and a bright round nose. And every time ego prevents him from 'fessing up when proven wrong, he simply re-announces himself as a graduate of the Clown Institute of America.The trouble with right-wing bloggers -- and with the pro-Obama prog-bloggers -- is their redefinition of truth. Any assertion that conforms with one's biases is considered true; any claim that challenges a bias must be a lie.
The Michelle-was-disbarred meme has invaded many byways of the internet. Naturally, the Freepers believe it. So does Exposing Liberal Lies. So does this fellow. So does this guy -- who, unless I am mistaken, brought the fib into No Quarter.
That post seems to have been modified since original publication. The comments, however, make clear that NQ had prominently featured the "Michelle-was-disbarred" hoax. And where did the hoax originate? On Pam Geller's Atlas Shrugged, natch. (Perhaps I'll call it the Atlas Shrugged Site from now on. I like the acronym.)
Facts is facts, and ya might as well face 'em: Michelle does have a license to practice law, although it is now on inactive status. In accordance with the law at the time, she had to petition the court to go on inactive status. And why did she do such a thing? To sidestep renewal fees and continuing education requirements. The fees probably weren't the big worry; the hours spent in continuing education were, I feel certain, a greater concern.
Our reader elliwyatt made these points in the NQ comments section. The response? She was shouted down, called horrible names, and made to feel unwelcome. I found particularly noteworthy this response from one Mary Miller:
You should get your facts staight. She was involved with her friends in a bad deal.Elliewyatt's reply:
Which friends? What deal? Kindly give us the facts. Got a source? A link? Anything? I’d like to read it.No response. Mary, like many a right-winger before her, had pulled her claims straight out of the place that sings a special tune after one of my three-alarm chili bowls.
Elliewyatt also debunked the "disbarred" allegation at the Texas Darlin' site. Result: She was banned. Don't you go bothering TD with that nasty old reality.
As you will recall, the loathesome TD was the Bozo-rina who stumped for the birth certificate findings of "Techdude" -- findings which deserved publication in the Journal of Irreproducible Results. (By the way -- I still do not understand why Larry Sinclair, or someone posing as Larry, posted from Texas Darlin's IP address. TD has never denied the assertion.)
I can only repeat what I said about Larry and TD on a previous occasion:
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...Now, no doubt, the right-wing anti-O crowd (i.e., all the the Gellers and Johnsons and Texas Darlin's out there) will damn me as a secret agent for Obamaism, simply because my distaste for our current prez has not left me willing to treat reality the way a boy scout treats a rope. Meanwhile, the left-wing prog-bots will continue to lump me in with the Larry Johnsons and Pam Gellers of this world.
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.
Bob Somerby has it right. The name of the game is Shirts versus Skins, not truth versus falsehood.
18 comments:
I used to read NQ "Back in the day." I had to go and shower after Johnson claimed he has a video of Michelle shouting "Whitey" from the pulpit.
I waited and I waited for this so-called tape to surface only to be met with excuse after excuse. I decided that my brain was a terrible thing to waste.
So you're an anti-clownite too?
I shoulda known.
Red Dragon - I'm no fan of NQ but that isn't what Larry Johnson. What LJ said was that he heard from someone who had talked to someone that had seen the tape. On top of that, according Time Magazine, the Obama campaign was beginning to hear the rumor with such frequency that they asked Michelle about it in mid-April. This is significant, because it was a full month later before Larry Johnson published the story online. Seymour Hersh got the story before him as well. I never read him offer up any excuses and he never said she was shouting it from the pulpit. As I recall, the story was that she was appearing with Farrakahn when she used that word, but I may have that wrong.
Clearly, the story existed long before Larry wrote about it and in circles that were pretty close to the top. I have no idea how truthful it is. Hersh never wrote about it, so we don't know what he knows.
Well, I have to maintain a professional license so I'm familiar with those "onerous" CME demands and it immediately strikes me that you've made a few assumptive leaps yourself.
What were CME credentialling demands in Illinois for a law license in the years in question? Were there any? I was licensed to practice medicine in Illinois for most of the '90s and the CME demands were pretty trivial. Also I'd be interested to hear from any lawyers. In medicine if you aren't licensed in at least one state--if you let license completely lapse--it would be pretty difficult to reestablish license.
I think it's curious but also a little sad. I read it as Michelle O was not going to make partner in her law firm, I suspect she was just not a good enough lawyer. And she didn't seem to continue on in some second tier capacity, again I suspect because she was more concerned about status issues than about legal ones. I dimly remember that the phrasing the Illinois bar used when "suspending" her license made it sound as if there may have been more at issue than just life style choices but I think we can conclude one thing safely and that is, if there were issues they will NEVER be made public.
Let's turn it around. Is Ron Paul still licensed to practice medicine? Does anyone really care? Has he ever had a malpractice suit? Does it have anything to do with his political career?
It's funny this is making the rounds now. This info has been out there for some time and discussed in legal web sites at least a year ago. Is this the blog version of a slow news cycle?
Okay what exactly did happen? I saw on some site a link to an IL thing where the lawyers could be looked up and she appears not to have a license. Did she voluntarily give it up?
Lori.....but but but, Michelle has the arms to represent mothers all over this great country? (read it an weep! http://cinie.wordpress.com/
Are you suggesting that she wasn't up to a relatively minor CLE requirement?
(BTW...I agree that CLE's are pretty easy to deal with.)
I remember the Birth Certificate fiasco and you urging caution then getting called a troll for your troubles. I can't remember LJ doing that but some of other posters did.
I always thought it was a red herring put out by someone in the Obama campaign to draw attention from the Rezko land deal.
It is damaging and unnecessary to create false information when there is enough detail to erase a whole administration under Barack Obama. The major place a race card is being played is the threat that if he is removed from office, there would be worse riots than we have seen before. God has all that covered. The way is prepared for a smooth transition.
Many of the charges and evidences are on my website, sort of court style:
http://www.divine-way.com/forgery_evidences_sss_reg_colb_birth_cert_for_obama_impeachment.html
and
http://obama-birth-cert-forged-sss-impeach.blogspot.com
Do not rest until the truth wins out. All he has to do is show his identity records. He surely believes he has something to hide.
Marie -
I have one simple question - have you filed a Freedom Of Information Act Request on Obama? Has it ever occurred to you that the reason journalists haven't picked up on this story is that they know perfectly well that he was born in this country?
You are right to point that out Lori. What I was getting at was that LJ placed MUCH of his reputation on that story. I realize it was one that had been floating in the ether and maybe, just maybe there was some truth to it. Just as the LA Times hid some damaging remarks by Obama at a dinner, I can concede that there may have been a grain a truth to it.
What turned ME off was the venom directed at anyone who reasonably questioned where this tape was...Not the Bot's and the Daily Kooks, but once strong supporters of LJ. I was one of those supporters. Mind you...I am no supporter of Obama, so I defended LJ vigorously.
I left there when it became apparent that a civil and intelligent discussion could not be had with SOME of his prolific poster's.
I think that the drive to find the dirt on Obama came from the frustration people felt that the media was not reporting on him in a normal fashion.
Nothing he did was ever wrong, nothing his opponents did was ever right, anyone who opposed him was an obvious racist, it was beyond dispute!
You couldn't say he had no experience, that despite his education he did not seem to be particularly articulate without a teleprompter, that he had some extremely odd friends who he tried to deny were friends only to be caught and then excused by the media, etc etc etc..
In the face of this I think people realized that the only way to get any kind of media attention was to come up with a scandal. Scandal trumps any loyalty in the media. So these people desperately tried to get the dirt.
In the end I think there was probably some fire with all the smoke, but it got buried.
Red Dragon,
For the record, I left at the same time, though I was never a big participant at the site. It was always a little too loosey-goosey for me.
While making the Audacity of Democracy, I spoke with a very, very wealthy Texan who had heard the tale of the whitey tape first hand from a Republican friend of his. That's left me agnostic on the subject of the tape but I remain skeptical that anyone of Michelle's generation uses the word "whitey".
FYI
There is an offcial court document of her disbarrment. It was all over the web and these blogs that you mention. I'm sure it's dated and archived. Only the freepers make things up. She was disbarred in 1991! bite it!
If there were such a document, you would link to it. Stop lying, Anonymous creep.
The fact she allowed her license to lapse is very, very unusual.
By the way it is not hard to meet CLE standards-you can do it online for 200 dollars.
from snopes.com discussion board...
it appears that most likely she let it lapse because she changed careers. the obamas were still paying off their student loans back then iirc, so probably keeping up with the fees for a license that wasn't really needed for her work was a financial drain she decided she didn't want.
smart woman.
http://www.lawline.com/illinois-cle.html
http://www.abanet.org/cle/mcleview.html
It costs $200 and you can do it on your computer at home.
The registration fee is a couple hundred dollars every two years.
Although it is a nuisance I never heard of an attorney who let their license lapse solely over the fees.
If they were financially struggling in 2001 and needed the money it boggles the mind that she would let her license lapse which would have prevented her from using an ivy league law degree to make money.
I can see reasons why she would have allowed her license to lapse but the cost of maintaining cle credits is not one.
"And why did she do such a thing? To sidestep renewal fees and continuing education requirements."
Well, aside from a few paragraphs of name-calling you do not give any objective evidence to back this up.
You assume because she 'voluntarily' petitioned for court-ordered inactive status that nothing unusual happened or was done to head off a bigger problem.
No, there is no smoking gun, but there is plenty of smoke. It is odd that someone would bust their hindquarters to get an Ivy law degree, practice with a tony firm for a few years and then suddenly chuck it all. Never heard of that, except for someone joining a religious order.
Oh wait, there was that $150,000-300,000 job with the university that suddenly popped up. (And the salary disappeared after she left.) I got it now.
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