Blacklisting is Bad Karma

Back it 2007 i noted the emergence of the M.bots, a cadre of keyboard bullies who predictably went to bat for then Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. Merkley engaged the services of Kari and Carrie's Mandate Media who constructed what turned out to be at times a competent echo chamber which both recycled positive news regarding their clients and did its best to gin up scandal and outrage against the opponents of those paying Mandate.

Some blogs were created for the soul purpose of sockpuppetry. Not long after Merkley's recruitment to run for Senate, one of his interns, Jamal Raad created Forward Oregon along with the very verbose volunteer for Merkley, Bradley Dunn.

"We created this joint venture between, jraad and bdunn to examine the 2008 Oregon Senate Race, Oregon politics, and public policy. But Why? With three thesis to write, internships to complete, and an election to win why have we started ForwardOregon?"

Another example would be the blog Beaver Boundary from the pseudonymical "Taoiseach." No sooner had he lauched his new blog than he was getting front page recognition from Mandate's Blue Oregon. He ceased opperations after his cover was blown. The "Tao of smear" turned out to be Tom Powers, an aide to Rep. Mitch Greenlick. (It was Greenlick who lent his name to attacks from the Merkley camp appearing on Blue Oregon.)

A few exisiting blogs were already FOKers (friend of Kari). Other "reliable sources" promoting Mandate's Merkley message included the now defunct Witigonen as well as Kevin Kamberg's Preemptive Karma. (Kevin BTW prides himself on his role in a Merkley campaign commercial.) Just to finish the dots surrounding the incest which is Kari Chisholm and Oregon's left-leaning web media, it should be noted that Witigonen was founded by Michael Richardson, an employee of Mandate and Ben Dupree who was a Merkley media staffer. Dupree later joined Kamberg's PK. An original PK contributor, Carla Axtman, left the pro-Novick blog Loaded Orygun to work on the Merkley campaign, but quit before the endo fot he Primary. She was soon hired on as junior journalist at Mandate's Blue Oregon.

The point of recounting this revolving door history is simply to set the stage. I was reading an interesting piece on PK yesterday by Ben DuPree regarding the fallout of the Sam Adams scandal. [Editors note: Kari Chisholm iswas also on Adams' payroll.]

The Media Issue by ben According to Alex Blaze at the Bilerico Project, we have to think about this "scandal" as a media issue. He cites Just Out's puzzling call for resignation. And he talks of former Senator Gordon Smith: Gordon Smith, the former Republican Senator from the state of Oregon, lied in a series of campaign ads this past summer saying that his opponent, Jeff Merkley, voted against a bill to increase the statute of limitations for rape. [More...]

I thought that DuPree's basic premise had merit. I only quibbled with his example. But you won't find my response on Preemptive Karma any more. Kamberg, the alpha poodle of PK deleted it and banned me from further comment on his blog.

So for the record (with banned words in red)...

Whereas you make a valid point as to the capricious nature of the media when choosing which lies are worthy of headlines, i think you choose a poor example to illustrate your point. Didn't Jeff Merkley lie when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this"? I think better examples of the media turning a blind eye to significant lies are those of Eric Holder who lied about his involvement in the Marc Rich "pardon for dollars" scandal who is now Obama's Attorney General designate and US Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner who lied about his taxes. East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 1:50 pm | # Didn't Jeff Merkley lie when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this"? No, Merkley didn't lie. We've been over and over and over this, Hans. Enough is enough. carla | 01.25.09 - 4:06 pm | # --------------------------------------------------- EBT isn't concerned about Holder being involved in the Marc Rich pardon, he's concerned that Holder will prosecute war crimes. And so is Senator Cornyn. And so should be all the war criminals. Mac McFadden | 01.25.09 - 5:35 pm | # --------------------------------------------------- EBT isn't concerned about Holder being involved in the Marc Rich pardon Mac, you fail at mind reading. East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 8:30 pm | # --------------------------------------------------- No, Merkley didn't lie. Hey Carla "axe to grind" man, you fail at truth. You're not still on Merkley's payroll, are you? (Though i suppose as a new employee of Mandate, the revolving door still has its dues to pay.) East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 9:02 pm | # --------------------------------------------------- Your comment contains too many links and will not be added Preemptive Karma LOL! P.S. You can stamp your feet all you want, Ms. Axtman, Senator Merkley did lie (on various occasions) when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this." (These have all been previously sourced.) Just compare these quotes/lies to the "floor speach" [sic] he actually gave in an attempt to explain his vote to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush." East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 9:05 pm | # --------------------------------------------------------------------- East Bank Thom has been banned for his infantile cyber-bully tactics in the above comment. I don't much care if he chooses to black out his own face on his blog and use a pseudonym. Some folks place a higher value on privacy than others and that's fine by me. But such a person crosses the line in attempting to bully other commenters by photoshopping their real faces and mocking them by their real names from behind the veil of privacy. It's actually something he has a long history of doing. Edited By Siteowner Kevin | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 9:55 pm | # --------------------------------------------------- Man Thom get a hobby man. Ben | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 11:04 pm | # --------------------------------------------------- Hans: If you really want to get down to getting personal, I suppose we could do that. But frankly, if you're not willing to allow your own name and information to be put out there--its skeezy of you to attempt to do it to others. carla | 01.26.09 - 9:45 am | #

-------------------------------------------------------------

Gawd, this seems strangely familiar...

Update: And speaking of Sockpuppetry...