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 | #

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Gawd, this seems strangely familiar...

Update: And speaking of Sockpuppetry...

Kremer vs. Kari

Little did i know when I decided to take in a bit of KXL's Kremer Komedy Hour last Saturday, that this little pundit that could (out of Oregon's Right field) would prove to provide even more amusement.

In a scathing post directed at the DPO's media megaphone, Kari Chisholm, Kremer takes the mean man from Mandate to task for blatant plagiarism. He points to a recent quote by Chisholm: "In Republican circles, there ain't nothing that succeeds like total, epic failure" and responded with the following admonition:

Hey! Kari! Write your own stuff! Anyone who knows me has heard me say the same exact thing as a motto for Oregon. I've said it many times on the air, and a simple search of my blog shows the times I have written it down here.

I did search Kremer's blog and sure enough, he's been blogging the line "Portland: Where nothing succeeds like failure" since January, 2008!

The problem is, it's a cliché. (Does Rob Kremer think he invented blogging, too?) Or perhaps he should expand his wordsmith witchhunt to include Daniel Pipes of the Jerusalem Post, who labelled an article in February 2001:

Nothing succeeds like failure

This was clearly a pre-emptive copyright infringement!

In defense of Kari Chisholm, he's less likely to take credit for somebody else's words than to try and hide his own authorship when he's using Blue0 to shill for his clients. He got busted for this right around the time Willy Week nominated him as Rogue of the Week "for excessive use of bullshit in his mud-slinging."

After getting caught with his hand in the internet cookie jar, he managed this excuse:

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Aug 28, 2007 11:02:59 AM actually, Kari DID post this entry. Um, folks... Yes, I did write this entry. I didn't say that I didn't. You'll note that I post a version of the "please don't assume" comment every single time that someone suggests that I wrote a particular post. I've done it dozens of times over the last year. I write many of the posts. I don't write all of them. When I'm posting my opinions, I do it over my own name. When it's in the "Voice of BlueOregon", it's much more neutral. (That is neutral/progressive - not neutral/neutral.)

Then he went ahead and fiddled with his blog so as to further disguise the "neutral" voice of BO. (But he forgot to tell his co-editors... oops!)

****
It also looks like Kari Chisholm ripped off their logo.

Kari Chisholm: POWNED and Sealed

Jeff Merkley's web guru, Kari Chisholm of Mandate Media just had his ample kiester handed back to him. As Merkley contiunes to flounder in the polls, his campaign is responding the only way the DC establishment knows how; go on the attack. Cue the scary music and out of context quotes. Talk about how "angry" your opponent is. And then take your negative attack online. But it seems that BlueOregon's chief cook and salad spinner went a bridge to far on the internet super highway. Seems he lifted the code from the actual Novick for Senate site and took the credit for himself. I'm not saying that he stole anything. He's just lazy (and uncreative).

By all accounts, Chisholm learned well from his mentors, the Clintons. It takes a burned village to save a campaign.

The Novick staffer who created the authentic website took issue with Kari's hand in the internet cookie jar. He published an open letter to BlueOregon's Kari Chisholm on the Daily Kos.

"On the recent attack website you launched for Jeff Merkley, novickinsultsdemocrats.com, you used a substantial amount of work that I, and others, created for the Novick campaign and claimed credit for it as your own... "

[Update: Kari responds (sort of) with a denial, an updated attribution and a counter attack.]

-kari. p.s. I'm pretty sure that's the state seal in the header of the real Novick site. You might consider removing it, per state law.

[Updated updated. Kari's attempted cheap shot went "poof."]

Merkley, the choice of "humans"

For a brief moment in time, it appeared that the Team Merkley scored the most valuable endorsement of all (that is, until the Lefties win out and "aliens" get the right to vote).

I've noted before that Mr. Kamberg's keyboard seems to lack the letters S - T - F and U. And now it appears, sometimes E.

Blue0 chief cook and salad spinner swooped in for the late night assist. But did Kari "Full Disclosure" Chisholm forget something in his attempt to bolster his client's cred?

Please give until it hurts...

Merkley's not-so swift boaters

I'm a Novick partisan, I suppose, and these are the facts as I know them...

I first heard about Steve Novick after a failed attempt to draft (my former) populist US Congressman, Peter DeFazio. I followed this effort through Loaded Orygun. When the Rep. declined to run, LO took an interest and later endorsed Steve Novick for US Senate. LO co-editor Carla Axtman later left the blog to join the campaign of Novick's primary opponent, Oregon House Speaker, Jeff Merkley, who was recruited in July by DSCC chair, Chuck Schumer. This support also came with ca. $100,000 seedy money for the choice of the Democratic establishment.

Also on Merkley's side is "the biggest blog in Oregon," BlueOregon.com. It's "chief cook and bottle washer is Merkley paid media staffer, Kari "sometimes-I-forget-to-disclose-my-paid-relationships" Chisholm.

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Jan 22, 2008 11:34:50 PM
[...] As you well know, I post my disclosure on every blog post I write - and on every comment that I post on anyone else's blog. Seriously [...]

His blog, once believed to have been a a neutral, progressive forum, has become primarily a propaganda organ (IMHO) for Mr. Chisholm's many clients.

Chisholm has also constructed a nice echo chamber of bloggers who daily expend bandwidth with their pro-Merkely, anti-Novick commentary. Among the men of Mandate are Michael Richardson, Chisholm's tech guy who co-publishes his own blog, Witigonen.com. Then there's blogger, cum peace activist, Kevin Kamberg, who used to co-blog with Merkley's netroots staffer, Carla Axtman if I'm not mistaken.

"How many of you made it to the Peace rally and march in Portland yesterday? I was there and had a blast. It was my first ever protest march." - K. Kamberg

In the Junior Varsity, we have the erstwhile Beaver Boundary, the recent upstart, gone out of bid'niss blog, dedicated to going negative on Novick and run by the assistant of vocal Novick critic Rep. Mitch Greenlick, Tom Powers. Forward Oregon, also created in the midst of this campaign by Bradley "don't-call-me-Bradley" Dunn (Bdunn - remind us of your relationship to jraad, aka Jamaal, a Merkley college organizer?), has been a reliable source for Chisholm's Blue(dog)Oregon.

Add to this Lefty Lane and the ever reliably pro-Merk&Co. Senate 2008 Guru not to mention the ever present chattering natterers Of Blue0; Pat Ryan, Mitch Gore ("Lestatdelc") and the ever curmudgeonly "LT," and behold the echo chamber of Kari Chisholm.

Jeff is espousing anti-war cred he has not earned. His excuse for voting to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush" rings hollow. Where is this supposed column he published? I'm only getting stonewalled by the Merkley surrogates and staff alike.

Silencing Speech

Once again, i have been banned from "Oregon's biggest blog." Kari Chisholm accused me of making an ad hominem attack. And while making his accusation public, he deleted from public view the "offending" comment in question. Furthermore, i am no longer allowed to comment on Blue Oregon.

Set you irony meters on "stunning" as i lay out the facts.

Kari is well known for not playing well with others as he throws his weight around on Blue0. He also gets pretty mouthy (which would give me pause if he were on my payroll as he is for much of Oregon's top Dems - Gov. Kulongoski, US Sen. Wyden, US Rep. Blumenauer, Councilman Adams, Senator Brown, etc.).

"Don't be an asshole, [Stephanie]" - K. Chisholm

And here was the context...

Posted by: Stephanie V | Oct 2, 2007 2:07:29 PM [...] My only advice to Jeff: better hire Mandate Media to do your website, so you can keep getting some good pixels over here. %^> ------------------------------- Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Oct 3, 2007 1:45:03 AM My only advice to Jeff: better hire Mandate Media to do your website, so you can keep getting some good pixels over here. Don't be an asshole. That's not how it works and you know it.

Classy way to overreact. And so i thought it curious when Kari made the following comment:

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Oct 14, 2007 8:44:05 PM Stephanie V wrote... Kari, I didn't say you were hopelessly biased or an unethical asshole...

To which i responded:

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Oct 14, 2007 10:13:10 PM [Stephanie V] - Kari, I didn't say you were hopelessly biased or an unethical asshole Stephanie, the first phrase roughly paraphrases what Kari admitted about himself. The latter insult (minus the adjective) was slung against you by Jeff Merkley's paid media consultant. Money well spent indeed.

Something about my comment really pissed off Kari. He deleted it and replace it with this message:

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Oct 14, 2007 10:13:10 PM [Ad hominem attack deleted. -editor.]

I tried to get a bit of clarification...

Dear Editor,
How can it be considered an "ad hominem" attack, when i simply hotlinked to two quotes from Blue0's editor? I didn't even requote his admission that he is not only biased, but "very biased" nor did i requote his characterization of Stephanie V as "an asshole." Perhaps it was that i noted how the editor is Jeff Merkley's paid media consultant? Seeing that the editor has admitted as much, i don't understand how this could be considered an "ad hominem attack."

signed,
Curious in SE Portland

But alas...

An error occurred...
Your comment has not been posted because we think it might be comment spam. If you believe you have received this message in error, please contact the author of this weblog.

There's nothing quite as patriotic as silencing free speech. Jeff Merkley, I salute you.

Oops, he did it again!

.
Kari Chisholm, Jeff Merkley's media guy at Mandate, is having the darnedest luck of late, and it seems all too often to be at the expense of the Oregon House Speaker's primary candidate, Steve Novick.

It was about a month ago that Novick, who spent 8 years in the Justice Department, got some favorable press in the Portland Tribune. Instead of the usual post over at BlueOregon with summarizing text, quotes and a chance for readers to comment, a simple link to the original article was posted along with the Trib's not so flattering cover photo of the 4'9" Democratic activist. This glaring short shrift prompted the Blue0 chief cook and bottle washer to print this editorial comment:

Editor's note [Kari Chisholm]: Apologies to our readers. For the last 105 minutes, we've had a post up here that wasn't quite up to our usual standards. We've corrected it and sorted things out internally. [Update below!]

Ever since Speaker Merkley entered the race to challenge Steve Novick for the Democratic nomination to unseat Sen. Gordon Smith next fall, headlines over at "Oregon's biggest blog" have taken a decidedly pro Merkley spin. [Editor's note: Kari Chisholm's Mandate Media runs both Merkley's Website as well as BlueOregon.com]

Merkley hits Smith hard on Iraq, health care

More Merkley/Gonzales Roundup...

Proud of Oregon, proud of Jeff Merkley

Republicans, Novick press attack on Merkley

When Novick got some more good press out in eastern Oregon, the story still had its hurdles in making online over at Blue0.

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Sep 1, 2007 12:07:47 AM

Steve Maurer asked... But then the thought struck me - why didn't the Novick campaign tout this to BlueOregon? What's going on out there?

For the record, they did. It was in a phone call, while I was driving, on the day I got Rogue'd, amidst other topics. I just plain forgot about it. Jake's doing a fine job.

Strike two... or three or four. [Editor's note: Jake is Steve Novick's campaign manager]

So imagine my surprise when i got banned from posting comments at BlueOregon.com. It appeared that i courted Kari's displeasure on two accounts. When i wasn't willing to give Merkley a pass for voting to "acknowledge the courage of President George W. Bush" the discussions over at Blue0 took a turn for the savage. Kari took particular displeasure in the topic.

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Aug 3, 2007 6:01:40 PM

Hey folks.... Let's not fall for the GOP gambit. They dropped this little turd precisely as an attempt at driving a wedge between Novick and Merkley.

[...]

If there are true disagreements on policy, then sure - let's have those debates honestly, fairly, and vigorously. But let's not fall for the GOP turd-dropping.

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Aug 4, 2007 10:39:32 AM

[...] I'm done arguing about this stupid little turd of a press release from the Oregon GOP.

Even before Kari's induction by the Willy Week as "Rogue of the Week," i had been questioning his ability to keep Blue0 neutral. This, despite much supporting evidence that BlueOregon had become a mouthpiece for Merkley was apparently my second mistake.

And now comes late word to the shores of Vancouver (that other one, north of the border) that my bannination was all just a mistake. Whew!

Anyway, looks like you were collateral damage from another troll hunt that I was on. That's one problem with running a local blog, all the IPs cluster together - so you try and stop a troll, and you end up blocking someone else. I once accidentally blocked Randy Leonard - boy was that bad... -kari.

And now if i could just get an apology for the insinuation Kari made that i had dropped the nigger bomb (and perhaps a second beer) we could all just move on.org .....

[Editor's ironic note:]

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Aug 29, 2007 3:20:21 PM

Hey Bob -- If you're going to accuse someone of using the N-word, could you provide a source or a quote?

[Update! Kari clarifies below the first glitch mentioned above. It was not his fault! ("incompetence, not malice") - Click on comments.]

Banned by Mandate

Muzzletov! Barely a week after the Willamette Week called out Blue Oregon chief editor and president of Mandate media for mixing business with pleasure, the sincere musings of Thom's word have been silenced. I am no longer allowed to post comments on the Blue0 blog.

I'm reminded what ol' Joe, the Lone Vet once told be about raging against the Machine. "Hit'em in the balls, and they've got to come after you." Still, it must be said, i wasn't trying for any nut shot. My last exchange was just a gentle notification of the fact that the "neutral" news stories posted by the Blue0 staff still flirt with twisting the truth.

My last exchange...

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Sep 4, 2007 6:42:10 PM

I have a wee problem with the verbiage:

"Also absent from the committee is notable Clinton supporter Rep. Darlene Hooley"

It's not in bold "in the news" above but it does stand out as a contrived "headline." Given the text quoted from the Oregonian just below the fold, i could have spun it like this:

"Rep. Darlene Hooley was given a notable national role in Clinton's campaign."

[Disclaimer: I'm an Edwards fan.]

________________________________________

Posted by: Nick Wirth, Blue Oregon intern | Sep 4, 2007 7:58:34 PM

"It's not in bold "in the news" above but it does stand out as a contrived "headline."

Thom: You make a good point about my word choices. I hope it doesn't come across as leaning for or against Clinton. I just found it curious that Hooley wasn't involved in the campaign in her home state, and the article itself notes the lack of elected officials in the committee.

________________________________________

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Sep 4, 2007 10:38:57 PM

I hope it doesn't come across as a) leaning for, or b) against Clinton.

I choose "b"

I just found it curious that Hooley wasn't involved in the campaign in her home state

Just to err on the cautious side, when you want to explore your curiosities, try a "notable comment" or "contributor" byline.

the article itself notes the lack of elected officials in the committee.

"light when it comes to big names" was the quote. The voice's rendering of this editorial note was a bit akin to saying "Dick Cheney passed over for cabinet post. Forced to accept Vice-Presidency."

Say, you aren't the "Nick" or "NIck" from last week's thread? (Speaking of which, why did the old voice go soft on single name or one-time-slogan monikers?) Regardless, all the best, Nick!

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When i attempted to post a follow-up to Blue0 but i keep getting an error message...

An error occurred...
You are not allowed to post comments.

So i posted this to LoadedOrygun instead...

__________________________________________________

More evidence that there are facts, damn facts and spin... this just in from this week's Willy Week.

"Dealing John Edwards a blow, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has announced its Oregon steering committee, and it's packed with big names"
--------------------------------------

I wanted to post this referencing a quote from the BigO reposted yesterday by BlueO's new voice:

"The 13-member committee is heavy with on-the-ground political activists and relatively light when it comes to big names."

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[Disclaimer: see previous disclaimer.]

[Update: see update!]

Rogue Donkey

.
Kari Chisholm - president of Mandate and bossman over at BlueOregon - got into more hot water for mixing bizniss and Blue0.

Willamette Week -- "The Rogue Desk isn’t known for playing nice. We like it when politicians mix it up. But we’re calling foul on Democratic media consultant Kari Chisholm , who runs the blog BlueOregon.com, for excessive use of bullshit in his mud-slinging."

(I second the nomination.)

Deleted Comments

I'm putting these comments in the can for a while and will toggle this blog post on when the trolls have left. Just to be clear, except for my comment below, the rest of the exchange seemed to come from one single individual with a chip on his should about BlueOregon (Kari's blog) and LoadedOrygun (TorridJoe and Carla's blog).

torridjoe said...

Kari Chisholm is a big, fat, transexual asshole.

July 31, 2007 9:41 AM

Kari Chisholm said...

Yes, I fully accept the fact I am a big, fat, transexual asshole, but that's what you love about me, isn't it torridjoe?
BTW, my fat ass still hurts from the regal pounding you gave it last night, big boy.
Chocolate Rain forever!

July 31, 2007 9:46 AM

Thom said...

fellas, if it weren't for BlueOregon and Loaded Orygun (love the new look BTW), i wouldn't be blogging, but...
My MOM reads this blog. Though she rarely backtracks... you get my point.
Thanks for your forums.

July 31, 2007 10:03 AM

Carla said...

Eat shit then.

July 31, 2007 10:28 AM

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Fighting Against Getting Goated Over Trolls: FAGGOT!