Beauty And The Beasts - The Blogger Version

Congratulations to my dear friend, Lisa Mux, aka Waukesha Wonk, for making it to the big time!

For those that don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain.

James Wigderson, a Koch Brothers' employee and close associate of Mark Block, wrote a post in which he blatantly misrepresents a peaceful recall petition signing rally which was hosted by some of Scott walker's neighbors.  Ignoring the actual facts, as is his wont, he compared a peaceful event to a KKK rally, of all things.

He then went on to compare Ms.Mux to some sort of intimidating mob.  Her sin to deserve such a condemnation? She dared to tweet one of his posts that was related to a charitable event.!  And on top of that, she tweeted again about the irony of a liberal blogger tweeting a conservative blogger's post!  Oh, the humanity!

Most bloggers would take delight in having their work broadcasted to an even larger audience, especially when it is done in a positive manner like this.

But Wigderson would not have any of that!  He stalked her twitter timeline, making sure he got every tweet about him and using it to launch one ad hominem attack after another at Ms. Mux, because she dared to be nice to him.

The really odd thing about that is that when I was writing at Whallah!, Wigderson expressed concern that I was being a misogynist because I dared to write about a conservative radio squawk show host who happened to be female.  He did so even though I wrote rebuttals to her blog posts in which she would iterate the same old Republican talking points.

In other words, if I write a rebuttal to a wrong-minded position expressed by a woman, I am apparently a misogynist.  But Wiggy can stalk a woman's twitter feed and use it to mischaracterize her and make false accusations about her and he is a hero of the people?  Obviously, this is one of those "It's only OK if a Republican does it" situations.

Ms. Mux really made the big time though when Mark Belling, apparently (but understandably) unable to find anything positive to say about Scott Walker, chose to spend a considerable amount of time reading Wiggy's post on air and slandering Ms. Mux as well.

Having a Koch Brothers' employee and a radio squawker attack you is a sure sign that they see you as a threat, ergo, Ms. Mux has hit the big time. (Although she has yet to meet my marks of being attacked by three squawkers in one day or having one the coveted Deep Tunnel award from Charlie Sykes*)

I just hope and pray that Ms. Mux won't receive the same treatment that the right wing nut jobs have given to other female bloggers.

*Charlie, it's been two years.  Where's my plaque already?

When Bloggers Foolishly Attack

I don't know, but I would think that if you were a right wing blogger and you felt like slandering someone, you might not want to take on someone who is fully capable of taking care of himself or herself in a court of law.

Just sayin'.

BTW, the slanderer chose not to remove the offense, but highlight it with an apology of sorts, if you are in a liberal, forgiving mood.

Still, the most appropriate way to describe comic book guy's post:

April Tools: Another Libelous Attack From The Right

On Thursday evening, I noticed that Peter DiGaudio, owner and author of the blogsite "The Underground Conservative", had written an attack post on me.  The gist of the post is that I had allegedly left two profane and inappropriate comments on another post of his, and that these two posts were left during what is normally considered business hours.

To be honest, I didn't first think too much about it.  You see, I've been harangued by an imposter or group of imposters for over a year and a half now.  Said imposter(s) have a long history of impersonating me, Zach Wisniewski, Jim Arndt and others in all corners of the Cheddarsphere.  Some of the bloggers and blogs that have encountered this fool include Zach, Jim and myself as well as Cindy Kilkenny, Badger Blogger, folkbum, Jason Haas, Owen Robinson at Boots and Sabers, Real Debate Wisconsin, Charlie Sykes and who knows where else. The comments range from those experienced by Peter to threats of violence and other horrendous things.

In fact, as you can see at Peter's post, commenters including Cindy Kilkenny, Jim Arndt and Jim Spice, point out to this ongoing issue. Furthermore, there are some other minor points that would indicate that it's not me, including the fact that I have a different sign in for WordPress sites.

The sock puppets' mission is obviously to try to discredit me by making me appear as some sort of asocial lunatic.  Fortunately for me, I've been blogging for long enough that most people, even those that don't agree with my political views (like Cindy and Owen, for example), recognize that this isn't my style of writing and/or that it's not my IP.  (In fact, said troll most often uses some proxy server to help disguise their true identity.)  Said troll was even becoming so bold as threatening me at my sites, hence the need for comment moderation. But don't worry, I still have all those comments in storage.

Another reason that I was not overly concerned about it was the fact that Peter himself has a history of questionable writings (which caused him to blow up at least one or two previous sites he had operated). I also know that there are some people that will believe the worst of me no matter what, so they will automatically presume my guilt in anything.  Others just don't know me and don't bother doing their homework*.  Either way, I realize that there is nothing that I can do about that, and thus tend not to worry about it.

That feeling on laissez-faire changed earlier today when I was tipped off that some Republican operatives were taking Peter's allegations of me leaving those comments on county time and trying to run with them.   My thoughts immediately went to the attempted smear job that Citizens for Responsible Government pulled last year, much akin to the Republican attempt to discredit Professor Cronon.

This suspicion was reinforced when Aaron Rodriguez, a known Walker blogger, who doesn't follow me on Twitter, still responded to an off-hand comment I made about wanting a drink after a week of seeing so many of my friends retiring from work this week:

Rodriguez, when I challenged him on this, made some odd comment about seeing me posting on Fox6Milwaukee, which would be really new, since I've almost never gone to that site, much less posted a comment there.  I'm not even registered to that site, presuming they have that requirement to comment on their site in the first place.

But I am still not too worried about this whole thing since I know that I didn't leave those comments on Peter's site or anywhere else.  I know that whatever they throw at me will eventually prove to be nothing. Odds are that they know this as well.

However, I can see them trying to roil the waters sometime between now and Tuesday to try to influence the elections.  The scenario I could foresee would be that CRG or some such group of groupies come out with these fresh allegations and use that to attempt to discredit me and to try to distract the people's attention from the fact that Scott Walker and the Republicans have overreached themselves (again).  So far, one Republican Senator is going to have to fight to keep his seat and there may be as many as five more before long.  Furthermore, from everything I hear, neither Stone nor Prosser are looking to well in the polls and they need to do something if they are going to have a chance.

So if you see "me" posting some obnoxious garbage around the blogosphere, know it's not me.  And if you see someone or some group making these false allegations against me, share the truth so that they cannot keep hijacking this great state of ours.

*Peter, if you really do read this blog, please note that it is Cognitive Dissidence, not Cognitive Dissonance.  I do cognitive dissidence, while your post shows cognitive dissonance.