Osborne Ink

Ken White Knows Who The Real Bullies Are

Matt Osborne — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:25 +0000

Los Angeles Deputy DA John Patrick Frey aka @Patterico posted unredacted documents (.PDF) at his blog revealing Nadia Naffe’s personal and medical information, then treated Twitter as his courtroom to cross-examine her (.PDF). As a result, her credit was ruined by identity thieves and her hiring prospects were dimmed by Google results. Frey did this in retaliation for Naffe blowing a whistle on the illegal and unethical activities of his friend James O’Keefe after he tried to rape her. Naffe has been trying to sue Frey ever since. Recently a federal appeals court overrode a lower court’s dismissal, meaning that Naffe’s case against Frey will continue for at least a year. She has also succeeded in getting the California Bar Association’s Audit and Review Unit to examine Mr. Frey’s activities, which may lead to his being disbarred.

Pat Frey has enjoyed the pro bono counsel of Mr. Ken White of Popehat.com during all these legal proceedings. Recently, White wrote a post bemoaning the overabundance of anti-bullying initiatives online and in American discourse. He posits that the word “bully” has been rendered meaningless, and politics over-personalized, by too many complaints about bullying:

But perhaps most of all, I don’t like the overuse of “bullying” because it diminishes and degrades the word for petty political purposes to the detriment of actual victims of real bullying. The meretricious overuse of the term “bullying” threatens to degrade it to the point where efforts against real bullying are not taken seriously and are tarred with the same brush of self-serving partisanship.

Remember, one year ago Ken White responded to publicity about Ali Akbar’s criminal record and shady nonprofits by denouncing it as censorship meant to “chill free speech” — basically, White called liberals bullies for writing about Akbar’s recent and ongoing criminality. But White simultaneously insisted that Brett Kimberlin’s decades-old criminal record somehow proved the existence of a sinister liberal conspiracy to bully the poor, misunderstood Breitbart goon squad.

Titled “Bully” Means Just What I Want It To Mean, White’s post would sit better with me if he could recognize a limit somewhere. Does Frey doxing and defaming Ms. Naffe on social media under the implied imprimatur of his office constitute bullying, or not? Because if it does, then he should recognize it for what it is and recuse himself. If Frey’s behavior does not constitute bullying, then the word has no meaning at all for Mr. White, and he should stop accusing unspecified people of devaluing the word.

Given his record, I am not holding my breath while I wait for consistentency.

Not Your Personal Army: How Unite Blue Ignited A War With Anonymous And Then Tried To Blame Their Critics

Matt Osborne — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:37 +0000

The Anonymous hacktivist collective likes to say they are Not Your Personal Army (NYPA), meaning they do not care about your petty dramas and issues and will not respond to attempted incitement. Politically, Anons tend to fall into the libertarian-progressive space on issues such as internet freedom and equality, but Anons’ causes are mostly not political. A substantial affinity group of anti-pedophile Anons has been carrying out social media action with detached efficiency for years. Having first come to public attention with its awareness and protest campaign against Scientology, “The Hive” is clearly not afraid to make enemies, but it is choosy about them.

Unite Blue is Zach Green’s personal Twitter army, born in a state of hashtag war with uber-conservative #TGDN. For a founding mythology, the Unite Blue website presents a curious permutation of right wing Twitter conspiracy memes about Twitter’s spamblocking algorithm. Unite Blue uses operant conditioning to encourage reactionary behavior; for example, Unite Blue can tell you if your tweets are 97, 98, or 99% “progressive” according to Zach Green’s formula. Team Followback with all of your sock puppet accounts is actively encouraged. From the very beginning, Unite Blue has been built for “Twitter war.”

Perhaps that need for conflict explains why the Unite Blue “community” has landed in a Twitter flame war with Anonymous over a pedophile named William Talley. As a result of misplaced solidarity among a small group of highly-motivated, if not ably-guided Unite Blue members, Zach Green’s personal army has sparked conflict with Anonymous for weeks. The matter reached critical mass last Sunday when a prominent Unite Blue troll named Steven Hatlestad published a YouTube video that foolishly tried to tell Anons their business, violating the NYPA principle and prompting escalation by the collective.

A clique of Unite Blue enthusiasts — dubbed “#CauldronOfStupid” by one witty observer — rallied in solidarity over Mr. Talley, who plead guilty to possession of child pornography in February and then accepted a position on the board of Unite Blue. He was later outed by an Anon and Unite Blue critic named Trina Cuppett. Zach Green removed Talley from the board, but the very next day the “Cauldron” doxed Cuppett in retaliation.

Steven Hadlestad has become something of an enforcer for Unite Blue. He used fake “Anon” accounts to spread an attack blog containing fabrications, libel, and information about Cuppett’s family members. While some observers tried to stop the angry mob, the Cauldron of Stupid used Hatlestad’s attack blog to avenge themselves on Cuppett. Many of the same people who gleefully took part then are now wailing at the unfairness of Anons naming and shaming them in like manner for their support of William Talley.

Hatlestad’s video is included below in a slideshow detailing how this Twitter conflict began:

Absurdly, Hadlestad’s video flashes the Twitter avatar of @Shoq over the word “puppets” as well as “bullying and intimidation.” Talley was broadcasting this theme weeks ago, and his Twitter circle gladly repeats it. But @Shoq is not the commander of Anonymous. This gambit has succeeded in getting many obsessive @Shoq-trolls to become pedophilia apologists, but of course Anonymous saw right through the chaff.

Nor was the collective swayed when Janeal Eller @SDzzz tweeted Anon accounts to try and convince them that @OpTrollBill was Trina Cuppett, or that they were lying, “fake” Anons. In fact, @OpTrollBill is an experienced social media activist with years of law enforcement contacts from finding and stinging sexual predators. He is a dedicated volunteer. So is Trina, who canvassed Twitter last year to help Anne Onymous publicize his video of Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remarks.

For the last few weeks, the Anons have been speaking out on Twitter to convince Talley’s Unite Blue “family” to disown him. Some did so belatedly, but the Cauldron has developed a grudge about it. They insist the Anons are covertly attacking Unite Blue, and that it is somehow a Twitter cat’s doing, and that I am somehow involved. The Cauldron maintained friendly relations with Talley, insisting for weeks that the public documents about William Talley are fake. They reject your reality and substitute their own.

This collision of activists was entirely unnecessary, and in fact a war of choice by the Cauldron and Unite Blue leadership. Zach Green not only failed to steer his community away from the conflict, he consistently managed to worsen matters.

Shortly after Cuppett was doxed, blogger Michael Galvin gave Unite Blue founder Zach Green a long, softball interview in exchange for a promise that Hadlestad’s attack blog about Trina would be deleted. When the blog was merely reset to private, allowing Unite Blue members to see it with a password, Galvin objected to what he saw as a broken promise. With his concerns about Unite Blue already mounting, Galvin confronted Green, who responded with private messages from his @ColbertBusch13 account. (The account was deleted after that candidate’s loss last Tuesday). This slideshow displays Green’s messages to Galvin:

The record indicates that Unite Blue partisans close to Zach Green reacted to the discovery of William Talley by shunning Trina Cuppett instead of Talley. The Cauldron-clique reacted to the arrival of anti-pedo Anons with denialism and mendacity, then attempted to pressure critics into silence and worked to shift responsibility. At every stage, they have ensured harsher action by larger numbers of Anons. Now the Cauldron vows courtroom vengeance on an ever-growing and ever-more absurd list of enemies, most of them unconnected to Anonymous…because it’s all somehow our fault.

Reacting to the video last week, Anons doxed Zach Green, published a blog about Hadlestad, and tweeted up a storm of derision in the reply streams of Talley’s defenders. @OmegleWarden, a late-coming Anon, was too kinetic and mistook the creator of #LibCrib for a defender of Talley. After publishing an apology, Omegle left Twitter for a two-week timeout.

Unite Blue partisans have mistaken that as a victory for their narrative of unjustified persecution — and now seek to pin the blame for their butthurt on every liberal Twitter user who ever denied the greatness of Unite Blue. They aren’t in the mood to apologize to Trina, who has actually accomplished things with Twitter. They say she is jealous of their success. See how that works?

Over the weekend, the Cauldron published a bizarre Pastebin document that threatens a class-action lawsuit for cyber terrorism and defamation against nearly a hundred people, including myself. Unable to enact vengeance on random Anons, their focus is on liberals. Tweet or blog about them and you, too can be added to their shit-list. The best part? They will accuse you of dividing the left while they do it.

Anonymous does not currently seem inclined to respond with further escalation. Rumors of a “Tango Down” threat for Unite Blue’s website are entirely exaggerated, for the Anons are not particularly concerned about Zach or his Twitter “community.” The worst damage appears to have been done already anyway, because the progressive Twitter crowd has now seen enough of Unite Blue at their worst. The brand has been severely damaged by the tweets of its most fanatical adherents. Followbacks, the essential element of Unite Blue’s apparently-phenomenal growth, have slowed to a trickle. The crowd is backing away from the Cauldron.

That clique is scribbling revisionist history in a book of grudges now. Many have gone back to delete their tweets, but the attack dogs are still barking as loudly as ever. For example, ask @EdieVP why Unite Blue is important to her, and she will angrily answer that she does not owe you an explanation. (In fact, she is related to Zach Green and was also a beta-tester for Unite Blue.) Ask her about William Talley, and Edie will probably cuss you out. Ask her about the Anons, and Edie will tell you they are dupes in a sinister right wing conspiracy to make Unite Blue look bad. A right wing conspiracy that is somehow run by liberals using Anonymous as their personal army.

If this madness is “progressive activism,” then I want no part of it:

CORRECTION: Omegle Warden does not consider himself an Anon. He describes himself as a network security professional with a passion for pursuing pedophiles.

Moments Brought To You By #StopRush: Limbaugh’s New Contract

Matt Osborne — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:00:40 +0000

Even after admitting that #StopRush has ruined his advertiser base, Rush Limbaugh is deflecting blame for the resulting losses at Cumulus Media — and says that if the CEO doesn’t stop saying mean things about him costing the company money, why he’ll just disappear in a cloud of butthurt. POLITICO:

The news of Limbaugh’s possible departure comes one day ahead of Cumulus’s Tuesday earnings call, at which Dickey is once again likely to address the impact the Fluke controversy has had on advertising. The source close to the show described Dickey’s remarks about advertising revenue as unjustified, and said such “criticism” of Limbaugh had resulted in the consideration to leave the company.

Nothing is ever Rush Limbaugh’s fault, especially not the words that come out of his mouth. This story, which also ran at the New York Daily News website, is a desperate and futile attempt to puff up his deflated brand image. With his Cumulus contract running out this year, Limbaugh cannot justify his current compensation level when his presence hurts company revenues so badly.

Furthermore, even if Limbaugh changes networks it will not stop thousands of volunteers from switching stations and contacting his new sponsors. #StopRush is happy to help any radio network find out what the CEO of Cumulus Media already knows. And Limbaugh knows that.

Cancer Truthers Become Kiddie Porn Defenders

Matt Osborne — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:00:48 +0000

After a period of relative silence in the wake of the Cancer Truthers post, several proud participants in the @Shoq Twitter brigade have fallen all over themselves to attack the cat again over The William Talley Burn Notice. Because for some reason, whenever I blog about a man who has pleaded guilty to possession of kiddie porn, it’s all @Shoq’s fault. Because everything is always his fault. That’s how scapegoating works.

These slideshows demonstrate the bizarre double-standards of people so obsessed with hating someone that they defend the indefensible. The first shows how we got here:

Remember when an “#AbusiveFuck” hashtag trended because @Shoq had left his cyber-girlfriend a nasty voicemail eight months before? William Talley is an actual, real, not-imaginary abusive fuck. Every one of the hundreds of pornographic images of children found in his possession was a genuine abuse by an abusive fuck. Many of the people who propelled that hashtag now excuse Talley’s abusive fuckery and say it isn’t something to talk about, or at least something that shouldn’t be discussed on Twitter, because…well, because he isn’t @Shoq. See how that works?

New @Shoq attack sock puppet accounts have appeared, and old ones have reactivated. All receive retweets from characters familiar to anyone who kept up with The Late Unpleasantness In The #P2 Hashtag. Talley and his Unite Blue friends and sock puppet accounts have joined in the fun, retweeting links to Pastebin.com, a site where users can leave linkable, untraceable anonymous text documents. These links purport to “prove” @Shoq is the REAL abuser.

But to the Pedophile Defenders, Talley’s kiddie porn is not abuse. I am not exaggerating. Remember how Milt Shook said @Shoq was a serial abuser of women in his blog last year but presented no evidence? Now, Milt seems to accuse him of directing a defamation campaign against William Talley. Milt blithely dismisses all the evidence I have presented from the Nashville District Attorney’s website, and says my questions about Talley’s online activities and the circumstances of his 2005 arrest go too far.

Because my blogging about a pedophile who has been gaslighting progressive Twitter circles is somehow happening because @Shoq and I are obsessed with Milt Shook. Really, that’s what he’s saying — I could never invent such nonsense to put in his mouth for him. Here is a slideshow of Milt’s tweets with a woman who wants you to believe that everything @Shoq does is really about her boyfriend’s ugly divorce:

At the height of the “#AbusiveFuck” tweeting last September, Darshann Padilla (@HoneyBadgerLA in the slideshow) called Matt Edelstein @Shoq a pedophile — without evidence. Now she seems to get along just fine with actual, real, not-imaginary convicted pedophiles. And so the Cancer Truthers become the kiddie porn defenders.

Darshann’s empty legal threats remind me of the more inane moments in the Aaron Walker saga, since she is projecting the consequences of her own actions onto Edelstein in a very similar way that Breitbart goons projected the results of their idiotic behavior onto Brett Kimberlin. In fact, with the help of Darshann’s friends, Breitbart.com blogger and professional rape apologist Lee Stranahan made a sustained effort to link @Shoq with Brett Kimberlin in the dumbest conspiracy theory of 2012.

That imaginary @Shoq conspiracy is more real to Milt, Darshann, and the rest of Talley’s Pedophile Defenders than William Talley’s guilty plea. They have rationalized away the evidence from the District Attorney’s website, so they are blind to Talley’s evidentiary appeals and his pedophile advocacy. William Talley will finally be sentenced on May 29 for having hundreds of sexual images of children in his possession, though. Just how long does anyone think this charade can last? And how do they not see what they look like?

But I am content to see Milt Shook take part in pedophile advocacy on Twitter and in his blog. Darshann and her friends can all line up over there with the kiddie porn guy, too; it’s a free country. None of them are going to tell me their behavior is “progressive,” however, because there’s nothing progressive about pedophilia. So let them all hate @Shoq so much that they stand with a sex offender who will be sentenced four weeks from tomorrow.

They will probably blame @Shoq for that, too, presenting exactly the same amount of evidence as always: none.

Jason Wade Taylor Arrested, Held As “Fugitive From Justice” (UPDATE)

Matt Osborne — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:00:59 +0000

Jason Wade Taylor’s mugshot from a 2007 arrest

Jason Wade Taylor aka “Randy Hahn” was arrested Saturday afternoon at an off-ramp on Interstate 25 in El Paso County, Colorado after assaulting a woman he had met online. While she did not press charges, he is being held as a fugitive from justice. A hearing will be held today in Colorado Springs and this post will update as further information becomes available.

Taylor is a career criminal who gained notoriety last year after his attempted “long con” of progressive Twitter communities was exposed as a fraud. Enabled by a compliant source, Taylor then engaged in doxing, harassing, and threatening activists in the #stoprush hashtag for several months. His forays into podcasting were all deleted by the host after he made drunken death threats against his victims, and many of his innumerable Twitter accounts have been deleted for Terms of Service violations. Taylor’s most recent return to the microphone involved live, on-air false police reports to harass his former girlfriend and co-host.

Hopefully this latest turn will bring an end to his social media psychopathy. It was only a matter of time before Taylor enacted his violent online fantasies in real life.

UPDATE 1: Taylor is “fugitive” from a felony warrant in Houston. His hearing today was on the bond for his local charge. As a previous bail-jumper with no visible means of support, it is very unlikely he was granted bail. He will have a second hearing, this time for the Texas warrant, on May 7th.

UPDATE 2: Taylor was not granted bond or bail. He will actually have two hearings on the 7th, a disposition hearing at 8:30 am and a pre-trial conference at 1:30 pm. There are indications that his Texas charge is for theft and is being dismissed. This post will update with clarification as soon as possible.

Sad Ending To Wild Baby Bunny Rescue

Matt Osborne — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:00:29 +0000

My home was briefly blessed by the unexpected arrival of baby wild cottontail bunnies recently. We took in three survivors from a rescued litter and enjoyed six wonderful days with them happily munching clover and grass. We were prepared to release them in another week, but tragedy struck.

The baby bunnies enjoyed being with Bugatti, their “uncle bunny” who lives in the living room. He was fond and protective of them from the moment they arrived. We gave Bugatti cabbage on Friday morning, and we thought we had prevented the babies from being able to get into his cage to eat it with him. But the humans went out to deal with human things, and so learned to their agony that baby rabbits are tragically inventive and adventurous, able to climb gates, squeeze under doors, and team up to defeat obstacles.

By the time we found them, one was already dead and two were dying of gastric bloat from the cabbage. Emergency oral injections of simethicone did not succeed in saving them, and so the Black Rabbit of Inlé took the last one at twilight. All three were buried together in the backyard with much sorrow. Their scampering is missed.

This Moment Brought To You By StopRush

Matt Osborne — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:00:44 +0000

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh admitted that the StopRush movement has virtually destroyed his advertiser base. He could no longer pretend otherwise, as 2,638 advertisers have dumped his show. This morning, David Corn reported at Mother Jones that Republican consultant Frank Luntz told a college crowd this week that Limbaugh’s polarizing influence has become a net negative for the GOP:

As he continued, Luntz … asserted that it had been irresponsible (and bad for the GOP) for right-wing talkers to pontificate about women’s bodies and birth control—an obvious reference to Limbaugh’s attacks last year on Sandra Fluke, a law student invited to testify before Congress on health insurance coverage of contraception.

StopRush set the tone for an election year in which Republican culture warriors consistently put their feet in their mouths with Limbaugh cheerleading all the way. Like an aikido takedown, our success has been possible because of his polarizing influence, not in spite of it. Volunteers share his reactionary rhetoric with advertisers verbatim; almost all companies wind up repelled by his show — and now it is clear even to Frank Luntz that voters also find Limbaugh’s brand of Republican politics repellent.

Partial audio of Luntz’s remark, via MoJo:

The Margaret Thatcher I Remember

Matt Osborne — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:00:03 +0000

Over at The Daily Banter, Ben Cohen offers a great retrospective of his experiences growing up in Thatcher’s Britain. I visited there in 1984, just two years before culture warriors in Alabama radicalized me into joining the ACLU. I will never forget hearing the same people who wanted to ban my rock and roll telling me that Thatcher and Reagan were heroes of theirs for “restoring conservative values to Western civilization.”

In fact, my observation in 1984 was that the UK had become a police state, and that both Thatcher and Reagan seemed determined to force a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union which could hardly advance Western civilization. This popular poster, which I brought home on a postcard after my visit, is a classic take on the way “libertarian” social values and militaristic jingoism worked hand in hand:

Oddly enough, I find myself agreeing with Glenn Greenwald on the proper response to Thatcher hagiography:

There’s something distinctively creepy – in a Roman sort of way - about this mandated ritual that our political leaders must be heralded and consecrated as saints upon death. This is accomplished by this baseless moral precept that it is gauche or worse to balance the gushing praise for them upon death with valid criticisms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn’t change simply because they die. If anything, it becomes more compelling to commemorate those bad acts upon death as the only antidote against a society erecting a false and jingoistically self-serving history.

Titling his post “Margaret Thatcher Stole My Milk,” Cohen remembers the disastrous rise of economic inequality and austerity economics during her tenure in office. I remember the sense of decay I felt in 1984: half of London seemed to be covered in scaffolding, but no workers labored to fix the crumbling facades of empire. Argentina’s military junta had been stupid enough to lend Thatcher excuse for adventures, but the “triumph” of the Falklands crisis had not translated into a better Britain.

And at home, right wing authoritarians were having a great time. Goldwater’s brand of extreme conservatism would later manifest in the Gingrich revolution, the Bush administration, and then tea parties, but in 1984 it was already rising with a vengeance from the dark cellar where William F. Buckley had imprisoned it. For some reason, when the epistemic confrontation with Russia that fed their hopes and fears ended, the right wing never changed its behavior. Today, “militant Islam” and “shariah law” are the bogeymen that excuse fascism. The game has not changed.

Destroying the social fabric of America is still an objective in and of itself. It always happens under the shadow of Armageddon, genuine or imaginary, framed as “freedom” from the “oppressive” forces who might wish to share that freedom more equally. Thatcher, who famously said “there is no society, only families,” was mainly successful at atomizing and attacking the society she denied existed while pretending to fly a flag of freedom over it. That is hardly a claim to greatness.

The William Talley Burn Notice (UPDATE x11)

Matt Osborne — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:00:37 +0000

Update 1 – Update 2 - Update 3 – Update 4 – Update 5 – Update 6 Update 7 – Update 8 – Update 9 – Update 10 – Update 11

William “Bill” Talley aka @Political_Bill on Twitter (pictured) is a convicted sex offender who has managed to delay going to prison through evidentiary appeals. During that time, he has emerged as a progressive voice on Twitter and even briefly enjoyed board status in a prominent netroots startup. His sentencing will take place in Nashville this Friday morning. (EDIT: see Update 2)

Talley was arrested for possession of drugs and hundreds of sexual images of children in August 2005. He appealed to quash the evidence on the grounds of an illegal search, but that appeal was ultimately denied by the Tennessee State Supreme Court in March of 2010. After a long series of legal maneuvers, Talley finally pleaded guilty to three charges, including Class B Felony Exploitation of a Minor, on February 8, 2013. The Class B conviction normally carries a sentence of 10-12 years in prison. He was allowed to remain free on bond until sentencing.

According to Twitter’s API, Talley created his Twitter account in October of 2008. Since then, Talley has ingratiated himself to many prominent progressive and liberal Twitter voices, some of whom still defend him. Talley was even able to insinuate himself onto the board of a new Twitter-based organization, creating damage and embarrassment when his conviction was publicized on Twitter.

Questioned directly, Talley has denied the charges are true, even though he actually pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Observers have noted him tweeting at an increased rate in the last few days, possibly in expectation of being sentenced to prison on Friday.

It is unclear whether Talley was ever ordered to remain off of the internet and social media, stipulations that are standard with such charges now but which were less common in 2005. Queries with the District Attorney’s office in Nashville have not been answered yet, as the prosecutor is currently engaged in a murder trial. This post will update if they reply.

When communities of interest form in cyberspace, it is all too easy for characters like Talley to obtain entry and rank without proper vetting simply by speaking to the interest of those communities. As yet, there are no standards or best practices for the netroots organizer to identify the next William Talley and exclude them from positions of access and prestige. This is a serious issue that organizers need to take seriously.

UPDATE 1: Mr. Talley responded to this post with further denials. I do wish he would at least credit me with writing my own blog:

UPDATE 2: Responding to my queries, the Nashville DA media contact says that “it’s expected that the sentencing hearing initially set for this Friday will likely be continued to later next month, as they are still awaiting a report that has yet to be completed.” I have replied by forwarding the above image to the prosecutor.

UPDATE 3: Last night while his main account was suspended, Talley took the time to express his desire to commit violence against me via a sock puppet account:

I have forwarded the above screenshot to the DA’s office, along with the following list of Talley’s known Twitter accounts:

@Political_Bill

@Strategic_Bill

@Healthcare_Bill

@Sleeping_Bill

@Politaire

@7serf7

UPDATE 4: William Talley has been communicating with teenagers on Twitter. The slideshow below also contains two more examples of Talley attempting to persuade people that he’s being smeared with a fake guilty plea:

Talley is looking to change the subject any way he can, and he doesn’t care how much damage he does to any person or organization he puts between himself and the truth.

UPDATE 5: William Talley didn’t think his upcoming guilty plea was “relevant” when he was approached about a place on the new Advisory Board of Unite Blue:

William Talley’s guilty plea on February 8th, when all his evidentiary appeals had finally been exhausted, was relevant enough to Unite Blue founder Zach Green that he removed Talley from the board the instant he found out about it in March. His plea will be even more relevant on May 29, when his sentencing report will have been completed and Talley will finally learn his fate.

In the meantime, Talley continues to feign innocence on Twitter despite his guilty plea, and maintains that this blog post is part of someone else’s nefarious agenda against the organization on whose board he served under false pretenses for one month. Which is odd, because many members of that progressive Twitter community have thanked me for telling them the truth about Bill Talley. They feel betrayed, and who can blame them?

UPDATE 6: William Talley has outed himself as @7serf7, an account that is still wearing a Unite Blue twibbon (see slideshow below). @7serf7 has doxed and harassed Twitter users who exposed Talley or criticized Unite Blue over him. Despite being removed from the board, Talley apparently remains an active and even respected force in that community. He is also calling on his followers to aggressively spamblock the accounts of critics in hopes of getting them suspended by Twitter, which is ironic given how Unite Blue rose to prominence by deploring such tactics. I have contacted Zach Green, founder of Unite Blue, for comment and will update if he replies. In the meantime, within two hours of emailing Mr. Green the account went private.

UPDATE 7: William Talley has drawn the attention of Anonymous. #OpTrollBill has a blog dedicated to exposing Talley and his supporters on Twitter, who think they are defending their Unite Blue community from criticism. In fact, they are merely defending a pedophile. Non-Anons are getting involved as well: @theXclass hammered Talley in his timeline tonight, drawing this peculiar I’m-rubber-you’re-glue response from him.

Talley and his defenders have engaged in spamblocking accounts that challenge them about his record and reporting them for “harassment.” As a result, Anon accounts such as @optrollbill have disappeared and then reappeared after review by Twitter. Anonymous is also upset that Talley’s supporters outed and doxed an Anon, @TrinaCuppett, some weeks ago after she exposed Talley’s criminal record.

This video also appeared tonight. While Anonymous has not been interested in a war with Unite Blue, any further signs of organized defense of Talley by that community may very well lead to confrontation with the hacker collective — and who knows where that will go?

UPDATE 8: William Talley has at least six different Google+ accounts that correlate with his Twitter accounts. One of them is friends with what appears to be a minor child of the age and gender Talley reportedly prefers for his sickening pederasty. A slideshow:

Links to Talley’s G+ accounts:

UPDATE 9: After Talley spent the weekend trying (and failing) to spark the dumbest flame war in Twitter history, on Sunday morning he attempted to change minds about pedophilia. Really! Blue Unite, a blog critical of Unite Blue, captured the tweets as Talley tried to convince people that he has an “illness,” and that this blog post about him is “stigmatizing” that “illness.”

But pedophilia is not AIDS, and Talley was in full control of himself when he downloaded, printed, and copied sexually exploitative photographs of children to compact disks. He will be sentenced on May 29th because the state of Tennessee does not consider his “illness” a mitigating factor in his crime. Below is a copy of a 2005 news article containing important details that contradict Talley’s narrative of the arrest, search, and seizure. Click to embiggen:

UPDATE 10: Gizmodo reports Anonymous has taken down the website of NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association), a pedophile and pederasty ”advocacy” organization. The hacktivist collective says its “primary goal is to take target #1 down and we won’t stop firing until it is down,” a reference to DDoS attacks. Several other websites are also under attack on “Alice Day,” a holiday for pedophiles which Anons seek to disrupt. #OpAliceDay has unfolded on Twitter in much the same way that controversy bloomed over William Talley last week. As I said in a recent comment somewhere, getting between Anons and a pedophile is quite like inserting yourself between a hungry tiger and its meat.

UPDATE 11: The Twitter account @7serf7 has been identified as a sock puppet account of William Talley by multiple independent observers. While insisting this identification is not true, the account does engage in pedophilia advocacy. Below is a slideshow selection of recent tweets:

For example, @7serf7 links to an article about a decision by an Irish high court without noting that the decision was in a foreign country. According to Digital Trends, the problem with the defendant Facebook site is that the plaintiff has already served his sentence.

The ruling came at the end of a case brought by one of the people named on the page, a convicted sex offender whose identity cannot be revealed publicly but is known as XY. XY had challenged Facebook to remove the page after he had discovered his photograph on it, noting that he had received threatening comments as a result and arguing that the page breached his human rights, an argument that High Court Judge Mr. Justice McClosky agreed with. “Society has dealt with the plaintiff in accordance with the rule of law,” McClosky wrote in his ruling, “He has been punished by incarceration and he is subject to substantial daily restrictions on his lifestyle.”

Interesting, but Irish — and also dated from last November. The account also tweeted this story in USA Today about a federal court overturning a social media ban on sex offenders because it was overly-broad:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the class-action suit on behalf of sex offenders, including a man identified as John Doe who served three years for child exploitation. They were all restricted by the ban even though they are no longer on probation.

“This law is overly broad,” said Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana. “It would even bar someone who was convicted 40 years ago from participating in a Twitter feed with the pope.”

Not shown above is @7serf7 tweeting this blog post about “internet vigilantism,” which seems to be the new theme among Talley’s defenders. Apparently, blogging about Mr. Talley with publicly-available documents is a form of harassment and bullying, whereas the 200+ sexual photographs of children William Talley had in his possession when police searched his condominium and office are somehow okay, or else not worth discussing. This only makes sense if you think pedophilia is acceptable, or that pedophilia advocacy belongs in the acceptable realm of progressive Twitter activism.

A Chat Over The Wall With Ladd Ehlinger

Matt Osborne — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:00:38 +0000

Ladd Ehlinger is a libertarian-conservative filmmaker responsible for some of the most controversial — and viral — campaign ads and videos of 2010. He was less active in 2012, and that may in part be because of his open opposition to National Bloggers Club President Ali Akbar. Ehlinger approached me last Friday to offer an interview by instant message. A barely-edited transcript of that exchange follows.

me: So how long have you known Ali Akbar?

Ladd: Ask me instead when I’ve ever met Ali Akbar.

me: When have you ever met Ali Akbar?

Ladd: Nevah! One time he walked past me and someone else he decided to piss on at CCRAP 2012. A party. Sat on couch, looked around, left. Awkward!

me: But you say you are familiar with his…behaviors?

Ladd: It alllll started back on the Rick Barber for congress campaign. {insert harp music and swirling video effects} I got hired to make some ads, I made them. Then all of a sudden I’m getting these weird rumors going around about Rick and his family. I’m like, what the hell? And then about me. And I’m like, what the hell? From the info I got, Akbar had been fired from Barber’s campaign a few weeks beforehand, so everyone on the team was fair game for crazed rumors, like the stuff he was trying to peddle against Libertarian Republican.

me: Did you ever confirm it was Akbar doing this? Or confront him?

Ladd: Oh yeah. No apologies. So apparently his MO is to trash people, I’m not the only one. I’m just one of the few who doesn’t care about being loud about it.

me: Did you ever find out why he was fired from Barber’s campaign?

Ladd: Yeah, his website apparently sucked. Like pretty much all of them. Uber guru don’t do html, also not too hot at getting good video done.

me: Do you have any theories as to how Akbar manages to keep getting work in conservative politics?

Ladd: LOL it’s not a secret chemical. First ingredient: don’t tell anyone you’ve got a felony. Second ingredient: if employer finds out, minimize it. Third ingredient: if client is still pissed, threaten to start trashing him. Fourth ingredient: Party! And there you go. There’s nothing magical about it.

me: There’s something very “Club Kids” about Akbar. When you confronted him, did he go full drama queen?

Ladd: LOL – eh, you know, I walked away from the phone thinking all was good, but then he was back at it again. That was it for me. Course I did yell a lot. I don’t have much patience for subterfuge. I keep thinking of snarky stuff to say but I may not have had enough coffee to make them really funny

me: So has he popped up on your radar since then?

Ladd: Oh yeah I got stuck with V&V supposedly doing “social media support” for some videos I did. Told client not to use him, didn’t listen. What a fiasco and more of the same shit. Submariner time!

me: “Fiasco” is one of my favorite words in English. Can you elaborate?

Ladd: Did some good videos, they were supposed to push them online for client, I was not impressed. They did more work on a stupid 30 page “after action report” blaming everyone else for the failure than they did online pushing the videos. Flaccid effort.

me: How about Akbar’s partners, like Bill Murphy? Have you ever dealt with any of them?

Ladd: No, I don’t think so. It was all email. Hey guys, can ya tweet about the videos you’re being PAID TO PROMOTE? Hey guys, can you embed the video you WERE PAID TO PROMOTE?

me: As a lone blogger who makes mashups and does all his own promotion, I find that astounding.

Ladd: Meh, can’t do that, we gotta continue pissin match. And not letting anyone know we’ve gots da felonies. Yeah, I completely disagree with most of your philosophies and frame of references, but you don’t slack. Watched your website over the years since the Zsa Zsa thing, constant improvement. Oh, been meaning to ask, how’s Babs? LOL Loved her in Funny Girl. (Clarification: I recently updated my Twitter bio to note the idiocy of Kimberlin maniacs who claim I am working for Barbra Streisand. Ehlinger is riffing on that here)

me: LOL I aim to be named the evil overlord of the sinister progressive conspiraceez any day now. So when the National Bloggers Club story heated up last Summer, I recall you standing up for indie bloggers on your side of the aisle. Can you talk about that?

Ladd: Sure, what do you want to know?

me: What in particular made you stand up and speak out? Was it Akbar trashing earnest bloggers?

Ladd: Well, yes, I didn’t think he should’ve been involved. Before I even knew about the criminal record. Tried to warn everyone, then somebody on “your” side figured out how to use teh Googlez. Caps locks would not do my ranting justice at that point. Now I’m just kinda tsking.

me: Sry, phone call – 5 min

Ladd: No worries. Hmm, hope the U.S. isn’t nuked during our interview.

me: True fact: most N. Korean Scuds leak badly when fueled. Half of them will never reach their target zones.

Ladd: I believe it. It’s the other half that’s a tad worrisome.

me: True.

Ladd: You know what’s funny about this whole thing is, everyone has gotten so paranoid some of the weird conclusions drawn are just as weird as, say, those between US and Soviets back in the day. Pretty soon you guys will be funding psychic research and “my” side will be working on remote viewing.

me: We already have psychic research, it’s called Huffington Post “Wellness”

Ladd: Ha! I can just see it now, Ali putting on a helmet and trying to imagine where a donor who hasn’t ponied up yet is.

me: So back to the interview. What’s your take on Akbar and Stranahan and Walker and all this Brett Kimberlin hysteria they promote?

Ladd: Wellllll you and I may have different frames on that.

me: Let me rephrase

Ladd: Frankly I think there are issues in regards to free speech. For both sides. Also a lot of weird.

me: I’m fine with “my side” taking lumps for having Brett Kimberlin among us — that’s fair — but do you agree the people I just named have gone a little far with it?

Ladd: Hmm. I think when people get scared enough, they feel cornered and fight back. It’s a human reaction. Especially when the other side is “walled off” and you can only guess about what’s happening. Plus I think there’s some folks who, for the popcorn, enjoy piddling around and stoking it. I haven’t really been paying very close attention the past few months, but that’s kinda my meta view on it. That’s partly why I decided to talk w/you.

me: The criminal charges against Bill Schmalfeldt were a bridge too far, IMO.

Ladd: Bill can be funny, but sometimes it gets obsessive. That obsession, I think, gets misinterpreted.

me: He has a lot of pit bull in him – when Bill gets his teeth in your hindquarters, nothing in the world will make him stop until a new squirrel runs by.

Ladd: It’s a wall thing. Look at it from the other side of the wall.

me: Please speak to that other side for a minute if you don’t mind

Ladd: Here’s a guy who’s doing nothing but Stranahan Walker Ali 24/7. Why? Does anyone care? I mean seriously, these are huge targets that.must.be.destroyed? So the only conclusion that makes sense is, there must be more to it. Or well the only conclusion you can make on the other side of the wall. And then when you toss in neo-nazis, Kimberlin, etc., it’s just downright creepy. Which I suppose are some of the concerns on “your” side.

me: Do you know how I got into this story?

Ladd: Not entirely certain, no, but I sense your irritation w/it when I read your blog.

me: It’s not a secret. I was hot on the heels of this guy

Ladd: Oh! Right! Of course. Brooks Neo-Nazi Bayne and the Shoq Shag!

me: LOL Dread Pirate Shoq

Ladd: It’s the jooos it’s the jooos! I mean ffs Shoq just looks to me like a social media operative for democrats, what’s the BFD? Is it really surprising that the Stop Rush campaign was started by someone? How’s it supposed to happen? Abiogenesis? Ooooh! Democrats hire social media operatives. Ooooooh! Like Republicans don’t? Hell even the damn Libertarian party shells out a few bucks for someone to tweet. I hear he’s paid in gold. Also – he HAS A BEARD

me: HAHAHA That’s the crazy thing: “Randy” had targeted actual private citizens doing their 1st Amendment thing. Some of them were actually hurt. Anyway, point is that I wasn’t aware of Kimberlin or NBC or Akbar or any of that stuff until then

Ladd: I gotchya. Look I think any moron can tell that both sides are trying to get attention.

me: Of course

Ladd: Hell, for all I know this is a brilliant PR move for Kimberlin. Anyone ever considered that?

me: He couldn’t buy better publicity, that’s true

Ladd: Freak out a bunch of conservative bloggers! It’s better than Dan Quayle. Better than Dan Quayle and a strip club!

me: So I’m curious to know what your reaction was to finding yourself quoted at Crooks & Liars

Ladd: Oh I haven’t seen this give me a minute

me: Guess I’ll have your reaction in real time then

Ladd: Ah, she got some stuff wrong though. The paragraph below that is a bit off.

me: Do tell

Ladd: That’s what happens when you work behind the other side of the wall and assume no one will shout across it. Yeah, that was the gig I tried to warn everybody about. The one I mentioned earlier.

me: Oddly enough, that post brought an unprecedented number of conservative commenters who’d been quoted in the piece

Ladd: Only time I worked on same project with the creep. Seems that’s a pattern for many folks: work with him once despite reservations, get burned, never do it again. Ever.

me: That brings me to my next question. Have you ever met/talked to Dan Backer?

Ladd: Yep.

me: What’s your impression of him?

Ladd: That’s kinda open-ended LOL. Let’s just say I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say, our experiences sorta match.

me: Yours and his?

Ladd: Yeah, but I don’t want to say anymore and stick words in his mouth.

me: Understandable. Can you describe that project a bit?

Ladd: Sure, what do you want to know?

me: How did you wind up doing it?

Ladd: Wow that’s a long story. Hmm. How did I? I guess it goes back to my first real viral videos. The Dale Peterson thing. There was a donor in Ala who liked my work, wanted me to do some stuff, Ali got in there first though and was always pushing against using me. But I guess they eventually got fed up w videos that sucked and didn’t go anywhere, figured they’d give me a go.

me: Interesting – was the donor Shaun McCutcheon by any chance?

Ladd: Yes, good guy. It’s there in the reports, so it’s not some big secret

me: I didn’t expect it would be. I would love to drive down to Hoover and interview him on camera, get him to fully express his campaign finance POV

Ladd: The thing that’s funny on your side of the wall is thinking there’s some big evil kabal conspiracy. In reality there’s just people who believe in certain things and not in others. Our side does the same thing of course so it’s not like it’s endemic only to you. People get lied to, and I believe omissions – like having a felony – are lies.

me: We tend to fill the blank spaces on our mental maps with demons and monsters. Like those old illuminated maps

Ladd: Yep! Sure, you may disagree with Dan or Shaun on whether people should have fewer restrictions on how they spend their money in politics. Doesn’t mean they’re running around plotting the demise of the free world. Heck I disagree with them about certain things, I’m more of a get the govt out of the bedroom and the wallet kinda guy.

me: Watch me disagree with Glenn Greenwald on drones.

Ladd: Doesn’t mean I can’t be civil. Drones don’t bother me so much as the issue of whether the executive branch thinks they can pop off people w/out due process. Rand kinda doesn’t get his point across very well by tying it to those “DHS gonna killz ya” crowd

me: Oh, but for five minutes he’s Mr. Civil Rights. So how did you wind up doing the Peterson video, Les Phillips, Barber? How did you wind up with so many fans in Alabama?

Ladd: LOL I have fans in Alabama? I don’t think I have fans anywhere. But to answer your question I did a radio show on a lark, interviewed both Les and Dale for the show. Les Phillips asked me to do a video for him. And then Dale after that.

me: When did Dale Jackson decide not to like you?

Ladd: Ah probably when I started doing parodies of him.

me: How did you notice him?

Ladd: Oh! I was doing my first movie Flatland. Which involved me sitting at a computer 3D animating all day for months on end. Had to listen to something. So then I came up with my movie Hive Mind, which I guess was kinda born from my research on talk radio during Flatland. So I thought, hey, Hive Mind is a conservative(ish) movie, and they’re all about wanting to change the culture, right? So I asked him to help do some publicity for me. Gave him some money. Didn’t get much back PR wise.

me: I first became aware of Hive Mind in a sidebar ad on his blog

Ladd: Was pretty dissapointed in the conservative world’s reaction to the movie, which was to ignore, not even watch it. I didn’t have a celebrity in it I guess, which was a mistake. Hell that’s how I got into a fight with Breitbart.

me: Oh PLEASE tell me about your quarrel with Breitbart (grabs popcorn)

Ladd: Well it’s mostly my fault. But I didn’t start it. I tweeted something to him like “Hey, why not help out a conservative filmmaker! Take a look…” And with a link. This was after I sent tons of emails to various chattel-emails published. Y’know, press releases sent. And I had tweeted this to him after he’d just tweeted something about Charlie Sheen’s latest goof, I don’t know, maybe he’d locked a prostitute or something in a closet. Can’t remember. So his response was, “It’s not enough to be conservative, you have to be polite.” My response was something like, “So basically you’re saying your site on Hollywood is just about sniffing Michael Moore’s jockstrap for a living.” And boy did it go downhill from there.

me: TROLOLOLOL

Ladd: Before you knew it I was getting calls from other conservative filmmakers who felt the same way.

me: About Breitbart?

Ladd: Dude! All everyone ever does is bitch about the other side, and our films are dying over here!

me: That has got to be angry-making

Ladd: I think people expected Big Hollywood to not just bitch about “Hollywood” (whatever the hell THAT is), but to also help those trying to present an alternative. So yeah, there was disgruntlement, but it wasn’t entirely fair.

me: Victoria Jackson is not the best culture critic, is she?

Ladd: You mean the SNL girl?

me: Yeah, she blogged at Big Hollywood for a while

Ladd: Oh I didn’t know that.

me: “You can’t touch freedom but you can feel it!” Actual quote, I am not making this up

Ladd: Anyway, I say not entirely fair because it would be like a liberal attacking you for not writing up a post about their latest and greatest movie.

me: Right, but if I had a site dedicated to exposing conservative influence in Hollywood you’d think I would want to offer an alternative

Ladd: True. They’ve sorta moved in that direction these days, a bit. Problem is there really aren’t any conservative filmmakers. Most of them are really more libertarian.

me: Why is that, do you suppose?

Ladd: I think because most male and female filmmakers have no problem with scantily clad women. The more the merrier

me: Logical

Ladd: Which I guess is a snarky way of saying, you don’t want the damned government telling you what you can make a movie, video, etc about. Plus theaters make most of their money on the big gulps, so there’s that.

me: Right, the spectacle kind of overwhelms the art these days. So tell me about your approach to visual storytelling. For instance, are you the reason Dale Peterson was waving his Winchester around?

Ladd: Oh of course, I wanted him to wave around the gun John Wayne used. That was all about hitting that archetype. Funniest comment I ever read on the video was, I think, on Gawker. Single word. “Dad?”

me: LOL You know I mashed up that video, right?

Ladd: No shit? I had no idea. I saw the Funny or Die thing. “I put a slug in your head!” Where is it? Oh awesome checking it now. LOL “Obama will eat your children”

me: The funny thing is, your ad had an incredible online response – millions of views. Mine had a few thousand, but I still get fan mail from people who saw that video at Left In Alabama

Ladd: Yeah it’s too bad Ali got his claws into him and got him to do all those crap videos for Republican Governor’s Association.

me: Who, Peterson?

Ladd: At least I think that’s what happened, not sure. I was working for folks in California at the time, was kinda outta the loop. Never quite “got” the Tim James ads. Who’s the band?

me: Static-X

Ladd: Not bad, where are they from?

me: LA, I believe

Ladd: Dude’s got great “Eraserhead” hair

me: Irony: Artur Davis managed to piss off a majority of Alabama Democrats, couldn’t even muster a majority of AA votes, got butthurt and now he’s a Republican

Ladd: Haven’t really kept up with him much. My concern would be that the R’s will let him drop. In other words… The R’s have a tendency to say, “Go ahead and fall backwards, we’ll catch you.” and then you close your eyes expecting someone to catch you and BAM. Back of your head eats dirt.

me: So was it Peterson that Akbar got to do videos for the Republican Governors?

Ladd: Not entirely sure. Might be “wall” supposition on my part. Whoever did them, it was like someone pissing in my coffee.

me: But Peterson did videos?

Ladd: Total crap. Sure he was in some afterwards.

me: OK

Ladd: Some loser did them, tried to “ape” my style.

me: Instant karma

Ladd: Well, you know, my trolls of course say I’m “disgraced” GOP filmmaker, but I never worked for GOP.

me: We’re nearly at the two hour mark. are you still good?

Ladd: Sure, I’m just animating.

me: So tell me about Hive Mind. I saw it described as Rush Limbaugh alone in a world of naked people. What was your creative vision there?

Ladd: To pit pure collectivism against conservativism

me: Pure anything is a dangerous proposition in politics

Ladd: Yes, sort of a “reductio ad absurdum” film. The Hive Mind zombies are one giant brain created by iPhone technology gone bad. For the good of the environment, they kill off all the men in the Hive because men use more calories than women. They then go around destroying all technology, because that’s bad for mother Earth. Meanwhile conservative talk show host Doug Trench, aka The Trench Mouth, has been holed up in a bunker for twenty years.

me: “I Am Legend” LOL

Ladd: Turns on his radio transmitter after twenty years, to do one last show, one last fling. But really it’s to commit suicide because the Hive will track him down on his signal. So the movie’s his last show.

me: I haven’t seen it, but from what you’ve described I imagine it kind of bookends “The Age of Stupid”

Ladd: In a way – I was also thinking of “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clarke

me: You have made me want to see this movie

Ladd: LOL I guess you don’t want to sniff Michael Moore’s jockstrap for a living. ”I am outrageously outraged at the latest outrage from Michael Moore!”

me: Nah – he’s a fine propagandist, I’ve enjoyed his work, but I don’t consider him anything more than that

Ladd: “I will hereby write an outraged post and spread my outrage at Michael Moore to the four corners of the planet, for I am outraged and also need web hits!” Yeah, and really propaganda is pretty damned boring when you get down to it. I would never make a documentary. Come here, choir! Let me preach to you!

me: Right, art is far more powerful as propaganda – and I use the term in its neutral sense here

Ladd: Well you know there’s a difference I think, it’s a fine one. For instance the ads I did are propaganda. They’re commercials. Period. Same as any other.

me: Of course, and I don’t say they’re propaganda to bust them down

Ladd: I gotchya. And art isn’t about pushing a point of view. An artist can have a POV, but it’s not about that so much. I get disappointed in filmmakers who try to “push it” – to coin a phrase from your mashup – in their art. I mean seriously, who gives a shit if Shakespeare was a royalist or not?

me: What I mean is that “Gone With The Wind” has misinformed several generations of Americans about the Civil War/Reconstruction South

Ladd: Oh I see what you mean.

me: It’s had greater power than any propaganda movie

Ladd: Yeah — not my favorite film though. I’m more of a Hitchcock – Welles – Peckinpah – Scott kinda guy

me: Now you’re talking

Ladd: Truffaut. Thought Gone With the Wind was pure tripe. Scott for instance slips a bit into propaganda in his lesser movies.

me: Or a TV show like “24″ can convince millions of Americans that torture “works” – if that was true, it would be used in every American police station. You get my point

Ladd: Oh yes. Never really watched 24, seemed very repetitive to me.

me: So when you say “pure collectivism,” what does that mean?

Ladd: Well isn’t that what a hive mind is?

me: Go on

Ladd: One thought, one mind, all for the common good. Collectivism in the Randian sense.

me: Are you a Rand devotee?

Ladd: Meh.

me: Atlas Sucked.

Ladd: She had her moments but she was not a good writer. I do believe that man does not exist to serve the state. Yeah the movie was atrocious too. You’d think if you’re going to do a movie on John Galt you’d get, y’know, a JOHN GALT director. Howard f’ing Roarke. I’m watching and thinking, jesus, this guy doesn’t even know how to block actors in an office set. I mean, this if f’cking awkward. There’s a desk and two people talking. This is not even chess here.

me: I spotted that, and when I can see that with a High School drama class education you are a bad director

Ladd: By the end when Dagny screams “NOOO” it was like watching Bender from Futurama

me: My favorite moment: the train going through vaginaesque bridge supports

Ladd: Here, stand there and say “Noooo.” But don’t show any emotions. Because Dagny. Because you are objectivist! Yeah WTF on the train shots? Look at all the pretty trees! Trees! Because as we all know, Rand was about trees.

me: So what’s your current project?

Ladd: I’m working on a couple of things. Have my eye on Von Braun since my old stomping grounds venerated the creep so bad.

me: Huntsville AL?

Ladd: Yeah, used to live there. It’s a great area. The whole “Von Braun” thing is very interesting, since he kinda built that area. Ever been to The Ledges? Architecture is like Eva and Adolf’s love shack. They shoulda called it the Eagle’s Nest.

me: It was more Goebels than Gropius

Ladd: BWAHAHAHAHA Poor Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright despised him. Here’s a guy who was stacking bodies up like cordwood outside Mittlewerks to build his V2. Total Faust character. Total.

me: So you’re going to let air out of his bubble? I always expected that would happen one day

Ladd: Yeah I’ve been doing serious research on him, the book “Nazi Rocketeers” is very illuminating. So here’s a guy trying to use Hitler to get to space. Slaughtering people left and right. Ends up on the Disney Show! Wooo!

me: So is this a full-length script? I’m very interested in your premise

Ladd: Yeah I’m considering a feature on him. No sense in doing shorts, they don’t make money. All they’re good for is youTube dollars.

me: Please let me know if this happens

Ladd: Sure! Oh and I forgot, is there anything else you want to ask on all the nontroversies? Kinda got sidetracked.

me: Well, is there anything else you’d like to tell me about Ali Akbar?

Ladd: I think the thing people don’t get is that sociopaths are very good at wrapping people into their worldview.

me: BINGO. Do go on

Ladd: I think we are dealing with multiple people on both sides with this condition. Sociopaths tend to use the tactic called “gaslighting.”

me: I’m aware of the term

Ladd: So for instance a criminal record is minimized. Or not spoken of until a person is already in the gaslight fog. And I’m seeing some of that on your side too, not just mine. Note I used air quotes around sides.

me: Probing question: in your opinion, how much of the Kimberlin mania is driven by Akbar’s sociopathy? My question applies to the group around him

Ladd: Hmmm, that’s a good question. Not much actually. How do I put this.

me: I think what I’m getting at is, you said sociopaths are good at wrapping others into their world – how does that manifest with Akbar?

Ladd: People are legitimately afraid of the guy. I don’t think there’s much gaslighting necessary for that. I think it manifests in people being gaslit into thinking, oh he’s an okay guy, hey, you can’t talk out about him, he’s got all these connections! In other words — people don’t want to speak out publicly against Ali being in politics because of the gaslighting. When in fact the support may be wide, but very very shallow.

me: “We have to stand by him because he’s on our side”?

Ladd: Yes that too, of course. But if you get past that gaslighting element, you have to deal with the other elements.

me: Can you elaborate? On those other elements?

Ladd: Sure, you have to worry about your CCRAP Bwog Bash ID being wevoked. Being blacklisted.

me: Aha

Ladd: Being shunned by your peers. Boo hoo. People will talk about me behind my back! Wahhhh!

me: I think I understand why we’re getting along here. I don’t like the taste of ass no matter which cheek I’m asked to taste, left or right

Ladd: Yeah, I don’t bow down to anyone. So there’s a lotta that gaslighting going on. I got into politics because I believed in the supremacy of the individual over the collective, and I still do. Why would I throw that out the window? For a CCRAP party? To get more work? To gladhand a politician or get a picture of myself with one? Pthth. Fuck that.

me: Interesting how collectivism can exist within conservative/libertarian politics

Ladd: Groupthink is everywhere, it’s a part of human nature, but doesn’t mean we have to succumb to it. Which is partly why I bashed Twitter so hard in Hive Mind. Group think medium. So what’s your conclusion on all of this?

me: I think Twitter is the closest mankind has come to a hivemind

Ladd: Oh yes.

me: And I think that your gaslighting theme does help explain the Kremlinology of Akbar etc

Ladd: Yes – but note it also explains yours.

me: Oh, trust me, I am well aware of it. Ask me sometime about what happened when I wrote about Jane Hamsher

Ladd: This ridiculous “everybody Akbar ever worked with is eeevil eeevil” is just as silly. Blame a gaslight victim for being gaslit? Believe you me, if I’d known then what I know NOW? What it does is have the opposite effect. Bees run back to hive and huddle!

me: Like Hamsherites attacking me for a week when I asked “what did Jane do with all that PAC money?”

Ladd: I mean seriously what politician in their right mind sits around thinking, gee, you know who I should get to put my website up, set up my donation pages? That dude convicted of credit card theft!

me: I’d ask them to set aside loyalty & use their brains, they would denounce & block me in response

Ladd: Oh I believe it! How dare you ask a question. That’s your hive, dude!

me: Don’t I know it (rolls eyes)

Ladd: So I don’t know Bostic from Adam, but I would throw down $500 on a bet that he had no idea Akbar was a credit card thief. That’s like the safest bet I could possibly make.

me: That’s another thing, Breitbart didn’t vet any of his people – that seems to be epidemic on “your side”

Ladd: Otherwise the guy is so stupid he needs someone to put his pants on him in the morning. Well look there’s vetting and then there’s vetting.

me: It happens on my side, but look at how we’re vetting Unite Blue these days

Ladd: If all of a sudden all these people are saying Dude X is the best thing since sliced bread, and you trust those people, you go with it.

me: True

Ladd: Especially in a campaign – things are hectic, time is burning, you gotta GET THAT WEBSITE UP. First time candidates are especially naive.

me: In this case, a volunteer staffer has fallen on his sword over the Akbar hire

Ladd: Could be falling on sword, could be true. I don’t know. Inclined to believe they had no idea, since no one came up to me and said, uhm, hey, that guy who’s spreading all that shit on your client? Yeah, he’s a convicted felon. Gaslighting! Someone who’s repentant, they make it the first thing out of their mouths. Doesn’t happen here because NO POLITICIAN hires a convicted felon. Period. No one.

me: So what’s your opinion of Robert Stacy McCain? He seems to be tight with Akbar these days

Ladd: Stacy’s very upfront about what he does and how he does it. I have no beef with someone who’s been gaslit. He’s a tip jar guy, he rattles it, and makes no bones about that.

me: I wanted to ask you about one other topic from left field.

Ladd: Sure.

me: Have you ever heard of Tom Ryan @TomRyanBlog?

Ladd: Isn’t he the guy who did the asian chick prank on intel people or something?

me: Yes

Ladd: What about him? He’s wrapped up in this crap too somehow?

me: You interviewed Dan Wolfe @patriotusa1776 a while back during Wienergate – I ran across that post recently

Ladd: Yes.

me: Did your gut tell you that anything was wrong with that interview?

Ladd: Oh hell yes. The motivation on maintaining anonymity was horseshit. I didn’t buy that for a damned second. Very bad lie. If you’re asking if I think I know who Dan Wolfe was, I have my suspicions, but they don’t really go towards Asian chick dude.

me: Interesting. Who do you think it was?

Ladd: In this it’s all about motivation. First, I think all those goons who are still pushing the “Weiner was hacked” meme are paid to do so. That’s so obvious it’s just silly. If you can spend $100k in polling data to see if you have any shot at NY Mayor, you can buy goons to talk about how “Weiner Wuz Hack by Andy!” crap all day.

me: Here’s the thing: it can be true that Wiener sent dick pics and it can also be true that he was hacked. Hardly anyone actually pushes the denialist line anymore. If I had the ability to hack the accounts of a target and see what was in there before publicizing his dick pics, I would do it

Ladd: Well if Weiner says he wasn’t I’ll take his word. The dude is stupid, but he’s not dumb.

me: Point, but my point here is that they aren’t mutually exclusive truths

Ladd: Also, if he was hacked, then the FBI would’ve been all over it. Congressman hacked? That’s a big deal. So here’s what I think it was motivation wise.

me: Yes

Ladd: It was, basically, a @Shoq op. Except on the other side. In other words, it didn’t start out as some conspiracy to hack the Weiner pricktures. It was a freakin’ social-media political campaign operation

me: Thank you. We are actually not worlds apart here

Ladd: You hire a few kids to tweet about what a creep Weiner was. You get those kids to make friends. You form groups like BornFreeCrew. You do hashtags. You do things like notice if he’s following some young hot chicks. You @ tweet the chicks, you stir things up. Happens all the time! Hell your guys do it and are, in fact, better at it these days.

me: LOL I’m not going to argue with that. And I’m not saying that with pride

Ladd: So they were trying to get him to hit on some fake chicks (Betty and Veronica) when they got impatient and wanted to see something really happen. Then out of the blue, Weiner gives them the sword – so to speak. The only reason they did the interview w/me and VerumSerum and those other folks was because Weiner looked for a while as if he wasn’t going to resign. Then he resigned and you know what they did? Turned off the lights and got gigs on other campaigns.

me: That’s the most curious thing – they spent some time “investigating” those sockpuppet people at Patterico

Ladd: All these goons running around trying to find Dan Wolfe, going after Stack, blah blah, it’s so freaking stupid.

me: It was almost like the puppet show was continued solely in order to distract from the fact that an op had just taken place It is stupid, and I suspect it was deliberately stupid

Ladd: Yeah, I’m pretty the “chase” part of the story is engineered for $$. Pretty sure

me: Blog hits and $$$

Ladd: No. $100k in polling data to see if Weiner can be mayor.

me: I see what you mean

Ladd: $k here and $k there to see if he can be resurrected. If you’ve got Lex Luthor out there ready to pounce on you with pricktures, better go out and find him and get rid of him. The rest is just human nature. Seriously, do the math. Who doesn’t want Weiner to run for Mayor or New York? That’s quite a few people, but who really really really doesn’t want that.

me: Thing is, I’ve seen the same techniques used again – badly – by some of the same people who were in the sockpuppet chase

Ladd: How do you mean?

me: The sockpuppet harassment of Bill Schmalfeldt recently. The smearing of @Shoq. “Randy” with his Hootsuite, Stranahan grabbing the spotlight again

Ladd: Oh! I don’t think those are much related actually.

me: So you’ll understand that my interest in Wienergate is really about studying those other events. They aren’t related, but I see some of the same players with the same strategies

Ladd: Well same strategies don’t always = same players

me: Of course not. But Wiener was a successful op, therefore it will have imitators

Ladd: Hell there are some people on “my” side that think Dan Wolfe was run by Leon Panetta! How does that work?

me: That’s hysterical!

Ladd: Yes yes because Leon knew that Tony was in the study with his candlestick hanging out!

me: LOL

Ladd: No man it was a NY local politics operation. Not to quote DeNiro but “I heard tings, I heard tings”

me: Well we’re right at 3.5 hours, I have to go pick up a rabbit from the vet shortly. Can we do this again soon?

Ladd: Sure man, let me know when you post. I’ll be here workin on animations

me: Thanks for the interview, it has been fun and illuminating

Ladd: Sure! Don’t be afraid to shout over the wall

me: You will hear me

Ladd: Cool, later!

Answering a follow-up question by email yesterday, Ehlinger said that Akbar’s name has gained the wrong kind of currency in Republican circles:

There are quite a few people who have been stepping away, and several people who have already “stood up” in one form or fashion. Just because something didn’t happen on Twitter, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Ali likes screwing people over, which ultimately just increases the ranks of the Anti-Ali crowd.

His M.O. is ultimately self-defeating.

I do not expect there to be some dramatic “have you no shame, Senator?” moment where suddenly everyone leaps back and those who were opposed to Ali get a standing ovation, like the end of Star Wars. No. It will most likely just be a dwindling of friends and clients until he moves on to new territory. Like running a Euro-disco, which I think he is uniquely qualified for.

But there is no “end game” here. Unless, of course, he goes to jail for fraud, misappropriation of funds, that kind of thing. I think there’s plenty of fertile territory there for someone to investigate.

But there’s another side-note to consider. If the actual aim of “your side” was to expose Ali, they’re doing a very poor job of it. All they’re really doing is making it harder for people to speak out, for fear that they will be branded as part of “Team BK.”

I rather suspect some are purposely slowing down the natural process of people figuring out Ali’s game. As I recall, there were some Democrats who wished that Newt Gingrich had not resigned from Congress, so they could have a polarizing figure to attack Republicans with.

Many of these crocodile tears from your side of the wall over Ali are just that, IMO.