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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tossing Little Green Footballs Out Of The Game


I don't normally get involved in Blog wars, but I'm going to make an exception here, for various reasons that I'm sure will become clear.

As some of you may have noticed, I delinked Little Green Footballs from Joshuapundit about a week and a half ago. This has been coming for awhile, but it's the only time I've ever purposely delinked a live blog from my list.It's entirely due to the behavior of the self-styled Lizard King, Charles Johnson. And I should have done it a long time ago.

I simply don't like cowards who engage in character assassination, lies and innuendo for their own twisted purposes, especially when in every case, they've been the aggressors.

This started a couple of years ago, when Charles got his panties in a knot and started banning 'fascists' - you know, people like my friends Pam Geller at Atlas and Dymphna and the Baron over at Gates of Vienna who haven't got a fascist bone in their bodies but do take the menace of Islamist jihad seriously. Robert Spencer, the brilliant author and proprietor of JihadWatch was next and it continued from there.

I didn't get very involved back then. Like I said,I'm not a fan of blog wars and Spencer, the Baron and Dymphna and especially Pam ( they have her picture in the dictionary next to the word 'courage') could take care of themselves perfectly well, believe me. So I simply continued to link to and communicate with all the parties. I probably should have dumped Charles back then, but Charles had been helpful to me back when I was starting out, throwing me traffic and I had a lot of respect for his past work. I naively thought that this was simply a personal snit between a few essentially decent people and that it would eventually resolve itself. After all, we were all on the same side, weren't we?

In my naivete, I even went to the trouble of politely e-mailing Charles, expounding on this point of view and suggesting it was time for everybody to talk to one another, iron out the differences and get back to some serious work. I even offered to help as a go-between.

He didn't bother to reply, but knowing what I know now I'm surprised I wasn't his next target.

As time went on, what used to be an important place on the net deteriorated into a fetid swamp with pretty much three creatures inhabiting it - the Lizard King's increasingly vicious attacks on his ever increasing list of personal 'enemies', Christians and 'creationists', links posted by the chosen Lizardoids on the site and Charles' occasional music videos.

Meanwhile , the body count continued - Andrew Bostom, Ann Coulter, David Littman, FOX News, Debbie Schlussel, Diane West, Melanie Phillips, Michele Malkin, Richard Miniter,Rush Limbaugh, Vodkapundit, Israel Matsav, Glenn Beck, Sigmund, Alfred and Carl, Geert Wilders, the Brussells Journal,Snapped Shot, Dr. Rusty at The Jawa report, Tundra Tabloids, Yid With Lid..hell, probably two thirds of the people I link to, any of whom could write and think circles around CJ and eat his intellectual lunch in a New York minute.

They were all smeared as racists and fascists and attacked by The Lizard King with classic leftist tactics - guilt by association, quotes taken out of context, innuendo and when nothing else would serve, outright falsehood. Daily Kos has nothing on Charles in that department.

I'm not sure exactly when I wound up on the enemies list or why, but it doesn't really matter. I'd stopped hanging out there in any serious way a long time ago. My reasoning was that it's his site and if he chooses to turn it into a echo chamber and a place for his personal vendettas, he had that right. I simply moved on.

Last week though, Charles finally crossed the line and went certifiable .

He started out by attacking Pajamas media for headlining a story by Robert Stacy McCain at The Other McCain, calling him a racist and white supremacist and smearing Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit as - wait for it - ' a borderline illiterate bigot'.

I don't know either of these gentlemen personally except by repute and by what they've written, but I have a pretty good nose for bigots and if I had any doubts on that score, they wouldn't be on my blogroll. Also, I knew that it was Charles talking, I'd seen how he operated in the past and having looked at his 'evidence' on McCain ( and no, I won't link to it) it's the usual rancid melange of lame, nudge nudge wink wink garbage, guilt by association and 'have you stopped luring children into your gingerbread house' nonsense.Frankly, it's embarrassing that anyone would expect it to be taken seriously.

Aside from that, my old pal and Council mate Jimmie Bise Jr. vouches for McCain and that's more than good enough for me.

And Jim Hoft, 'a borderline illiterate bigot'? Was Lizard Boy even in his right mind when he wrote that? Hoft has more class and brilliance in one hand than Charles has in his whole body.

Hoft mostly chose to ignore Johnson. McCain mounted a superb defense in three separate parts that reminded me of nothing so much as Bruce Caton's account of Stonewall Jackson drawing in and humiliating the hapless General Pope at Second Manassas, and I suppose he had to, but frankly he gave this garbage far too much of his valuable attention when there are bigger and more important battles to be fought.

We do, after all, have a country to save.

The rest of the conservative blogosphere proceeded to either delink or be delinked by the Lizard Kingdom, and that's pretty much where things stand.

So why did a once important conservative blog burn all those bridges so gleefully? I have a theory.

Working on the Left side of the street is fairly easy money, especially if you have creds as a past 'conservative' who's Seen The Light. David Brooks,Kathleen Parker, Andrew Sullivan and a number of others come to mind. Blogs like Atrios, Daily Kos and Firedog Lake coordinate their sites with the White House on a daily basis and are essentially paid advertisers.

So I'm pretty much convinced that this was a calculated move by Johnson, although there was certainly a lot of rage and what he perceived as score settling in his mind. He's offended so many people with his anti-Christian rants and vicious behavior that his traffic is down,and his advertising isn't doing as well as it once did. So he's looking for some new sponsors on the Left.

Another sign of where Chuckie's mind is at is that the old Cox and Forkum designed logo featuring a jihadi and a moonbat Lefitst is gone now, replaced by a simple football. No sense offending his demographic.

He might just be successful at that, at least in the short run.

Or maybe not.

It's a funny thing...when you turn mad dog on your allies the way Charles has, you may get some short term props from your new friends, but they know you're not really to be trusted and you find yourself having to turn ever more outrageous tricks and become ever more obsequious in order to 'prove' your loyalty. That's not exactly a prescription for self-respect or happiness.

And there's another thing. Charles may have made the ultimate mistake of a wanna be turncoat...bad timing.

If I'm right, the Obama wave has crested and Americans have had a bellyful of what seems to be their flirtation with radicalism every thirty years or so. As they regurgitate it, a certain Mr.Lizard may find himself getting shut out by his new friends as they compete for a much smaller audience and unable to work his way back across the bridges he spitefully burned.

Stacy McCain wrote that Charles would regret what he'd pulled only once, but it would be for the rest of his life.I think that's an extremely astute judgment.

When the Master of the Hermit Kingdom reads this,I'm certain he'll turn purple and dub me a Nazi and racist as well. Yawn.

But I remember what Charles and LGF used to be like a few years ago and overall, it's too bad. He could have been a contender.

But as the Ancient Greeks used to like to say, character is destiny.



25 comments:

  1. Or something else the Ancient Greeks said: Hubris leads to Nemesis.

    Another sad aspect of this tragedy is that his persistent malice reduces the number of people who are likely to be willing to make an effort to help him when he most needs it.

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  2. Anonymous6:10 PM

    I delinked Charles Queegson last April when he started smearing the Tea Parties. It was just the last straw after many previous personal attacks launched by Queegson.

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  3. Anonymous7:02 AM

    I don't follow this any where near as closely as you guys, but I reached the same conclusion.
    I started reading LGF back after the Rather incident and, initially, thought about posting. I decided not to bother when it became clear that the site (had no idea what the guys name was) was rigid.
    Then, recently, I began to wonder at the increasing number of issues for which no opposition appears to be tolerated.
    I simply deleted LGF from my bookmark list. I didn't notice the personal attacks so much as I did the fact that, over time, the site had changed.

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  4. Anonymous7:11 AM

    I have not known Charles for many, many years, and I can happily say that it has been a thoroughly enjoyable non friendship.

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  5. Anonymous7:50 AM

    The last straw for me was when LGF posted nothing but the crazy signs from the Tea Parties. There was nothing about the funny, true signs and nothing at all positive. For some reason, he's become an attack machine for crazies on the right and forgot about the left.

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  6. Anonymous8:44 AM

    I believe LGF's fall out with Pajama's Media is about money.

    See his post:

    http://i29.tinypic.com/if2yhw.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Anonymous 8:44,
    I think you're wrong and you're right.

    Part of the reason he originally distanced himself from the management of PM was because of the ascendancy of Michelle Malkin, who is one of those Evil Creationist Christians he hates. That took place some time ago. However, he was still sharing in ad revenues, which is what he was bitching about in the link.

    His recent delinking of PM just occurred.

    However your link also provides proof of what I was saying in the article - that a big part of his burning bridges with the Right was a calculated decision on Charles' part to go Left because he felt he could earn more money there.

    In other words, Charles was like Sharon Stone's Ginger in the movie "Casino"...if you remember, the whore went to Nicky Santoro looking for a new 'sponsor'.

    Regards,
    Rob

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  8. Anonymous3:00 PM

    I was a big LGF fan, but he lost me a while back..I visited the site each day hoping he would get back to covering some real issues but its just not happening..I loved him with "Rathergate" and his fearless approach to covering the hypocrisy of Islam but somewhere along the line he's stopped covering the real issues of the day...I don't go there anymore..its unfortunate but if I want to read about issues from a non conservative perspective Ill go to Huff or Daily Kos...at least they cover more issues that creationism and the other non issues of the day Charles chooses to write about...

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  9. Great posting. I've linked to you and also am adding you to the "Preferred list" aka Blogroll

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  10. Anonymous11:37 AM

    The last straw for me was when Johnson attacked Spencer.

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  11. Anonymous12:03 PM

    I stopped reading that site when every other post turned into some sort of half-baked slam on Christianity and so-called "Creationists." Obsess much, Chucky?

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  12. Yes, I did get a giggle out of this.

    I don't mind atheists ( although I think they're misguided) but I dislike bigots. Especially vicious ones.

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  13. I too gave up on LGF, right after he dissed Gates of Vienna.

    It wasn't hard to figure out who were the good guys.

    I'm sure he's doing just fine in his little pond.

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  14. I delinked him too

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  15. Although I didn't write with anywhere near your detail or insight, I coincidentally put up a post just yesterday about Charles' strange behavior, linking to a John Hawkins article at Right Wing News.

    What's so interesting is how, quite suddenly, the bridge between Charles and the conservative world collapsed. The foundations have been suffering for a while, as we all witnessed the big fights you described, but it wasn't until this month that the whole structure came tumbling down.

    I'm sorry about it, though, because, in the early years, when it came to Islamic Terrorism and media malfeasance, Charles was an incredibly effective blogger. I think you're right, though, that he certainly won't be able to bring that level of effectiveness to his new allies.

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  16. Hi Books,
    Thanks for the kind words.

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  17. Prior to September 11, 2001, I wasn't a big internet junkie, I didn't read blogs or anything. After September 11, 2001, I couldn't get enough information. I started reading everything I could get my hands on and my fingers could find.

    After reading several blogs that were honest, did their research, and wrote the facts along with their personal commentary, I began my own blog.

    I wanted to share information and have a place to express my own voice.

    Little Green Footballs was one of the blogs I checked every day. But as time went by, I found myself liking what I saw there less and less.

    I was late coming to the blog wars as they have been called, I too stay far away from any bickering. I simply slipped quietly away from LGF and on to those who were not interested in stirring up problems, but were intent on sharing the facts.

    Thanks for your insightful article. I think perhaps you are correct. Obama has reached his high point, it's all downhill from there. LGF may be very sorry about the choices they have made.

    Deborah F. Hamilton
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

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  18. He banned me today because I gave a few posts a thumbs down...thinned skinned dude...

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  19. It is a good article. It is timely and necessary. But, having said that, and going forward, do you, me and the world a favor and never mention that man again. Soon there will be just him and a few sock puppets praising either other on that board.

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  20. LGF was once one of my favorite blogs, and then one day it occurred to me that all that had been posted for days on end were anti-creationist drivel. I'm not even big on the whole evolution-creation argument; I just found that the whole diatribe bored the hell out of me.

    Once LGF began disparaging the Tea Parties however, I finally took the time to remove LGF from my blog roll. As I have now come to realize, I am not the only one who noticed that LGF deteriorated to such a shred of its former self. What a shame.

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  21. Anonymous7:15 PM

    Charles lost me a long time ago. I could only read so many slams on Christianity. Good riddance.

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  22. Normally I would not have put LGF on my blog roll due to Johnson's strong anti-gun stand but chose to overlook that because of his anti-jihad and pro-Israel positions. As well as to show gratitude for his part in Rather-gate.

    I stopped visiting his site well over a year ago because of his increasingly shrill attacks on Christianity but kept the link on my blog for the above mentioned reasons.

    But when I read your piece I went over to LGF and had a long look around then promptly delinked him.

    Today LGF shows all the signs of someone who has stopped taking his meds.

    I also noticed that he has started an anit-Glenn Beck jihad while carrying an ad for Glenn's book.

    Can you say hypocrite?

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  23. Hey Lem,
    Nice to hear from you.

    I can well believe that Charles is dissing Beck with one hand and taking money from him with the other.

    In fact, I think a great deal of this is about money with him.

    Regards,
    Rob

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  24. Having been dumped from LGF just about a year and a half ago, I know why you are now dissatisfied with Charles. And it even was not because of any fascism. Just basically jealously by Weasel-whatever-his-name-is.

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  25. There's a saying you are your own ceo of your on life. You hire and fire at your own will. If you don't like how someone acts or treats others then you don't have to be friends with them or communicate with them.

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