WHO WILL PROTECT THE FREEDOM TO BLOG?

Free speech is under fire. Online thugs are targeting bloggers (mostly conservative, but not all) who have dared to expose a convicted bomber and perjuring vexatious litigant who is now enjoying a comfy life as a liberally subsidized social justice operative. Where do your elected representatives stand on this threat to our founding principles?

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, bravely stepped forward to press this vital issue. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Chambliss decried the “harassing and frightening actions” of Internet menaces who recently have gone after several conservative new media citizen journalists and activists.

GOP Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texas added his voice, telling Holder in a statement that he is “very afraid of the potential chilling effects that these reported actions may have in silencing individuals who would otherwise be inclined to exercise their Constitutional right to free speech.” And the American Center for Law and Justice, a leading conservative free speech public interest law firm, announced it was providing legal representation to the National Bloggers Club — a new media association that has provided support and raised funds for targets of this coordinated harassment. (Full disclosure: I volunteer on the National Bloggers Club board of directors.)

The ACLJ described the importance of the case very simply: “Free speech is under attack.”

Chambliss and Marchant called specific attention to one terrifying tactic against these bloggers: SWAT-ting. These hoaxes occur “when a perpetrator contacts local police to report a violent incident at a target’s home.” Callers disguise their true identities and locations in order to provoke a potentially deadly SWAT/police response descending upon the targets’ homes.

As online conservatives — and now ABC News — have reported, recent SWAT-ting victims include New Jersey-based Mike Stack, a blogger and Twitter user targeted last summer after helping to expose disgraced former N.Y. Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner’s shady social media activities; California blogger Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney at Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office who recently posted a bone-chilling account and audio of his summer 2011 SWAT-ting on his blog, Patterico.com; and CNN contributor and RedState.com managing editor Erick Erickson, whose Georgia home was targeted by a faker claiming an “accidental shooting” there late last month.

A common thread among these and other online targets: They all have published web links, commentary or investigative pieces related to Brett Kimberlin, the infamous “Speedway Bomber.”

In 1978, Kimberlin was sentenced to more than 50 years in federal prison for drug dealing, impersonating a federal officer and a weeklong bombing spree in Speedway, Ind. The violent crimes left one victim so severely injured that he committed suicide. A civil court awarded the widow of the victim, Carl DeLong, $1.6 million. Kimberlin was released from jail in 2001, but has yet to pay up.

Investigative journalist/researcher Mandy Nagy, who blogs for the late Andrew Breitbart’s Internet media powerhouse, Breitbart.com, dared to chronicle Kimberlin’s lucrative business and political ventures over the past two years. Kimberlin has a large hand in two well-funded outfits, Velvet Revolution and the Justice Through Music Project, that have received funding from the likes of George Soros’ Tides Foundation and left-wing activist and singer Barbra Streisand. The charitable groups have viciously attacked prominent conservative individuals and groups, including Breitbart, investigative journalist James O’Keefe and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Nagy has been hounded relentlessly online and falsely accused of wild criminal conspiracies by Kimberlin associates for blowing the whistle on his shady online network.

After providing brief pro bono legal services to a liberal blogger who refused to whitewash Kimberlin’s past, conservative blogger and lawyer Aaron Walker lost his job. His employer was terrified by the thought of Kimberlin bombing his office and also fired Walker’s wife, who had worked for the same firm.

Walker is embroiled in Kafkaesque, free speech-squelching litigation with serial lawsuit-filer Kimberlin in Maryland. Last week, an inept judge who admitted abject ignorance about the Internet — and appalling apathy toward key free-speech Supreme Court cases — essentially gagged Walker from exercising his First Amendment rights and blogging about Kimberlin. Kimberlin pulled off a snow job in court, bizarrely claiming that an independent online effort to support Walker and expose Kimberlin’s past amounted to a criminal terror campaign against him. Renowned constitutional law professor Eugene Volokh of UCLA is providing pro bono help to appeal the order against Walker.

National Bloggers Club President Ali Akbar was targeted for spearheading charity efforts for Kimberlin targets; stalkers publicized his mother’s home, and Texas authorities are now investigating. Another conservative blogger who had the audacity to report on Walker’s plight, Robert Stacy McCain, was forced to move out of his home last month after Kimberlin phoned his wife’s employer and intimidated his family.

Never in the eight years that I have worked as an independent blogger have I seen such a concerted threat to the fundamental right of citizen journalists to speak their minds freely and without fear of bodily harm. As former Justice Department official J. Christian Adams points out, it is a federal violation of Title 18 U.S.C. Section 241 to conspire to deprive someone of his “free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

Members of Congress swore an oath to uphold the Constitution — all of it. Who means it?


Michelle Malkin is the author of “Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies” (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.

PROBLEM SOLVING MADE EASIER WITH KIRKHAM GONE

In August 2008 Liberty County officials failed to navigate the strong opposition former County Judge Lloyd “Tookie” Kirkham had gathered to what look like a solution to a long standing problem in Liberty County.

Prior Liberty County Judge Kirkham loved the camera and he loved the politics. While in office, the six foot six inch Tarkington native compared politics to his competing on the basketball court in Tarkington in the 1960’s. The only problem was that as good at Kirkham was at dominating local newspapers with his picture and winning re-election, he was equally bad at holding the cost of local government down and at solving problems. Local Republicans often joked that “Tookie is in most of our family portraits”, but no one joked about the unsolved problems.

County Judge, Kirkham was a no show in dealing with juveniles in his official capacity while county judge. In fact, while he talked a good game about dealing with juveniles, he was instrumental in closing down the only juvenile detention center in Liberty, County. His analogy about basketball never extended into the realm of problem solving. Perhaps being six foot six inches in the 1960’s in Tarkington Texas was such a huge advantage it left very little need for any other effort, the Liberty County juvenile problem is not as easily resolved. There were plenty of excuses Kirkham could have used had the media or taxpayers or parents challenged Kirkham squashing the facility.

But there are plenty of real life damages to youths that Judge Kirkham’s decision to give away his responsibility as the chief juvenile officer of the county has caused. In 2012 there has already been more than enough times a juvenile center in Liberty County was needed. Like the 14 juveniles in the infamous Cleveland gang rape of a juvenile and on other occasions where a juvenile facility in Liberty County could have made a difference, we have nothing. Kirkham made sure we would have no support system for our troubled youth. A troubled juvenile is often left in the classroom when a county claims it has no options. Troubled juveniles left in classrooms often cause problems for other young people that they would have otherwise never had.

So why bring that up now. Well one reason would be to ask public officials to do what Judge Kirkham failed to do. Public officials should explain the facts and circumstances surrounding juvenile detention facilities. There are fewer and fewer options and less and less use of juvenile detention by Liberty County. It is no secret we have the same kind of juvenile problems most counties have. And there is not a bunch of parents volunteering to have their little darling sit next to one of these troubled souls in English class. We need to know the taxpayer responsibility for a local facility, including the benefits from leasing spots to other counties etc.

The problem seemed to miraculously resolve itself after Kirkham left. In August of 2008 Rosalyn Ruffin Barboza proposed using a building in Tarkington for a 14-bed residential treatment facility. Her application for a license from the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), formerly Children’s Protective Services was met by the same Lloyd “Tookie” Kirkham that had killed the juvenile facility in Liberty.

Barboza had envisioned a juvenile center filled with over a dozen boys ranging from ages 9-17 and three or four adult employees overseeing them. She thought the public would embrace her idea as a solution for both troubled teenagers and those who would benefit by classrooms free of such problems- she was wrong… In just one week in August of 2008, area residents led by Kirkham and others scrambled to get 1,000 signatures on a petition to keep the facility from being licensed and have that petition placed on the Liberty County Commissioners Court agenda. Kirkham again was “competing”, just like in his high school days. And just like in his tenure as Liberty County Judge, Kirkham was not solving problems. His legacy is one of blaming others and leaving the problem solving to someone else. Kirkham can claim his leadership in running Barboza out of Liberty County is because of his newly acquired conservative philosophy, but he spent more money as County judge than any other County judge in Liberty County history. He can claim he was protecting Tarkington from attracting riff raff from all over the state and all that comes with such a facility, but the facility would at times be filled with youth from our own county. The facility was to be a treatment facility to help teenagers.

Chuong Khuat. Khuat, a DFPS licensing agent said, “This is the first time I’ve seen this,” when asked by one of the people who turned out to protest the facility if it was common to see a community so completely opposed to a residential facility.

The opposition came not just from the proposed facility’s immediate neighbors but from the Liberty County political establishment at the time. The list includes a who’s who of former officials including County Judge Phil Fitzgerald, Pct. 2 Commissioner Lee Groce, and of course County Judge Lloyd “Tookie” Kirkham- who was already out of office in August 2008.

The media reported one of the things that offended those in attendance the most was the fact that the facility would have been a for-profit enterprise. Barboza informed the crowd that if her license for the facility was approved that state of Texas would pay her $668,000 annually to house the 14 boys there.

Further analysis was not offered. Just like when Kirkham shut down any chance of a juvenile detention center when he was in office, we were all left with an unsolved problem and the assumption that it was just plain too expensive to solve. An assumption that needs to be discussed in detail before someone is harmed so dramatically that the county’s decisions end up on the Houston news and another tragedy visits our community.

Kirkham is gone, what better time to brainstorm and solve problems.

PATRIOTIC SONG BANNED FOR KINDERGARTENERS

A controversial Coney Island principal has decided it is more important for five year olds to sing Justin Bieber’s song, ‘Baby” than a song that promotes patriotism. Her refusal to allow students to sing “God Bless the USA” at their graduation has caused quite a stink at a school filled with proud immigrants.

Greta Hawkins, principal of PS 90, the Edna Cohen School, won’t allow kindergartners to even tap their toes to the Lee Greenwood song, also known as “Proud to be an American,” at their moving-up ceremony.

With all due respect to Jehovahs- The principal is a Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not recite the pledge because their religion forbids followers to salute any nation’s flag. Employees at the Edna Cohen School say the principal is disrespectful because she doesn’t stand when the school recites the pledge.

Below please find the words that Principal Hawkins is determine to keep from exposing to small children:

God Bless The USA
by Lee Greenwood
If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I'd worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.
I'd thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can't take that away.
And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.
From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.
That I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.
And I'm proud to be and American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

ARCHERS STILL ON THE PROWL

In an election night conversation with Liberty County Democrat Party Chairwoman Nancy Archer she revealed the reason she remains the party’s county leader and her optimism about the future for Democrats in Liberty County.

Liberty Dispatch and the entire county knew beyond the shadow of a doubt Mrs. Archer had no intention of her or her husband John serving another term in the position of chairman in the local Democrat Party when neither of them signed up to be on the 2012 ballot. Most people would conclude that would have ended over a decade and a half of the Archers’ leadership. That was the beginning of the end of over 100 years of sheer unadulterated Democrat dominance in Liberty County.

But Nancy Archer continues to occupy the position despite the fact she did not stand for election in the latest primary. Election night she explained that no one wanted the job bad enough to sign up and run. Because of the lack of interest in holding the top job in the Democrat Party in the county, according to the rules, Archer continues in her role until their executive committee finds and approves a replacement. At the time of this article there is no word of anyone wanting the reigns of the party as it tumbles into its worst decline in history. There are four Democrats on the general election ballot and there is very little evidence that Mrs. Archer is doing much more than the minimum as she fulfills her responsibilities.

But don’t mistake the Archers silence for a lack of interest or activity in politics. Republican Party activists have more than once expressed concerned that some of the gains the GOP has made locally are not real gains. Celebrations over some real converts to the party by people that have been conservatives and were liberated four years ago by Barack Obama’s extremism is subdued by concern that party switching this year is motivated by just pure predatory opportunism. The Archers still have their hands in the power structure as their Troy-like, wooden horse (or should it be elephant) has held onto some of the power via claiming to be born again Republicans.

Perhaps the wooden elephant strategy is part why Nancy Archer expresses such hope for the future of Democrats in Liberty County. The Archers have the worst record of anyone who has chaired their party in the last 125 years, but still Mrs. Archer says it is just a cycle. She says it won’t be long before the local political climate will favor Democrat again.

No word as to whether she will continue by default in her position until then. But expect to see John and her and people like former Democrat County Judge Tookie Kirkham lurking around the courthouse trying to influence things via their RINO friends in the meantime.

Drop us a comment when you see one of them on the prowl.