One of Publius’ defenders, and harsh critic of Whelan, is “TBogg” at FireDogLake, whose real name long ago was posted. TBogg specializes in mocking people who disagree with him (like Condoleeza Rice whom he referred to as “Brown Sugar“) by distorting his opponents’ views, and encouraging others to do the same.
So it is particularly ironic to see TBogg worrying about someone being subjected to ridicule because their real name was exposed:
Bitter out-of-power wingnut welfare recipient Ed Whelan fucks up explaining a joke, gets called out on it, and then goes Full Metal Asshole …. That is to say that publius was “irresponsible” in that he criticized Whelan and, for that crime, Whelan wants to fuck with publius’ life. Why else out him?
Worse yet, TBogg has been a proponent of exposing the private lives of people, at least people who disagree with him politically. In 2004, TBogg urged people in New York City to take photos of delegates to the Republican National Convention in the hope of catching people in embarrassing positions [note, the “Ann Coulter” link was in original TBogg post, I encourage you to click on it to see the level of TBogg’s blogging]:
Since I wasn’t in Boston to cover the Democratic convention (as well as be there when Jonah Goldberg woke up the next morning with his pants on backwards) I feel like I haven’t done my part to help restore democracy in America. With the Republicans about to invade NYC (they’re the puffy-looking white people with the bad haircuts…yeah, those guys) I was thinking that, with your help, we can help publicize all the good things that the delegates will be doing when they come to the Big Apple. More specifically, I guess, we’re really looking for who they’re doing.
If you’re a New Yorker with a digital camera or a phone camera and better than average run-away speed, we’d love to see any pictures you might have of Republican delegates as they visit the big city…or massage parlors…or hotel lobbies with women who may not be their wives (Handy Tip: If she’s attractive and isn’t wearing a red white and blue elephant pin, she’s probably not Mrs. Delegate from Possum Holler). Details (who and where) would be appreciated. If you’ve got pictures…we want ’em. If you want credit…you got it. Extra credit for shots in front of strip clubs. Extra extra credit if you catch a pundit. Extra extra extra credit if you catch Rick Santorum going into a pet store. Extra extra extra extra credit if you catch him coming out with Ann Coulter.
All we ask is that you be careful. We don’t have a lot of readers and we want to keep the ones we have. And you should ask yourself:
Is this wrong? Is it unethical? Am I playing God with someone’s life?
Then take a look around at what has happened in this country in the last four years.
Our operators are standing by…
TBogg’s call for embarrassing photos of Republicans was picked up by AmericaBlog, which gained its claim to fame by outing gay Republicans.
There have been legitimate critics and supporters of Whelan. The criticisms ring less hollow coming from people who have not devoted their lives to cheapening online conduct and outing others.
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Related Posts:
Are Bloggers Allowed To Speak To People?
A Pox On Annonyblogging-Gate’s House
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