Iowahawk gets serious about the smearing of Joe the Plumber:
“We’ve all witnessed a lot of insanity in American politics over the last few years. Up until the last few days, none of it has seriously bothered me; hey, just more grist for the satire mill. But after witnessing the media’s blitzkreig on Joe ‘the Plumber’ Wurzelbacher, I can only muster anger, and no small amount of fear.
[...]
“I hope you will join me in expressing a simple bit of solidarity with this guy, Spartacus style. I AM JOE. I am a Wal Mart schlub in flyover country who changes my own oil and unclogs drains without a license. I smoke and drink beer and toss the football in the front yard with my kid, and I figure I can fend my way without handouts from some Magic Messiah’s candy bags. Most everyone in my family and most everyone I grew up with is another Joe, and if you screw with them, you screw with me.”
Read the full post here, and follow the Hawk’s advice: “Are you a Joe? Say it proud. Leave it on every goddamn newspaper comment section and online forum. Let these pressroom and online thugs know you won’t stay silent when they try to destroy the life of a private citizen for speaking his mind — because for every one of them, there are a million Joe Wurzelbachers. And for that we should all be thankful.”
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WE ARE ALL JOE.
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UPDATE: Ace wonders, why don’t we start “vetting” the media the way they’ve “vetted” Joe Wurzelbacher?
UPDATE 2: Two great posts from Jim Treacher – Here’s how to respond to the trolls and Axelturfers defaming Joe Wurzelbacher in a comment thread near you;and Obama’s answer to Joe’s question
October 19, 2008, 4:11 pm at 4:11 pm
Nice writing style. I look forward to reading more in the future.
October 19, 2008, 4:14 pm at 4:14 pm
Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.
October 19, 2008, 4:15 pm at 4:15 pm
Just wanted to say HI. I found your blog a few days ago on Technorati and have been reading it over the past few days.
October 19, 2008, 4:20 pm at 4:20 pm
Hi there,
I looked over your blog and it looks really good. Do you ever do link exchanges on your blog roll? If you do, I’d like to exchange links with you.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Thanks..
October 19, 2008, 4:21 pm at 4:21 pm
Thanks for posting the article, was certainly a great read!
October 19, 2008, 4:29 pm at 4:29 pm
Hello.
I would like to put a link to your site on my blog roll if you want to do the same for mine. It would be a good way to build up both of our readerships.
thank you.
October 19, 2008, 4:33 pm at 4:33 pm
Would you be interested in exchanging blogrolls links with my site? Please email me if you are interested
October 19, 2008, 4:34 pm at 4:34 pm
Jamie, Ash is our BlogMistress – contact her at the email addy on the top left of the page. Although looking at your blog, you would seem to be on the opposite side of the political spectrum to us.
And, if you want to convince us that you’re not just spamming or link-whoring, jump right in and make a comment actually having something to do with one or more of our posts – sorry to sound cynical but believe it or not, some people really are that tacky.
October 19, 2008, 4:34 pm at 4:34 pm
I’m not sure, but I think “Jamie Holts” is a spammer. Just a feeling.
October 19, 2008, 4:34 pm at 4:34 pm
Do you do blogroll exchanging? If you want to exchange links let me know.
Email me back if you’re interested.
October 19, 2008, 4:37 pm at 4:37 pm
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work
October 19, 2008, 4:38 pm at 4:38 pm
SPOT SEZ: Jamie, I’ve just binned your latest batch of comments and any more you submit will go straight into the moderation queue. I’ve also deleted your link, because I’m sure that you wouldn’t want anyone to make the assumption that you’re a link whore. You’re welcome.
If you have a pertinent comment to make, go ahead and make it and we’ll let it through. But if you keep up this spamming, we’ll just have to blacklist you.
October 19, 2008, 4:39 pm at 4:39 pm
Jamie was over at “Mitchieville” as well, 25 or so ‘comments’.
Cheers
October 19, 2008, 4:39 pm at 4:39 pm
Yep, reckon you’re right Mr T. I’ll throw her in the moderation room until she can meet my request to actually make a pertinent comment.
I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but this one’s lookin’ kinda dodgy.
Cheers mate.
October 19, 2008, 4:56 pm at 4:56 pm
We have a spam bot. His name is Jamie, not Joe.
Ash the Enforcer in 5… 4… 3… 2… ~cover your eyes~
October 19, 2008, 5:05 pm at 5:05 pm
Her name actually. She’s an ObamaBot I’m afraid. We’ve already had 12 more from here, all binned.
October 19, 2008, 5:28 pm at 5:28 pm
Jamie turns up every few weeks trying to linkwhore around.
Piss off Jamie, we don’t want to catch whatever you’ve got.
October 19, 2008, 6:05 pm at 6:05 pm
I hadn’t seen her before. Next time I’ll know to just bin her immediately.
October 19, 2008, 6:10 pm at 6:10 pm
But why would she throw her links to her anti-Palin, anti-McCain blog around on basically conservative blogs like this?
Surely she’s not dim enough to think, “Submitting 29 comments linking to my Democrat-cheering political blog is sure to make those silly conservatives change their votes to Obama”?
Ah well. I AM JOE and I got the hardhat & steelcaps to prove it. And I AM VOTING MCCAIN-PALIN! Cuz socialism sucks!
October 19, 2008, 6:18 pm at 6:18 pm
I’m Joe the Guitarist. Jamies of the world can piss off.
October 19, 2008, 6:23 pm at 6:23 pm
No one ever accused Obama supporters of being the sharpest and brightest people around.
October 19, 2008, 6:29 pm at 6:29 pm
I keep thinking about Ace’s comment about “vetting” the media as hard as they “vetted” Joe. Incredibly grubby, but can you imagine putting a private detective on, say, Katie Couric, going through her trash, checking her tax records, her grades, putting her home address on the internet, saying she shouldn’t be allowed to comment in public on politics because she voted in the last Democratic Primary?
October 19, 2008, 6:38 pm at 6:38 pm
I can’t imagine it Spot, but it sure would bring me an element of sadistic glee.
October 20, 2008, 2:29 am at 2:29 am
i am joe, and i am definitely not a plumber. however, i will be calling in one this week to fix the ongoing slow drain problem! (just doing my bit to spread the wealth!)
October 20, 2008, 3:39 pm at 3:39 pm
I am posting this link everywhere I can think….pass it on to liberal blogs and where ever you can!
October 20, 2008, 3:51 pm at 3:51 pm
Ash, can you leave Jacks effort up? Attempts that stupid to villify a chap who asked a question should be left out to see the depths the lefties will plumb.
October 20, 2008, 4:23 pm at 4:23 pm
I agree, Mole. I think it’s sometimes better to leave comments like that stand, and then counter them, than to just “disappear” them and pretend that no-one out there is trying to smear Joe. What’s the point of that? We should try to keep censorship to a minimum, as far as I’m concerned. Let them damn themselves out of their own mouths.
Would you have wanted the press to simply not report on, say, Sandra Bernhardt’s comments about Palin?
October 20, 2008, 4:53 pm at 4:53 pm
Mole,
The statements Jack has made are legally actionable, and I’m in no mind to be sued. However, I’ll keep them in the SPAM filter for now, until I hear from you guys about what you think I should do with his libelous claims.
October 20, 2008, 5:36 pm at 5:36 pm
Are we liable for libelous claims others put up? Would a disclaimer fix that?
October 20, 2008, 5:37 pm at 5:37 pm
As for Jamie. Jamie, as if we’re gonna link to a Left wing blog, especially one with ads all over it.
October 20, 2008, 5:48 pm at 5:48 pm
Well, suit yourself. What can I say, except what I said above? I guess I’m just glad that America doesn’t systematically censor the awful things Lefties say, otherwise we’d never know what they’re really like.
October 20, 2008, 5:52 pm at 5:52 pm
I think a disclaimer like Charles has at LGF might be a good idea, but we probably ought to email back and forth to come up with a cogent comment moderating policy (I did not see Jack’s comment, so I can’t speak to that specifically).
October 20, 2008, 6:24 pm at 6:24 pm
Yeah, that LGF disclaimer is a pretty good one. Will email after work. They disabled checking emails from the work computers.
Meanwhile B/O/T
Well, if he/us weren’t a threat to the Dems
dreamnightmare, I doubt Larry and Co. would feel so compelled to campaign against him/us for Obama.Really. How much, despite the record campaign contributions the Obama camp has received, has Larry King done some freelancing on the side for him? And it seems he has that SFLT Maher on every other week.
October 20, 2008, 7:32 pm at 7:32 pm
Spot, I’m inclined to air on the side of caution. Just remember, around these Victorian places I can’t even quote from a book of nightmarish horror stories without being taken to VCAT and the HREOC.
I’m not sure whether our servers are in the US, and therefore whether the Freeedom of Speech rules apply. If the servers are in the US, I’m more than willing for Jack’s comments to be posted and promptly shot down for the absolute rubbish that they are.
A disclaimer is a good idea, and I’ve been lightly considering adding one for a couple of months now. I just haven’t worked on doing it because most comments we get aren’t as disgusting as Jack’s.