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BULLIES

We'd hate to spend any more time on this, but the wingnuts still won't shut up about Bush's National Guard memos - even in the face of mounds of evidence that the tinfoil hat crew is wrong - so we might as well expose them some more.

The net of right-wing blogs, which is bankrolled by the Republican National Committee, has successfully bullied CBS into going back on its story of the memos, despite overwhelming proof the memos are real. Other major media, which never paid attention to the facts to start with, heightened their incorrect stance that the documents are fake - even saying flat-out they're fake, when they clearly aren't.

These days, there's nothing the blog bullies or their congressional cronies won't say or do that wouldn't have been considered preposterous just a few years ago - and people seem to slurp it up like toilet water. People now will believe a lie just because conservatives spew it. Conservatives say it, so it must be true. They don't ever have to provide proof.

If right-wing bloggers said the sun is blue and grass is orange, and any journalist said they were wrong, they'd be beating down the journalist's door the next night with tar and feathers. And people these days would cheer them on - since they think it's unpatriotic not to.

After the 1994 election, fascists boasted it was the first so-called election ever to be decided by right-wing talk radio. (Without hate radio, all the fraud wouldn't have mattered.) It looks like 2004 could be the first one in which a deciding factor is right-wing blogs.

In addition to the hounding by blogs, CBS and USA Today may face a congressional investigation for daring to report a story that casts Bush negatively. Right-wing Rep. Christopher Cox (R-California) has formally demanded an investigation of Dan Rather, accusing him of being part of a criminal conspiracy to rig the election, just because Rather won't do things the way conservatives want him to.

Investigate THIS, Congress:

If CBS is accused of rigging an election by reporting facts, then why aren't other outlets accused of the same for reporting falsehoods? You can just as easily make the case that Rush Limbaugh has rigged every election for the past 15 years.

Oh, and guess who's cheering Mr. Cox on? Why, the right-wing bloggers and participation-based phony news sites like Freak Republic. Of course.

CBS sure didn't help matters by caving in and appointing right-wing former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh to investigate its own story.

In the past couple weeks CBS affiliates have received thousands of e-mails from right-wing extremists demanding the firing of Rather. Almost all of these are part of an effort organized by a fascist website owner. Right-wing radio station WNIS in Norfolk, VA, dropped its affiliation with CBS radio news because, in the words of the corporate stuffed shirts, "this is a conservative market and people felt that CBS was exhibiting a great deal of liberal bias."

Even websites designed to be nonpartisan don't last long these days without being "freeped" - Freak Republic's own term for sabotaging sites, something the Freak Republic site encourages conservatives to do. Freak Republic also encourages readers to disrupt political rallies. One article exposing Freak Republic says the site's goal is to bully and shout down anyone who opposes conservative causes. One way they do this is by voting multiple times in Internet polls on mainstream news sites. Because of Freak Republic's sabotage of one poll, the poll said that 86.5% of respondents believed the greenhouse effect doesn't exist. (Incidentally, Freak Republic has been sued by several newspapers for copyright infringement.)

In one message forum that was designed to be nonpartisan but is now being sabotaged by RNC operatives, conservatives have just in the past few weeks chased away several dissenters by calling them "communists" and "morons" and reporting them to the moderator for daring to have the "wrong" opinions. In addition they spout extremist causes, such as a law to bar people who receive public assistance from voting and the incorrect view that West Virginia acquired statehood illegally. One right-wing invader claimed Democrats "want to pass 'hate speech' laws that would be contrary to the Bible" and that the judicial branch of the government "was never meant to be able to interpret the Constitution anyway." When people point how extreme these statements are, they get attacked.

In this Bizarro World that modern America has become, a respected newsman like Dan Rather who's been in the business for 50 years gets effectively bullied by right-wing bloggers and 'Net Nazis. Isn't that just the silliest thing you've ever heard of? It's kind of like, say, a draft-dodging chickenhawk like Bush attacking a heroic war veteran like Kerry for his war record.

If trash-talking blog clods who can barely write a coherent sentence can bully the entire mainstream media, who's safe? (The media was conservative enough to begin with, its own complaints of the "liberal media" notwithstanding.)

If it isn't too late to deprogram millions of Americans, how do we stop this crap from hap? For starters, an army of dissenters should be formed to invade conservative Internet forums, such as the comment sections for articles on Freak Republic's site. Furthermore, for each right-wing blog or so-called news site, a progressive site with similar features should be formed to counter it. We'd also like the authorities to keep an eye on sites like Freak Republic where conservatives constantly exchange advice on how to harass dissidents and sabotage elections. We've kept an eye on some of these sites lately, but remember, we can't do it alone.

Furthermore, since most of these blogs are RNC-funded, that makes them campaign ads, which requires them to reveal who paid for them - something they have failed to do.

We also have to keep asking Bush's impenetrably arrogant followers why he got more votes in one county in Texas than the number of people living there - a question his followers have refused to answer for 4 years.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To The Editor Of The Last Word:

When you talk about the way those people treated you and your magazine in '98-99, and sent forged copies and stuff like that, you sound like a wacked out conspiracy theorist. This is probably because every word you say is true, and that is how the other side actually likes to do things. I don't know WTF is wrong with people, but I got sick of dealing with little bastards and sons of bitches on the internet, so I am not going to appear on some of these web forums anymore. So they succeeded in silencing a voice for reason. I just don't care anymore.

To The Editor Of The Last Word:

What exactly are the limitations to free speech. I have been having a problem with someone for years. She made a web page about me. Giving my name and home address and e mail in that web page. Not only did she do that. She blatantly lied about my life. Wrote untrue and beyond crude remarks. I wouldn't have been so upset if it was just that, sure I could brush it off. But phone calls and letters began to come to me. My house and car outside my house were being egged. I took all this to a lawyer. But nothing could be done about it because she pretended to be me and wrote herself letters saying I would kill her and other just ridiculous things. I have no proof that it was her or her friends that egged my house and car and called me since the numbers were blocked. After it went to court it stopped. But still in your opinion is this OK free speech to do what she did? After all I did lose some respect from people after all that she had done, even though what she said was 100% true.

[Editor's note: Is it free speech? No.]

WHY THERE MAY BE HOPE

After the Bush/Cheney ticket got utterly demolished in 2 debates in 5 days, there may be SOME hope that the dictatorship will crumble on Election Day - not that Bush will pay any heed if he loses.

After the first debate between the 2 major party presidential candidates, a CNN poll of voters who saw the debate showed that 79% felt Kerry won it while only 18% thought the liar Dumbya won, while 4% felt it was a draw. (These figures do not add up to 100% because of rounding.)

After the debate between Edwards and Cheney, a poll in Republican-run Ohio showed 98% of viewers felt Edwards won, with only 2% for Cheney.

But don't hold your breath. If there's any way the Republicans can rig the election, they will.