It was the blog post heard ‘round the world. When Charles Johnson wrote Why I Parted Ways With The Right in the space of a few minutes and posted it on his popular Little Green Footballs blog, he had no idea the firestorm it would set off. Nasty denunciations, death threats and a New York Times magazine feature article later, Charles Johnson joined me for a lively discussion about what happened to him, the Darwin-hating, know-nothing Creationists and the frenzied insanity (and racism) of the anti-Obama right. Part one of two.
 

great interview richard.

looking forward to your interviews with david duke, don black and ernst zundel next.

for those of us that paid attention to lgf during the bush years it was the most vile anti-muslim hate site - more or less an anti-islamic stormfront.

not even going to bother watching this as when i think about how he denigrated muslims for those years it makes my blood boil. 

while i am just a powerless message writer on the internet, it will be on charles\ conscience (if he has one) that he helped whip up a fervour that made the lives of innocent american citizens a living hell and justified the horrors of guantanamo bay. it was likely that those torturing muslims were daily readers of lgf.

like i said, look forward to see interviews about the scheming perfidy of the jews or the low iq of the negro races next.

great job.

you just lost one of your few viewers.

Maybe Richard wanted to show that the right has gotten so out of hand, even one of it’s own has seen the light, granted lgf may have spewed hateful vile stuff in the past (I’ve never heard of it before this myself), but come on, your stupid comments about him interviewing David Duke or whoever is ludicrous…Actually this was a very interesting interview, and worth the time.

LGF was (is? probably no longer) the DailyKos of the right wing. I used to follow both rather loosely just to keep up-to-date with the rhetoric. Is it any wonder I moved out of the country?

I remember trying to explain the implications of that very blog post to my Down-Under partner when it was posted, they really couldn’t grasp what I was getting at. A cultural thing to be sure.

Waiting for vid to download. Very curious about this sort of very public political enlightenment and how can we encourage more…

Smearing Charles as anti-Muslim is just ignorant.  Charles himself has said multiple times that he harbors no ill will towards Muslims.  Charles, and many on the right and left should have big problems with the homophobic, anti-semitic, anti-Democratic, dark ages fundamentalist Muslims.  There are hateful comments at LGF but Charles has done a good job of banning offensive posts and it’s hard to keep the crazies out of political blogs on the right and left. 

As far as LGF being the Daily Kos of the right—well, that’s just wrong.  Charles never has been a partisan.  Moulitsas is a partisan liberal (progressive) Democrat.  Charles Johnson is more of a left of center foreign policy hawk.  and Charles has certainly never cheered the murder of Americans in Iraq like Moulitsas has done in the past.

I’m glad that cornelius has left the blog.  Now hopefully he will find slight policy differences with other bloggers and eventually write himself out of the blogsphere.  How ignorant can one be?

I on the other hand have just favourited this site on Reader, and hopefully I can bring some other readers with me. 

Fortunately for centrists, Charles knows the difference between Islam and Terror perpetrated by Muslims, and can write well enough to make this clear.

Unfortnately for Charles, there will always be misanthropes like cornelius.

Good interview with a smart blogger. Loving the whining from the first commenter. Boohoo!

Charles has become a smear merchant and is a typical snob who considers himself an independent or moderate so he can attempt to be beyond criticism.  But watch how many times he uses the abusive ad homenim attack, how many times he appeals to authority, and how little he backs up assertions that he makes with actual argumentation.

Ask him if he’s read widely about global warming or creationism and you’ll find silence.  Ask him why he’s banned thousands of people from his site for disagreeing with him and you’ll receive a specious answer that they were advocating violence or some of term of agreement at LGF.

He’s a puny mind who is now being conferred credibility that he “broke” with the right-wing, which liberals love.  The fact is he is a 9/11 Democrat who never was conservative so how can you break with a movement you were never a part of?  I hope interviews like these cause thinking people to heap the scorn upon him he so richly deserves.

In regards to Creationism:  By virtue of being against creationism, he knows more about creationism than any creationist.

Biff: is that the name you used at LGF before you were banned?

Because I’d be happy to show anyone who’s interested exactly why your account was blocked.

Terrific interview.

If nothing else, CJ has proved that he is real political independent. Further, he is remarkably consistent. For many, that is what irks them the most. They cannot accept that intellectual honesty is not treason to a particular ideology.

CJ has infuriated many on the right because that is where his telescope is pointed at the moment. Rest assured when his guns take aim in the other direction (and they will when necessary) his detractors will stay silent.

Speaks volumes about their honesty.

Charles, What if the beliefs that these people believe in transcend “science”?

Do you have problem with people who say that god had a hand in what people call evolution?

Bob,

I’m not sure Charles is an authority on science… I’m actually pretty sure from his posts on Climate Change that he’s quite the layman.

But to answer your god question… God isn’t science, and can’t be science by virtue of initial assumptions made.  God must be disprovable for science to work.  If he is infallible then it is impossible that he could be part of hypothesis testing and therefore the scientific method.  Ergo, he can not be any part of what people call Evolution.. No.

Hopefully this clears things up and we’ll never have to debate god and evolution on the internet again.

Cheers,

Jon

Bob-

People are free to believe in whatever they want to believe in.

Science doesn’t trump faith and faith doesn’t trump science. The problem is when people become unhappy with that truth.

Good science leaves faith alone. Good faith ought to do leave science alone. There are legions of religious scientists that live by that credo.

I remember when LGF still had the illusion of being fair and balanced. Now, Charles has become another hate monger and an obsessive compulsive control freak. The slightest disagreement with his views means an immediate ban. Your beliefs will get you banned at LGF. It’s that simple. Naturally, he can make any argument very one sided and always have the final say on his little forum.

I think Charles simply enjoys trolling people and gets off at his own intellectual dishonesty. There was a lot that happened behind the scene he isn’t going to admit to. He is a very dishonest person from what I know.

I left LGF after I started to notice the odd shift it’s content. It seemed like he was becoming obsessed with European politics and attaching Christians. LGF was getting boring and seemed to be ignoring the real issues. So I went over to Hotair.

Then Charles went nuts and he attacked JihadWatch, a long time ally of LGF. He tried to censor Robert Spencer and threatened to slander him if he didn’t remove a link. Spencer was always the mild mannered intellectual side of the LGF alliance. Spencer believed that everyone should have their say, including his critics. Spencer said no and Charles threw a tantrum. When he started attacking and lying about JW, people started leaving and his other long time allies started distancing themselves from LGF.

People started leaving and Charles acted like he felt betrayed by the Right. Be back stabbed his allies one by one over technicalities. He poisoned his own well and went extreme Left just to offend his original community. Most of LGF’s threads seem a bit looney even by the standards of the Left.

As usual, the nuts show up at any site I link to, and start ranting incoherently like lunatics.

If that’s the same “Ozymandias” who had an account at LGF, he’s a creationist who got his panties in a bunch and decided to dedicate his life to the kind of activities you see him engaging in here.

Which, of course, reinforces the points I made during this interview.

So, in the end, Charles acts like he needs to be the center of attention. Most of what he posts seems to be directed at offending and provoking people into talking about him. He enjoys trolling people.

All I ever see now are the propaganda hit threads and him glorifying himself. Intellectual discourse has no place on LGF. I really don’t see the point in going back when there are better far left sites like KosDaily.

I cannot speak for Charles, but while much of his past was reactionary a response to 9/11, I admire his opening his eyes to how dangerous ethnic targeting can get.

Taking a frontline position against the dangerous extremism from the right has earned the guy major karma points from whatever he got himself wrapped up in back during his reactionary period.

People can change for the better, and Charles has done this.

People who were offended by his outspokenness against the Muslim community should take another look at how he has now taken a stand against groups who are doing just that.

Charles is not a loon, he exposes the loons.

Poor poor Ozymandias. Go back to the Watchmen ad your mutant kittycat, and quit your bitching. The man doesn’t truck with your idiotic politics, never has.

Jihadwatch and Robert Spencer are not credible. Robert Spencer is a pathetic waste, a bigot, a liar, and a shameless opportunist stoking the fires of militaristic wanna-bes.  Camouflauge-wearing gun-strokers all over the nation who want to “kick ass” from the safety of their unfinished basements, in between their power fantasies culled from the pages of Soldier of Fortune magazine.

I figured Charles out when I found out he was a hardcore Zappa fan.  Dislikes oppressive religion and oppressive government.  Low bullshit tolerance.

If I stop and think “How would Frank have reacted to 9/11?” I can see commonalities between what Frank might have done and what CJ did.  Frank surrounded himself in hippies but never really was a hippie. He was too much of an asshole.  He wouldn’t have reflexively jumped on board with the peacenicks but would have sat down and figured out why these people were trying to kill us.

Frank might have turned out to be a 9-11 truther with his distrust of government or he might have turned out like CJ, pissed off at the Islamofacists who are opposed to all the good things in the world like sex and stratocasters.

Anyway.  It’s interesting to ponder.

C to da M: I knew Frank, and please believe me—he would never have been a 9/11 Truther.

Johnson calls a registered democrat Bedell a “right wing extremist”. Work that one out. He uses the term “denier” and “denialist industry” and sees himself as a great judge on who is and isn’t a kook. Not much credibilty left for the old boy.

Tony: if you need any help working out that incredibly difficult brain-twister, here’s a link that might be of assistance:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35913_The_Pentagon_Shooters_Extreme_Right-Libertarian_Beliefs

I notice the bitchy right-wing partisans keep popping up in the comments here. Don’t kid yourself, guys, nobody reads what you type except people like me, and I only do it to marvel at your silliness. You’re not important. Cheers!

Great interview. Charles is a little more relaxed here than in some of the other interviews about this.

Charles Johnson says:
Biff: is that the name you used at LGF before you were banned?
- Nope, never used that name on LGF.

Rarely is someone vindicated so swiftly. I say that you abusively call your opponents names and you show up talking about the “nuts rant[ing] incoherently.”  Delicious.

The stalkers are now appearing in earnest, of course. Happens every time.

“jummy” is one of those obsessed creatures who follows me everywhere, and always posts the same links to old LGF articles—articles I’ve since repudiated in no uncertain terms. It’s really sad that they have nothing else in their lives.

So Biff—you’re complaining about being banned. What name did you use at LGF, so we can check to see why your account was blocked? Is there perhaps a reason why you don’t want to say?

Charles Johnson,

You call anyone who criticize you a stalker. Who do you think you are? Are you some dictator who is beyond reproach? No you are a Radical Leftist that spews lies and smear people. Guess what, people call you on that BS and wherever they can catch you, will expose you.

Seriously, do you really think you are above it all? You are a smear merchant who has been exposed and have become an internet joke.

Thank god you don’t run America, if you did you would be like Mao or Castro. Anyone who opposes you will be thrown in jail. Well to bad that’s not the case and people have a right to call out you lies.

No go back to your little cocoon since you can’t deal with critics (Stalkers). You are an intellectual coward and a delusional fraud.

I couldn’t have asked for a better demonstration of the points I made in this interview. Thanks!

Charles Johnson says:
I couldn’t have asked for a better demonstration of the points I made in this interview. Thanks!

What points would you like to debate? Seriously, you attack others and expect no response? This isn’t a Fascist country, free speech still occurs. What makes you so special that you are above criticism?

Care to debate fiscal policy? You support Obama’s deficit spending which is getting us deeper in debt.

Care to discuss how he’s backstab the UK over the Falklands?

Want to debate that Mr. Johnson?

Be a man and debate!

I was banned by LGF and not unreasonably so, since I chose to use a slang word to taunt a since banned racist. Wasn’t very clever of me now,  was it? Given that Americans and irony are sometimes strangers.
        So why do people whine all the time? And why do they object to the fact that LGF isn’t actually batsh*t crazy ? It remains a bastion of American exceptionalism which places it firmly to the right of centre. To scope any days politics you go to Huffpo and to see the liberal take you go to Kos.
    Easy really.

threecoloursblue

LGF Right of center? Are you joking? It’s a far Left blog that is ran by a fanatical Obama supporter. Notice he never calls Obama out on his failings. Charles is a smear merchant and an intellectual midget.

Mr. Johnson is a classic Stage 1 thinker, to borrow a phrase from Tom Sowell.  Ask him about why he’s pro-choice and he’ll mumble something about women having choice over their bodies.  In other words, the same answer any fifth-grader will give you.  Ask him if he understands the difference between embryonic and adult stem-cells and he won’t answer.  Ask him about evolution and he’ll give you the talking point about mountains of evidence while failing to marshal any himself.  Has he ever heard of the Kalam cosmological argument?  If he has he’s curiously quiet about it and fails to engage the argument it makes.  If a Republican politician invokes God he will label them a theocrat or Dominionist without understanding what either means.
These are just a few examples of the kind of thinking you find at his site.  It is mockery as a form of argument and it has been ages since he will brook any argument with his positions at a fundamental level.  The label independent is convenient to nurse grudges against anyone who disagrees with you but doesn’t extend to actually acknowledging and refuting others.

Can Charles explain why any negative comments about homosexuals and same-sex marriage is homophobia but labeling straight tea party members as teabaggers is okay?

The great mystery is why pundits conferred any credibility on the dodgy musician.  His thrilling prose?  No.  His erudite grasp of the issues?  Surely not.

Wow. Look at the right-wing nutjobs come out of the woodwork!

It’s his board, he’s free to do what he want, but he banned me simply for saying that “abortion is wrong”.Back when he was a Bush lover, he banned me for criticizing Bush. It’s his blog, but he is really intolerant of any opinion that differs from his own, and his opinion sways with the wind.

Also on his blog, he’s claiming that someone wrote a anti charles journal entry, threatened to kill him on here, because the name “pat” was used. Anyone can put any name down… Doesn’t mean it’s that person.

notice that Charles doesn’t nearly cover so much, antisemitic sentiment in Europe? Israeli FM Ayalon was at Oxford last month, and palestinian students of course interrupted his speech and charged the stage. One of the students shouted “death to the jews”. I bet he’s afraid to post that story on his blog because he’s afraid that so many of his liberal readers would agree. He’d have to ban what few members he has left.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=168320

Charles is a coward.

Daedalus:
Your post is a definition of what I mean by American exceptionalism.  ” Far left ” by American centre-right standards maybe, but centre or centre right by international standards. He’s just like you, but sane.

Could someone from LGF show this to Charles?

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120350&sectionid=351020202

or any other article. Look at the comments. You know the non muslim comments are from liberals. Charles would be too afraid to post any of these insane stories because so many of his liberal subscribers would share the views, that the jews control the world, that jews were behind 9/11, or anythign else ahadmenijad believes. Hence why he doesn’t post these rediculous claims from Iran, because his liberal followers are crazy.

Some claim to be able to discern the difference between his playing and a bathtub full of cats being thrown down basement stairs.  None of these claims can be attributed to sentient human beings.

Hell hath no greater fury than an ideologue scorned as some of these comments show.

For those having a littler trouble here Charles’ credibility is probably the result of several factors. First, he has many thousands of registered members. I don’t follow that stuff much but I’ve heard that lgf is one of the most popular political blogs on the Net. That’s credibility. Next, I’d say his interface design is one of the best out there for this type of content - mixing current news, blogs and readers’ comments on variety of topics - updated every few seconds at times. Also, he’s constantly improving the site when he sees an opportunity - and he does his own code. As a programmer myself that tells me something about his analytical abilities.

As far as his views, I don’t always agree with him but I usually do. I find him refreshingly non-ideological, leaning toward common sense rather than some part-line pov. I find people who are solidly right or left ideologically boring and usually not very analytical, except when it comes to justifying their fixed beliefs. I like to read people who think for themselves and can give their own reasons for their conclusions.

Finally, as a musician he exhibits what many musicians do, the ability to think with both sides of their brain at the same time. I know some commenters here won’t have any idea what I’m talking about but someday they could find out that there is life after Kool-Aid.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120135&sectionid=351020204

hey charles johnson, look at the comments.. afraid to post this story because you’re afraid your readers will agree with the story and the comments?

Steve said:
. . . steve says:

It’s his board, he’s free to do what he want, but he banned me simply for saying that “abortion is wrong. . .but he is really intolerant of any opinion that differs from his own, and his opinion sways with the wind.

Steve - you are just full of baloney.  I am pro-life, anti-abortion, have made my stance on that issue very clear, and I am still registered at LGF and comment regularly. 

There are plenty of people there right now who disagree with Charles regularly.  He disagrees right back.  And that’s how it is.

As to changing opinions - it’s called staying informed with the latest information, considering it and thinking about it, and adjusting your view as situations change.  It’s OK to do.  In fact, it’s actually the smart thing to do.

Wrong reine. He said because I said it in the context of the abortion doctor shooting, that if I think abortion is wrong, therefore I must believe that it’s justified to shoot doctors, and banned me before I even had a chance to reply or so anything. Charles is VERY quick to ban anyone who disagrees with him. I disagreed with him on Bush in the 2004 election and I got banned for simply disliking Bush. I wasn’t one of those crazy lefties who were shouting “impeach boosh!” or “war crimes!” but I never ever liked Bush, and I never voted for him, and I think the worst thing I did was call him “stupid” and Charles banned me for that.

here’s an example of something that would absolutely get you banned from LGF. You say that humans are not the sole source of global warming, that we probably contribute to it, but the earth has always had a changing climate, many factors involved, distance from sun, title of the earth, distance from the moon, sun spot activitiy.

If you say on LGF that humans are not the only cause of climate change, you get banned. Don’t even BOTHER trying to deny that he would.

Even the EPA’s own website’s children’s page says the earth’s environment changes regardless of whether people are around or not..

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/history.html
charles would ban you for posting this link, that states humans aren’t the SOLE cause of climate change… If you dont’ day humans are the ONLY cause, you get banned.. If you say humans contribute to, but don’t cause, climate change, say bye bye. Whatever term he says when he bans people with his magic ban button on his keyboard.

Steve, dude, go cry in your fucking beer somewhere else.
Pathetic whiner, I’d ban you for being a sniveling tool.

I haven’t visited LGF since I found out that Charles Johnson sent one of his minions to post racist comments on another conservative blog so he could smear them later on a blog post.

People tend to hate LGF because unlike Hot Air or the Shrieking Harpy, the maintainer, Charles Johnson actually promotes fact over fiction; respect over prejudice; and sanity over paranoid conspiracy.

If people want that, they can always go to RedState, Free Republic, Atlas Shrugs, Hot Air, Gates of Vienna…you get the picture.

The myrmidons reinforce the pathology that there is something special about this strummer.  CJ, simply using the term anti-idiotarian doesn’t mean you aren’t an idiot.  You started believing your own hype a long time ago but now it is time to grow up and think responsibly.

Lil’ idiot stevie wrote:

“Also on his blog, he’s claiming that someone wrote a anti charles journal entry, threatened to kill him on here, because the name “pat” was used. Anyone can put any name down… Doesn’t mean it’s that person.”

This demonstrates the reading comprehension of lil’ freepofascist quite dramatically.

Of course, Charles never claimed that the “pat” who left a comment here is “Patrick” of “The Political Byline” _merely_ because of the name. In fact, Charles explains in detail how he tracked that creep. But all this went right through lil’ stevie’s eyes and outta his ears.

You’re such a pathetic creature, stevie.

the way charles’ “lizardoid army” has responded to criticism of their leader is typical. i’ve discussed the dynamics of it here and here.

charles’ personal appearance in these comments is somewhat unprecedented, and must have something to do with desperation from not being able to simply hit the “delete” button. he mentioned on his blog that he discussed with metzger the possibility that he might draw critical responses in the comments section - as if that were something out of the ordinary and required the preparation of counter-measures.

funny.

but the way charles handled critisism in these comments defied no expectations whatsoever.

first, he called me a “stalker”, if that means anything coming from him, and said something self-serving but non-factual. second, he went to the back-channel to have my comments removed. it is my suspicion, and i hope, for the sake of metzger’s ethical credibility, that charles had to tell some nasty lies about me to accomplish that. finally, he retreated to his blog and called me a “stalker” again.

this yielded a couple of amusing replies from his followers. one guy said, “Glad you can take care of yourself Charles.” another, perhaps sensing that charles demonstrated no self-defense powers whatsoever asked, “You gonna verbally lay the smack down on him or is he not worth your time?”

either he has no “smack” to “lay down” on me, in terms of convincing refutation of the points i brought up, or i guess i’m “not worth the time.”

so, here’s some of what i wrote earlier, which charles thought was worth the time to go to back-channels and lie about me to have deleted earlier.

NOW:

Paranoid Delusion of the Week

THEN:

Flight 93 Memorialized with Red Crescent

Flight 93 Memorial Project Unchanged, Comments Now Open

Flight 93 Memorial Still an Islamofascist Shrine

then

now

charles johnson and stormfront agree on immigration.

charles johnson and free republic agree about the “reconquista”.

charles johnson endorses the idea that the u.s.-mexican border should be handled in the same manner as the israeli-palestinian border:

“...make them understand that no place is safe, no route out of reach. ...if they run away they have to chase them, and if they resist they need to use force. Eventually, they’ll end up doing things you don’t want people to watch on television….”

charles johnson and white supremacist, peter brimlow, agree on the war on christmas.

charles has never repudiated any of this on any terms. in fact, this is but a small part of the milieu which charles stands on when he claims that he has remained unchanged and anchored to decency and reason while the rest of the world has spun out away from him.

(by the way, this is what a “stalker” looks like.)

Labeled by the L.A. times as husky has caused Charles a crisis in body image.  His pretend insouciance is an affect of the sad, crying clown inside his substantial corpus.  The childhood taunts of tubs, toady, and the particularly hurtful Bluto come screaming back.  Goodbye sleep.  Hello night terrors.

Wow, the freaks are still at it in here?

Amazing.

Certain of you are examples of why I sometimes call the Web the World Wide Whoopie-cushion.

The obsessive shrieks would be hilarious if they weren’t so childish.

/isn’t anonymity wonderful, kiddies?

Amazing?  Not at all considering the amount if enemies you’ve made.

Please keep dropping by calling people names and I’ll do my part by reminding readers this is the conduct of a fifty-six year old man.

It was an interesting video. Looking for part 2 now. Richard, I know you probably have strong views about it, but I cringed every time you sort of said, “I know, right? Those idiot Creationists!” and then you both soft of shook your heads sadly.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the videos. I thought what Charles had to say was interesting.

Fascism is alive and well at LGF.

Here’s one of LGF wingnuts making fun of the dead girl Rachel Corrie:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/showc/247/8182938

“247   Ojoe
Wed, Mar 10, 2010 5:30:06am   0
down
up
report

Saint Pancake is back in the news.”

What kind of monster would say something like this about the killed girl, regardless of their opinion about her? And do you think he will be even reprimanded by Charles, much less banned?

Note that Charles is quick to delete offending comments and ban the offenders. And since he didn’t ban this creep…

Richard, perhaps you were too early to embrace Johnson?

Good interview! I’m not a fan of LGF, never visited the site after seeing how anti-Muslim it was a few years ago. Nice to see Johnson, if not apologizing, at least admitting he hadn’t done much to rein it in.

And they’re still going!

The comment about Rachel Corrie was posted last night while I was asleep. (I actually do sleep occasionally. I know, hard to believe.)

The first thing I did this morning was check my email. I found several reports about the comment, and immediately deleted it. And I posted a comment advising people that using that insulting nickname was unacceptable at LGF.

So, not only was the comment deleted and a warning posted, it was down-rated by other LGF readers and reported to me.

Of course, the anonymous person who posted the link to that now-deleted comment could have contacted me about it too—but it was more important to rush over here and use it as a smear.

fried lizard,

good catch. i see charles is saying that he “never” liked that term, which is a distaste he apparently acquired after only six-plus years of loving it.

his fondness of the racist epithet, “oil tick” is still in evidence, however. he invented that one after all. maybe he’ll delete all of those posts and “never-liked” that term too.

this is why max blumenthal identified lgf as “an overtly racist blog”.

It was one of those rock and roll moments. The after show party was in full swing when a shadow fell across the door. The room fell silent. There he was. It was awkward for everybody. Two hours earlier there had been a dreadful row and the band’s guitarist had called them all Nazis. Al Jarreau had lost his temper and made some cutting remark about ‘needing to get laid’. Now there he was. Charles Foster Johnson.

“Er….Hi Charles” said one of the roadies nervously. “Where ya been?”

Charles paused.
“I’ve been off getting laid”. He said. Much whooping and high fiving around the room followed as the tension was broken.
“Well I’ll drink to that!” cried Al Jarreau lying on the big sofa in the centre of the room. He raised his glass in Charles’ direction. “Come on in Charles. Sit down. Have a beer”. Charles moved sheepishly into the party. It had taken twenty six gigs in fifteen countries, but finally he was accepted. One of the gang. Somebody pressed a bottle into his hand and he stood there cluching it. Choking back the emotion of the moment he said.
“Thanks guys…..I’ll be proud to have a beer with you all…...but I don’t think I can sit down just yet.”

Heh…A Mike C classic and still to be found on an old lgf dead thread. By the way anybody who doubts Charles’ name drop up thread. If I recall, Frank Zappa hated record industry executives so much he set up shop on his own. In spite of his fame, he worked largely outside the music industry. So it is entirely plausible that he knew Charles Johnson.

What is really pathetic about the stalkers coming here to attack Charles is that they deny that they are, in fact, stalkers.

Charles has made several very public changes in his opinions.  Furthermore, he’s explained how his views have changed.

This apparently shocks and confuses many people.

The current work that Charles is doing fighting against the idiots denying AGW—I can’t help but notice that the only stalker talking about AGW claims that Charles hasn’t read anything on it, when he not only has, he’s made it a relentless series of posts.

My question for the stalkers is:  Do you read LGF?  because it really doesn’t seem like you do.

There is an awful lot of very unfair slander of Charles Johnson for doing nothing more than honestly and decently taking the time to research facts and have a real moral compass.

Mr. Johnson was once the darling of the rightwing.  It could be argued that he was nearly the totality of the right wing blogosphere.  I imagine that if he were a dishonest sort, he could have easily profited greatly from that position. If Malkin can be on Fox, CJ certainly could have.

Yet, Mr. Johnson is too honest and too educated to go against principles or pretend that inconvenient facts do not exist.  He is a mensch who thinks for himself.

The price of claiming that evolution did not happen or that AGW isn’t real, or becoming hysterical over one false and baseless outrage after another - like death panels or birth certificates was something he was too smart, too decent and too honest to do.

What are the odds that the obsessive haters here were big fans of that nickname for Corrie, and are suffering traumatic, massive butthurt that their rabid foaming and general asshole behavior is what got them banned in the first place?

Pretty damn high, I’d say.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/showc/836/8183531

“Please note: I have never liked using the name “Saint Pancake” for Rachel Corrie, and I’m going to delete any comments that use it. It’s unnecessarily mean-spirited; you can criticize her sympathy for terrorist groups without diving into the gutter like that.”

Not that facts ever get in the way of the obsessive haters and their smears about LGF and Charles.

Much of the criticism I see in this thread about LGF comes from people saying it is an anti-Muslim hate site.  I challenge you to produce even one piece of evidence that exposes real bias on Charles’s part against all Muslims in general, as opposed to focused anger and outrage against the Islamist fanatics of the sort that attacked our country almost nine years ago.  I might also add that Charles has done a fair job of cleaning up the comments on his site, but that like any site administrator, he is hardly able to police them all.  At least he makes an effort to corral the worst offenders.

Charles calls it as he sees it. Not a lot of patience for tribal partisans. The more obsessive haters left, and now LGF is a fine place to blog discuss, disagree and enjoy the company.

Charles has finally come out and asked the myrmidons to defend him here, after implying it for days. 

When does the second episode go up?

A challenge to all Johnson Haters web-wide:
As in the case of the misreporting of the capture of Adnan the American, Charles Johnson, like any reporter with competence, immediately reported the correction.
Where is the retraction from the bile spewing lot of you when you misreport? Where is the deletion of vile, disgusting commenting?
{crickets chirping}

Quite right reine.

I am another case in point. I frequently disagree with Charles on the subject of AGW and from time to time on other issues as well, yet my account remains active and I remain a member of the forum.

Please by pants and Kindles.  Charles needs the money, bad.  Don’t make him go back to turning tricks for strange men in cars.

Oh, I was banned for being a backstabber.

I had problems with Chuckles the Dancing Clown calling Fjordman a coward for using a pseudonym in the Europe of Theo van Gogh and hate speech laws.

Seriously, it gets lonely being a former liberal, when all your friends are liberal, September 11th is five years and growing in the past, and public opinion is turning against George Bush.

But Markos already established position as the leading anti-Christian and liberal blogger of the times.

And now people can ignore blog ads.  Getting harder and harder to be Charles.

He sure doesn’t look like he rides a bike with any regularity, does he?

buy, not by.

Preview
Is
My
Pal

It is very good that Charles now finds calling dead girls “pancakes” offensive.

For a long time he didn’t find it offensive in the least.

Witness this:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=19533_The_Rachel_Corrie_Pancake_Breakfast

“The Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast

Sun, Mar 5, 2006 at 8:58:34 pm PST

Truly, reality has come full circle, as Indymedia unwittingly imitates Little Green Footballs: Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast. (Hat tip: IDF Dave.)

No, it’s not a joke.”

So Johnson fully accepted what he now calls a “gutter” “mean-spirited” term as a part of official LGF lore. It even made it into the formerly official LGF dictionary:

http://zombietime.com/lgf_dictionary/

“St. Pancake - Disparaging nickname for Rachel Corrie, a American activist who voluteered to help Palestinian militants in their attacks on Israel; she was killed after being crushed by a Israeli bulldozer while “defending” Palestinian smuggling tunnels. She was subsequently beatified by the extreme left, and in mockery of her new holy status, LGFers dubbed her “St. Pancake,” in reference to the manner of her death.”

No wonder this dictionary has recently been deleted from LGF…

No wonder zombie replicated the dictionary—and left out the bit that said the nickname was not endorsed by or approved by Charles.

Odd, that.

This is what the LGF dictionary said about “St. Pancake” when it was posted at LGF:

Disparaging nickname for Rachel Corrie, a American activist who voluteered to help Palestinian militants in their attacks on Israel; she was killed after being crushed by a Israeli bulldozer while “defending” Palestinian smuggling tunnels. She was subsequently beatified by the extreme left, and in mockery of her new holy status, LGFers dubbed her “St. Pancake,” in reference to the manner of her death. (Charles himself is reportedly not fond of the nickname.)

I removed the dictionary because I did not have time to maintain and update it, and because the person who originally wrote it has now become just as wacked out as the stalkers posting in this thread.

The stalkers’ desperation to smear me is almost palpable.

Friedlizard et al.

So what if at one time he did? Axegrind much? Obsess much?

People can and do change. I know it’s hard thing to comprehend for some but sometimes people say or do things and then realize that maybe it wasn’t for the best, or it even wasn’t right.

The horror! 

I dunno and don’t particularly care if this guy may have allowed this in the past for whatever reasons because it’s the present that matters.  I have a hell of lot more respect for someone that may have done things in the past that were wrong and changes for the better when realizing it was wrong.

Zombie is whacked out now?  A right wing Bat Puchanan/Ron Paul worshipper, I suppose?

I guess because anyone who doesn’t love anyone annointed by His Holiness, Saint Obama, is a racist zealot, I guess.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/03/unbelievable-van-jones-says-911-petition-didnt-reflect-his-views/

Is AllahPundit a whacked out zealot as well?

Trollwatch:

“No wonder zombie replicated the dictionary—and left out the bit that said the nickname was not endorsed by or approved by Charles.

Odd, that.”

Are you implying that Zombie edited the dictionary somehow? Because then you’re a CT-promoting wacko, making such claims without evidence.

Here, look:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050205034424/http://www.zombietime.com/lgf_dictionary/

So it was probably Charles who added the bit when he posted it on the site.

But you (and Johnson in the comment below yours) ignore the “Pancake breakfast” posting and the fact that this was the accepted LGF lore for a long time, so accepted that Johnson, regardless of whether he liked the term or not, himself associated Pancake=Corrie with LGF. To repeat:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=19533_The_Rachel_Corrie_Pancake_Breakfast

“The Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast

Sun, Mar 5, 2006 at 8:58:34 pm PST

Truly, reality has come full circle, as Indymedia unwittingly imitates Little Green Footballs: Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast. (Hat tip: IDF Dave.)

No, it’s not a joke.”

Now he calls this nickname “gutter” and “mean-spirited”, but he had no problem with it back then.

Wocka asks:

“So what if at one time he did? Axegrind much? Obsess much? “

If he did then and would apologize for it now, no problemo. Instead he denies, denies, denies and blames everyone but himself. That’s what sucks, not the mere fact that he found it OK in the past. So your comment misses the mark.

PS: And Zombie did not change. He always was a crazy right-wing sociopath. Google for him at LGF and you’ll see to what embarrassing extent Johnson used this wacko’s materials.

So, FriedLizard, you’re just ignoring that the event was actually a Rachel Corrine Pancake Breakfast?

Nothing in that headline implies that Charles thinks it’s a good phrase to use.  He’s pointing out the irony of it being used by a Corrine-supporting group, given the protestations over the crude nickname.

I’m not sure what’s hard to grasp about that.

The legend lives on from Palestinians on down
Of the big thing they call a ‘bulldozer’
The dozer, it’s said, always flattens its dead
When the left wing protesters turn looney.

With a carbon steel frame sixty-two metric tons more
Than the flat Rachael Corrie weighed empty.
The blade it is true is a thing to be feared
When the treads of the dozer start rolling.

The Cat was the pride of the Israeli side
Coming back from some hill in the Gaza
As the big dozers go, it was bigger than most
With a diesel of four hundred horses

Concluding some berms with a couple of quick turns
When they left fully fueled up for Rafah
When later that day her megaphone sang
Could it be that dumb bitch they was hearin’?

The dirt in the treads made a tattle-tale sound
As the mud broke over the blading
And every man knew, as miss Corrie did too,
T’was a big Caterpillar come dozin’.

The blade came down and the dumb twit stood her ground
When the D9 bulldozer came plowin’.
Devoid of good sense and ignoring all risk
She turned her back on the oncoming dozer.

When it finally came, the dumb bitch kept her place sayin’
Surely, they’ll stop what they’re doing.
Under the tread her air pathway caved in, she said
Dammit, this shouldn’t have happened!

Her friends called in that the blonde bitch was down,
And the bomb laden house was in peril.
And later that day when her lights went outta sight
Came the death of the flat Rachael Corrie.

Does any one know where the sense of libs go
When the blade turns the minutes to hours?
The soldiers all say she’d have got out okay
If she’d put fifteen more feet behind her.

She might have been crushed or she might have split wide;
May have broke ribs and her bladder.
And all that remains is the traces and the stains
Of her imprint, the tread tracks and splatter.

Arafat stews, Hizbollah spews
From the rooms of their compounds in Gaza.
The ISM screams like a spoiled preteen
They voice their support for the terror.

And don’t we all know, when the buses explode
They’ll march out their apologists willing,
Now activists go as the drivers all know
With the big caterpillars remembered.

In a musty old room in Ramallah they prayed,
In the ISM office of terror.
The door bell chimed till it rang seventy-two times
For each tread on the big Caterpiller.

The legend lives on from Palestinians on down
Of the big thing they call a ’bulldozer’.
The dozer, they said, always flattens its dead
When left wing protestors turn looney!

Ed Mahmoud abu al-Qahool—

Psychotic, obsessed troll says what?
Seriously, how long have you been banned now? Time to get a new hobby.

Indeed, what’s hard to grasp about it? What’s so hard to grasp about the fact that according to Johnson HIMSELF the usage of this unfortunate name “unwittingly imitate[d] Little Green Footballs”? So according to Johnson, “St.Pancake”=LGF. And from the posting it follows that he was absolutely down with this.

Obdicut, you’re one of the more reasonable Lizards. Don’t disappoint the Old Fried One.

Troll Watch says

Irish Hose?  Schmuta?

Is that you?

Charles Johnson clearly does not approve of comments like those regarding Corrie and deletes them whenever they are reported.

It’s very interesting to see an aggrieved and allegedly left wing bannee from LGF - who is apparently outraged by what he thinks LGF used to stand for, so much so that he apparently finds it unforgivable - finding common cause with all the banned right wing nutjobs who are outraged because of what it clearly stands for today, and who would not only endorse comments like those regarding Corrie but would go much further.

One could be easily forgiven for thinking that our ‘left wing’ complainer here is in fact one of those right wing rage balls himself. If not, then somebody needs to leave his personal butthurt behind and take a look at the bigger picture here.

Oh, I was banned way before LGF became “Religion Watch”.  Is it “Global Warming Skeptic Watch” now.

I should visit Blogmocracy on the latest thing that trips Chuckles trigger.

Early in the “Nazi under Every Bed” period.

Geez, a smarmy politician like “I am sorry if anyone was offended” non-apology from Chuckles about his (minimum) tacit approval of “St. Pancake” as a reference to Corrie Haim, er, Rachel Corrie, would work a lot better than desperate re-writes of the LGF dictionary or edits and scrubs of the LGF archives.

That old “what a tangled web” thing.

Chuckles new liberal friends would forgive him for that.

FriedLizard, if you consider me reasonable, you might try listening to what I’m saying rather than reflexively rejecting it.

Yes, Charles is saying that St. Pancake started at LGF.  That does not contradict his statement that he didn’t like it.

He hasn’t claimed the term didn’t originate on LGF, so I’m really unsure how pointing out that it did is an attack on him.  He’s changed his moderation style since then.

There have been a number of untrue allegations against Charles—like being silent when asked what he’s read on AGW, an especially weird lie since he’s written so much on it and directed so many people to what he’s read on AGW. 

The charge that he didn’t find that phrase wrong in the least, back during a time when he didn’t moderate comments nearly as much as now, is a rather odd one.  At best, it seems hopelessly mired in the past.

Do you have any problem with Charles deleting that comment and stating he doesn’t like it? Because that’s what’s actually happening in the current moment.

Charles has the right to change his opinions any time he wants.

But he will always be a jerk - that is immutable.

Nodrog is an obsessive basement dweller. That is immutable.

Nodrog!  You’re a troll legend.

Nodrog - gauny dae yersel a favor and hink o sumhin else tae dae wi yersel.

Jist hink o aw the time ye’ve wasted oan the inturnet greetin aboot CJ : “it’s no fair - ah goat banned an it wisnae fair ah tell ye!” - ye could have been dain sumhin constructive lik tidyin yer room up - or even meetin a lassie?

The inturnet isnae gonny gie ye a medal fur this, ye dae know that don’t ye?

Ed is still drunk, still bitter, still whiny, and probably on his seventh kid now after his luck with “The Rhythm Method”, AKA “Catholic Roulette”.

Actually, I am fascinated in an academic way with LGF and its various permutations.  There are a number of doctoral theses that could be written about the site, its times, and what it represents.

But rest assured, I have an ample real life too!

“He’s changed his moderation style since then.”

yep. he used to stand outside of the thread and ban people for condemning racism at his blog. now he micromanages each thread personally and bans people for politely arguing positions he considers verboten.

in the former paradigm, he would simultaneously cherrypick comments from progressive websites and hold them up as examples of racist and antisemitic extremism.

charles has had another comment of mine removed. i don’t know if he’s tried to conflate me with “patrick” or if he’s told some other lie about me.  i do know that the commments he’s had removed so far have included challenges to present the claims he’s made about me on back-channels so they can be tested for truthfulness.

maybe that’s the problem. he certainly hasn’t had the courage or dignity to meet me or any of his critics substantively.

“Obdicut says:”

something.

what is to be noted about it is that he is the one who posted the affirmative “hey, saint pancake is back in the news”  comment which is the subject of all of this “counter-troll” trolling.

he is probably here, defending charles with such indignity, under pain of having his posting account removed. that’s how pathetic the remaining lizards are.

i shall respond to his stupidest post in detail:

“What is really pathetic about the stalkers coming here to attack Charles is that they deny that they are, in fact, stalkers.”

nope. i’ve said that i follow charles for the same reason charles follows r.s. mccain - he’s a bad, foul person who is trying to protray himself as a noble sufferer. if charles wants to call that “stalking”, well, i suppose he’s the authority on that style of blogging.

“Charles has made several very public changes in his opinions.  Furthermore, he’s explained how his views have changed.”

he never has explained anything. he took nine months to acknowledge that his position on AGW had changed. other than that, he has never “repudiated” anything. we have provided links. please provide links to where he has “explained” or “repudiated” any of the things discussed here. the links have to be older than the interview we’re discussing under.

“My question for the stalkers is:  Do you read LGF?  because it really doesn’t seem like you do.”

if a “stalker” doesn’t read lgf, then how can it be possible that he is “stalking”?

seriously, i hope you get to keep your user account, obdicut. i’d hate to think what might become of you if lost it.

and, “troll-wathcher”: others have used their user names. why not you, iceweasel? it’s your site now anyway along with the red-anarchist “nazimedia” transplant, spockista, who, by stewarding the jilted erica harding’s easy transition from wearing swastica patches to all-ages shows to wearing circle-a patches to all-ages shows, has had more congress with actual neo-nazis than anyone charles has banned for politely disagreeing with him.

on charles’ astute blogospheric morality in suddenly acquiring an opposition to racism on his blog:

LGF charles: i was a racist who ran a racist website ‘cuz…uh, my dog ate my homework or something.

and,

charles deleting racist comments after banning them, not on principal, but because of how they make him “look”

only took him nine years. must be a sincere move based on a stable set of reason-based standards.

especially considering that, during those nine years, iron fist posted hate-speech on charles’ site, and charles only seemed to find hate-speech on dkos, du, and indymedia.

a challenger appears!

“A challenge to all Johnson Haters web-wide:
As in the case of the misreporting of the capture of Adnan the American, Charles Johnson, like any reporter with competence, immediately reported the correction.

Where is the retraction from the bile spewing lot of you when you misreport? Where is the deletion of vile, disgusting commenting?
{crickets chirping}”

i can’t really say whether i’ve misreported anything. i mostly report on charles’ hypocrisies, and all of thise reports are accurate. for instance, when charles said that bill sparkman was “murdered” by “teabaggers”, and subsequently claimed that he never said that bill sparkman was murdered by “teabaggers” when it turned out to be a suicide.

charles’ target du jour, hotair, reported both the claim that gadahn was acquired and the subsequent retraction of the claim. link

i don’t really understand what might have led you to believe that there were “wingnut” blogs that didn’t cover the srory similarly. it’s a weird suggestion actually. one that suggests that you never leave lgf.

btw, the commenter, “Johnson Haters = Putzes” who “challenged” “johnson-haters” is kilgore trout.

kilgore trout is responsible for this bit of clever investigative reporting:

“Yup, It turns out the right wing terrorist was a Paulian: Joseph Robert Stack contributed $500 to the Ron Paul Campaign
Tea Party!”

...missing the guy who splashed his plane into a building after leaving a note with the communist creed as his epitaph by only three states abd a middle name.

also of note, kilgore trout was the one who went to hotair at 3am and wrote the “n-word” a dozen times while the moderators were asleep and returned to lgf to complain that, because his offensive comments hadn’t been removed, hotair was a racist site. charles neither condemned nor condoned this.

yet he whines:

“Charles Johnson says:

And they’re still going!

The comment about Rachel Corrie was posted last night while I was asleep. (I actually do sleep occasionally. I know, hard to believe.)”

Jummy -

“he used to stand outside of the thread and ban people for condemning racism at his blog.”

This is bollocks and you know it - where’s the quotes to support that ridiculous claim? Surely such an obsessive Chronicler Of All The Bad Things Charles Johnson Has Ever Done would have one? But you don’t because you are distorting and making shit up.

““Obdicut says:

something. what is to be noted about it is that he is the one who posted the affirmative “hey, saint pancake is back in the news”  comment”

No, Obdicut did not make that comment - it was made by Ojoe, a completely different poster. Again, you demonstrate yourself to be an idiot who just pulls crap out of his ass and uses it to smear people. No wonder you got banned.

Thanks for linking to your ‘blog’- more evidence (as if any were needed at this point) of your broken brain. Get help.