A month ago I received a threat from someone in the American southeast. This was directed at me because I’ve been effectively organizing on Twitter and in the blogosphere.
Last weekend this cyberstalking overflowed into kooks discovering and sharing where my children live.
Some of you are aware that I had Lyme disease. This damaged my adrenals and the stress of this conduct being aimed at me has made me as sick as I was back in 2008. I’m going to quietly withdraw and hope that I come back to center quickly. I had just finally got off antibiotics and had been feeling great the previous three of four months ...
I’m not the only organizer who has been threatened. I know two people who have basically had to go into hiding and there is a lot of unsubtle menacing behavior and cyberstalking being aimed at a lot of us.
This effort is coming out of some Tea Party Patriot extremists and what appears to be a Christian Reconstructionist cell in the southeast. I’ve got real names for a number of the parties involved, my background as a forensics instructor means what I’ve gathered thus far qualifies as evidence, and a Progressive attorney has advised me that there is definitely a libel suit here. We won’t talk about this any more until I have some results to report.
If you or anyone else you know is being subject to this sort of behavior I would be happy to hear from the victims. We’ve been quietly putting together resources to deal with this after seeing I’m not the only one being subjected to such attacks. I’m not well, but I will always take the time to assist anyone else who is facing this sort of trouble.
Do NOT let this midterm slide. I do a lot of different stuff, but having been sick in 2008 I’m relentless about training backups for everything I do. Beth’s stuff for campaigns will be fine, @caradox has taken the lead on organizing campaign diary bloggers, the news service is going along just fine without me, and I’ll have enough energy to provide specific advice as needed to my alternates.
If you’re motivated to take action about this Beth or Cara each have a long list of worthy Democrats and slimy Republicans who can use some attention. I’d feel a thousand percent better if I peek in here and see you guys putting an end to this enthusiasm gap nonsense we’ve been hearing.
You are the media now - and don’t let anyone tell you any different. Now go prove it.
(UPDATE: My ex wife was the assistant dean of one of the schools at the public university in the city where we lived. That school hosts a National Security Agency Center of Excellence. I used to train law enforcement in computer forensics and I've spoken to a number of old friends in the area. One of her former employees was the police lieutenant for our sector of the city. He is now retired, working as a private investigator, and he lives just down the street.
So the instigators of this are now set up for conspiracy charges if anything happens. If any of their associates even try the very best they can hope for are long prison sentences. Exit wounds are another distinct possibility.)
I formerly suggested here that Andrew Breitbart might be behind this problem. He was indeed prompted by the people bothering me, he did a bit of fact checking, and then publicly slapped the poo right out of the ringleader, calling him and I quote "a dick". I issued an official apology for wrongly involving him in this matter.
Andrew Breitbart, I apologize.
Kossack anyname suggests TeaPartyTracker as a resource for dealing with problems like this. I wholeheartedly agree with their approach.
Some chatter about firearms below. Glock 19, the 9x19mm compact frame, fits my hand like a glove. When I used to carry this I'd load half a dozen frangibles - Glazer Safety Slugs - which are safer in urban environments. The rest of the stack would be Remington Golden Sabers - the right stuff according to FBI barrier tests.
Today what I have is not so potent, but it's much more concealable. I've drawn my gun once in the last 35 years and having it quickly defused some trouble without any shots fired. I largely stopped carrying after 9/11, mostly due to lifestyle changes. I had a very credible threat in 2005 that got me armed again, and then moving to an undisclosed location. That finally faded away when the source of the trouble was run down and shot in an unrelated incident.
Picking me as the sissy liberal to bother was probably not such a wise choice.