Let me be clear. I have no problem with folks wanting a degree of anonymity when posting opinions on Facebook, or Twitter, or even here on DK. Hell, even the Federalist papers were printed under a pseudonym.
I, on the other hand, choose to use my actual name. I feel that anything I've written should be so thoroughly researched, vetted, attributed and meet the accuracy standards I set for myself that I am not ashamed or afraid to have my name attached to it.
(Besides... I already suffer from advanced Parkinson's disease. What's someone gonna do, beat me up?)
If I get something wrong (it happens!), I'm professional enough to retract and apologize.
It's hard to hold people accountable for what they say when you don't know who they are. And with that in mind, let us consider the case of the Wisconsin group, advocating the stealing and burning of "Recall Walker" petitions -- "Operation Burn Notice." I'll start with a historic tableau.
On August 2, 1776, 56 brave men signed their own death warrant.
Had the Revolutionary War gone the other way, each of these men would have been tried and hanged for treason against the crown. But knowing this, they signed the document.
John Hancock, famous for his huge signature on the Declaration of Independence, said he signed it in such a large hand so the king would be able to read his name without having to put on his glasses.
(Yes, August 2, 1776 was the date of the actual signing, when a clear copy was produced.)
Today's Republicans love to quote their love for the founding documents. The Declaration. The Constitution. The Bill of Rights. All signed by brave men.
So why do they insist on hiding their identities when offering opinions about controversial issues?
On this point, I will give credit to Bill Looman, the North Georgia Militia moron who put the "No Hiring Until Obama's Gone" signs on his truck. We then learned he was involved in a botched raid on a Tennessee courthouse in 2010 and is now a tin-plated dictator, appointed by a property owner to run herd over the Beaver Run Subdivision, using the owner's proxy votes to make himself president and pack the board with militia pals, harassing the non-militia members of the community with threats of violence, arrest on trumped up drug charges, arson and other means -- a community he has turned into his own private militia compound where he and his troops march around like little pretend soldiers and shoot at targets made to look like Muslims, where parents are afraid to let their kids go outside and play lest they get hit by a stray bullet.
He used his actual name.
The cowards behind "Operation Burn Notice" can't even be SHAMED into identifying themselves. Instead, they brag about burning legally obtained, signed petitions seeking the recall of Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin. They plot ways to intercept documents as they're being delivered for certification. And they hide their names.
I have written extensively on this subject. I have mentioned three names that have been suggested to me as being involved in this OBN effort. I make no such assertions, other than to say every time I attempted to place a redacted version of a picture of these folks, their identities obscured, it was swiftly removed from their Facebook page.
Then one of the individuals, whose name had not yet been officially mentioned, popped onto the Facebook page threatening to sue me. I responded, "Why are you threatening me? I haven't even mentioned your name." His threat and subsequent comments quickly vanished. As did my redacted photos, time after time after time after time.
Now, the unnamed forces behind OBN are pretending they are going to sue me for my previous story. For one thing, they would have to have standing to sue me, meaning they would have to have been defamed by my publishing the photo, which means they are who I said they are and therefore there is no defamation. The photo clearly states that I have no way of knowing for sure if they are involved in anything... other than being rich Republicans. Not a crime. Not a defamatory remark to be found.
For their part, the forces behind OBN have mocked me personally -- my weight, the scars on my head (which come from an experimental surgery to see if deep brain stimulation done in early Parkinson's disease will be a beneficial treatment in the long run -- a surgery I volunteered for). They make fun of my disease. (They mention my name while posting pictures of "Shake and Bake" boxes, they change the title of my book about PD from "Put on Your Parky Face" to "Put on your Porky Face." (Gee, I guess NOBODY will buy one now! Doggone it!) And, oh yeah... they have found dozens of ways to have sport with my name.
But at least, they know my name. My name is out there. So are the names of other people who stand against these freedom-hating slugs who, whether they are serious or not, are discussing a crime that could land them in jail for 3-1/2 years and cost them $10,000 each.
A stiff penalty, to be sure.
But not as stiff as the penalty facing the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence who faced death by hanging.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave enough to use their real names.
Why aren't the OBN cowards using THEIR real names? What are they ashamed of? What are they hiding from?
Why are they such cowards?
(The genesis for this diary can be found here.)