It's no secret that I have a bone to pick with the content generation algorithm disguising itself as a "legitimate news source", known as Examiner.com since I was fired for pointing out the fact that one could submit a poorly written shopping list with the proper tags and it would rise to the top of the headlines. So, with that fact to guide you, let's look at Spokane Conservative Examiner (that's what they call their writers -- "Examiners") and the very nice platform he provided for a discussion on the merits of murdering Mitt Romney to ensure the nomination for Ron Paul.
We're not suggesting that Mr. Newby, whose sole purpose for existing is to write spurious, half-sourced, barely true if not outright lies with headlines like...
Cracks appearing in Washington Post hit piece on Mitt Romney (The single crack that he turns into cracks is the suggestion that the WaPo writer originally wrote that one of the non-witnesses had been "long-troubled" by "coiffergate" when it turned out he hadn't heard about it until the WaPo writer mentioned it... a fact reflected in the final version of the story.)
President Obama: Troops 'fighting on my behalf' (A screed about how Obama thinks the troops are fighting only for him)
and
Obama loses to felon in several West Virginia counties (Which he blames on universal hatred for Obama and not the moronic nature of West Virginia voters),
...agrees with the story line here. It's just that he USUALLY puts his opinion in his stories, and this time? He did not.
The story that occasioned our diary?
Email read on podcast suggests assassinating Romney to give Ron Paul nomination
Now I usually do not link to Newby's articles since he gets paid by the page view (another reason for which I was fired... I mentioned Examiner business practices). But I think it's important in this case that you are able to see what I'm writing about for yourselves.
The story is ostensibly about a podcaster on some obscure You Tube videocast, seen by just over 10,000 people (about the same number of page views I got each day when I wrote for the Examiner) called "Adam vs. the Man" where the host reads an e-mail from a viewer suggesting that Mitt Romney be murdered to give the GOP nod to Ron Paul.
Newby writes:
An email read by Adam Kokesh on a recent "Adam vs. the Man" podcast posted to YouTube on May 7, suggests that Mitt Romney be assassinated in order to avoid war in Iran, save lives and ensure a Ron Paul nomination.
"There is a way the nomination can be given to Ron Paul," the email read by Kokesh said.
"Romney needs to die," the letter continued.
According to the allegedly anonymous 19-year-old author of the email, the idea is more about saving America and innocent lives than ensuring a Paul nomination.
"I don't get a lot of emails like this," Kokesh said, adding that he has been "privileged" to hear "various forms of this proposal put forth."
The rest of the article is a cool, detached telling of the tale -- an odd thing for Newby who is generally outraged -- just
OUTRAGED -- by this, that or the other.
Newby finishes his piece with...
After discussing the idea for several minutes, Kokesh said he does not believe that even an assurance of a Ron Paul presidency "justifies" killing Mitt Romney.
"Although a lot of people do," he added.
We reached out to Kokesh requesting additional information, but have not yet heard a response.
Now, after reading this, we thought that Newby was rather cool in his approach to the story. We weren't really able to tell whether or not HE supported the idea of killing Romney, or if he was just providing a platform for an obscure videocaster to put the idea out there.
In his comments section, the idea found favor!
Someone called Lysander Spooner wrote:
Is what he said that bad? Is there anyone reading this who thinks it would have been a bad idea to kill Hitler? Stalin? Mao? Pol Pot? Kony? So why does anyone think Romeny''s life is worth more than 10,000 Iranian civilians? Our political class wants Americans to think that the idea of killing them (the political class) is ludicrous and psychotic to even ponder, yet they have no problem lying Americans into war and having people die by the millions. They have no problem killing US presidents themselves. They have no problem assassinating the presidents of other countries. They have no problems killing people like Kenneth Trentadue as part of Operation PATCON. Why is it out ruling political class can kill by the millions and impoverish Americans for generations, yet the idea of taking out someone who engages in war crimes and kills innocents by the millions is considered to be so radical and far-fetched as to be considered an idea of the lunatic fringe? The police kill innocent people without a thought and commit perjury to destroy peoples' lives because someone demanded the police acknowledge their rights. The government kills for natural resources or because it dislikes the way a nation's economic system is ordered. The government kills and tortures because the people who control it want to ensure the monetary unit's primacy that benefits them. The elite want to kill Assange for exposing the truth. The Army thinks we should kill people because some lying clown said so. I think if more people killed to stop evil politicians, judges and police and other corrupt leaders we would have a better world. To reach out and touch someone only costs about 50 cents and could save millions of people and trillions of dollars. Our government supports assassinations. So do I!
My, my, MY!
So, we found ourselves wondering... since Joe usually inserts his opinion in his stories, why no opinion in THIS story? So, we asked him. And he responded in his typical, gentle fashion.
Bill, you execrable slug, of course not. Don't you have something else to do besides troll conservative examiners, harassing readers and attacking conservative writers? Or do you miss Examiner so much since you were fired you can't stay away?
I reminded Joe that I was asked to come back, gave him the name of the person who asked me, and reminded him I told the Examiner to take their offer and stuff it. I also suggested it was a reasonable question since he didn't offer his opinion in the story like he usually does. This occasioned yet another gentle response from Mr. Newby.
Bill Schmalfeldt, you don't think - you spew. And BTW, if you spent 30 seconds doing any research, you'd know that I am not a big RP supporter. I've written both good and bad about the guy, and was once the target of a death threat from an RP supporter. And, BTW, you are thisclose (sic) to being sued for your continued defamation and harassment. I read the exchange you posted on your pathetic blog, and if you spoke to me the way you spoke to your mgr, I'd fire you, too. So, why don't you be a good boy and go get a job?
See, again we ignore the fact that the manager I was "rude" to asked me to come back and I told him to stuff it. And to sue for defamation, one must prove that the defamer said something untrue. I reminded Mr. Newby that I don't need a job because I am retired after 12-years with Parkinson's disease and am a disabled veteran. I thanked him for financing my ability to blog by paying his taxes and left it at that.
Anyway, I guess I consider it my job, my contribution to humanity I suppose, to follow people like Newby around and wipe their dirty little bottoms when they soil themselves with their lies, half-truths, misrepresentations and outright falsehoods. I don't mind. And it sure makes THEM mad!