During his 1972 re-election campaign, Richard Nixon turned loose a gang of charming gentlemen collectively known as CRP or "CREEP" — the Committee to Re-Elect the President, headed by Donald Segretti — onto his political enemies. The methods, or "dirty tricks", that Nixon authorized CREEP to use, were eventually discovered and helped lead to his resignation to avoid certain impeachment and removal in 1974. One of these dirty tricks was known as "ratf—ing", which for those of tender ears I will render as "rodent fornication" or RF for short. Our old buddy Roger Stone is a past master of this, as his "Socialists for McCloskey" RF shows.
The classic RF involves creating a document that is steeped in bigotry and slurs, then making it look as if the document originated from the enemy camp. The most famous instance of this is the "Canuck Letter", which was used by William Loeb, the pro-Nixon editor of the Manchester Union-Leader who was in close contact with White House communications staffers, to imply that Edmund Muskie hated Canadians. The letter, which ran two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, helped cause Muskie to drop out of the race. Ken Clawson, Nixon’s deputy communications director, told Washington Post reporter Marilyn Berger that he had written the letter, but Clawson would later deny admitting this.
Fast-forward thirty-six years, and now we have RFing, 2008 style, in which a mysterious commenter shows up last week and leaves a nasty, anti-semitic comment on Barack Obama’s open-registration blog. The comment only gets two replies, both of which are complaints by actual Obama fans about the comment’s bigoted nature — but that doesn’t stop the whining wingnut brigade from immediately finding it and waving it about like a crooked cop waving around a planted bag of weed.
The waving, of course, is to try and sucker somebody from the legitimate media into biting on the RF. Sure enough, The Politico’s Ben Smith chomped down on it but good:
Little Green Footballs finds some eyebrow-raisin stuff on Obama’s site with the search term "Jewish Lobby." Of course, it’s not fair to hold Obama responsible for the occasional crazy post. But it seems reasonable to try to characterize the community, something I haven’t seen done, and it’s interesting to see what gets taken down and what doesn’t — inevitably a community and moderator choice.
Funny how LGF somehow knew exactly how to find that particular comment on that particular blog, eh? More on that later.
But the RF’s media trajectory was about to be interrupted with some heavy doses of reality. Bloggers such as John Aravosis and JedReport pointed out, using screen shots, that much more nasty stuff can be found on John McCain’s website — where Hillary is called a "bitch", and where somebody says that the "Antichrist" is a Jew, and that America brought 9/11 on itself, in addition to Obama’s allegedly being a "Muslim fag".
Unlike with the planted RF on the Obama site, these nasty comments on the McCain site don’t draw 100% condemnation, but often praise, thus indicating that they are posted by genuine McCain supporters who know what will be allowed on his site. As Aravosis noted, even though the McCain site allows for flagging of offensive comments, many of them have been on the McCain site for weeks and months; the oldest example dates to December of 2007 — so either nobody’s flagging these things, or the McCain webmasters couldn’t care less.
Even better, the RF planted onto the Obama website was dissected rather neatly:
- the my.barack.com post appears to have gone up on June 7th, not April 14th. [PW notes: In other words, it wasn't up very long at all before the wingnuts started screaming about it. Shades of Roger Stone barely waiting for the check to clear before triggering his "Socialists for McCloskey" RF.]
- The original “Jewish Lobby” post, copy-pasted to my.barack.com by a “Juan Carlos”, appeared in April in on a site called “Real Jew News”, run by anti-semite nutcase “Brother Nathaenal”.
- All anti-semitic comments originally appeared on the Real Jew News post, with corresponding timestamps. For some reason the comments at my.barack.com have my.barack urls, even though they appear to have been directly copy pasted from Real Jew News.
It appears whoever did the copy-paste job also changed each individual comment URL from a Real Jew News address to a my.barack address, eg, the URL for the comment from “Brenda” on April 14, 2008 @ 4:56 pm at Real Jew News, http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=185#comment-1840 becomes http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/juancarloscruz/gG5BSr/commentary#comment-1840 at my.barack.com on April 14, 2008 @ 4:56 pm (note that both comments are number 1840). Also, if you scroll down to the very bottom of the cached my.barack.com post, you can see the only two comments from actual my.barack.com members, complaining about the length of the post. All anti-semitic comments appear in the body of the post.
Best of all, JedReport points out that using the search terms "Jewish lobby" doesn’t turn up the "hundreds" or "thousands" of icky posts on the Obama site that LGF claimed existed, but less than half a dozen.
The swift response of the reality-based side of the blogosphere to shoot down this RF did not go unnoticed. As a sort of grudging semi-mea-culpa for falling for the RF, Ben Smith has now done two pieces that pass on the debunkings of it.
Be on your guard, Firepups: This sort of thing is only going to get more common, not less. But so long as we in the reality-based side of the blogosphere are ready to shoot down these RFs at first sight, we can keep them from causing damage — and also, the people caught passing along the RFs to the mainstream press wind up getting less and less trusted with each time they’re caught.
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Good morning, everyone! Ratatouille for lunch!
I’d wondered about that.
Exactly.
Is Ben (BS for short)going to apply the same standard for the original article to McCain?
And if not, why the double standard?
Icky picture. Very interesting post.
There are so many corrolations between Nixon and Bush. History is repeating itself sans accountability.
Heh. If I was pregnant, I would be wearing a “McCain’s the One” T-shirt.
There was an even ickier picture I was tempted to use, YSD. But I intend to have lunch soon. :-)
I doubt if this election will be decided by anonymous posts- that’s getting a bit micro.
I guess the point about removing them being the responsibility of the site is a good one..
Awww, I love that movie. *g* But this certainly has the CREEP imprint all over it. Good thing they were stupid enough to leave duct tape on all the door latches…
O/T –
Say it Loud, Smokey.
Yes!
May the Obama campaign will get hold of the Wikipedia to trace urls to debunk the CF of the RF’ers in the GOP
You got it, Christy. The RF post wasn’t up for more than a few hours before LGF started attacking it. By contrast, the vile crud on McCain’s site has gone untouched for months. Somebody knew to look for that RF post.
Good idea!
and totally OT, but Nancy “Impeachment is off the table” is pushing for Rahm-a-lamba-ding-dong to replace Obama as the senator from IL when he wins the presidency.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..06051.html
Ratfucking is all they have. And what they do best.
Yup — and the faster we shoot the RFs down, the less chance they have to do their evil work.
Great post, PW!
“Never interrupt your enemy while he is defeating himself.”
always liked that one.
supposed to have been said by Napoleon awhile ago.
Handy corollary:
I’ve never heard any cautions against dissecting an opponent’s dirty-deed and throwing its ugly innards out into the sunshine for all to see.
you go grrrl!
They’re also claiming she wants Steny as her replacement.
I have serious questions about her people-sense. I think they go with ‘impeachment is off the table’. I’d just about bet that Rahm and Steny are the ones telling her that impeachment is a bad idea.
gawlleee! is this the sausage thread? eeeewwwww!
The point, rw, is not anonymous posts going up or down. Rather, the point is manipulating MSM to get them to focus on bogus issues.
So is Ben Smith Joe Klein’s long lost brother, too busy to ascertain whether what he is being fed is the truth or bull poop and not really being able to distinguish between the two anyway?
Methinks Obama’s team needs a few lessons on moderating blogs from the excellent crew at FDL. Forewarned is forearmed. If their mods catch this shit first LGRT (Little Green Rat Turds) can’t play their little game.
md is correct, the best way to handle right-wing rf-ing or swift boating is meet it head on and call it for what it is. This is the last ditch effort by a morally bankrupt bunch of grown-up (?) playground bullies. Bullshit is all they have left.
What does a Representative from California know about Illinois politics? Seriously.
jukeboxgrad to the Obama CSI courtesy telephone please . . .jukeboxgrad
Sounds like Little Green Footballs is coordinating directly with the MSM and probably the McCain campaign is that illegal it seems from the evidence very easy to approve.
Ben Smith is still pissed he didn’t get the Tigerbeat Managing Editor gig
hehehehe
Gee – just like somebody happened to know for the type face in the documents passed onto Rather.
I’m kinda hoping they’ll be on it PDQ. Poppabear is awfully quick on the campaign trail. I do believe we’ve got ourselves one incredible candidate. “Quick study” doesn’t spell even half of it.
p.s., if anyone ever comes up with a pic of himself jabbing finger in joeliar’s chest, I’d luv me a copy. *g*
Exactly.
Good find. We’re all black if you go all the back.
No Rahm lets not oppose the war lets be tough on immigrants is going to get the nod? He will have a Primary challenge when he actually runs for election and in a Dem Primary Hispanic votes might swing things.
“Karl Rove was Segretti’s protege during the 1972 Nixon campaign.” -Wiki Karl Rove entry.
Just a further explanation of Segretti (whose facial features were similar to in the photo illustrating this post) for those who didn’t know of him.
Good catch! Yes, so many of the current stars in the GOP’s firmament cut their teeth with Segretti.
I still have the original “Nixon’s the One” poster.
Juan KKKarlos????????
Do you have a “President Nixon, Now More Than Ever” button too?
Segretti worked for the McCain campaign in 2000. Where is Segretti now?
oh, veeeery cool.
Is “Ben Smith’s Blog” the mainstream media?
Bloggers such as John Aravosis and JedReport pointed out, using screen shots, that much more nasty stuff can be found on John McCain’s website — where Hillary is called a “bitch”, and where somebody says that the “Antichrist” is a Jew, and that America brought 9/11 on itself, in addition to Obama’s allegedly being a “Muslim fag”.
So where is the Little Green Footballs outrage if Obama had one comment and McCain had several on his site for months well doesn’t LGF read McCain’s website at all?
Doesn’t LGF care about all the antisemites at McCain’s site or are they just looking for an issue to hang Obama with even if their guy is more guilty.
No. It still puts a smile on my face picturing my father’s reaction to that poster sitting on top of the American flag – ah, the good old days.
Popcorn time…
“Contrary to the White House’s claims, corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff had access to the highest reaches of the Bush administration and influenced numerous decisions within the executive branch, a draft report from the House Oversight Committee has concluded.
“The testimony and documents obtained by the Committee … confirm that Mr. Abramoff had access to the White House,” reads the report, which was released Monday. “Further, the record before the Committee contradicts White House claims that with respect to his White House contacts, Mr. Abramoff got ‘nothing out of it.’ Not only did Mr. Abramoff achieve some positive results from his White House lobbying, but White House officials sought out the views of Mr. Abramoff and his colleagues on matters of official business.”
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0609.html
No.
It’s part of the path. The fact the RF apparently hasn’t succeeded in this instance does not obviate Phoenix Woman’s post on the subject.
Yes, he’s a reporter for the Politico — and that’s his news blog on their website. So yes, I’d say that qualifies — it’s like Froomkin, without the truth bias. *g*
As an information security professional, I hope that there is forensic information tracked with each post so that the veracity of a given post can be analyzed. If major progressive blogs like this one are not already tracking such info, I urge them to begin as soon as possible. Not only will it serve a good defensive purpose, but if such RF messages can be tracked back to known wingnuts, then we would have a means to forcefully counter such nonsense.
Meanwhile, I’m off to LGF, to post messages that will be considered inflammatory because they will make sense, endorse reason and civility, and back up their assertions with citations. No, maybe I won’t – even without IP evidence, everyone will know those are fake…
Juan Carlos I (baptized as Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; born January 5, 1938, Rome, Italy) is the reigning King of Spain.
On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated King according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J…..I_of_Spain
Maybe after a Military takeover like Franco did another Bush will be declared our king?
That’s what we’d like to know.
Apparently not, because it’s so very hard to believe that the LGFers could let such nastiness go unpunished even as they pile onto the RF left at Obama’s site. Why, then they’d be hypocrites!
Occam’s Razor says it’s the latter.
This hit on Obama and the whole thing smells like Juan KKKarlos himself:
“In 1970, Karl Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Illinois State Treasurer, and stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead. Rove then printed fake campaign rally fliers promising “free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing,” and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon’s rally.”
Don’t let that stop ya. There might actually be a commenter with some functioning little gray cells who will read your comments and actually begin to think for him/herself and abandon the wingnuts.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Like Judy Tanuta says, “It could happen.”
Where there is rat fucking, there are rat pellets.
Follow the trail back to Karl’s rat nest.
Jack Abramoff — the Tarbaby that just keeps on giving and giving and giving. I like the part about how Bonilla, who took gifts from Abramoff…is an economic advisor to McCain. Nice friends you got, John.
Albatross, one of the reasons people don’t often hotlink to LGF is that the proprietors will play “let’s redirect the link” with linkage coming from sites they don’t like (such as almost any reality-based website).
OMG That’s incredible! Whooot!!!
THANKS for the link. You made my day!
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet…..gretti.htm
I went there too! Verry interesting…
Jeez, what a slime.
I hope the Obama campaign has been learning the lessons of how to protect their campaign stuff (literature, info, websites) during the last 8 years…
I hope the American people have been learning the lessons of how not to simply vote along party lines without vetting their own candidate for themselves, how not to take the media at their “word”…
Newsmeat.com indicates Segretti is an attorney in Costa Mesa, CA, still contributing money, and who knows what else, to Republicans. For some reason, I can’t link. The site shows political donations.
He does have a point do we have the security measures he mentioned?
The RF was disbarred. I guess he got his license back. How’d he do that, I wonder.
We don’t publicly confirm anything about security or otherwise, for very good reasons — as any security professional will tell you, it does not pay to advertise…
Gotcha
57,000,000 site visits, congrats FDL!
—–Geeks R Us
Iv’e always wanted a T shirt with ‘SECURITY” in big letters on the back.
Right under that in small print, the word, ‘Risk”.
Lol.
Wow. How does that compare with other sites? Just curious.
Redd. Go figure! That double-posted just for a bit. F5 is my friend.
Please to hug Peanut for me, and the Mr. a-course. We here think you’re all very special. ;->
The listing simply says self employed attorney. I guess he could still be disbarred and list himself that way.
Da Lake be popular for sure.
He could be acting as a paralegal.
the my.barack.com post appears to have gone up on June 7th, not April 14th. [PW notes: In other words, it wasn’t up very long at all before the wingnuts started screaming about it. Shades of Roger Stone barely waiting for the check to clear before triggering his “Socialists for McCloskey” RF.]
Today is the 9 of June I bet the GOP talking heads have their LGF talking points all ready to go I wonder if Phoenix Woman spoiled their daily talking point.
Someday someone will explain to me how all the GOP talking heads all talk about the exact same thing on the same day its almost like the White House or the McCain campaign were coordinating them. Again I wonder is that illegal?
from cnn archives: segretti’s license was “suspended”.
DONALD SEGRETTI
Get OUT!!!! Really? *g*
I have often wondered about that myself.
hmmmm.
if “a doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient,”
-erm *raises hand*
In SF there is a “Spy Store” where you can buy security stuff like micro cameras, bugs, and cool shirts and caps that say FBI, CIA, Security or whatever on them. They don’t have a badge or patch, just big capital letters. But still the big white letters on a black cap are attention grabbing. Lots of James Bond memorabilia too.
Q would love it.
Its funny how the network TV hosts let them talk about these seemingly random surprises when Network TV is scripted for both time and ratings. Ratings which have to be going down because if you don’t like a talking point and try channel surfing to find real news well you can’t every GOPer MSM talking head is always on message on every channel.
Now why would network TV take a ratings hit with reporting the exact same stuff as every other channel?
alternatively &/or additionally,
could it be? he’s so odious, he’s the only one who would hire him?
I know you know this but MSM is not peddling news or scoops but the latest GOP Product. It’s a rollout of a new message to sell to the ignorant masses.
Apply directly to forehead!
Apply directly to forehead!
Apply directly to forehead!
did you guys see my post at #72?
and yes, he’s like kryptonite to a respectable law firm or one that is still holding itself out as respectable. I’m sure people are taking care of him in more discreet ways, although I have no evidence of that.
Perhaps he’s been getting the annual award from the G. Gordon Liddy Scholarship Fund.
some a’ these MSM anchors had better watch their manners-izms.
with their ethics, or lack of same, hanging out there for all to see, some of them might just find the glue that used ta’ keep them in their seats is rather more brittle than they thot.
i can dream, can’t i?
But But low ratings cost them money!
There is also an anti-Obama email that is circulating — I got a copy from my dad — that claims to have been “snoped” to imply that it is truthful. Yes, it is on snopes (50 lies Obama has told), but if you read the snopes entry, you can see that the email is all BS.
My dad is in his 80s and the only thing he knows how to do with email is forward messages. He has a list of people he sends all this crap to. So I replied to the list and told them what snopes says. I actually got several replies from people, all thanking me for seeking the truth and sharing it.
The moral of this story? Don’t hesitate to take on every RF head-on. People are fed up, and outing this sort of stuff does have an effect.
I also told my dad he is being used as a propaganda tool and he should never forward another anti-Obama email ever again. He actually thanked me for setting him straight, and he seems to have heeded my request. Bit by bit, even if it’s one person at a time, we can overcome the slime machine!
Segretti was walking around with half a million bucks in cash in the early seventies. By today’s standards that’s equal to more than a million. He’s got connections. He was working for McCain in 2000. At 66, he’s a kid compared to McCain. Segretti’s RF days are not over.
Yes. Disheartening, except when I figure in the number of antacids* the guy has to pop/day compared to [a fitz]. (*oh, who am i kidding!?!)
Bravo!
Good looking out for your Dad.
good on ya !
was suggesting just yesterday the Obama campaign should have it’s own stand alone Snopes site to refute this sewage -
met some DNC operatives yesterday (in town for TX Dem Convention) and suggested same to them
btw to Christy - when I told them Firedoglake was my homebase – they said “ah yeah, Jane and Christy, right on women!”
mebbe not, but the toobz can make his chosen path a little more difficult to traverse than it was in the 60’s. Now watch this thread. /s
I wonder what the GOP has to say about us when they are not posturing to voters?
((((((Jane and Christy)))))), right on women!”
just a little edit. no charge.
I think you could probably track that parallel to the sales of De*ends.
OT: I just listened to Obama economics speech in North Carolina. It sounded much more populist to me, than prior speeches. Included subsedies to allow owners to maintain homes in mortgage crisis, thousand dollar tax reduction for middle class citizens, universal medical care program (with Elizabeth Edwards to work on development), and others. He ended by indicating that we needed to try until we find what works, and it may take more than the adminstration(s) of one president. Sounded Rooseveltian to me.
Check this out…more on attacking Iran…the mofos are gonna do it:
http://thinkprogress.org/
Impeach Now!!!!
Damn you Pelosi…the blood will be on your hands!!!
Of course the only ratings they are concerned with are those that allow their parent companies access to politicians and the ability to write laws which favor their interests. This is a far more important ratings system than the one used to measure how many serfs watch their shows.
Another post went up while I was posting the comment at 95…read both posts on Thinkprogress.
AIPAC is a forum for neocons and American fascists. It is despicable that mainstream politicians including Barack Obama speak to this body of warmongering kooks.
speaking of aipac, they are proud to display the politicians that support thier agenda.
I’m a little late to this discussion, so forgive me if I’m repeating something someone else said, but how is it that a writer for a big-time blog like “Politico” doesn’t know what kind of people write for and comment on LGF and actually takes them seriously?