veiled threats

When Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs split with the right, it sent shockwaves through the blogosphere. Now it looks like some of those wingnuts are actually going to the extreme:

In Johnson's mind, he has not really changed but merely shifted his focus. Where once he was preoccupied with national security, staking out a hawkish, pro-military position, he now spends more time focusing on his liberal social views, and gripes with conservatives who disagree. "I like to think," he told me this week, "I am pretty independent of [the] political winds."

But not totally immune. As I talked to Johnson in his office, an alert flashed on one of his two giant computer monitors. An angry screed targeting him on another website concluded: "I think a visit to Mr. Johnson's home might be warranted. Anybody got his address?"

Such veiled threats are at least one reason why Johnson, 56, relocated not long ago. He remains in the Los Angeles area, but now is in a gated community.

The man who once decried vitriol spread on liberal websites now says: "The kinds of hate mail and the kinds of attacks I am getting from the right wing are way beyond anything I got when I was criticizing the left or even radical Islam."

Threats from the wingnuts is nothing new and it’s good to expose them to the general public. Hopefully one day the owner of the sites that provoke this outrage will start taking responsibility and denouncing such attacks.

Melissa McEwen of Shakespeare's Sister has resigned as part-time technical advisor for the Edward's Campaign. Chris has her full release over at MyDD.

I don't like the fact that Melissa had to resign from the campaign, but it was the right choice. The wingnuts had a field day with some posts she made, and those attacks were uncalled for. Even more troubling are the ramifications of the wingnut's actions:

There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O'Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation.

Of course we already got chief wingnuts already defending their actions. Malkin could not wait to jump on this:

As usual, guess who's getting blamed. More blame-the-messenger hysterics and hyperbole at--where else?--HuffPo.

This has become the standard line for people like Malkin to take. When their actions lead to such outcomes as threats, they quickly resort to the juvenile "who me" defense instead of accepting responsibility for what they have done. The really bad part is that this is becoming a weekly occurrence.