(Update: The post has been retracted. The author wrote: "I would like to retract this post. As you can see, my source for this post was the Drudge Report and I have recently learned that The Drudge Report's "exclusive" report on Michael Ware cannot be corroborated by other sources." - promoted by jmelli)
In 2005, anonymous conservative blog and bottom of the right wing-smear-machine-totem pole Enlighten-NJ posted rumors alleging that "a videotape of Corzine, inebriated, making statements that will damage him beyond belief with African Americans" was about to come out. It didn't take long for the Drudge Report to pick it up and push it to Fox and finally mainstream media outlets. Instead of admitting how wrong they were, they bragged about it.
Picking up the baton for the flailing smear blog is the NJ-based Red Generation ("Promoting a New Generation of Republican Leadership"). Launched just two weeks ago, they set a new record for repeating baseless, unconfirmed accusations. This time, the smear machine ran in reverse and they dutifully took their marching orders from Mr Drudge himself.
This was their post yesterday:
In fact, the entire video from that press conference is available online. The reporter is sitting in front of the camera to the right, wearing a light colored shirt. You can see for yourself that his "unforgivable" actions at this press conference included sitting, taking notes, and at the end raising his hand once. The press conference ended abruptly without him speaking a word. Maybe next time they will check the facts before repeating the claims of a known liar.
They're barely over two weeks old. I wonder if they really want to be known as simpletons who will pass on any rumor that's drudged out of the muck, or would they rather actually report facts about how terrible we liberals are?
Everyone makes mistakes, and unlike Enlighten, these guys have their names out there, so they might have reason to protect their credibility. Will they issue a correction admitting their mistake? After 17 months without a correction, Enlighten has set the bar pretty low. Don't trip, guys.
In lieu of Wanker of the Day already being taken by Atrios, I think Tosser (a synonymous term) of the Day is an apt title for our new almost daily feature. Plus if you imagine it being said with a strong British accent it trully is an interchangeable term.
Today's Tosser is Bob Ingle. Who has a blog over at the Assbury (sic on purpose) Park Press, in which he states the following:
Tax Freedom Day is the date that marks the end of the time since Jan. 1 that all of your income goes for federal, state and local taxes. It's April 26 most places in 2006 but in New Jersey it is May 6. That's an example of how much more expensive government is here. What about New Jersey government is worth the extra days all your income goes to the state treasury in Trenton?
Someone tell Bob Ingle, that the reason NJ's tax freedom day is a bit later than everyone elses has little to do with how expensive government is in this fair state, and has much more to do with the fact that NJ is top 2 (with Connecticut) in all categories of Per Capita Income, and in fact leads the league in Median (that's average Bob) Household income.
So it takes us longer to be free of taxes because we are on average in the highest tax brackets.
Tosser!
Below the fold I award yesterday's Tosser of the Day award.
A unique feature of the blogosphere is that it is based upon a meritocracy. Basically, if you're good enough, and smart enough, gosh darn it, people will like you.
A while back a blog called Enlighten NJ shot itself in the foot by publishing some cockamamie rumor that someone, somewhere, had a video tape of then gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine in some sort of "compromising position."
This rumor was pushed through the typical right wing media channels and eventually actually made it into some NJ news outfits that were until that day deserving of respect.
Today makes 177 days since the Corzine porno was promised to us, the viewing public. Too bad. I really wanted to watch this tape. Thank god I didn't hold my breath.
(Update on Enlighten's further mendacity below. - promoted by huntsu)
Proving they don't have the intelligence to use a scroll bar, the right-wing site Enlighten NJ (enlightennj.blogspot.com/2006/03/linda-stender-retracts-politics-njcom.html) today accused PoliticsNJ.com of being in the pocket of Assemblywoman and Congressional candidate Linda Stender and the NJ Democrats.
You might remember the other day Politics NJ had an article by Bill Albers that began “Stender takes gloves off in race against Ferguson". What happened to the article?
...
The Albers piece quoting Stender has disappeared from the Politics NJ website and it’s obvious to us why this has happened. Politics NJ published the message Stender wanted to send to the Dump Mike and other extremist groups throughout New Jersey and the country. This “first thing I’ll do if elected message� is great for fund raising and whipping up support from those outside the congressional district. Two, now that the message has been received loud and clear by the target audience, Politics NJ has removed the article at Stender’s request. In other words, Politics NJ is helping Stender have it both ways.
...
Politics New Jersey.com is actively working to help Linda Stender and the Democrat Party in New Jersey.
In fact, the entire article is still there. Can you find it? Hint: It's located right in between the article published before it and the one published after it. I bet it was put in that order at the behest of the Stender campaign to throw everyone off.
We've known for a while that these smear-mongers have zero credibility and spread lies to suit their political purposes. Now we learn they're crazy conspiracy nuts who also make up their own lies to suit their political purposes. They also lack basic computer and fact-checking skills.
Either that, or they're desperate for a distraction.
UPDATE: The Enlighten folks have added an update to their story:
Update: The Politics NJ article by Bill Albers “Stender takes gloves off in race against Ferguson" is now on the website.
The Enlighten people are trying to hide the fact that they got the story wrong, and parsing language to get it done. The story is "now" on the website is true, but implies it was off at one point. The thing is, the story never left PoliticsNJ. It was always there.
Instead of just admitting they got it wrong and attacked for no reason other than their own inability to use a scroll-bar, they are pretending that their sluething forced Wally Edge to repost a story he was hiding.
In a New York Times piece out today titled Conservative Blogs are More Effective, Corzine's campaign blogger Matt Stoller cites the example of a New Jersey conservative blog that spread rumors about Corzine which were picked up by radio stations and eventually news papers:
Shortly before the election, a conservative Web site claimed that politically damaging information about Corzine was about to surface in the media. It didn't. But New Jersey talk-radio shock jocks quoted the online speculation, inflicting public-relations damage on Corzine anyway.
These lies were spread by the blog Enlighten-NJ, and we exposed the situation over a month ago. It has been 46 days since the website threatened that an incriminating tape of a drunk Corzine spouting racial slurs would appear. The tape of course doesn't exist.
Despite being outed as a lying smearmonger by a national publication, Enlighten uses the occasion to rejoice about how effectively his blog was used to smear Jon Corzine in a blog post titled Conservative Blogs Rock! Considering his complete lack of ethical and moral standards, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He knew from the beginning that he was lying, and his plan all along was to smear a good man through cowardly anonymous posts. Why should we be surprised that he would celebrate the recognition of his accomplishment?
Earlier we wrote about the revelation that Forrester's campaign manager was the source of rumors surrounding Corzine's personal life. Enlighten-NJ started dropping hints of these and other rumors about two weeks ago. Finally, the last piece of the slime machine, the Drudge Report, helped push the rumors to the mainstream press. This set in motion blowback for the Forrester campaign, and dispirited the New Jersey electorate even further. Even Forrester condemned the rumors he set in motion (then later changed his mind), though he won't go so far as to fire or discipline his campaign manager Rick England or communications staffer Sherry Sylvester for pushing them.
But I'm not so interested in the smear campaign so much as what it portends for the future, and specifically 2006.
Let's start at the beginning. I wrote earlier about a blog called Enlighten-NJ. It appears to be part of a network of blogs funded to push rumors on Democrats (another one is here). This is version 2.0 of a strategy outlined here in Personal Democracy Forum: Daschle, Thune and the Blog-Storming of South Dakota...
Enlighten NJ continues the smearmongering by posting anonymous emails. His latest post on Thursday threatened to produce some damaging information on Jon Corzine within 2 days:
The next 48 hours could dramatically change the direction of this race.
It's been nearly 3 days now. Do you need an extension or do you plan to enlighten us at some point? We need all the facts in order to make an educated decision. Please don't keep us in the dark.
Earlier, I wrote about the Swiftboat machine that Forrester's camp is gearing up to smear Jon Corzine.
Please welcome the newest member of the smear machine: Enlighten-NJ. They're setting the stage for media outlets to pick up on unsubstantiated rumors:
...it’ll make Jim McGreevey look like a Cub Scout compared to Jon Corzine.
The fact that the Forrester camp is using Enlighten to put out this information means they can't get anyone respectable to bite.
The lies that Enlighten refers to originated on online message boards from anonymous posts and have already been repeated on NJ 101.5 radio. These smears are salacious. (Note: I've removed one of the rumors I mentioned here before. They are gross, unsubstantiated smears and don't even deserve repeating. Also, it appears that the link to the nj.com board is no longer working - the smear appears to have been removed from their site as well.)
Then there are idiots like Michelle Malkin who claim that Jon Corzine has been buying the votes of blacks. Last time I checked, it was the other party that was struggling with support from African Americans.
These people know they're about to lose, and rather than do it with dignity, they are choosing to smear Jon Corzine's name with rumors and lies. They aren't worthy of licking the bottom of his boots.
They are lies, which is why they haven't been repeated by any reputable news organizations. To the mainstream media - thanks for keeping these nonsensical rumors out of your pages.
Update: In the comments, Frogsdong reminds us that Enlighten is no stranger to smear tactics. In fact, it's all he knows.
Doug Forrester, with the help of the national GOP, has started a desperate swiftboating campaign against Jon Corzine. Using national GOP funds and a well-orchestrated whisper campaign, the Forrester campaign is resorting to the GOP’s tried and true tactics of race-baiting and questioning the patriotism of Jon Corzine and Democrats.
Radar reports that millions of dollars previously earmarked for Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) are being redirected by the national GOP into Doug Forrester’s coffers:
Increasingly dubious about Santorum’s chances, Capitol Hill sources report GOP powerbrokers have refocused their attentions—and dollars—on Doug Forrester, a little-known party hack who’s currently embroiled in a dead heat race with multi-millionaire Democrat Jon Corzine for New Jersey’s governorship.
“The party is pouring millions of dollars in PAC money into Forrester’s coffers, but most of that money was previously earmarked for Rick,� reports a well-placed Republican senate staffer. “It’s disgusting. Rick used to be Bush’s biggest booster on issues like stem-cell research, Social Security, and the Iraq war. Now the White House won’t even take his phone calls.�
Leading the charge on this effort is Forrester’s media advisor Greg Stevens – whose firm, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm - the same firm that produced the Swift Boat ads against John Kerry, has been paid $16 million so far by Forrester’s campaign....
