an attempted murder

It was an attempted murder. An assassin’s live bullet ringing out wildly in the crowded market place of ideas.

David Goldstein, the articulate, outspoken, liberal blogger of horsessass.org wrote Friday he’d gotten a call from the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes unit, investigating allegations that Goldy had made repeated “online requests” to “engage in sex with minors.” Apparently, one or two individuals anonymously made three separate complaints.

Pedophilia and sexual predation are the heresy and witchcraft of our time. A whisper of it, an accusation, an inquiry, a mention even from any scrounged-up, vengeful, crapulous freak can mark someone for life even if ultimately, he’s vindicated.

It was a half-vast right-wing conspiracy and they were trying to kill him. If they could make this one stick--he might as well be dead--politically, at least

Ask Scott Ritter, the former UN Iraq weapons inspector who was smeared with it after he dared go public with his outrageous theory that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He was successfully neutralized and with an unproved allegation of the same “online requests” to “engage in sex with minors.”

Goldy did what a blogger had to do: he blogged. He annpounced it to the planet before it got a chance to fester in the fetid cyber-rumor mills stoked by the traditional values community.

Right-wingers? Hell yes. Who else do you think would do such a thing--the Green Party? moderate Democrats? Moderate Republicans, even? It was the new breed, lowest common denominator conservatives, who say God’s on our side, all’s fair in love, etc. and this is war.

Comments

[Michael]

It is just as bad for you to make an unsabsantiated claim against "right Wingers" as it is for some unidentified vicious kook to make an unsabsantiated claim against David Goldstein. You may or may not be correct in your assumption but wait for the facts before throwing out wild accusations.

[Marty]

**but wait for the facts before throwing out wild accusations.**

Uh huh...
like that doesn’t ever happen on the right side of the blogosphere
Whatever you say.

[Michael]

Hey Marty:

Let me rephrase my comment for your edification. NOBODY should make wild and unsabstantiated claims and EVERYBODY should wait for the facts before attributing blame. It is is called being decent and responsible.

[David]

This is why the Republicans always run circles around the Democrats. We wait nice and polite for the facts and the truth, while they go ahead and do their dirty tricks. Then we are left on the defense.

[Goldy]

"Unsabstantiated claims?" [sic]

So who do you suggest was responsible? The SEIU? The Green Party? The League of Women Voters? My mother?

Let's get real... somebody decided to punish me because they don't like the things I write, and they don't like how effectively I write them. I made no unsubstantiated claims against any organization or individual, but rather, the rational suggestion that it was somebody on the right who was trying to shut me up.

Sorry if it offends, but there are some pretty nasty right-wingers out there. You should read my hate mail.

[Scrilla]

Concur. I'm a non-religious right-leaner and I gotta say, it wasn't random. Who then? A right wing Scott, obviously.

[Rhymes With Right]

You assume, of course, that the charges are untrue. They could quite possibly be true, and you may have just done grave damage to the victims of such crimes. It ranks up there with Carville calling women who claim sexual harrassment or assault lying trailer trash who are in it for the money.

After all, we just had a sting done by cops and one of the local stations in my city -- and it was "upstanding family men" who were sending dirty pics and aranging for sex with the "girl of 13".

I say that we should all give David the benefit of the doubt, the cops the benefit of the doubt, and the accusers the benefit of the doubt -- until there is some actual evidence for us on the outside to make a judgement.

[Goldy]

Rhymes with Right,

See... that's exactly the attitude my anonymous accusers were hoping for... that assholes like you would give their anonymous accusations credence, simply because they were made.

You don't accuse somebody of being a child molester without providing some sort of evidence other than: "he's a child molester!" If you bothered, to read Michael Hood's post, and you bothered to read my post which he linked to, you'd understand that the authorities never took these claims seriously, because the accusers never provided any evidence. But by your ass-backwards thinking, I could never fully exonerate myself because I have absolutely no evidence that I DIDN'T solicit sex from minors.

This is a sickening (and often sickeningly effective) form of McCarthyism, and you should be ashamed of yourself for defending these criminals for an instant. Shame on the people who tried to do this to me, and shame on you for reacting exactly the way they hoped you would.

[Bill]

Btw, a look at the comments of the trolls responding to Goldstein's post ref'd above is rather illuminating of the "compassion" of the conservatives, and reminiscent of turning over a rock.

(Doesn't "shite" rhyme with right?)

[Kook]

Just a side comment: Scott Ritter never said Iraq had no WMDs.

Q: In 1998, you said Saddam had "not nearly disarmed." Now you say he doesn't have weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Why did you change your mind?
A: "I have never given Iraq a clean bill of health! Never! Never!"
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,351165,00.html

Of course that doesn't exonerate George Tenet telling Bush "it's a slam dunk." It was not a slam dunk and he knew it, despite Saddam's inexplicable evasions.

Goldy: I hope it was someone other than a mere blog reader, I hope it was someone else. Could it be Tim Eyman's kids or something, or Eyman himself? Or an inimical any co-worker, or something like that? Maybe someone from your long ago past who now sees your infamy, and exploited it, knowing the blame would go elsewhere?
I just want to know you haven't eschewed all other possibilities before deciding it MUST be a troll.

[RW]

From Goldy's blog:

What kind of animal is most deserving of being killed for medical experimentation?
Cat
Dog
Rat
Bill Frist

I guess it's just asking, so it's not like he's calling Frist an animal, or suggesting he be killed.

Right?

[Scott]

I have as much evidence that Tom DeLay is a child rapist as the right wingers do that Goldy is a rapist.

[Goldy]

Kook... I never claimed it was one of my trolls... in fact, the thought never crossed my mind.

RW... great job at taking a joke poll out of context. If you were a regular reader, you would understand that the poll went up in response to a post I did reporting that while Frist was in medical school, he would fraudulently adopt cats from shelters, and then carve them up for practice.

Take a gander: http://www.horsesass.org/wp-trackback.php/601

[jppatches]

It is a sad state of affairs when wingnuts like 'Rhymes with Right' are given any credence at all. What happened to Goldy was abuse, pure and simple, and it took good police officers off of their case loads to work on it. Rhymes with Right should change its nick to 'slimes with right'