Trolls Beware

This one pretty much stands on its own:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel brings us one from the Turnabout Is Fair Play Dept.:

As readers of a conservative blog debated the subject of teacher salaries, a writer using the pseudonym "Observer" weighed in.

The West Bend teachers' salaries made him sick, the person wrote, adding that the 1999 Columbine High School killers had the right idea.

"They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time! Too bad the liberls (sic) rip them; they were heros (sic) and should be remembered that way," the writer said.

But police say the writer was a teacher himself--and the past president of a teachers union--apparently posing as a teacher-hater.

James Buss was arrested Thursday by West Bend police, and the 46-year-old Cudahy man could face criminal charges. He has been suspended from his job as a teacher at Oak Creek High School.

The Journal-Sentinel story includes an odd correction: "Because of an editing error, an article . . . incorrectly stated that police said he was 'apparently posing as a teacher-hater.' That statement was not made by police." We guess that means it was made by Owen Robinson, who runs the blog on which Buss allegedly made the comment.

Robinson "said Friday that it seemed that 'Observer' was 'posing as a conservative, right-wing whack job to discredit' the Web site's discussion of teachers' salaries. Robinson also criticized Buss' arrest as an overreaction." We have to agree, although we'll admit that at some level it pleases us to see a teacher rather than a child on the receiving end of such excess. The really interesting question is whether the school district will try to fire Buss--and, if so, whether the union will defend him.

On his blog, Robinson reports that he gave the police the commenter's IP address, through which they were able to trace him. Blogress "Mary" of Freedom Eden has some pertinent observations on the disinhibiting influence of online communication:

When will people learn that posting anonymously on the Internet is not the same as being anonymous? . . .

Buss is certainly paying the price for posting irresponsibly.

It appears that he may have posted while drunk or otherwise impaired. More likely, I think he utilized the technique of attempting to disguise himself with multiple misspellings and poor punctuation. (I'm assuming that Buss, the teacher, is more proficient at writing than his posts reveal.)

As Owen notes, the Internet provides a false sense of anonymity.

While blogs can provide forums for lively discussion, posters need to understand that they can be traced. They aren't free to say anything without being held accountable. They need to understand that they don't check their personal responsibility at the Internet's door.

The Internet is not a responsibility-free zone.

It's a creepy phenomenon. An otherwise responsible person will morph, jumping at the chance to let loose an alter ego when online. It can be remarkably reckless, as well as remarkably naive.

Indeed.

By the way, this website does track IP addresses for commenters. Trolls be warned.

Best of Ann Coulter Quotes

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has posted The Best Quotes From The Last Year Of Ann Coulter Columns. If you're a fan of Annie, you should wander over and read them all.

A few of my favorites from the best of list:

I'm astounded that debate has sunk so low that I need to type the following words, but: No law is ever enforced 100%. We can't catch all rapists, so why not grant amnesty to rapists? Surely no one wants thousands of rapists living in the shadows! How about discrimination laws? Insider trading laws? Do you expect Bush to round up everyone who goes over the speed limit? Of course we can't do that. We can't even catch all murderers. What we need is "comprehensive murder reform." It's not "amnesty" -- we'll ask them to pay a small fine.

For six years, the Bush administration has kept America safe from another terrorist attack, allowing the Democrats to claim that the war on terrorism is a fraud, a "bumper sticker," a sneaky ploy by a power-mad president to create an apocryphal enemy so he could spy on innocent librarians in Wisconsin. And that's the view of the moderate Democrats. The rest of them think Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks.

Three months after Nixon was gone, we got the Watergate Congress and with it, the new Democratic Party. In lieu of the old Democratic Party, which lost wars out of incompetence and naiveté, the new Democratic Party would lose wars on purpose.

Perspective from an OIF Vet

Steve at Educated Soldier blog has a post relating his experience in ar Ramadi in 2005 titled Ramadi Part One.

What is most interesting is his description of how much Ramadi changed and improved during the first six months of his last tour. Also, he stays in contact with friends of his old unit, some of whom are currently deployed to Iraq, They are relating to him good news and dramatic improvements in security.

He also relates the disconnect he found between what Americans thought of Iraq and what he knew was the reality.

I do disagree with his conclusion that the mainstream media is not inherently biased or liberal. I of course find the media to be inherently biased and liberal. However, sometimes it's hard to see until you've read examples of how they accomplish it. Before I read a couple of books on the subject and found some media watch dog sites, I didn't realize just how insidious it could be.

HamNation: Harry's Sleepover

My favorite conservababe, Mary Katherine Ham (blog) has posted her most recent installment of HamNation (video wall) - Harry and the Dems Sleepover Party.

The vlog features First Lt. Hegseth of Vets for Freedom. Hegseth and members of his group were on Capitol Hill the day of the Senate Iraq Debate/Sleepover. Pipsqueak Harry Reid had time to meet with members of Moveon.org and other anti-war groups, but didn't have time to meet with First Lt. Hegseth.

Read NRO's Stephen Spruiell's First Lt. Hegseth Takes the Hill

Was Harry's Sleepover a slumber party, or just a snoozer?

Michael Totten Reports from Baghdad

Michael Totten is in Iraq and files Welcome to Baghdad. He relates the long and winding road getting from Kuwait to the Green Zone. But also relates his first impressions as he arrived in Baghdad. It's not nearly the war zone the driveby media depicts it as. In fact, he doesn't hear any explosions or gunshots during his first hours there.

[...] I watched helicopters fly over the city in the distance and launch burning white countermeasure flares to confuse heat-seeking missiles as the pilots flew over hostile parts of the city. This was the only evidence I saw that I was in a war zone. I heard no shots fired, and I heard no explosions.

After having spent several days Baghdad’s Green Zone and Red Zone, I still haven’t heard or seen any explosions. It’s a peculiar war. It is almost a not-war. Last July’s war in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon was hundreds of times more violent and terrifying than this one. Explosions on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border were constant when I was there.

You’d think explosions and gunfire define Iraq if you look at this country from far away on the news. They do not. The media is a total distortion machine. Certain areas are still extremely violent, but the country as a whole is defined by heat, not war, at least in the summer. It is Iraq’s most singular characteristic. I dread going outside because it’s hot, not because I’m afraid I will get hurt.

[...]

Recommended reading. There's nothing like the independent journalists who are reporting from Iraq, absent the agenda and framework the MSM typically uses to bound their viewpoint.

h/t: Yael at Oleh Girl

McCain Camp Lashing Out

I know it's not straight from the candidate's mouth, but an anonymous source in the McCain camp had this to say to the WaPo:

A top fundraiser for the Arizonan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk for the campaign, was more blunt: "It's hurting with the main money guys. Overall, it's definitely a negative."

He added that the constant barrage of criticism from the likes of Rush Limbaugh is making it difficult to raise money from the conservative wing of the party.

"Like it or not, our base listens to that stuff," the fundraiser said. "Whether it's a good bill or a bad bill or an indifferent bill doesn't matter. The folks who are listening to that stuff, it's hard to persuade them with facts."

Uh, Mr. Fundraiser, don't you mean it's hard to persuade us with spin? Because the facts are very clear about what that bill would have done, and we want no part of it; nor McCain, who was pushing it; nor arrogant fundraisers like you.

With staffers like this, it's no wonder McCain's campaign is going under for the third time.

Fred Launches Blog!

Fred Thompson has started a new blog in his ImWithFred.com website. So far, he's collected a bunch of his earlier writings on it, but I'm sure there'll be new stuff soon.

Onto the blogroll he goes!