A right wing blogger named Pamela Geller, who is known for her extreme anti-Muslim views, has claimed that “Yelling Marine” David Hedrick is a frequent reader of her blog, Atlas Shrugs. Hedrick has drawn national attention, including appearances on Fox Noise, for his condemnation of Baird.
Geller also claimed that Hedrick recently sent her a box of assorted military-type swag. From Atlas Shrugs on Aug. 22, the same day that a YouTube video surfaced of Hedrick berating Baird at a town hall earlier that week:
That great American is a regular Atlas reader, David Hedrick, who recently sent me such a great box with CFSOCC-A (Combined Forces, Special Operations Component Command – Afghanistan) stuff: tee shirt, baseball cap, patches and Don’t Tread on Me stuff.
There’s some interesting comments in the thread, including some that appear to come from Hedrick’s father, which would tend to support Geller’s claim that the younger Hedrick is a reader/swag sender. If, of course, it’s true, which on the Internets you can never know for sure.
The entire breadth and scope of Geller’s um, anti-jihadism or whatever it is cannot be detailed here. But just before last year’s presidential election she did publish an incredibly lengthy screed, apparently written by another author, that bears the rather unwieldy all-caps title “HOW COULD STANLEY ANN DUNHAM HAVE DELIVERED BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA JR. IN AUGUST OF 1961 IN HONOLULU, WHEN OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON RECORDS SHOW HER 2680 MILES AWAY IN SEATTLE ATTENDING CLASSES THAT SAME MONTH?.”
And today, in a column at NewsMax objecting to Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to investigate abuse of detainees, Geller makes the wild claim that the Obama administration is creating a “stateside army” disguised as a community service corps. What’s interesting to me about that is that a similar accusation was made by an audience member at Baird’s town hall, although not by Hedrick.
If it is true that Hedrick is actually a devotee of Geller, it could throw some immediate cold water on the rash of enthusiasm that has been generated by his outburst against Baird. Today The Columbian profiled Hedrick in an above-the-fold front page story. It’s only natural that flattering attention might cause someone to think about running for office, so I think this bit is understandable.
What will Hedrick do with his newfound notoriety?
“If I can spread this message, I’ll do it as long as I can,” he said.
After thinking over that question, he called back to say, “If Brian Baird votes for this bill, and if we don’t have a true constitutional conservative libertarian candidate that runs against Baird in the next election, I am considering running against him myself.”
It would be interesting for The Columbian, and other outlets, to ask this potential candidate and sudden national spokesman for the anti-health-care-reform movement about his views on a variety of subjects, perhaps starting with the basic question of what he thinks of Atlas Shrugs and Pamela Geller.
If Geller isn’t telling the truth about Hedrick being a fan who sent her military swag, or if she is fabricating comments from Hedrick’s parents, she needs to be stopped.
Maybe the government should copyright the term “Marine” so guys like him can’t use it for commercial purposes.
Yes, commercial, because when you use something to promote yourself, that’s a commercial purpose.
This guy is basically stealing the word “Marine” and everything it evokes (honor, heroism, courage, patriotism, sacrifice, etc.) and using it to promote himself and his personal agenda.
That should be against the law. The term “Marine” doesn’t belong to him; it belongs to the American people, and to all who have served in that proud organization. It shouldn’t be used for political purposes.
Oh, and btw Mr. Hedrick, thank you for your service and welcome home.
RR @ # 1: Lots of politicians have used their military service for political advancement. The civil war was rife with such examples, far too many to mention here.
In the 20th century, you had McArthur running for President in 1948 (and to a lesser extent in 1952), and of course Eisenhower.
Johnson used his rather suspicious silver star as a credintial of his limited WWII service (awarded by MacArthur to Johnson, a sitting Congressman, for his service as an Army reserve officer flying as an observer on a bombing mission which may, or may not, have ever reached the target).
J.F. Kennedy’s experience as a WWII PT boat captain which managed to get rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Nimitz or Halsey (I forget which) wanted to court-martial Kennedy for negligence in losing his boat, but he ended up getting a medal for rescuing his crew instead.
I also remember sitting through a luncheon once where the speaker was a POW during the Vietnam war who had received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his services as a POW. But before and after the luncheon, the staff which was accompanying him made sure you had his campaign brochures with lots of pictures of him and his Medal of Honor. He was running for some office or another as a Republican, but didn’t win, I forget his name now.
You could say that current Virginia Sen. Webb’s political credentials date back to his service as a Marine Lt. in Vietnam.
It’s hard to seperate the service from the man, so I’m not sure I would want them to remain silent on such an important part of their lives. But that doesn’t mean that every political opinion they have deserves above-average weight, or that their prior service makes them above criticism for their post-service actions.
In my day, all of our parents were WWII or Korean War vets. Nobody expected any special consideration because of it. Someone who didn’t serve at all might provoke a raised eyebrow if there wasn’t an obvious explanation for their lack of service, however.
I went to the website which wonders how Stanley Ann Dunham could have delivered Barack Hussein Obama II in August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, in relation to her attendance at the University of Washington.
The President was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. The birther website says that his mother attended the UW in Seattle for the Autumn 1961 quarter.
NO PROBLEM! The fall quarter at UW starts in LATE SEPTEMBER! Assuming Ms. Dunham actually attended UW, this left her nearly two months after delivery to go to Seattle and attend classes there.
This birther website also has some other ridiculous theories — for example, that a black man got Ms. Dunham pregnant in the SUMMER of 1960, and therefore she married another black man (Mr. Obama Sr.) so she could have her baby in decently explainable circumstances. That is a pretty long gestation period — at least 11 months, even starting in late August or early September 1960 for the date of conception!
This just shows that this birther crap is just PLAIN CRAP and that they will try to invent anything and stretch everything to support their nonsense.
Heard Hedrick last night. Brian Brownshirt Baird met his match & master, which means it’s time for Hedrick to get the Roto-Rooter reaming that our brownshirt media reserve for uppity Republicans such as the Plumber and the Palin.
Puddy: Check Supreme Conflict by Joan Crawford Greenburg. Unlike our racist left-wing media, which called Clarence Thomas a Scalia sockpuppet or a Scalia lawn jockey, Greenburg shows that Scalia often defers to Thomas. Clarence Thomas often pulls Scalia around to Thomas’s point of view.
rhp: Are you sure about MacArthur in 1948? There may have been a little grassroots astroturf going on, but that’s not the same as MacArthur running for president.
Speaking of MacArthur, Rabbit, did you read Arms of Krupp by Manchester?
Specious. Spurious.
YLB: Back so soon from your reassignment surgery? Barely had time to contribute. (Did you notice that the 1090 AM website is a shill for the McDermott (Il)Legal Defense Fund? That’s why I’m giving to YLB. Choosing between Crook McDermott and Goldy’s shakedown pledge drive is just too difficult.)
“stateside army” disguised as a community service corps.
ROTFLMAO. I love the crazy right! The earth is 6,000 years old, evolution isn’t real but creationism is science. FUNNY! Yes, a bunch of 20 year old hippies trained to garden and clean up parks is going to become a secret paramilitary force, stronger than our regular Army (and FBI, state, county and local police) and somehow take over the nation, steal our guns, force abortions on everyone, after their mandatory gay weddings, then drag grandma in front of the “death panel” while they read from the “death book” then kill her. ROTFLMAO.
Maybe you could try going to lower Arkansas and finding one of the drunk hillbillies who was kidnapped and anally probed by aliens from Mars and making him your new Presidential candidate. HEY!!! Maybe Obama is secretly from MARS, and he’s here to anal rape all conservatives? Mars is a secret Muslim hideout! I read it on the internets!
YOU GO GIRLS! Keep the insanity up! This is how you win elections! More Sarah Palin, more crazy! GO GO GO!
re 4: “‘respectfully awaiting moderation spews’: …Brian Brownshirt Baird met his match & master….”
‘Moderation’ my ass you lint-brained little shithead. If that bastard runs for any office, he will see me in the audience disrupting HIS meeting.
re 5: It was understood by the writer that you would know that the intended meaning of the word ‘suspicious’ was that the medal was obtained under suspicious circumstances.
With that in mind, the word ‘specious’ or ‘spurious’ would not apply.
Lint-brained little sh*the*d. I like it, Lucy. Mind if I steal it from you the next time I get whacked for being rude and insensitive?
Is JCH back (like a fucking virus)?
We’re talkin’about LBJ, Lucy. Specious and spurious are the right words. Course he was also a suspicious paranoiac …
Ever read the after-“action” about Lyndon’s flight into the Silver Star? rhp was trying to say there was no action. Lyndon mostly wrote up his own commendation, sort of like John Kerry on the swiftboat.
A f*cking virus? Hell with that. I say Just Say No. Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.
Woo hoo! The HNMT is plunging head-first off the diving board into the empty pool’s cement bottom!
SPLAT! goes the shi*t for brains!
Carry on dear fool, do carry on!
Will do, little brother/sister. You lookin’ good!
Can’t we all just get along? Can we agree that Les was More?
More Les Paul and less YLB. Change we can believe in.
Talk about an exploding head.
That Hedrick was one DUMB jarhead… And before the trolls (like the ugly HNMT) start piling in, Barack’s Obama’s NSA is a jarhead who couldn’t be more different than that ugly townhall screaming fool.
I can’t believe anyone is taking that silly rant seriously.
@1&2
“My name is John Kerry, and I served in Vietnam.”
Before you all get too snarky bordering on libelous toward the gentleman who commented during Brian Baird’s town hall, you might want to read this Maureen Dowd column.
In it she notes how courts are starting to side with plaintiffs seeking to force disclosure of the names and full contact information of heretofor anonymous bloggers. Won’t that be interesting! When somebody like Mr. Hedrick comes after one or more of you for defamation, and Goldy is forced to either out you or face comtempt of court coupled with stiff civil penalties, the only question will be how far under the bus will you be tossed?
The day of the anonymous blogger and poster is coming to an end…
The Piper
John, I’ll ask you again …
You have a Democratic Governor. A Democratic Congressman. A Democratic Senator. And a Democratic President.
Why so angry?
Every post by you is angry. An angry rant against the party that isn’t in power.
John, you keep telling us about how great Democrats are. One question, then.
Why don’t you ever make any positive posts about your Democratic politicians?
Why are all your posts negative?
18
Nice catch, but I’m not sure I would expect a trend. Avoid actionable posts, and web anonymity should be protected. To avoid slander, offer opinions, not factual assertions. To wit: “In my opinion, Mr. Cynical is a judgmental shrew who wouldn’t know a fact from a desiccated dog turd,” as opposed to “Mr. Cynical acts inappropriately with goats.” See the difference? BTW, I think the decision Maureen Dowd discusses is correct in principle, but I’m not sure calling someone a skank falls in the category of slander.
John?
re 9: You can call someone who is a good American a brownshirt, but you have scruples about actually writing the term ‘shithead’.
I take it back. You are a lint-brained doody-head. Feel free to use it any time you wish.
re 21: Marsha??
re 18: To quote our defunct Veep: Go fuck yourself.
John, are you hiding from me?
you might want to read this Maureen Dowd column.
Mr. Scott, no one in his or her right mind ever wants to read a Maureen Dowd column.
re 25: No, Marsha. I’m right here.
@2 Oh. Well, in that case, it’s okay for me to preface my HA remarks by introducing myself as a Vietnam Veteran. By the way, we used to exchange fire with the Marines when we didn’t have chucks to shoot at. All in good clean fun, of course. We were all Americans, and we were all on the same team, right?
@4 You mean Joe The Unlicensed Plumber? The guy who lied about buying his boss’ business? And who’s wanted in Arizona for unpaid traffic fines?
@7 If that guy runs for office, he’ll get the standard 15% of the vote that all wingnuts get. Even Mark Griswold got 15% against Frank Chopp.
@11 Still got your head up Jerome Corsi’s ass, eh?
By the way, Corsi is one of those superpatriots of the far right who lacks a plausible explanation for “lack of service” (see #2 above). He was a college student from 1964 to 1972. That’s right, while Kerry was getting his ass shot off in the Mekong Delta, Mr. Corsi spent the entire Vietnam War … all 8 years of it … in college earning a Ph.D. in political science.
@18 Uh, sorry pal, but Mr. Hedrick just made himself a public figure.
@15 “Can’t we all just get along?”
No.
“More Les Paul … Change we can believe in”
No thanks. I don’t want your 30% federal sales tax.
@34 Actually, most economists think a revenue-neutral federal sales tax would have to be at least 40% to replace the income tax and be revenue neutral. Add our nearly 10% state/local sales tax and you’d have a 50% sales tax on everything you buy.
It also should be noted that proponents of the so-called “Fair Tax” (which it’s not; it’s regressive as holy hell, and would clobber the poor), such as Les Paul, are LYING about what the tax rate would be.
By their own admission, as proposed by them, the tax rate would be approximately 30%. (I.e., $23 tax on a $77 purchase.)
However, by some clever mathematical legerdemain, they transmogrify 30% to 23% by adding the $23 tax to the $77 purchase to get $100 and then dividing the $23 tax by the combined amount of purchase + tax, i.e. $100, instead of dividing it by the purchase price, thusly: $100 / $23 = 23% … which, of course, is double-counting.
Not to mention double-talk.
Democratic activist was caught vandalizing Colorado’s Democratic headquarters which had numerous signs supporting health care reform and Obama.
Trying to frame another party, hmm?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....alism.html
Only a wingnut could love a 50% sales tax.
@18 I don’t see anything libelous about Mr. Hedrick in these comments. The worst thing anyone called him was “an ugly screaming fool.” Probably “truth is a defense” would apply there.
@18 I don’t see anything libelous about Mr. Hedrick in these comments. The worst thing anyone called him was “an ugly screaming fool.” That’s not libelous, but even if it is, probably “truth is a defense” would apply there.
@38 I reposted #37 because Goldy’s edit function isn’t working tonight. Even when it is, 5 minutes isn’t enough time to modify a comment. After it crashes my computer, rebooting 3 times and waiting for AOL to load and open takes a good 15 – 20 minutes. And that’s when the AOL connection speed is relatively fast, say, over 1,000 bytes per minute. So all I could do was repost it.
@18 (continued) Hedrick is a jerk. He didn’t go to Baird’s townhall to ask a question or even to express an opinion. He’s a self-promoter who went there to grandstand. That’s an abuse of what the event was for. He deserves every ounce of contempt that may be heaped on him in this blog or elsewhere.
The case discussed by Dowd is not in point, and as an ex-lawyer, you should know that. That case involved an anonymous blogger using a person’s real name on the internet to call the person a prostitute. Any lawyer (or ex-lawyer) will recognize that’s actionable; and that case merely involves the mechanics of identifying the libeler.
That’s in no way similar to an anonymous blogger calling another anonymous blogger names. No matter how egregious the name-calling becomes, there is no injury to the object of the name-calling because no one knows who he (she) is.
Besides, I honestly believe that Mr. Cynical does live in Montana and does fuck goats.
@23 FTW!!! Best comment of the week!
Piper @ 18,
The judge quoted in the Dowd piece wrote,
“…persons who choose to abuse” free speech “can be made to answer for … transgressions.”
And you feel good about that?
@36 He doesn’t look like a “Democratic activist” to me. He looks like a guy who isn’t registered to vote who took a job paying $500 to doorbell for a Democratic candidate. Maybe some wingnuts paid him $500 to bust the Democrats’ windows. Or maybe he was breaking in to look for food.
And all that Art Bell kind of crap …
No. Got my nose in Robert Caro’s book. The book about wanker LBJ’s Silver Star.
In tribute to another fallen hero, shall we honor the Lion of the Senate with a living legacy? The Kopechne Catastrophic Care Act of 2009?
Hi Jon. Fun post.
I’ve read “Atlas Shrugs” a few times, mostly in an attempt to understand how anyone could be a fan of Dick Cheney.
Hey, my feedback. I’d discourage you from linking to our opponents. Atrios has this policy, which I fully support. Our most precious commodity is our attention. I see no reason to generate traffic for the wackos.
One fun alternative is to link to some third party site that debunks the winger. The Poor Man Institute is a bonanza for posts mocking trogs.
Piper Scott @ 18
I will never read anything ever written by or about Maureen Dowd ever again so long as I live. The ghouls who profit from death and misery did not need my support.
Recognizing that even a stopped clock is right twice daily, if Maureen somehow accidentally says something useful, it’ll be repeated by someone else eventually. (Though it’s more likely Dowd plagiarized.)
The list of wingers I consciously, deliberately ignore is large and growing. You may have heard of some of them: Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Robert Novac, George Will, Ben Stein, etc.
Nothing short of a full apology, divestment of all their worldly possessions, and devoting the remainder of their days to righting their past wrongs could convince me to even consider forgiving any one of these yahoos for the horrible things they’ve done to our country.
—
You know, back in the day, our primitive BBS forum software had “twit filters”. These tools would automatically omit messages from people you’d never want to see again. Awesome, awesome functionality.
I’ve been wondering how to add a twit filter to the internet proper for a while now.
I was willing to give Ryan Blethen a chance.
After reading those threats, I’m done with him and I’m done with my Sunday subscription. That pushed me over the edge…
@45 Oh, changing the subject now? Don’t want to talk about the bullshit you posted about Kerry anymore?
@46 I don’t care what they call it, as long as they pass it. The greedy insurance companies have had a pretty good run. Now it’s time to do something for consumers.
@47 Hmmm, The Poor Man Institute is an interesting site. I picked this gem out of there:
The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America’s flora. Only now, it’s being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills — the one hysterics turned into the “death panel” canard — is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of “complaints over the provision.”
Good thing our leaders weren’t so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill — because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.
It pretty well expresses what I feel — that the only thing worse than gutless Democrats is crazy Republicans.
Which reminds me. There was lots to dislike about LBJ, and lots of us who grew up then disliked him, because of his insistence on conscripting us as cannon fodder. I didn’t give a shit then, and don’t now, how he got his Silver Star. Hey shit-for-brains @45, this is more important:
Civil Rights Act Of 1964
That, by itself, more than makes up for all the crooked things LBJ did in his entire life. Personally, I’d give him a medal for pulling his dogs’ ears. Dogs are useless! All they do is shit on the park grass and chase rabbits.
Fool@26:
David did. Guess this leftist ain’t in his right mind.
Rhp6033 did. Guess this leftist ain’t in his right mind.
Jon DeVore did. Correct, this leftist ain’t in his right mind.
And that’s just a start.
Fool@26 continued:
Rhp6033 did again. Correct, this leftist ain’t in his right mind.
How you doing, Puddy? There was something I had hoped we could talk about but I’m still at work and about to head for the barn.
Orly Taitz @ 53,
Glad you’re back! I see the Reading Is Fundamental workshop didn’t take. But don’t get discouraged! You won’t make a fool of yourself forever. Maybe with just a few more years of effort, you’ll learn to post links that actually say what you claim.
Once again @56 when caught with his own words name calls and tries to deflect from his own foibles. Too bad this fool thinks Puddy is a birther. Well when did he ever think? He gets his morning goosestepping orders from TPM.
When a leftist comments on someone here they “wanted” to read that person. Of course logic is lost on you. How are those old “acting like brownshirts” San Francisco leftist people doing again?
Orly!
Thanks so much for the reply! Would you be so kind as to explain in detail how each of your links in comment 53 supports your assertions?
Now Orly, don’t cut and run again. If you don’t confront your mistakes, you’ll never learn from them. This is for your own good.
I was just trying to help, and Orly ran away. Was it something I said?