Tom Delay

I'm sure y'all remember the bug-killer.

It's funny. I met him once at a CPAC convention. He's got the most sinister eyes you'd ever want to see. The man is evil.

A note about this: You'll here him mention the Northern Marianis Islands in this clip. Tom Delay almost single-handedly made sure that the sweatshop owners that ran that island were able to slap a "Made in the USA" label on the clothes they manufactured, even though their factories were not subject to minimum wage or worker protection laws. These factory owners imported their labor from China; they promised the moon. When the workers got to the Islands, they found themselves trapped in what was essentially a labor camp. They even forced abortions on women when they got pregnant.

Tom Delay, champion of Christian Conservatives everywhere, made sure things never changed.

Tom Delay

This one felt good

Not all disgusting people are well known. The right-wing is infested with the most loathsome characters you would ever want to know. Case in point: Grace-Marie Turner. She heads up the Galen Institute, a think tank that claims as its mission:

We work to promote a more informed public debate over ideas that advance individual freedom, consumer choice, and competition in the health sector.

To that end, Grace-Marie Turner spent some time on The Jim Bohannon Show. I tuned in just in time to hear her claim that universal health care provided by the government would surely be a disaster because where it's been enacted (in Massachusetts, in this case), you see things like the state mandating coverage for hair regrowth treatments. That's all she said. Of course, most people not familiar with the issue would immediately think that Massachusetts provides Rogaine to vain middle-aged men that can't come to terms with getting old.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The regrowth treatment is mandated in cases of children and women recovering from leukemia.

I told you these people were vile...
Grace-Marie Turner

Newt Gingrich

Activism is an opportunity sport. You've got to be willing to accept whatever terms are offered and make the best go of it. Here, the platform was Alan Colmes' radio show. He's famous for being soft on miscreants.

That's not my style.

Newt Gingrich

Mob rules

Sometimes I'm not even looking for a confrontation; instead I say something truthful and the crazies lose their marbles. Paul Krugman referenced this one in one of his columns...

Bill O'Reilly threatens to lead a mob to my house:
Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly Again...

Through the summer of 2007, Bill O'Reilly waged a war that was bound to end badly for him.

He went after the blogosphere.

Specifically, he did his best to make fundraising and sponsorship deals difficult for the largest annual Netroots conference, then named YearlyKos. Even more specifically, O'Reilly sent a film crew to harass the CEO of JetBlue, one of the convention's sponsors.

Before we go any further, I should say that for you to fully understand the video embedded at the end of this post, you'll need some background. If you are already familiar with the Andrea Mackris ordeal, you're all set - you can skip to the video. Otherwise, read on...

A few years ago, Andrea Mackris - a producer for O'Reilly's television show - threatened to bring suit against Bill O'Reilly and the Fox Network for sexual harassment. O'Reilly and Fox management immediately went into battle-mode. They smeared Mackris and denyied everything.

Luckily, Mackris was prepared. She had recorded several of the conversations O'Reilly and Fox denied ever happened. In her pleading - the first step of a law-suit - she transcribed some of the conversations verbatim. They were hilarious.

Here's but a sample (remember - these are O'Reilly's exact words):

Well, if I took you down there then I'd want to take a shower with you right away, that would be the first thing I'd do ... yeah, we'd check into the room, and we would order up some room service and uh and you'd definitely get two wines into you as quickly as I could get into you I would get 'em into you ... maybe intravenously get those glasses of wine into you...

You would basically be in the shower and then I would come in and I'd join you and you would have your back to me and I would take that little loofa thing and kinda' soap up your back ... rub it all over you, get you to relax, hot water .... and um ... you know, you'd feel the tension drain out of you and uh you still would be with your back to me then I would kinda' put my arm -- it's one of those mitts those loofa mitts you know, so I got my hands in it ... and I would put it around front, kinda' rub your tummy a little bit with it, and then with my other hand I would start to massage your boobs, get your nipples really hard ... 'cuz I like that and you have really spectacular boobs....

So anyway I'd be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda' kissing your neck from behind ... and then I would take the other hand with the falafel (sic) thing and I'd put it on your pussy but you'd have to do it really light, just kind of a tease business...

So... When O'Reilly decided to tell a bunch of vile and viscious lies about the progressive Netroots, I decided to provide O'Reilly with his own Accountability Moment. Since O'Reilly had decided it was appropriate to accost people at their homes, I chose to visit him at his. Here's the video:

KSFO, Melanie Morgan

In January of 2007, just a few months after the George Allen media storm, a fellow blogger, Spocko, contacted me. ABC/Disney had threatened his web hosts with a lawsuit.

What was the issue? He used his blog to host short clips of Disney/ABC owned KSFO radio show hosts. He sent emails to the companies that advertised on that station and asked if they wanted their brand to be tarnished by its association with such disgusting gutter rhetoric. Advertisers fled in droves.

Because Spocko wanted to retain his anonymity, I took up his cause. Within days, scores of bloggers had mirrored the audio clips Disney/ABC wanted to stifle. Within a week, the story appeared in USA Today, The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, amongst others.

Howard Kurtz had me on Reliable Sources to chat about the issue:

I can't believe it's been two years already...

George Allen.

He was a racist, and I called him on it.
Allen the racist

He abused his first wife, and I called him on that too.



At the time, he was the conventional-wisdom front-runner to win the Republican nominating contest for President of the United States in 2008. Now, he's not even a Senator anymore.