The Company You Keep

It seems that our work here, as far as LGF and Charles Johnson are concerned, is just about done. Charles has become a reformed character and the most venomous of the Lizards have been booted or left in disgust. Well done LGF Watch!

Unfortunately, during his rabid days, Charles encouraged others to the dark side. One such is "batshit crazy" Pamela Oshry Geller, mentioned here at LGF Watch many times: (see tags).

Since we have space available, here she is today, boobs to shoulder with the John Birch Society. Note in the small print of the Tennessee Tea Party shindig that the TTP is planning to give away FIREARMS at their rally!

The tears of a clown

The death of Rep. John Murtha leaves Charles Johnson with one less person to apologize to for past mistreatment -- including, but not limited to, venom, malice, contumely, and outright slander.

Which is a shame, because we'd really enjoy watching Charles trying to justify this and this and this and this and most especially this directly to Murtha's face.

Big time!

Ooh! We got mentioned in The New York Times.

[At LGF, before the Great Switcheroo - ed.] Muslims were described as “vermin.” The posthumous nickname St. Pancake was coined for the young American pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie, in reference to the Israeli bulldozer that killed her. Discussion of U.S. foreign-policy options included terms like “targeted genocide.” As for Palestinians, “they don’t need statehood,” offered one commenter; “they need sterilization.” And on and on. A so-called stalker blog, called L.G.F. Watch, sprang up to document instances of what it considered hate speech on the part of Johnson and his followers. Vanity Fair’s James Wolcott compared Johnson’s site to a “disorganized Nuremberg Rally.”

It also emerges from the article that Charles is engaged to be married. Mazel tov!

And thanks to ChenZhen for the heads-up. (although actually, I was just about to post that article independently when I saw CZ's comment. Not that it really matters.)

There's no link to LGF Watch within the article, but just in case any NYT readers have been curious enough to seek us out: We've been on a, shall we say, somewhat lax posting schedule for the past year or so, mostly because Charles' Great Switcheroo has obviated much of our compulsion to keep an eagle eye on his shenanigans. Most of the anti-Charles action these days is, as you might expect, taking place in the far-right, ultra-right, ultra-far-right, and utterly-completely-batshit-bonkers segments of the blogosphere.

So -- if there are any first-time visitors here -- thanks for coming by, and feel free to browse our extensive archives for exhaustive documentation of just what nasty, hateful, warmongering reptiles CJ and his saurian horde used to be.

This Week in LGF History (Special Holiday Edition)

Let's take another trip down Memory Lane and see what was on the Lizard King's mind during festive seasons past.

December 29, 2008 - Charles insinuates that all Palestinian civilians in Gaza are complicit in Hamas atrocities.
December 30, 2007 - Charles, after deploring those who were capitalizing on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto to further their political agendas, almost immediately flip-flops and uses it to warn (again) about the imminent danger of "Eurabia."
December 30, 2006 - Charles unquestioningly propagates a "filthy Muslims" meme that originated with The Sun.
December 30, 2005 - Charles smears the entire population of Austria because a foreign artist put up a poster there.
December 22, 2004 - Charles approvingly notes high levels of anti-Muslim paranoia in the U.S.
January 8, 2004 - Charles dances on Rachel Corrie's grave (again).

CJ: the Joe Lieberman of the blogosphere

Need we say more?

We have always been at war with Eurasia

The estimable Nodrog* has emerged from his hiatus to update us, in painstaking detail, on Charles' latest efforts to rewrite the history of LGF.

We've seen a few whispers around Teh Intarwebs to the effect that Charles, in addition to obliterating banned lizards' comments, is also nuking actual posts of his from years gone by. Can anyone substantiate this? If you can, we'll give you a cookie.

*who, in addition to occasionally commenting here, is also posting at Discarded Lies -- which began life, lo these many years ago, as LGF Watch Watch. Plus ça change, plus c'est complètement différent ...

Flying pig alert!

LGF, yesterday:

Since a whole lot of right-wingers gleefully trumpeted George Monbiot’s article in which he called for CRU head Phil Jones to resign, I wonder if they’ll be equally eager to promote his latest article — which documents the enormous amounts of money the climate denial industry is spending to trick people into believing there’s no threat from global warming.

LGF, March 2008:

British über-moonbat “journalist” George Monbiot is apparently going to attempt a citizen’s arrest of John Bolton, after he speaks at a UK literary festival.

Charles Johnson quoting Monbiot approvingly?! The same Monbiot whose very name is said to have inspired the coinage of the term moonbat? Truly a great moment in porcine aviation.

Down the memory hole

A couple of commenters have mentioned that Charles has been deleting comments posted by banned ex-lizards. Sure enough, just the other day he nuked the entire œuvre of Iron Fist, and apparently he has consigned others to the memory hole too.

For the record, we have had to shut down Blogger comments on at least one occasion (before we went to moderation) and wiped out the entire comment database -- but only because enraged LGF operatives had been spamming us with kiddie pr0n and all sorts of other nasty stuff. Not because we've pulled a Great Switcheroo and are trying to obfuscate what we stood for until just the other day.

Doubleplusungood, Charles.

h/t: "Southside Suarez" and "he who scoffs at danger," who has joined the vast right-wing anti-Charles conspiracy with more than usual aplomb.

The great global warming mudfight

Christmas comes early this year! I'm actually starting to like Charles Johnson's antics, most of all because of stuff like this:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35284_Thank_You_Climate_Change_Deniers

===============

Thank You, Climate Change Deniers

"A few years ago, I used to doubt that there really were climate change denialists.

But then I started posting at LGF about the scientific evidence for global warming, and lo, the denialists began to appear.

Hordes of them.

Posting one comment after another full of talking points, false claims, diversions, and complete BS.

I don’t doubt their existence any more.

So I want to say “thank you” to all the climate change denialists who post comments at LGF, relentlessly hyping every false claim, refusing to follow any links to evidence, and ceaselessly parroting the latest obfuscations.

You’ve really helped open my eyes to the truth."
===============

Really, Charlie? You seriously didn't know whether or not global warming deniers existed? LGF from 2007 just called, claiming that back then you were actually defending those very people on your blog:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/24774_Global_Warming_Skeptics_Threatened

===============

Global Warming Skeptics Threatened

"The Religion of Global Warming is apparently just as thin-skinned as the Religion of Peace™: Scientists threatened for ‘climate denial’. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)"

Scientists who questioned mankind’s impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community.

They say the debate on global warming has been “hijacked” by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions.

Timothy Ball, a former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, has received five deaths threats by email since raising concerns about the degree to which man was affectingclimate change.

One of the emails warned that, if he continued to speak out, he would not live to see further global warming.

“Western governments have pumped billions of dollars into careers and institutes and they feel threatened,” said the professor. “I can tolerate being called a sceptic because all scientists should be sceptics, but then they started calling us deniers, with all the connotations of the Holocaust. That is an obscenity. It has got really nasty and personal.”

===============

Ah, LGF history, thou art a heartless bitch. Especially when the same members from back then are still around today. On the 2007 thread:

===============
#290 Sharmuta

"This is vile- Mother-Earth-Loving-Peace-Nics so blinded by their ideology that they are blinded by their hypocrisy yet again. On the one hand they would appease a true Holocaust denier, while on the other they liken a reasoned man of science to the real deal. Obviously they have no concept of the true nature of evil to invoke the Holocaust into this debate. That these enviro-knee-jerk-reactionists would claim freedom of speech as their excuse to say anything they'd like while employing marxist-jihadi techniques to silence the free speech of others is so hypocritical it is beyond the pale.

Logic, reason, open and honest debate- these concepts are the death knell to global warming and the leftists will do anything to stop them. Do we need a global warming Theo van Gogh before people take a look at what is going on here?"
===============

And on the thread from yesterday:

===============
#13 Sharmuta

"I think this is another example in a long line of issues where you can see people aren't interested in facts and truth, but are rather interested in propaganda that confirms their existing biases. It's slow, hard work to chip away at such prejudice, but as always, the Truth is worth the effort."
===============

Now let that second comment sink in for a minute, and read the first one again.

While we're at it, here's something for Chuckles (in both senses of the word):

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/24966_Glenn_Beck_on_the_Radical_Islamic_Agenda

Video is sadly defunct, but the comments are good as gold. Oh what I would give to see the present-day lizard circus meeting up with themselves from 2007..

For the record

Since everyone else seems to be linking to Charles' official refutation of his erstwhile wingnuttitude, we will too.

But not, of course, without noting that it conspicuously fails to mention Charles Johnson's role in whelping, nurturing, and exalting the very beast that he now appears so intent on slaying -- or at least staving off until the political winds shift again.

As usual, "sorry" seems to be the hardest word. A simple "I was wrong" would suffice. But we know better than to expect that.

Testing... testing...

Out of curiosity, I clicked one of the links to the LGF RSS feed above -- and it worked. No more redirect to the IDF homepage! (Note to new LGF Watch watchers: almost since the very beginning of LGF Watch, Charles has been redirecting all links from this site to the homepage of the Israel Defense Force -- or else to an oh-so-amusing graphic reading "I Is An Idiot" or similarly witty verbiage.)

Here's a link to the LGF front page, and here's a link to a specific article.

Are they working for you? Let us know.

WARNING: If you do decide to test the links, be aware that Charles can and does follow and ban the IP addresses of those who visit his site from certain locations. You have been warned.

Anniversary

It may interest you to know that it has been more or less exactly six years since LGF Watch started watching LGF.

Here's what was going on back in October 2003:

http://lgfwatch.blogspot.com/2003_10_01_archive.html

Too bad there's no such thing as time travel (despite what some of the CERN boffins have been saying), because a conversation between today's Charles Johnson and his 2003 self would be something to behold.

Little Green Stalkers

Charles Johnson has recently posted a selection of ugly and hateful comments from Hot Air:

(Link: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/34908_Hot_Air_Comments_of_the_Day )

Here’s our latest installment of a new recurring feature — the most disgusting comments recently posted at Hot Air, and not deleted or even disapproved of by the “moderators.” There’s an endless stream of this kind of hate speech at Hot Air, and I don’t expect we’ll run out of material very soon. (Thanks to the LGF readers who helped point out today’s batch of ugliness.)

(...) [Comment quotes with links]

Let’s not forget the hundreds of comments previously posted, calling Michelle Obama a “wookie.” (It’s a sleazy way to call Michelle Obama an “ape,” without actually using that word.)

And of course, the comments I pointed out yesterday, calling me a “child molester,” are still posted and those commenters have not been blocked.

Stay classy, Hot Air!

Let's see.. Quoting hateful and racist comments written on another website, then pointing out that they don't get deleted or merit any sort of reprimand from moderators, in order to show what kind of trashy cesspool of hate this site is. And according to him, it's just one installment of a recurring feature. Wait.. HOLY CRAP ON A STICK, Charles is becoming one of us now!

Aahh, screw it. Welcome to stalkerdom, Charles! :)

(Or at least, welcome to the spot where we were standing against you and your blog for.. I don't know, several years on end?)

COLLIN COUNTY RACIST REPUBLICANS

Interesting that Congressmen Sam Johnson (TX 03) Ralph Hall (TX 04), State Rep Jerry Madden (Texas District 67) and Collin County Judge Keith Self would choose to invite Racist, Birther and all-round-loon Pamela Geller to headline a fund-raiser for them. Presumably, they encourage and endorse this kind of "discourse":

PAMELA GELLER, in her OWN WORDS:

"So why not tell the truth about Obama and his reported strange sexual predilections? My question is, it is well known that Obama allegedly was involved with a crack whore in his youth. Very seedy stuff. Why aren’t they pursuing that story? Find the ho, give her a show!"

AND THIS CHARMER:

GELLER: "Barack Hussein Obama Jr Malcolm X Barack Hussein Obama Sr. Barack Hussein Obama Sr., Tom Mboya, and Philip Ochieng, all share common physical features of the Kenyan Luo tribe: Modest stature under six feet, round faces, small chins, wide set eyes, slanted back foreheads, and retracted hairlines…none of these features are shared by Malcolm X and Barack Hussein Obama Jr."

And Representative JODIE LAUBENBUERG (TX DIST 89) and Representative KEN PAXTON (TX DIST 70) will no doubt CHEER, as members of the PATRIOTIC HOST COMMITTEE when Ms Geller demonstrates modern Patriotism, as practiced by the GOP:

"Why isn’t CNN pursuing the nude pornographic photos of Obama’s mom…I never ran the pics, as it was unseemly and wasn’t relevant. But this assault on Palin is too disgusting. It’s time to tell the ugly truth about the enemy in the White House and his whores in the media."

Pamela Geller then "runs" alleged nude pictures of Obama's deceased mother on her cesspool blog. We will not link.

We look forward to pictures of Pammy and the Collin County Republicans. And if the local Dems don't move on this one, they should find something else to do.

Steve Kelso.

(Note: I haven't been doing much "watching" of CJ these days, since, astonishingly, he's recovering from his 9/11 Stress Syndrome. Pamela Geller, on the other hand, is a real phenomena and seems to embody the essence of rabid tribalism, racism, carnivorous sexuality and batshit craziness that seems to stir the turgid loins of Right Wing Loons and Wingnut Texans).

To V & other fellow bloggers here: maybe we should consider widening our brief, perhaps changing or adding to the blog name since Charles Johnson is slowly trudging back into the light. email discussion?

Ouch

It's been a while since we looked in at Dennis the Peasant's place, which is why we missed this post from a couple of weeks ago in which he discusses Charles Johnson's mental state and tries to make sense of the Great LGF Switcheroo.

He is, needless to say, not impressed:

When I met Charles, back in 2004, he was fiftyish and driving a somewhat battered Hyundai. According to Raj [Roger Simon, the head honcho of Pajamas Media -ed.], he'd been cleaned out in recent divorce and didn't have much more than that Hyundai, his computer and his bike. That's got to be a tough thing to take at fifty. It is probably fair to say that Little Green Footballs and the blogosphere were about the only things Charles had going for him. Which is, quite frankly, somewhat sad.

Sad, and dangerous.

Dangerous because it gave Charles Johnson, middle-aged mediocrity, the out he needed when it came to dealing with the fact that he was just another average guy. It's something that the vast majority of us have to deal with at some point in our lives. We spend our first forty or so years believing that we are indeed special, that we can indeed do anything we want to (if only we work hard for it). It's what's been drilled into us since birth. And then, one day, we wake up and realize that we aren't special. We cannot do whatever we put minds to. We discover we are mediocre. We are average.

[...]

And herein lies the seeds of Charles Johnson's self-destruction: He is not a leader. He's an average guy.

I'd be the last person to claim I know Charles Johnson well. I spent parts of two days around the man back in 2004. But, brief as it was, my contact with him allowed me to size him up in certain respects. What those two days told me, more than anything, was that Charles Johnson was not a leader of men. His bearing did not catch the eye or command respect. Had he been more than average, he might have been able to leverage his Rathergate and LGF success. But as it turned out, cable TV gave him some time and found him wanting. Pajamas Media provided another opportunity, which, if my sources are to be believed, he wasted by playing the disenchanted loner (rather than being a leader).

More important than anything Charles did or did not do, though, was the fact that between 2004 and 2007 we collectively came to understand both the power and the limitations of the political blogosphere. In the heady days of 2003-2004, it was assumed that site traffic conferred, in and of itself, real power to the blogger. That has now been disproved. What we've learned is that it is what the blogger does that confers power. Charles Johnson gained famed not because of his inherent worth as an individual, but because - for one moment in time (Rathergate) - he managed to produce a set of facts that had a material impact on political events. Once Charles stopped producing those sort of facts, his fame (and influence) receeded.

Puzzled commenters often wonder what exactly this blog is for, now that (it appears) Charles Johnson largely agrees with us politically. But that begs the question: what exactly is LGF itself for anymore?

Zombie Banned?

As much as it pains us to link to the loathsome troglodytes (apologies in advance to trogs everywhere for the insult) of the LGF2 ilk, we do so now in the interest of documenting yet another big twist in the ongoing CJ Vs. The World soap opera.

The fun begins around comment #176.

Cliff Notes version: it appears that Charles' longtime faithful doppelgänger Zombie has severed his/her* ties with LGF, or vice versa, or both, or something.

*The spurned LGFers appear to believe that Zombie is a female, but since he/she has yet to "out" him-/herself, his/her gender remains a mystery unto him-/herself. At least for now.

(h/t to commenter Southside Suarez)

Oh really?

The members of the circular firing squad that has become the right-wing blogosphere are sharpening their aim...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/34727_The_Other_Other_McCain

Quoth Charles:

I’ve made my position very clear — I won’t stand with racists and white supremacists, not now, not in the past, not ever.

Do our eyes deceive us?!

I’ve made my position very clear — I won’t stand with racists and white supremacists, not now, not in the past, not ever.

Apologies in advance for any keyboards that might have ruined. But what we'd like to know is, when did the years 2001-2007 un-happen?

Watching the Gates

Thanks to commenter "Gates of Vienna Watch" for pointing us toward, well, Gates of Vienna Watch.

Ah, the joy of exposing the idiocies of an moronic ultra-right-wing blog. Sure takes us back... (fade into "Memories")

And let's not forget our friend Lex over at GoV Vs the World, who has been doing yeoman service for a couple of years now.

Quote Of The Day

After all, who cares about basic fact checking when there’s an ideology to be
promoted?

Charles Johnson (LGF)

It seems Charles has had a memory wipe and can't recall the 24/7 coverage of bullshit stories about Muslims he peddled for the last couple of years.

Obama Derangement Syndrome

We note with some interest that the tag "Obama Derangement Syndrome" is now appended to several recent posts over at LGF.

Why this tag only appeared recently, rather than -- oh, let's say, about eighteen months ago -- is still unknown.