Roger L. Simon's Hat Dance of Wankery

Performing some flatulent contortions, hack writer Roger L. Simon attempts a distracting hat-dance for his fellow wingnuts over vile comments on the release of journalist Jill Carroll. Simon sets us straight: all those nasty things said about Carroll, wasn't really that much. About two:

"This time the cause célèbre is supposed blogospheric disappointment at the release of journo Jill Carroll by her Islamofascist kidnappers. Goodman cites two examples out of thirty-three million for this, but never mind. Those are just 'Damn Statistics'. No doubt she's right - in the sense of the famous Pirandello title Right You Are If You Think You Are. Of course some of us have a different view. As a honcho at Pajamas Media, it is my job (which I often fail at miserably) to keep an eye on what bloggers are saying and I didn't notice one person with this kind of ugly attitude toward Carroll unitl I read Goodman's article. "

As a "honcho" at Pajamas Media, Mr Simon might want to take a look at his flagship blog, "Little Green Footballs", run by his partner Charles Johnson. Careful to avoid overt hatemongering, Johnson has a cadre of long-time blog assistants who call themselves "Lizards" or "Lizardoid Minions". With a little adroit prompting from Johnson, they post about Jill Carroll:

#2 Ward Cleaver 3/30/2006 08:50AM PST
She's probably coming home with a suitcase full
of cash (her kickback) and a dose of the clap.

#14 Kragar (proud to be kafir) 3/30/2006 08:58AM PS
When asked how she felt about her captors, Jill went on record as saying:
He never calls, he never writes.

16 Earth to Satan 3/30/2006 09:00AM PST I've been watching this traitor bitch fawn all over her captors this morning. "Nice furniture, safe, nice clothes, they NEVER threatened me". I'm very glad you were so comforatble while working to undermine our efforts in Iraq. Now, wipe that muslim DNA from your face and confess to pre-planning this?

Johnson is a facile liar, like the Bushies he admires so much. In defense of the vile comments he hosts on LGF, Johnson claims not to be aware of "every comment". But anything even mildly critical of Bush is gone in minutes. Guest blogging on Firedoglake, David Niewert of Orsinis makes this point in an excellent post:

"...The first thing you’ll notice is that right-wing bloggers are generally careful to never express any overt or naked racism. Instead, what they do is act as a transmitter, taking an old far-right appeal or idea and present it as a fresh, if "politically incorrect," way of thinking."

Johnson's M.O. is a little different. He expresses himself almost entirely by cut-n-pasting the work of others, a meta-message of hate. He then tightly controls the registered membership of LGF to provide the right mix of center-rightists (very few) and rabid ratfucks (plenty) to say what he dare not. Niewert continues:

Thus, the editors at sites like Little Green Footballs, Free Republic, or RedState provide few substantive instances of outright racism — but plenty of examples of repackaged extremism. Their commenters, however, are another story altogether; as we’ve seen, their audiences are all too glad to revel in the underlying bigotry.

And advertisers (GO NAVY, for example) seem happy to pay for the eyeballs. Of course if "GO NAVY" succeeded in actualy recruiting any Lizards or LGF fans to the war they love so much, it would be a miracle. Niewert goes on:

"The end result is a poisonous environment in which not merely the ideas, but the endemic attitudes and worldview, of the racist right receive not just fresh clothes but a whole new generation of adherents. This is why, for instance, so much naked eliminationism aimed not just at illegal immigrants and Muslims but, generically, "treasonous" American liberals has become inextricably interwoven with right-wing rhetoric in recent years."

Exactly so. And it's why sites like this one will never let the atrocities go uncondemned. As for Roger L. Simon, let's put it in his hero's words, kind of:

"If you give bandwith to the genocidists and racists, then you are equally guilty as them".

That's you, "Hat".