Ed Martin Graduates from Center for Citizen Journalists Who Don't Read Good

Apparently, Ed Martin is taking lessons from the St. Louis tea party on how to do the shameless hackery they call "citizen journalism." In one of the most ridiculous blog posts I've read in a while (and trust me, I read some bad ones), Ed Martin ranted about Mexican President Calderon's speech to Congress and asked, "Where was Russ Carnahan when Mexico's President Slapped America in Her Face?" Then, executing a move of "citizen journalism" so absurd that only Dana Loesch could have appreciated it, Martin presented the following picture:

Where to start with this one? First of all, only far right extremists could possibly think Calderon "slapped America in her face." He simply offered criticism of Arizona's law, and pointed out what many in America have said: the law allows racial profiling by allowing police to pull over people for suspicion of not carrying the appropriate papers. In fact, the law encourages such profiling because it allows people to sue police departments if they think they're not enforcing the law strongly enough. So Calderon criticizing a law that he disagrees with is hardly a "slap in the face."

But what really irks me is that ridiculous photo. Is Ed Martin serious? Posting a blurry photo and then saying, "Is that Carnahan?" Martin must have just felt like ranting and then came up with the most pathetic attempt ever at trying to link his rant back to Carnahan. I think even Glenn Beck has higher standards of journalism than that.

All of which leads me to a very important question:


Just asking questions, folks. Ed Martin and I: we're just asking questions.

Arizona "Buycott" Event Appears to Be A Huge Failure

You know when St. Louis tea party co-founder Bill Hennessy writes a post claiming that some Tea Party event was a "huge success" without providing any evidence whatsoever, there's a good reason to take a closer look. Local non-elected Tea Party leaders John and Gina Loudon played an early role in promoting the "Stand With Arizona" rally in Tempe, a rally designed to offer monetary support to Arizona to reward them for their new racial profiling law. Hennessy wrote a post congratulating the Loudons for the rally, but the only video he provided was a promo for the rally rather than any footage or photos from the event. So I investigated a little, and sure enough the rally fell far short of expectations.

Rally organizers said multiple times that they expected 20,000 people to attend the rally and were confident that "at least 10,000" would be there. In fact, news estimates of the number of people who actually showed up ranged from "a couple thousand" to "close to 5,000" people. In other words, they got at best 1/4 of what they were expecting and maybe even far worse.

You can see a several pictures of massive numbers of empty seats from the blog "bullet people:"



In fact, this screen shot from a news report was taken 30 minutes after the rally was scheduled to start, and you can see huge numbers of empty sections in the stadium:


Meanwhile, a rally and march opposing the new Arizona law attracted 10,000 to 20,000 or over 30,000 people, depending on the estimates. One white supremacist counter-protester with a loaded shotgun was spotted at the rally, but kept separate from the marchers.

Recall that Gina Loudon was able to get a lot of media attention after greatly exaggerating her "Wholefoods Buycott" last year without ever having to present any evidence of the amount of money actually raised. She and husband John Loudon also played a central role in the anti-Prop A campaign that somehow only managed to get 37% of residents in the county to vote against a sales tax! It will be interesting to see if the local media further embarrases themselves by presenting this event as a huge success.

Dana Loesch Promotes GOP Candidate Who Said We Should Microchip Illegal Immigrants

What do you do with a Congressional candidate who says crazy things like this:

“I think we should catch ’em, we should document ’em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going,” said Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician. “I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I microchip an illegal?

“That’s not a popular thing to say, but it’s a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under,” Bertroche said.

Well, if you're Dana Loesch you apparently have him on your show and spend much of your time praising him and making sure people check out his website.

Loesch started off her bizarre interview by nothing that Bertoche, "must be a fantasitc multitasker" because he's both a doctor and running for Congress (Go to the 5/3 Audio on Demand to listen for yourself). She then made sure that the Doctor agreed with her that Arizona's new racial profiling law is merely "protecting it's citizens." She asked Dr. Berthroche if they quoted him accurately, and he gave a ridiculous answer claiming he didn't really agree with "microchipping human beings," but said it because "no one was paying attention to my ideas" and that "you have to say something that radical to get any reasonable idea out there." And, despite claiming that he didn't really support the idea, he spent considerable time explaining that it was technologically possible, discussing why border fences won't work, and answering Loesch's question "Don't you think that would be incredibly expensive to do?" Loesch complimented Berthroche on successfully grabbing attention and made sure that he told her listeners what his campaign website was at the end of the interview. Loesch of course is also supporting buying Arizona products to show solidarity with their racial profiling.

To be fair, Loesch said after Bertoche was off the line that she thought the idea was "crazy" because "we have to show a little compassion." But why would she have him on as a guest in the first place? And I find it amazing that the first question that pops in her head after hearing a suggestion to microchip illegal immigrants is "how much would that cost?"