Freedom of expression and the right to anonymity and privacy apply to all, from the far right to the far left. These issues have been debated recently when AKM Mudflats was outed by Mike Doogan. A blogger from C4P, Video Ominous, was supportive of AKM and made his position known across the blogosphere.
Now C4P found themselves at the receiving end due to a dispute between them and Rep Jay Ramras. AKM has shown support to the C4P bloggers and all is well on the right and on the left.
The C4P bloggers may be hot on issues of anonymity and privacy, but they're not so hot on freedom of expression. Their overt manipulation of the comments on the ADN political blogs is a clear indication of that.
They accused me of being a Trig truther and of posting Sarah Palin's home address urging people to send her hate mail.
OK, I could be called a Trig truther. I happen to doubt that Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig, but that's incidental to the plot. I couldn't care less who the real mother is and this blog is not dedicated to finding out the truth about Sarah Palin's wild pregnancy stories.
But in the context of the Governor's political record and aspirations, this story plays a part. Sarah Palin could have quietly adopted Trig for whatever reason and proceeded to provide better health care than the real mother could. That would have been laudable.
What's not so noble is telling stories like the wild ride and embelishing little details about her pregnancy, then going on to use an infant with Down's Syndrome to further her personal and political agenda. The poor child was up at all hours during the vice presidential campaign, being passed from person to person like a toy.
Piper's cuteness was exploited as well. Who could fail to find the scene of Piper smoothing Trig's hair with her own spit endearing? That seven year old child spent two months out of school, staying up late, giving autographs and simply being cute for the benefit of her mother's political ambitions.
I don't believe Sarah Palin was pregnant with Trig because I find her own account of the labour an insult to my intelligence. I don't believe Sarah Palin was pregnant with Trig because my eyes and my own experiences of pregnancies and childbirth make me very skeptical regarding her tight abs.
So I occasionally post photographs of women of the same build, four months pregnant, next to Sarah Palin seven months pregnant.
I wouldn't have touched the subject if Sarah Palin had not used Trig as a political tool. As long as she continues to use her family as political props, I'll continue to post items challenging her position and behaviour.
Now to the hate mail. Yes, I posted Sarah Palin's home address. It's very easy to find it online, just google it. Her address appeared twice in this blog.
On one occasion it was posted in the context of adopting a wolf in her name so the adoption certificate and a plush toy could be sent directly to her home with a thank you letter.
The other time was in connection with the IRS and whistleblowing on somebody believed to be filing false tax returns. The address was given simply to help with filling in the forms. There was a tongue in cheek reference to sending a thank you note to Sarah Palin should somebody collect a reward.
As far as I know, I'm not going ga-ga, so I would like to invite somebody from C4P to point to the post where I urged readers to send hate mail to their beloved Sarah Palin.
In a nutshell: this is a political blog. Any references to Sarah Palin's pregnancy are made in the context of her political narrative. I choose to make these posts a bit irreverent, that's my prerogative.
I have never incited any hate towards Sarah Palin, by mail or otherwise.
If the ADN chooses not to link to my blog that's their choice, but since the C4P campaign to control the contents of the ADN's political blogs and the editor's aquiescence to their demands I no longer consider the ADN to be a credible or independent forum or news source, so I'd rather not be linked by them.
I don't believe in censorship.
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