Of particular interest are his remarks about "Dr. Gina Loudon", the newly discovered hero of the Palinbots. Following the admitted case of mistaken identity (Gross mistook Loudon's son Samuel for Trig), Gina Loudon dished out on Breitbart's wingnut website "Big Journalism":
Gina Loudon claimed that she spoke to Michael Gross at the event:
"I have read a lot of MSM slime over the years, but never, ever have I felt subjected to a more jealous, petty, sophomoric, disturbed piece of ragslime than I do after reading this latest on Sarah Palin."
Gina Loudon claimed that she spoke to Michael Gross at the event:
"Unfortunately for Mr. Gross, it happens that I shared the stage with Sarah Palin at that event. I announced my BUYcott of Arizona that day, and I remember it well. As I stood backstage with the Palins I remember a reporter asking me if I were “Trig’s Nanny” with a hint of something I didn’t trust in his eyes. I coldly retorted, “no, I am Samuel’s mother.” He looked confused, and had more questions to follow. In his VF story, he said that no one is willing to speak about Sarah “on the record” unless they are paid by her, or afraid. I was one of the people you interviewed Mr. Gross."
It's obvious that Samuel closely resembles Trig, so it was quite easy to confuse the two children, from the perspective of somebody who is sitting in the audience (see for example in comparison this picture of the Palin family, from a video when they were "ambushed" by a reporter at Boise airport):
After Michael Gross admitted the case of mistaken identity, Gina Loudon published another article on "Big Journalism" and demanded an apology from Michael Gross:
"Michael Joseph Gross has now admitted that he made an “error” in regard to his slimy hit piece in Vanity Fair that he wrote about Sarah Palin. He falsely reported that Sarah somehow disregarded her child at an event, when he knew the child was mine, and I took him from the Governor who was holding him right up until she was walking on stage. He did not apologize to Sarah Palin, to me, or to either of our children, for the record. He also has not retracted the other 99 lies in the piece. At least not yet."
"Let me state this as unequivocally as possible: Loudon’s accounts have no basis in reality. I do not mean simply that the facts are wrong—I mean that the episode did not occur. I have never met Gina Loudon. I have never spoken to Gina Loudon in person or by phone. I have never exchanged e-mail or snail mail with Gina Loudon. I did not even know Gina Loudon’s name until it began cropping up in connection with the accounts quoted above. Furthermore, I could not have spoken to her in Independence, because I was not allowed backstage on the floor of the arena, where Loudon was; that was a restricted space, and, as far as I am aware, all reporters were barred from the area. (I was sitting several rows up, in a place where I was able to observe what was happening both in front of and behind the curtain.)
It could be that Loudon spoke to another reporter that day, and that this is a case of mistaken identity. The other possibility is that Loudon has simply made everything up, inventing and publicizing a complete fabrication for her own purposes. It is either the one thing or the other.
Loudon is no stranger to theatrical intimidation toward those with whom she disagrees. In March, she was among the St. Louis Tea Party members who placed a coffin in front of Congressman Russell Carnahan’s private residence, ostensibly to symbolize the loss of life and freedom that, they contended, would result from the passage of health-care-reform legislation.
And for the record: despite Loudon’s claim, the Palins offered me no cooperation or access at any time during the reporting of my article."
We at Palingates previously made our own research about "Dr. Gina Loudon." She has quite a record already. She loves to make "extreme", controversial statements like this one about gay marriage (see also the reporting about her article HERE):
It is already well established that "Dr. Gina Loudon" likes to make stuff up, for example the claim that the Tea Party had been accused by liberals of "arson."
"So one should not be surprised that progressives who could find a Constitutional right to “privacy” buried deep in the penumbras of that precious document, could also find a Constitutional “right” for men to marry men or a man to marry multiple women for that matter. How about the right of a Missouri man who did his State proud by telling the BBC that he wanted to marry his horse?"
It is already well established that "Dr. Gina Loudon" likes to make stuff up, for example the claim that the Tea Party had been accused by liberals of "arson."
For more details about Gina Loudon making stuff up, see HERE.
Gina and John Loudon falsely claimed to be the "founders" of the St. Louis Tea Party.
The PhD that "Dr. Gina Loudon" so proudly presents on her website is a "Ph.D. in human behavior" from an online university in California. Gina Loudon calls herself a "politicologist."
There were some very interesting examples of in-fighting within the Tea Party in St. Louis which concerned Gina Loudon. For example, Kevin Jackson, conservative author and frequent speaker at St. Louis Tea Party rallies, said the following on facebook about the Loudons:
"Gina and John Loudon are the biggest two crooks in St. Louis. Gina is saying that I hit on her (LOL!), spent her political capital (doesn't exist), and wrote part of my book (as if!). She was worthless as a publicist (a FRAUD), and they will do ANYTHING for money, including using their "chirrens!" You want war LOUDON, you GOT it! I can back ALL my words up!"
A central part of Jackson's criticism is that the Loudons were misusing the new Ensuring Liberty PAC. See more information about this controversy HERE. It seems that the Loudons are not great fans of transparency when it comes to their own financial dealings.
Gina Loudon can be seen in the following interesting video, standing behind the person who makes the speech. This video shows the incident that Michael Gross also refers to in his new article: On March 21, 2010, Tea Party members in St. Louis brought a coffin to the home of Democratic Congressman Russell Carnahan.
The "St. Louis Activist Hub" reported about this event:
Sarah Palin's reputation to attract the "worst" followers and defenders has been confirmed once again.
"So let's check out the embarrassing, disingenuous political theater that constitutes Gina Loudon's political experience. Yesterday, one day after setting images of Russ Carnahan on fire while saying, "this is the smell of tyranny burning" (cheered on by Ed Martin), the St. Louis Tea Party brought a coffin to Carnahan's office. Was the coffin for people who died or are suffering, like say the thousands of soldiers who died in Iraq? No, it wasn't. In fact, the coffin wasn't for any real people. It was for people that the Tea Party imagines will die under "Obamacare" because they don't understand the bill. But this was too ridiculous even for them, so they later changed the message to say that the coffin represented the death of freedom.
But here's the really disturbing behavior. The Tea Party, with Gina Loudon and her husband John Loudon, then carried the coffin to Russ Carnahan's house. This, combined with the fact that there's been multiple acts of violence committed by tea party extremists around the country, racial and homophobic slurs shouted by tea party crowds, the burning of Carnahan's photo, and Bill Hennessy's claim that the Tea Party has no moral or legal obligations to the government, pretty clearly is intended to send a dark message of intimidation and suggest the threat of violence. They're telling Representative Carnahan, "not only are we willing to kick and burn images of you to try to drum up extremist rage in the mob, but we know where you live!" And near the front of the pack was Gina Loudon.
How could a radio station possibly think it's OK to have a "political analyst" who's willing to literally stalk members of congress? What form of analysis will Loudon provide this week? A detailed report on the contents she found in Representative Carnahan's dumpster? An analysis of what his discarded shoes smell like? Listing the times of day that he leaves his curtains open? Loudon's behavior is absurd and dangerous, and KTRS's willingness to give her a microphone to promote Glenn Beck style misinformation makes them complicit in this."
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Many thanks to our reader "drpatois" for collecting a lot of this information!
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UPDATE:
Dr. Gina Loudon is the gift that keeps on giving!
She is trying really hard right now to become the second Sharron Angle.
"St. Louis Activist Hub" is right on top of things again and published another very revealing post:
At the beginning, Loudon says that "reading the piece, I am willing to bet, if he (Michael Gross) has children, he is not close to them. He probably doesn't have any. I don't see how anyone who has and loves a child could do this to someone else children and parents. My guess is that his relationship to his family is not all that great."
Earlier in the year, Gina Loudon compared gay marriage to people marrying animals. She later compared people who wanted to build an Islamic Community Center in New York City to nazis. Amazingly, her bigotry managed to reach a new low in this past week, as she claimed on the Stage Right Show that she could have "speculated" that Vanity Fair reporter Michael Joseph Gross was gay because he has a "psychological profile" of someone who "attacks children."
Then the moderator tells Loudon that Michael Gross is gay, and after a "shocked scream", Gina Loudon adds:
"See and that...I mean I'm sorry I did not know that Larry, I honestly didn't, and I could have speculated as much just by several little pieces I had picked up in looking at the sort of psychological profile of someone who behaves like this...attacks someone's children. And then you just don't even want to consider the whole hidden-on-the-deck-next-door-thing."
Listen to the clip:
WOW, Gina Loudon is apparently the new Queen of victim-hood and badmouthing!
She made a "psychological profile" with her great PhD knowledge in "Human Development" from an obscure online university, check this out!
Step aside, Sarah, here comes Gina!
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NOTE: Please read the excellent reporting at "St. Louis Activist Hub" about Gina Loudon HERE.
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UPDATE 2:
Michael Joseph Gross today gave a new radio interview on "On Point Radio" with Tom Ashbrook about his Vanity Fair article, which can be accessed here. Before Michael goes on the air, Alexander Burns from Politico talks to Tom Ashbrook about Sarah Palin for several minutes.
This is the news report relating to this broadcast. There are excellent comments!
It's a great and very in-depth interview, and I have now uploaded the conversation of Michael Joseph Gross with radio host Tom Ashbrook for easier access:
In this radio interview, Michael sharply and precisely describes the results of his investigations on Sarah Palin, and what kind of people he talked to. He explains that Sarah Palin created a "culture of intimidation", and in fact, that's how Sarah Palin ruled as a mayor in Wasilla from day one - purely through intimidation. In a brilliant article in the "London Review of Books" from October 2008, author Jonathan Raban already back then vividly described what happened in Wasilla after Sarah Palin was voted mayor (EDIT: I just saw that the website might have a problem - the google cache of the article is HERE):
There followed what some Wasillaites saw as her reign of terror. She demanded resignation letters from all the city managers, ridding herself of the museum director, the librarian (whom she was later forced to rehire), the public works director, the city planner and the police chief, who’d argued against the concealed weapons bill and had supported a measure to close the town’s bars at 2.30 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. at weekends (the owners of the Mug-Shot Saloon and the Wasilla Bar had given money to Palin’s campaign). City employees were forbidden by her to speak to the press, and during her first four months in office she provoked a string of appalled editorials in the local paper, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman:
Wasilla found out it has a new mayor with either little understanding or little regard for the city’s own laws.
Palin seems to have assumed her election was indeed a coronation. Welcome to Kingdom Palin, the land of no accountability.
Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth . . . Wasilla residents have been subjected to attempts to unlawfully appoint council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedalling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of former mayor John Stein.
Surrounding herself with fellow congregants from the Pentecostalist Wasilla Assembly of God and old school chums from Wasilla High, the 32-year-old mayor set about turning the town into the kind of enterprise society that Margaret Thatcher used to extol. She abolished its building codes and signed a series of ordinances that re-zoned residential property for commercial and industrial use. When the city attorney ordered construction to stop on a house being built by one of her campaign contributors, she sacked him.
In the radio interview, Michael Gross again harshly criticizes conservatives4palin, Palin's online attack brigade. Oh, poor Rebecca, she will be so upset.
One of the high points of the conversations with callers comes when one reader calls in and mentions the Trig pregnancy story (you can listen to it right at the beginning of the second clip!). She is then quite quickly cut off by the radio host. Interestingly, this caller later complained in the comments of the radio show website about her treatment on air and explains again the details of Sarah's "wild ride" from Texas. Well done! We need more such initiatives.
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UPDATE 3:
Gina and John Loudon would NEVER use their adopted Down-Syndrome child Samuel for political gain - would they?
Well, guess I was wrong:
Screenshot from a newsletter by Missouri State Senator John Loudon from 2007, which can be downloaded HERE.
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UPDATE 4:
What you never wanted to know about "Dr. Gina Gentry Loudon": She also runs a dating service called "The Professional Match" (thepromatch.com). Many thanks to our great readers for the discovery!
Dr. Gina Loudon is anxiously waiting for you:
"Matchmakers abound, but many aren't effective because they lack insight as to what really makes relationships last. We are not a dating service. The Pro Match is a professional, scientifically based, strategic personal recruiter. Dr. Gina Gentry Loudon, founder and creator of our company is a Life Designer and Relationship Coach, with two Master's degrees and a Ph.D. in Human Development. She has written "Love in the Heartland: The Experience of Extraordinary Love" and "Finders/Keepers: Finding and Keeping Love that Lasts a Lifetime."EDIT:
In an industry where it is surprisingly rare, Dr. Gina Gentry Loudon has been happily married to Senator John Loudon (ret.MO) for almost 20 years.
Our clients can range from successful politicians, doctors, lawyers, models, business leaders, professional athletes, actors, and producers, but you do not need to be famous to enlist our help. We cater exclusively to commitment-minded single people around the world. Our program is based on solid research, and our proven selection process anticipates unvetted problems that can occur by other means of introduction. Often, only one or two meetings are necessary prior to actual success and fulfillment!"
Gina Laudon has now deleted her dating site! She apparently didn't appreciate the discovery of this page. ;-)
One of our readers has uploaded screenshots from the deleted site HERE and HERE, however, the download apparently doesn't work with Google Chrome, just so that you know.
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