Free Republic

Kevin Williamson, a correspondent for National Review, suggested Monday that women who have abortions should be hanged. Williamson's tweet came in a back-and-forth on twitter that started with Williamson's piece criticizing a blog post by actress and director Lena Dunham on why women should vote. The key part of the exchange was captured by Charles Johnson of the blog Little Green Footballs. Here is the exchange:

So stunningly rapid was his descent into obscurity that every post about the Lizard King’s latest self-humiliation must be prefaced with a reminder that he actually used to be somebody — cited by Rush Limbaugh! a co-founder of PJ Media! — until that day in October 2007 when he decided that Pamela Geller’s attendance at an anti-jihad conference in Brussels was some kind of hate crime or something. Blame the Jews? CJ’s unraveling happened slowly and quietly at first. Most people weren’t entirely sure whether this blog war was legitimate, so they ignored it as long as they could....

On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine featured an article on Charles Johnson, whose website -- littlegreenfootballs -- had for years been very popular among conservatives and among all those who believed that Islamic terror and Islamic religious totalitarianism were the greatest expressions of contemporary evil. The reason for the article was that Mr. Johnson has made a 180-degree turn and is now profoundly, even stridently, anti-right. This is my letter to him. Dear Charles: As you know, over the years, I was so impressed with your near-daily documentation of developments in the Islamist world that I twice had you...

Right-Wing Flame War! By JONATHAN DEE Published: January 21, 2010 Charles Johnson has been writing a blog for almost as long as the word “blog” has existed. A bearish, gentle-voiced, ponytailed man who for three decades enjoyed a successful career as a jazz guitarist accompanying the likes of Al Jarreau and Stanley Clarke, Johnson has always had a geek’s penchant for self-education, and in that spirit he cultivated a side interest, and ultimately an expertise, in writing computer code. His Web log, which he named “Little Green Footballs” (a private joke whose derivation he has always refused to divulge), was...

For much of this decade, Charles Johnson was one of the right's leading bloggers. His blog, Little Green Footballs, was famous for its focus on Islamic terrorism, but also for the role it played in "Rathergate" and in exposing various faked photography.... On Monday, Johnson made the split official, with a post headlined, "Why I Parted Ways With The Right." In it, he gave a list of reasons for the break... Johnson concluded the post saying, "The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff. I won't be going over the cliff with...

A hilarious edit of an old comic book hammers Charles Johnson's decent into madness. http://racedetective.blogspot.com/2009/12/green-lizard.html

It's an odd formulation in some ways as "the right" is not really a single entity. But in so far as it means the dominant mode of discourse among the institutions and blogs and magazines and newspapers and journals that support the GOP, Charles Johnson is absolutely right in my view to get off that wagon for the reasons has has stated. Read his testament. It is full of emotion, but also of honesty. The relationship of a writer to a party or movement is, of course, open to discussion. I understand the point that Jonah Goldberg makes that politics...

Leave it to Dick Cheney to teach Tareq Salahi a thing or two about how to crash a big event. On the eve of Barack Obama's most important address as president, Cheney managed to (temporarily) grab the spotlight when he told Politico that the commander in chief was weak and letting politics affect his military decisions.... Just why the ex-VP keeps popping off remains full-time fodder for the media, but Cheney's looking more partisan with each headline that he makes. James Fallows is spot on when he notes the contrast with President George W. Bush, who has "maintained a dignified...

Charles Johnson, editor of the Little Green Footballs site, has written a post declaring his personal breach with the American right. He offers 10 reasons, but they all boil down to the same one: His outrage at the bad characters found in right-wing media and blogosphere. And yes, there's no shortage of bad characters. No shortage on the left-hand side either. Or the middle, for that matter. But why surrender to them? Why let them get away with their claim to define your movement? Why not stand up to them? That was Rudyard Kipling's advice to those who felt as...

I recently did some posts noting a developing split in the Democratic party ranks -- a split likely to be greatly accentuated if, as expected, President Barack Obama announces hefty troop increases for a surge-but-we-won't-call-it-that in Afghanistan. But there signs of cracks in the GOP's wall as well -- and here's one of them: Little Green Footballs, long considered one of the conservative mega-sites in terms of its big readership, has a post "Why I Parted Ways With The Right." It's in the form of a list which you can read in full here....

Mark the date, On November 30th 2009, Little Green Footballs officially Died. The site has officially changed from being a Conservative to a Liberal Site. There were always rumors that Charles was really a liberal who was faking his political philosophy just to make a buck, but they were so hard to believe, he was a passionate conservative, so believable. But in the end Little Green Footballs died from a long drawn-out illness called supporter-cide. Charles Johnson the man behind LGF decided to ban every single one of his supporters. It was painful to watch.

(Reason #)8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

Washed-up has-been blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Asspirates pulled himself away from his own comments section (where he constantly berates people who disagree with him) and Googling his name just long enough to give us this gem.... The racism at the Washington Times is bubbling to the surface for all to smell, like noxious sewer gas.Today they ran the following advertisement, a lunatic Birther ad featuring images of monkeys. This isn’t even “dog whistle” racism. It’s right in your face, poking you in the eye. (no link for the Lizard King -ed.) Yes, calling a black man a chimp...

Charles Johnson is at it again. Over at the steaming pile that is Little Green Footballs, Charles jumps up and down, waves his arms frantically, and screams, "Look at me!! Look at me!!" to the rest of the political blogosphere. For his troubles he gets a shout out from Think Progress.

Charles Johnson Now So Anti-Racist He's Denouncing Fake Racist Quotes Charles Johnson was against fake but accurate before he was for it. No link for the idiot. I'll just quote him. From a thread: Top 10 Rush Limbaugh Racist Quotes. All out of context, and sarcasm. Right? That link I've left in provides a flurry of extremely dubious Limbaugh "quotes" -- and not a single link or citation. Including the ones created wholesale by noted scholar "zedladdy" and spread by no lesser authority than "cobra." Given that "zedladdy" and "cobra" previously invented own quotes, spread them around, and then uploaded...

<p>Well, well, well...</p> <p>It seems Charles Johnson has really pissed off the wrong person. If Roger L. Simon (Da Raj) found his batshit crazy nemesis in me, it seems Charles has found his in journalist Robert Stacy McCain. What is even more delightful, at least to yours truly, is that McCain appears to be willing to take this blog war all the way... Which is just the way I like it.</p>

Just to give full disclosure upfront, I used to consider Charles Johnson one of my "Idols" in the blogging world. He helped invent citizen Journalism. That was until banned from Little Green Footballs for one reason, refusing to give up my friendship with Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) and Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch). For the last two years Johnson has been like the crazy old man who tries to alienate his family, but in his case he has been throwing bloggers out of his site. For some of them like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer he not only cast them asunder,...

I used to go to LFG a lot a few years ago. Seemed like they gave some pretty good conservative news there. I started going back a few months ago and it seems like a diffrent site now. Have they changed writters? Had a change of political philosophy? Did I miss something? Seems like almost every story over there now bashes anything conservative. Making fun of people who believe in god, trashing teabag protest, trashing health care protest, etc. I would really like to know. Perhaps the Kos kidz put something in the cool-aid. As of now I am not...

Pew Research’s latest News Interest Index survey shows that a majority of Republicans would like to see more media coverage of the Nirth Certifikit theory.

If someone intentionally tried to thwart the workings of the United States government by fake documents and misinformation, we would normally call them “espionage agents” and try them for treason if they were exposed and caught. So what about the people who have several versions of a fake Obama birth certificate that purports to prove he was born in the Republic of Kenya and therefore can’t serve as President? Isn’t that treason? The best of these forgeries has several versions, some better Photoshop products than others, but the funny thing about all this is that they are all so bad...