#BrettKimberlin Update: Response from Rep. Joe Barton

I wrote an Open Letter to Congressman Joe Barton (TX-6) back in May regarding Brett Kimberlin, his Justice Through Music Project, and his Velvet Revolution organization.  Specifically, I requested some steps from Representative Barton.

Well, Mr. Barton has replied- for which I thank him, but I think he missed the point.  Reproduced here is his response (leaving out the salutation):

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about Brett Kimberlin. I appreciate hearing from you, and I am glad that you keep an active political blog.

Brett Kimberlin is indeed a dangerous man who has committed multiple crimes. You are correct in that Mr. Kimberlin has organized both the "Velvet Revolution" and the "Justice Through Music Project." According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Velvet Revolution is a 501(c)(4) organization and the Justice Through Music Project is a 501(c)(3) organization. 

The IRS is required to hold all tax-exempt organizations according to section 7801 of the Internal Revenue Code. More specifically, those organizations are required to disclose public documents to ensure that they are complying with the current law. For more information, please visit the following link: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=135008,00.html. 

In your letter, you state that you believe the IRS should require organizations to not allow their principles, officers, or employees to engage in any type of harassment or hindrance of free speech. You also suggest that the IRS require organizations to not allow their principles and officers to represent themselves "pro se" in court. To ensure that the IRS is aware of your ideas, I strongly encourage you to file a complaint with the agency. Information on how to do this can be found by using the following link: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=178241,00.html. 

Mr. Barton: I appreciate your response, but my request was of you.  You see, the IRS is a singularly unaccountable agency.  Certainly I will be contacting the IRS about this issue, but that's all I can do, and they are highly unlikely to listen to me at any rate.

You, on the other hand, have a position of authority.  You can request, with the power of a Congressional Seat, that the IRS investigate, while my letter will languish on some desk for weeks or months.  You can read Mr. Kimberlin's record into the Congressional Record to stop his lawfare tactics cold.  Telling me what I can do is good- doing something for your constitutents would be better.

This Needs To Stop

This needs to stop, or someone is going to die.  In all likelihood, the victim will be a citizen guilty of nothing more than engaging in God Granted and Constitutionally Protected Free Speech.  There is an outside chance that the victim will be a police officer simply responding to a call to give it due diligence.  There is even the possibility that the victim will be someone calling 911 for real, but that the police will not respond quickly enough due to too many incidents like this.

Aaron Walker (AKA Aaron Worthing) was SWATed last night.  This came on the same day he won an important victory for Free Speech against convicted domestic terrorist, perjurer, and all-around-scum-bag Brett Kimberlin in court.  While no one believes the caller to have been Mr. Kimberlin himself, Mr. Walker believes he knows who the attacker (and that this was an attack is not really even up for debate) was.

The longer this goes on, the more I wonder what it is, exactly, that Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and their other associates and minions are so dead-set on hiding.  Brett Kimberlin should be a nobody.  He should be an afterthought.  His claims to fame are bombing the Indianapolis Suburb of Speedway, and claiming to be Dan Quayle's drug-dealer.  He runs two "non-profit" (it is to laugh) organizations supporting the Occupy Movement and other Liberal causes.  With the exception that his past suggests he may not be completely honest with the money donors are giving him, he should be ignored.

Yet, for some reason, Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and their associates have taken to "lawfare" tactics, SWATing, and other attempts at intimidation to prevent people from writing about them.  It's as though they don't realize that they're making news by attacking the bloggers.  And the escalation is disturbing.

The FBI must investigate these crimes with the full resources at their disposal.  Someone is going to die.  Most likely a blogger, but possibly a cop or an otherwise innocent victim.  The person or persons making the phone calls must be caught, and they must go to jail for a long, long time.

Senators and Representatives, Can We Talk?

You see, for the last few weeks you've been receiving letters from your constituents talking about the SWATing tactics of certain elements on the Left who are trying to stifle the free speech of those who have taken to expose the past misdeeds, especially in light of his current activities, of Brett Kimberlin.

You, as Senators and Representatives, may know him best as the man who claimed to be Dan Quayle's drug dealer.  Claims which were never substantiated at all.  Claims made by a known perjurer.  Some few of you, mostly from Indiana, and specifically the areas around Indianapolis, may remember him as the Speedway Bomber.

You see, this man, and his associates and supporters, has taken to attempting to silence anyone who would so expose him.  He, personally, has used "lawfare" tactics with almost admirable finesse, if his goals weren't so ignoble.  He has even attempted to frame one of his opponents for a serious crime.  His associates have aided and abetted in these endeavors.  One or more of his supporters have begun using the tactic called "SWATing."

In response to this, Bloggers across the nation, both left and right, decided to stand up to Brett Kimberlin.  First, we undertook "Everyone Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day," suggested by Lee Stranahan in support of Aaron Walker (AKA Aaron Worthing), and Seth Allen (the first target of Mr. Kimberlin's lawfare tactics).

Along with this blogging, many of us, and our commenters and readers, sent emails and letters to your offices petitioning for redress of grievances.  Specifically, we requested steps be taken to stop Mr. Kimberlin specifically, and lawfare more generally.

As a direct result of that correspondence, most of us heard only crickets in response.  Some received form letters which did not even address the subjects of our letters.  Some of the more prominent members of our loose brotherhood received threats and intimidation.  What none of us received was a single word in support.  The closest anyone came was Mr. Hatch, who, himself, had run afoul of Mr. Kimberlin previously, but even he would not take such a small step as reading a list of the man's tried and proven crimes into the Congressional Record.

Time went on.  The media and, more importantly, your offices continued to ignore us.  So we tried again.  The next time, we tried a Blogger Day of Silence.  Across the nation, bloggers both right and left stood silent instead of talking about the issues of the day, or defending our candidates, or anything of the sort.  Again, we, and our commenters and readers, wrote letters asking for specific redress of grievance.  Again, we heard only crickets, or received responses that were, at best, tangentially related to our correspondence.  One such response will also be included.

Senators and Representatives, this must end.  The days when people will even sort of believe that a form letter is a true response, or even means you saw a letter from us, are gone.  We share information.  We know what you've said to one of us.  If you are unaware of a situation, please just admit it.  I would much rather receive a letter which says, "I was unaware of this issue and am ill informed about it.  I will undertake to research it and give it the attention it is due" than I would some full page drivel which does not actually address what I wrote.  Your staff monitors twitter (Representative Barton, I'm looking at you), yet you seldom, if ever, engage with constituents in that forum.

I understand that you cannot be informed about every issue.  I understand that every specific letter that comes to your office might not get to you.  But please understand that when we receive form letters which do not even come close to addressing what we talked about, let alone showing any compassion on the issue, we believe that you not only don't know, but that you don't care.

You are some of the most powerful men and women in the world.  Concerted, your power dwarfs that of any Executive from any nation in the world.  Even alone you wield considerable power.  With that power comes expectations- and one of those expectations is that you will listen to your constituents, and address their grievances.

Please, Senators and Representatives, be the Voices of the People we elected you to be.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

So that Brett Kimberlin's campaign of intimidation against bloggers will be addressed by Congress in a meaningful way, and so that the Free Speech Rights of Conservative Bloggers are defended as strongly as the Rights of a Convicted Domestic Terrorist.

* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-get-it-now-blogger-day-of-silence.html
* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/06/open-letter-to-tx-attorney-general-greg.html
* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/05/are-brettkimberlins-velvet-revolution.html
* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/05/growing-police-state-brettkimberlin-v.html
* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/05/brettkimberlin-watch-freedom-burning.html
* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/05/open-letter-to-representative-joe.html
* http://dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com/2012/05/brett-kimberlin-is-stuttering.html
* http://ace.mu.nu/
* http://allergic2bull.blogspot.com/2012/05/summarypreview-of-my-post-how-brett.html
* http://patterico.com/
* http://theothermccain.com/category/neutral-objective-journalism/the-kimberlin-files/

I Get It Now. Blogger Day Of Silence

A couple of days ago, Ace mentioned the idea of a national Blogger Day of Silence to show solidarity with Aaron Walker, Patterico, and other Bloggers who have been targeted by Brett Kimberlin's associates and cronies for intimidation.  His suggestion was to post a single post that day specifying our grievance and the reasons behind it.  Then we would go dark.

I did not like the idea.  It would be giving in, it seemed to me.  And then I read this post from RS McCain.  Go read it, because it's too good for me to deny him the traffic by quoting extensively.

Blog silence day is not about showing Brett Kimberlin anything.  It is not about, in fact, any specific thing that Brett Kimberlin has done.  It is about the deafening silence we receive back from our elected representatives about this vital issue.

As Stacey points out, it is bloggers like Ace who largely fueled the 2010 races.  It has been bloggers like Patterico and Ali Akbar who have helped lead the fight against the online left.  It is the "dextrosphere" in general which has hijacked hash-tag after hash-tag on Twitter to blunt, and sometimes even reverse, the narratives offered by the Democrats.

On any given day there are hundreds, if not thousands, of us on blog, Twitter, and on news sites combating the Left in a way we've never been able to fight before.  And all we ask from our Representatives is that they protect us from intimidation and physical harm.  We don't ask for their money.  We don't even ask for their acknowledgement, most of the time.  But on this; for this one thing, we demand they break their own silence.

And so, we will be silent.  When David Axelrod and @TruthTeam on Twitter spout lies and distortions on Friday, we will not be there to refute them.  When Valerie Jarrett and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz take to Twitter to spin some narrative, or float some piece of misdirection, we will not be there to ridicule them.  When a news piece is obviously biased, or when a lefty blogger post something disingenuous, we will not be there to defend the politicians of the Right.

So, on Friday, I will have one post.  In it, I will explain what has gone before, and why we are doing what we are doing.  Then I will be silent.

An Open Letter to TX Attorney General Greg Abbott

Dear Mr. Abbott,

I am a citizen of Arlington, TX.  More particularly, I am a blogger.  You can find my political opinion blog at dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com.  The reason I say this is important is that there is a campaign of intimidation being waged against bloggers, predominantly conservative ones, and, to date, no Government Entity has expressed much interest in supporting us, or protecting us from this intimidation and harassment.

This campaign of intimidation is centered around Convicted Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin.  He, and those around him, have filed multiple frivolous lawsuits, and Orders of Protection against those who have been exposing Mr. Kimberlin's involvement as a Democrat supporter.  Regardless of his right to support the Democrats, those who also support them have the right to know with whom they are associating: in this case, Convicted Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin.

Beyond mere frivolous lawsuits, however, which should be handled by the court, his supporters and cronies have escalated their intimidation tactics to include the Felony known as "SWATting" in which they use a spoofed or untraceable phone to impersonate their target, and call 911 claiming to have committed some violent crime.  This results in armed police officers, and often SWAT teams (thus the term) showing up to arrest the supposed miscreant.  As I'm sure you can imagine, this is a dangerous tactic that can, and probably will, get someone killed.

If this were the extent of matters, I would not address this letter to you, however.  In their most recent escalation, the supporters of Mr. Kimberlin have posted pictures and the address of the mother one of their targets, the blogger Ali Akbar.  This is not even the target, but his family.  It is a clear attempt to terrorize him into silence.  This targeted citizen, not the blogger, but his mother, is a Texas resident.  As such, I call on you and your office to do everything within your legal power to end this harassment.  Cyber-Stalking is as real a crime as physical stocking, and the posting of this data is nothing short of a terroristic threat to Mr. Akbar's family.

With respect, Mr. Abbott, please protect this Texas Resident, and stop these tactics.

This letter will be posted as an open letter on my blog, above.  Partially this is to get the word of these tactics out to a wider audience, partially it is to allow me to link to previous articles and reporting that will back up my claims.  I encourage you to review the evidence yourself.

Are #BrettKimberlin's Velvet Revolution and JTMP Democrat Operations?

And if they are, shouldn't they lose their 501c3 Status?

The reason I ask is this post from Robert Stacey McCain, who has been doing yeoman's work on exposing Brett Kimberlin and his lawfare tactics against bloggers who want to shed some light on his history and his current work as a progressive operative.  It turns out that Democrat Consultant Neal Rauhauser accompanied Mr. Kimberlin to Tuesday's court hearing regarding the Protection Order against Aaron Walker (AKA Aaron Worthing). 

Why was a 'Consultant' (aside: does that imply 'paid?') for the Democrat party at a hearing with convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin?  What is the precise nature of their relationship? 

To be sure, it could be completely legitimate.  Perhaps Mr. Rauhauser is just a friend of Mr. Kimberlin, though that would raise questions about his choice in friends.  Perhaps he was hired in some capacity by Mr. Kimberlin- but what capacity?  From current reports, it doesn't seem that he was there in an Expert capacity, and Mr. Rauhauser's field of choice does seem to be computers and electronic media.

Or does this Democrat Consultant also work for Velvet Revolution and/or the Justice Through Music Project?  Is it possible that these are not non-aligned charities?  Could they, instead, be Democrat front groups?

Of course, we are unlikely ever to get answers to these questions.  Certainly members of Congress have shown no particular interest in protecting citizens from Kimberlin's cohort.  The majority of the media, too, has turned a blind eye.  Which leaves it to bloggers to continue to probe these questions.  If enough of us do so, maybe we'll get some answers.

#BrettKimberlin Watch: Freedom Burning

See yesterday's post about the Brett Kimberlin v Aaron Walker (Worthing) fiasco.  Since I posted that, we have some updates.  The best (with links to others) is via Patterico.

I'm not sure what to say to this other than Judges- especially retired judges should recuse themselves from cases when they don't understand something at the core of the case.  By all accounts, the judge in this case lacks the most basic understanding of how the internet works.  As soon as he saw that, he should have had the good grace to say, "I don't understand how this works, can we get someone in here to explain it?" and then not accepted the word of either party (though, certainly, they should have been able to provide documentation or witnesses).

Brett Kimberlin, it is said, has set up a Google Alert so that he receives an email any time something mentioning him is posted (Hi, Brett!).  According to eye witness accounts, Mr. Kimberlin then used those emails as proof that Mr. Walker was sending him those emails.

Now, anyone passingly familiar with the technology would have told him not to be stupid, and present some real emails directly from Mr. Walker, or to get out.  Unfortunately for Mr. Walker, who is partially responsible here as he should have known to retain council, the judge was not passingly familiar with the technology and accepted Mr. Kimberlin's word.

Now, as bad as Mr. Kimberlin's "lawfare" tactics may be, it is far worse that he is aided and abetted by the legal system though a combination of apparent indifference on the part of public prosecutors and apparent ignorance on the part of judges.

If this reporting is correct, moreover, then the ruling was also in blatant disregard of Supreme Court precedent as well as the First Amendment itself.  This is nothing short of a miscarriage of justice- one which would not have even been possible if the State had taken the attempted framing of Mr. Walker seriously in the first place.

So I am left with the question: why does the  justice system seem to be geared toward helping the most aggressive, most trivial litigants instead of actually seeing to justice?

The Growing Police State: #BrettKimberlin v Aaron Walker Edition

The Saga of Brett Kimberlin continues.  Today, Aaron Walker (the blogger known as Aaron Worthing) had a hearing on a Peace Order filed by Brett Kimberlin.  In the wake of Friday's "Everyone Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day," it appears that the Maryland Judge has sided with Mr. Kimberlin, and agrees that Mr. Kimberlin is in reasonable fear for his safety, and that Mr. Walker is responsible for that.  Check in with RS McCain for updates- he's been a veritable bulldog on this since he became involved.

My problem with this ruling is two-fold.  First off, no blogger in their own posts (at least, none that I saw) said anything menacing.  Is Mr. Walker now to be held accountable for comments on posts that aren't even on his blog?  That sets a bad precedent.  Second, why is it not okay to discuss the fact that a major Left-wing activist and fundraiser, who is supported by the likes of Convicted Felon and Nazi-Collaborator George Soros also happens to be a convicted domestic terrorist?  That also would seem to set a bad precedent.

Further, why has the DA in Maryland not investigated Mr. Walker's claims that Mr. Kimberlin attempted to frame him for a crime.  Let me be clear here, this is not a case, from what we can tell, of the DA's office examining the available evidence and saying, "Sorry, there's not enough here."  They have simply refused even to investigate, from what we can tell.  Why?

On the other hand, why was Mr. Walker representing himself?  He had already learned the folly of that, I'd thought, so why do it?

In any case, this ruling looks like pure hokum, and would be bad enough on its own: but why was Mr. Walker taken into custody?  What happened that got him arrested?  Stay tuned to The Other McCain for updates there.

An Open Letter to Representative Joe Barton (R - TX-6) About #BrettKimberlin

Dear Representative Barton.

The case of one Brett Kimberlin has come to my attention, and I felt I should bring it to yours.  Specifically, I believe you should know that Mr. Kimberlin is the Principle for two 501(c) Organizations: Velvet Revolution and the Justice Through Music Project. 

First, a little about me.  I am a resident of Arlington, TX and (for the purposes of this letter) I blog at dedicatedtenther.blogspot.com.  I was a member of your Citizen's Congress exercise in 2009 (you may remember me as Not-Lloyd-Doggett), and I have written your office on multiple occasions.  This letter will be an open letter, also published at the blog already listed.

Now, a little bit about Brett Kimberlin.  Brett Kimberlin is a convicted domestic terrorist and perjurer, as well as a known former drug smuggler, and is suspected of having ties to a murder.  Mr. Kimberlin is the so-called "Speedway Bomber," responsible for setting off 8 bombs in Speedway, IN in 1978.  One of those brutally maimed a man and injured his wife.  Years later that man would commit suicide; his family and friends maintain it was from his lingering (permanent) injuries. 

More recently, Mr. Kimberlin has engaged in so-called "lawfare" against a number of mostly-conservative bloggers who, for various reasons, had come to notice him and his ties to the two foundations listed above.  This lawfare includes frivolous lawsuits and court orders.  In less legal activities, he is believed to be behind threats to several of these same bloggers, including a so-called "SWATting" of LA Assistant District Attorney Patrick Frey, who blogs as "Paterico," and an attempt to frame another blogger for assault (see: allergic2bull.blogspot.com).

The reason I bring this to your attention is twofold. 

First, I believe that these 501(c) organizations should be investigated to ensure they are in full compliance with the law.  Additionally, I believe that 501(c) organizations, in general, should have to comply with two requirements (if they are not so required, I believe this should change): First that they should be made to certify that their principles, officers, and employees not be engaging in any type of harassment, intimidation, or attempt to limit free speech- as Mr. Kimberlin is doing.  Second, that their principles and officers not be allowed to represent themselves 'pro se' in court, unless they can also prove themselves indigent.  To some extent, Mr. Kimberlin's tactics are aided by the fact that, despite being fairly wealthy, he his representing himself in these frivolous lawsuits.  As someone without a license to practice law, that makes it very hard to censure him for these cases.

Second, I believe that Mr. Kimberlin's full criminal record, starting with his first perjury conviction at age 18, be read into the Congressional Record.  The primary reasoning Mr. Kimberlin gives for his lawfare is that statements about his past criminal activity are defamatory.  Never mind that they are already a matter of public record, he asserts they were long enough ago that they should not "count."  Obviously his understanding of the law is flawed, but his story seems to carry enough merit that his filings are causing conservative commentators to expend much time and resources on fighting them.  If his record were a matter of Congressional Record, it should be much easier to have such cases dismissed with less effort- and therefore less time and expense.

As a citizen journalist myself, I hope that you will take this matter seriously.  Mr. Kimberlin has threatened men and their families.

More on why #BrettKimberlin is a Stuttering Clusterf*ck of a Miserable Terrorist

This one is just links, but I figure why should I re-write what all of these intrepid citizen-journalists have already done.

For the "Big" players, head over to:
Lee Stranahan
Paterico
Aaron Worthing
Robert Stacey McCain
Memeorandum
Instapundit
Michelle Malkin
and, as always, The Ace of Spades HQ.

Also, go see my friends
BackwardsBoy
Empire of Jeff
Evil Blogger Lady
Anna Puna 
Mike The Moose
Miss Tammy 
Mesablue
The US Report

Credit Where It's Due: Lefty (or Left-ish) Bloggers taking up the fight:
Simple Justice 

Finally, go follow me on Twitter (@Dedicated10ther), as I'll retweet anything I find about #BrettKimberlin


Update: Thanks, Michelle Malkin, for the Link!