IMUSIZING of local blogs
April 18, 2007 at 1:20 pm | In 300, barnstable, cape cod, cape cog, capeCOG, capecog.com, centerville, citizens for open government, gary lopez, hyannis, imus, janet joakim, john julius, racism, real estate, sexism, team | 16 Comments
Saturday 4/21
Friday – 4/20/07 – I am amazed at how many people have responded to me about this post. Most people are reluctant to add a comment for several reasons. They are concerned that somehow this group will identify them and point the wrath in their direction. I have made sure that those who comment here can only be identified by their chosen user name.
Another reason, and this is sad, is for those who are new to the concept of blogging there seems to be a sense that only crazy angry conspiracy theorists blog, and those, like us, who dare to respond.
The fear is that to particpate is to be “one of them”. There are groups like COG who spew hatred, but there are thousands more blogs for discussion about any subject that interests you and most are civil. (I happen to enjoy a couple of Boston area blogs that discuss the ins and outs and ups and downs of the Red Sox. ) I will be writing an article/post on blogging in the near future.
Mean time, read on and check out those who have shared comments. By the way, apparently racial and ethnic slurs are not sick enough for these people – see comments.
LOPEZ’S COGSLOG IS NOT ABOVE RACIAL, SEXIST AND ETHNIC SLURS
The message on my voice mail this morning went something like this:
“Why can’t the local police DO something about these people? Isn’t just one blatant racial slur enough to shut this idiot down? How does he get away with this?”
My first response, typically, would be, “don’t read it… don’t give him the attention he craves.”
But, not everything is that simple.
The call came from a woman in town whose child is attending college in North Carolina and found the ugly local COGslog via a Google search. The Google search was related to a college communications class discussion about the Imus incident.
The young person has skin with some color, and according to this mother her young student has become tolerant of the ignorance of others who think that that color means one deserves less respect than others who check that Caucasian box on forms. This is an outgoing kid known for a big smile and contributions to school and home communities….this mother is and should be proud of such a fine young person.
This college student was incensed, according to the caller, and mother and child had a long and painful discussion about home-town ignorance.
The comment in question comes from a man who likes to consider himself a leader of the miscreant conspiracy theorists who blog as “coggers. “
The comment referred to one of the town’s officials as an “uncle tom.”
I have not read this slur, because I am not interested in sloggin’ through the muck to find it on his blog, but the sentiment of this woman — this mother — who left this message, and so many others has been that they have gone to far, and it’s time to do something about it.
Apparently during the past week, ethnic references to an employee with a polish last name, sexist slurs about women, racial epithets, digs at people who are dealing with life-threatening illnesses, and more ugliness have been part of the rhetoric spewed by Gary Lopez, John Julius and other people who won’t sign their names to their own slanderous input on Gary Lopez’s blog.
My husband and I attended the Governor’s town meeting last night. The governor was delayed for over an hour and while we waited we heard much about this local blog’s ignorance from people there from all over Cape Cod. Not everyone reads it, but they have heard about the crazy old king of pajamas who runs this blog – and we heard stories about the damage he has done to important discussions on Beacon Hill, as well as discussions and comments about the abuse of the blog tool by such eccentrics.
As the nation engages in an important discussion spun from the national radio talk show host, Don Imus, who’s racial and sexist slurs ultimately cost him his job, should we be discussing this on a more local level as well?
Does this matter to you?
Is this something you want to be part of the fabric of your town?
Would you like to see it stop?
Do you have any ideas?
Send me an email, or post a comment, and let’s put our heads together.
Personally, my own experience with these guys bothered me more than I was willing to admit. As they pointed their vitriol at me and incited a recall attempt, all of my energy slowly had to be focused on that fight. I lost at more than two weeks of valuable time; I fell far behind in my own responsibilities to my constituents, family, and business. I lost income. And, because I had to put so much energy into refuting the lies and accusations posted on the blogs that were being linked from newspaper articles, I had to miss meetings and participation in projects like fighting Cape Wind, and testifying in favor of insurance reform among other things…
Emotionally – I had developed a thick skin over the past six years of my own service as a councilor. But, the residual anger at the attacks on my character, gender, physical appearance, family, morals, motives and more, are still there, and I finally admitted that.
My outlet will be the response to a particularly frustrating Lopez post about me from last month, coming to this blog soon as the story of the king of pajamas…..
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Janet,
Racist comments are nothing new for the Garbageman. I seem to recall that he was called on the carpet before for making similar remarks about the Brazilian commmunity, as well as numerous pejorative comments about women, the homeless, Hyannis residents, etc, etc, etc.
The Garbageman is just one big psychologically unbalanced stew of hatred, contempt and arrogance towards anyone that has the audacity to disagree with him.
The only so-called Cogger worse than the Garbageman is his JESTER, a fool who should be heavily medicated most of the time. The JESTER worries me….a Virginia Tech kind of guy.
While these folks have a few followers who believe their 1/4 truths, they have greatly overestimated their disciples….Jesus probably had more at the Last Supper.
Unfortunately, some the disciplines are willing to show up for their 3 minutes of fame every other Thursday, and are willing to make slanderous comments to gain it.
“Come all ye Coggers, drink a shot of the Garbageman’s Purple Koolaid and make a toast to the demise of constructive criticism…”
In reality, they folks are like Ann Coulter, Lush Rimbaugh, and the other hate mongers….they provide entertainment for the masses, not ideas. They are no more than the Jerry Springers of the political world.
It does seem that when it comes to our local bloggers, they seem to recall what Hitler wrote about the need to tell the “big lie”…and they do it well.
The Coddah
Comment by coddah — April 18, 2007 #
the following are updates from some of the email messages received today:
UPDATE 5:00pm: The following is the text from an email just received
8:00 pm: someone else sent me a copy and asked that I put it up on my server
and have now taken it down – because the comment is so offensive.
But it is important to see that these guys are not above this sort of thing.
According to another email message I received tonight, this is not the first time he has used such language.
Another email asked that I point out that his slurs are not only racial, ethnic and sexist, but he is has targeted and offended religious affiliations as well.
Thanks for all of the input thus far. It is encouraging to know so many people are fed up with this stuff.
11:00 pm Just got an email showing a post on one of the lopez cog blogs- saying that, now this is funny, one of us posted a comment to lopez’s blog and made it so that the formatting wouldn’t line up and forced him to take down his racial slur. The comment goes on to suggets that I myself posted that slur with some sort of evil code so that I could accuse him of, well posting a slur. LOL! Anyone with basic html skills can see that lopez pasted a formatted spread sheet into a blog template and that spreadsheet screwed up the template code… it is easy to see that lopez did this to himself! ALSO, just for fun, do a google search on blog libel…. comments are just as culpable as posts all –the blog administrator is responsible, and Lopez has shown college kids from all over the country that he will remove any comments that don’t conform to his diatribes de jour.
Comment by jjcc — April 18, 2007 #
I have had enough of these guys – it is time for them to be sued!
Comment by lesrmore — April 19, 2007 #
Hi Janet-
Your writing style seems to intimidate these guys.
I look forward to your “fairy tale” about Lopez. Do you expect to see him leave the house and come to a town council meeting anytime soon?
I went to the blog site that you referred to above (won’t mention the name so we won’t be drawing any attention to them) and you are right – that guy is accusing you of somehow managing to break into the lopez COG blog and rearrange his formatting then writing a racial slur using his rhetorical voice.
What a joke!
Tell them that if you were going to go to that kind of trouble, you would have done a whole lot more damage than that!
And they are mocking the idea that Lopez is a king of pajamas. All this from a guy who writes posing as a frigging pug dog!
I think we are breaking their stride here.
I will be researching libel and will post some comments.
Comment by ccseadog — April 19, 2007 #
I was talking to people after a meeting today and I can’t believe how many other people want to see COG sued.Why not file a lawsuit? People say they’re protected by free speech but if a newspaper can’t write this stuff why can a web page just because it is a blog?
What did the district atty say about the mail and slander issues? Will you be putting that here or will you at least send an email out about that?
Thank you keep up the good work.
lt
Comment by lesrmore — April 19, 2007 #
Great story!
BUT I am worried that we are giving these idiots too much attention. With all that is going on right now in the world giving these guys any audience just doesn’t seem like a good idea.
I think Janet should post the “fairy tale” later after this Virginia tech stuff has subsided.
We all know it is important to post it, especially those of us who have read some of it.
Janet and I have kids in tech colleges and I don’t think anymore focus should be given to the crazy people in this world. We all know that there are a couple among this little group of crazy misfits who could pop and none of us would be surprised.
I think we need to take a break for a little bit and focus on the positive, let the functioning psychotics stew a little.
How about those red sox?
Comment by sandyneckcraigville — April 19, 2007 #
Thanks lesrmore – we have a long-range plan for all that – we won’t be posting any of that here as this is clearly being read by those that would be “involved.”
I am working today on the secret code needed to hack into blogs to rearrange formatting and create comments that insult others … roflol -
I am going to make millions on that one!
I found an old email from the king o pajamas where he bragged about his mob affiliations…. maybe they turned on him and sabotaged his blog, rearranging his formatting and using racial slurs, rather than send vito out to visit him!
Comment by jjcc — April 19, 2007 #
Thanks sandyneckcraigville-
You might have a point. The whole thing has hit home for me with two daughters in colleges, one in a tech college.
What kind of advice do you give them during this type of ordeal? Been spending a lot of time on the phone with them.
Unfortunatley, three people have emailed me tonight about a comment on the slog blog-sorry, now it is four people….
These people are not only above racial, ethnic and sexist slurs, they have now stooped to a new low…
I haven’t been on the site but three people copied and sent me emails with this:
wow.
These people are truly sick.
Comment by jjcc — April 19, 2007 #
Janet I haven’t taken time to read the slog tonight. Seems like others have done it for me.
I agree that you should wait on the fairy tale – then you should get back to writing about other things. These guys are loving the attention.
The “Pajama King” – I like that by the way – will be angry when your story is up. If you think they are ugly and low now, wait till you give them more material to work with.
It is sort of like spilling the grape Koolaid on the ground and watching the little picnic ants gather. Just step on them and move on.
They can spew the nastist crap at others but God forbid you hit back.
Gary can sink to the lowest of lows in his little world of prejudice and pain creating all kinds of characters, resurecting old scripts from black and white movies projecting town government into the roles of evil, quoting broadway plays one day and scenes from the bible the next, while keeping a rolling group of groupies most of whom don’t even understand the references.
But if anyone takes a crack at Gary or his groupies they go nuts.
The psychological state of mind of some of his deputies is of great concern to those who watch.
If had I ended up having that one guy show me a house I would be asking for police protection or better yet, I would look elsewhere.
Comment by ccseadog — April 19, 2007 #
thanks seadog!
seems like the king o pjs and company expects us to take it, but not dish it out – while they can dish it out but can’t take it.
a simple “thats what you are but what am I” might suffice.
Comment by jjcc — April 19, 2007 #
As a college student taking an Intro to Psychology course, I have just recently learned the textbook classifications and characteristics of mental disorders. It’s eerie how some of these coggers fit the descriptions so well, even looking at their webposts alone. Especially with their rambling hatred towards just about anything, their paranoia, and their lack of coherency. It’s sad that these troubled minds have been able to stir up so much attention on themselves. And it’s no surprise that they have such a small amount of committed followers.
The only one who should be listening to their crap is a therapist.
Comment by kilgoretroutkv — April 19, 2007 #
A friend was here today and took a look at one of the blogs-
This guy who writes as a silly little dog, continues to post like a sports commentator watching some sort of game.
He is on the sidelines speaking as a expert, but he has no clue as to what is going on. He claims that during the governor’s visit the other night, someone spoke about the airport and that threw me into some sort of psychological tale spin.
He obviously wasn’t there because he thinks that the governor was favorable to this speaker.
The speaker asked the governor to support ($?) a study to move the airport to Otis. Trust me, the governor was being polite.
LOL-
The discussions about the COG group happened long before the governor, and my response to recent racial, ethnic, religious, and sexist slurs was not prompted by that meeting Monday night.
I don’t think Monday night’s speaker gained crediblity if he is associated with COG. The governor doesn’t appreciate racism.
And, the discussion about COG didn’t involve people who read that blog regularly, it was more about the newspaper coverage as well as lots of comments who are familiar with Lopez and the kind of damage he has done to so many arguments.
Most people had stopped paying attention to him long ago and find it interesting that he found the world of blogging in pajamas as an outlet…
I guess he was kicked off of a couple of commercial blog sites before the little dog set him up.
What a fabulous day! The sun is out and the Yankees are coming!
Comment by jjcc — April 20, 2007 #
I was getting ready to leave the office for the weekend when I got an email about Gary Lopez.
I wanted to share this portion of the email: “This man (the message was about Lopez) continues to bury himself in a nest of depression. He cannot hide his racism, and perhaps in an effort to explain or excuse the slander on his site, he creates an image of a pure out and out racist pig. This must be stopped.”
The email was forwarded to me by a high school student.
I looked at the site and wish I hadn’t. I am sick to my stomach, the man is beyond shame. I think we all need to take a break and let the guy self destruct.
It seems, however, that according to the rest of the email there are people out there who are not going to let this guy get away with this.
I am off to little league practice. At Lorusso field by the way.
Comment by ccseadog — April 20, 2007 #
Great job on your new blog. For another perspective, try BarnstableBlog.blogspot.com
Comment by hyannis — April 20, 2007 #
thanks-seadog
I just saw that email this evening.
It had been forwarded 4 or 5 times before it got to me.
I won’t go into any more detail than what you commented about, but it is an interesting idea.
The group that surrounds the slogged glob is truly shrinking. Did you see the part about the apology from the person who used to be a regular on that blog? I don’t want to give too much away, but that will be an interesting meeting.
Comment by jjcc — April 20, 2007 #
Great new blog – if you haven’t had a chance to visit:
barnstable.blogspot.com – take a moment to do so.
Great potential there.
Comment by jjcc — April 20, 2007 #