This is a story about the Professor and the Blog Bullies.The blog bullies are Bill and Angie Villa, who troll and spam the local blogosphere, and continue torturing their victims on their own hate blog. They've pilloried Allentown City Council member Michael Donovan, hung Lehigh County Exec Don Cunningham and beheaded LC Comm'rs Chair Dean Browning. Villa Vengeance is visited on these elected officials solely because they refuse to boycott yours truly. You see, I'm an "evil sadist" and a "a danger to our community." They've recommended I commit suicide.
They've also crucified a Catholic seminarian whose sole offense is that he prays for them ... and is my friend. When Villa recently saw him inside a courthouse, he pretended to shake the cleric's hand, but instead gave him a forearm to the gut, while shouting that he's "a piece of shit who will burn in hell." In the meantime, his lawyer was laughing and encouraging him. Villa and his mouthpiece were ejected.
This seminarian must be a danger to the community, too.
Nasty people. They represent everything that's wrong in the blogosphere. I've featured Villa in the picture above in the way I most often imagine him. If he doesn't like it, he can sue me.
Oh wait, he already has, and has been busily sending out emails to notify the entire world. One person, who asked to be left alone, got this response: "Will do xxxxxx, and fuck you."
Now he's compiling a list of people he's going to drag into open court for the horrendous offense of knowing me. That must be a separate offense.
Enter the professor.
I first became familiar with Jeff Pooley, an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg, when I started blogging. I was attracted by his fearless intellectual honesty and his commitment to downtown Allentown, where he lives. I once had dinner with him, but that's the only time we ever met in person. Nevertheless, I view him as an ally in the cause of open and transparent government. He and I can and do often disagree, but I like the guy.
When Jeff started blogging again, at Allentown Afterthoughts, I quickly linked to him and have even started imitating his headline posts with some of the one-liners you see here.
Now when I mentioned that Jeff and I often disagree, let me tell you that they can be very public disputes. Just last week, for example, he ripped me apart for posting an essay critical of a fellow Allentown activist. The little bastard used my own words against me, which I consider cheating. But he did it well.
If I weren't me, I'd be forced to agree with him.
He looks out for the little guy. He was looking out for an Allentown activist he thought I unfairly slammed, and now, he's looking out for a blogger who has been run out of the blogosphere by the Villas.
That blogger is LVCI. Known for his careful research and numerous links, he's called it a day. It's pretty much the result of harassment and intimidation from the Villas, our local blog bullies. Like so many others, he's had to enable comment moderation to avoid their repetitive spam comments, linking back to their blog. He's also had to endure the impersonations, another favored Villa tactic. But what really got him out of Dodge is their threat to subpoena him in their goofy lawsuit against me.
Pooley decries LVCI's departure from Blogistan, and condemns this Villa cyber-bullying as both "counterproductive and illiberal."
Is illiberal a word?
Naturally, the Villas stopped feeding on LVCI and immediately began to trash Pooley. They've been attacking him since, while simultaneously demanding a meeting.
Pooley explains why he won't be meeting them anytime soon.
"I've decided not to call you, after reading your post and comments. I wanted a conversation, but you have already called me a "douchebag," a "loyal Team O'Hare Lap Dog," "another pussy whipped" and much more--before we even had a chance to talk. That's not a conversation. It is, instead, a good example of the "tactics" that I was referring to in my post.
"Let me make one thing clear first: I really do feel horrible about your loss, and would *never* claim to understand the unspeakable toll it must continue to take. That's what matters most in all of this.
"Still, I stand by what I wrote: I refuse to comment on your dispute with O'Hare and others because I don't know enough.
"Most of the people you list for subpoena in the comments from Monday's post I have never met--many I have never even heard of before. When I started paying attention to LV blogs again last spring or so, it was obvious that I had walked into a massive battle that was--and is--murky to me. Though I had blogged back in 2005 and 2006, my new young family and time commitments had kept me away from what was (and is) a luxury for me--writing and commenting about Allentown issues. I don't know anything about your dispute with the Morning Call and its "Welcome Mat." I don't know anything about the trial(s). I've seen references to a Troll Parade (?), but have never seen it and don't know what it is--beyond some of your statements, which I trust, that some very very vile stuff has been posted there. It seems there are suits and counter-suits, and I have no idea about what the underlying issues are.
"All I know is that when I waded back into the blog world it was clear that you are very pissed off, and that you believe that you've been wronged, not just by the justice system but by local bloggers.
"Perhaps you could argue that it is my duty to dig back into all this and try to reconstruct for myself what has happened over the last couple of years. Maybe it is, and that's been my intention. Like many other things, I just haven't had time yet. I have two children under five, a very demanding job, and a number of center city Allentown commitments.
"What I mean by "tactics" are the vicious name-calling, the "(for now)"-style implied threats, the insistence that public figures and blog readers shun others' blogs--that kind of thing. I know that you believe these aggressive steps (your "offense") are justified based on the wrongs that others have inflicted on you. Here's where I disagree, even without knowing enough about the wrongs themselves.
"It's trite and cliched, but I firmly believe that the ends don't justify the means. In my view--and not to get too grand about it--this is the main lesson of the 20th century. That's what I meant about "illiberal": trying to shut off others' voices in the name of a just cause is a contradiction in terms, to me. So I have been unsettled, since I started paying attention to local blogs, with the means that you've been using to correct the injustices you see.
"Let me put it this way. I find it plausible that O'Hare and others behaved callously toward you, or worse. I don't, however, know that: I simply have not seen the proof (despite the sidebar content, which I have read). But let's just assume that it is true, for the sake of argument: it still wouldn't justify the comparisons to Hitler, the campaign to stop people from reading or commenting on his blog, the "allied evil sadists" claims, etc. On moral grounds, I think you're wrong to conduct yourself this way. I also think that you end up engaging in a form of friendly fire, where your tactics--fairly or not--draw attention away from your cause.
"I am a natural ally. I care about center city Allentown like you do. I share your liberal politics. (I'm probably to your left; I'd like to see the US look more like Sweden.) I applaud the work that you and Angie have done with the arts in Allentown.
"And yet--despite remaining neutral on grounds of ignorance--you jump to "douchebag", "loyal Team O'Hare Lap Dog," "another pussy whipped," etc.
"My own alarm at your tactics went up a notch when you started attacking Michael Donovan, whom I admire and respect. I couldn't find any explanation for your vitriolic attacks on him, and I know, from personal experience, that the things that you've written about him are unfair at best.
"Like I said, I don't know most of the people you list. I do know Mike Molovinsky a bit, and though I frequently disagree with him, I respect his smart and passionate blogging. I do know Bernie O'Hare a bit, from my early blogging days. Though I often disagree with him too--and dislike his press-release pass-along treatment of Dent and Cunningham, alongside auto-rejection of Pawlowski (and now Callahan)--my own experience is that he is a gifted writer, a pretty tireless investigator, who genuinely cares about issues like sunshine in government. Is he sometimes rude? Yes. Is he willing to admit when he's wrong? Not very often.
"Has he treated you terribly? I genuinely don't know. I intend to do my own digging, and come up with my own judgment. Even if he has, your version of "offense" is both wrong and counterproductive, in my view. Why not blog about the substance of your dispute with the Call, with others, with O'Hare, without resorting to the name-calling, the us-vs.-them "allied evil sadists" talk, and all the rest?
"Please post my note in full, or not at all. I'm not going to say anything more about it until I know more."
Now, the Villas are going to "subpoena" Pooley, too.
Update: Villa Unhinged! Someone scouring Villa's hate blog last night, copied and forwarded this troubling statement, posted by Bill Villa, at 10:57 PM:
"Hi Bernie, question: is it “criminal harassment” (wink wink) if you voluntarily come here (as you do 10X a day) to read what I have to say to you in the next few sentences? I mean as compared to me emailing it to you … or embossing it on the head of a hammer and beating you over the head w/ it (which I would never do; I don’t know how to emboss). Let me cut (not a threat) to the chase: you have met your match, and it’s me. I intend to be the worst nightmare of your miserable life for as long as you live. When you die, I’ll be at your viewing, to secretly spit in your face. I’m hoping, during the upcoming months, which promise to be very stressful for someone as near-morbidly obese as you are, that you’ll pop an aneurysm in your brain or aorta and drop fuckin’ dead. And this would be a blessing, really, compared to the relentless and endless payback I have in store for you through perfectly legal channels … for what you have had the nerve (and stupidity) to even try pulling on me and my family. You’ve been fucking w/ the wrong pissed off grieving father. So now it’s time for you to suffer .."
Like I said, nasty people.