Furthermore! – Rumors and Blame
Rumors and blame travel fast, so I’m going to head this one off at the pass. I didn’t cause yesterday’s power outage in Flint, Michigan. Yes, I know, the headline begins Squirrel causes Flint power outage. That’s headline shorthand for “a squirrel.” The rest of the story doesn’t implicate me and, despite rumors to the contrary, I was not involved. I was at the BPI main campus in South Blogistan all day with Mrs. Squirrel and our new baby girls, Nancy and Michelle. Regis was here too, so don’t blame him either. I wasn’t the squirrel who “infiltrated” the substation or damage the isolator that allowed a short, leaving 6000 people without power.
In fact, I wonder why the Flint Journal‘s Roberto Acosta chose the word “infiltrated.” That makes it sound like the squirrel was on a secret mission to undermine the city’s electrical system, perhaps to crash Michael Moore’s computer so he’ll stop hinting that President Obama ordered the raids that shut down Occupy camps across the country. That rumor spread quickly, too.
Last night, Wonkette posted Surprise, Homeland Security Coordinates #OWS Crackdowns:
But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today. [...]
Wonkette then quotes an article by Rick Ellis at Examiner.com:
Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.
Ellis cites an unnamed official, and Examiner.com is not exactly the most reliable source. But not to worry. Wonkette says this AP story “verifies everything except the specific mention of DHS coordination.” In fact, the AP story merely repeats what other media had reported over the course of the day – that officials of several cities talked with each other about how to respond to their local Occupy gatherings – before expressly denying the shutdowns were part of a centralized plan:
While riot police sweeping through tent cities in Portland, Ore., Oakland, Calif. and New York City over the last several days may suggest a coordinated effort, authorities and a group that organized the calls say they were a coincidence.
“It was completely spontaneous,” said Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a national police group that organized calls on Oct. 11 and Nov. 4. Among the issues discussed: safety, traffic and the fierceness of demonstrations in each city.
“This was an attempt to get insight on what other departments were doing,” he said.
It’s rather like saying Mark Twain writing “the report of my death was an exaggeration” verifies everything except the specific fact of his death.
Last night on CurrentTV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Moore repeated the charge:
This is being coordinated by the federal government. [Moore then cites the Examiner.com story] This is not some coincidence. This was planned and I think the question really has to be asked of the federal government and of the Obama administration. Why? Why? Why are you participating in this against a non-violent mass movement of people who are upset at what Wall Street and the banks have done to their lives?
Olbermann then quotes an Obama spokesperson on Air Force One – then en route to Australia – saying that each municipality would have to make its own policies on the Occupy movement. That’s hardly an admission of federal coordination. Quite the contrary. Add that with the local officials admitting they discussed their concerns in conference calls but denying any coordinated plan …
… and the Obama Did It argument comes down to one story, at an unreliable site, based on a single, unnamed source, being treated as proof because it fits the narrative that Moore and others were predisposed to believe.
Of course, my disagreeing with Moore will be taken as proof I plotted with the squirrel who “infiltrated” the power substation in Moore’s hometown. Oh well.
Good day and good nuts.
Nice report squirrel. #mmflint managed to disgust quite a few folks in the Twitterverse with that one.
A later Tweet quoted Moore as saying he wasn’t accusing President Obama of ordering the OWS crackdown, but was “just asking the question.” I could find no attributable source for that bit of political nuttitude, so I left it out of the story. But “just asking the question” is supposed to be a Fox News tactic.
Good day and good nuts.
Michael Moore occasionally makes sense and at other times seems to have perfected the same magical thinking of conspiracy theorists. I wonder if the schedulers at the shows probe ahead of time to see if he is having a “makes sense” moment or a “magical thinking” moment. One never knows.
This …
… is an excellent summation. Since the Examiner.com story broke, no other news sources have corroborated that account. And as Angry Black Lady noted, Examiner.com is the same source that on November 6th broke the story that President Obama visited Mars in the 1980s:
This is hardly a reliable source….
Good day and good nuts.
Obama’s White House has already publicly stated that the rights of the protesters to protest must be preserved. The response you would expect from a Constitutional scholar.
But evidently that doesn’t matter either. Some shadowy cabal at the upper levels of government must be blamed for what cities chose or chose not to do.
MM has totally tipped over the edge.
It’s hardly surprising that city officials held conference calls to discuss how to respond to their Occupy camps. The officials say they didn’t coordinate their actions. That so many cities whose officials participated in the conference calls did not shut down their local Occupy camps lends credence to the claim that city officials were sharing concerns but did not form a coordinated plan.
Good day and good nuts.
MM is one of those people who will say what garners him attention – and money. He’s been called out numerous times for his conspicuous absences when he has a financial stake, and his willingness to jump into the spotlight when it serves him.
Moore can be a powerful progressive voice; SiCKO unquestionably helped build public support for health care reform. But he can also spout off on a topic du jour without checking his facts, and too often does.
Good day and good nuts.