Did One GOP Thug Reveal Too Much About Himself In a Recent Threat?

Bob Riley

Early on in the blogging game I realized that if you are going to present real journalism about legal and political corruption, you had better be prepared to receive threats.

Corrupt individuals and their allies don't much like it when you unmask them--or come close to unmasking them. So they resort to making threats, sent anonymously via e-mail or blog comments.

I've had messages that could be interpreted as physical threats. I had messages regarding my job, just a month or so before I was unlawfully fired at the  University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). I've even had numerous ugly messages regarding Murphy, the late beloved miniature schnauzer for whom this blog is named. In my book, it's hard to go much lower than that.

But one of the more intriguing threats I've received came a few days ago, in response to a post about former Governor Bob Riley and his motorcycle crash in Alaska. This threat is curious because the sender left so many clues about his identity that he might as well have signed his name to it. And the message indicates that, as I've suspected all along, this individual and his allies are responsible for me being screwed out of my job at UAB--and probably for my wife being cheated out of her job at Infinity Property and Casualty.

I've received so many ugly messages that one has to be pretty "out there" to even get my attention these days. In fact, threats have become so commonplace around here that I've written a number of posts about them. Here are just a few posts on the subject:


Unmasking Right-Wing Sickos (July 20, 2008)

Report on Anti-Obama E-Mail Generates Threats (February 18, 2009)

Threats Are a Common Tactic for Alabama GOP (November 30, 2009)

Is Alabama Being Run by a Bunch of Sociopaths (January 26, 2010)

I Know How Wisconsin Professor Feels as a Target of GOP Thugs (March 28, 2011)


How did the most recent threat jump out in that crowd? First, the sender seemed to take offense because I was not all broken up about Bob Riley's motorcycle crash--and I had noted that Riley used his venture to Alaska as an excuse to get out of testifying in the Alabama bingo trial. Second, the sender used some curious language. Here is what he said:

Anonymous said...
It is beyond any sense of humanity to write such a pathetic article. But you did get one thing right: PAYBACK IS HELL ....and yours is a "fait accompli".
June 28, 2011 2:43 PM

Note the use of classic sociopathic language. The sender takes me to task for lacking a "sense of humanity," then he proceeds to show that his own sense of humanity involves extracting "payback" on people who displease him. He doesn't say that my payback will be hell, he says it's a "fait accompli."

What an interesting choice of words. "Fait accompli" is a French term meaning "an accomplished, presumably irreversible deed or fact." In essence, it's a "done deal."

The use of this phrase indicates My Correspondent (MC) is fairly educated, especially since he spelled it correctly. It's the kind of term that someone in a certain profession, perhaps the law, might use. In fact, a source knows of a specific lawyer,  a regular villain in our Legal Schnauzer story, who uses this phrase quite often.

Given MC's ire over a post about Bob Riley, it appears that he is someone close to the former governor, perhaps someone very close, with a legal background. Hmmm.

And note that MC is not just threatening me with some future harm--the action already has been taken, it's a "done deal." Kind of sounds like someone is admitting to getting me fired at UAB, doesn't it?

MC, it seems, is a slippery sort. We've seen signs that he took several steps in an effort to digitally disguise himself. But he failed. And that reminds me of two things I've learned in recent years about elitist scumbags--the very people who tend to drive legal corruption in the US of A:

(1) They almost always think that regular folks are too stupid to figure out their scams;

(2) They almost always think that regular folks are too decent and kind--or intimidated--to strike back.

MC might be surprised at the things I've come to know about him. He also might be surprised at my capability for striking back.

Here's another thing I've learned about elitist thugs: They aren't always so smart about picking their targets.   MC should be having second thoughts about having messed with this target.