David Horowitz's witch hunting online database exposed

[angka]

Breaking via the RMPN:

His followthenetwork.org is about to launch. Here's how Horowitz described it;

"Ben Johnson's lead feature on today's frontpagemag.com was made possible as the result of a new project we have been working on for almost a year and which will be ready for launch later this spring. The project is a massive database on the left to be called followthenetwork.org. The research that went into Ben's article was the work of many hands engaged in putting together this database, but in the immediate case Mike Bauer's more than others. Mike is part of a team of writers and editors that is currently engaged in putting together the aforementioned site -- a long time ambition of mine -- which I am convinced will be an invaluable aid to journalists, researchers and activists attempting to penetrate the labyrinthine networks and layered fronts through which the left is able to carry on its corrosive agendas."

And, much to Horowitz' horror -- you can SEE THE SITE UNDER DEVELOPMENT HERE.

The radical right has spent 18 months and hundreds of thousands of dollars targetting a range of individuals and groups for this blacklist. "Features" include:

---10,000 records and 80 MB of data

---Massive numbers of individual academics across the nation. Clear proof that the academic bill of rights, and Horowitz, are all about McCarthy-ite blacklisting of academics.

--Virtually every GLBT group in the country, including the Gill Foundation in Colorado.

--Some wierd choices blacklisted, such as the Adult Right to Read Program at Pike's Peak Community College

--Pinko funding organizations including the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Ford Foundation all in the crosshairs

Thought the Horowitz/Andrews/Mitchell Conservative Student Bill of Rights was about academic freedom? It's all about power for the right wing -- just check out the database.

[ex_jew]

1. The Sara Lee Foundation is part of this conspiracy ?

But nobody doesn't like Sara Lee ! (except David Horowitz, I guess)

[Eric J in MN]

28. So is The Wall St. Journal. Apparently, that publication is too liberal

So is The Wall St. Journal. Apparently, that publication is too liberal for David Horowitz.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. we need one of these for the right wing

I think namebase.org started all this, back in the pre-internet days. It's a great way to understand your political opposition - a database of all the players and their connections.

[Muddleoftheroad]

4. Having done database work

This is not just a mammoth undertaking to create, it is far worse to maintain. We are talking tons of experienced staff time to maintain. Each entry needs to be updated on a regular basis. URLs need to be checked. News needs to be updated. Contributions need to be added. New groups will grow. Old groups will fold. The lines will blur between them. A proper database will cover all that and take more time than you or I really wish to commit.

[feistydem]

11. Yes, but...

The Horowitz group doesn't give a whit about accuracy. They will probably add any list sent to them by a "member" of their klan.

[Muddleoftheroad]

16. I disagree there

The list will be useless to them unless it is done well. That means there is no point in doing what you suggest.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

20. not at all, it would be easy

It's just a standard name, address, phone number database - with a way to add relations for memberships, connections, donations, etc. We would have to make it collaborative to allow many people to do updates and corrections. Wikipedia is a good example of that sort of teamwork.

Allow anyone to make initial entries, some automated checking for sanity and duplicates, a moderator check after that.

The major datatype is people, actual individual human beings. The next major datatype is organizations, which have members/connections that are the actual individual people. More exotic associations would be campaign donations, jobs, schools/frats, etc.

[Muddleoftheroad]

27. Boy you oversimplify things

Remember the expression, garbage in, garbage out.

No, it shouldn't be a standard name, address, phone number database. It should include contributions -- both political and financial. It should also have latest news items and dirt, if any, on the people involved.

You can't have ordinary folks contribute to something like that because it would be infiltrated and messed with.

I have gathered information on orgs before in a non-nefarious manner and it is time consuming and needs to be constantly updated.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. Horowitz is

a snake

[madrchsod]

3. bicycles

yes bicycle groups are a leftist organizations bent on overthrowing the united states... that the dumbest list of groups i`ve ever seen....

[bryant69]

6. Put's the lie to Horowitz's grand standing

he's got no problem with Conservative point of views being rammed down student's throats--but liberals have to all be tracked.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[MattBaggins]

7. The Jane Goodall Institute

About time someone exposed Jane Goddall for the raving seditionist she is. Evil evil woman.

[feistydem]

8. Triple A threat?

According to the site, AAA: "Funds studies on traffic safety, etc. Pro-regulation."

Ohmygod! Those lefty traffic safety-lovin' creeps...

Horowitz is a crackpot. Whenever he, Ann Coulter, Tom Delay, Pat Robertson, Sean Hannity, etc. etc. get on TV and start spewing their hateful, crazy rhetoric I just smile. Those are the voices of the rightwing.

It makes the whole bunch of bananas look rotten.

Keep talking folks. It speaks volumes for the rightwing's agenda.

[starroute]

9. The right is looking in a distorting mirror and seeing itself

The key phrase in the quote from Horowitz is "the labyrinthine networks and layered fronts through which the left is able to carry on its corrosive agendas."

That's not an accurate description of the left, but it clearly fits the right -- with its good-old-boy networks, its interlocking front groups, its astroturf stealth campaigns, and all the rest.

It's the right that is supported by funding organizations with stealth agendas, not the left. It's the right that creates fake populist or community interest groups with deceptive names in order to push an elitist, screw-the-little-guy agenda.

Just as the Republicans start screaming the loudest about Democratic "dirty tricks" when they're hatching dirty tricks themselves, so the right sees a labyrinthine network with a corrosive agenda when the only such network and agenda are their own.

[bobthedrummer]

10. I remember the days of Operation CHAOS under Nixon

that included domestic wetwork. I'm not being dramatic here-this is true.
Every resource of the Federal government was used to disrupt black nationalists and The New Left at first, "communist" hippies and street people later.

Some, like Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, were assassinated IMHO.
Others were sold.

[feistydem]

12. Lest we forget...

This nation's government sent National Guardsmen in to Kent State University to subdue student anti-war protesters. Opening fire on its own citizens and killing several was their response to dissent.

Nothing is impossible during a revolution --even a 'peaceful' one.

[bobthedrummer]

17. Welcome to DU

feistydem! BFEE is capable of anything, they are RW fascists in my book-traitors.
:hi:

[feistydem]

21. Yep.

I think we keep hearing from the right that this will be "a close election" because that is how they plan to explain it when they attempt to steal the WH again with vote fraud and election theft.

[chascarrillo]

13. You can judge the intellectual rigor of the database...

... by noticing that most of the entries are alphabetized by their first name. Noam Chomsky is under "N". Hillary Clinton is under "H". A true laugh riot.

[angka]

14. oh that is goddamn hilarious...

didn't notice that before. rofl...

[Muddleoftheroad]

18. They are listed both ways I think

Remember, this is just a demo somebody through together. I am sure the final, which none of us will ever see, will be vetted.

[Stephanie]

25. No wonder! This is the only thing I got when I searched Clinton

Clinton / Gore GLBT Re-election Committee Colorado
Enter brief description here

[tom_paine]

15. No, I never doubted that the "Academic Bill of Rights" was an Orwellian

grotesquerie designed to chill free and open excahnge of ideas and to do essentially what the Bushevik have been accusing the Left of doing all this time, bullying free expression on campus.

But then Totalitarian Bootlickers have been accusing their enemies of what they're doing themselves since Totalitarianism superseded monarchy as the Monarchists' Favorite Authoritarian System of Government.

I Just ask myself "What Would Marcos Do?" and the answer pops out!

[Elidor]

22. Oddly enough

There was a thread here a while back in which one or more DUers defended Horowitz' Academic Bill of Rights crap and questioned the motives of anyone who questioned Horowitz' motives.

I forget who they were, but I'd love to see them come defend their champion in this thread. Then again - they've probably long since been tombstoned.

[Az]

19. Yes Dave, the left is just that organized

We have nets of incredibly structured activist groups just waiting for their marching orders. Personal drive and ideals are nothing to our monolithic organization. Every step, every action designed to bring down the wholesome qualities of America. Damn Horowitz and his vigalence. Everything is ruined now.

Several online atheists after being repeatedly accused of orchestrating all manner of social coups decided to create an online organization called Evil Atheist Conspiracy (EAC). It was a mock org that claims to be behind every conspiracy theory. We control the Illumunati (etc). Perhaps something similar to this is required to bust Horowitz's tirade. An Evil Liberal Conspiracy (ALC). We can take credit for every thing that drives conservatives up the wall.

[angka]

23. they've got a little list kick

hey hey

[Djinn]

24. since when is Abu Sayaf a left group?????

last I heard they were pretty much a fundie bunch of crackpot - Qutb following muslim fanatics...and that's just the first letter...the rest of it is packed full of Islamic fundamentalist who have long been known for their support of progressive causes?!?!?!?!?!?

[angka]

26. no no.

it's all about linking osama bin laden to the unitarians.

just gotta follow the network, baby.

[Djinn]

29. right

guess I should I be worried about those beardy types at refugee justice meetings, bound to be Al Qaeda

[angka]

30. don't you get it? we're all al qaeda!

a turban and an AK in every liberal's closet, damn you!

[Djinn]

31. well I have to plead guilty

according to various pollies I've been giving succour to them atleast, strange coz I didn't even know what that was, I wonder when we all stopped being devil worshipping communists though?

[Michael Harrington]

32. The next time

This tiresome buffoon is on some allegedly objective news program, someone should ask him about this garbage, and list the absurd examples that we've found in a simple, cursory look. Expose what sort of demented cretin he really is.

[angka]

33. oh horowitz is FREAKING OUT TODAY...

he pulled the original site down last night. fortunately he was already mirrored six ways from sunday...our link above still works fine.

the blogs are heating up on this, peggy lower in this morning's denver post was just devastating!

Horowitz said he was "flabbergasted" Monday when told of some of the Colorado groups listed on the site. Editors and researchers he hired entered that information and he hadn't seen it, Horowitz said.

a hahahaha...

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/politics/article/0,1299,DRMN_35_2660420,00.html