Obama reportedly used pseudonym to email Hillary Clinton on her private email server

President Obama apparently used a pseudonym to hide his emails with Hillary Clinton on her private server.  Given that almost everything that the president sends out is considered classified, using the pseudonym may have been done to hide that he was involved in committing a crime.

President Obama used a pseudonym when sending or receiving emails through the private server system Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state, according to nearly 200 pages of documents released Friday by the FBI. 

Included in the documents are notes from an April 2016 interview with long-time Clinton aide Huma Abedin, conducted in connection with the FBI’s two-year investigation into Clinton’s use of the private server for official correspondence. 

One note was about the FBI showing Abedin an email address “believed to be a pseudonym used by the President,” as reported by Politico and other news-gathering agencies. 

Abedin said she didn’t recognize the name and “expressed her amazement” that Obama apparently used a pseudonym. 

She also exclaimed, “How is this not classified?” according to the documents. . . .

federal lawyers will not release the emails, citing executive privilege. . . .

Another interesting story that came up recently was Chelsea Clinton use of the pseudonym "Diane Reynolds" in her emails.  Possibly the most famous exchange between Chelsea and Hillary involved discussing the Benghazi attack.

The Washington Post explains why famous people might legitimately want to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy.  

How does the alias-at-a-hotel system work? Fake names are as useful to protect against staff as against the outside world, Danger pointed out, writing: "Staff is trained and required to sign confidentially agreements about guests overall, but when it's really big name sometimes they can get excited and forget." But why does it matter? Paparazzi, for one. "Paps often try to pay line-level hotel employees for inside info (room numbers, etc)," Danger said. "Leaking that info was a fireable offense at our property." 

It's not only to shield celebrities from the paparazzi, but from stalkers, those horrible people from the media, and other guests. Or political opponents, according to Carlos. "We have had members of royal families who don’t want anyone to know where they are for political reasons." Clearly it is not the case that Chelsea Clinton is from a royal family and wouldn't want to be seen in Ottumwa, Iowa for political reasons.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson resigns over apparent content of emails written under pseudonym

Apparently, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson as well as the Obama administration has not admitted that the reason for her leaving the administration has anything to do with the emails that she sent out using a pseudonym.  What may have caused her concern is not the fact that she sent out these emails using a pseudonym but apparently the content of the emails.  Obama praised Jackson, but did not criticize her in anyway for her email activity.  Her use of these emails would at least seem to break Obama's promise of transparency, and that promise appears to have been further broken by Obama not admitting that the emails served as the reason for her leaving.  From Fox News:

A Washington attorney suing the Obama administration for access to alias emails sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson claims that a recent decision by the Justice Department to release thousands of those emails next month contributed to her resigning Thursday.
Jackson, in a brief written statement, said Thursday she is leaving the EPA after four years on the job, for "new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference."
The agency did not offer an explanation. But Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the scrutiny over the alias emails is clearly a factor.
"Life's full of coincidences, but this is too many," he told FoxNews.com. "She had no choice."
Horner and CEI earlier this year had sued the EPA for documents pertaining to Jackson's use of alias email accounts. She was said to operate under the name "Richard Windsor" -- the use of those accounts has since drawn the scrutiny of Republican members of Congress, as well as triggered an audit by the EPA inspector general. . . .

Yet another Obama administration official using a pseudonym to hide email accounts, Lois Lerner follows Lisa Jackson and many other Obama officials

Lisa Jackson and many others at the EPA used a pseudonym to hide their identities.  In Jackson's case, she pretended to be a man, Richard Windsor, who actually won real awards granted by the EPA.  Now it turns out that Lois Lerner also disguised herself as a guy to hide her emails from prying eyes. The Washington Times reports:

. . . “In addition to emails to or from an email account denominated ‘Lois G. Lerner‘ or ‘Lois Home,’ some emails responsive to Judicial Watch’s request may have been sent to or received from a personal email account denominated ‘Toby Miles,’” Mr. Klimas told Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who is hearing the case. 

It is unclear who Toby Miles is, but Mr. Klimas said the IRS has concluded that was “a personal email account used by Lerner.” . . .

Joe Biden used Pseudonym Email Address while he was Vice President

 How Biden used personal email to share some government business with son Hunter\

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is now pressing National Archives to release unredacted emails between Biden, his son & business partners. 

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/ukraine-turkey-joe-biden-used-personal-email-share-some-government

In late November 2014 -- before the rest of the world knew that American Martin O'Connor was about to be released from detention in Turkey -- the U.S. embassy in Istanbul sent an email to the State Department that was then forwarded to senior advisers to then-Vice President Joe Biden, the Obama White House point man for many foreign policy crises.

"The lead attorney for Mr. O'Connor reports that the court granted the detention appeal and he expected Mr. O'Connor to be released from jail today, barring any unforeseen problems," the U.S. embassy in Istanbul wrote in an email that got forwarded to top Obama administration security and diplomacy officials, including current Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland. "Mr. O'Connor will not be allowed to leave the country until his next hearing which is set for December 11, 2014. The lawyer expressed confidence that he will be able to leave after that hearing. The attorney is handling his release arrangements, pick up and temporary housing near his law firm's office. Istanbul consular plans to speak with Mr. O'Connor after his release."

State Department officials forwarded the information to the vice president's office, where Biden aide Colin Kahl (now President Biden's Undersecretrary of Defense for Policy) sent it to the private email account robinware456@gmail.com. It wasn't just any private account. It was one of three pseudonym accounts used by Joe Biden. . . .

Trump judicial nominee used pseudonym in posting on political issues

Democrats upset that Trump judicial nominee made political posts under a pseudonym.

John Bush, President Donald Trump’s nominee for a vacancy on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was confirmed Thursday, after a contentious battle over blog posts he wrote under a pen name. 

Bush’s nomination was confirmed on a 51-47 vote that followed party lines.
“It is good to see Bush confirmed, but dozens of judicial nominees continue to languish in the Senate, where Senate Democrats continue to obstruct and delay,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network. Several of the president’s nominees, including Justice Joan Larsen and Justice David Stras, have not yet appeared for hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee due to Democratic obstruction. 

Larsen and Stras were nominated for vacancies arising in Michigan and Minnesota. By Senate tradition, hearings for judicial nominees are not held until the senators representing states where the vacancy occurs submit their approval to the chair of the judiciary committee. Both senators from Michigan and Minnesota are Democrats. . . . 

In a 2008 post, Bush wrote that slavery and abortion are “the two greatest tragedies in our country.” In the same post, he argued that Roe v. Wade and Dred Scott v. Sanford — an 1857 Supreme Court decision which found that slaves were not citizens — “relied on similar reasoning.” 

“John Bush’s anonymously published blog posts show that the Trump administration handpicked him to appease fringe elements of his base, individuals who share his agenda to roll back the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, and working people,” said Ilyse Hogue of NARAL Pro-Choice America. . . .

Yet another Obama administration official uses pseudonym in work emails: Eric Holder aka Lew Alcindor

Eric Holder joins Lisa Jackson, Lois Lerner, Obama administration in gun control push, Labor Department officials, and many others in the administration in using a pseudonym in emails and Twitter to hide their identity.  Obviously, Hillary Clinton hid here information from Freedom of Information Act requests in other ways.  From Fox News:

Former Attorney General Eric Holder not only used an email alias to conduct formal agency business, but appropriated the birth name of one of his idols, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, according to the Department of Justice. 

“I was floored,” said investigative journalist Jason Leopold, who received a batch of “heavily redacted” documents through a FOIA lawsuit this week. At the top was a letter, announcing that “emails in the enclosed documents which use the account name ‘Lew Alcindor’ (Abdul-Jabbar) denote emails to or from Attorney General Eric Holder.” 

“It was incredible,” said Leopold, who was seeking DOJ emails regarding a request for the agency to open a probe into charges that the CIA had been spying on the Senate intelligence committee staff. Leopold broke the story about the bizarre Holder-Alcindor alias for VICE News on Thursday. 

“People may say, ‘what’s the big deal?’ but this is so important,” Leopold tells FoxNews.com. He insists that using an alias might complicate document searches, pointing out that the emails he received don’t even mention Holder’s name. 

“It raises the question of whether they are trying to thwart public records requests and the Federal Records Act. It just seems shady.” . . .

Prominent gun control advocate David Hogg uses screen name davisgreen111

David Hogg's Twitter account is @davidhogg111, so possibly it isn't too surprising that he has set up a Reddit account with the name davisgreen111.  The point of this pseudonym seems to be to get advice on how Hogg could reach and influence more people.

On Wednesday, the /pol/ board on 4chan speculated that they had found an anonymous Reddit account called davisgreen111 that belonged to David Hogg. Today, Big League Politics has exclusively confirmed that davisgreen111 is David Hogg. 

The most popular post on the davisgreen111 Reddit account is a link to David Hogg’s lifeguard confrontation video, which many are familiar with. It was the video that originally caused speculation that Hogg actually lived in Redondo Beach, CA, and not Florida . . . . 

It appears that Hogg was looking for advice on how to best display his name, which flashes across the beginning of video . . . .

Will anyone care that he was using this pseudonym? 

NY Daily News: "John Edwards' ex-mistress, Rielle Hunter, targeted by Elizabeth Edwards in blog comments"

One can understand why Ms. Edwards would do this.

Former presidential candidate John Edwards is said to be ready to admit that he fathered a love child. But Hades may have a skating rink before his wife, Elizabeth, signs off on such a confession.

As a grand jury in North Carolina considers whether Edwards misused campaign funds to cover up the scandal, Elizabeth still can't abide his former mistress, Rielle Hunter.

Word is Elizabeth vehemently opposed the plan, now in place, for Hunter and daughter Quinn to move from New Jersey to Wilmington, N.C., where the Edwardses have a beach house.

For months now, Elizabeth, who is said to be talking to a divorce lawyer, also has been sniping at Hunter - painting her as a blackmailing gold digger - in blog comments where she uses the pseudonym "Cherubim," according to a source who knows Elizabeth.

Though "Cherubim" has recently described herself as an African-American woman, the source insists, "It's Elizabeth. She's used 'cherubim' as a password. Look at the gravestone of their son Wade: It's an angel holding a boy."

"Cherubim" has also heaped scorn on estranged Edwards aide Andrew Young, who is working on a book in which he's due to reveal that Edwards and wealthy supporters paid him to claim that he fathered Quinn. . . .

Media Matter's dishonest attacks on Fox News

Hiring detectives to spy on Fox News employees? Stake out Fox News employees' homes? Using a pseudonym (a "front group") to hide its identity when dealing with the news media? Discussing doing actions that it has attacked others for? Media Matters From Fox News:

The report cited a September 2009 document from Media Matters contributor Karl Frisch to Media Matters bosses David Brock and Eric Burns.
It's unclear to what extent the organization, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit group, followed through on the detailed suggestions, but they would appear to comport with Brock's early 2011 announcement that he planned to prosecute a "war on Fox."
The tactics floated by Frisch were likened to a "presidential-style campaign," one which he hoped would "discredit and embarrass the network."
He suggested hiring "trackers" to "stake out" events with Fox News employees, sending "anti-Fox News literature" to employees' homes and even convincing director Michael Moore to make a documentary about the network. Frisch also suggested establishing a "front group" of shareholders to target parent company News Corporation.
At least one of the ideas appears to have come to fruition -- a suggestion that Media Matters publish an anti-Fox News book under Brock's name. "The Fox Effect," co-written by Brock and the Media Matters organization, is due for release next week. . . .

Media Matters appears to have also "dispatched trackers to events featuring Fox News employees."

More on Teacher Trying to Take a Gun on School Property for Protection

Ashland, Ore. - In court documents, she's known as "Jane Doe." Innocuous enough, but the woman behind that pseudonym pushes one of the nation's hottest political buttons: guns and school safety.

What Ms. Doe wants to do is take her Glock 9-mm pistol to the high school in Medford, Ore., where she teaches.

She's licensed to carry a concealed weapon and she has what many supporters say is a legitimate reason for being armed: a restraining order against her ex-husband based on threats he's allegedly made against her and her children.

But district policy prohibits anyone except a law-enforcement officer from bringing a weapon onto campus. When word got out that she had a concealed-carry permit, administrators reminded her of that policy. There's the political rub: According to state law, "any element relating to firearms and components thereof, including ammunition, is vested solely in the Legislative Assembly."

Backed by gun-rights groups, Doe intends to challenge the school district in state court this week. Meanwhile throughout the country, lawmakers are filing bills that would make it legal for adult school employees to carry firearms, in some cases providing special weapons safety training for those who want to be part of their school's security force in addition to their classroom teaching duties. . . . .

Thanks for Will Brink and Scott A. Davis for sending me similar links on this story

Is Apple where really controversial old Obama administration employees go after they leave government?

Among the major Obama administration employees Apple hired were former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson in 2013.  Jackson, who tried to hide government communication by using an EPA pseudonym "Richard Windsor," had a very controversial record.  "Windsor" was granted at least six ethics and cyber-security certifications.  From the Washington Examiner:

Among the certificates awarded to "Richard Windsor" was a Nov. 2, 2009 "Certificate of Completion" for "E-mail Records Management." Jackson had only been appointed by President Obama as EPA's top executive a few months prior to the certification. . . . 

During the ensuing years, however, EPA IT department officials awarded additional certificates to "Richard Windsor," including three for completion of the agency's "Scholastica Decentia," the Certificate for Ethical Behavior, in 2010, 2011 and 2012. 

"Richard Windsor" was a top student of ethical behavior in 2010, compiling 100 percent scores for the "Risk" and "Cyber Threats" portions of the course, but a 50 percent score on the "EPA Information" portion dropped Windsor's total score to 83 percent. 

Jackson's use of the fake name became known in 2012 with Horner's book, The Liberal War Against Transparency, in which he made public a memo from EPA to the National Records Archives Administration describing the agency's creation of the "Richard Windsor" moniker. . . .  

Jackson resigned as EPA administrator in December 2012 shortly after her agency's inspector-general announced an investigation of the "Richard Windsor" scandal.

Now it looks like they are about to hire Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney:

Carney would replace Katie Cotton, who stepped down from the position earlier this year. It has previously been reported that Apple is looking for an external candidate to lead its communications team in the hopes of finding someone “friendlier,” although several internal candidates were also being considered. . . . 

Carney is reportedly being considered for such roles at several companies, including Uber.

How Carney gets identified as a 'Friendlier" candidate isn't exactly obvious to me.  The other question is why anyone would trust what Carney had to say.

Apple fans are not happy about the possibility of a Carney appointment.

Obama’s Attorney General Used Fake Identity To Hide Her Involvement In Development of Clinton Investigation E-Mails talking points

From the Daily Caller:

Like her predecessor, Eric Holder, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch used an email alias to conduct government business, The Daily Caller has confirmed. 

Several of Lynch’s emails were included in 413 pages of DOJ documents provided to the conservative groups Judicial Watch and the American Center for Law and Justice. Both groups had filed lawsuits for records regarding Lynch’s controversial meeting with President Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport last June 27. 

Using the pseudonym “Elizabeth Carlisle,” Lynch corresponded with DOJ press officials to hammer out talking points in response to media requests about the meeting. The tarmac encounter drew criticism from conservatives because Lynch was overseeing the federal investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on her private email system. 

The meeting was revealed not by Lynch, Clinton or the Justice Department, but by a reporter in Phoenix working based on a tip. 

Lynch, using the Elizabeth Carlisle account, which was hosted on the Justice Department’s system, was also involved in those discussions. . . .

"Amazon Glitch Unmasks War Of Reviewers"

One would think that given the claims that Ann Coulter and I have been making reviews of our books on Amazon someone would notice that this "glitch" on Amazon didn't show up our names.

Close observers of Amazon.com noticed something peculiar this week: the company's Canadian site had suddenly revealed the identities of thousands of people who had anonymously posted book reviews on the United States site under signatures like ''a reader from New York.'' 

The weeklong glitch, which Amazon fixed after outed reviewers complained, provided a rare glimpse at how writers and readers are wielding the online reviews as a tool to promote or pan a book -- when they think no one is watching. . . .  

Mr. Rechy is in good company. Walt Whitman and Anthony Burgess both famously reviewed their own books under assumed names. But several modern-day writers said the Internet, where anyone from your mother to your ex-agent can anonymously broadcast an opinion of your work, has created a more urgent need for self-defense. 

Under Amazon's system, any user may submit a review without publicly providing any personal information (or evidence of having read the book). The posting of real names on the Canadian site was for many a reminder that anonymity on the Internet is seldom a sure thing. 

''It was an unfortunate error,'' said Patricia Smith, an Amazon spokeswoman. ''We'll examine whatever happened and make sure it won't happen again.''

But even with reviewer privacy restored, many people say Amazon's pages have turned into what one writer called ''a rhetorical war,'' where friends and family members are regularly corralled to write glowing reviews and each negative one is scrutinized for the digital fingerprints of known enemies. . . . .

The New York Times piece is actually fairly sympathetic to these reviewers who used pseudonyms to post reviews.

UPDATE: For a discussion about the claims by Lambert that I have engaged in pseudonym use on other places see this post here.  It shows the extreme nuttiness of these accusations.

UPDATE: Forbes has a more critical look here.

Elon Musk emailed Obama EPA director on her pseudonym account, begging director for special help

From John Fund at Fox News:

. . . But on December 13, 2012 the EPA’s assistant inspector general announced he would conduct an audit into Jackson’s use of private email accounts under the alias “Richard Windsor” to conduct official government business. 

Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute had brought a lawsuit to make 12,000 of Jackson’s “alias” emails public. Before that could happen, Jackson announced she would be leaving office on December 27, 2012 – apparently with the strong private encouragement of the White House. 

It took three more years of litigation to get all of Jackson’s private emails released. We now know that her alias email accounts were her prime method of doing business. 

One of the more infamous emails involved the billionaire inventor and businessman Elon Musk begging Jackson on her false-identity account for an emergency assist for his already heavily subsidized Tesla Motors. Musk wanted Jackson’s EPA to give Tesla a “certificate of conformity” that other companies had to formally apply for. 

Jackson quickly brought in top EPA aides, asking “what can be done?” Within hours, the certificate was approved and Jackson wrote to her senior aides: “Done. Elon replied to say thank you.” . . .

Arming Professors?

The professor here writes that this professor finds it necessary to write under the pseudonym of "Thomas Benton" when discussing the gun issue tells you something about academia.

What can be done to protect faculty members from potentially dangerous students?

Ultimately, nothing. Or so it seems.

Teachers are all, in varying degrees, personally vulnerable for three reasons:

First, it is our job to demand difficult tasks of people and judge the results in ways that can have consequences for their future. Sometimes we are called upon to challenge students' beliefs in ways they may deem offensive.

Second, we cannot pursue disciplinary action within a college unless we are willing to accept the possibility of personal retaliation by the student outside the college's area of jurisdiction, off the campus, or after graduation. Moreover, disciplinary action against one student does nothing to restrain the actions of a disgruntled student's allies, possibly after a long interval.

Third, it is increasingly difficult for us to maintain our personal privacy because of the circulation of information on the Internet. . . . .

During the past seven years, there have been several incidents of vandalism at our house in the country about 10 minutes from the college. Our mailbox has been destroyed twice, incidents I have written off as teenage pranks. We frequently hear gunshots in the night, but there are a lot of hunters in the country who shoot at animals and other targets from their cars. About once a year, we find bags of garbage split and scattered on our property, but people dispose of things that way around here without personal malice, I assume.

Some things can't be dismissed, however. One night I heard a chainsaw running, opened a window, and realized someone was in our front yard, cutting down one of our trees. I came out with a flashlight, and the chainsaw-wielder ran to the passenger side of a pickup truck, and the two people roared away. I didn't get the license number; the car's lights were off. The next day a police officer took notes and said nothing could be done.

After that, we installed more outdoor lighting and adopted a German shepherd, and I bought a 12-gauge shotgun and learned how to use it. There is no way I am going out in the middle of the night to investigate intruders again with nothing but a flashlight in my hands. . . .

The EPA scandal takes a new turn with crucial EPA losing text messages missing

Remember the scandal where the EPA was accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests -- allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones.  The Obama administration has done what it always does.  Delay, delay, delay, and then say that the information has been destroyed and that all this is old news.  Of course, this isn't the first time that the EPA has tried to hide information.  EPA administrator Lisa Jackson resigned over emails that she tried to hide under a pseudonym.  From Fox News:

The EPA is being accused of pulling “an IRS” for reportedly planning to inform the National Archives it has lost text messages being sought in an open-records request. 

The Washington Times reported Wednesday that lawyers from the Department of Justice informed a federal court of the EPA’s plans to tell the National Archives it cannot produce the text messages because they have been deleted. 

The open-records request in question came from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is seeking text messages from the devices of EPA administrator Gina McCarthy.
Christopher Horner, a senior fellow for the institute, told FoxNews.com in a statement it is clear the EPA has not learned from the IRS’ mistakes. . . .

“Here we see EPA agreeing to the court to 'do an IRS', which is to say: notify the National Archivist of the loss of every one of Gina McCarthy's thousands of text messages we have discovered she destroyed, just as the IRS finally agreed to notify (the National Archives) about the emails lost from (former IRS official) Lois Lerner's destroyed hard drive,” he said. “The IRS's insincere efforts at following through on Federal Records Act obligations drew the court's ire – the same court now hearing the EPA case.  Taxpayers should rightly expect EPA to have learned the proper lesson from the IRS's experience and hope for better.” . . .

the [EPA] argued that text messages are personal and therefore do not have to be stored as part of the agency's official record as required by law. . . .

Please explain why the Federal government is searching for parole violations for person who made the anti-Muslim movie

The Obama administration is falsely blaming the problems in the Mideast on this movie.  Just listen to Jay Carney here:

This discussion in the Weekly Standard nails it:

Carney’s comments lie outside the range of plausible spin, even by Obama administration standards, and if his bosses believe them—as we fear they do—are simply delusional. But they are not without consequence. . . . They all send the message to America’s enemies that if you kill our diplomats and lay siege to the our embassies, the first move the American government will make is to denounce .  .  . Americans. Our leaders apparently believe that the way to protect Americans from extremists and terrorists abroad is to tell other Americans to shut up. . . .

The Associated Press reports that the Federal government is checking the film maker for parole violations and the only reason suggested is because he was involved with this movie.  Note also how the AP accepts the Obama administration claim that this film maker is responsible for the violence.

A Southern California filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie inflaming protests across the Middle East was interviewed by federal probation officers at a Los Angeles sheriff's station but was not arrested or detained, authorities said early Saturday. . . .

Federal authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind "Innocence of Muslims," a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Middle East. A federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that authorities had connected Nakoula to a man using the pseudonym of Sam Bacile who claimed earlier to be writer and director of the film.

Violent protests set off by the film in Libya played a role in mob attacks in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials. U.S. Embassy gates in Cairo were breached by protesters and demonstrations against American missions spread to Yemen on Thursday and on Friday to several other countries. . . . .

UPDATE:  A consequence of the Obama administration publicly making an example of Nakoula.

Social media websites are flush with death threats for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the newly unmasked 55-year-old filmmaker behind the anti-Islam film that is being blamed for nearly a week of violent unrest in the Middle East.Nakoula was detained briefly over the weekend in California after federal officials questioned whether the production of the film violated the terms of his probation, which stemmed from a 2010 arrest for bank fraud. In response to security concerns, law enforcement kept him under heavy guard during his transport to a local police station.
“Insallah [God willing], we will kill him,” one Facebook user, Shayan Khan, wrote from Karachi, Pakistan.
Some YouTube users envisioned particularly imaginative demises for Nakoula in the comments section of a video related to his detention.
“I wanna torture him with a shot [to] his knee cap, then blow his eyes with [a] knife, take a chain saw and cut his penis, then a hot rod would be given to his ass, then kill him until he is hanged till death,” funkyfolk1110 wrote. “Kill this bastard,” said another user. 

The Hill newspaper: "Obama using fake Twitter messages in fight over gun control"? Apparently Obama's former digital strategist, Brad Schenck is involved

Obama's former digital strategist, Brad Schenck is apparently involved in the use of the pseudonym's.  From The Hill newspaper:

"Obama's anti-gun campaign is a fraud," [Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas)] said. "Obama's supporters are panicking and willing to do anything to create the appearance of popular support, even if it means trying to defraud Congress," he added. "I call upon the president to denounce this phony spam campaign." 

Stockman said that in response to Obama's call for people to tweet their congressman in support of gun control legislation, he received just 16 tweets. But he said all of these messages were identical, and that a closer look at them revealed that only six were from real people. 

"The other 10 are fake, computer-generated spambots," his office said in a press release. As evidence, he said these 10 tweets use default graphics and names, and have not engaged in any interaction with other people. Two of the tweets were sent at nearly the same time, and both follow just one person: Brad Schenck, Obama's former digital strategist. . . . .

Robert Dear's voter registration lists him as unaffiliated, heavy pot smoker who sought bondage and sadomasochistic sex online

This Robert Dear, the killer at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado, was a pretty strange guy.   From the UK Daily Mail:

. . . Robert Dear, 57, who allegedly burst into the clinic in Colorado Springs on Friday and opened fire, was a recluse who moved to a remote cabin in the state a year ago, his neighbors have told Daily Mail Online. 

But a new report by the New York Times has revealed that Dear was once a happily married family man who lived with his wife and son in South Carolina.Since his 2000 divorce, Dear seems to have declined into a loner who lives in a remote cabin, seeking bondage and sadomasochistic sex online and smoking marijuana. . . . 

Before their divorce, Dear was an independent art dealer and earned a degree in public administration from a Midwestern college, Ross told the Times.She said that Dear believed abortion was wrong, but 'it was never really a topic of discussion'. 

Ross said Dear exercised, ate healthily, rode motorcycles and listened to rock music and it 'never crossed her mind' that he would be capable of a mass shooting.   

Dear moved from North Carolina to Colorado and set up home in an area where people 'like to be by themselves' about a year ago, locals told Daily Mail Online.But he never gave any hint of any political views when he ate his meals at the only cafe in the isolated town of Hartsel, eight miles from his remote cabin. . . . 

The divorcee seems to have retreated from society after his divorce. 

An online advert posted under Dear's pseudonym after the split asked for bondage and sadomasochistic sex and company to smoke marijuana. . . .

From the New York Times:

The official said that Mr. Dear “said a lot of things” during his interview, making it difficult for the authorities to pinpoint a specific motivation. . . . 

The Internet and Freedom in Iraq

Jonathan Rauch has an interesting new column out:

Odd though it may sound, somewhere in Baghdad a man is working in secrecy to edit new Arabic versions of Liberalism, by the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, and In Defense of Global Capitalism, by the Swedish economist Johan Norberg. He is doing this at some risk of kidnap, beating, and death, because he hopes that a new Arabic-language Web site, called LampofLiberty.org -- MisbahAlHurriyya.org in Arabic -- can change the world by publishing liberal classics.

Odder still, he may be right.

Interviewed by e-mail, he asks to be known by a pseudonym, H. Ali Kamil. A Shiite from Iraq's south, he is an accomplished scholar, but he asks that no other personal details be revealed. Two of his friends have been killed in the postwar insurgency and chaos, one shot and the other "slaughtered." Others of his acquaintance are in hiding, visiting their families in secret. He has been threatened for working with an international agency.

Now he is collaborating not with foreign agencies but with foreign ideas. He has made Arabic translations of all or parts of more than two dozen articles and nine books and booklets. "None," he says, "were previously translated, to my knowledge, for the simple reason that they are all on liberalism and democracy, which unfortunately have little audience and advocators in the Middle East, where almost all publishing houses and press outlets are governmental -- i.e., anti-liberal." . . .