Human Rights Violations - left vs. right

One of the anons commenting on the previous post attacked the information about Michael Shellenberger working for Hugo Chavez by denigrating the source as a "rightwing conspiracy website."

In the first place - I'd hardly characterize a site dedicated to outlining human rights violations in Venezuela as a right wing conspiracy site.

In the second place, in the course of my looking into Michael Shellenberger, I found exactly what Aleksander Boyd details in his report - Shellenberger is aligned with every far far left extremist group you can think of. To point this out is to report the truth.

In my observation, Michael Shellenberger has more domain names, email addresses and websites than any spammer on the planet. He appears to routinely form up little "groups" (like the so-called "Alliance for Ethical Business" here in Humboldt County). He is always the "founder," "co-founder," "executive director" or "spokesperson" for the "group." Then he cross-pollinates the "groups" using one to endorse the other, and calling it a "growing coalition of human rights organizations."

I started looking him up after Richard Salzman had him call me - regular readers of this blog will remember the story - Richard said he "couldn't promise" he "could call these people off," but he "would try." That was March/April 2003. Richard pronounced his name ShAllenberger - with an A - and it wasn't until stories in the paper had Gallegos supposedly surfing with his "college-buddy" Michael Shellenberger - with an E - that I was able to get any information.

What I found was evidence that Michael Shellenberger had been on the ground in Humboldt County on and off for nearly a decade, working with Earth First! EPIC, Salmon Forever (one of Ken Miller's groups), and more. What emerged was a picture of a 10 year effort to "get Palco." Getting Gallegos elected was a major coup, and provided these guys with a major new weapon.

One of the many UNTOLD STORIES of the Recall was the involvement of Michael Shellenberger.

And as you come to understand that he is someone who has the power to get celebrities like Woody Harrelson to climb the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl a banner for a Headwaters campaign, and get Bonnie Raitt to play a concert for Headwaters, to get Dr. Laura kicked off the television airwaves, someone with access to George Soros, access to left wing Think Tanks, and access to huge Foundation grant money, you begin to understand more what is going on in "Salzman's Plan" to get Gallegos to solicit, accept and use special interest money to fund the public prosecution of PL.

He specializes in what he calls "structuring the debate" - or, in other words, manipulating public opinion. He brags on some of his self-promotional websites about pressuring public officials into doing what he wants.

What that meant here in Humboldt County was convincing you that Gallegos was not soft on crime, that PL was trying to buy their way out of a lawsuit. And unfortunately, Palco played right into his hands.

The Recall was portrayed as the gallant young David against the evil Goliath, Palco.

The fact was that Gallegos had a Goliath in his own right working for him. You can see by looking at the contract with Chavez the value of Shellenberger's services. And that was for a relatively limited effort.

What did it cost Gallegos to have this man on the ground in Humboldt County on and off from at least March of 2003 until he ultimately, by his own words, moved his family up here for the final weeks of Gallegos' campaign?

Did you read anything about Shellenberger's involvement in the local press? No. yet he reportedly met with editorial boards. In the final days he attended press conferences with Gallegos.

Yet after the Recall, Shellenberger trumpeted his success and proclaimed himself Gallegos' "Lead campaign consultant." Was that ever mentioned in the local press? No. How much did Gallegos pay for the privilege? Is it detailed on his campaign disclosure forms?

What services did he provide as "Lead campaign consultant" besides garnering Gallegos national press coverage? Image consulting? Debate prep?

These are questions that, to this day, remain unanswered.

And, after the Recall, Shellenberger began promoting himself as somewhat of an expert at helping politicians survive a recall attempt. Enter Hugo Chavez who was facing a Recall in Venezuela.

You want to make this about left and right wing politics?

Most "liberals" once cared about human rights violations and would care about the plight of the people in Venezuela and would recognize Chavez for the menace that he is, but since he declared his hatred for our President, he has become the darling of the left. In that sense you may be right.

And those same "liberals" - many of them my good friends - also abandoned their historic support for protecting women and children, for victim's rights in favor of hating Palco, and they turn a blind eye to the devastation in the DA's office as a result.

In that sense - you may be right. Maybe it is about "progressive" values.

Which side do you fall on?