By GottaLaff



My pal Karoli has been a dynamo in the Blogosphere and in the Twitterverse when it comes to communicating about health care reform, as I posted here. She and others have put together some excellent comprehensive debunkitude and truth-telling.



However, there are some persistent and very nasty wingnuts on the right who have been spreading lies about the health care plans that are being put forward. On the site I just linked to, a Twitterer named "Fleckman" is specifically called out for his lies. Karoli and Co. swat them down one by one.



Now Fleckman is posturing like nobody's business. You've heard of Seinfeld's "show about nothing"? That link takes you to a blog about nothing. Here's a sample:



There’s a very liberal blogger out there who goes by the name Karoli. She describes herself as a “self-employed employee benefits consultant and administrator” and apparently considers herself some type of expert. [...]

Karoli also states that she’s read the Health Care Monstrosity Bill. Apparently Linda Bergthold at HuffPo and Politifact seems to think they read the bill too. Yet none of these liberals have provided the actual text in the bill so that you, the American Citizen can see for yourself. Why haven’t they? Because their goal is to deceive, mislead, misrepresent, confuse, and distort just exactly what is in this Health Care Monstrosity Bill.

My friends, I think I have riled up the nutbags. When they refer to me and hit squads in the same tweet, it seems I struck a nerve





And from Fleckman, himself:











Karoli responds:







Reaction from her Twitter followers:









This is the very irrationality and hostility we encounter on a regular basis, including hate speech, threats, and lies. We've seen it with Tea Baggers, Glenn Beck, the list goes on.



When it comes this close to home, it's a little scary. As for "giving them a platform" or attention, Karoli and I felt it needed to be exposed. Ignoring it or running away wasn't an option any more. When we can put names and faces to this behavior, we should, and we did.



I promise you, however, this will not become a regular feature on TPC. That's where I draw the line. Once is enough.

See what a little incitement can do among friends? FYI, the "Alger" Fleckman refers to here is the very same Jim Alger whose radio show I do every week.Karoli responds:Reaction from her Twitter followers:

This is apparently in response to blog posts by Karoli, one revealing that he is the author of a whole lot of wingie nonsense. Fleckman was none too thrilled with Shoq either (I've posted one of Shoq's Tweets below) when he challenged Fleckman to go on Jim Alger's "Common Sense" Radio show to debate Karoli, "which he won't do because he knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on" (per Karoli's e-mail just now).However, now this back-and-forth has taken on a life of its own on Twitter. That's fine and dandy, but it has been taken to a very unhealthy (no pun) level: Death threats.To quote Karoli in a Tweet to me: Post it. Expose it. Call it the cowardly act that it is. So I will. Please indulge me.She is referring to this, a cowardly little Tweet from a Friend of Fleckman's: