The first thing I said to Jeff Martin when he told me he was being sued was that his discomfort, expenses, marriage and livelihood were not my own, and so any advice I might have for him about fighting the suit was of limited value compared to his own needs and feelings. 

Still true. So I have to respect his decision to settle and, as I understand it, shutter the Fecund Stench blog and refrain from writing about the Adkins and Riddlebergers in the future.

But, still, dammit.

I hate to see a writer get bullied into silence, especially when his case seems so winnable, and he has ample legal resources and offers of funding at his disposal.

All that said, it's hard to see how this ends up as a win for the plaintiffs and CFGC.

The details of their personal lives and business that have percolated in the blogosphere for some time now will be in the N&R and Yes! Weekly tomorrow, and the damage to CFGC will be real.

The candidate they championed, Mark Walker, will be backing away quickly from their embrace, even as he's asked to explain his financial support of the organization and his relationship to the litigants; it's hard to imagine that attack ads leveraging those relationships are not on the way. 

So, lose-lose. Fitting, in a way, but kind of a drag.

Comments

[Fec]

Ya know, I posted those links and looked behind my back for three years.

Do you know what it is like to live with the possibility that someone may go after your wife or your business because of your blog? I don't think so.

I did all I could do. My Wife deserves for this to be over.

I've just about had it with the chicken hawks around here.

You probably saved my bacon with Ron Coleman, but that does not give you the right to paint me as coward when I have posted info others, included yourself, would not have.

If you wanna fight, step up to the plate. I'm done.

[Fec]

And another thing. It has been said that I despise the Tea Party. While the rest of you have looked on bemused, I have striven to understand them. If I despised them, would I be so quick to settle? I desire my share of derision, but not from those who could not be bothered to get their hands dirty and put their hides at risk.

[Fec]

You me write off as a sociopath, but I feel fear, shame and regret just like anyone else. The only difference is I choose to live with the pain in order to do what I feel is necessary.

[Fec]

And I see that same commitment and dedication in the Tea Party. Whom I really despise are ignorant cowards like those on display at Greater Greensboro Politics. They can have this fucking city. All I wanna do is leave.

[Fec]

It's been a long day. I'm gonna go throw up and take a shower. But when I look in the mirror, I'm proud of the person I see. Can you say the same?

[Fec]

The fact is I inhabit a realm beyond your pathetic understanding. By your cowardice, you forfeit the right to judge or even describe me. All I ask is that if you aren't willing to help, then get the fuck out of the way.

[NitWitCharmer]

Do you know what it's like to live life looking over your shoulder toward the state IRS, and a licensing board standing between yourself and your livelihood for years because you posted conservative/libertarian critiques of your socialist representative?

Do you know what it is like to see those with whom you share your name work through similar consequences?

I do and I don't pity you, Jeff.

[Fred Gregory]

I hope this is not insensitivwe but I was anticipating a response from Dr Mary Johnson.

Have I missed somehing ?

[Brian Clarey]

So noble, Jeff. Like when you called my mother, a retired Catholic school teacher who now lives in Greensboro, a back-alley whore and my father, a retired lawyer, a skid-row drunk. Or serially posted personal emails. Or went into a paranoid funk and lashed out at anything that moved at least three times in the last 10 years. That was hard-hitting blogging of the type no one else was willing to do. Walk proud, little man. Maybe someday history will understand all the great things you've done for this city and this country. Me, I just think you're an asshole.

[Roch]

"The details of their personal lives and business that have percolated in the blogosphere for some time now will be in the N&R..."

Got a link?

[Fec]

Clarey. I merely inferred your provenance from your behavior. Good luck finding any of that now.

I shudder to think where I'd be now if I'd taken this story to Triad City Beat. As it happened, Jeff Sykes was one of the first people to contact me when I killed my blog. I couldn't give him a copy of the complaint, so he at the court house first thing Monday morning, and was interviewing me later that morning. His journalistic ability in my case was absolutely amazing and essential in helping me bring this to a quick conclusion.

[Fec]

Watch how Ed works. Rather than enter the fray he has caused, he relies on the opposition to tear me to shreds. Like a modern day Roman, he offers just enough money and assistance to get the fight going, something he enjoys immensely but lacks the stones to join.

[NitWitCharmer]

His [Jeff's]journalistic ability in my case was absolutely amazing and essential in helping me bring this to a quick conclusion.

I tend to think of Jeff a hack, something I am reconsidering.

Good work, Jeff.

[Fec]

Indeed, the cretins at Greater Greensboro Politics can't get enough of this read meat. Over there, the credo is to be polite. But the reality is they love the Tea Party for their commitment to ridding us of the poor.

Godwin can suck my dick.

The Christofascists they tacitly support will turn on them one day.

[Andrew Brod]

The asshole doth protest too much, methinks.

[Fec]

We have received a counter offer this morning and are working through it.

[Fec]

Brod, your reputation as a Christofascist collaborator is well established.

Your ancestors must be so proud.

I am perfectly willing and capable of taking on all comers.

Next?

[NitWitCharmer]

I've tended to ignore FEC due to his use of terms generally associated with the delusional. "Christofascist collaborator"... what does that even mean?

It is sad that the CFGC was unable to both ignore the delusional infant that is FEC while also spank him for being obnoxious.

[Fec]

Tell ya what: trot out that traitorous Rabbi and I will make it all very clear.

[Spag]

Got lithium?

[Fec]

No, and neither do I have much time or use for bankruptcy buzzards.

[Janet Wright]

Fred,

Mary Johnson now has a comment on the N&R article.

[Fred Gregory]

Thanks Janet. I don't go there often.

[Fred Gregory]

Janet still had difficulty locating her comment at tha confoyning N&R website. Here it is (no link avaiable )

Mary Johnson · Top Commenter · Works at Independent Contractor/Locum Tenens Pediatrician
" I've been out of the GSO blogging scene for well over a year, but I have to ask Mr. Killian if he has his facts straight about who the plaintiffs in this lawsuit actually are?

As I understand it, G4CG (as a group - with whom I have no affiliation) is not involved in the legal action, so why the news story (on a settlement that hasn't officially been reached yet) sucking them in?

I don't suppose the liberal N&R has political motivations?

As someone who filed a criminal charge against Martin - for cyber-stalking - in Randolph County (it was dismissed after a farce of a trial - par for the course there), I can assure you that (contrary to his lawyer's claims - and this story's slant) not all of Martin's "fun" at others' expense is harmless, or "silly" . . . nor is it "ill-advised" to fight back when enough is enough, and certain lines are crossed.

A fake name and "satire" should not always excuse bad behavior. You're messing with people's lives and reputations - and sometimes their health. It's not funny when Jeff Martin gets mean.

I did (obviously) take it very seriously when Martin hurled nasty e-mail after e-mail into my Inbox one night - telling me that he knew where I lived.

I do not regret for one moment standing up to "the Stench" - just as I do not regret standing up to Randolph Hospital years ago, ultimately successfully fighting off a bogus "SLAPP" suit . . . the fraudulent resolution of which is the whole reason I entered the blogosphere in 2005.

No one in the Conesphere cared. And they got the healthcare reform they deserved. I did try to tell them so.

(If you ditch the satire and just tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.)"

[Andrew Brod]

Dr. Johnson is wrong: C4GC is one of the named plaintiffs.

[Roch]

Johnson: "As I understand it, G4CG (as a group - with whom I have no affiliation) is not involved in the legal action, so why the news story (on a settlement that hasn't officially been reached yet) sucking them in?"

C4GC is listed among the plaintiffs on the suit.

Johnson: "As someone who filed a criminal charge against Martin - for cyber-stalking - in Randolph County (it was dismissed after a farce of a trial - par for the course there)"

It wasn't dismissed, Martin was found not guilty.

[Dr. Mary Johnson]

Good morning, Fred. Good morning, Roch. Good morning Ed.

Haven't been here in a while. Feels odd. I did leave a comment on the N&R's story yesterday - after being contacted by Bob Grenier ("Bubba") - who I am informed is on the C4CG leadership team/board/whatever. He told me that I needed to know about what was going on . . . and, in fact, I did.

Like Fred, I do not frequent the N&R much any more. And I was under the impression that "Word Up" had been taken down (there was a fawning story in the N&R all about it). When I walked away, I stayed away. Better for the blood pressure.

I did some surfing and reading last night. What really KILLS me is how so many supposedly civic-minded/progressive people in the Greensboro ether will wail and gnash and wallow over poor "Fec's" troubles - which he brought on himself by being a wholesale ass (my opinion) online, but Dr. Mary Johnson deserved no sympathy or journalistic assistance for defying threats and putting a desperately-sick newborn above everything she held dear . . . back when she labored in Hillary's village.

I brought all of that followed on myself for speaking truth to power. I deserved to be crushed/fiscally-crippled/professionally-destroyed/humiliated/consigned to the dirt for good progressive folk like Ed Cone and Roch to walk on.

I had limited resources with which to fight - and did I all could on my own (as far as I know, I am the only person on these boards to prevail in a "libel" lawsuit - aka "SLAPP" suit) - up against a corrupt/stacked legal system where the rules that the rest of us play by don't apply to "right people" of Randolph and Guilford counties.

Commence collecting money for Mr. Martin's defense fund. Civility only is an issue for Ed Cone and company when when they agree with someone. I no longer care.

For the record (and for anyone who does not know already). I left this blogosphere in early 2013 - as it was clear that "free speech" and blogging did not mesh with continuing in a medical career in Barack Obama's near-fascist state. It's most unnerving to come to work one morning and find a copy of a link to your blog in your mailbox with no explanation. And in 2014, Physicians can still be fired/threatened for saying, "NO!" to stupid and abusive and potentially dangerous-to-patients situations. It's also no fun to get nit-picked by the IRS for two years in a row.

Don't even get me started on what is going on with in-patient Pediatrics in High Point.

(I therefore find it bemusing to read Ed Cone-of-the-Cones wax poetic about how much Jeff Martin has suffered for his "art". Puhlease.)

I can count the posts that I've since put up on one hand (but you might find the last one both timely and interesting). Most of Dr. J's Housecalls is archived because I am actively working on a book (my experience in "Blogsboro" will no doubt at least fill a chapter).

I spent seven years trying to tell the liberals/progressives in this blogosphere that my sad/sorry experience as a public servant working for a "non-profit" hospital in Asheboro was a preview of what we could expect in Obamacare (I was professionally "killed" to cover-up the mistakes of the Cone-owned). It is what it is. I have mostly come to terms. I will NEVER get over it.

I leave it to Roch to commence with the personal attacks, selective excerpts from comments (I left more than one at the N&R - and clarified my original statement after another conversation with Bob), and mincing of words here.

Roch DElights in attempting to make those he disagrees with "liars". The misdemeanor cyber-stalking charge against Martin WAS, in fact, dismissed (I would remind Mr. Smith-Junior that "not guilty" does not mean innocent - as the judge's instructions to Martin made clear).

It's his thing.

For Roch's benefit (since he likes to link to facts), I have opened the Housecalls archives and republished the post detailing my experience in the criminal action I brought against Mr. Martin - the link is below. The trial WAS a farce. After all of his defiant chest-beating online, Martin clammed up and hid behind his lawyer (who sat/sits on the Asheboro City Council) and portrayed himself as the poor pitiful victim of my undeserved wrath.

So courageous. Wait, was that satire?

The judge (now dead) did warn Roch's literary hero to reign it in then.

He didn't and here we are. I hope this is helpful to the collective's analysis of the current situation.

You-all have a nice day. I will not be back. I was never a welcome guest - just a wounded bitch to poke with sticks.

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-fecund-stench-permeates-courtroom.html

[Fec]

The only instruction from the judge was not to email you again.

[Bob Grenier]

.....which you took as a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, a license to continue your well-known antics.

[Fec]

$500