#StopRush stuff /w Jason Wade Taylor

The #StopRush Sockpuppet Smear and the Pwning of Brandon Darby

The attempted smear of #stoprush has resulted in far more blowback
than any of its participants anticipated. For those unfamiliar with
the story, a recap:

Twitter account @FarLeftofRight belonging to "Randy Taylor-Hahn"
started following #stoprush Twitter users in March of 2011. By the end
of that month, "Randy" was calling and Skyping to recruit them for a
paid project. During April, #stoprush volunteers became sure that
"Randy" and his project were fake. "Randy" had dozens of Twitter
accounts that retweeted him verbatim. They were a transparent attempt
to smear #stoprush hashtag users as "astroturf." In early May,
#stoprush confronted him about his sockpuppets and several of them
disappeared. In mid-May, #stoprush confronted "Randy" about his
plagiarized blog and fake references. He stopped communicating.

But on June 3, the #stoprush sockpuppet smear reappeared in
"TheTrenches.us," a fringe right wing blog. "Randy" was complaining
that #stoprush volunteers had violated his civil rights:

http://thetrenches.us/2012/06/did-twitter-progressive-shoq-illegally-record-phone-calls/

Moonlighting from his Breitbart.com job, Lee Stranahan wrote the
Trenches post and harassed #stoprush volunteers on Twitter about it.
Piling on with him were his podcast partners Mandy Nagy, aka
@Liberty_Chick, and Brandon Darby.

They did not realize that "Randy" had already been positively
identified. Their "source" was exposed as Jason Wade Taylor, a
plagiarist and petty crook living in Texas:

http://www.osborneink.com/2012/06/the-randy-taylor-hahn-burn-notice.html

The burn notice for "Randy" was updated throughout the week that
followed, but much of that "new" information had actually been put
together in the weeks beforehand. This was a deliberate strategy to
pressure Taylor and his supporters. But there was also an unexpected
secondary development. Matt Osborne, the blogger who exposed "Randy"
as Taylor, once served in the US Army. His job involved listening to
foreign radio transmissions and developing an ear for voices and
speech patterns:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/enlistedjobs/a/98g.htm

Stranahan and Darby were trying to incorporate #stoprush into their
cockamamie stories about right wing bloggers being threatened by
terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad liberals. Remember, someone was
spoofing the home phone numbers of right wing bloggers to call 911,
report crimes at their addresses, and bring armed police response to
their homes -- "SWAT calls." Osborne listened to the Darby-Stranahan
podcast, then the SWAT calls, and came up with his own theory: the
SWAT caller sounded just like Brandon Darby. Since Darby was clearly
involved in one hoax with Taylor, why not another? And because Osborne
also makes mashup videos, he made one about his suspicions:

http://youtu.be/Pe4NCaz4NgM

Here is the post where he presented his theory:

http://www.osborneink.com/2012/06/is-the-swat-story-another-right-wing-prank.html

The former smear-merchants were suddenly doing damage control. "Brooks
Bayne" (real name Brooks Anthony Martin) tried posting selections from
the allegedly-illegal recording of "Randy" in his Trenches blog:

http://thetrenches.us/2012/06/stoprushs-own-illegally-recorded-phone-call-exposes-ofa-soros-van-jones-and-500-automated-twitter-accounts/

Martin presented no proof that any illegal recording took place. In
fact, Martin's possession of recordings and emails made him appear
guilty of helping Taylor harass #stoprush users and hack their email
accounts. Martin's clips also proved that #stoprush members were
scambaiting and interrogating Taylor for weeks, just as they had
claimed:

http://www.osborneink.com/2012/06/breitbart-bloggers-help-con-man-harass-citizen-activists.html

Brandon Darby took one last shot at Osborne:

http://www.osborneink.com/2012/06/whos-afraid-of-brandon-darby.html

http://www.osborneink.com/2012/06/we-now-resume-our-regular-programming.html

The "smear team" dissolved in recriminations. Stranahan quit his
moonlighting job with "TheTrenches.us" and began pointing a finger at
Martin for the "Randy" operation:

http://leestranahan.com/the-randy-ruse-part-1/

http://leestranahan.com/the-randy-ruse-part-2/

With the #stoprush smear now confined to TheTrenches.us, Osborne
focused on Martin, exposing "Brooks Bayne" as an inflated fake
personality like "Randy:"

http://www.osborneink.com/2012/07/jason-wade-taylor-is-the-butthurt-of-breitblogger-brooks-bayne.html

Though he calls himself a "culture war blogger," Osborne has developed
a strong reputation as a hoax-buster over the last three years. In
fact, he was the first #stoprush volunteer to call foul on "Randy." So
not only did Brandon Darby pick the wrong team and the wrong cause,
but together they picked a fight with exactly the wrong blogger.