Posted on 11/04/2006 6:42:39 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
A liberal blogger who was manhandled by supporters of Sen. George Allen this week was handcuffed by authorities and escorted from another rally Saturday after an Allen backer claimed the man pushed him to the ground.
Mike Stark told The Associated Press that sheriff's deputies detained and released him. He was not charged.
"I'll own this town," Stark, a first-year University of Virginia law student, was overheard telling sheriff's deputies as he was led away from the rally at Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport.
Stark said that he was attending the event as a reporter for the Air America Radio network's "The Young Turks" show and that he wanted to ask Allen about his arrest record and why he didn't do more to stop his supporters from wrestling him to the ground at a campaign event on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Allen supporters formed a human wall to block Stark's access to the senator, who is in a tight election race with Democrat Jim Webb. As Stark tried to sidestep the wall, he brushed the side of a supporter, who fell. A deputy sheriff grabbed Stark, put his arm behind his back and led him away to the cheers of about 100 Allen supporters.
Stark said that he had little contact with the man and that he overheard him tell another supporter that he planned to "take a dive."
The supporter who fell refused to give his name or talk about the incident.
Senatorial aide Dan Allen said his boss was concerned by Stark's presence because his daughter, a student at nearby James Madison University, was at the event and "he wanted to make sure she was safe."
"He's hoping authorities can handle it, and he's not going to allow incidents like these to distract him from discussing the issues that matter most to him," the aide said.
Webb campaign spokeswoman Kristin Denny Todd said Saturday that Webb would have no comment.
"There's nothing for Jim to say _ this guy is not affiliated with our campaign," she said.
On Tuesday, Stark was put in a chokehold and slammed to the floor by three Allen supporters in Charlottesville in an incident captured on video. Witnesses said Stark approached Allen, loudly asking, "Why did you spit at your first wife, George?" in an attempt to ask Allen about his legal history.
Albemarle County records show Allen received two summonses in 1974, but supporting documents were destroyed long ago. Allen has said the offenses were for fishing without a license and unpaid parking tickets.
Allen's ex-wife, Anne Waddell, later issued a statement calling Stark's question "a baseless, cheap shot."
Allen and Webb were about even in a poll released Saturday night by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. Webb had 46 percent, Allen 45 percent and 7 percent were undecided in the survey of 625 likely voters, conducted Wednesday through Friday for several Virginia newspapers. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Independent Gail Parker also is on the ballot.
BTTT
Ah, and this is how the 'unbiased' AP reporter would have reported that scene - It was alleged that Stark shoved a conservative Allen supporter, but Stark only gently brushed passed him as the Allen supporter and his conservative thug cohorts tried to block Stark's exit through the door.
My thoughts exactly. They're practically in convulsions on the blogs.
If they are so confident, what's up with that?
One of their biggest drama queens is running a headline asserting that Lt. Governor Bill Bolling said Allen would lose at a breakfast this morning.
That's news to Bolling and the people who were actually at the breakfast.
Make no mistake about it. They know as much as we do that this is about turnout and they're trying to whip their folks into a frenzy.
Isn't that evidence of assault and battery?
Of course in Minnesota that's merely "exercising the constitutionally guaranteed right of political free speech" - if the person is a DFL'er
Does anyone have info about their turn-out efforts? Anyone received literature or phone calls?
Won't graduate much less pass the bar.
Ted Kennedy wound up at the University of Virginia and he never passed a bar without stopping.
November 1, 2006 8:27 AM
The Real Story of the Attack on George Allen
Democratic activists, Internet pranksters, rumor-mongers, and the Washington Post come together to hit the Republican candidate.
By Byron York
In late August, a man named Mike Stark posted a plea on the popular Democratic website DailyKos.com. He was a political prankster, Stark explained, and hed been pulling pranks on conservatives for quite a while. He had had some success slipping past Rush Limbaughs call screeners. He managed to slip onto a radio program to ask Newt Gingrich about his first marriage.* And once, during an episode of Hannity & Colmes, he held a sign up behind Sean Hannity that said HANNITY SUCKS ASS. Stark proudly recounted his work on the DailyKos and on his website, Callingallwingnuts.com.
But now, Stark explained, he wanted to do more. A big election was approaching, and the time for pranks was over. More direct action was needed, and Stark asked his fellow Kossacks for help. Im about to ask yall to trust me. A lot, he wrote on August 31.
As you know, Ive been involved in a coupla incidents that resulted in Republicans and their cronies being a little bit embarrassed.
Recently Ive been thinking about how to put these guerrilla tactics to use where it matters: winning elections, Stark continued. After a lot of thinking, Ive developed a plan that will impact one election in a big way. Unfortunately, I cant afford to do it by myself. It will require hundreds of donations. I need, at a minimum, $3,000.
Stark, who had just moved from New York State to Charlottesville, Virginia, would not say what he had in mind. I wish I could tell you exactly what it is Im looking to do, but if I were to do that, the project would lose some of its effectiveness, he wrote. Still, he gave a hint. Do you enjoy guerrilla media as applied to close elections? If you do, I ask you to contribute today.
More...
http://tinyurl.com/y5tsrm
snip
Thats where Mike Stark came in. His bit of theater with Allen in Charlottesville got wide coverage. And in todays Washington Post, sure enough, Stark succeeded in getting the spitting rumor into print. W. Michael Stark, who identified himself in an e-mail after the incident as a University of Virginia law student, yelled a question at Allen about whether he had ever spit on his first wife, an unsubstantiated charge that has been circulating on liberal blogs on the Internet, the paper reported.
On the video, Stark was heckling Allen about rumors that embarrassing material is contained in records from the senators divorce, the paper continued. Those records have been sealed by a judge and are not accessible. Allens current wife, Susan, is his second and the mother of his children.
Allen aides accused Democrats and the Webb campaign of orchestrating the event as a way of getting news organizations to write about the Internet rumor.
Mission accomplished. The spitting story is now officially in circulation. The incident shows what a dedicated activist no longer a prankster can do, with a little brazenness and a willing press. Stark is delighted, as are his supporters at the DailyKos. No doubt theyll give him more money, if he asks for it. And why not? With a good plan, and his friends at the DailyKos, theres no telling what he can accomplish.
Authors Note: In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I have had an encounter of my own with Mike Stark. He approached me at an event at the YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas last June and asked whether I would do an interview about politics for his website. I had never met him or heard of him, but I could figure that a site named Callingallwingnuts.com indicated that he was a true Kossack. (In his view, I was the wingnut.) I agreed. Then he told me that what he really wanted to do was debate me on the question of abortion. I declined. After that, even though our encounter hardly rose to the level of harassing Rush Limbaugh or a U.S. senator, Stark wrote about it and called a number of conservative radio programs to describe it. That was the last I had heard of him before yesterday. B.Y.
My Story
Published by Mike Stark November 2nd, 2006 in Uncategorized
It doesnt get better than this. The only part they edited was a private phone call I recd in the middle of their interview. This is the first time I saw the beginning of the incident. The video I was watching (you wont be able to see it) shows that I was clearly assaulted immediately after asking the senator to tell us what he was arrested for.
http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/home/headlines/4545351.html
In addition, I know many of you visiting would be interested in hearing me ask Senator Allen about his use of the n-word. If you click the play icon at the bottom of this post, the audio will play.
A first year law student?
Yeah, how many times?
Don't be too sure of that.
Back in the "Free Speech" movement days at UC Berkeley, a goodly number of Boalt Hall law students took part in those disruptions and many of them are prominent in legal circles today.
I personally know one of them who has had "private audiences" with president clinton and is a major contributor to dem party candidates and causes. He was a Phi Beta Kappa grad in 3 years, graduated Boalt 3rd in his class, was a frequent contributor to the law review, passed the bar his first time, taught legal writing at Stanford law his first year out, then clerked to federal judge Zerpelle. After that he started up a law firm with a couple of his law school friends. It has since grown steadily and he is very wealthy.
There are a surprising number of people who are crazy but not stupid.
The Democrat Crime Syndicate minions are coming unhinged.
It was Robert Kennedy (not Ted) who attended University of Virginia -- the law school, which was not top-rated back then.
I have two words: RI CO.
Why RICO? He has received monies in support of his activities to interfere with the civil rights of a Senator and his supporters, threatened, harrassed, stalked, manhandled...
Not sure if this applies. VA State Bar:
http://www.vsb.org/profguides/index.html
hopefully this StarkRavingMad character will have wasted so much time harassing Sen. Allen that he fails out of UVA law school and goes back to NY
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