There's a guy in Oregon named Jason Levin.  He was teacher for the Beaverton School District at the Constoga Middle School.  He resigned his job this past Wednesday rather than be fired.  The news article published on the OregonLive.com website, authored by Wendy Owen , quoted a school attorney implying he was to be terminated for doing 'something' other than his prescribed duties as a teacher, and using school equipment to do it.  Generally, when an employee uses Company property for personal use, and uses that property for personal use on Company time,  it's called "theft of services".  And yes, you can get fired for that.  Usually, your actions have to be particularly egregious to rise to the level of attention to get you fired, and in this case, the article's implication is that Mr. Levin created and ran the blog crashtheteaparty.org from school property on school time.   Also pause and consider this:  in order for a teacher to be actually fired from a school district, you have to screw up big-time. 

What makes this particularly notable is that Mr. Levin gained a certain level of fame and notoriety because the mission statement of crashtheteaparty.org was that it was part of a vast national conspiracy of leftists to infiltrate the conservative Tea Party movement, and then undertake any and all subversive activity (short of violence) to discredit and undermine the Tea Party unto political death.

So there are two aspects to this story - the underlying purpose of the blog crashtheteaparty.org, and that of mixing business with pleasure, and getting caught at it.

I am sure there are techniques that can be had by someone determined to figure out my real-world identity, but I made the decision to try and not make it easy.  This way, any fringe leftist freaks out there who wanted to try and somehow tie my blogging to my employer and thus imperil my ability to earn a living would have to work at it some.  I have debated on and off whether I should really bother to conceal my identity to the extent I have, and what harm could come of me using my real-world identity here.  And then the Jason Levins of the world come along every so often, and remind me that it's better to remain anonymous unless and until I become independently wealthy.   Even though I don't manage this blog at work, and usually post here at the only time I have free - the wee hours - why expose myself to the hassle of some semi-deranged creep trying to harass me through my employer?  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, after all.

Which leads me to the second aspect of this story - how threatened the left feels by the resurgent right, and a willingness by some on the left to interfere with the conservative message "by any means necessary".   The last time (as far as the public knows) that there was an organized concerted effort to undermine and discredit a political party "by any means necessary" was during the Nixon years.  Nixon, a Republican, organized a vast conspiracy of his own to undermine his enemy critics, and also to undermine the Democratic Party during the national election cycle.  After the infamous break-in of Democratic Party offices at the Watergate Hotel, Nixons' conspiracy began to unravel, and thereafter he was forced to resign in order to avoid certain impeachment.  Nixon took the Republican Party with him, as they were absolutely mauled in subsequent elections.

The left is terrified of the Tea Party.  The 'at all cost' dirty trickery, however, is only effective when it's out of sight.  Americans value fairness, and the left's rabid reaction to the message of the Tea Party actually contributes to their undoing.