The anti-common-sense web site stopthefraud.com pretends that all initiative efforts which the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center happens to ideologically dislike—e.g., the 2005 petition drive in Oklahoma to post a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights on the ballot—are intrinsically fraudulent. But despite their alleged opposition to “fraud,” the BISCquickers are not above lying to smear ideological opponents. And they’re not necessarily very subtle about it. A January 29 post, “Paul Jacob shows his true colors,” is an example of the kind of preach-to-the-choir fabricating that takes only a few seconds to expose:

Indicted for defrauding Oklahoma voters, Paul Jacob staged a rally on the steps of the Oklahoma County District, to proclaim his innocence. Ironically, midway through his speech about protecting America’s basic freedoms, Jacob shoves a protester carrying a critical sign (minute 4:55) off the stage.

I guess the tactical assumption here is that if you’re very specific in your reference to the evidence, your reader won’t bother to click on the link and actually see what you’re talking about. By all means, let’s click into that youtube video. And let’s not fast-forward straight to 4:55 either, let’s actually see the full sequence of events by first lingering a bit on 4:52-4:53, where we can observe an opponent of citizen initiative rights trying to disrupt the proceedings by thrusting his sign onto the very podium at which Paul is speaking. Paul pushes the sign aside, saying “Excuse me,” and continues with his talk. Paul’s supporters can be heard enjoining the agent provocateur to hold his own rally and abstain from intruding on theirs. Presumably, a truly innocent person of high character would have immediately stopped protesting the injustice being perpetrated against him and against all practitioners of citizen initiative rights and just allowed the person demanding his imprisonment to take over the podium.

Well, BISC said there was irony.

The sign-thruster is a character well known to Oklahoma supporters of initiative rights, a “blocker” who has admitted to lying to store owners to try to get persons circulating petitions thrown off the premises. But don’t expect to see this fellow’s “true colors” discussed at any length on any site sponsored by the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.