A letter to Michael M. Phillips at the Wall Street Journal

After reading a smear piece in the WSJ about AngryRenter.com, I decided to write a response to author Michael M. Phillips:

I find it almost hilarious that, instead of focusing on the issue at hand, your smear piece against AngryRenter.com focuses entirely on its founders and backers and whether they have money or not.

I count approximately 8 instances of discrediting/discounting the movement based on:
* Who the members of FreedomWorks are
* How much the real estate they own is worth
* How the website is designed (font and layout)

Not ONCE do you provide an actual reason in your article to why the voices of 56,000 angry citizens should be discounted. Not once do you describe why the proposed foreclosure/mortgage bailout is a BAD thing. In fact, even though you imply that FreedomWorks is manipulating people by obtaining their signatures, not ONCE do you explain how this could be a harmful thing to us in any specific way.

I can cite dozens of reasons how passing this bailout will hurt our economy, weaken the dollar, and prevent a huge quantity of Americans from being homeowners — in fact, thousands of people have posted the reasons on the site (perhaps you should read it, past the “innocent astroturf font” and the words “FreedomWorks”)

I also find it RATHER intriguing that the WSJ, a notoriously-conservative (ie. Republican) publication, is attacking a Republican-backed lobbying group. Awww… it must really tick you off that a Republican might be doing something that doesn’t stuff the pockets of big business (why would they do that? Perhaps you summed it up best in your article: they already have plenty of money. Or perhaps it’s because the inflated value is contributing to the dropping USD, and with how many USD-based holdings they have, they want to keep their money?)

Must seem like a real Judas, eh?
Well, thank you for writing this article; if the WSJ is slamming the efforts, then I know I did the right thing by signing the petition.

PS. I am not an employee of AngryRenter.com and I have no affiliation with FreedomWorks. And I do not fall for gimmicks — I could care less what “aw-shucks” font they use, and I DID investigate who was behind the site before signing my name to the petition.

I also tend to be anti-Republican, but even more than that, I am pro-ME… and this is my scenario: even with a dual-income (working professional jobs after graduating from two of the top 25 universities in this country), we cannot afford even a small and humble home. We could have, if the year was 1994. But it’s not, and the house prices have more than doubled in the last 5 years. So, being the intelligent, educated people that we are — we know the houses are overpriced, and we are waiting for the market to correct. Perhaps if we were morons, we would have bought into an adjustable-rate mortgage and be begging for mercy right now.

Or perhaps we would be writers for the Wall Street Journal.