Who Is Charley James?
by Bill Hennessy on September 7, 2008
in News, Politics
This degenerate America-hater who goes by the name Charley James claims to live in Toronto, and claims to have friends in Alaska. He has earned his 15 minutes of fame by giving himself a Peyote enema and making up a ridiculous story about Sarah Palin complete with a fictitious waitress named "Lucille," a name he probably pulled from Hunter S. Thompson’s "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." (I don’t have the book in front of me, but I believe that Lucille was the name of the maid that Duke’s attorney attacked in the hotel room when the attorney mistook the maid’s mop for an axe handle.)
Now it’s our turn to find out about Charley James.
On Helium an other sites, James claims to be a former BusinessWeek assistant editor. I doubt it. James’s writing is weak, full of filler words, incorrect punctuation, and factual errors. (For instance, this article, which we submitted as evidence of his skills, claims Bill Gates invented Windows in his garage. Gates, et al, may have productized DOS in a garage, but Microsoft was well established by the time Windows came along.)
His writing overflows with mindless sentences like these:
There’s actually a simple answer: Stop what you’re probably doing.
Selling more to current customers gets so much attention because it is important.
To much selling involves too many sales people doing a lot of talking but not very much listening. Too often, what happens is that three or four people take turns approaching a customer or client, sometimes with a dizzying parade of PowerPoint slides flashing behind them, as each says how they can meet a customer’s needs, solve a problem, or help them grab an opportunity. Most of these extravaganza’s – which probably took hours to prepare – are too long, detailed or boring.
This writing doesn’t earn a ‘C’ in a high school composition class. I simply don’t believe BusinessWeek hires such weak editors.
Here’s what we know:
- "Charley James" may not be he real name
- James claims to be a former Assistant Editor at Business Week magazine. I have requested confirmation/denial of Business Week
- There are 33 people in Toronto named "C James" or some derivation thereof
- James claims in his blog to live near enough to "the Lake" to walk his dog there regularly
- Only one C James lives very near Lake Ontario, at [address withheld] Toronto, ON, M1E 2B4
- James claims on his blog to have been physically assaulted and battered by 3 Americans who crossed the border for the sole purpose of finding him and kicking his ass in broad daylight. (I doubt this story is true, but these three deserve a medal if it is.) There would be a police report, but I find none
- James claims to have worked in multiple newsrooms in the US and Canada, so someone must have worked with him
- James claims to have been born in Milwaukee, WI, and, judging from his photo (assuming it’s recent), that birth would have taken place between about 1945 and 1960
- James claims to be a baseball fan
Over the next week, I will find out just who this guy is. What schools did he attend? Did he work for BusinessWeek and was he an "Assistant Editor." I’ve sent inquiries to BusinessWeek and to James himself.
**UPDATE** An e-mailer points out something I missed: Does Charley James have visible links to Barack Obama or his campaign?
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Since you’ve such an interest in me, I’ll be happy to answer your questions.
First, a clarification: I did not claim or imply that three people assaulted me nor that any of the three “kicked my ass.” I wrote that three people approached me, one of whom tried to hit me and struck a ligh, glancing blow. I wasn’t hurt so I didn’t file a police report because the man who tried to hit me was grabbed by his friends and they all ran off. If you’re going to refer to something I’ve written, please get your facts straight.
Second, Charley James is one of three names under which I write. It is not my real name.
As for your specific questions:
1. Please provide at least one form of proof that you were employed as an Assistant Editor by Business Week or its parent company, McGraw-Hill.
Lew Young was editor in chief at the time, Jack Dierdorff was managing editor and the editor to whom I reported was Keith Felcyn.
2. Please indicate your employment status in Canada: resident alien, work visa, citizen, etc.
I have immigration special status under a NAFTA exemption.
3. What year did you leave the United States.
1991
4. Have you ever renounced your US citizenship?
No
5. Have you ever been convicted of a crime in the United States?
Only for driving 75 mph in a 55 mph zone when I was 18 or 19.
4. What is the highest level of education you have achieved?
I have attended graduate school.
5. From which colleges/universities do you hold degrees?
I attended a Big 10 university for 3 1/2 years but left to accept a reporting job before graduating.
6. Please provide official transcripts from the school granting degrees.
This is a joke, right? My first employer didn’t ask for a transcript.
7. Please state why you left the United States.
I was recruited for a position at a time when I wanted the experience of living and working in another country.
I hope this answers your questions.
Charley
Oh, and by the way: I do not “hate America.” I happen to love deeply the country in which I was born. But I am distressed to the point of tears to see what has happened to the United States over the past eight years; it no longer resembles the land of my birth, the nation I was taught about in school nor the country I left in 1991.
Oh, and by the way: I do not “hate America.” I happen to love deeply the country in which I was born. But I am distressed to the point of tears to see what has happened to the United States over the past eight years; it no longer resembles the land of my birth, the nation I was taught about in school nor the country I left in 1991.
Only a true patriot is be willing to love his country yet admit that he sees its shortcomings and then does what he can to fix what is wrong.
Charley, my name is Francis L. Holland, Esq. and I am an AfroSpear blogger. I am very troubled by your report that Sarah Palin called Barack Obama “Sambo” because I believe that if she called Barack Obama that, then she effectively called ALL Black people that. As a result, I am very interested in knowing the truth about this matter.
I would like for you to arrange for me to interview the woman who you say overheard this comment while working a table as a waitress in a restaurant. If the allegation can be verified then I guarantee you that the 160-member AfroSpear group of bloggers will be eager to report the full truth about this matter. However, we value our credibility and we will not be parties to spreading misinformation to help a candidate, regardless of who s/he is. So, I would be very interested in speaking with your source, while treating her anonymity with the same respect I would that of a legal client.
(I no longer practice law, am not a member of the bar of any state, do not represent organization or group and am not a professional journalist. I’m just a concerned citizen who wants to learn the truth and share it with the afrosphere. This is a rumor that cannot go unaddressed.)
Francis L. Holland, Esq.
http:/francislholland.blogspot.com
Charley James, to answer your question, is a top notch journalist and editor. I’ve enjoyed my association with him and have been pleased to carry his well-researched articles on our e-newsmagazine here in the UK. I have spoken with a few of his sources and would not carry the article unless otherwise satisfied.
I’m also an American living abroad. The State Department says there are 2 million of us in 200 countries and we are following this election very closely as is every nation around the world.
We live abroad by choice, vote in every election and pay our taxes. Our blood is every bit as Red, White and Blue as yours and we don’t hide behind any flag, catchy slogan, snarky red meat for the base or cheap shots.
We’ve watched the Democratic candidate go through 19-months of hell in his vetting process and now the hockey Mom gets a free pass? Now, Rick Davis will only let Gov. Palin into interviews that benefit the campaign while Obama sits through Bill O’s hostile grilling over four nights?
Give me a break!
Charlie ’softball’ Gibson gets the first interview and its spread over a few days so the campaign can intimidate him or cut it off if they don’t like a question? What next, he loses his plush leather seat on the Straight Talk xpress plane? And Joe Biden sits and takes a grilling ‘live’ from Tom Brokaw?
Is this candidate of yours for real? She’s a Vegas act with the one-liners but won’t answer questions about real issues about conflicts of interest in Alaska?
But then that is the Conservative way. Screw the issues, attack the writer. I’m glad I’d never pass your questions test of Charley nor would I even reply.
You folks amaze, just simply never, ever acknowledge or accept the premise of any question and because it’s worked in the past, obfuscate, bloviate and attack, attack, attack. Divert everyone away from the fact that you did nothing for 8-years but ruin the economy, place us in a war that never ends and divided the country. The louder you shout, the more obnoxious you become and the more your base loves it. Nice work.
This time though the Dems remembered to bring a gun instead of a knife to this fight. They’ll win the policy war and you’ll win the swiftboat misinformation war.
This time let’s all pray that America wakes up and sees underneath all of the slime that your Emperor and Empress wear no clothes.
Cheers.
4. What is the highest level of education you have achieved?
I have attended graduate school.
5. From which colleges/universities do you hold degrees?
I attended a Big 10 university for 3 1/2 years but left to accept a reporting job before graduating.
Wait a minute. If the answer to Question 5 is true, how can the answer to Question 4 be true? If he did not graduate from college (3 1/2 years attendance), how did he get into grad school?
graduate school has various meanings
Unfortunately, I think this election has brought out the worst in everybody. There is opportunism, self-aborption, and emotional fervor like we have never seen before. Don’t get me wrong but I have a hard time believing most politicians and journalists.
For the first time in American history, no matter which party wins the election, history will be made. Either a black man or a woman will be in one of the two most visible positions in American politics.This is a true political checkmate. Every possible political power play in the presidential election was killed on September 4th 2008.
This checkmmate has spawned whiserings and enuendo from both sides of the isle. Barack Obama spoke out against a rumor that Sarah Palin’s fifth child was actually her grandchild. I listened to an audio clip of a radio personality announcing the tidbit of information as if he had just discovered that Queen Elizabeth is a lesbian!! What about the male journalists who have taken shots at her for not staying home with her children? What about Barack Obama saying that he is alive because of the march on Selma AL? Hello, he was born 4 years prior to the march taking place. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt and everything you read with a larger grain of salt.
Politics and journalism are not for the weak and faint hearted; people will tell lies just to get rumors started to see if they can topple their opponents. Another thing to remember is that we are dealing with human beings. All human beings are hungry for personal validation and power, you know that 15 minutes of fame.
I could take time to enumerate lots of errors of politicans over the years. One of my uncles was a senator for two terms and you cannot imagine some of the lies told about him. So I place just a little more confidence in broadcast journalism because of the vast audience with the opportunity for instant feedback than I do in written journalism. And that very little confidence in written journalism, even with citations and quotes, is due to the lag in the time it takes to check sources. We should all be careful.
Let’s just say that we are living in a watershed moment that the majority of Americans alive today may not have every imagined and we will hear and read some pretty nasty things that may not be entirely accurate. So be patient and let’s see who wins come November 5.
A. Anton,
Graduate school has one meaning: one has entered a University/College as a Graduate taking Graduate courses to obtain a Graduate degree. J. Stevens is correct. If “Charley James” never graduated from his Big 10, then how did he get into Graduate school? Did he attend the Big 10 as a Graduate? If so, then question 5 was left unanswered. He must have at least one degree to list for question 5. Should he not? Also, which Big 10 did he attend?
Redheadga,
You are so right. Things must be taken with a grain of salt, especially in these elections. People are painting “good vs. evil” in this race to the Oval Office and things have just begun.
The only thing more disgusting in the Palin article than her purported comment was calling the last-nameless “Lucille” “Aboriginal”.
“openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. she is also vindictive and mean.
No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code.”
Who’s being racist here?
“She’s a bigot, a racist, and a liar,” is the more blunt assessment of Arnold Gerstheimer “These stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white and good looking actually. Why do I know they’re true? Because everyone who isn’t aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way.”
And here he quotes someone’s racist remarks as a way to prove that Palin is racist?
Sorry, but those lines made it really hard to take this article seriously
“graduate school has various meanings”
– - – -
Apparently, so does the phrase “top notch journalist and editor.”
If only a small part of James’ story is true, it
is freightening to think someone like Palin could rise this far.
We can second guess the Internet all day. The debates, hopefully, will tell us what we need to know.
But let’s face it (and here I reveal MY bias):
the woman ran for a beauty queen title! My god,
what more do you need to know about her brain?
As a professor at a major state university, now retired, I often had non-degree students attend my graduate classes. They attended on a non-credit basis and normally enrolled through Continuing Education. Most large universities have a school or department of Continuing Education (or a similar name), which provides non-credit access to both graduate and undergraduate courses.
It seems that the Communist smear artist “Charley James” is at it again. This time he’s going after a brave American hero with lies and innuendo.
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/10/04/mccain-the-war-hero-has-no-clothes/
Great articles & Nice a site….
His name is Jim Bliwas. In the 80s he coached Little League – and worked for his father as an insurance salesmen and investment counselor in Hopkins, Minnesota.