Eric Odom

Thanks to Prairie State 2.0, it has come to my attention that Progress Illinois took the Open Left talking points that I debunked earlier today and ran it as fact without doing some checking of their own.

Let’s be clear. This is a “movement” that originated at the highest level of powers in Washington. It’s a movement that, if successful, would benefit large oil companies and their rich executives far more than the average American consumer. It’s a movement with protests populated by paid staffers from industry-funded organizations. In short, there is nothing “grassroots” about it.

I find it fascinating that the left is stumbling over themselves thinking this is a beltway movement, when in fact it’s much, MUCH bigger than that.

Anyway, as one of the two #dontgo founders… I felt it my duty to respond to this false accusation.

Please also note that Progress Illinois is funded by SEIU Illinois State Council.

Below is my response.

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Progress Illinois,

You obviously have no clue whatsoever about the movement you’re writing about do you?

I’m going to point out the indisputable flaw in your post, and in doing so, I also want to point out the extremely poor job you did when “researching” for your little story.

My name is Eric Odom. I, along with good friend Allen Fuller, started the #dontgo Movement. Let me list some facts for you.

1) I’m a registered Libertarian here in Illinois.
How many times have the “powers in Washington” gone through a Libertarian who voted for Ron Paul and will be supporting Bob Barr to do their work for them?

*chirp, chirp*

2) I was never contacted by ANYONE in Washington about #dontgo
Yeah, that’s right. Unlike you, who receives funding from big Government supporting unions to spout your nonsense, I don’t accept money from anyone for my blogs or websites. Unless, of course, someone wants to buy an ad on a non-political site of mine, but that is rare.

3) Big Oil bypassed me when writing the checks
Man, did I miss out or what??? Allen and I launched dontgo.us and dontgomovement.com on our own time and on our own dime, and now we find out that Big Oil and politicians are fueling the movement that we enabled? How did I miss that memo and where the hell is my cut?

4) You never contacted me about your accusation
Usually, when you accuse someone of something, you need to have some facts. If you don’t have facts, which you don’t, then you need to have the accused individual’s side of the story.

Even though dontgomovement.com has a nice and shiny button right up on top that says “CONTACT”, you couldn’t be bothered to actually contact me.

And if you had just used a nifty web tool called Google, you would have found a CNN, Redstate, TNR, Washington Examiner, and MANY other sources that plainly state the site is mine.

You could follow that up by using that cool web tool called Google and it would lead you to my blog. The blog on which I have a button right up top that tells you how to… get ready for it… CONTACT ME.

But instead, you spouted off an accusation that contains no truth and makes you look foolish.

Pat yourself on the back for this, “Progress Illinois”… you give Americans a website to be proud of.

Not.