By Matt Haber

May 19, 2008 | 6:51 p.m

Liar. Whiner. Very bad writer. James Frey has been called a lot of things, but no one can call the guy impolite.

At an appearance to promote his new book, Bright Shiny Morning, in San Francisco on Friday, Mr. Frey was met by the forces of Down with Frey, an organization whose aims are pretty self-explanatory. But, here's the thing: Mr. Frey seemed to like them. On his Amazon promotional blog, Omnivoracious, Mr. Frey wrote that he'd "met a guy who had started a protest group called Down With Frey. I chatted with him for a couple minutes, and he was a nice, smart guy."

That guy is Jan Frel, an editor at AlterNet, who started Down With Frey with his wife, Hadley Suter. According to The SF Weeky's Snitch blogger, Andy Wright, they're kind of the only members.

Wright chronicles the brief encounter between Frel, Suter, and Frey and Frey's friend, "an extremely angry-looking guy with black hair and tattoos," including the moment when Mr. Frey's pal menaced Mr. Frel like a high school bully:

Contacted by Media Mob, Mr. Frel said the encounter was accurately described by Wright. He clarified his distaste for Mr. Frey, writing, "The problem is as much with his audience and the literary world in the U.S.—the NYT, and Vanity Fair's favorable treatment of him demonstrates the zombie-like lack of accountability for failure, disgrace, and decadence that's emerging as status quo in all aspects of society. It's tied to the same decadent trend that leaves Bush still standing after robbing the country blind and committing real war crimes."

On Friday, SF Weekly's Ms. Wright asked Mr. Frey what he thought of his two-person backlash: The author responded, "I think it's awesome!"

What a guy! We bet he was that cool when Porterhouse hit him in the head with a tray in prison too. Oh, right... That never happened.