Friday, June 30, 2006
Is Gov. Warner's Blogger A Zodiac Freeper?
(Note: I just want to make clear that this article - and past and future related articles - have absolutely nothing to do with the views, thoughts, etc. of the online news magazine that I work for...which is named elsewhere on this blog but won't be on this series...which continues here)
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic shares the same strange made-up nickname as a well-known Democratic blogger almost certainly appears to use? (for the reasons why I write "almost certainly" see near the bottom of this post)
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic would have mentioned attending a high school in the Los Angeles area not far from where a well-known Democratic blogger grew up?
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic would have mentioned going to see the Mariners play in Seattle at the same time a well-known Democratic blogger would have been living not too far from there?
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic and a well-known Democratic blogger would both be heavily addicted to political polling?
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic would be against the war in Iraq but like...hell...any well-known Democratic blogger would have no solution becaue they're too cowardly to say 'let's get the fuck out now?'
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic would write "Harris is the best, bar none, polling out fit out there, if they say it, I believe it, and your a fool to not" about a poll which puts Howard Dean only 5 points behind President Bush in January of 2004?
What are the odds that a frequent poster at Free Republic would refer to a blog entry at the Howard Dean Website written by someone who's friends with a well-known Democratic blogger and who started out blogging at that well-known Democratic blogger's website?
What are the odds that a frequent Free Republic poster would gloat about how well two politicians, including Dean, have made use of meet-ups which a well-known Democratic blogger pretty much pioneered:
Not doing too good. I don't really see how using meetup nationally will help Thune anyway, in South Dakota. You know who is using meetup effectively (besides Howard Dean) is Toomey in Pennsylvania. He's gotten over 300 in a few weeks, and if it grows at that rate to next spering, he'll have a grassroots army, and will beat Specter.
What are the odds that a frequent Free Republic poster would write that the media could never destroy a candidate that the Internet built up?
The "mainstream" media built Dean up. That's bs, the media only paid attention to HD after he'd already been built up by the deaniacs on the internet... I doubt the media will have any such affect of being able to tear down HD-- they didn't create him.
Before you go thinking that this may be some sort of "Yes Men" agent provocateur deal, perhaps you should take a look at the frequent Free Republic poster's first three postings which were all about baseball and written within a month after 9/11, a strange time to be starting some sort of insidious, inside instigator campaign (I use "insidious" because at the close of Vis Numar's Free Republic posts which concluded in 2005 there are a number of comments mocking Republicans that have been "outed" as gay).
Just who the hell is Vis Numar? And more importantly, if these coincidences add up how will this be spun by his "gravy train" friends?
'Almost certainly' reasons
1. At this list of Vis Numar posts there is a post entitled "Nov 6th, 2001 Virgina Governor Election." Click on it and check out the name of the author of the post. Then go back to the list and check some more of the older entries.
2. The following comment left at a posting on this page: "Sally, did you see Jerome Armstrong on C-Span yesterday morning? He was representing MYDD, of course, and I couldn't help but think I was looking at Vis Numar. But what do I know? hay hay - He was very impressive!!"
3. #268 on this Democratic Underground page, Vis Numar, links to MyDD in October of 2001 (and this post from November of 2001).
4. This Democratic Underground post by Vis Numar in June of 2002 links to MyDD twice (so does this Vis Numar post also from June of 2002).
5. Vis Numar at Democratic Underground slams the DLC to support Howard Dean.
If Jerome Armstrong is Vis Numar then his defending statement appears to be in error since "the early 2001 days" conflicts with the fact that Vis Numar was still doing political astrology as late as last year (at least I think it's political because it's way over my head...something about how the GOP being obsessed with "gonad politics" and how the Republicans wouldn't be able to stop Terry Schiavo's husband from pulling the plug maybe because of "Neptunian issues" and how "the republican chart represents the ideals of the US"...sure as hell got me).
Then there's this Reuters article from November 2002 which ran in at least two newspapers on the west coast and is online at Zogby's Website that conflicts with Jerome's statement that astrology "has nothing to do with what I consult with in online political strategy" just a little bit I would think:
One of the more nontraditional forecasters online is Jerome Armstrong, the braintrust behind MyDD.com (www.mydd.com). After working as an options and futures trader, MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong said political forecasting was a natural extension of his interest.
Unlike the major network pollsters, he likes having his own Weblog for its flexibility and independence.
"With the Weblogs you can change your mind (often) looking at all the information out there ... You can make a quick summary of what that race looks like from the perspective of locals," he said.
Armstrong does not hide his liberal political bias or the fact he uses astrology to analyze some competitive races, but he strongly contends that the accuracy of his forecasts take priority over his personal views. For the record, he is predicting the Democrats will gain seven seats in the House resulting in a 219-216 majority while slightly increasing their tenuous majority in the Senate.
In addition, a Who Is search on MyDD.com reveals that Jerome Armstrong purchased the url for his Website in May of 1999 yet MyDD's archives can only be searched as far back as April of 2001, which leads me to my final question:
What the hell was at MyDD.com before April of 2001 and has Jerome Armstrong saved copies of the files that may have been deleted just in case there are [I'll be nice and not include the end of this sentence]?
Perhaps more solid evidence Jerome was a Freeper and worse
....
If this post attracts attention, then not only will I be Swift Boated by bloggers financially tied (or just plain stupid) to these two clowns, the online news magazine that I work for may also come under assault, but when Jerome Armstrong decided to use Howard Dean - a person I truly admire...unlike a certain friend of Jerome's who was backing another candidate for president at the time he was hired which no one seems to think proves that he has no convictions or ideology - in order to prop up his recently-tarnished image rather than address multiple unanswered questions that have nothing to do with his SEC case then that was the last straw.
Add to that: Markos' post about how his friends getting jobs proves "people power" works; ingenuous posts by Digby and Atrios which Swift Boat critics that have objected to Jerome's political astrology by claiming that they're just being anti-religious even though there's a difference between reading your horoscope - as I do - and using it in your work which these two acclaimed bloggers leave out as they often leave out anything that conflicts with their partisan punditry; a campaign by a number of true liberal bloggers - as opposed to the phonies at the tippy-tippy-top - to destroy a journalist who already published an apology and correction; a number of smart liberal bloggers that I've always respected who have gone on a vicious, slimey Swift Boating campaign against the few bloggers and journalists who have objected or raised questions the last few weeks (and the last few years), and one utterly, disgusting post by one Chris Bowers which implies that if politicians give him and his friends money he will shut his mouth (none of these clowns deserve links...find their doggerel by googling or technorating it if you don't believe me).
The fact of the matter is that there are two people (actually 4) that have an immense amount of power in the liberal, progressive and Democratic blogosphere, and there are many reasons to believe that they possess no real ideology and that they are only in the game to gain money and power. And it's about time the "people powered movement" wake up and find new leaders, and the politicians hiring their friends back the fuck away from all of them before even more news comes out (much of that news has already been alluded to at this blog since November of 2004 when I saw through the Matrix and is searchable through my archives).
My critics will charge me with jealousy and prior grudges...but anyone who's familiar with my work knows that I am more liberal than any of them, and that I don't let my partisanship infect my work. Some of my work has been embraced and linked by bloggers of all stripes - except by the A-list bloggers who know that I've seen through their phoniness a long time ago and have blacklisted me. If I was the kind of person to leak personal emails (or private phone conversations) I could post a number of things written by some of those A-list bloggers who have lauded my work and my knack for research, yet have never or hardly linked to me.
The truth is that I have no absolutely no desire to replace any one of these A-list bloggers. I seek the truth...not ways to get Democrats elected. If my party does wrong then I will investigate it and report it. But even though I feel less like a blogger and more like a journalist these days, I can't sit back and let a bunch of clowns plot to take over the world with the help of an even bigger clown and KINGPIN that has bankrolled them and their friends and is in the process of creating a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy to the tune of $80 to $200 million dollars (note to Jerome critics: that money is the reason why Jerome kept his job, not his friendship with a not-even-much-of-a blogger...and if you got their crappy non-ideological book then you can find the name of the KINGPIN close to page 1).
Nearly two years of research have led me to this point...and the truth is not going to be pretty for an awful lot of people on my side of the blogosphere...so I warn all true liberal bloggers from the A to Z ranks to start backing away from these compromised characters ASAP.
To be continued.
Update:
Not everyone on this side of the blogosphere is acting like David Brooks' lambs - man i hate that cocky, unremovable smirk on Brooks' face, hardly ever agree with him, but except for confusing a lackey for the KINGPIN, he got pretty much everything right.
Marisacat linked to me pretty quick today, and she's got a plethora of posts at her site with a plethora of links to blogs and etc., covering this embarrasment that we've all allowed to fester to the point where the right will use it against all of us for ages and ages.
Speaking of the right, while there's a few right-leaning blogs that have been doing some damn good digging, I believe the evil genius who discovered the horoscope, DU, and freeper Vis Numar angles was Riehl World View, and if this blogger ever puts the amount of thought, time - as it seems he did - and work into other stuff as he has on this story then we could be in trouble.
And Donkey Cons has been relentless in his mocking attacks these last couple weeks, even if he he-thinks-ironically keeps on advertising a book that he wrote in the process.
Back to the left, Roger Cadenhead at Workbench and Drudge Retort is one of the bloggers mentioned above who has been Swiftboated the past week, one "outed" blogger notoriously known as Kos' enforcer came out of retirement to defend his friend (ha I kind of like that guy cause he's such an asshole and he is wickedly smart...but methinks he protests too much about others reporting what he should have mentioned a long time ago himself since his media outlet which raises money for candidates reaches over 2 and-a-half million readers a week) and another guy I won't mention was pretty merciless to Roger but I'd also consider him a friend or an ami and I just think he's being misled.
Thanks also to Ryan at Malkin(s)watch for linking to me and advising his readers to stop reading "Atrios, Kos, or MyDD for the next week if you can help it." I would never stop reading Daily Kos because there's so many great diaries over there, and I've been friendly in the past with and I've worked on stuff with two of the front pagers, and one of them I owe a big solid to.
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