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Obama Blog Squad Still Active - DOJ Public Affairs Provides Aid to Anonymous Postings
Muffled Oar ^ | April 3, 2010 | Issac Muzzey

Posted on 04/04/2010 11:08:56 PM PDT by machogirl

Remember Ellie Light?

The Obama Blog Squad has been active on a number of high profile conservative webpages in the last month. The Muffled Oar broke the story in October of Administration-wide coordination between agency public affairs offices and left wing bloggers to attack news stories critical of Obama, post anonymous comments and seed the Internet with unofficial official Obama spin. As part of this effort, the Justice Department Office of Public Affairs works closely with left wing bloggers to distribute administration spin. The OPA unit is headed by a former John Edwards campaign staffer who conducted this type of operation for his now-disgraced Presidential campaign.

Recently, a so-called reporter for a left wing blog that covers the Justice Department was caught participating on conservative blogs as a member of the blog squad working with the Justice Department Office of Public Affairs. Administrators of conservative blogs have been alerted of suspected blog squad trolls and are monitoring their posting activity. The anonymous troll blogger in his real life job has done interviews with senior Justice Department officials and political appointees, and regularly parrots the Obama Administration line in his stories. You can see the work of some of these secret blog squad activities, where blog squaders serve as an partisan advocate for General Holder after they put on their Internet disguise. Note carefully the very informed pro-DOJ positions the anonymous troll blogger posts, defending Holder and the administration by attacking critics. Occasionally this blog squadder will post something critical of Obama or Holder, but it is always an aside, part of the disguise, while he plays the role of anonymous critic. Without these asides, he would be booted from the Free Republic as a left wing troll.

Here is the most important part of this story: this anonymous blogger is getting information directly from Tracy Russo or the others at the DOJ office of public affairs. This is the undeniable fact, and the most disgusting one. The blog squadder cites detailed and informed rebuttals about Justice policy provided by Justice officials. Whether these details were acquired from their pseudo-legitimate role as a pseudo-reporter, or their illegitimate role in the blog squad is unknown. Various conservative blogs have begun to harvest Internet addressees of these trolls and are patching together together the pattern.

The anonymous blog squader "Conscience of a Conservative," knows who he is. Stranger still, many people think he is a legitimate news reporter covering the Department of Justice for a media outlet. How many more reporters have this cozy and cooperative relationship with the Office of Public Affairs? Perhaps he will own up to his anonymous trolling before he is outed and brings great shame to his purportedly objective publication that employs him. We doubt it.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: bloggers; elections; freerepublic; frontpage; government; invaders; leftists; news; obama; stolenvalor; trolls
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To: Allegra

Wow .. okay. So you decided.
As always, my prayers and good
wishes go out to you ... ;)

(I think I get CRC, but not sure.
Confidently Relentless Contracting ?
LOL)


61 posted on 04/05/2010 10:27:44 AM PDT by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: Candor7
Yeah, I almost started my post with "at risk of being labeled a troll...." But, thouht better of it.

When this "story" first broke my original thought was someone is trying to smear FReepers. So I went through the poster in question's history, but couldn't find anything to get too bent out of shape about. Except some of the split hairs on HC.

Then I thought about a post I had just made regarding whether or not interogators that interrogated US detainees suspected of terrorism would have to swear an oath to the Consitution.

It would be easy for someone to do a drive-by and start twisting our words. The more you deny, the more suspicion is raised. Pretty good scial engineering tool and an Alinsky tactic "identify the target etc." No one wants to come to a poster's defense for fear of being labeled as a troll too.

Just my two cents.

62 posted on 04/05/2010 10:32:15 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: bushpilot1

Not mine they can’t. I use a proxy. My IP is always hidden. If you check my IP right now it says I am in Texas. A few minutes ago I was in Pennsylvania. I might be in the UK 10 minutes from now. Even if they did get my real one, it would tell them zip. It is shared with thousands of others. I would never have a static IP. NEVER. Even if I didn’t use a proxy, my Ip changes each time I reboot my computer.


63 posted on 04/05/2010 10:34:23 AM PDT by mojitojoe (I don't care what you passed. you are irrelevant. I'll NEVER comply in any way. Read my lips, NEVER!)
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To: Conscience of a Conservative

It’s not just that. You entire past posting history is suspicious to say the least. I took screen shots of your past posts months ago when you raised red flags on a BC thread. I’m not buying it.


64 posted on 04/05/2010 10:37:09 AM PDT by mojitojoe (I don't care what you passed. you are irrelevant. I'll NEVER comply in any way. Read my lips, NEVER!)
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To: STARWISE
(I think I get CRC, but not sure. Confidently Relentless Contracting ? LOL)

LOL - CONUS Replacement Center. Any of our fine Army folks on here will know the meaning (and very likely shudder at the thought.)

65 posted on 04/05/2010 10:38:49 AM PDT by Allegra
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To: Repeat Offender

Posting history.

It doesn’t lie.

You can easily see the difference.But I am not gving away any secrets here.


66 posted on 04/05/2010 10:40:21 AM PDT by Candor7 (Now's the time to ante up against the Obama Fascist Junta ( member NRA))
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To: mojitojoe

What could I have said in a BC thread that “raised red flags?” I do not believe that the BC “issue” is a serious issue, and I do not think it is a helpful issue to pursue. That doesn’t make me a troll. That doesn’t make me a lib. that doesn’t make me any lesss conservative. All it makes me is a conservative who does not buy in to the BC stuff. Reasonable minds can disagree, even if both reaosonable minds are conservative.


67 posted on 04/05/2010 10:43:25 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: Candor7

Please tell me what is suspicious about my posting history.

Reasonable disagreements are not trolling.


68 posted on 04/05/2010 10:45:08 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: Allegra

Well, thank you, ma’am ... ;)


69 posted on 04/05/2010 10:48:07 AM PDT by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: Repeat Offender

whereas IMO a true troll would cut their loss and move onto another screen name
____________
Not true. A really good troll doesn’t want to lose that seniority and longevity. Then he has to do it all over again. A good troll will usually try to convince them that he is not a troll. Search for internet trolls. You’ll find some really interesting things you never knew about ‘trolls’.
I’ve told this story before but I will repeat it. Last year I was on You Tube posting parts of the death care bill in the comments sections of the videos. The Obots were out in full force. I hadn’t seen them that rabid since prior to the election. A couple of them were working this one video on health care that was on fire. Comments were fast and furious. After a while, I called one of them out. I got the impression this one was young and not that experienced.... just kept posting the same few things over and over. The response was something close to “ Hey don’t yell at me, I’m just doing my job that I am paid to do. They give it to me, I post it on You Tube video comments sections, I don’t even know what it all means”. I asked who is they, who pays you, never got an answer.


70 posted on 04/05/2010 10:54:03 AM PDT by mojitojoe (I don't care what you passed. you are irrelevant. I'll NEVER comply in any way. Read my lips, NEVER!)
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To: Repeat Offender

Yeah, I almost started my post with “at risk of being labeled a troll.
___________
LOL... you didn’t need to do that. Freepers are probably searching your past posting history right now. I know I am. lol


71 posted on 04/05/2010 10:56:28 AM PDT by mojitojoe (I don't care what you passed. you are irrelevant. I'll NEVER comply in any way. Read my lips, NEVER!)
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To: Conscience of a Conservative

“Looking back, it looks like I disagreed with MuffledOar’s interpretation of a specific provision in ObamaCare, in a thread a couple of weeks ago. “

Could you please elaborate or give us the link, it would help us understand your position.

What specific provision in Obamacare are we talking about, what was your position vs that of MuffledOar’s?


72 posted on 04/05/2010 10:57:31 AM PDT by SmartInsight (Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. ~ G. J. Nathan)
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To: Conscience of a Conservative

Ha Ha!

“Buy in”. Crappola, that’s all I have to say.


73 posted on 04/05/2010 10:57:40 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Asato Ma Sad Gamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya)
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To: mojitojoe

I did a bit too, and anyone who is concerned what the MSM/others/leftist/people in general “think” of “us conservatives” or FR in particular is outing themselves right there.


74 posted on 04/05/2010 10:58:44 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Asato Ma Sad Gamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya)
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To: mojitojoe
True. I was imagining a troll that had multiple screen names at around the same sign up date; or even staggered dates. This way, you could post to "each other" too. If it became apparent that one account was beyond salvage, you still had others.

I would imagine the mods could track IPS, but if you had a work account, and a home account, used a proxy etc etc (which I guess if you were a paid troll would be feasible and more likely) it would be harder to track. And, I imagine it would be time consuming for mods to track IPS without being alerted to a troll; considering the web taffic FR gets.

But, I agree with you. My overall point is to be cautious when it comes to other sites "outing" a troll. What are their alterior motives? Surely they don't care about the quality of poster on FR unless it suits their ends.

75 posted on 04/05/2010 11:02:27 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: Conscience of a Conservative; mojitojoe

You do appear to have a constant theme in your postings. You seem to fall on the side of the Obama administration on many of the issues by mitigating the opposition’s argument, which would make people at the very least wonder about you.


76 posted on 04/05/2010 11:03:14 AM PDT by Red Steel
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To: mojitojoe
LOL. Just don't report me to flag@whitehouse.gov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trder2lhIk0&NR=1

77 posted on 04/05/2010 11:05:45 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: Conscience of a Conservative
Photobucket
78 posted on 04/05/2010 11:12:19 AM PDT by Candor7 (Now's the time to ante up against the Obama Fascist Junta ( member NRA))
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To: Red Steel
See, I don't think I am "mitigating" anything. In fact, when I disagree with someone on here, even someone who is vehemently opposing Obama, I do so in order to (I believe) strengthen the opposition to Obama (and, more importantly, to what Obama represents).

For example: I recently posted in a thread about the student loan takeover. In my post, I pointed out that, in many ways, the federalization/socialization of student loans is nothing new. My argument was that, while the Stafford loans (and others) that the Federal government has now taken over were nominally private prior to the takeover, they have been effectively government loans for decades - banks and other private institutions loaned the money and serviced the loans, but eligibility criteria was federally mandated, and the federal government guaranteed something the principal of each loan.

Some people took my above argument, and seem to think that I support the student loan takeover. I do not. To the contrary, I oppose the student loan takeover and the entire Federal student loan program it modified - the availability of government student aid is one of the primary drivers of the increase in the cost of higher education, and has given the Federal goverment tremendous power to effectively decide who can and cannot go to college. I was simply trying to point out this bigger picture.

I think that many of my "disagreement" posts are along those same lines. People around here can get so lost in the particular political battles of today that they tend to lose sight of the big picture. The immediate battles are important, yes, but so is the big picture. Oppose Obama and the 'rats, get 'em all out of office, and roll back everything Obama's done - sure, of course. But that's not (that CANNOT be) the end goal. We need to roll Obama's stuff back, but ALSO roll back the entire foundation of socialism upon which it's built. I think that too many people around here think that simply undoing Obama's policies will solve all of our problems. It won't. It's certainly necessary, but it's also certainly insufficient.

79 posted on 04/05/2010 11:23:57 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: mojitojoe

No idea how to use a proxy..tried a few times to set it up but failed..


80 posted on 04/05/2010 11:30:48 AM PDT by bushpilot1
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