Posted on 02/10/2005 10:41:44 PM PST by conservative in nyc
The Web site began as a sort of Internet boutique for like-minded conservatives and libertarians, suspicious of federal power and angry at President Bill Clinton.
Started in 1997 by a reclusive California conservative, freerepublic.com saw its membership blossom with Clinton's impeachment and the election of George W. Bush. Attention to the site reached a zenith last fall, when a "freeper" -- the group's moniker for its bloggers -- first discussed flaws in documents CBS News used in a report critical of Bush's National Guard service.
---Snip---
One participant working under the handle MD4BUSH, whose identity is unknown, drew Steffen into a private conversation and appeared to coax him to share more details about his role in spreading the rumor. Copies of those chat room e-mails were later provided to The Washington Post.
The Oct. 18 conversation began with MD4BUSH complimenting Steffen and saying how obvious it was that the rumors about the mayor were true. Steffen, writing under the name NCPAC, replied:
"I don't look for the MO'M [O'Malley] story to hit for a little bit yet. . . . However, a lot of what everyone knows about MO'M is because of work that has occurred. It's been a wild ride."
MD4BUSH later probed further:
"Your saying that my dentist knows [about the rumors] because of work you did? Wow, I must say, I'm impressed. I mean really, everyone knows -- how did that happen?"
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You mean this one:
Karl Rove on the Tony Snow Show (Confident!)
Posted by MD4Bush to NCPAC
On News/Activism 10/14/2004 3:15:13 PM CDT · 100 of 102
There was a great article in the atlantic (lib mag my wife reads) about Rove. The writer whines all about Rove’s tricks, but they work and he is a genius. He got a rumor started about this dem judge who gave a lot of money to a charity for kids, so they took those pictures of the judge with the kids and said he was a gay pedophile. It worked.
Nah, he was just banned. I peeked at his homepage earlier this evening. Which was certainly a pretty lazy job of impersonating a good Freeper.
I wonder what his registration details were...
"Please think before you post"
That's exactly the point I was trying to make.
ECPA has this exclusion:
It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for a person
not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception unless such communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of any State.
Seems like it'd be an out...
You got some of that too, did ya? ; )
Hope the decisions that were taken were correct. I'm moving on...
Gotcha.
That would be the one. Well, reads a liberal magazine could be distinguished from being a liberal. But, play the percentages here..
We just don't know. The Washington Post didn't say.
A crime may or may not have been committed.
I looked at MD4BUSH posts and he sure doesn't post like I would imagine an agent proveucater or mole would. I'll ping him to see if he will weigh in on (1)the reasons for his FReepmail to NCPAC and (2) if he forwarded NCPAC's replies to others or otherwise has any thoughts on how the private FReepmail was exposed.
The Baltimore Sun is now declaring war with Free Republic over the rumor. However, long-time posters on the Baltimore Sun's own web forum said that the rumors were repeatedly posted on that forum long before any known FR posting.
Apparently, the Sun would take down the posts, but perhaps one or more less prominent references to the rumors still remain on some old postings.
Any FReepers want to help find proof that the Baltimore Sun (BS) published the O'Malley rumor on its website talk forum before Free Republic? Click here and try to locate posts in the local news forum that are in July of 2004 or earlier and that mention the rumors.
TRICK: Apparently, BS pulled down threads specifically about the rumors. Therefore, the titles are unlikely to directly reference the rumors. Instead, any remaining posts of the rumors are likely to be down-thread.
The rumors coincided with the conviction of O'Malley's buddy and police commissioner Norris for using city funds for his mistress (mistresses?). Thus, a thread about the police corruption may have, buried within it, a comment about the Mayor behaving similar to the womanizing commissioner.
(And for the record, I don't endorse the O'Malley rumor nor even believe it. My point is to show that the BS website started this terrible plague of unsubstantiated, irresponsible postings, not FR.)
Ping -- just in case. Thought you might want to see this thread.
Other way around. This article popped up and within the hour, MD4BUSH got banned or suspended.
The article popped up before he was banned..I did a name search before I saw the frmail posted and link...and the thread and the poster were still alive...I finally pushed abuse..Seemed like that frmail post was made to gloat when the story broke..a real gentleman.
The thread he posted on was from Oct.
Yes, it was me. I brought it to JimRob's attention as well. Clearly the guy was laying the groundwork on 2/08 for another salvo from the press by leaking confidential freepmails, although one-sided. It's only by the mentioning of MD4Bush's screename in the Post article that both of us tracked his posts, now pulled.
I'm sure Jim is reviewing his options and for the time being it's better that the thread got pulled.
Welcome to the new media.
Exactly what I found.
Naturally. It's opening up your private life to everybody. Unless you can really trust the person your FR mailing with, the best course of action is to divulge as little as possible on all fronts, including private life.
I saved it for a book...Grin
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