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Washington Post Now Claims "Authorized" to Access MD4BUSH Account
Saturday, November 5, 2005 | Kristinn

Posted on 11/05/2005 4:36:11 PM PST by kristinn

After yesterday's press conference in front of The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. that criticized The Post for violating their sourcing guidelines and for accessing a FreeRepublic.com account in possible violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, an editor for The Post is now claiming authorization to log-in to the account of MD4BUSH.

Earlier this week, Post Maryland editor R.B. Brenner made statements that reporter Matthew Mosk had logged in to MD4BUSH's account "two or three times" after being given the password by an "intermediary" in order to authenticate private messages sent between MD4BUSH and NCPAC on Free Republic.

Brenner has maintained that The Post does not know who MD4BUSH is.

Brenner is reported to have made the following statement to The Post for their story today about the press conference:

"As part of our reporting, we needed to verify that the chat room postings were authentic. We were authorized to view them, and it was appropriate to do so under the circumstances."

Link to Post article here.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: brownshirtsforkerry; hackshacking; howtostealanelection; leonarddownie; md4bush; mediabias; mosk; ncpac; smearcampaign; trolls; waronerror; whathappenedtooptout; wp; zogbyism
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To: shutup_you_idiot

It's a thread worth studying -

I have no knowledge of another thread on FR that has been pushed by drive-by posters like that one. Could someone have learned that Steffen was a Freeper and the attempt at dragging him in have started last summer?

JimRob will know from where the posts were made - how many different computers were used for the onetime posters.

Could it be totally unrelated to Steffen/NCPAC?

It definitely was someone wanted to spread the O'Malley story here. Everyone I knew in Baltimore had heard the rumors before I did, and I knew them before last summer.


181 posted on 11/05/2005 7:28:42 PM PST by maica (We are fighting the War for the Free World --Frank Gaffney)
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To: HAL9000

I think Len Downie, Jr. needs an attorney, also. The initial story in February ran on the front page of The Post and had the potential of harming Gov. Ehrlich. No way he wouldn't be in the loop on this one.


182 posted on 11/05/2005 7:29:39 PM PST by kristinn
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To: conservative in nyc

I don't know if anyone from E&P was there. It was a good crowd in front of The Post building. Maybe a dozen reporters.


183 posted on 11/05/2005 7:32:05 PM PST by kristinn
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To: Toskrin

That is one of the great mysteries in this: How did MD4BUSH know to seek out NCPAC?


184 posted on 11/05/2005 7:34:31 PM PST by kristinn
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To: SteveMcKing
".....that's not something we typically say here."

I remember reading all those postings from MD4Bush and knew right off he was not a Freeper. Like you I knew those were not the kind of things Freepers would be saying.

185 posted on 11/05/2005 7:42:20 PM PST by Spunky ("Everyone has a freedom of choice, but not of consequences.")
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To: kristinn

I find this to be a strange post – particularly in light of the other posters on this thread noting that MD4Bush is reported to have Freep-mailed directly “NCPAC” on the first day of registration????

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1246101/posts

___________________________________________________
To: MD4Bush
Haven't had the chance to read all the posts yet.

Perhaps we've met?


25 posted on 10/15/2004 11:57:39 AM PDT by NCPAC (Social Darwinists Unite!)

_______________________________________________________


186 posted on 11/05/2005 7:52:06 PM PST by VRWCTexan (History has a long memory - but still repeats itself)
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To: kristinn

If they don't know who MD4Bush is, how could he have given them legal access. Did he sign his name with an "X"?


187 posted on 11/05/2005 7:55:00 PM PST by TaxRelief ("Conservatives are cracking down!" -- Rush Limbaugh, October 13, 2005)
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To: kristinn
The Washington Post is part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?

Hillary is gonna have a nervous breakdown.
188 posted on 11/05/2005 7:59:01 PM PST by George W. Bush
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To: kristinn

NCPAC was particular to Steffen - perhaps a previous job North Carolina PAC or something like that. I remember reading that he said he could be linked to that screenname.


189 posted on 11/05/2005 8:00:54 PM PST by maica (We are fighting the War for the Free World --Frank Gaffney)
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To: kristinn
I was searching through the Michelle Lane-related posts and found a reference to this statement by the Washington Post about how Mosk found out details about Steffen's life for an biographical piece that ran in the Style section on 03/21/05. Note that it was printed as a correction to the article:

Between the first and second March 21 editions, a paragraph was dropped from a Style article on Joseph F. Steffen Jr., a former political aide to Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The story described e-mails posted on the Web site FreeRepublic.com under the name NCPAC, which is short for National Conservative Political Action Committee. The paragraph that should have appeared said:

"Steffen confirmed to The Washington Post last month that he is NCPAC (pronounced 'nik-pak'). He canceled a meeting scheduled for this article and did not respond to further requests for comment. No one else could post messages as NCPAC without NCPAC sharing his password, according to a spokesman for FreeRepublic.com. NCPAC posted about a thousand messages between January 2004 and early last month. They were sprinkled with autobiographical asides that a reporter independently verified as facts of Steffen's life."

190 posted on 11/05/2005 8:05:54 PM PST by conservative in nyc
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To: kristinn

Hi, haven't been able to keep up on things, moving from AZ to IN has taken its toll on my ability to follow things. What is MD4Bush?


191 posted on 11/05/2005 8:08:10 PM PST by DaiHuy (Oderint dum metuant)
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To: maica; GOP_1900AD; CollegeRepublican; Jim Robinson; Admin Moderator
I have no knowledge of another thread on FR that has been pushed by drive-by posters like that one. Could someone have learned that Steffen was a Freeper and the attempt at dragging him in have started last summer?

JimRob will know from where the posts were made - how many different computers were used for the onetime posters.

Man, you're not kidding. Talk about your "drive-by poster." You and GOP_1900ad and CollegeRepublican did a great job of sniffing them out way back then.

Here they are. All these screen names are active (i.e., they haven't been banned), they have nothing on their home page, and, with the exception of MD4BUSH, they've only made one post. They haven't posted anything since this thread.

Someone please make sure Jim has examined and documented their computer signatures to see if they came from the Compost office.

O'Malley Rumours
MrEd1964

dempublican

baltimore

bug10

?authority

genevaz

tskitmir

chloec

superwoman4u2

MD4BUSH

theheadman
This doesn't even include the ones who posted on that thread that are now banned.

192 posted on 11/05/2005 8:28:00 PM PST by shutup_you_idiot
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To: conservative in nyc
Actually, the article was by David Montgomery, with help from WaPo staff researcher Bobbye Pratt. IIRC, Pratt helped Mosk with the original 2/9/05 article, too. It's not clear whether "a reporter" applies to Montgomery or Mosk.
193 posted on 11/05/2005 8:28:18 PM PST by conservative in nyc
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To: shutup_you_idiot

Thanks for collating the names on this thread.


194 posted on 11/05/2005 8:48:24 PM PST by maica (We are fighting the War for the Free World --Frank Gaffney)
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To: shutup_you_idiot

I think a few of those are the same person, if not all of them. That's another violation of FR rules(multiple accounts) but that's nothing compared to the problems they're about to face.


195 posted on 11/05/2005 8:52:58 PM PST by darkangel82
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To: kristinn
On top of all the applicable laws mentioned, (you have the POST, the intermediary and MD4Bush).....might as well make it a conspiracy.
196 posted on 11/05/2005 8:54:17 PM PST by stylin19a
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To: Danae

They got it from Lucy Ramirez at a livestock sale.


197 posted on 11/05/2005 9:05:44 PM PST by EagleClaw
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To: Danae
The BS in the ink at the Post??

I call bs on this too. The post is up to it to their eyeballs. They know they have been caught dirty.

MD4BUSHs very first post is to NCPAC. NCPAC was targeted. MD4BUSH is a post reporter.

198 posted on 11/05/2005 9:13:12 PM PST by bad company ( Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: shutup_you_idiot

Thanks for digging that out -

And also note that not only did they post on the one thread, they all opened their FR accounts within one week of each other (last week of July 04) - some on the same day....

The statistical odds of that happening by sheer coincidence on a single thread of just 100 posts are beyond calculation.


199 posted on 11/05/2005 9:20:34 PM PST by VRWCTexan (History has a long memory - but still repeats itself)
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To: kristinn; NCPAC
Thank you for you time and effort expended on behalf of this story.

How did MD4BUSH know to seek out NCPAC?

I've found a few posts of NCPAC's (posted around the time of MD4BUSH's short stay here) that would make it quite easy for someone who closely follows Maryland politics to pick up on NCPAC's identity. (Bold for emphasis, comments in green are mine, and most importantly, please note the red snip from a Mosk WaPo article.)

 
Posted by NCPAC to COBOL2Java
On News/Activism 12/01/2004 10:42:27 PM CST · 25 of 38

"Did you mention FreeRepublic to him (Ehlrich)?"

I've known/worked in various capacities for and with the Governor since 1986. He and his wife, First Lady Kendel Ehrlich, are two of the classiest and ballsiest people I've ever met. I met Lt. Governor Steele in 2001 and I worked some with both the Governor and Lt. Governor on Ehrlich's 2002 Gubernatorial Campaign.

Over the past year or so, I've made both men aware of FreeRepublic. In fact, at the MD GOP Fall Convention a few weeks ago, I informed Steele directly of a lot of the praise/compliments/support he has from so many Freepers. After this discussion, one of Steele's aides asked me for FR's web address. I know this aide well, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was lurking on here now and then.


 
Posted by NCPAC to Sub-Driver
On News/Activism 01/10/2005 7:45:00 PM CST · 13 of 25

I was at this news conference. Ehrlich also said the legislation was a $430 million tax increase to take care of a $30 million problem. The one quote of his in the posted article does not tell the story.

It is possible MD4BUSH attended this conference in an official capacity with the WaPo and saw NCPAC there.

Incidentally, Mosk wrote the following WaPo article as those he attended the conference:

Stormy Session Ahead After Veto Of Insurance Bill

Rancor Between Ehrlich, Democrats Is Worsening

By John Wagner and Matthew Mosk

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 11, 2005; Page A01

Yesterday's gathering had all the trappings of a political celebration. With a bank of television cameras capturing the moment, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) stood flanked by a crowd of legislative allies and lab coat-clad doctors, whose insurance woes had prompted him to call an emergency session of the General Assembly.

Snip:

At yesterday's news conference, Ehrlich seemed to be pointedly aware of the sentiment that the veto represents not a victory but a failure.

As he moved to sign the giant leg cast -- which was already decorated with 753 signatures of his supporters on the issue -- he had trouble finding an opening for his own name. "Maybe I should sign it on the Achilles' heel," he joked. Then, recognizing that it would be a fitting symbol, he asked a doctor to point him to the anatomically correct spot, leaned in and signed his name.

VANITY - Congressman Phil Crane's defeat.

Posted by NCPAC to lapster
On
News/Activism 11/03/2004 9:44:09 AM CST · 24 of 28

"But as with all great stars in the galaxy, we best remember them when they were at their apex."


Yes, we do!

Thank you for your kind words on behalf of Congressman Crane. While I agree that the years had taken their toll in a number of ways, the good he did for this country and for the consertive movement is immeasurable.

To answer your question, I was the National Conservative Political Action Committee's press secretary and second spokesman (to NCPAC Chairman, Terry Dolan) from between 2/82 - 2/84.

NCPAC's identity should be easy to uncover from the comment in bold above.

 
 
 
Posted by NCPAC to BillyBoy
On News/Activism 08/13/2004 9:12:49 AM CDT · 41 of 42

It's a matter of semantics, then. I consider anyone who averages 76% ACU rating over 8 years to be a conservative - especially since I know Ehrlich had a number of years in the mid-upper 80's, ratings-wise.

I know the Ehrlich history well, having been involved in three of his campaigns. He is the best candidate I have ever met/worked/consulted/strategized with and I've worked in professional politics for the last 20plus years. On the stump, he is incredible. More importantly, he sticks to his guns. If he says he is going to do something, he does it - or takes the loss and the hit. He does not flip-flop or cave-in to anyone's demands. He is who he is. (FWIW, the Bush campaign last week tapped Ehrlich to be a surrogate for the President in a number of the Battleground States.)

Discovering who served on these three campaigns and combining that with the tidbits above basically confirms NCPAC's identity.

 

Lastly, while googling NCPAC/Steffen, I was appalled to read some of the horrible comments and disparaging remarks made about him. His name has truly been dragged through the mud. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help vindicate a fellow freeper and conservative.

200 posted on 11/05/2005 9:34:13 PM PST by Quilla
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