Rove Derangement Syndrome Gets The best of The Leftist Blogs..They Got Punked (They Are The April Fool’s)
UPDATE: Visit So About That Karl Rove Coptix Photo Thing…Â He explains himself …
Michelle , the victim of photoshopped slander, and racist ignorance from the left has this posted. As seen at Michelle Malkin’s:
Take a close look at this photo–focus on the folder tucked under Karl Rove’s arm and keep a mental note of what’s on the TV monitor (big hat tips to Gid and Ace):
Now, look at all the heavy breathing from left-wing blogs about the name on the folder, “Coptix:”
Daily Kos
Guerilla Women TN
Wonkette
The lefty bloggers ran wild with assertions and speculations that Coptix, a Chattanooga Internet firm, was serving as some sort of nongovernment back-door e-mail administration for White House correspondence.
Corrente started the moonbat swarm with this fevered, tinfoil-hatted dot-connecting:
Now, who”you may ask”is Coptix? Let’s review:Coptix administers gwb43.com’s nameservers. (Rove privatized his email at gwb43.com, in violation of the Presidential Records Act)…
Here’s the information for gwb43.com:
Domain Name: GWB43.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Republican National Committee dns@RNCHQ.ORG
310 First Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
US
999 999 9999 fax: 999 999 9999
Record expires on 16-Jan-2008.
Record created on 16-Jan-2004.
Database last updated on 21-Mar-2007 17:45:46 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.CHA.SMARTECHCORP.NET
A.NS.TRESPASSERS-W.NETNow, as Xan showed, the nameserver (”NS” for nameserver) A.NS.TRESPASSERS-W.NET is administered by Coptix”the Chattanooga hosting service whose brochure Rove was carrying under under his fat arm in the photograph above.
So: Karl went out and hired his own, bespoke, politically wired nameserver company. Of course, Karl would never give business to any company that hadn’t sworn fealty to the authoritarian agenda, but I imagine Karl is also getting a level of, erm, personal service that he wouldn’t get from a fiddy-dollar administrator like GoDaddy or Yahoo or whatever. And it would be irresponsible not to speculate what those services were:
1. Trivially, namespace administration is one of those niggling, paperwork-type tasks that everyone puts off, but forget to renew your domain name, and your carefully crafted online identity gets hijacked by some DFH parodist or a cybersquatter who sells it to an Australian porn farm. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) When that kind of awkwardness happens, Shooter’s not pleased. So it’s nice to have an administrator that watches that kind of stuff for you.
2. As we saw above, the phone number for gwb43.com, the domain that Coptix administers for (presumably) Karl, is listed this way:
999 999 9999 fax: 999 999 9999
So, either Karl gave Coptix a false phone number (which is illegal, since it would only help terrorists), or Coptix is concealing the number for them. (I wonder how ICANN would feel about that?).
3. Nameserver administrators also provide email forwarding, which is the equivalent of call-forwarding on the Intertubes. So, if Karl wanted to store all his email safely offshore in, oh, American Samoa or Guam, then Coptix would be the company to do that for him.
4. If a new nameserver needs to be swapped in, it’s easy and quick to do with a single phone call.
5. All the administrative details”contact information, payment details, change privileges”can be placed in the hands of people Karl owns trusted individuals.
6. As a consequence, it’s much easier for Karl to instantly have records destroyed with a phone call to a minion; Godaddy and the rest just aren’t set up to do that.
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“Services like storing one’s email safely offshore, or perhaps records destruction could be handled in a snap of those porcine little fingers,” anti-Rove crusader Jane Hamsher opined bitterly at Firedoglake.
Only guess what?
The photo was an April Fools’ weekend prank. And the Rove Derangement Syndrome crowd fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported today:
A Chattanooga Internet firm doctored a photo of White House aide Karl Rove to show him holding a folder with the company’s logo, fueling speculation in the blogosphere that the president’s top adviser is running White House correspondence through a nongovernment e-mail system.”It’s easy for people to plant disinformation and misinformation out there,” said Josiah Roe, executive vice president of Coptix, based in St. Elmo.
Mr. Roe said the company altered the photo and placed it on the Internet after bloggers implied that Coptix was involved in a “vast right-wing conspiracy” because the company — along with another local firm, SmarTech — provides an Internet service for the Republican National Committee.
A domain name set up by the RNC, gwb43.com, appeared on correspondence between White House officials discussing U.S. attorney vacancies, The Associated Press reported. The subsequent firings of eight federal prosecutors have sparked a Congressional investigation.
Mr. Roe said his firm altered the photograph as a humorous way to get exposure for Coptix, which also does work for the Chattanooga Times Free Press Web site. But at least two widely read blogs accepted the doctored photo as fact.
A blogger on the Daily Kos blog wrote that “it’s unlikely to have been a Photoshop job,” while a blogger for Wonkette wrote that the photo “proves without doubt that Karl Rove is illegally running all the White House e-mail through a private company.”
Â
Coptix president Josiah Roe explained further:
Somehow, nobody noticed that the story happened to break on the weekend of April Fool’s Day.Yes, it’s true: it’s not true. We used Photoshop to superimpose the name of our company and a folder under Rove’s arm, and asked a local “right winger” to plant it on his blog.
The timing could not have been more perfect, especially given the atmosphere of suspicion that Rove & Co. are doing business via e-mail that is hosted at Chattanooga’s Smartech/Airnet Group, rather than federal servers. Coptix, our company, provides backup DNS hosting for Smartech/Airnet. So when any well-meaning muckraker runs a search for domain names such as “gwb43.com” or “georgewbush.com,” the nameservers listed for those domain names will include the Smartech server and a Coptix server.
DNS hosting does not involve user accounts or storage, in fact, Coptix has no contact whatsoever with the RNC or anyone in the current president’s administration. DNS is simply the basic routing of Internet traffic. In fact, it’s one of the most basic technologies that govern the Internet.
Since we have no knowledge of the content on these servers — and since Coptix has employees and customers of all political stripes — we were surprised that at the end of last week we noticed a good deal of blogger buzz going on around these domain names. Not to mention that this buzz included questions such as “Who is Smartech?,” “Who is Coptix?” and “Are they part of a vast right-wing conspiracy?”
So we decided to run an experiment…
Since it was April Fool’s weekend, in the tradition of George Plimpton and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), we decided to have some fun. We asked one of our Web designers, Ron Ott, to put our name on a photograph that had originally been posted on a local blogger’s diary (with his permission, of course). Thank you Adobe, 15 minutes later Coptix’s name was emblazoned on a folder.
…Note that we even put in a giveaway that the photo was a fake. The television in the top right corner is showing fantastical creatures from the 1974 television series “Land of the Lost.”
Â
Remember I told you to take note of the TV monitor image? Here’s the original:
Attack of the Neocon Sleestaks!
Next, Roe wrote:
…Then we left comments on various blogs and social networking sites linking back to the original post. Bloggers immediately picked up the images, and we watched the misinformation filter upward and outward. We also modified our personal and professional blog posts to show pleasure at the photograph, so any unscrupulous researcher could jump to conclusions.This has driven tens of thousands of visitors to our Web site. From all indications the story has not reached its peak (Wonkette even made the doctored photo into an advertisement for their site), but we consider our web marketing experiment a success. Viral marketing and social networking are modern communication tools that can be leveraged to drive exposure to a particular brand. Which, in this case, was us.
Â
Ace has a raucous roast of Wonkette and notes:
Now, the thing is, this was a decent prank, and I, personally, wouldn’t be terribly embarrassed about being taken in by it. I’m notoriously slapdash in my own, um, “reporting,” so this sort of thing would probably get by me. And I would be embarrassed about it, a bit, but I’d fess up and say “I was punk’d, they got me. Sorry.”The shrieking ninnies at Wonkette can’t do that, though. They can never simply admit they made an error. And thus — similar to in the case of the Malkin photoshop — they now appear to claim they never really believed any of it and and they kinda knew it was all a lark the whole time!
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At least the pathetic bunch at Wonkette has mentioned the ruse. As of 5:00pm Eastern today, Firedoglake was still treating the photo as real.
Like Wonkette, other left-wing bloggers are bitterly attacking Coptix for their “dirty trick”–instead of owning up.
You were had. Can you all swallow and make stand-alone corrections (here is how conservative bloggers make corrections, by the way)?
Or will you find another way to lay this all at the feet of the Evil Genius Karl Rove and his co-conspirators:
Chaka, member of the VWRC
Â
April 4, 2007 - 08:59 PM on April 4th, 2007
Josiah is technically the Executive Vice-President
April 4, 2007 - 09:16 PM on April 4th, 2007
1- An evil genius:razz:
April 4, 2007 - 09:20 PM on April 4th, 2007
Too Funny!!!
I dunno about all the blog links you posted, but I will say what you may not understand about dKos. It’s an open blog where any members can create their own diaries/stories (unlike this blog). The one you linked to had only a small number of recommends and a whopping 13 comments (yes, 13 responses might be big here but not on dKos).
So saying the “the best of the leftist blogs” got ‘punked’ when the dKos diary in question was created by a first-time diarist is at best a misrepresentation, and at worst, a weak attempt to to beat your chest over a mole hill of a mountain.
Spin the wheel again, Peejz, and maybe the next thing you land on will work out a bit better for your hype.
April 4, 2007 - 09:24 PM on April 4th, 2007
Oh TT, it worked out just fine…that is a great prank and I am very impressed with the free advertisement they garnered! Brilliant.
April 4, 2007 - 09:36 PM on April 4th, 2007
4- I think it’s very funny too, but dKos didn’t get ‘punked’.
I scan dKos front page stories and the new diary role at least twice a day… I never saw anything about this story this until your post. Granted, there are hundreds of diaries posted at dKos daily so it’s tough to read through everything– especially those with few comments that generate little or no interest, as was the case for the one you hallmarked which didn’t meet the sniff-test I guess.
April 4, 2007 - 10:02 PM on April 4th, 2007
Those diaries are what make dkos as big as they are(they give him his stats and viewing is a part of the stats, not just comments)..and they are but 1 that I ran with it…
April 4, 2007 - 10:22 PM on April 4th, 2007
The Daily Pos does perhaps provide one useful sociological function: The statistic of who regularly visits there and posts may form the basis for a study and estimate of what percentage of the population is mentally ill.
April 4, 2007 - 10:45 PM on April 4th, 2007
Just surfed over to Daily Pos for some entertainment. Sure enough, the moonbats are swarming.
Wouldn’t that be interesting to track down the IP addresses of posters and find that most of them are from resident patients in mental institutions?
April 4, 2007 - 11:12 PM on April 4th, 2007
6- Exactly, Those member diaries are what make dKos as big as they are. That’s what’s missing here on the right. Everything on right has to be parsed and pushed through a filter supporting whatever propaganda the right wants to hear. This is why the ’stories’ on right-wing sites here just echo other right-wing propaganda (like the frequently cited ‘Michelle’ posts). Do you want to open up the debate, or do you want to be a megaphone for one ideology, drinking from an isolated vacuum of ideas? Don’t answer, as I already think I know the answer.
April 4, 2007 - 11:19 PM on April 4th, 2007
“Everything on right has to be parsed and pushed through a filter supporting whatever propaganda the right wants to hear.”
Pot, meet kettle.
Have you ever been to DU? holy crap. The right definately lockstep with their own, but no less than the left enthusiastically locksteps with their own.
“Do you want to open up the debate, or do you want to be a megaphone for one ideology, drinking from an isolated vacuum of ideas? Don’t answer, as I already think I know the answer.”
Sorry TT, but this is one of the most hypocritical statements I’ve ever read. you are no more open minded than the folks you are pointing you finger at.
Physician, heal thyself.
April 4, 2007 - 11:58 PM on April 4th, 2007
10- “DU” has a low public reputation of those on the left because of how they are managed. I very rarely check their page. Bad example. Next?
April 5, 2007 - 12:38 AM on April 5th, 2007
Moral of that story is:
Trust, But Verify, BEFORE you publish.
April 5, 2007 - 05:33 AM on April 5th, 2007
11.
DU is one of the largest left leaning sites on the net. It isn’t a bad example, but typical. Moveon.org, The Huffingtonpost, Mediamatters.org and MichaelMoore.com (among several others) are no more open minded to the debate than you claim the right leaning sites are. These sights are tools of a propaganda machine also. It just happens to be one you agree with becasue they lean left.
April 5, 2007 - 06:13 AM on April 5th, 2007
Is the left deranged? Take this survey and see if you can tell whether the quotes are from Gore or the unabomber.
http://www.bbhq.com/gorequiz.htm
April 5, 2007 - 07:50 AM on April 5th, 2007
Clever stunt. Kinda reminds me of an old chestnut.
April 5, 2007 - 07:50 AM on April 5th, 2007
9- TT, obviously you haven’t visited our discussion forum. Link is at the top of the page!
April 5, 2007 - 08:00 AM on April 5th, 2007
Wonkette beat you all to this story. They were talking about how fake it was AGES ago. I thought everyone knew it was fake…
Whoever thought it was real is stupid (the freaky little land of the lost monsters on the tv was a dead giveaway – who watches land of the lost while a major political figure comes to visit?). And the fact that you are trying to make this into a “the seething leftist hate machine” story is pretty stupid too.
April 5, 2007 - 08:48 AM on April 5th, 2007
17- No they weren’t..I think this explains your position though
April 5, 2007 - 09:02 AM on April 5th, 2007
You got me. I guess I’ll become a Conservative now. I now look up to Bush, because we’re winning the war on terror, because the increased terror in the world simply means the terrorists are becoming desperate.
April 5, 2007 - 09:16 AM on April 5th, 2007
test
April 5, 2007 - 09:49 AM on April 5th, 2007
18 – Oh. Well, if they didn’t scoop everyone, at least they didn’t take a bazillion years to admit they got taken. I hadn’t even heard of this stuff until I read something about how ridiculous the photo was. But I don’t read the “a-list” bloggers. I am partial to Pandagon, Orincus, The Rude Pundit and Glenn Greenwald, none of whom mentioned this story. Every once in a while I peek over at Wonkette to see if they have any funny posts up, which is how I saw the fake photo thing.
April 5, 2007 - 10:04 AM on April 5th, 2007
Lisa- I always wonder who determines who is a-list and who is not:wink: I read my favorites, some are biggies and some are not..that is what i like about blogs, the consumer has many choices.
April 5, 2007 - 01:18 PM on April 5th, 2007
Listening to all this gives me feelings of senselessness of purpose mixed with equal parts introjections therapy and hamburger Gestalt Helper, now with knuckles and femurs. And just like a voyage of innovation unto unexplored territory, listening to the blather of you right wing yokels reminds me of the first time I opened an owl pellet. What a world of discovery! I had stumbled across a Barn Owl roost in an abandoned nun’s dildo one spring afternoon while skipping along the banks of the river Dung. Below the chute where all the naughty bits did their disgusting and unsightly business away from the prying eyes or our lord, was a small pile of damp, furry boluses (soft masses of chewed food). I examined each one, picking them up and carefully placing them on an old sack that belonged to the kindly old flatulent Father Flannigan, for what use had he of such underused apparatus. The fact that they were tough enough to survive the long gestation within the nun’s perch left no impression of sin nor the eternal torment and suffering me and my loved ones were now damned to eternity for, as essentially my sinful transgression not only cooked my goose but all the assholes I lived with at the time. This was my finest discovery to date, and I treated the pellets with the care and respect they deserved, just like those Egyptian artifacts I had watched archeologists excavate on T.V. or the current GOP spin on their latest blunder or fuckup. But then I said fuck it and put on “Cranked up really high”by Slaughter and the Dogs and awaited Sister Ann Daniel with a handy 5 iron and an uncontrollable urge to tee off her fucking skull.
April 5, 2007 - 05:41 PM on April 5th, 2007
16- Peejz, you shouldn’t direct anyone to the discussion forum at this time; it’s nothing but a bunch of spam. If you’re interested, I can connect with someone who can give you some guidance in keeping out a lot of spam – works on his site, if the software is compatible.
April 5, 2007 - 05:51 PM on April 5th, 2007
24- Thanks Susanna. I think Lisa just let’s it stay there because no one was using it….I’ll get with her on it! Thanks so much for the offer:smile:
April 5, 2007 - 05:53 PM on April 5th, 2007
Peejz, very true. There are a lot of smart and interesting bloggers out there to chose from. I even have a few very conservative blogs on my favorites list and none of them are the super popular ones. I particularly like Villainous Company and the Anchoress. I like the way they think and express their opinions. I mostly DON’T agree, but I like the well-thought out and intelligent way they put forth ideas. They have some spirited debates but the threads are not so ridiculously huge (you know with 700 or more comments that rapidly descend into the deepest trollery) that you can still have a decent, semi-coherent discussion/argument about a subject.
Cheers.
April 5, 2007 - 07:22 PM on April 5th, 2007
Thanks, I’ll accept that as a complement. The little demon perched upon the sleeping maiden of my under-utilized talent (which automatically eliminates any of my sisters – putana!), the horse with the opaque eyes representing GOP Myopia (blind = night, horse = mare), the young lassie in a rather suggestive (for Victorian sensibilities) reposeful stance, arms askance, legs akimbo thusly, beckoning for the light of reason and the free mule she’s been dreaming of. But you got the metaphor all wrong. My dreams (and part of my waking hours) border on grotesque, not merely nightmares. I could go on about oddly shaped ornaments found within Roman dwellings, or grottoes, during the first century, but eight years of Catholic schooling implies a mutation of character, plants and/or animals. Whilst it served me well in surviving my “formative”years, this mutation transformed normal features and/or behaviors into genuine extremes, meant to be frightening and/or disturbingly comic. Within this tale of tragedy and trifle, the flowers of youth found within my garden have been mutated into beautiful harbringers of death. While the physical features of the plants have grown more exquisite, their interior workings have become a frightening caricature of normal plant-life (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). Grotesque also defines two separate modes of my existence, comedy and tragedy. The result is a disturbing fiction wherein comic circumstances prelude horrific tragedy and vice versa, the “true”nature of God discovered, during one of my youthful outbursts, and accompanying chemical heavenly vision, whilst standing in a hog-pen. Now smarty-pants, let’s see you de-construct that one!
April 5, 2007 - 08:34 PM on April 5th, 2007
Carl, get back on your meds! Please!