WOW! Those of us who "suspected" that US Govt. Infiltrators were posting Comments on Blogs!.

[KoKo]

WERE CORRECT! THEY ARE POSTING ON BLOGS...in "COMMENTS SECTIONS."


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/post_5.php

Bloch Pushed Underlings To Counter Negative Press With Comment Posts
By Andrew Tilghman - June 13, 2008, 6:33PM

We just learned that the head of the U.S. Office of Special Council, whose office and home were raided by federal agents last month, had a habit of instructing employees to go online and post comments rebutting news stories that he perceived as negative, according to a report from CongressDaily

"That did go on," said a former employee who has been involved in the activity. "Bloch would suggest posting things in the comments section. ... There'd be a negative article about Scott's involvement on something ... and comment would be something like 'This Bloch guy is doing a good job." Two former OSC employees have gone so far as to describe Bloch as thin-skinned and "obsessed" with his press coverage.

Admittedly, Bloch has gotten some bad press in recent years. The man running the office in charge of investigating whistle-blower complaints, Bloch himself came under investigation in 2005 for retaliating against whistle blowers.

Then the feds got involved, suspicious that he was obstructing justice when he had a firm called "Geeks on Call" delete a batch of office emails potentially related to the investigation.

Meanwhile, through it all, Bloch still found time to worry about what everyone is saying about him, especially in his home state.

The employee suggested at least one OSC worker posted comments on the Web sites of such publications as the Washington Post, Topeka Capital-Journal, and the Lawrence Journal World. The two Kansas-based publications have written about Bloch because he is from the state.

In another instance confirmed by CongressDaily, an OSC employee who has not served in the military identified himself as "A Combat Vet" in an online response to a July 13, 2007, article on GovernmentExecutive.com. In the article, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans faulted Bloch for his use of personal e-mail to discuss agency business.

The anonymous posting said news organizations were devoting too little coverage to OSC's enforcement of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which bars discrimination against people based on service in the armed services.

"Where is the coverage of USERRA?" the posting asked. "OSC helped my buddy out when he couldn't get his job back, and it doesn't seem like anybody is checking into how it helps veterans. ... Who the hell cares if Bloch sent an email about congresscritters goofing off and playing pattycake. This USERRA issue is a huge deal for us who served. Does anyone give a crap?"

TPMmuckraker has tracked Bloch's travails pretty closely over the past several months. We don't have any indication his underlings were posting comments here -- but it does make us curious.


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/post_5.php

[L. Coyote]

1. That would be a violation of the law, specifically the Hatch Act, for which he investigated ROVE

How ironic and hypocritical! He is reputedly breaking the law he was supposedly investigation violations of, and urging others to break the law too.

Here is a little trick to track these guys. Put an invisible file in a post,
then remove it after few views or just leave it. Then check your server logs
to see which computers requested the file. You can see what computer they are on,
what system, what browser and even version, and more!! Works to track stats too.

[KoKo]

2. Through my years on DU I've seen folks here who are "techies" and those who run their own Blogs post

about seeing "US Govt. Agencies" logging on to their sites. I'm a clueless computer user...but I at least read these things figuring I can learn something. But, there have been many DU Posters who are "in the business" who've posted the names of Govt. Agencies who've "visited" their blogs or web site and they've posted the different agencies who were accessing their sites.

Now we know..that this was a POLICY of the BUSHIES! While they found folks to DELETE all their OWN E-MAILS and those of Repug National Committee to keep them away from the "eyes" of prying Dem Congressional Investigators...they were sending their "Regent Grad" employees out there to post "Comments" on the Network and Cable Sites to "muck up the responses" and I have no doubt in my mind that they are also crawling all over our Liberal Leaning Blogosphere. How many times have we all encountered seemingly "clueless" responses on serious matters...but we figured they were "newbies" or "kids" and we hoped to inform them by replying.

Turns out...probably most of the folks who seem like "Freepers" on our Liberal Sites or "feeding the Cables and Networks Blogs" with "disinformation" are really Government BushBot Employees...from Regent University...or maybe just "entrenched partisans" who graduated from Yale, Harvard or any other school that managed to get Repug Graduates "embedded in Bush/Cheney" dictatorship.

This is what it is.

[L. Coyote]

3. They have evolved strategies to escape detection, to avoid tombstonig.

I can image the full-time workers in India (yes, out-sourcing) with 50 identities, networked thru a lot of loyal-bot home computers ....
I better not give hem ideas on saving money! :rofl:

[KoKo]

4. OMG...as much of a cynic as I am...that sort of stops me cold...

because there's probably so much truth it what you say. Although there are enough Govt. Agencies infiltrated with Bush Bots...they could just do all that havoc on their own without the "outsourcing factor." :D

[McCamy Taylor]

37. I thought of this, too. It's going to be in my political satire novel.

The RNC will try to pay their outsourced moles with a hot check and India will have the last laugh when it uses its army of paid posters to take over the bloggo-sphere--and the United States.

[Missy Vixen]

17. I have a blog

I have had government agencies reading my blog. My husband was pretty upset when the State Department popped up on SiteMeter, for instance.

The only time I suspected anything weird was when I posted something about the former Wal-Mart employee who finally got her accident settlement restored to her. I had three comments defending Wal-Mart almost immediately, made by people who'd never commented previously.

Julie

[warren pease]

12. "Put an invisible file in a post, then remove it after few views or just leave it..."

I recognize each of those words individually, but when placed together in a sentence I really don't have any idea what the hell they mean.

As somebody who knows just enough about computers and networks and IP stuff to be dangerous, if only to myself, I'd love to see a dummied-down translation of your tracking method.

Do you have to have your own server -- with its own server logs -- to make this work, or does having a blogspot account, or something similar, work the same way?

Pardon the stupidity, but there are a lot of things I'm a complete idiot about and this is unfortunately one of them.


Thanks,


wp

[L. Coyote]

20. If you create a white image file, 1x1 pixel, and add it to your post,

each time someone requests the thread, their computer also requests the image file from your server. Yes, you need to have access to the server logs, and an application to analyze the logs makes things a lot easier.

If you want to avoid a lot of extra hits, remove the file from the post before the edit time expires, or the file will continue to be requested. Then you can reuse the file in the next thread .....

Here is what a log entry looks like:

212.229.194.194 - - <01/Feb/2002:00:08:30 -0800> "GET /enhance.css HTTP/1.1" 200 644 "http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=389&topic_id=3454201" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows NT; DigExt)"

This indicates that the request originates from IP 212.229.194.194, that the browser is Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0, and that the operating system is Windows NT.

If the request originates from a Google search, you get this URL for example, showing the search terms:
"http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=impeach+bush&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en"

You would not believe how much info Skinner has!!!

[kestrel91316]

31. You and me both. Folks tell me how to resize jpg files and

my brain shuts down.

[crikkett]

25. only if your tracking sw counts the invisible file and tracks the IP number

many don't count jpgs and gifs for example, only html...

I've run across hosting companies that don't log requesting IPs either.

[leftofthedial]

30. "investigated" just doesn't mean what it used to, does it?

[KT2000]

5. All kinds of people

infiltrate blogs. Certain industries have people trying to obstruct exchange of information that does not suit them. Chemical industry comes to mind - there was one here a couple years ago.

[kestrel91316]

32. The nuclear lobby has a couple of paid full/time shills on DU, IMHO.

[McCamy Taylor]

36. Watch out for "nukes are green". That is how General Electric is trying to sell them.

[tanyev]

6. "This Bloch guy is doing a good job."

Yeah, everybody here would totally believe it if a newbie showed up to post that kind of stuff.

:rofl:

[L. Coyote]

21. There is a variety of tactics, like just inudating a blog with extraneous topics, like Russert

Why are we even discussing Tim Russert, given the Bush Junta in the Executive?

There can be a lot of trolls who seem to be spot on lefties.
But what do they really discuss. Anything and everything EXCEPT topics that really matter.

And, then the whole forum gets sucked into the dominant themes that trolls inundate us with.

[KoKo]

26. yes.......n/t

[kestrel91316]

33. I have been convinced for a LONG time that the folks who

obsessively post about whatever the Karl Rove Memo Meme-of-the-day (TM) is, are PAID to try to clog up DU with utter BS and distract us from the real issues.

Every single day it's some other BS topic. Always the same people. When I put about 100 of them on ignore, it ceased to be a problem. And none of them EVER contribute to discussions about serious subjects.

Think what you want. I know damned well what they are up to.

And yes, today it's ENDLESS ENDLESS ENDLESS posts about Russert. I took everybody except 3 off ignore, and have to deal with the troll BS again now.

[mcg]

7. What ever happened to limited goverment?

talk about a waste of our taxpayer dollars.

[windoe]

8. They wouldn't have to do so much damage control if they were doing honest work.

Jeebus what a bunch of goons.

[pacalo]

9. Are there any DUers in the Washington area who have the expertise to work for "Geeks on Call"? ;)

Imagine how nice it would be to have a fed-up-to-here computer expert get a call from this administration to "cover up" all the evidence...

[madmusic]

10. "They" are everwhere. Really

There were posts here a year or so ago about a company that specializes in this. Politics, companies, products. Opinions for hire. Forget the name of it though.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the "tough on crime" DUers are paid. :) What else does the GOP have? Nothing.

[Swamp Rat]

11. A few of them reside in the 9/11 forum.

They poke their heads in here every once and a while too. ;)

[havocmom]

14. Environment/Energy forum has some you can clock on a stopwatch

Post something positive about some renewable energy breakthrough and they get there in under 40 seconds to tell you why it just won't work 'large scale'.

But post some really damning incident about the nuclear power industry and they are as scarce as hen's teeth.

[Swamp Rat]

15. And they've been here for years.

The Amerikan Brownshirts clearly have different ethics than We the People.

[kestrel91316]

34. Yep. I know exactly which you mean. Especially the vicious nasty one.

[HamdenRice]

19. You beat me to it!

They no longer show themselves up here, because they tend to be howled back down to the dungeon when they do.

[slampoet]

13. This explains all the pile on posts when someone dares to say cops shouldn't tazer 5 year olds.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Surely would! They get really hot under the collar about it, too!

Their rage seems totally out of proportion.

Also, don't forget the few hardcases who appear in a heartbeat to insist with almost violent wrath that there's nothing harmful whatsoever with genetically modified crops.

ANWR? Forget it!

I'd love to see a list compiled of the hot button issues which bring all these pro-right-wing gummint loons screaming here at once to post until they faint. I'm sure there are actually 10 or fewer that really get them bouncing off the walls.

[madeline_con]

16. And the saga continues...

GOP's Davis Urges Bloch to Quit Special Counsel's Office

Bloch, appointed by President Bush in 2003 to protect government whistle-blowers and to enforce prohibitions on political activity in the federal workplace, is facing allegations of political bias, obstruction of justice and mismanagement.

The subpoenas focused mainly on Bloch's hiring in 2006 of the technology service Geeks on Call to erase his computer hard drive and those of two aides, said a person familiar with the case. Bloch has said he sought to purge a computer virus and protect against hackers. Critics say the move was an attempt to thwart the OPM's investigation.

The turbulence is politically awkward for the administration and the OSC. Among the special counsel's ongoing investigations are high-profile probes of White House-sponsored political briefings at federal agencies, politically charged firings of several U.S. attorneys and allegations that the Federal Aviation Administration has been covering up air traffic control errors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703971.html

[KoKo]

23. Thanks for the update. I've seen posts both pro and con Bloch...

whether he is a victim or a cover up artist. Makes me wonder about any articles defending him...now that I know he had his employees doing disinformation on websites and probably to media.

[BREMPRO]

22. Bloch is a small-minded selfish incompetent shill hack bozo.

he epitomizes all that's wrong with the bush admin, run by those that have no idea how to govern, only how to cover their ass and sell access for personal gain.

[Enrique]

24. I think we're being too hard on this Bloch guy

he sounds like a great guy and I hear he's a fantastic dancer.

[ColbertWatcher]

27. I agree.

We must leave him alone, after all, we don't know his full situation.

We should trust the people in charge and everything will be fine.

[Bucky]

28. This may look bad, but to be fair, Bloch was doing a pretty good job. He helped my buddy.

But the MSM won't report all the good stuff he did. Hell, Raymond Shaw Scott Bloch is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life!

[KoKo]

29. It's funny to do the back and forth............lol's.. thanks for interplay! n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

35. Tips for spotting "paid" bloggers. Whether they are pr people for private industry

or government employees covering for their boss or ideological moles....

1. They will present themselves as the absolute most common denominator for the forum on which they are posting, so for example here at DU they might be liberalchik or GoreWon2000. Real people posting here are more likely to select a more personal nickname, because their posts are going to prove their progressive political qualifications and they do not have to do it with their name.

2. They will pretend to be just ordinary folks and yet they will have an enormous fund of knowledge about one issue that just defies all logic. Here is a real life example. Years ago at Salon, some poster who called himself something like CaliforniaChik would show up every time the issue of managed care reform was discussed. He wrote like a Valley Girl ("I don't follow politics. I just want to hang out...") and yet he always had something to say about any kind of legislation that would rein in insurance companies that were cherry picking customers, failing to pay providers, denying claims---and it always was advocacy for the insurance companies presented in a way that seemed to favor consumers. That was obviously an insurance company paid mole. No one could understand every single economic issue involving medical managed care and post only about that and no other issue on a message board where so many subjects were discussed. I have seen the same thing during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. There was this one "typical housewife" called Mrs. something (I forget what) who would only post about how misunderstood the Serbians were. So watch out for the expert on just one topic . Real bloggers who are good at one thing also tend to be good at lots of things.

3. Then there are the "character witnesses", the ones who swear that they have inside knowledge or that they know certain people who have done great things for them and if you only know what so and so at X company or in the administration has done, you would change your mind. There was some guy who was a one man fan club for Chairman Martin of the FCC here for a while. Most suspicious thing I have ever seen.

I am not sure why these people allow their blog name to get associated with a certain government official or industry or company. It is the worst thing that they can do. Maybe they think that no one will make an association that quickly. However, the human mind is designed to learn through association. We only have to see a name twice in association with a topic to say "Hey, that poster likes to write messages in support of the nukes are green movement. Wonder if he is paid?" A quick test thread to see if the poster in question is drawn out settles the matter. And since the same people will tend to write several threads in a row about a topic, this increases the chance that the "professional poster" will be caught. Changing names does not help since nothing catches the eye at DU like low post count.

[bananas]

38. good post. nt