Crazy Couple Days
ArchPundit
Al Franken yesterday–finishing up a day job policy brief on early childhood education and generally busy—consider this an open thread, lots of posting tonight after more meetings and Dentist Appt.
Blog
Lying About Who You Are
One reason I only allow one exception to when I’ll release IP information is that trolls tend to use multiple identities and so when there is an especially egregious case such as the clown who linked to a amputee dancing and called it the Duckwalk, I can publicly shame the individual.
If you use one pseudonym generally (you can change it–just don’t do it midthread or many times in the same day) or post anonymously, I protect your privacy absent a court order/warrent. And as long as you aren’t lying about who you are such as John Lott and Mary Rosh or a campaign pretending to be another campaign, I don’t care. So don’t feel nervous about what I’m about to do if you follow those very simple guidelines.
Let’s review IPs and Identities on ArchPundit revoling around an ID that also had an IP address the same as the person who posted the offensive link to the video
http://www.archpundit.com/archives/013331.html
Post: Since March 2nd
2006-03-08 16:20:01
IP Address of commentor: 66.73.162.11
Name: TrueDemocrat
E-mail: ilyayavitz@lycos.com
Published: 2006-03-10 06:43:56
Also from the same IP address in that post is an anonymous comment.
2006-03-09 04:34:29
66.73.162.11
http://www.archpundit.com/archives/013341.html
Pre-Primary: Cegelis D-IL-06
2006-03-10 10:36:39
66.73.162.11
TrueDemocratReal
2006-03-10 11:21:40
http://www.archpundit.com/archives/013343.html
Pre-Primary: Duckworth D-IL-06
2006-03-10 11:29:44
66.73.162.11
RealDemocratAuthentic
2006-03-10 16:25:05
2006-03-11 00:02:55
http://www.archpundit.com/archives/013476.html
It was a Mistake, but I’m Pretty Sure an Honest One
2006-03-24 15:12:41
66.73.160.70
TrueDemocratRealAuthentic
2006-03-25 02:41:52
2006-03-26 13:59:44
The list could go on if I listed the other identities connected to ilyayavitz@lycos.com or ilyayavitz@uchicago.edu or metonym@uchicago.edu under the different names of Formalist, ilyayavitz, Illinois06 and variations of TrueDemocratRealAuthentic and all of them are from a small subset of IP addresses (a total of 4) registered to SBC Chicago. In some cases, one comment would be posted under one name and the next comment would be from the same IP under a different name.
And then finally, the comment with the link to the video came from 66.73.160.70
The clowns name is and he is an
He’s used these multiple identities at other sites including MyDD and apparently was banned from there under a couple different identities. He’s also used them at Kos.
He’s a troll, a liar, and a scumbag and if I detect him again posting in comments, those will be deleted. He’s banned from using the site other than viewing it.
Quick Update: And despite his protestations of donating money to many Democratic candidates, he doesn’t show up in the FEC database. Meaning he may donate, but doesn’t break the $200 threshhold for reporting. Other Cegelis volunteers have no memory of him, though he did write a letter tot he editor.
Advertising
Okay, so you’ll notice on the left side a little Blogginois Ad Network thingy—three of us talked about it for a while and I started an Illinois Blog Ad Network. Currently it includes Bill from Peoria Pundit, the IlliniPundit Collective and me. If you have 500 visits a day and would be interested in signing up for Blog Ads, update regularly, and are a politics/current events type of blogger let me know. If you are an Illinois blogger already with Blog Ads, definitely let me know and we’ll get you added. We worked on this a while ago and IP turned into a collective and Bill and I let the ball drop. The idea behind it is that those interested in contacting an Illinois audience interested in politics would have an easy place to go.
What’s really embarrassing–both have surpassed me in traffic. Okay, Bill has has some visuals and IP has multiple authors, but it’s still weird.
We would love to have a better logo, but I’m not sure we’re willing to pay for it. So for now, that’s it.
Collateral Damage
I’ll be on Collateral Damage tonight on KDHX here in St. Louis–it’ll be heavy towards local St. Louis stuff, but hey, if you can’t self promote what can you do.
About the Blog
One of the things I’ve been both surprised and amused by is how many project things upon bloggers–ones people like they tend to think they share almost all the same attitudes and ones they dislike they tend to ascribe all bad things to.
And some of the comments lately bring me back to this. First, in terms of unity, there are times I might try and figure out how to do that, but even though I call myself a partisan blogger, that doesn’t mean I don’t make observations regardless of how uncomfortable they might make some.
Part of what I think has made ArchPundit somewhat interesting to read if you are a complete political dork is that I do more than just argue from a partisan viewpoint. I do race analysis and I attempt to put events in a larger context. Many probably think I do a bad job at that even, but it’s part of the point of ArchPundit to me.
So with that goes criticizing people I like or generally find to be similar to me in viewpoint. It happens a lot, but usually people notice when I’m talking about candidates they are closely tied.
A recent exmple would be my criticism of John Sullivan’s fundraising. I like John and his campaign for several reasons, but his fundraising came up short and I can’t say much more than it was inadequate. I think John understood that too.
But when I make observations about campaigns I don’t think it does any good to not point out the problems (as well as good signs) regardless of whether I like them, hate them or am relatively neutral.
Specifically with the Cegelis campaign if you look at the criticisms I made, it was after the third quarter report came back with high spending. Before then I was relatively positive about the fundraising. In some posts I made clear points about why I thought the spending was problematic and I don’t see the snarkiness many say they saw. I know when I said the toast line it was much later and the pattern wasn’t changing. That was snarky, but that was after pointing out the issue many, many times.
And there’s a good reason to point out these things–one is that if you value grassroots campaigning, pointing out when it’s done well and not done so well allows people to see that grassroots isn’t just a euphemism for no cash and no chance.
One of the criticisms I heard filtered down from donors and from donors in the case of Christine is that the financial plan wasn’t clear and so some were reluctant to donate. I tend to think public reasons for donating are different than real reason. Most of the time donors give because they have a feeling. Not having been in those conversations I can’t say whether it was accurate or not, but from the patterns in the FEC reports, there seems to be evidence that this wasn’t baseless.
None of this says that the hard work done on Christine’s campaign was wasted or dumb or anything of the sort–mistakes belong to candidates and campaign staff–though staff is secondary to the candidate. It doesn’t make Christine dumb or useless either–it just says that there were some serious flaws in that campaign from strategic choices made. And the most recent points were made in conjunction with the Duckworth campaign.
AFSCME and SEIU were heavily involved in Duckworth’s campaign and they are another form of grassroots action, but done differently from the volunteer mode.
The problem as I see it is that the home grown organization and two of the best Illinois unions at organizing voters didn’t reach as many as I’d hope for in an increasingly competitive district. Just as I don’t think that makes SEIU useless, it doesn’t make Christine’s campaign useless, but it does mean Democrats still aren’t getting this right.
Getting back to my main point, if you enjoy it when I criticize or make fun of other candidates, you have to understand your candidate is fair game too.
Finally, while there are a lot of raw nerves, and those who have made it the center of their lives for the last several months, this isn’t the most acrimonius of primaries. No FEC complaints floating about, no personal attacks from the candidates, and no gloating from the winning candidate.
I’ve seen all those in a campaign I was very close with some similar dynamics to this race and I did get over it and even did some postings for Russ Carnahan after that race. That doesn’t mean I think people should run out and jump up and down for Duckworth if they were Cegelis supporters, but give it some time. Some will find it okay, others may not. That’s okay, find a different campaign you do feel good helping out. I will say that if you are a voter in IL-6 there is a tremendous difference between Duckworth and Roskam.
I’m probably cynical enough that I forget people don’t expect to get screwed in a political campaign. I’m also cynical enough to think that whether someone is really screwed over is largely relative. You do much better expecting to get the raw end of the deal and figuring out how to get around it than complaining about it. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t complain or work to change what you don’t like, but it shouldn’t swamp the message or the plan.
I’m excited about the 6th District race. I think we have some real problems figuring out how to effectively reach likely Democratic voters, but this should be a fun one to watch.
Open Thread—Pre Poll Closure
Scroll down for new posts.
Tell me what’s happening out there–bunches of schools closed in Central Illinois—Southern Illinois shouldn’t be too bad if the weather is the same as here in Saint Louis–a good covering, but roads are fine and it isn’t that cold–some danger it could ice up later in the day.
What’s the pace like at your polling place?
Candidate sightings?
Bizarre occurrences?
Site Issues
It was down last night when I tried to update–if that occurs today, archpundit.blogspot.com is the back-up, but I doubt I’ll need it.
That said, my apologies to Lindy Scott who I didn’t get any of his interview up. It has taught me a lesson that future interviews will be podcasts with analysis on the blog. It’s just too much for one person to keep up postings and do the transcribing.
Lindy’s interview was great–he’s a different kind of a candidate in a good way. While I expect talking points, he gives thoughtful answers, but easily digestable. Usually academics (speaking as one finishing his training) tend to lose their point, Lindy is very disciplined and a great guy. I hope that if he doesn’t win today, he’ll stay active as his voice is something Democrats desperately need.
Anyway, that means I didn’t get my endorsements done and a bunch of other posts.
Tonight–IRN Radio
I’ll be doing commentary on the primary on Illinois Radio Network–short bits mostly towards the :45 past the hour. A list of stations is available on the site–it’s kind of cool because I grew up listening to the reports on WJBC. Anyway, I’ll be blogging all night and probably talking back and forth with Eric, Rich and a bunch of others so be sure to keep up here and feel free to drop me a line if you have something interesting.
Open Thread–not 6th CD Related
Tell me what’s going on out there….
(this is stuck at the top so go down for other new material)
You’ll Notice Several Changes
Primarily to the blog roll. I’m not done, but the new blog roll is streamlined and far shorter. Most importantly it should be more useful. I will eventually update the extended blog roll as well. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to be included, though I anticipate very few changes to the front page.