Astroturfing denotes political, advertising, or public relation campaigns that are formally planned by an organization. but are disguised as spontaneous, popular "grassroots" behavior.
This election cycle, the Dems have launched an anonymous blog, known as the 'Montana Cowgirl Blog' - here's a link;
First; Before you start clamoring for proof - I will tell you that unless somebody gets mad at somebody else, and talks, I have no concrete proof. But if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talk likes a duck, it's a duck.
Lets look at what I know for sure;
(1) The sole purpose of this blog seems to be attacks and smears on GOP candidates.
(2) The blogmeister - 'Cowgirl' is anonymous.
(3) 99% of the posts are anonymous, and appear to be written pretty much the same, indicating that 'Cowgirl' loves having conversations with herself. There are real bloggers who post there - about 10 in the last month that I know and recognize. But they are not a part of this blog, they've just showed up to comment once in a while. The rest of the bloggers appear to be fiction, probably cousins to Harvey, the invisible 6' 3 1/2" tall invisible rabbit.
As I said, there are real bloggers there, but I think they're figuring it out too - There's Larry Kralj - who would be unable to resist, attracted by the fanatical political talk, who I have a soft spot for, because he's one of the few people who used to RUN from Red Lodge uphill to the Beartooth Pass, and must be impervious to pain - Wulfgar (Rob) who being a uber-liberal can't resist either, Mark T. who'll show up just to bicker with Rob, Moorcat - who actually tries to be a voice of reason but gets attacked for it, Pogie (Don) - shows up once in a while, just because it's a blog, and he's a blogger, I think I've seen Ed Kemmick there once, and it won't be too often I think, because Ed doesn't put much stock in anonymous blogs either, and the last three are Matthew Koehler, James Connor, and JA Young.
That's it. Most of the rest of them are simply 'Cowgirl' and her astroturfers.
(4) Whoever is picking up the tab for this blog - probably operatives of the Montana Democratic Party, are carefully hiding their tracks. Their IP address is 97.74.215.188. It goes back to a Go-Daddy.com subsidiary called Domains by Proxy. The only way that Go-Daddy will give you the real identity is if they are involved with a police investigation, or if there are accusations of slander or libel they'll sometimes kick the website out of the proxy, and register them under their own name (hint, hint candidates who are being smeared).
(5) Which MTCowgirl is this supposed to be? There's already other MTCowgirls who blog in Montana. Do you suppose this is a coincidence? Why would they go so far as to hijack somebody's Nicname - just to libel and slander conservative candidates?
(6) If a blog is featured in the Daily Kos - they've got some kind of connection to the Dems;
So go check it out.
If you're a candidate who's being smeared, call up Go-Daddy in Scottsdale, and complain. According to what I've googled up, they have kicked people out of their Proxy service without warning before - and we'll see who's picking up the tab.
Or, if you want entertainment, you can go there anytime, and read the political raving and ranting from 'Cowgirl' to herself, with a handful of real bloggers thrown in. I read a post tonight, where she started a post, as herself, then referred to herself as a 3rd party, and then accused the guy who caught questioned her of being me. Here's the link - read it carefully;
My question still stands - is this the best the Dems can come up with?
Also - Maybe somebody in the know is ready to talk - my email is ecoobs@aol.com - I always protect the identity of spies.
Good analysis. Interesting. One correction though. I used to run from Red Lodge to Cooke City when I was young and dumb. Still run, but slower and much shorter. We used to do the run from East Rosebud up to Cooke a lot too. And I loved to run anywhere in the Beartooths. I miss the Bearthooths horribly. It is truly the most beautiful part of the state.
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