Dean Bloggers Exposed Sending Duplicate Posts to IMCs and Antiwar.com

Something Funny about Howard Dean Supporters?
author: curious

There is something curious going on with some of the Dean supporters coming to Portland Indymedia. One has to wonder if all these Dean supporters are merely ordinary people who spontaneously post here, or they an example of a what is called an "Astroturf" operation--an organized political operation designed to create the image of a "grassroots" political movement.

Astroturf or real grassroots? You decide. In this day and image of media manipulation and Psyops- masquerading-as-News, you can never be sure.
Has anybody noticed something strange concerning all the Howard Dean supporters coming to this site? I bring this issue up based upon Antiwar.com's recent article concerning Howard Dean and the response that it generated, and the subsequent response of Dean people to similar articles involving Howard Dean posted here on Portland Indymedia.

If you go to the Antiwar.com letters page for August 30, 2003 you see numerous letters from Dean supporters attacking Justin Raimondo's article "The Dean Deception." In particular, note the letters from Paul J. Gessing, John Timothy, Geoff DeWan, and John Pierce. The letters can be read here:

 http://www.antiwar.com/letters/letters.html

What is peculiar is the fact that these same 4 people just so happen to post here on Portland Indymedia in response to articles (including Raimondo's "The Dean Deception") critical of Howard Dean. Not only have Paul J. Gessing, John Timothy, Geoff DeWan, and John Pierce posted in response to these Portland Indymedia articles, but their responses here are almost identical word-for-word to the letters they wrote to Antiwar.com!

Think about this. What are the chances of this happening? 4 people who (kinda) support Dean write letters to Antiwar.com, and then just happen to surf the internet and stumble across articles critical of Dean here at Portland Indymedia and spontaneously post messages almost verbatim identical to their original letters. This happens not once, but 4 times?! It seems this would be unlikely as any kind of "spontaneous" happening, bur rather be the result of an organized campaign.

In his letter to Antiwar.com, Paul J. Gessing writes:

I generally agree with your perspective, but I'd say you are a bit off base regarding Howard Dean. Dean is no peacenik, nor is he a noninterventionist. Any effort to portray him as such may be the result of desperation by antiwar folks like us to project our hopes onto him.

As much as the guy is not a libertarian, I still plan to vote for him because he is the only one speaking the truth about Iraq to Bush's face, and I think the guy has a far deeper understanding of the realities of both the electoral system that he needs to win and the situation overseas.

I, like you, am not sold on all of his politics, but the fact that he's willing to stand up and call Bush a liar while all the other Dems and R's are cowering in the corner or calling for more blood, is at least a start. At this point, I'd vote for most anyone but Bush – except Hillary Clinton.

~ Paul J. Gessing

 http://www.antiwar.com/letters/letters.html

NOW, in response to the Raimondo article critical of Dean subsequently posted here on Portland Indymedia, Paul J. Gessing (or someone using his name) posts:

A Bit off Base 30.Aug.2003 21:32
Paul J. Gessing

Dean is no peacenik, nor is he a noninterventionist. Any effort to portray him as such may be the result of desperation by antiwar folks like us to project our hopes onto him.

As much as the guy is not a libertarian, I still plan to vote for him because he is the only one speaking the truth about Iraq to Bush's face, and I think the guy has a far deeper understanding of the realities of both the electoral system that he needs to win and the situation overseas.

I, like you, am not sold on all of his politics, but the fact that he's willing to stand up and call Bush a liar while all the other Dems and R's are cowering in the corner or calling for more blood, is at least a start. At this point, I'd vote for most anyone but Bush – except Hillary Clinton.

 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/08/270974.shtml

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In his letter to Antiwar.com, John Timothy writes:

Your views pro and con on Dean seem to be lot of verbal thinking both ways. Reality, not words, should inform our thinking. The reality of Bush is the record deficits and wars of aggression his administration brought to the USA and the world. The reality of Dean is his experience as a Governor with progressive policies, and his general lack of experience in foreign policy.

As president, Dean would almost certainly inherent Bush's Iraq mess. That is the sad reality forced on all of us by Bush and the neo-cons (Likud sympathizing warmongers in the defense policy board). The big real world problem we now face is how to repair Iraq, and keep the Bush mess from spiraling the whole Mideast into Chaos. Does anyone have any workable suggestions?

~ John Timothy, Bloomington, Indiana

 http://www.antiwar.com/letters/letters.html

NOW, in his posting to Raimondo's article subsequently posted here on Portland Indymedia, John Timothy (or someone using his name) posts:

Solutions please 30.Aug.2003 20:09
John Timothy

Your views pro and con on Dean seem to be lot of verbal thinking both ways. Reality, not words, should inform our thinking. The reality of Bush is the record deficits and wars of aggression his administration brought to the USA and the world. The reality of Dean is his experience as a Governor with progressive policies, and his general lack of experience in foreign policy.

As president, Dean would almost certainly inherent Bush's Iraq mess. That is the sad reality forced on all of us by Bush and the neo-cons (Likud sympathizing warmongers in the defense policy board). The big real world problem we now face is how to repair Iraq, and keep the Bush mess from spiraling the whole Mideast into Chaos. Does anyone have any workable suggestions?

 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/08/270974.shtml
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In his letter to Antiwar.com, Geoff DeWan writes:

This is the kind of silliness that got us George Bush in the first place. After three years of having your face ground in the mud you still think that Ghandi is going to return and lead us all to the promised land. The point is Dean, or Gore, or even that scumbag Lieberman wouldn't have gotten us into this war in the first place. Remember that when Bush 43, Part II fulfills one of their favorite slogans – "Men want to go to Baghdad, REAL men want to go to Teheran."

Howard is not the candidate of your dreams. OK. But don't be so hard on yourself. The US is supertanker, it doesn't turn in one election, it's nudged along by degrees, we need someone nudging it in the right direction and with the willingness to let us be one part of the voice of his conscience.

~ Geoff DeWan, Los Angeles, California

 http://www.antiwar.com/letters/letters.html

NOW, in response to a piece by Jessica Woelke (which originally was a letter to Antiwar.com about Raimondo's article) posted here on Portland Indymedia, Mr. DeWan (or someone using his name) posts:

Better than Bush 31.Aug.2003 10:08
Geoff DeWan

This is the kind of silliness that got us George Bush in the first place. After three years of having your face ground in the mud you still think that Ghandi is going to return and lead us all to the promised land. The point is Dean, or Gore, or even that scumbag Lieberman wouldn't have gotten us into this war in the first place. Remember that when Bush 43, Part II fulfills one of their favorite slogans – "Men want to go to Baghdad, REAL men want to go to Teheran."

Howard is not the candidate of your dreams. OK. But don't be so hard on yourself. The US is supertanker, it doesn't turn in one election, it's nudged along by degrees, we need someone nudging it in the right direction and with the willingness to let us be one part of the voice of his conscience.

 http://publish.portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/08/270998.shtml

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You can find a similar situation with John Pierce's letter and posts to Portland Indymedia, which I won't repost given their lengths.

Read John Pierce's letter to Antiwar.com here at:  http://www.antiwar.com/letters/letters.html

And compare to the post by "John Pierce" entitled "Will Iraq be the libertarian ideal? Hell no!" posted on 31.Aug.2003 19:06 here on Indymedia:
 http://publish.portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/08/270998.shtml

Again, like the other 3 cases, there are very similar. I wonder if the Dean campaign is organizing these posts on Indymedia, or are they merely done as part of a informal network of Dean Internet supporters, or possibly just a lone Dean supporter plagiarizing these letters from Antiwar.com and reposting them here (kinda like Phony Tony Blair plagiarizing that student paper for his dossier on Iraq's "Weapons of Mass Destruction" ).

Ya never know.