ODBA List

A lot of the conservative blogs are members of a group called the "Old Dominion Blog Alliance".  I usually just sit back and read the emails from that list with amusement (the best ones are when Riley is like "Look what Ben did now!!!") but I have to say something now. 

The list once focused on getting information out to people, and had somewhat pathetic emails from smaller blogs announcing they had done a post and asking if anyone wanted to link to them.  Whatever.  But now we are getting into a situation where the blogs are becoming total astroturf for people to mislead each other.

I have resisted the urge to say anything so far but I need to say something now that they are coordinating personal attacks on other people.

This week the focus is Joe Stanley and some of the blogs are back to repeating one of the ugliest slurs of the 2006 campaign- that Joe is anti-semitic.  Carl Kilo sent out an email to the ODBA list to announce Joe's company had done a website for Roscoe Reynolds.  That caused this ridiculous post from Virginia Virtucon which claimed Roscoe was now desperate.  Carl is of course the only comment, and agrees with the post he asked for.  Then he links to it from his blog.

I'm going to start a new policy- if people on the ODBA list want to behave like this- I am going to start calling them out for it.  Secretly coordinating attacks on individuals is a pussy way to do things- attach your own name to it and don't ask someone else to post and then link and say how great it is.

Comments

Just read this guy Kilo's bio. Apparently he is in quality control for the coal industry.

I sure would hate to be that canary.

Like the Dems don't do this, too. And what are you doing reading these emails?

[JMU Duke]

The Virginia right-o-sphere, especially the SWAC contingency, is the largest gasbag echo chamber I have ever seen. Especially during the Sayre/Hanger hubub, everyday was just a series of posts back and forth congratulating each other for the latest rabid attack. They are not to be taken seriously.

[Kat]

Now that's very interesting, Ben. May I ask just exactly HOW you've gained access to the ODBA's listmails? And may I further inquire just why you've decided to descend to such unethical behavior as to make this public? The honest and honorable thing to do would have been to let one of us know of this breach of privacy so that we could fix it.

I am gravely disappointed - not that you give a damn. Nevertheless, it grieves me to say that the personable young man I met last summer at Martinsville would now be unwelcome in my home because of this vile and shifty behavior.

Well. I needn't worry - in the long run, you will get your just desserts, and I won't need to do anything more than scorning someone of such base character.

"As a man sows, so also shall he reap," Ben. I leave you to your sorry fate.

-- Kat
www.CatHouseChat.com

Wow...and now they're on here threatening Ben...

[JMU Duke]

Kat--Perhaps if you would use the organization of the ODBA, and the blogosphere in general to inspire an honest discussion about the state of politics in the Commonwealth and the nation generally rather than using it to coordinate baseless attacks on people like Joe Stanley you wouldn't be outed like this.

Of course Ben gets attacked. Sadly, that's their way of operating.

Kat needs to learn how to spell -- it's "just deserts," not "just desserts." Get it right people.

[Doug]

"in the long run, you will get your just desserts"

who writes like that? Cue creepy mansion music and lightening storm, Cat sits alone in the parlor rubbing her hands together and laughing, "muwahahahaahaahaha... I'll get you my pretty!"

[martha]

Sorry...it IS desserts. Desert is a dry arid place. Dessert is a yummy sweet.
"Just desserts" is an old saying and lots of people talk and write that way, especially in the South.
I am 57 years old my mom would be 97 THIS year were she alive. I guess because she was so much older than I she said many things that a lot of you have never heard but they are NORMAL to me. LIKE "to each his own the old lady said as she kissed the cow". Bet few of you have ever heard that one!
She was a TRUE BLUE Democrat and had a million old sayings!

[Kat]

Threats? I expressed no threats. Merely my understanding of what many might call "karma." I also expressed my distaste for Ben's mud-raking behavior.

Oh, and, yes, my language generally does get very stilted and formal when I express my disgust. That's the way I was brought up. Even though I don't not have the facility with the formality that others might, I find that generally it keeps me from language I would prefer not to use.

And yes, I did have a typo in there - and who among you has never had a minor slip like that? I'm sure you will accept my most profound apologies for my imperfect typing.

I'm quite interested, however, in your focus on my typo and vocabulary, rather than Ben's lack of character. Way to bring up the straw man, people. I would express my hatred of this sort of behavior even if it were a conservative who posted this sort of thing.

Well, as I said, I'll leave you all to wallow in your own self-satisfied smugness. I would hardly expect anything more from people who can't understand the concept of "integrity."

[Doug]

Kat- I was poking fun for fun's sake. I still imagine you in your mansion though.

I re-read Ben's post- sounds like he's referring to a public mailing list you people put him on. One you can subscribe to. If so, DUUUUUUH, you should be ridiculed every which way til Tuesday.

And while Martha has thrown down the colloquialism gauntlet, let me tell you that that dog don’t hunt.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Kat, how does it reflect badly on my character? I AM GIVING SOMEONE (JOE) WHO IS BEING PERSONALLY ATTACKED A CHANCE TO KNOW WHERE IT IS COMING FROM.

I think it reflects poorly on you that you think this should go on in the shadows of an email list instead of in public where Joe can confront his attackers.

[Not Larry Sabato]

By the way it is an email list. Scrubbing it does nothing if one of your members forwards me every email on it.

[novamiddleman]

humm lets see where to start hypocrisy, more high schoolish behavior, more complaining, you really have gone downhill

Stick to the senate races

Sorry martha...it IS deserts, NOT desserts.

While "desert" can mean an arid or dry place, it can ALSO mean to abandon a duty (to desert the Army), which is pronounced like "dessert."

The third definition (see here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/desert) is "reward or punishment that is deserved." That has the same pronounciation as "to desert the Army."

This definiton (a reward or punishment deserved) makes sense -- "dessert" does not. What is Kat trying to say? That because Ben was saying some things she didn't like, he was going to get a tasty treat?

It's pronounced like you're saying "just desserts." But spelling it "just desserts" is incorrect.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/desert

http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/deserts.asp

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-just-deserts-mean.htm

Oh, and for the patronizing apology at the beginning of my post -- sorry!

Kat's disingenuous umbrage is laughable.

She is upset that someone blew the cover on their conspiracy to further malign and spread lies about an innocent person.

No, Kat quotes scripture and lashes out at Ben.

In my opinion Kat should get a job and buy a whole Bible. Especially one of the latest ones with a NEW Testament.

What a hypocrite!

[dems4dems]

Wow! These people think it's still 2002. Maybe they want to impugn Max Cleland's patriotism some more.

I thought this was just their way of making each other link to one another so they could inflate their egos by gaining rankings on BNN.

"The honest and honorable thing to do would have been to let one of us know of this breach of privacy so that we could fix it."

Um, to be fair Ben DID alert you all to the fact that he's privy to the ODBA emails. He just told you. In his blog. Where he called you folks a collective pussy.

[phriendlyjaime]

I just want to say that a while ago, people lambasted me for using the word pussy here on NLS. I am glad to see it on the front page today.

[martha]

Sorry...all these years I was wrong. Ooops.

[anonymous 2:56 and 3:42]

I love you Martha. If I were there I would give you your just DESSERTS (some sugar -- if you know what I mean)

You'll have to forgive Kat, she was probably home-schooled!

[Pete in Williamsburg]

Ben,

I've visited various neo-con wannabe sites, including the ones that you generously link via your site. They get about 1/50th the posts and responses that NLS receives. If they do actually coordinate an attack on you, it would be like shooting spitballs at a battleship. Dare I say "Bring it on?"