Mere months after the Michael Hitzik fiasco it appears that Patterico and Ace from Ace of Spades have caught someone posting as Glenn Greenwald and as supporters of Glenn Greenwald from the same IP address. Hilarity is sure to ensue.

photo: Ed The Sock from Ripe TV

(note: I have never read Greenwald until this morning, I didn’t know who he was until last week and I am not passing judgement on his opinions even though the two articles I did read I disagreed with. This post is entirely about a fairly prominent blogger getting caught doing something stupid.)

Update #1: Glenn Greenwald denies all charges. Patterico’s post has 267 comments on this, as I said let the hilarity ensue. Also to clarify my note above I am not sure that Greenwald made the posts and did not mean to imply definitively he had, I should have said “This post is entirely about a fairly prominent blogger possibly getting caught doing something stupid.”

Update #2: Redstate.com has picked up on this issue along with a related story in which a Political Science professor named George Harleigh, who has been quoted extensively by the Capitol Hill Blue website appears to not exist. According to Classical Values, the site chasing down the elusive Dr. Harleigh, Capitol Hill Blue has begun erasing all references to him, including the infamous ‘the constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper” quote supposedly uttered by President Bush

The comments at Classical Values are worth reading.

Update #3: Ace at Ace of Spades and Bryan at Hot Air hove posted a timeline of Greenwald / Sock Puppet comments. I honestly don’t find it very compelling. It ignores the idea that many homes have two or more computers and that if they are behind a router they will presnt the same IP address to the world. NAT at work. That doesn’t clear Mr. Greenwald, but it certainly doesnt condem hiim either.

The easiest way to resolve this issue would be for Greenwald to follow-up on his allegation that someone else had used his computer. If he simply posted “I have talked to (Juan / Pedro / Sven / George insert random signifigant others name) and he thought that he was being helpful by defending me, I have asked that he only post under one name from now on” I for one would be more than willing to move on.

The thing that bothers me about all this isn’t someone concealing their identity, it happens all the time on blogs. It is the dishonesty of someone bolstering their arguments and creditentials by posing as someone else and then being self referential. It is the same thing that Ward Churchill was caught doing during the review of his academic misconduct. It sucks.

Update #4: A fight is brewing between Ace of Ace of Spades and Kevin and Paul of Wizbang. I happen to think Paul and Kevin are wrong in that they appear to want to exonerate Greenwald. I say that if it a member of his household who has been engaging in sock puppetry he owes an explanation. If it is multiple people in his household loyally defending a friend / lover / employer he should make that clear. Threads here and here and here

6 meat buffet has more on the Capitol Hill Blue story.

This is the most original take I have seen on the Greenwald story.

Update #5: The blogwar is spreading Ace of Ace of Spades and Dale of Q and O are into it now. I think this has the oppurtunity to really turn into a spectactular car crash.

Update #6: Both sides smacked each other around pretty good but I have to give the victory to Ace with the help of Megan.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 20th, 2006 at 5:30 am by Chad and is filed under Funny ... to us, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.