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December 03, 2005 09:00 AM UTC

"Deep Teal" Outed, Full Story of "IPGate" Revealed

  • 71 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We’ve had some fun this week with Colorado Republican Party Executive Director Hans Gullickson’s Wednesday directive to every party member in the state to “immediately cease from posting” at Coloradopols.com. Gullickson claimed that the “Democrat activists running the site” were “collecting information” about users, which could potentially be used down the road to “harm Republicans and Republican campaigns.”

We dismissed these charges as conspiracist nonsense because none of the principal authors of this site have ever been interested in “tracking” our users for any purpose other than spam prevention, and we would never share the limited data we collect in our logfiles with any outside person or group. In addition to being unethical, it could potentially compromise the anonymity of other Coloradopols.com authors, both Republican and Democrat. Furthermore, one of the biggest reasons behind the popularity of this blog is the ‘water-cooler’ role it plays for political insiders around the state. We value the participation of our astute insider users, and we would never knowingly disclose information which could be used to discover their identity. It’s been pointed out by many of our more sensible users that the IP address data in question is of very limited utility in terms of identifying people anyway.

Gullickson’s message to Colorado Republicans Wednesday has now been exposed as fundamentally deceptive: while he carefully worded his statements to accuse “Democrat activists” of collecting and analyzing data on Coloradopols.com users, he knew perfectly well, as everyone in Colorado read in this morning’s Rocky Mountain News, that what really happened here was red-on-red chicaneryand done without our knowledge.

A Republican operative has admitted collecting identity data from a political Web log – a practice the state Republican Party earlier had blamed on Democrats.

This week, the GOP warned state party members that someone was compiling the online identities of visitors to the Web site coloradopols.com. The site is a popular political blog that invites comments from its readers, who can post their thoughts using nicknames.

The warning pointed the finger at Democrats, but e-mail records show that Laura Teal, a Republican, and two acquaintances actually were the ones involved.

Teal is a campaign staffer for gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman. She said her efforts occurred prior to taking that post and had nothing to do with Holtzman’s campaign.

Teal said she merely was trying to help identify the people who started Coloradopols.com.

Teal had special access to the site because she had been invited to be a regular Republican contributor under the nickname “RedHawk.”

She said she used her password access to glean computer IP (Internet protocol) addresses and attempted to link posted messages to the computers where the postings originated.

Andy George, one of Teal’s friends, said he took the information she provided and compiled it into a spreadsheet.

To say the least, we were disappointed to have this confirmed: rumors that Ms. Teal may have surreptitiously collected data from our logs have circulated for several weeks now, both on and off our site, but we didn’t want to believe them. We’re fairly certain, as some have already surmised, that the data she would have had access to was from our old server at blogs.com. However, we feel it is further necessary to disclose that Ms. Teal also had access to post under the general “Colorado Pols” moniker, in addition to posting as “RedHawk.” Obviously, in the aftermath of this incident she will no longer write for Coloradopols.com in either capacity.

We apologize sincerely to any of our users who have been inconvenienced or discomforted by this incident. We have taken many steps in the last few weeks to patch security holes in our site software and defend against unauthorized access to back-end data. We will never knowingly disclose any user’s IP address to an outside party, nor will we attempt to analyze our logged information to determine the identity of our users. Future guest authors we invite to write for us will never have access to the activity logs: this was a serious error in judgement on our part but has now been corrected.

But it seems there are errors in judgement to go around the room: Hans Gullickson’s attempt to conceal a gaping hole in GOP unity, partially manifested in a series of vicious Marc Holtzman versus Bob Beauprez thread-wars on this site, by trying to impugn Coloradopols.com’s bipartisan integrity. Laura Teal as a Holtzman staffer, with her friends, surely attempted to make use of the data in question to gain an advantage in those exchanges (probably without success). We think these events, above all, speak to the need for some soul-searching and rapprochement on the right side of the aislebefore wounds are inflicted that won’t heal easily after the primaries.

Comments

71 thoughts on ““Deep Teal” Outed, Full Story of “IPGate” Revealed

  1. Let’s see, you all swore up and down for months that Laura Teal wasn’t Red Hawk.  Then you do what you always do, and belittle any critics.  In fact, you are doing that now by attacking Hans.

    You also swore up and down that you didn’t track IP addresses, now we know.

    And finally, you say that we should just trust you.  No thanks.

  2. Hey “Whatever” BooooHooooo – The big bad blog violated your trust. 

    You know, you and ColoradoPols really had something going on and now you just can’t trust them.  Whatever will you ever do.

    Maybe realize the internet isn’t safe or private.  EVERY EMAIL YOU HAVE EVER SENT IS STILL OUT THERE SOMEWHERE!!!

    People like you are going to bitch about this for  days but in reality its just a wake up call.

    The internet is not safe and by the way, this is effin politics you ass!!  Get over it and stop crying about it!!!

  3. It?s easy to see why some might suspect a Dem over a Repub in your little caper ? even your spin is so Clintonesque.  (Wow, I just discovered that ?Clintonesque? is a word recognized by MS Word.)  You try to discredit the whole story by finding one flaw.  OK so it was a Holzman operative rather than a Dem operative.  The fundamental distrust for your site should remain the same.

  4. The state of Colorado has been failed by ColoradoPols and Mrs. Teal, and the Holtzman campaign. Something needs to be changed, and changed fast. We need a privacy policy…and a fair big line. Just my two cents, but i will stop posting here if changes dont come.

  5. Few legitimate questions:
    1)  What does this say about the integrity of the Holtzman campaign for employing Ms. Teal and these types of tactics?
    2)  Will Republican candidates employ Ms. Teal in the future due to this type of unethical campaign tactic?
    3)  How has Coloradopols taken steps to assure that other anonymous guest posters do not have access these records?

  6. Answers:

    1) Not my problem.
    2) Not my problem.
    3) The appropriate checkboxes have been unclicked in every case. For some time now, actually.

    ICBINB: I agree, in the aftermath of this an ironclad privacy policy for the site is necessary. Please note the above statements on not sharing or analyzing data and expect to see them incorporated into a link on every page soon.

    I do not believe this episode challenges the objectivity of the Big Line, though I can’t predict what changes may be made.

  7. The Facts:

    1) Teal had been outed months ago by posters to this site, you all denied she was Red Hawk.
    2)  Questions about IP tracking had been raised by posters on this site months ago, long before the Hans email or even the latest rounds of postings.  You all denied it.
    3)  You all allowed Teal to post under the ColoradoPols moniker, perhaps on stories related to Holtzman or attacking Beauprez.  You all were called on that every time and you denied it.
    4)  You are spinning very hard to blame the Republicans and Hans for all this, but it was you that allowed Teal to post.  It was you that lied about the fact that she was Red Hawk and a poster under the name ColoradoPols and it was you that lied about the entire IP tracking episode.

    Why should anybody, on either side of the political spectrum trust any of you?

  8. seems to me, teal admited to doing this months ago with the intent of discovering who exactly was behind the blog. that failed. she gave up. as to the other two, who kept that isp info and then circulated it, well, they should be reproached as well.

  9. Wow, Republicans on this site (Teal notwithstanding) are suddenly concerned about Privacy?  Isn’t that kinda like the fox being concerned about missing hens?

  10. The reason we denied “tracking IP addresses” is because we don’t track IP addresses. It appears that Laura Teal did, surreptitiously, and with her friends went though a great deal of effort to sort though all of them and attempt to ID individual posters. I’ve now seen their spreadsheet, and it’s clear that they were primarily tracking intra-Republican infighting, not attempting (as she claimed) to uncover the identity of the site’s authors.

    As for defending the anonymity of authors on this site, we do that as policy. Just like we did before Alva was outed. There are other contributors, and we would protect their privacy in the same manner. We only regret asking Laura Teal to post here in the context of her abusing the access we provided her, and she was involved well before she joined the Holtzman campaign. In any event, if you want to complain about that you should have back when Alva was identified.

    And yes, absolutely, the over-arching issue here is the vicious infighting among Republicans in Colorado, which appears to have been the underlying motivation for both Laura Teal’s treacherous betrayal of our confidence as well as Hans Gullickson’s duplicitous response to it.

  11. To echo some of what was said above,Pols, you have little credibility left (Ironically GETOVERIT actually reinforces that).  And to attack Hans is ridiculous.

    He obviously sent the memo out initially knowing that this was going on but not totally sure of who it was.  It was logical to assume that Dems were going after Republicans, not other Republicans.

    Either way, he was right on.  It was completely appropriate to warn others as to the breach of trust.  Although Teal was named specifically, who’s to say (other than you) that you didn’t know it was going on.  At a minimum you allowed it to happen.  Your only legitimate complaint would be if none or most of you aren’t Dems – but that’s a secondary concern. 

    Meanwhile, I would hope we can expect some sort of response from Holtzman.  As it is, I’m waiting for you all to continue your mantra of ‘any publicity is good publicity.’

  12. As for me, I think Joe Peters was paid to break the back of this blog. He’s been floating his resume a lot, and is anxious to get out of Dodge.

  13. Is anyone “really” surprised about this whole thing? 

    For most of us, this is what we have come to expect from LT and her posse.

  14. Blame for this whole debacle can be placed squarely on the shoulders of Bane, Sanko and the other operators of this site.  It is apparent time and time again that to trust a Republican operative (or elected official for that matter) to act with integrity and honesty is to do so at your own risk.  Nobody is surprised that Teal and her cohorts would lack any sort of ethical compass.  It is just indicative of the way Holtzman has run his campaign and typical for a Republican operative.

  15. It’s all starting to make sense now. Teal told me moths ago to stop posting comments I might later come to regreat. I could never figure out how she knew, but I gave up the annonimity, anyway.  Go figure. Jokes on me.

  16. As a Republlican, I believe the State GOP should apologize to the Democrats and the Coloradopols website for accsuing them of such activities. Obviously, they need to take care of their own backyard first. I see Colorado heading into blue.

  17. So now the sneaks, liars, and cowards behind Coloradopols.com are victims?

    Not likely. The truth will expose the scumbags for what they really are, which is they are members of the news media, violating a number of Federal Election Campaign Laws with their supposedly ‘nameless’ antics and tactics here. Of course, given the news media in Colorado is immoral, corrupt, dishonest, and unethical it won’t come as a surprise when they attempt to pawn the whole thing off as ‘we didn’t mean any harm, honest’.

  18. I think Laura might have learned a bigger lesson concerning trust and a confidence.  RMN says Andy George asked her for the isp numbers, kept the database, probably built it out without her knowledge, then he and Joe Peters used it for personal gain and blackmail purposes. Teal was wrong, but the other two were even worse.

  19. I don’t know about an apology, but it’s pretty obvious the Guvs got schooled by Laura Teal, and this wasn’t the result of malicious intent on their part. They should definitely be more careful in the future, but blaming them for what is obviously exactly what Peabody says it is — Republicans ruthlessly at each other’s throats — is just bullshit scapegoating.

    You’d think these asshole GOPers would be happy they actually found one who could write. Too bad she was a backstabbing little snake, but the pickings are slim. Maybe they should get Gale Norton to leak juicy bits on Jack Abramoff.

  20. Agreed, Simple.  It sounds as if the DeadGuvs were careless.  There’s room to criticize that, sure, but at the same time, they’re providing a free site, so we can’t be outraged at not getting what we paid for, and they never guaranteed our privacy.  As others have pointed out, privacy rarely is guaranteed on the net.  To try to make the DeadGuvs out as the bad guys here is ridiculous.  They weren’t the one figuring out identities for petty squables, and then casting the blame where they knew it didn’t belong.

  21. Simple – Let me get this straight.  ColoradoPols lies for months about all these things and the Republicans are to blame????  To take a page out of the ColoradoPols spin manual . . . holy conspiracy theory.

    My problem with all this isn’t the privacy issue, its that they didn’t fix it when they knew it was going on.  In fact, they let Teal post under Coloradopols while she was working for a campaign.  Is ColoradoPols also a Lamm Staffer???  Ritter???  Perlmutter???  Rubenstein???

    Anybody want to go back and see the grief the Thune campaign got for that??

    By the way, we all see the compliants about the Perlmutter/Lamm coverage and Bane’s connnections to Perlmutter.  Oh yeah, but I forgot, the Ds are above all this.

  22. I have enjoyed this site but you guys knew better when you pretended that ISP numbers could not be tracked back to individual computers.  There are search engines which do exactly that–which nis what Teal did and you can do as well.  As for Teal’s lie that she did not do this while empoloyed by Holtzman, it is just that–a lie, as the dares in your possession prove.  And why did you let an employee of Holtzman speak as a “Republican” blogger, when she obviously was so much more?  Shame on you guys…

  23. Calm down. This blog is like all other public posting boards; exempt from umbrella responsibility. The Right to Free Speach (Oooops, I’m supposed to be “pink”) allows what ever you find on this site to be subject to your multiple and sketchy intellectual, ethical and moral filters. Get used to the fact that your privacy rights have been severely eroded post- 911 by this wayward, boarding on nuts,  administration.

    The government is such a small number of us. Something is awry.

  24. I just realized something… both Teal and George admitted their errors BUT failed to finger 1. the authors of this site and 2. the fellow Republicans they identified.  So who are they protecting and what further information has been banked? Methinks if Teal and George (and Peters, I guess) really are out of jobs over this — then the real perverbial shit will be hitting the fan. Owens’gate, anyone?

  25. Here we go again.  When will we learn that Republicans will stop at NOTHING to divert our attention away from real problems and issues?

    OK, let’s put this to bed.  Is the internet safe?  No, but the people who run this site aren’t trying to identify anyone.  A single, malicious Republican did this by abusing the trust of the site’s owners.

    Many of the web sites you visit keep track of you via cookies (the 0-calorie, 0-fat variety).  Most of the time cookies save us time by letting us avoid typing the same things into a web site over and over again, but they have a darker side in that they allow the sites you visit to track your activities.

    By visiting a site, you automatically and unavoidably give them a source IP address.  From there they can determine your ISP and geo-locate you down to your city.  For a demo, try this site: What’s My IP Address.

    Unless you provide identifying information to a web site, they will NOT be able to tie your IP address to you.  Note, however, that coercing information from and ISP which ties an IP address to you is fairly easy for the government to do under the PATRIOT Act.

    If you’re concerned about privacy, here’s what you can do:

    1) If you’re casually paranoid and feel the need to post, setup your browser to block all cookies, turn off JavaScript and ActiveX capabilities, and use an anonymous HTTP proxy service.

    2) If you’re exceptionally paranoid, buy yourself a laptop, block cookies, go wardriving, and post from someone else’s IP address.

    3) If you’re an exceptionally paranoid Republican with a tin hat, do all of the above, be sure to change your MAC address before connecting to someone else’s WAP, and beat your hard drive to a pulp with a sledgehammer when you’re done.

  26. The elegant irony of studying 1st Amend Law while reading this thread is just dripping…

    First and foremost, I’d like to defend the character of my good friends Laura Teal, Andy George, and Joe Peters. I’d be glad to stand by them anyday. Each is dedicated to helping the Republican Party to electoral success; but even more fundamentally, to making our state and country a better place to live. Anyone so dedicated is worthy of admiration, whether Republican or Democrat, Beauprez-staffer or Holtzman-staffer, Living-Governor or Dead-Governor.

    Second, if you have to deride them, deride me, too. I also wanted to know who the Dead Guv’s were. Of course, I lack the computer savvy to track IP addresses. Hell, I’m lucky to get a post to work. But I did talk to them about it and we had many a beer discussing who they might be. What can I say, I have a little bit of conspiracy theorist in me. I am after all, a right-wing nutjob political consultant turned law student.

    Mostly my contribution was that A) Dead Guv’s had to be political operatives, which seems to still hold; and B) that I think they are paid, and probably by one or more big money contributor’s in the state (seem familiar?). Let’s face it, when the Dead Guv’s posted a story from the Fort Morgan Times before 7:45 AM, you had to believe they were getting compensation. The only people loony enough to do that for free are all tied up (literally) in psych-wards.

    Right or left…I mean wrong (sorry, it is 4:00 AM), I know a lot of people on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum who were intrigued by the mystery of the Dead Guv’s. And I openly talked to them too. And it was fun. It was, and is, great “water-cooler material.”

    As for the blackmail bit, that is utter nonsense. Tracking comments and issues is a typical political goal. Any campaign or party worth its salt should be tracking voters issues and positions. What do you think all the phone polls just before elections are for? You think your reponses are just thrown away? Or used in an “anonymous” sample? I doubt that is why both state parties keep those databases. Anyway, Andy and George and Joe were only doing what any good consultant would do.

    Finally, if anyone is worried about there privacy, then I have the perfect solution: DON’T POST. Like it or not, ColoradoPols “is” the markeplace of ideas. And if you want to be heard, you necessarily must run the risk of someone thinking ill of you. I’m sure thanks to this post, there will be many people with a low opinion of me. At least they won’t have to track my IP Address to find me though…

  27. Yeah, big surprise here. Republicans infiltrate, Guvs (who may or may not be Democrats) blamed.

    The bendable logic you right wingers are using, trying desperately to bring this site down over a fight between Republicans…it’s beyond scorn.

  28. “Denver always was the rootingest town for blood-thirsty assemblages.” (Gene Fowler, “Timber Line”)

    I swear, ya’ll, the bombast of this assemblage over something–outsider but fervent observer that I am–as utterly silly as this “event” appears to be, confirms that all politics is not “applesauce,” but, rather, Playdough rolled around in the litterbox in the corner where ya’ll have retracted your claws and are hissing like a steam locomotive chugging up a thirty percent grade.

    Get Your Tin Hats On is right on and, as a prior post suggested, “get a life!”

  29. Speaking of political cons who IS Andrew Boucher? He claims to be a political consultant but a search of him turns up no factual evidence other than a failed campaign for the Republican who ran against John Salazar. Sounds like he is cut from the same cloth as the unnamed who run this site.

  30. If the spybot trio were only trying to ID the dead govs, Mario, why did they track all the posts they could? If Laura Teal, Andy George, and Joe Peters deserve my admiration, then Klaus Fuchs, Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs should be in the Pantheon of Great Americans and Brits.  How does outing Iron Mike as George Bush and Voyageur as Dick Cheney, two disclosures these two pen pals have already made, build a better country and state?

  31. I’ve been searching for some time and still have not found a Coloradopols response to this accusation from Hans Gullickson:

    “It’s very likely that this site is funded by one or more of the same three liberal extremists who bankrolled the purchase of the Colorado Legislature in the 2004 elections (Tim Gill, Jared Polis, and Pat Stryker).”

    Simple yes or no question: Are any of the Dead Govs paid by any of the zillionaires listed above?

  32. Lets’ see – Holtzman falsely accuses Beauprez of stealing his email list, and Colorado Pols drops Beauprez in the line.  My guess is that now that a Holtzman staffer has been caught red-handed you will either not drop him, or you will actually elevate him because of the press he received.  Please prove me wrong.

  33. Teal shared ips with George and Peters. Then the two researched and backchecked them, put them into some sort of database, and shared with the world (and press) the comments that were made.

    As for me, I know Teal told individuals who were guilty of negative posts to “knock it off”. Heck, she told me.  She also made it clear to everyone that there was no such thing as privacy on the internet.

    I also know she tried to head this interparty squabble off back in May, when she told the new leader of the party that certain high ranking individuals were the root of nevative posts.

    I know she didn’t “ban” Phase Line (or any other evil doer)  from posting (she saw beyond that), she encouraged folks to participate in a civil manner, and when asked by friends, told the truth about her being Hawk.

    She has yet to personally identify the individuals behind this blog, to share with us all the identities of posters, or to “out” the few individuals/elected officials/party leaders she most certainly knows of.

    As to her future in Colorado Politics, I know this – I wouldn’t want to work against her. She’s bitterly loyal and always looks out for her friends (proof of that is her giving isp info to George when he asked for it.)

    What George and Peters did with it is their own problem… and I suspect those two will be dealing with the aftermath of it for a longer while than Teal. She’ll just chalk it up to another lesson in loyalty and – ultimatly – youth of the two gentleman involved.

    But for those regreating posts you might have made in anger, haste, or ignorance… you should probably also re-think your actions.

  34. This all is very clear, albeit a bit disconcerting for the dead govs, Teal and Holtzman.  The dead govs are Dems, so who do they pick for a “Republican blogger?  A staffer for Holtzman, the one candidate all Dems hope is their general election opponent.  This explains why Teal was always after Beauprez..she was doing it for the money!  This is why the allegedly conservative Teal endorsed the heretofore moderate Holtzman–it was in her financial self interest.  And this is why the dead govs brought her aboard–her dissing of Beauprez was in line with what they wanted and needed from a “conservative” blogger.  Nicely done until Teal’s paranoia blew the deal…

  35. Hey there, (foggy)Clear, read the Red Hawk posts and you’ll very easily see she was a Beauprez supporter and wrote posts supporting him. Then, at some point, those dwindled – she focused on other candidates – and then finally stopped posting in July, when she started working for Hotlzman.

    Rather, as she stated in the Statesman, she was with Bob before she was supporting Marc.

    Are you really as clueless as your post indicates?

  36. I challenge any Republican to “out-conservative” Teal. She draws EVERYONE to the Right – her candidates, her friends, and her associates. As demonstrated by – well – HISTORY and the fact that Beauprez has been successfully flanked on the right by Holtzman and – yes – Teal.

  37. I don’t know anybody involved in this. Over the last 23 years or so, I’ve posted on CompuServe, listservs, message boards and blogs, and is the first time that anything like this has come up that I know about, which doesn’t mean much.

    The root of the problem is the secrecy of the owners and financial supporters of the blog. To me, that is unwise, and I told them so long ago. Secrecy, as Bush is proving once again, breeds distrust, rumors and conspiracy theories. And it undermines the credibility of the secrecy freaks. This is an old story repeated throughout the history of American politics.

    Anybody who agrees to blog for the unnamed sponsors of a blog or any other publication is not only part of conspiracy but also culpable for any missteps. Teal made a big mistake in getting involved with this blog as she did.

    But her willingness to play with the secret bloggers was a tip that she sees ethics differently than many others do. Anybody who betrays an employer, paid or unpaid, under contract or not, raises red flags for me. Was she just playing a “dirty trick”  in keeping with American traditions, or was she joining in misleading not only the sponsors but also other posters and readers?

    Anybody who asked Teal to break her unwritten contract with the sponsors of this blog has an ethical problem, I think. As a potential employer, I would never touch such people, and as a voter, I wouldn’t have anything to do with any candidate who employed them.

    It’s bad enought that Marc Holtzman has been caught telling white lies about his relationships with President Reagan. Now he’s being exposed as someone who doesn’t know how to hire honest and ethical people. While election outcomes are very important, the end does not justify the means in politics. Ever. Elections are not wars, they are contests whose outcomes have nothing to do with life and death or national security.

    Although I’ve always used a handle on other boards, I chose to use my real name here because I want people to know what I think, even if they don’t care. And most don’t.

    Perhaps it would be better if everyone involved used their real names. If you don’t have the guts or authority to stand behind your comments, they don’t mean that much to anybody anyway?ask the three Guvs. Nobody takes them or their political punditry seriously because we’re all suspicious of who their are and who’s paying them.

    Coloradopols is interesting because it’s a place to talk politics. It’s not really a place to discuss issues, which don’t seem to  interest many of the political operatives who hang out here. They’re only interested in horse races?just like the media they love to criticize.

    Soon, of course, this little flap will blow over. The election campaigns will become more interesting, and the banter will resume. But the real politicing will be done behind closed doors, as always.

  38. Yes,Teal can be conservative when it suits her interest, just like Holtzman who purchased her services, in his campaign as well as on this blog.  She shifted her allegiance, both publicly and as Red Fox, when she was paid to do so.  The three dead govs and their moneymen? (woman) got a great deal here, helping promote the infighting in the Republican Party, aided and abbetted by Teal and her employer.

  39. It’s obviuos the site is being run by Caldara, who will never reveal whence the money cometh.  If, indeed, there is money.  Maybe there is, maybe not.  Regardless, the solutions to much of the discussion are simple.

    If you don’t like the use of funny names,use your own–as long as it’s not funny.

    If you’re concerned someone might find out it was you, not “Colorado R”, who called Gov Bill a turncoat, don’t call him a turncoat.

    If you’re worried a record of posts made public would show you spent most of your work day writing on a blog, don’t post during the work day.

    If unethical behavior bothers you, don’t do it nor tolerate it in others.

    Betrayal is unethical.  Trusting someone too much may be stupid, but it’s not unethical.  If someone was harmed by stolen information, I missed that part.  As far as I can tell the dirty deed doer(s) was exposed.  Game over.  Those trying to confuse the blame issue with fingers pointed elsewhere are accomplishing nothing. Let it die.

    On it’s best days ColoradoPols provides a fun service to the political community.  On its worst days, don’t read it.

    Finally, I don’t much like the way politics is done nowadays.  It costs too much and is,at the same time, cheap.  But, don’t expect an activity dependent on politics to operate any differently than politics itself.

  40. govs were schooled by Teal. Teal was deceived by George. George used by the one unnamed source of this story: the sketch Peters.  Of the duplicitous, Joe Peters tops the list.  With qualities like his, I fully expect him to be looking for another job soon. McElhany will see him for what he really is, I’m sure. Clue: out for himself.

  41. My dog knows more about the internet

    The big political threat last week was that a local blog’s owners were covertly stealing useless IP information on its commenters, in the hopes that they could glean who these people really were. It was a vast conspiracy of the…

  42. Laura Teal is not the first one to admit that they have information about IP addresses. And these persons also claimed to be able to trace them back. I wonder where they are in this whole mess?

  43. Trust is an issue that has bubbled to the surface for me in my own life this year.  Until this year I generally afforded people trust at the outset, unless I found out differently, which wasn’t often. Believing generally in the basic goodness and honesty of the vast majority of people was a little naive.  It was an exceedingly painful lesson, but all lessons are useful.

    This Laura Teal person was clearly given some kind of login to Coloradopols which gave her some additional access to the site.

    I find that some of the best learned lessons in life are sometimes painful and costly.  And learning NOT to trust from the outset is hard when you want to believe most people are ethical.

    So, whoever the dead govs are, they have learned many lessons about trust, ethics and the fact that opportunists and back-stabbers are not boogey-men opperating in the shadows of childish fantasy, but are in reality, the people you meet every day.

    I am sorry the dead govs had to learn a good lesson the hard way.  But, I am sure that this Laura Teal person will reap what she has sewn.

  44. ‘notachance’ – do you really have a clue?  First you call ColoradoPols a part of the media (I agree), then you say they’re violating election law.  The media are pretty much exempt from election law.  The fight over whether or not blogs are ‘media’ is currently a hot topic at both the FEC and in Congress, but as of this point and time, they are in fact media, and as such it is hard for them to violate election law.

    To those claiming that the rest of the Guvs are Democrats, I got the impression that Peabody is not a Dem…

  45. all this happened – what – six months ago? in an attemp to out the govs and finger the biggest jackass the party has ever known (who, by the way, was posting confidential information.) This was so obviously a “get laura” plot that I’m still shocked it was held a sercret for so long.

  46. The problem is that Laura Teal has a big mouth.  The Democrats like Peabody etc. are tracking you too – they just have been more secret about who they share the information with.

    Teal just did what most people who get caught do, she bragged about it!

  47. get a life,

    wtf are you talking about?  It looks like Laura got caught with her hand in the cookie jar and now you are saying that she was doing it to expose somebody else?  She is such a hero!  Maybe she should get an award! 

    I can’t believe that you are saying her ends justify the means she used to gather information that the authors of this site did not want to get out into the public.

  48. Would Tim Gill, Jared Polis, or Stryker stoop so low as to put together a site to entice people to trash each other anonymously, only to then reveal their identities and ruin them politically? 

    Without a doubt they would!

    However, in defence of the Pols, These three scum bags don’t need real comments said by real people to trash anyone!  They demonstrated in the last election that they can simply make up whole lies without a grain of truth to go after people.  Why would they even put in the time and effort to track your comments (based on your own words) when they have already shown they can and will lie about you and publish pieces claiming candidates are for this position or that without any shread of truth?

    So, this is a challenge to those bottom feeders that if you are tracking ip addresses then you should come and sue me – show yourselves to be the cowardly scum that you are.

  49. In defence of Pols- Point well stated.

    During session there were a couple of people who were trashed on this site one of which claimed they knew who it was by tracing this person’s IP address. But nothing ever came of it.

  50. Well, I believe that this site IS funded by one or all of the Colorado Billionaires that bought the election.  If they can track me – then bring them on.  I am just a little guy – not a billionaire – if they can track me they should and I will expose the Pols and the scoundrels that Polis, Stryker, Gill and Bridges are. 

    But I imagine in the end they will just delete my posting and justify it as some kind of “we don’t tolerate character assasination on the site we paid for” excuse.  Even though they funded litereature that were blatant lies about good people all over Colorado.  They proved that when it comes to political free speech they will say and do just about any lowly thing possible.

    These guys are the lowest of the low, and I dare them to come after me – an average guy who can see through them.

  51. defence of Pols, you say “These guys are the lowest of the low, and I dare them to come after me – an average guy who can see through them.”

    Why would they care about tracking you? They are rich and powerful, and you post anonymously on an obscure blog.

    Get over yourself.

  52. I would agree with you, Matt, where it not for the adage that “Just because you know you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”

  53. That is the point Matt!  But I wouldn’t expect a loser like you to understand.  If I post with my name then nobody is surprised when they track me down.  But, if they go after a guy who posts anonymously then they have exposed their own hand.

    Either way they are liars and will stop at nothing to lie about good people.  You should see all the literature they paid for to make claims about Republican Candidates all over the state.  Such blatant lies – I wouldn’t put it past those four to do or say anything.  They don’t need real statements from real people.  They just make it up as they go along.

  54. Polis and Gill are only one issue activists anyway.  The only reason they got into politics is to cram their twisted perverse agenda down the throats of our children.

    Stryker and Bridges are just going along for the ride (pun intended). 

    They don’t care a bit about Colorado.  Their agenda is the only thing that matters – you, me and any other parent be damned.

    Bring it on baby!

  55. My dog knows more about the internet

    The big political threat last week was that a local blog’s owners were covertly stealing useless IP information on its commenters, in the hopes that they could glean who these people really were. It was a vast conspiracy of the…

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