Vertical Response Tells Their Side of Stonegate

by: phillip anderson

Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 18:18:13 PM EDT

BROKEN: Roger Stone's "linkedcampaign.com" Is a Sham

When Bouldin and I were researching "linkedcampaign.com" we found that that particular domain redirected to a site for a company called Vertical Response, an email marketing company. We were puzzled as to why a seemingly perfectly legit company would resort to using a service like Domains by Proxy to obscure details about who runs such a site.

We were right to wonder because Vertical Response did no such thing. Roger Stone did. Stone is redirecting his own creation, "linkedcampaign", to Vertical Response and the Vertical Response folks aren't too happy about it.

Well, Vertical Response is finally telling their side of the story:

Someone Tried to Put One Over on VR? I don't think so...

It's 6:00 on a Tuesday evening, I've just arrived home, and what do I find in my inbox but a fairly cryptic email from Janine that says:

 

Does this make sense to you?

  http://www.thealbany...

I followed the link and found a blog article discussing some particularly annoying sounding political spam going out through a company called "linkedcampaign.com."  Makes sense so far.  But then I read:

 

Linked Campaign is an email marketing service provided by a company called VerticalResponse Self Service Direct Marketing in San Francisco, with servers in North Carolina.

This, of course, did not make sense at all.  First, I know we don't offer any sort of service called Linked Campaign.  Second, all our servers live here in San Francisco with us and don't often make the journey to North Carolina (at least not while they're on the clock).  Third, the type of mail described in the blog post would be very unlikely to make it out through our system.

Why would a blogger think we offered this "Linked Campaign" service?  I went to the linkedcampaign.com website in hopes of finding out.  And I certainly did find out:

Linkedcampaign.com was nothing more than a copy of our entire website as it appeared in March of this year!

I immediately commented to the blog post (and emailed the Albany Project owner) to explain the situation.  They very quickly edited the article and posted two very detailed correction posts explaining that we were not involved with the problem email.  I couldn't have dealt with nicer, more professional people than the folks at the Albany Project.

I then set out to track down the owner of Linked Campaign.  This was complicated by their use of Domains by Proxy to hide their WHOIS info (the owner of every website is required to have their contact info published to a WHOIS record, which can usually be looked up by anyone).  Domains by Proxy refused to release the information to me without a Court Order or a Subpoena.  I understood this was necessary to protect their customers, but that didn't make it any less frustrating (or any less suspicious that the owner of a website that was a copy of our site was hiding their WHOIS info).

Luckily, the spam emails had gone out through a perfectly traceable IP Address that led back to Road Runner (an ISP).  I contacted Road Runner, discovered they were hosting the linkedcampaign.com website, explained the situation, and they took the website down.

Ahhh...memories.

They're Only 'Questions' if You're Not Terribly Bright

by: phillip anderson

Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 12:28:39 PM EDT

Roger Stone may be gone, but the Republican operative left a few mysteries in his wake.

...

But there's more. Questions remain about Caputo, a one-time Stone associate who's running an anti-Spitzer e-mail campaign and Web site. The GOP operative, who alternates between Buffalo and Florida, insists he isn't working with Stone, Bruno, or the GOP, and is entirely independent.

Last week, several blogs were certain they'd caught Caputo and Stone in a lie after discovering they appear to share e-mail lists.

But Caputo said it makes sense Republican operatives would have the same electronic address book. He said he subscribes to a service that provides him with targeted e-mail lists, and whenever someone registers on his site, the service's list is updated. Other subscribers using the service get the updates, too.

OK, where to start?

1. I am not on any Republican email lists for hire. None. Why would I be? Why would Ben Smith's family be?  They didn't buy these lists. Period. This is just dumb.

2. The real story here is that ALL THE EMAILS FOR EVERY ONE OF THESE PHONY "GRASSROOTS" EFFORTS COME FROM THE SAME PLACE and the legit company they spoofed is none too happy about it.

There are no "questions" about this. There are no "mysteries".

Deal with it.

Please, Roger, Just. Shut. Up.

by: phillip anderson

Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 13:05:28 PM EDT

The Credico Connection

The latest conspiracy theory making its way around the Internet is that Randy Credico, a longtime drug law reform activist and comedian known for his spot-on impersonations of political figures, is the voice behind the alleged Roger Stone call to Gov. Eliot Spitzer's dad.

An e-mail from someone named Frank Reubens, who appears to hail from Stony Brook, says the following:

"Did you know that Randy Credico does an uncannily accurate impression of Roger Stone? Credico, who appeared on Leno and Letterman, is known for his political impressions; Nixon, Clinton, Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Al Damato, Ed Koch and George Pataki. Credico is now a Drug Legalization Activist in New York City. Credico hates Stone and is the major source of much of the information in the Village Voice series on Stone. Credico was quoted on the record in those stories. Credico is close to Senator Thomas Duane who has been the leading defender of Governor Spitzer in the Troopergate matter.

The voice on the "voicemail" is Credico."

I just reached Credico, who is in Florida following the death of former drug offender-turned-activist Veronica Flournoy. He denied the allegation, calling it "the funniest joke I have ever heard," but said he has been inundated with phone calls from reporters - including one from The Washington Post - who say that Stone himself is behind the story.

...

This has all the hallmarks of a Stone classic: Denial followed by use of the Internet to raise alternate theories wild enough to keep the press interested and diffuse the power of the original story.

This is getting ridiculous. It's also now just beyond pathetic. Let's face it, Stone is a dinosaur. His way of doing "business" is over and he's sadly the last one to find out. This old dog desperately needs to learn some new tricks. Or maybe he should just shut up and go home.

NYT: Get Back To Work

by: phillip anderson

Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 10:49:20 AM EDT

Curiouser and Curiouser

New York State politics has become an arena best entered through the looking glass.First, Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s team tried to reveal the bad transportation habits of his chief Republican opponent by pushing state troopers to reveal all. Then came the investigations of his administration’s bad habits in using state troopers for political purposes. And now there is The Phone Call.
...

Now that Mr. Stone, the phone call and the caller’s charges are official distractions, we’d like to add to that list of sideshows all the breast-beating in Albany these days about the Spitzer administration. Whatever the new governor’s administration did wrong, it is now just the latest excuse for legislators to avoid doing the hard stuff, like cleaning up brownfields or the scandalous way campaign dollars control politicians in New York State.

Spot on.

BROKEN: Roger Stone's "linkedcampaign.com" Is a Sham

by: phillip anderson

Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 02:15:31 AM EDT

Return-Path: (update@nyfacts.net)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (Stone@StoneZONE.com)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (info@SpitzerFile.com)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (WJMAHONEY@GOP-CLUB.COM)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

"Linkedcapaign.com" was registered, as were every one of the other domains using a service called Domains by Proxy, which allows users to register domains in such a way as to obscure their identities.

When Bouldin and I were researching "linkedcampaign.com" we found that that particular domain redirected to a site for a company called Vertical Response, an email marketing company. We were puzzled as to why a seemingly perfectly legit company would resort to using a service like Domains by Proxy to obscure details about who runs such a site.

We were right to wonder because Vertical Response did no such thing. Roger Stone did. Stone is redirecting his own creation, "linkedcampaign", to Vertical Response and the Vertical Response folks aren't too happy about it. Here's their Director of Policy enforcement the comments:

I'm the Director of Policy Enforcement at VerticalResponse.  This post was just brought to my attention, and I want to state for the record that we have nothing to do with this linkedcampaign.com company.  Their web page redirects to ours currently, but I can only assume this is being done with the goal of deflecting blame for their spam on to us (an owner of a domain can redirect that domain to point anywhere they want).  I cannot stress enough that Linked Campaign is not a service we provide.

The kind of emails you're describing could not make it out through our system.  There are several reasons for this:

1.  We do not allow domain spoofing.  All mail sent through our service must come through our mail.vresp.com domain.  The only time we make exceptions for this rule is when a client works with our engineering team to give us permission to send mail on behalf of one of their subdomains.  Jumping from domain to domain is simply not possible with our system.

2.  We do not own the 24.199.182.6 IP Address (Road Runner owns that IP, and they are not one of our upstream providers.  This means the email has been going through Road Runner).

3.  We have very strict rules in place regarding the sending of mail.  Our clients may only mail those people who have specifically requested info from or about their company.  Nothing else is allowed.  Signing people up through one site and mailing them information about another is prohibited.  If they even managed to get one email out through our site it would almost certainly lead to complaints (we respond to all complaints) and the account would be banned.

You can read our anti-spam policy here:

http://www.verticalr...

The linkedcampaign.com whois page shows their info as being protected by "Domains by Proxy" as you noted.  I am contacting Domains by Proxy to see what we can do to get their contact info and get this spammer domain pointed away from our site.

I would really appreciate it you could forward some of their emails to me: richard at verticalresponse.com.  I would also appreciate it if the post could be corrected to show we were not involved with this issue.  I am happy to discuss this by phone or email if you write me.

Thanks!

So "linkedcampaign" far from being a legitimate service, is exactly what it says it is and a far cry from all the asertions that all of these different efforts were independent of each other. It's right there in the name that Stone himself chose for the endeavour, "linked campaign".
Roger Stone is a liar and a sick, sad sleaze.

As If There Any Doubt...

by: phillip anderson

Tue Aug 21, 2007 at 17:16:18 PM EDT

But a recap for the slow: I subscribed, using a private email account not on anyone's list, to Roger Stone's totally awesome website. I have yet to receive an "update" from the StoneZONE, but I did get mail yesterday from the site he claims to have nothing to do with, "SpitzerFile.com", allegedly run by Mr. Caputo.

Today I got mail from Mr. Caputo's other alleged creation, "NYFacts.net". Here it is in black and white:

Do the math, people. They are lying to you.

Dear NY Media, Let Me Make This as Simple as Possible

by: phillip anderson

Tue Aug 21, 2007 at 10:49:42 AM EDT

Return-Path: (update@nyfacts.net)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (Stone@StoneZONE.com)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (info@SpitzerFile.com)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (WJMAHONEY@GOP-CLUB.COM)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Got it? Good.

Caputo Speaks

by: phillip anderson

Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:33:46 AM EDT

Look, folks - I am not being paid. Not by Sen. Bruno, not by Roger Stone, not by anyone. I am just a conservative activist and I take orders - and money - from nobody on this.

Unfortunately, I have nobody taking orders from me on this, either. I'm doing it all myself. If I can do it, any dope can - but it does take some time out of my day.

Honest to God, I wouldn't know Sen. Bruno if he boarded my boat. But I graduated from SUNY, I've been in the arena nearly 30 years, I read the news, and I have computers. So why is it so impossible for the media and bloggers to believe I can handle NYFacts and SpitzerFile on my own?

I'm normally thick-skinned, but even I'm starting to get a bit offended here. Fess up: do you think I'm just too stupid to pull this off?

I've never asserted that Caputo was stupid or incapable of anything. His intelligence or skills aren't the issue here.

Remember, the guy who's writing the script for me is Richard Milhous Spitzer. He authored this tragicomedy; he created his own starring role.

What's more funny: the insinuation that I got the DVD from Stone because it came from New York City. Last I looked, there were a few people living there directly affected by Spitzer's capricious, thug-like behavior. Maybe millions?

With all the people AG Spitzer screwed in the business community - entire industries - can't you imagine a groundswell of folks out there eager to see him pay for his crimes? Well, those people are on my email list and many are in New York City.

As Bouldin says, I think this statement is very illustrative of exactly what this effort by Stone and Caputo is all about: overturning the results of last year's election, a familiar Republican tack.

If you could only see my email inbox everyday, chirping all day long with unsolicited incoming information. The DVD was certainly not the first thing I received via Internet, snail and express mail. Is that a shock to all of you?

Importantly, I was threatened; I don't feel threatened. I've been around the block a few times. I've worked in boardrooms, on battlefields, in Belarus. I've been spat upon, beaten, shot, and stabbed. I don't scare all that easily anymore and I am certainly not afraid of this sophmoric attempt to silence me.

Who exactly is trying to silence him? Certainly not me.

More strawmen and obfuscation on the flip...

The Strange Case of Michael Caputo

by: phillip anderson

Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 13:28:19 PM EDT

The first Spitzer-bashing email from Michael Caputo's NYFacts.net went out on July 10th, 2007, at 12:41 PM Eastern. Since then, the group has sent out 35 further emails. Another site, Spitzerfile.com, which interestingly only loads through a redirect from NYFacts.net, went live sometime after July 10th, and has also been sending out emails.

NYFacts.net even briefly branched out into Obama-bashing on August 8th, with an email entitled "Obama pulls from all-white Harmonie Club', which contained a piece by Maggie Haberman in the Murdoch Post.

Both Bouldin and I were both on this email list as were pretty much every media outlet in the state. It was one hell of a list and it was apparently assembled in record time. what was interesting was not so much who those emails were going to but the addresses that were being used. Some folks were getting those emails at addresses they hadn't used in years, others at brand new ones. Some people were getting them at purely personal addresses.

But this story only gets curiouser and curiouser. Like the rampant speculation that Caputo is working for Bruno consultant, original Watergate CREEP critter, senior official on Bob Dole's 1996 campaign for president, 2000 Miami Mobster and general all around Super Freak, Roger Stone. Caputo denies that he is working with or for Stone, though they have a long history of collaboration. Here's but one example:

Two vendors for a current campaign assisted by Stone—the senate campaign of Larry Klayman—also donated in Florida, with public relations consultant Michael Caputo and Tasmania Productions owner Teddi Segal donating $250 (she says she doesn't know Stone). Caputo, ironically, was Stone's spokesman in 1996, when Stone was embroiled in the most embarrassing scandal of his career—the much ballyhooed revelation that he and his wife had advertised, with photos, for swinging partners in magazines and on the Internet. Caputo has, until recently, been handling press inquiries for Klayman, an evangelical who led the sex assault in Washington on Bill Clinton and is running a moral-majority, retake-Cuba campaign for senate.

Caputo says he's not working with Stone and "never worked in New York politics at Roger Stone's behest", but Robert A. George, a reporter for the New York Post asks this question on his personal blog:

I should make another obvious point: If Stone and Caputo aren't working together in some fashion, how did both of my accounts end up on Caputo's mailing list. I've never previously received e-mails -- to any of my accounts -- from Michael Caputo. On the other hand, as noted above, I have gotten them from Roger Stone.

You ain't seen nothing yet. MUCH more weirdness on the flip...