Sunday, May 21, 2006

Those who hide in the shadows

My name is at the top of the page, my biography is on this blog; and there is no secret as to who writes the words that are added to it everyday. I stand behind my writing.
I allow anonymous comments to be made on this blog and I have no problem with them. There are good reasons for many people to remain anonymous and I welcome points of view, whether I agree with them or not.
That being said, I was surprised today to find two lengthy comments, and two shorter ones, supporting Sen. Nodler coming from IP addresses listed for Frankfurt, Germany. At first, I was impressed to find someone in Europe who had such encyclopedic knowledge of Senator Nodler's campaign and legislative activities, down to this little tidbit concerning occupations being left off for some campaign contributors: "The Nodler campaign has always complied with those good faith efforts and only 9% of the contributions lack that employer information although all report the identity and address of the contributor." Nine percent, hmmm, that's pretty exact.
The rest of this comment also appeared to have first-hand knowledge of the senator's campaign machinery and of his legislative accomplishments. The comment said, "It is obvious that Nodler is very popular and very effective." Also, "The Nodler critics will just have to face the fact that they are vastly outnumbered by those that recognize that Nodler is the most effective state legislator in our area since the death of Dick Webster."
It was the first indication I had that Nodler had the same kind of inexplicable popularity in Germany that Jerry Lewis has in France. But then, I took a closer look at that German IP address. First, let me assure readers, I don't have any idea who is reading this blog unless someone tells me. I have information that indicates what city the person is in and if that person arrived at my site through a link on another website or through a search engine result, but that is all. This IP address was listed for something called "Anonymouse."
I checked it out and apparently, this is a service that allows people to surf the net and not be traced. Not that there is anything wrong with that. We do give up a lot of privacy when we surf the net, but this person apparently wants to make absolutely sure that his or her identity is not revealed.
I have nothing but a few educated guesses as to who this person is who left two comments on the most recent Nodler post and two more on an earlier one today. I have no idea why this person has such a lofty opinion and such detailed knowledge of Gary Nodler, but cannot be coaxed into adding a name to the comments, but I do know one thing:
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, "I knew Dick Webster and Gary Nodler is no Dick Webster."

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:09 PM

    Randy, Greetings from Germany. You should come clean and explain your hostility toward Senator Nodler. What is your beef anyway? The only thing you ever refer to is the “theater meltdown” but that is really your own creation based on an uncorroborated claim. What is it that you are so angry about that you actually have knowledge of? You also seem to get touchy when people call you on your excesses and errors. By the way, just for the sake of argument; what if Nodler didn’t say anything wrong at the theater, or do anything wrong at all. What if he told the truth and that is why he passed the lie detector test and Amanda Richardson was lying and that is why she refused to take one. What if that is the case? As for people having detailed knowledge, I don’t, that 9% figure came from the Joplin Globe so I don’t know that it’s right at all.

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  2. Anonymous4:23 AM

    It really doesn't matter. We are stuck for four more years of this, "Little Tin God" and can only do what we can to neutralize his business oriented legislative proposals.

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  3. Anonymous7:51 AM

    Randy- what's the big deal about a message from Germany?

    Just because you don't like Gary Nodler doesn't mean that everyone else has to feel the same. When my husband was in the army, we lived in Germany and I kept up with things going on at home. Guess what? Soldiers and their families are even allowed to vote - in local elections back home.

    Maybe there's a soldier from this senatorial district serving in Germany who is keeping up with things back home. Thanks to the internet, those guys and gals can read local papers on publication day, read blogs and communicate with friends and families every day. Back in the days when I was in Germany that was impossible except for an expensive telephone call.

    It just is astonishing to me that you are so worked up over this....some of us appreciate the work Gary is doing. I admire what he and his wife do for hospice. I am glad he is interested in what's going on at Newtonia and comes to meetings there when he can. And obviously there's someone in Germany who sees his good qualities as well.

    So what, people in Germany have a right to their opinion as much as anyone else...whether we like their opinion or not.

    Kay Hively
    Neosho

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  4. Kay,
    I apologize for not making my point clear. I have no problem with anyone being from Germany. However, the person who has been writing these comments, and has done so in the past, is not located in Germany, but most likely somewhere here in Missouri. He or she is using a service called Anonymouse at anonymouse.org that allows a person's location to remain secret. Anytime someone uses that service, it shows the person being from Frankfurt, Germany, which apparently is this company's location.

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  5. Anonymous9:34 AM

    I like this comment from that says "it doesn't really matter". It completely proves the mentality of Nodler opponents. They say the truth doesn't matter, then engage in "name calling” that is the nature of a Nodler opponent!

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  6. Anonymous9:06 AM

    Randy invokes Lloyd Bentsen and a day later he croaks. The power of the blogosphere is infinite!

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