Uh, Thom Hartmann, if you're reading this....

[ruggerson]

you might want to enlighten your listeners tomorrow - you got punked.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8673262#8673663

and while you're at it, give some time for major props to Starry Messenger and Jackeens for excellent behind the scenes sleuthing.

[tekisui]

1. An old friend. Did Hartmann mention the sock?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8504913#8504928

[Jackeens]

2. But they're still rec'ing him Ruggerson!!!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I'll go for laughter, it being the best medicine and all :-)

Hats off to Starry Messenger, Sleuth Supreme, and the first to smell a rat!

Thanks Ruggerson :toast:

[tekisui]

3. I remember that art piece.

I always have guarded skepticism with recent 'converts'. He blew his cover with re-posting an animated piece.

[Jackeens]

7. And jeez, he's obsessed with that picture!

If you've nothing better to do (like me), do an advanced search on deadlyaj - he posted that pic more times than I've had bad days at work.

It's a great pic, but two dozen times is plenty!

[WonderGrunion]

15. In fairness, it's a pretty cool picture.

Good job on sniffing him out.

[Jackeens]

16. Agree, it's a great picture, whoever did it has a real gift.

:hi:

[Starry Messenger]

4. I'm not above a little gloating.

Thank you Jackeens for the massive excellent backup. I've never regretted having to rush to work more than this morning.

[tekisui]

5. I'm curious how you dug it up.

I recognized but couldn't begin to think of how to find it.

[Starry Messenger]

8. Like you, I remembered the art work

I also remembered the name of the poster. He was a real stinker towards the end. I just did a DU search on his screenname and "Obama art". It popped right up. :D

[tekisui]

9. Ah. I didn't remember his name.

When I went back with his name, I did remember the anti-gay rights threads he started. Good work!:thumbsup:

[Jackeens]

6. Here's your new avatar, Starry

:toast:

[ruggerson]

10. lol

or this

[Starry Messenger]

11. Thank you!

I think we should both change ours to and claim to be former roommates. :D

[Jackeens]

12. Okay Spiderman - but remember, I created that pic before you, you MySpace/DU stalker you

:rofl:

[Starry Messenger]

17. I'll still always love Captain America more than you.

PS: I took your last beer out of the fridge too. :D

[Jackeens]

19. Careful buddy, I'm coming right after ya...

:blush:

[ruggerson]

13. or former sisters

every other month you can change races and one of you can talk about your experiences in Iraq.

[Jackeens]

14. I can only assume this is his favourite tune...

"Now I Believe In Miracles
And A Miracle
Has Happened Tonight

....It Don't Matter If You're
Black Or White"

:shrug:

[rhett o rick]

18. Help me out. How did Hartmann get punked. When I click on your link it jumps to something

different. I don't get it. Help out an ole guy.

[Jackeens]

21. Well....where do I start?

It would, cough, seem that the author of this thread....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8673262&mesg_id=8673262

...has been on DU before, but was tombstoned.

That's okay, we've all been bad in our time. :blush:

But, in his former DU life he started a thread almost identical to today's one, declaring that he had just seen the light and had become a Democrat (that was about 18 months ago). (And then he started trying to sell Obama merchandise to DUers!).

So, it's at least his second conversion.

He also expressed some fairly unpleasant views on everything from bombing Pakistan ("kill the bastards") to gay rights.

His finest hour, though, came when he claimed his 18-year-old brother had been killed the previous day in Iraq. He, naturally, received huge sympathy from DUers, but some were suspicious - no 18-year-olds were killed in Iraq that week, the casualties were all in their 20s, and when he was asked for some clarification he disappeared from the thread. Also, he had previously implied that he only had a sister, no brothers.

He said he was a medic in the army (although on his MySpace page he's an engineer) who did two tours of duty of Iraq - again, on his MySpace page (which he switched to private today), neither he nor his friends make any mention of him ever being in the army (despite some of the posts coinciding with the time he claimed to be in Iraq).

He denies that he is the tombstoned poster known as deadlyaj, even though deadlyaj's MySpace photo is the same as this guy's avatar - and they've 'both' posted Captain America photos on DU!

He claims deadlyaj is a former room-mate who is stalking him, "hijacked" his identity and who falsely claimed to have created the Obama picture he posted today. He says he created it around election time; deadlyaj first posted it on DU in March 2008.

And that's only the half of it!

:shrug:

PS I forgot to mention the best bit (as spotted by Starry Messenger): deadlyaj introduced himself to DU as a "White Male Republican Iraq Marine Veteran voting for Obama":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=5037120

A year and a bit later he was "an African American":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8504913#8505123

I kid you not!

[Cha]

22. There's a lesson in here somewhere..

You can't fool the DU!

Too many 'puter savants.

[cyndensco]

23. But what does that/he have to do with Thom Hartmann?

(Looks like you and Starry Messenger were having barrels of fun today). :)

[Starry Messenger]

24. We did.

It was fun to lark around.

But the thread we are talking about was read on Thom's show today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8673262&mesg_id=8674036

[Jackeens]

25. Apparently Thom Hartmann read out his post today!

This one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8673262&mesg_id=8673262

:blush:

[Starry Messenger]

29. Excellent summary!

Thank you Jackeens. :thumbsup:

[rhett o rick]

31. Hey thanks for the update. nt

[islandmkl]

20. there is more of him than there is of him, so to speak....

nice sniff-out by Starry and Jackeens...

[donheld]

26. Why is he not tombstoned?

[Canuckistanian]

27. You know, I rec'ed that thread, but got a weird feeling right after it

I thought, "This doesn't sound right. there was no specific anecdote to back it up"

I was going to reply with a hearty, "Welcome to DU", but decided against it.

It just seemed too....... good.

And the "Captain America" pic was too much.

[Jackeens]

28. D'you know Canuckistanian, it was the Captain American picture that made me go WTF?!?!

:rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

30. I thought it was a wee bit presumptious

I mean, I wouldn't go to FR and pronounce my loyalty to the dark side with a pic of Superman.

BTW, great work!

[Jackeens]

32. Aw bless, look at this!

He's done one of himself on, eh, deadlyaj's MySpace page:



(Hope you can see it, I'd left his MySpace page open on a tab so was able to copy it - but it's now private)

future_of_the_party's DU avatar:




He's one talented boy - I just wish he'd put it to less weird use :shrug:

[PBS Poll-435]

33. ...

:rofl:

[Forkboy]

34. I never trust anyone who uses their own pic for an avatar.

Anyone that full of themselves is too far gone. ;)

It's also a program that converts an image to ascii format, so not much talent required. :)

[Jackeens]

35. Forkboy! I thought that black hairy thing was you!

:-)

[Forkboy]

38. I've heard that line before.

:)

My avatar is a silhouette of Godzilla, not a hairy black thing. :rofl:

:hi:

[Starry Messenger]

36. Hello Forky.

I was just wondering about that. I googled "animated ascii art" and was getting some sites.

[Forkboy]

37. There's a bunch of programs that do it.

It's pretty easy, just load a pic and hit the Convert button. Even I can handle that, and I'm pretty dimwitted. :)