I get a lot of press releases (I suppose I should call them “blog releases” since I aint the press). They come in from both sides, and I tend not to use them or borrow too much from them when they come from “my side” as doing so would feel icky – like I was getting marching orders or something. But it’s a testament to just how good Dem Communications Director Andy Bouska is that sometimes they’re just so good that I have to pass them on.

In the case of the most recent one, he has digested this morning’s radio debate between GOP Congressional hopefuls Martha Rainville and Mark Shepard quite masterfully. From his ensuing press release, I am now pleased to – at long last – present for your consideration, Martha Rainville on the Issues (gasp!):

On Iraq:

“A very important element has been missing, and that is good communication on what’s going on there… It’s very difficult for citizens to have an accurate perspective of the war of our successes… Part of that is, I believe, the fault of all of those involved for not communicating more openly with Americans, or not telling the story of what’s going on in Iraq.

War is not a steady state – it does not march toward victory on a steady line.”

On energy:

“The only way that we can reasonably lessen our dependence on foreign oil while continuing to maintain a strong and dynamic economy is to increase our domestic production and, uh, refining capacity. So I have come out with an energy proposal that advocates for increased offshore drilling.”

[the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is] “a resource we have there to use”… “Those oil reserves are there, they’re not going anywhere, if we do need them in the future we can address that.”

On the mess that is Medicare Part D:

“I’m glad they did it. I support Medicare Part D.”

On abortion rights:

“We need to have parental notification to protect our young women – 16 and under – I support a ban on partial birth abortion, late-term abortion…”

On supporting the Republican Congressional leadership:

“I don’t know what you mean by saying I’ve agreed to support the leadership. I won’t really answer that because I don’t know what you’re talking about. I doubt [I’d support Democratic leadership] because I don’t see supporting Nancy Pelosi, who might be the obvious candidate as something that would be in Vermont’s best interest.”

…and on President Bush and his handling of the war:

“I think his weakness all along has been communicating with people. I wish so much that he would tell more of the good news that’s there.  There are some positive things happening… We tend to hear the bad news which is a function of how we cover news I think the help to the Iraqi people that the war has given – I think that needs to be better understood. Those stories get lost, and I think it’s important for our nation as a whole to understand all that’s going in so that we can judge the strengths and weaknesses better of our president or our congress or our foreign policy.”

After all, if Bush could just explain what a nice civil war it is, maybe two thirds of Americans wouldn’t feel so strongly about getting our soldiers out of there and moving towards a strategy that, you know, might actually work.

So, I know Rainville is supposed to be a different kind of Republican, but danged if I can tell from this list what that “different kind” is. Maybe she’s left handed or something.

With Rich Tarrant going, as Haik puts it, “nuclear negative” in his war against Bernie, now employing an operative in a Chicken suit to follow him around, it seems that the story of Dr. Mauricio Leon – formerly the Senior Director of Informatics at Tarrant’s IDX Corporation –  may be coming around again. If you missed it the first time, dont be surprised, as it has received shockingly little coverage in the Green Mountain State. As iHealth Beat reported back in May of 2003 (obviously when Tarrant was still top dog at IDX):

A former employee and head physician for electronic medical records vendor IDX Systems’ federally funded clinical decision support program said the company retaliated against him for his attempted whistleblowing suit charging IDX with fraud and concealment in the project, Modern Physician reports. Dr. Mauricio Leon filed a law suit against IDX yesterday in federal court in Seattle; Leon has also filed a HIPAA privacy complaint and a wrongful termination complaint against the company.

Leon’s lawsuit filed yesterday alleges that IDX, in its $18 million contract with the Commerce Department, submitted false documents to the department and defrauded the company’s joint-venture partners. Leon alleges that the company covered up and falsified evidence and billing, and then removed him from the project after he complained.

Investors took the charges (which include an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint) seriously, as IDX stock took a big hit. The Feds took it seriously too, again according to iHealth Beat in November of 2003:

Health care IT company IDX Systems this week disclosed that it is the subject of a federal fraud investigation surrounding its application for an $18 million clinical decision support system contract from the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, Modern Physician reports. The company also faces a civil suit filed in May by a physician executive alleging that IDX falsified documents in the bidding for the contract.

In its recent quarterly Security and Exchange Commission filing, IDX said a federal prosecutor is investigating the company and that it intends to cooperate with the investigation.

Intense stuff, eh? On April 25, 2003 IDX asked the U.S. District Court in Seattle to hold that it could fire Dr. Leon without violating the False Claims Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or any other applicable whistleblower protections. As Dr. Leon said at the time:

“The IDX lawsuit against me is a smokescreen. It is with great sadness that I witness how IDX management would rather increase the company’s liability and consume shareholders equity in attorneys’ fees in attacks against me, rather than solve the problems with the federally funded SAGE project.”

Leon’s request for whistleblower protection was denied, and the saga seemed to be over – except that it’s not. The case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which heard oral argument about six months ago. At least one legal expert familiar with the case expressed to me an expectation that the decision against Leon will be reversed.

Background: False Claims Act Cases (“Qui Tam” or “Federal Whistleblower actions”) require that the complainant (whistleblower) present the action to the Department of Justice and then they have the option of filing their own action and proceeding with or without the backing of the DOJ.  Most complainants (whistle-blowers) who proceed without DOJ backing are almost certainly doomed to fail. The reason is obvious: if Justice takes a pass then there is smoke but no fire. The process for selecting a case to proceed is complicated by a number of factors:  the Federal prosecutor assigned to the case, his boss, the agency’s reputation (which will suffer from embarrassing disclosures); agency counsel, politics — in every sense and at every level — the Executive Branch (of which the DOJ is a part) can squelch an investigation.  If the case stinks then Justice is not shy about telling you so.

Now, this is where it gets difficult as I am neither a journalist or a lawyer, and am limited by the information available to me through clever uses of the web and online public records. The news reports linked above refer to a federal investigation, and IDX’s own pleadings strongly allude to such a qui tam filing. So the question is, what’s its status? If such an action had been rejected by DOJ, IDX would have issued press releases and trumpeted that fact to the world.  I couldn’t find such an announcement from IDX (now GE) since the retaliation action on Dr. Leon’s behalf. What’s to be concluded, therefore?

If you think DOJ is sitting on a negative report that could impact Rich Tarrant’s Senate campaign, that’d certainly be an opinion you’d be entitled to – and you’d probably find others who share that view if you started asking around.

I’ve been looking at this case for some time, and am only posting on it now because it took me this long to find sources close to the whole business who were willing to share some limited, but I believe reliable insights.

So, was Tarrant really directly involved in any of this?

The story really ran in two parts: the underlying bad actions leading to Dr. Leon’s charges, followed by IDX’s attempt to discredit him personally – what my source referred to as “dirty tricks.”  As to the former, it clearly reached the highest levels of IDX’s Seattle operations. As to the latter, it reached the highest levels of IDX in Vermont (Tarrant). Although there were all kinds of protective orders put in place by IDX to assure that minimal information was made public, one source believes this can be confirmed through public documents such as this one.

Still, I can find no evidence of a decision yet rendered by the Ninth Circuit. It may be there and I couldn’t turn it up, or it may be coming anytime. As such, if you’ll pardon the expression, the “jury is still out.” It is entirely possible that the whole business is as baseless as IDX has claimed. In my own investigations, I attempted to call Dr. Leon’s attorney in the original filing but the listed number was no longer valid, and internet records indicate that his license has been suspended.  Once could conclude from this that it was a drive-by lawsuit. One could also conclude that the only reason it was therefore dismissed initially was due to inadequate representation. It’s also possible to conclude that that the original lawyer’s difficulties made him a target of IDX’s retaliation campaign, and therefore a legal liability. Or it may mean nothing. In any case, Leon’s original counsel was clearly targeted by IDX, and Leon is currently being represented by Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell & Malanca out of Tacoma.

Still, I mentioned previously a legal expert I did communicate with who expressed the opinion that the case will be reversed in Dr. Leon’s favor. Why? Because one well-placed source opined that that the Federal Judge (Pechman) who presided over the case had a very warm spot for IDX attorney Angelo Calfo. In the opinion of this source, Calfo and his crew brought up a specious “fraud” offense against Leon and ultimately convinced the judge to kick out the case on grounds that Dr. Leon had destroyed evidence. The source used terms such as “home-cooked” evidence, and referred to IDX as “dirty.”

Strong opinions, to be sure.

So what’s the real story?

Well, at this point we just don’t know, and we in the public have received little help in piecing it together. Once the initial legal machinations worked out in IDX and Tarrant’s favor, so vanished any media coverage. Is this truly a frivolous, unfounded charge, or is there something to it? Without question, the last six years of Bush rule have been profoundly unfriendly for whistleblowers. Certainly, without clear media coverage available for review there is reason to question. And the charges of HIPAA privacy violations are disturbingly timely, with privacy rights so under attack these days. Still, I’m just an obsessive blogger with a soapbox, rather than a professional journalist with the time and skills to delve deeper.

It just, once again, makes me wonder where the professional journalists were on this one three years ago, and where they are now…

Despite what you will read herein, Snarky’s blog now permits commenting.

Those of you who have managed to keep their gorge down while following the Snarky Boy issue here on Green Mountain Daily, for the most part, have undoubtedly come to the same conclusion. While the Boy is not without talent, he has chosen to take the path of confrontational behavior, ad hominem attacks, and simple namecalling. In short, he appears to be a candidate for Zyprexa: an overactive mind hampered by a type of social retardation all too common in the blogosphere.
More analysis of the psychology of a troll with feelings of inadequacy –  and an UPDATE – below the fold.

UPDATE: I received an email – actually, several of them – from Snarky last night promising a response to this post on her own blog. I fought the temptation to look at it during the workday ALL DAY LONG, fearing it would distract me from my duties and lure me into composing an intricate multipoint response.
I needn’t have worried.
What I got was disappointed. A picture of a chick. Wow. According to one of the Snarky emails I got last night, in spite of this, Snarky is a chick. (If you  can forgive this here dude the slightly sexist diminutive on this occasion.)
You can find the email excerpt in the comments.
Then, we get:

But they’re just fragile little bloggers over there. We know that. Why else would they attack the Snarky Boy and then lock him out — thus preventing a response?

Never mind the fact that she has it backwards: someone locked her out (not me), THEN I attacked.
Be that as it may.

I call that bold talk for a one eyed fat man blogger whose own blog allows NO ONE to comment. Again, there’s that gosh darn “point the finger and point three back at yourself” thing. Frickin’ annoying, isn’t it?
Fill your hand, you (son of a?) bitch.

Ah, watch the site meter jump!

Didn’t see a site meter, Snark. Can you point me to it? You obviously have my email address.
Oh, Snarky was full of brilliant insight:

Too bad I already jumped your wife’s bones. But enjoy the sloppy seconds….

Hmmm! Well, what can I say to that but….
Yo mama.
And Snarky seems to have a fixation with milady:

Go fuck your ugly wife.

Again, what am I left with as an appropriate response but:
Yo mama.
But then there’s the EXCITING news, in a post prior to Snarky’s weak-kneed response to this diary:

The Snarkmaster has been invited to submit sample tapes for what could be a soon-to-be-announced Snarky Radio Show! Imagine that!

Oh, BOY. Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh yip dippity doo. PLEASE stream. I don’t even need a toll free number to call in. I’ll GLADLY pay for the calls. We’ll see how most of an adult life in the business does against a homemade aircheck.

Welcome to MY world, Snarky.
Maybe Snarky needs a producer, or some imaging for the show. All she needs do is ask. Music beds? I got ’em. Cooledit? I know it. Big baaaaad voice? I can get one.
No charge to a fellow liberal trying to get started in the business.

After all, once he?she? gets on the air, we’ll find out which time he/she lied: in the profile stating “Gender:Male” or in the email to me stating “I’m a woman, you fool.”

Can’t wait.
But I hope the radio show is better than the response to this diary, or it won’t be long for the world.
Actually, it almost can’t help but be. Because I know Snarky can do better than THAT shit.
Cheers! 🙂 

That’s right, I said “all too common”.
I have a morbid fascination with blog trolls. I don’t know why – it’s a lot like rubbernecking
the scene of a four-car pileup, hoping (yet not admitting it to yourself) to see a severed body part – but I do. I’m not proud of it, but on the other hand, Thomas Noguchi, coroner to the stars, was said to have his issues too.
  I’m not alone. The morbid fascination with socially retarded trolls at one point dominated the leading political blog in America, Daily Kos:

Delete my fucking account, Kos
by ErrinF [Subscribe]
Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 05:15:24 PM EDT

  I want out of this farce of a website. I thought this was on open forum for progressives to
discuss their views. Instead, it is little more than the internet wing of the Democratic
propoganda machine. Now that I want out, a fair minded and liberal website would let me delete my
account and go. Instead, DailyKos will give me no such option. Like some sort of cult, I was
welcomed in freely but am now being barred from leaving. I do not want to simply leave and let my
info remain here at a website I am disgusted by and want no further part in. Since Kos won’t
allow me the decent option of deleting my account (just about every blog DOES let you delete your
account when you want to), then somebody here needs to delete my account for me. To deny me
deletion of my own account is unacceptable.

  * ErrinF’s diary :: ::
*

  You all suck. A lot of you wouldn’t know what a progressive thought was if it bit you in the
ass. To you, a progressive thought is whatever the Democratic party line spoonfeeds you. A
tremendous amount of you are Democrats because mommy and daddy were Democrats. Churches and
political parties are full of blind conformists that are simply towing the line they’ve been told
to from the get go, with little regard to actual political thought, let alone progressive
political thought. The amount of blind conformity that goes on in America is what fuels the
corrupt two party system. DailyKos exemplifies blind conformity, and I regret any and all
association I have had with it. I should be allowed to delete my account and go; Why should I be
forced to stay amid this pathetic cult of personality? The herd mentality that goes on here
sickens me now, AND I WANT OUT. Regardless of my personal experience here, EVERYBODY WHO SIGNED UP TO THIS WEBSITE SHOULD BE FREE TO DELETE THEIR ACCOUNTS IF THEY SO WISH TO. For Kos to deny us
this is downright fascist.
  Since I can’t delete my account myself, my only recourse is to be as abrasive and disruptive as
I can be UNTIL MY ACCOUNT GETS DELETED. As long as my account remains here, I do not feel
comfortable leaving. Is it really such a tough request to delete my account so I can go? Just
what kind of website lets you join up but won’t let you leave? One that regards people as little
more than statistics, that’s what. How like the Democratic Party for Kos to view his site’s
members as little more than statistics.
  DELETE MY FUCKING ACCOUNT, KOS. You don’t want me hanging around, and neither do I.

This psychotic raving generated 1607 comments on Daily Kos. But the joke soon got old, and ErrinF was, of course, banned. A subsequent diary posted by a sockpuppet was deleted midstream by administrators, (I have a copy if anyone wants it. Great snark in the comments. Pure comedy gold.) at which point ErrinF, using sockpuppets, spent a morning vandalizing diary tags.
This example was pulled from one of many diaries vandalized by ErrinF:

Tags: Joe Lieberman, CT-Sen, Ned Lamont, DELETE MY FUCKING ACCOUNT, You all STILL suck. This so-called blog is nothing but a one-sided bullshitfest of small-minded partisan
drones. There’s no REAL political dialogue going on here, just a bunch of collective backrubs and
liberal reacharound. To top it all off, this farce of a fool’s paradise heavily depends on
censorship to control all political debate and stifle all opposition and dissent. I’m going to
liberate my ErrinF account from this ship of fools, and that’s fucking that., What do you think
this is? A chicken party?! DELETE MY FUCKING ACCOUNT ALREADY, KOS. There is no room for argument here. When a person opens an account at DailyKos.com, the email they are sent from this website specifically says “Our system will delete the account automatically if it remains unused.”. That means accounts CAN be deleted, so delete my fucking ErrinF account. As long as it remains active, which means I can login as ErrinF and see ErrinF among the users for this site, I will remain
active here. (all tags) :: Add/Edit Tags to this Story

So Snarky Boy may feel himself unique, original, and funny, but even as an attention-seeking troll, we see that he is massively outclassed. He wants attention so badly, perhaps he could take some lessons from ErrinF. 
If that’d even help his cause.
Because Snarky Boy wouldn’t last half an hour on Daily Kos. Any number of people there would make him run home crying to mommy.

Oh, and the ErrinF diary seen above was obtained through the site of another dKos serial troll, Cynthia “Harriet” Haynes of California’s Bay Area. And not the tony part of the Bay Area, either.

I am comfortable with the “outing” because she outs herself on her own website. Cynthia has been known to the Daily Kos community by a number of names, which puts her nicely in the same class as Snarky: she has been “herself”, “unbe”, “beaten down”, “Bug Girl”, “skpp”, “zzberlin”, and one more, I think, that I can’t recall at the moment. Cynthia even went so far as to attempt to register the name “dailykos” as a trademark. Snarky has yet to show any such creativity, instead preferring to break his own arm patting himself on the back, declaiming his superiority as a wordsmith while slamming the work of others.
  With a little help from his army of sock puppets.
Here’s the diary from “herself” that was ultimately deleted, due to…..due to…..well, look for yourself and I’m sure you’ll understand.

Can Snarky Boy be far behind Harriet? Who, on her ftp page, has posted a picture of a vial of injectable Zyprexa?

Let’s see.

Race-baiting:

The final character in this play is Ed Garcia. Ed is banking on one and only one
quality: The seemingly ethnic quality of his name. He’s clearly hoping that a man named “Garcia”
will be given a free pass in the liberal community of Central Vermont. He hasn’t, after all,
proven much in his arguments. And he’s been more than willing to fire his punitive pistol at anyone who dares to utter an alternative opinion to his mighty hero, Odum.

(Pinche cabron, él puede aspirar mi velga. -eg)

Why, dear Odum, do you keep deleting my access to your beloved website?…..Change sucks. Give it up, white boy.

Misogyny:

The not-so-fine folks at Green Mountain Daily have banned me from their site. Imagine that. Boy, that took them several days longer than I predicted. Pussies.

Threats:

Ever feel like you’re rolling a boulder up hill? Well you should. You don’t know who you’re fucking with, but it’s not Pollina or Dubie. I fight like you fight — only better.Keep fucking with me, Odum. But sooner or later, you’ll learn.

From: Snarky Boy (vtsnarkyboy@yahoo.com)
Date:
Sat, 19 Aug 2006 21:13:31 -0700 (PDT)
To:
Green Mountain Daily

Re-install Snarky Boy’s ID or let’s have a war.
It’s your choice.

Pedantic, with a pot-kettle problem to boot:

If we focus on Lieberman — not “Liberman”, as Odom writes

And I like this one:

Speak English, my friend. This “sock puppet” stuff isFrench to me.

FRENCH? Does SnarkyBoy intend to accuse Odum of being a “surrender monkey?” Will SnarkyBoy serve freedom fries at the next Vermont blogger’s barbecue? We have already established that Snarky has a bit of a race problem. Will Snarky now call me a macaca?
Does he have the stones?

No, I think Snarky Boy is singing castrati.

It doesn’t take a great mind to see that Snarky Boy, who calls people “pussies” in his misogynistic styling, has a problem of his own with intestinal fortitude:

SnarkyBoy  (1.00 / 1) [delete comment]
is a PUNK cuz of he comes to GMd and post all this bULLSHIT and goes to all diffrent dairies but then you go to his sorry ass bolg and you cant post no coments. Thats pretty chikenshit. he could mess up somebody elses blog up but dont let anybody talk on his. if snarky Boy would turn on his coments i would say all kinds of stuff. And make Snaky Boy look Wicked STUPID.
W00T!
by: Dragline @ Wed Aug 16, 2006 at 14:39:58 PM EDT

Jesus. Obviously, it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see what Snarky’s really about: he wants to fight us over here so he doesn’t have to fight us over there.

So what, then, in conclusion, have we established about Snarky Boy? He has a race problem; he uses misogynistic slurs,

[hidden comment] All talk… (0.00 / 3) [delete comment]
…but no real diaries. Everybody now: Odum is a pussy. Oops, make that: Odum is a pasty pussy.

Oh yeah, we’re having fun now.

by: Snarky Boy @ Sun Aug 06, 2006 at 20:46:34 PM EDT
[ Reply |

he has accused Odum of marital infidelity –

[hidden comment]  Ew.  (0.00 / 3) [delete comment]
Did you say co-mingle? I knew you fucked Charity. I just knew it.

by: Snarky Boy @ Sun Aug 06, 2006 at 20:58:19 PM EDT
[ Reply | ]

did Charity catch that, where Snarky accused Odum of sleeping with her? Did Charity’s husband catch that? Did Odum’s wife?
And when we combine that with Snarky’s obvious self-absorption, he begins to look more and more like a Republican – or perhaps, Joe Lieberman. Which would explain his “Ned Lamont” sockpuppet identity.

Then there’s the matter of Odum’s car, in the midst of a cloud of threatening and self-aggrandizing emails from Snarky,  being broken into, and his cellphone stolen, as well as an ashtray full of change. I wonder what being a housepainter pays?
I can think of another housepainter with similar complexes: delusions of grandeur, race issues…down, Godwin! Down! Good boy.

Only thing is, if Snarky seeks a final solution to the GMD question, he’s going about it wrong. He doesn’t have near the charisma, near the acumen, nor does he have a cute little mustache. As far as I know.

Snarky Boy. Bigoted, attention-craving, an also-ran as a blogger, and given to threats, name-calling, and attempts at intimidation. All while hiding behind a pseudonym.
It’s really too bad. A lot of wasted potential there. Snarky Boy gives me another reason to wish, desperately, I could get back to Vermont. I would like to meet Snarky Boy.
No, that is not a threat of violence. I sincerely mean that. I could see some good times resulting from that: some beers, some bong hitz, and a high speed connection.
But first, Snarky would have to learn a very important concept: that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

  BILLY
  What the fuck’s wrong with
  you, kid?!

  PRINCE
  I don’t have time for your
  bullshit, Billy.  What do you
  want?

    BILLY
    My stage is no place for your
  personal shit!

  PRINCE
  That’s life, man.

  BILLY
  Life my ass, motherfucker!
  This is a business, and you’re
  not too far gone to see that.
  (a beat)
    I’ve told you this before.
  You’re not pulling them in
  like you used to.  The only
  person who gives a fuck about
  your music is yourself.

  PRINCE
  Fuck off!

  But Billy can’t help laughing–

  BILLY
  Just like your old man…

  Prince shoots him a threatening look–

  BILLY
  Yeah — you got it.  Tell me
  I’m wrong.
  (a beat)
    You’re not blind.  Look around
  you.  No one’s digging you.

  Prince turns away–

  BILLY
  Look at your band.  Are they
  in here right now?  They’re
  out there ’cause they can’t
  stand being in the same room
  with you.
  (a beat)
  Aw, buddy. What a fucking waste…like
  father, like son–

  PRINCE
  Lay off that!

  Billy turns to go–

  BILLY
  Take your head out of your
  ass, kid, check it out —
  unless you like the view up
  there.  Your music doesn’t
  make sense to anyone but
  yourself.

    He closes the door behind him.  Prince
  stands dully a moment, then sits heavily
  in a chair.  Exhaustion suddenly
  overwhelms him.  He rests his head in
  his hands, moments tick by…

  He shakes himself awake — Morris and
  Jerome stand by the door–

  JEROME
  That was fucked up what you
  did man.  Morris doesn’t like
  it. And I don’t like it either.

  PRINCE
  I don’t care.

  MORRIS
  Hee, hee…huh, it’s obvious
  you don’t have what it takes
  to be on top.

  He pulls an envelope from his pocket–

  MORRIS
  But to show you that I’m
  sympathetic to your problems –
  – here’s a pass to our show
  tomorrow night.  Enjoy it.

  They leave.  Then Morris sticks his head
  into the doorway–

  MORRIS
  Oh…….Don’t forget to bring a
  girlfriend.  Whawhak!

  Snarky: I know you don’t want me to, but I love you anyway. Neener neener neener.
  Good night, and good luck.

  This is my face, dear Snarky.

 

  Make a dartboard.

  -Eddie Garcia, Harrisonburg, VA

  dKos: kestrel9000