Update: The old post has received two more comments from India. Bizarre.
Update 2: Two other blogs have seen similar comments from India.
This is one of those things that can only happen in the blogosphere. In March of last year I wrote a post that was critical of Katherine Harris' official Congressional blog (it's not a blog). Currently, Katherine is in a heated campaign for U.S. Senate in Florida against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.
Anyway, that post about Katherine's blog has been out there for a year and does receive some traffic, but nothing worth noting. This morning however, that post received a comment, and then another, and then a third all within a few minutes of each other. All of the comments were positive towards Katherine. For example:
Katherine Harris is tested by fire. She is strong and determined and will not back down in the face of adversity.
Receiving three comments on a row on a post that is over a year old does draw some suspicion. (Click on the image to view full size)
Looking into things some more, I saw that all three of the comments originated from the same IP address, 59.144.165.232. Even though three different names and e-mail addresses were submitted with each comment, they all came from the same place within a few minutes of each other. So where was the IP from? I was half expecting to see house.gov, but it turns out to be something a bit more interesting. Looking at my stats I see this:
The IP address is registered to an ISP in India. So the question is, who in India is such a huge Katherine Harris supporter that they want to comment spam a post? Or can you outsource political blog commenting to India?
Visitor Comments
Those names look very much like those used by spammers/bots over the last year or two.
Katherine Harris hearts Spammers? Let the rumors begin!
Posted by: Jeff | September 8, 2006 11:35 AM
I think you misspelled "blog spam" as "campaign support" :-)
Posted by: Chris Scott | September 8, 2006 11:39 AM
Maybe it just shows her broad-base support? ;)
Actually, if those comments were done in support of Harris, the strategy is pretty poor. Why post comments to a year-old blog post. Wouldn't it only refresh your original comments and criticisms, Josh.
And, if someone's going to post an opposing view, he/she had better do it better than with "tested by fire" rhetoric.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Driehorst | September 8, 2006 1:02 PM
"Actually, if those comments were done in support of Harris, the strategy is pretty poor. Why post comments to a year-old blog post..."
Yeah but she is the kind of nut that would hire some company over the net to do this crap without knowing if they had any real skill. Or they could be real Floridians who are vacationing in India and googled Katherine Harris, coming upon the old post by accident. Or they could be posting through an anonymizer for some reason.
Actually the first one starts to sound more plausible when I read that.
Posted by: jason | September 8, 2006 3:43 PM
This blog posts from India seem strange and I don’t see their point. But after all they are sustaining Katherine Harris' official Congressional blog in a weird manner.
Posted by: flower | September 11, 2006 7:05 PM
Same individual made 3 comments last week on an old KH post of mine, none of which made it through moderation to the board, and was back last night and made 2 more.
Posted by: Idyllopus | September 15, 2006 11:32 AM
I just saw this - first visit.
Great article - I forwarded it to Wonkette
in case they haven't seen it.
Maybe you'll get more national/international exposure. :)
Anyway, Katherine is bizarrely stupid - not just stupid. I agree with Mike D. alot - in her mind it was a clever idea to post fake supportive comments and she is so stupid she wrote them herself (remember she is the ultimate micromanager) - the words are hers - watch her on Youtube any time. Especially her seduction tape - It's a hoot.
And lastly she would think she was doing the "right" thing by shipping the work to India... so she could say later she did send work there....
Posted by: Odie | November 1, 2006 8:12 PM