Yes, I am a troll and I've been one for 18 months. As you can see from my voter registration card, I am a member of the Republican Party of Florida.
But that is not the entire story. Come below the fold to see how easily you can be fooled by people you thought you could trust.
I first joined Daily Kos in August 2007. I was a Ron Paul Republican then and still am. The purpose of my joining was to see if I could find Democrats with a libertarian bent to join the campaign to support Ron Paul. I thought that our joint desire to have our civil liberties restored and to end the war in Iraq created common ground. I was operating then and now independent of the Paul campaign.
Needless to say, I didn't make much headway. There was just too much distance between Kossacks as a group and Ron Paul. But this is where the story gets interesting.
Shortly after joining, I was approached by a member of this site who is renowned as a "troll hunter." That member goes by the handle, Major Flaw. Major Flaw informed me that he had connections with the highest echelons of authority on Daily Kos and that he could assure me that I would be left free to pursue my Ron Paul activities if I were to assist him in ferreting out people he considered "trolls." Against my better judgement, I went along with him.
Off and on over the last 18 months, I blogged occasionally on Daily Kos with no major repercussions. From time to time, Major Flaw requested me to engage in trollish behavior to see who would come to my support. I did as he requested. I'm not certain if anyone got banned during this time because of my activities.
Around the beginning of September, Major Flaw informed me that he and a group of friends had started a separate website as a ruse to be used at a later date. The website was designed to give the appearance of clandestine "troll hunting" activities, while the real activities were conducted elsewhere by email or a private site (I don't know which). That website was the Usual Group of Grownups website. He instructed me to build up my Trusted User status on Daily Kos in the meantime so that I would have access to the Hidden Comments section when he called upon me.
The call came over the Thanksgiving weekend. Major Flaw indicated to me that now that Obama had been elected, it was time for a major purge on Daily Kos. At that time, Major Flaw leaked the existence of UGOG knowing that it would be picked up by davefromqueens, a former member of Daily Kos. In the meantime, I went into Hidden Comments to mass uprate hidden comments by lizhoyt. This was to draw attention to myself.
Major Flaw and his partners, trashablanca and bottles, posted the results of an "investigation" of me on UGOG on November 28 and November 29 using information I provided them. I wrote a diary at Major Flaw's behest, "objecting" to this "investigation." Also at this time I was requested to join the the Free Speech Zone Blog, a site populated mostly by previously banned Daily Kos users to include davefromqueens. I did so but only posted a few times on that site. The purpose was to establish myself as a "FSZer."
Major Flaw's purge worked and a number of people were banned from this site over the last six weeks. I became known as the "worst serial troll uprater on Daily Kos."
Throughout the 18 months I was able to operate as a troll because I was working under Major Flaw's "protection." I don't know how many people were purged by their association with me.
The problem with everything that preceded this purge is that I got to know some of the many people on Daily Kos who are good and decent people. I don't agree with your politics for the most part. As a libertarian Republican, we are just too far apart to agree on much other than wanting our civil liberties restored and ending our wars in the Middle East.
I am truly sorry for any hurt I have caused the good and decent people on Daily Kos. While I can't make it up to those who were unjustly banned for supporting me in my phony war with Major Flaw and his cohorts in crime, I can do this. Before I go I need to let you know who really betrayed you. Besides myself, the participants in this scheme included Major Flaw, trashablanca, bottles, MBNYC, musing85, taylormattd, tecampbell, dadanation, bouwerie boy, csquared, sofia, and ahianne. There may be others. I don't know. I'm certain that Major Flaw had other trolls operating under cover like myself but I don't know who they are.
So now I bid you a fond farewell with my most sincere apologies for any pain I have caused.
UPDATE: I didn't initially add the snark tag because I wanted to see what reaction something this silly would get. To your credit, you acted exactly like I expected, thank God. MF, trashy, and bottles would love to get rid of me this easily.
A lot of folks are taking everything here much too seriously. This is a blog for Christ's sake. A lot of people expressing their opinions (which, of course you know are like assholes- everybody has one). With all of the Rick Warren and I/P going on, I though everyone deserved a good laugh.
By the way, I really am a Republican who was originally for Ron Paul but in November I voted for Barack Obama.