| Some local conservative bloggers have been crowing lately about True North, to be released tomorrow. Some of the ads have been knock-offs of the Absolut vodka ads -- have you seen them?
So what is looktruenorth.com? If you go to the website, you get a message from the Joomla software running that the site is down for maintenance. But digging a little deeper (legally and without trickery, of course) reveals at least a few details
nslookup looktruenorth.com
Server: cns.westlandrdc.mi.michigan.comcast.net
Address: 68.87.77.130
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: looktruenorth.com
Address: 74.53.51.52
68.87.77.130 doesn't do much -- it's owned by Comcast out in Michigan, and doesn't have a public-facing website associated with it. However, plug 74.53.51.52 into your web browser, and what do you get? Whaddaya know, a Minnesota-based conservative group blog known as FreedomDogs.com. Although an nslookup search on freedomdogs.com reveals a different non-authoritative answer, the same primary server at IP address 68.87.77.130 appears in the results as well.
And what of the "True North" moniker? This Townhall.com article does pop up in a quick search, full of great little "love-thy-neighbor" red-blooded American goodness like the following snippet:
Liberals at their core have no sense of true north. They can't determine right from wrong, good from evil, and in this case even help from hurt. Worse yet - they don't care. The hardness of their hearts towards the victim is not only apparent in their actions, but the mockery of their words adds insult to injury.
If only I were the Wege, and could say that my site isn't a family-safe blog. The site's metadata (data about data, for the non-technical) includes such gems as the site's description: "True North - Pointing Minnesota in the Right Direction" and its keywords (for Google indexing): Political Races, Minnesota, Minnesota Elections, Minnesota Election, Reagan, First Principles, MN GOP, MN DFL, Minnesota Session, Policy, Economics, RNC Convention, St Paul,conservative election resource
So what do we have? Another conservative group blog focused on exposing the hypocrisy of Minnesota liberals? Maybe a little "original reporting"?
Guys? I, uh.....think you already have some of those. Quaint, but decidedly unoriginal.
[Update]: A faulty link from the Ice Palace points at an article on LookTrueNorth with an ID of 155 -- I'd be curious how long this little project has been in the works, and whether or not that link suddenly works as of tomorrow.
[Update]: Welcome Kool-aid Report and Shotinthedark readers! Subtlety, thy name is "conservative blogger". |
