doubleplusundead

November 22, 2007

I Have a Plagiarist, So Do Lots of Others...He's a Vice Chairman of the Minnesota GOP! *Sticky'd, Scroll Down to Read the Rest of My Crappy Blog*

******New Post here, with updates and screenshots of the plagiarist Michael Barrett's blog.

*I've edited and cleaned up the post somewhat, as I was updating as we dug up new info, it was kinda sloppy.

***Update: I've received a response from the MN GOP, noting they are looking into our allegations.

One of my top posts, about Nanny Staters beginning to beat the war drum against bacon and other tasty smoked meats, was pretty much plagiarized by blogger The Seventh Son a week later, totally uncredited, down to the AK kitty pic I used. (I love that pic)

You'll note, he doesn't have comments at his site, and he doesn't leave a way to contact him. Weak.

MagicalPat, guestposting at Ankle Biting Pundits had a post he did plagiarized by this guy too(thanks for letting me know Pat), and brought it to my attention in comments. I'd advise anyone who reads or accidentally stumbles into my crapblog to see if he plagiarized something from you. Before, I asked people to flag the guy's site, I changed my mind, I want people to see the tool's site.

I'm also putting up where he took MagicalPat's guest post. Here's Pat's ABP piece, and here is where Seventh Son swiped it.

He likely stole my post from Ace of Spades HQ, Slublog made a post there with the essentially the same "First they came for..." poem Seventh Son has in his entry. Here's where Slublog cross-posted at his site, now go back and read Seventh Sons entry. And here's likely where Seventh Son swiped it, Ace of Spades HQ is a pretty big site, and probably where he saw it.

The guy had a feud with a left-leaning blogger, and Pat, using the name given by the lefty blog, shows that his name is Michael Barrett, and he ran for for the House of Representatives in 2006. We can also confirm who it is from a second source, a site he contributes to called Look True North, where he writes under the name The Seventh Son. Seventh Son likely refers to the fact that he is from District 7 of Minnesota. I also like the irony Pat found here, from Look True North's bio,

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed by me are my own personal views and should not be construed in any way as reflecting the views of the RPM or the CD-7 Executive Committees.

Heh.

That link is Look True North's biography page, it links his blog, and confirms who it is, using the combined info from those three links, we can find out that not only is it Michael Barrett, who ran for the House of Representatives in 2006, he is a Vice-Chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party! Pat also noted that Barrett may be running again for the House in 2008.

Sadly, he is also linked by the Minnesota Republican Party's Official website under their blogs, its linked as CD 7 (unofficial) Blog. The Minnesota GOP may want to think about reprimanding Mr. Barrett, and probably may want to discontinue linking his site.

By the way, Barrett, if you're reading this...I have screencaps of the stuff you plagiarized from Pat, Slublog and myself, and those will get posted if you scrub your blog and try to deny that you plagiarized us. Just letting you know.

Update: Oh, nice, you'll note he actually quotes larger bloggers, like here, where he recently posted a piece from RedState. So not only is he a thieving tool, he's an elitist thieving tool. If its a big-league blogger, he'll give you your due reference. On the flipside, it gives us proof that he knows he should have cited us, he's destroyed the Internet Ignorance("I didn't know what I was doing, I'm new to this") defense.

I know some people don't like when full blog posts are copied, I don't really care, as long as the blogger or blog that wrote it was cited. Its clear Michael Barrett has no problem plagiarizing obscure blogs like my own, figuring he can get away with it. Its odd that he plagiarized Pat's piece, given it was published on a fairly large site. Of course, Slublog is an official Ace of Spades Moron Co-Blogger, so that was published at a popular site too.

And because I might as well have some fun, I nicked the MN GOPs mug of the chump, and made myself a LOLitician,

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x73/doubleplusundeadmeenu/LOLitician.jpg

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:08 PM | Comments (83) | Add Comment
Post contains 765 words, total size 6 kb.

1 I'm in ur blog, stealin ur kittehz.

Posted by: mesablue at November 22, 2007 10:35 PM (KCOdQ)

2 Mah kittehz!!!!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 22, 2007 10:46 PM (VZv6D)

3 Imitashun iz tha sincerust form uv flaturee.

Posted by: Conservative Belle at November 23, 2007 07:27 AM (O1R4M)

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x73/doubleplusundeadmeenu/orly.jpg

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 11:54 AM (VZv6D)

5 Thanks for posting this. Here's a link to the post I put up a few days ago: http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/content/index.php?p=2764

and here is a post that magically appeared the very next day: http://seventhsonblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/have-you-hugged-your-tree-today.html#links

Identical, down to the title with a few minor word changes and the elimination of one paragraph.

Consider him flagged.

I don't expect much from blogger, but I did follow one of the plagiarists links and found that he is a contributor to this website: http://www.looktruenorth.com/ so I wrote them and told them one of their contributors is a thief.

I was pretty stunned how thoroughly he ripped you off, down to the graphic. The little poem he inserted into your stolen post by the way, was taken from somewhere else. What a concept, steal from two people, put it together and it's yours!

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 02:16 PM (4oQn0)

6 I figure he saw the link at AoS and swiped it, figuring it was obscure enough that he could get away with it.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 02:47 PM (VZv6D)

7 Sounds plausible. He only links to local Minnesota websites, so there is not much of an electronic trail to follow. For all we know, he had dozens of links at one time, and then eliminated them one by one as he stole from them. I guess he wants people to not only think he is creative, but that he only reads 6 blogs.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 02:54 PM (4oQn0)

8 It gives him a way to deny doing it when he gets caught..."well I don't go to those sites, you stole from me!" BTW, did you contact them through their webmaster or did you find an actual email? I emailed you to thank you BTW.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:01 PM (VZv6D)

9 I did get your email, thanks. It's nice to know others are as bothered by this practice as I am.

The website where he is a guest poster, and it is under his blog name had a contact button that took me forever to find. To save you the trouble should you wish to write them, here it a link: http://www.looktruenorth.com/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=10&Itemid=138

I have not heard back from them yet, but I can understand if it takes some time due to the holiday. The site looks like a good one, and the feel I get from it is that they are honorable people who don't know they have a thief in their midst.

This may be the quickest to stop this guy. If he loses his posting privileges on a well read, decent site, he may think twice about stealing again.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 03:08 PM (4oQn0)

10 Tryptophan may make some people sleepy, but evidently it makes me a lousy typist.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 03:09 PM (4oQn0)

11 Yeah, I found the Contact page, I didn't know if there was an email that I could send to directly.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:12 PM (VZv6D)

12 Sent my email too. Hope we get a response. Did you send something to the guy he lifted the other bit from?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:25 PM (VZv6D)

13 Not yet. Good idea. Think I'll do that now.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 03:29 PM (4oQn0)

14 Don't bother, its Slublog, I know him, I'll do it.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:32 PM (VZv6D)

15 He took it from Slublog, although, he did a much better job of paraphrasing this time. Still, his similar post appears a few days after Slublog. I sense a pattern.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 03:38 PM (4oQn0)

16 Like minds. Thanks for taking care of that.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 03:38 PM (4oQn0)

17 I just sent Slublog the post and let'em know, I also sent a link to this post to the site Seventh Son Contributes to. I think I'll also send a note to Ace, considering that's almost guaranteed to be where he lifted it.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:42 PM (VZv6D)

18 Thanks for letting me know, DPU. The guy's not all that subtle about his thievery, is he?

Posted by: Slublog at November 23, 2007 03:51 PM (kJGf+)

19 I met Ace at the Acepalooza west a few weeks back. Seems like a great guy, and you just know he hates plagiarists. Perhaps Seventh Son will be getting a little more traffic than he really wants..

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 03:55 PM (4oQn0)

20 Not subtle in the least, but we both owe it to MagicalPat for bringing to my attention. Thanks again Pat!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:56 PM (VZv6D)

21 I had to miss Acepalooza this time around, I'm hoping to hit one next year.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 03:57 PM (VZv6D)

22 Holy shit!! I found out who this guy is thanks to a lefty website that he had a feud with. He friggin ran for office and is part of the Minnesota Republican party:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/2006/campaign/congress/barrett/

I suppose we could email him, but dang, what kind of can of worms is this?

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 04:08 PM (4oQn0)

23 I am tempted to expose the bastard to this left leaning website. They will do what no hosting service can......

http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2007/11/seventh-son-confirms-identify-as.html

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 04:11 PM (4oQn0)

24 Nah...lets see what we can do with that North Star site first before we go nuclear on him, plus I let Ace know, so that might ratchet it up enough.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 04:18 PM (VZv6D)

25 Yeah, good idea. Although, perhaps we should let North Star know that we know who the guy is.

It just kills me that a guy who ran for congress is ripping off a friggin' magician in California to get content for his web site. I mean come on buddy, you're supposed to help the common man, not steal his intellectual property. And I use the term 'intellectual' as loosely as is legal.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 04:23 PM (4oQn0)

26 Missed that he ran for office...whoa. This is a big fucking can of worms.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 04:26 PM (VZv6D)

27 Yeah, why steal from me and Slublog either? We're both low traffic sites.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 04:31 PM (VZv6D)

28 Well, the guy narrowly lost. His opponent only garnered 70% of the vote.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 04:34 PM (4oQn0)

29 Ouch. Maybe he lacked any original ideas?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 04:39 PM (VZv6D)

30 I have screencaps for both posts, so we have copies if he freaks and scrubs them.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 05:11 PM (VZv6D)

31 I don't know if he lacked original ideas. He did have this one great phrase: "Ask not what your County can do for you, rather ask what you can do for your County."

That's new isn't it?

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 05:13 PM (4oQn0)

32 Heh.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 05:17 PM (VZv6D)

33 What a pitiful punk.

Posted by: ConservativeBelle at November 23, 2007 06:36 PM (/v6Id)

34 From his bio on the True North web site:

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed by me are my own personal views and should not be construed in any way as reflecting the views of the RPM or the CD-7 Executive Committees.

Emphasis mine.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 07:47 PM (4oQn0)

35 Nuke the guy.

Posted by: mesablue at November 23, 2007 08:29 PM (KCOdQ)

36 Also, his site probably takes trackbacks. Create a trackback to this post on every one of his, he'll get the message.

Posted by: mesablue at November 23, 2007 08:31 PM (KCOdQ)

37 I'm starting to swing back toward going nuclear...

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 09:28 PM (VZv6D)

38 Yeah, me too. I have yet to hear back from the website he guest posts on. My feeling is, they may just figure there is nothing we can do.

Of course, they don't know that we know who he is.

By the way, he is running for Congress again in 2008. Maybe this time he'll only lose by 65%.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 09:54 PM (4oQn0)

39 Yikes! The story just went up on Ace Of Spades.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 09:55 PM (4oQn0)

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 09:57 PM (VZv6D)

41 Running again, eh?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 09:58 PM (VZv6D)

42 Yep. His 2008 website is under construction, but I found a news clipping where he is listed as running.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 10:07 PM (4oQn0)

So you think just because this guy is stealing you posts, that means evything in Iraq is OK now? You think that means you win in Iraq just because this guy steals you post?

Newsflash neotards: Just because he steals you post does not mean Iraq is OK. It is still a quagmire and we loose the mens every day and this doesnt mean it gets any better its just anecdotal is all.

Posted by: Sum Dum Troll at November 23, 2007 10:10 PM (HgAV0)

44 I had Sum Dum Troll for lunch today at Panda Express.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 10:13 PM (4oQn0)

45 You were much more fun when you were Stupid Typical Fucking Moonbat...

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 10:15 PM (VZv6D)

I was never STFM. He is a shaolin master. I am working on my brown belt.

Stop changing the issue, we're here to talk about how bad the iraq war is failing.

Posted by: Sum Dum Troll at November 23, 2007 10:16 PM (HgAV0)

47 I can tell you're not a real troll. Your spelling and punctuation are too good. You even use capital letters. Please try harder.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 10:21 PM (4oQn0)

48 I was never STFM. He is a shaolin master. I am working on my brown belt.

Someday, grasshopper.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 10:26 PM (VZv6D)

49 Actually, there is a lot of this going around. There are a bunch of blogs that mirror the content verbatim of various blogs- I've found my posts reposted complete on other blogs.

Some of them are spammers looking for content to game search engines and suck traffic from popular blogs, others are wannabe political blogs that don't have time/talent for writing so they just rip off posts via your feeds.

Expect to see a lot more of it.

Posted by: docweasel at November 23, 2007 10:48 PM (ACIZZ)

50 No doubt, but you gotta fight it.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 11:05 PM (VZv6D)

51 Splogging is one thing, he's flat out stealing.

Posted by: mesablue at November 23, 2007 11:25 PM (KCOdQ)

52 ...he's flat out stealing

Yes, but he's leaving fingerprints, DNA evidence and security camera footage all over the place.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 11:31 PM (4oQn0)

53 I think I might let the MN GOP know.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 23, 2007 11:32 PM (VZv6D)

54 That is a great idea!

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 23, 2007 11:37 PM (4oQn0)

55 Okay, sent the MN GOP an email with all the details. Lets see what happens. I think its better that I let them know before the lefties seize on it, particularly if he runs in 08.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 24, 2007 12:45 AM (VZv6D)

56 Ah, that may not have been the best thing. I don't mind an Internet lynching, but his whole life? He may be a good guy who is an Internet idiot. He was born in 1952, ya know. *my best Fargo accent.

Posted by: mesablue at November 24, 2007 01:44 AM (KCOdQ)

I say this because only about 2% of the populace are political Internet goobers to the point that we are.

The MN Republican party, while being completely outnumbered by the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party (yes, that is what they are called) will dump on this guy.

We could have turned him and edumacated him. I was hoping for a good flame war.

Posted by: mesablue at November 24, 2007 01:51 AM (KCOdQ)

58 Well, a guy born in 1952 should kind of know it's not a good idea to plagiarize.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 24, 2007 02:05 AM (4oQn0)

59 Not cool. If I see a pair of huge fake Kyla Ebbert boobs on his site, well, that's his ass.

Posted by: Cuffy Meigs at November 24, 2007 07:28 AM (uOvAE)

60 Like I said over at Ace's, I gave Seventh Son/Barrett a taste.

Posted by: Cuffy Meigs at November 24, 2007 08:00 AM (uOvAE)

61 What's the fuss?

Posted by: Senator Joe Biden at November 24, 2007 11:20 AM (pzen5)

62 Maybe mesa, but if he ran in 08, this could be used to embarrass him and the wider MN GOP, even if he didn't run, that kind of incompetence likely doesn't stop at plagiarism. The MN GOP is better off cutting off a hand now than losing an arm later(in terms of political damage). As for the concern he's an internet idiot, I doubt it, I found another site he did that goes back to I think 2004, and it had a bunch of blogs linked, so I doubt he's clueless.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 24, 2007 11:25 AM (VZv6D)

63 Okay, he posted there once, and it goes back to 2006, between this, his going to True North, and his current site,add this to the fact he quotes and links most other stuff, I'm gonna have to go ahead and say he knows what he's doing.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 24, 2007 11:53 AM (VZv6D)

64 DPU:

Agreed. He knows what he's doing. There are links to his buddies on his other posts, so you know he knows how to do it.

Here is what I think is his problem: he is surrounded by Minnesotans that gush original material at an amazing pace. Captains Quarters, Power Line, A Shot in the Dark and Fraters Libertas are all prolific blogs. He probably just wants to play with the big boys, so he steals from others to make it look like he is creative.

The post that cuffy meigs plundered almost seems to clever to have been written by this guy to.

One begins to wonder.....

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 24, 2007 12:29 PM (4oQn0)

65 Well, I haven't heard a thing. I talked about this tonight on an internet radio show, and the general consensus seems to be, toss it to the left wing site.

What the heck, we tried.

Any thoughts?

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 25, 2007 04:45 AM (CKydI)

66 I think we hold off until we get into the week, I'm hoping I get a reply from the MN GOP by Mon. at least. I think we have to give them some time due to the Thanksgiving weekend. I'll send you an email.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 25, 2007 10:36 AM (VZv6D)

67 I'll send you that email in the evening, forgot I'll likely be away from the compy for most of today.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 25, 2007 10:38 AM (VZv6D)

68 Sounds great. I can be patient. After all, it's a few more days where he may steal more material, further implicating him.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 25, 2007 11:33 AM (CKydI)

69 Actually, I think I have time now. Its sent.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 25, 2007 11:40 AM (VZv6D)

70 Yeah, and I think we'll avoid sending it to lefty blogs.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 25, 2007 11:42 AM (VZv6D)

71 I'll follow your lead. Of course, if he takes another post from any of us, I would guess that could change things.

For all we know, they've contacted him and told him to knock it off. Perhaps the reason for the silence is to hope it all just goes away. I'd be fine with that as long as he alters his posts to reflect where he got them from.

An apology on his front page would be nice too.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 25, 2007 12:00 PM (CKydI)

Oh, man, I love plagiarism stories! Especially the flat-out undeniable ones like this...where somebody lifts whole blogposts. How low do you have to be to steal somebody else's stuff? And how nutty do you have to be to think you could get away with it in this day and age?

The internet: my own personal freakshow. Dance, monkeys! Dance for a weasel!

Posted by: S. Weasel at November 27, 2007 08:23 AM (rasT+)

73 What did the MN GOP have to say?

Posted by: mesablue at November 27, 2007 05:59 PM (KCOdQ)

74 I notice that nowhere on your blog do you cite your material is covered by a Creative Commons License. Perhaps you should join and post the banner and conditions of your CCL - just to remove any doubt when you sue this guy for copyright infringement?

Posted by: Bruce at November 27, 2007 06:45 PM (2q+Ss)

75 What a concept, steal from two people, put it together and it's yours!

It's little different than these fat-cat pseudo-conservatives and their approach to "Made in the USA": Import engine from Mexico, body parts from Malaysia, Indonesia and China, slap together and ta-da: American!

Would someone please send him an invite to join the DNC? Our big tent doesn't need his type.

Posted by: redherkey at November 27, 2007 07:04 PM (kjqFg)

76 I'll look into to that Bruce, I've never heard of that. I'll add it goes beyond that, while Slublog has a blog to respond to this and so do I, Pat doesn't, unless he starts his own site. He just had a chance to make a guest post at ABP.

Mesa, all I got was a note that they were looking into it. That's all I got in the message, I haven't gotten an update unless they just sent one...nope. Nada. I won't copy the note, cuz I didn't ask permission, but that's the message I got.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 27, 2007 07:38 PM (VZv6D)

77 Hi. Derek Brigham of True North, the MN conservative aggregate here. Let me apologize and I hope none of the 5 stories 7th Son posted at TN were lifted without crediting or linking, but given the track record shown here, we are taking action.

The first I heard about this was this morning We are cutting all the posts by 7th Son from our site, his bio and denying his posting abilities until a full apology comes from him. This is not acceptable.

Posted by: Derek Brigham at November 28, 2007 12:00 PM (ifI3H)

78 He has now posted an apology and farewell at his site.

Posted by: Sue at November 28, 2007 12:21 PM (Jol77)

What Derek said.

While I'd like to give the blogger a chance to defend himself, y'all have built a pretty tight-looking case.

While I can't speak for the entire True North ruling junta, I know that we will not stand for theft of intellectual property.

And while I'm not really familiar with Seventh Son's writing (he wasn't a regular destination), I join my junta co-member Derek in apologizing, and assuring an appropriate response.

Thanks.

Posted by: Mitch Berg at November 28, 2007 12:32 PM (KP8Z0)

80 No problem. You guys really have a great site at True North, you would have never known, so I don't fault you, I woulda never heard about it without Pat having seen it.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at November 28, 2007 12:39 PM (VZv6D)

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