Feb

8

The Oxendine-Sheffield E-Mail Connection

Category: Opinions, Politics | Leave a Comment | 1,671 words | Print

I honestly don’t know where to begin this post. Bear with me, this is going to be another long-winded write-up, but I have my reasons for going into so much detail.

This past Saturday I wrote about the e-mail spam I received from the Maria Sheffield campaign at e-mail addresses which were subscribed to the John Oxendine campaign e-mail list. At the time I wrote that post, I honestly believed that the Oxendine campaign shared their email list with the Sheffield campaign. Tonight, I am more sure of that fact than ever.

Before I begin writing about today’s events and get to my reasons for believing they did indeed share the e-mail list, let me repeat something and make it very clear. Two of my e-mail addresses are on John Oxendine’s email list. I have never used either one of these e-mail addresses for any other political campaign. The first one is the address I receive most of my non-political e-mail correspondence at, and the second one is one of my business e-mail addresses that I don’t normally use for anything “non-business”. I received two e-mails from the Maria Sheffield campaign, one at each of the e-mail addresses that are on no other political candidate’s mailing list. I have a completely separate e-mail address I receive all my other political related, and political party, e-mails on. I just wanted to make that clear (again) before I begin.

Earlier today I had quite an e-mail exchange with Tim Echols, John Oxendine’s campaign manager. It all started early this morning (around 3:00 am) when I decided that I would pursue an answer to this “mystery” because, to tell the truth, I am still quite angry that my addresses were sold/shared/stolen/hacked with or by someone else. Here is the text of the e-mail I sent to Mr. Echols.

Hi Tim,

I would like to know how my email addresses, which were used to sign up for John Oxendine campaign emails, were released to Maria Sheffield’s campaign?

I signed up to receive email from the Oxendine campaign with the confidence that my email addresses would not be sold/given/traded with other campaigns or anyone else, as I am not interested in the slightest in most other campaign notifications.

The only political campaign I used these email addresses with was the Oxendine campaign so I know it wasn’t just coincidence that I received spam from the Sheffield campaign on both those accounts on February 5th.

Please let me know how (and why) this happened, as I am not happy in the slightest to be receiving spam at either of these addresses.

Thank you,

Michael T. Barrett
Temple, GA

At 9:49 this morning, I received the following response.

Michael,

Upon further investigation, you may be getting these emails because you have a blog. I know that we typically add bloggers to our list in an effort to disseminate information, and I am sure other candidates do this too. Great photos of the ivory gull on your site too, by the way.

We do not sell or give our list to anyone, so unless it was stolen or hacked, I don’t think it was from us. When you sign up on the database, that info goes into our CRM database. I do know that
numerous folks have tried to hack into that, but to our knowledge no one had been successful.

Thanks for your inquiry and I apologize. I can remove you from the list if necessary.

Tim

I have been ‘blogging’ since July of 1997, and not once in all that time have I been added to any political candidate’s e-mail list, nor any elected official’s e-mail list without my consent. The fact that I am a ‘blogger’ does not imply any willingness to receive unsolicited e-mails from any politician, let alone anyone else.

I have written about political scandals, been critical of sitting Presidents, worked actively on political campaigns, and covered politics in general for the better part of 28 years (13 of it blogging) and this explanation just does not fly with me. Sorry. The more I think about it now, the more I can’t help but think I was being “poo-poo’d” from the beginning.

Mr. Echols went on to state that unless the list was stolen or hacked he didn’t think it came from them. Well then, there are only four possibilities here.

  1. The Oxendine campaign sold their mailing list.
  2. The Oxendine campaign shared their mailing list.
  3. The Oxendine campaign mailing list was stolen.
  4. The Oxendine campaign mailing list database was hacked.

Of course there are a few other possibilities but I am trying, in all fairness, to be reasonable here. He thanked me for my inquiry, apologized, and offered to remove me from the list.

Wow. Why would I need to be removed from the Oxendine list? I wanted to receive e-mail alerts from his campaign, why on Earth would Mr. Echols offer to remove me from their list. If my addresses had been sold/shared/stolen/hacked it was already too late, so why would I need to be removed from Oxendine’s list? Unless, of course, there was some explanation for all of this that I was not aware of.

The following is my next response to Mr. Echols.

Hi Tim,

Thank you for your quick response, I appreciate it.

Your explanation would be plausible and I might tend to believe it if one of the emails involved was not one of my business email addresses.

I do not use that address with anything blog related, and I have never received anything from any other campaign except the Oxendine campaign with the exception of these new emails from the Sheffield campaign.

The email address in question does not receive any other unsolicited emails and the Sheffield emails came to both addresses on your list.

Because I know your reputation, I do believe you wouldn’t sell or give the addresses out so I will post an update on my blog, but I would appreciate it if you double checked on your end because the Sheffield campaign got both of my addresses, one of which like I said, is on no other list but yours.

————————-
Michael T. Barrett
(Sent from my iPhone)

At the time I sent that response (11:15 am) I actually believed Tim Echols. In fact, as I began writing this post today, I still thought it was possible that he didn’t know if the list had been sold/shared/stolen/hacked. But then again, he is Oxendine’s campaign manager. If anyone knows what’s going on in that campaign, it would be him. I wasn’t sure what to believe until I received his next response.

Michael,

Thanks, and I have one more question in my internal investigation.

The business email is “insurance” related or no? Can you give me that email address so I can check my lists (I have about 40 of them)? Did you actually sign up for our stuff using that “business” email, or was it another?

Tim

Why would it matter if my business e-mail address was “insurance” related? Do they have some special “insurance” related list that they are freely passing on to other candidates? Does it really matter if my e-mail address is “insurance” related or on any one or more of 40 lists?

I received two e-mails from the Sheffield campaign, who is to say I won’t receive more from other candidates in the future?

He needed my address to check his lists. All 40 of them. Wait one moment. I thought (based on the first e-mail response) that all of the e-mail addresses were added to the CRM database? Wouldn’t it be easier to check my addresses in the database rather than manually check each of the 40 lists? Where do they keep those 40 lists anyway? Who has access to those lists?

Did one or more of those 40 lists get passed on to the Sheffield campaign? I can’t be sure, because Kathryn Ballou, the campaign manager for Maria Sheffield, never answered my e-mail inquiry today. Could there be some other connection I was missing here? That’s when I decided to do a little more homework.

Some of you political junkies may have already known some of this, but even you non-political types are going to raise an eyebrow when you read this.

Let’s start with Kathryn Ballou, Maria Sheffield’s campaign manager. Did you know she was John Oxendine’s campaign manager before Tim Echols took over?

Doesn’t it seem odd that the campaign that spammed my e-mail accounts is being managed by the same person who used to manage the Oxendine campaign? Is this just a coincidence or could the passing of information be more of a “I’ll scratch your back” kind of thing rather than a selling/sharing/stealing/hacking thing? It wouldn’t be such a stretch to believe this if only there was some other connection that would make this “back scratching” theory more plausible.

Oh wow, just look at that, will you? There’s Maria Sheffield. Could she be the connection we’re looking for? You bet she is.

Did you know Maria Sheffield spent six years working with the Georgia Department of Insurance?

Don’t forget now, John Oxendine has been the Insurance Commissioner of Georgia since 1994. Come on now, put two and two together already. John Oxendine is Maria Sheffield’s former boss.

So let’s review what we have so far.

My e-mail addresses were sold/shared/stolen/hacked by the John Oxendine campaign to the campaign of his former employee and heir apparent, Maria Sheffield, which is being run by his former campaign manager, Kathryn Ballou.

I may be relatively new to the Georgia political scene, but I wasn’t born yesterday.

While I cannot be certain what went down or how my e-mail addresses ended up on Maria Sheffield’s mailing list, I am convinced it happened because of these two connections and I have no doubt that members of the Oxendine campaign as well as members of the Sheffield campaign knew exactly what they were doing.

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Feb

7

Sunday Silence

Category: Life | Leave a Comment | 0 words | Print

Feb

6

John Oxendine And His Wayward E-Mail List

Category: Opinions, Politics | Leave a Comment | 695 words | Print

As you know from reading this blog, I am quite interested in politics and I can be quite adamant about my political beliefs and ideals. I have been interested in politics longer than some people reading this post have been alive. If you read my ‘About Me’ page, you will find that I was working on political campaigns 28 years ago, and while my support of different political candidates may have changed over time, my interest and passion for everything else political has not waned in the least.

Over the course of the past few years I have signed up for select political e-mail lists. I don’t subscribe to every candidate’s e-mail list because, to be frank, I really don’t care what some of them have to say. It usually doesn’t take much to see that a political candidate is full of crap, so why bother subscribing to their daily/weekly/monthly drivel when you know it’s going to stink more than a portable outhouse on a hot August day?

I do, however, subscribe to a few e-mail lists because I feel the need to keep tabs on some candidates. I want to know what they are up to, what they are saying, and most importantly how their statements support or conflict with their actions. Comparing the two can be the best way to learn if you should support a candidate when they are running for office.

They say actions speak louder than words, and no matter what a candidate writes in their newsletters, their actions should be judged accordingly. Sometimes candidates don’t say anything at all and do something so completely asinine that they must be called out for it.

This, my friends, is one of those times.

This evening I am calling out Georgia Insurance Commissioner (and candidate for Governor) John Oxendine for releasing his email list to Maria Sheffield, the candidate running to replace him as Insurance Commissioner. I am also calling out Mrs. Sheffield for utilizing the addresses on that list. Whether Oxendine loaned his list or sold it to Mrs. Sheffield, it was wrong. It was wrong for him to release it and it was wrong for her to use the addresses on it.

 

My time is valuable, and I don’t have time to weed through unsolicited spam I did not sign up to receive. The fact that I received an unsolicited email from the Maria Sheffield campaign at not just one, but two separate email addresses I have used for just one other email list totally infuriates me. The only political email list those two addresses are subscribed to, is Mr. Oxendine’s campaign e-mail list.

 

There’s something inherently wrong about releasing a list of e-mail addresses of would-be political supporters without their advanced knowledge or permission.

When I signed up to receive e-mail from Mr. Oxendine, I did so because I was entertaining the idea of supporting him in his run for Governor. I wanted to learn more about his positions and listen to what he had to say about the issues.

Until yesterday I didn’t even know who Maria Sheffield was, let alone that she is running for Mr. Oxendine’s current position. I still don’t know who she is, except a political candidate who uses an unsolicited list to contact could-be supporters without their permission.

Was it unethical for Oxendine to release the list? Was it unethical for Sheffield to use the names on the list? In the many years I have received political candidate e-mails, I have never received an unsolicited e-mail from any another candidate.

Am I just being overly sensitive about this issue? I suppose that is a question for another day. One thing I can tell you, however, is that I will not be supporting Mr. Oxendine, nor Mrs. Sheffield because of this issue.

If these two can’t make the right decision to remain ethical when it comes to maintaining a simple e-mail list, how am I supposed to believe that either one of them would be able to make the right decision to remain ethical while holding public office in the future?

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Feb

5

So Many Headaches…

Category: Life | 2 Comments | 448 words | Print

Pardon me while I vent. What a freakin’ day it’s been around here. I’ve had all sorts of physical issues the past couple days that I won’t get into other than to say, I’m sick of it. Literally.

As if the constant throb of a headache wasn’t enough to make me lose my mind, I discovered late last night that my Western Digital 1TB “MyBook” was DOA. This wouldn’t be such a huge issue if I had not just had hard drive issues with two other drives about three weeks ago.

The other troubles began when we had a nice cold snap and things froze. When things freeze way out here, the power lines have trouble delivering that one thing that all computers (and hard drives, ironically) require. Yes, the power kept blacking out and surging from time to time.

I have a couple battery backups and surge protectors on all my equipment, but these hard drives were pretty well used (and old). It wasn’t really a surprise when they died, other than the fact that I hadn’t run a backup for a couple weeks so the crash really stung.

I ran Spinrite (the best disk recovery solution in the entire universe) and was able to recover some data, but the drives were toast. As I recovered data I copied it to the MyBook. (sigh)

Is it all becoming clear now? The MyBook used to be my backup for the other drives. They died, I moved data, and now the MyBook died. All I can say is, WTF?!?

Because it was so late last night when I discovered the death of drive, I decided to unplug it and wait until this morning to deal with it.

I woke up in such a good mood. I sat up from the bed and realized my head wasn’t pounding, at least not at that moment. I grabbed my iPhone (which I use to listen to podcasts as I go to sleep each night), and I walked to the living room. That’s when I realized this day was not going to be filled with sunshine and puppies and my day went downhill. There sat my dead drive.

I started pricing SATA cards, so I could plug the drive directly into the PC and run Spinrite, when I remembered my PC used SATA controllers already. WHEW. Needless to day, it’s been over 14 hours, and Spinrite is still running. I am patient. If anything can save the data on that drive, Spinrite can.

Tomorrow’s a new day, and hopefully it won’t be filled with so many headaches.

Then more trouble began brewing.

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Feb

4

One More Day…

Category: Life | Leave a Comment | 26 words | Print

I need just one more day to get back to “normal”. Well, as normal as things can be around here anyway.

Floyd County - Red-Tailed Hawk (9)
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Feb

3

A Small Break…

Category: Life, Opinions | 1 Comment | 36 words | Print

I’m taking a night off to see if I can kick whatever this is that’s beating me down. I’ll be back tomorrow with another exciting post just for you.

– Posted with Stuffr! –
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Feb

2

A Positive Recommendation…

Category: Society | 1 Comment | 315 words | Print

The day started off pretty good. I woke up without a headache, and then just a few hours later, it came back. I had lots of things I had to do today, but I didn’t get a chance to get them done.

Don’t you find it completely ironic that a Canadian government official, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, has chosen to come to the United States to have heart surgery.

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

“He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done,” said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.

“In consultation with his own doctors, he’s decided to go that route.”

Did you catch that last line? After consultation with his Canadian doctors, he decided to travel to the United States to have the procedure done. The article goes on to state that staying in Canada was “never an option offered to him”.

Exactly what would Mr. Williams have done if the United States was already subject to ObamaCare? That’s right, you never would have heard this story, because Mr. Williams wouldn’t have had the option to come here and most likely would have died before you even learned who he was.

Good luck with your surgery, Mr. Williams. While here in the United States you will have access to the finest medical facilities, the best medical technology, and some of the most experienced doctors you could ever find.

We won’t forget that it was your government-run, universal health care system that helped you find your way to our border, our doctors, and our health care system.

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Feb

1

Another Rare Find

Category: Birding, Life | 1 Comment | 257 words | Print

We took a quick ride over to Richards Lake in Carrollton yesterday to see what we could find in the water.

It turns out there was more there than we thought there might be. We spotted 18 different species of birds, one of which was the Ross’s Goose.

Ross's Goose (1)

We also saw a couple Common Mergansers, but after a return trip today to confirm that sighting, we were unable to relocate them. When we spotted them on the lake they were ovre by the dam, and we were sitting in the truck on the road. The sun was reflecting off the water, and we could not get a verifiable photograph, although we did enjoy the view for several moments with the binoculars (until a car pulled up and quickly reminded me we were on the road).

On our return trip today we were greeted by a well-meaning but gruff security guard who actually tried to imply that the road crossing the lake (on which we were standing) was private property. Rather than get into a nasty argument with the guy, we left. We’ll head back over there in the next couple days to see if the Common Mergansers show up again.

Great Blue Heron (4)

While some birds avoid people at all costs, some, like that Great Blue Heron, were oblivious to our being there. We watched him for several minutes before we realized he was not a statue.

All in all, it was another great weekend. Now if I could just kick this headache that started tonight.

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Jan

31

Sunday Silence

Category: Opinions | Leave a Comment | 0 words | Print

Jan

30

Interests & Passions

Category: Birding, Life | 1 Comment | 256 words | Print

Just a quick note to let you all know I am taking the day to relax and unwind. After the events of this past week, I really need to take a day to decompress, get my bearings, and charge my batteries. Literally.

As most of you who frequent my site already know, I enjoy keeping track of our elected officials and writing about politics is one of my favorite things to do. But you might not know that I have two other passions. Photography and birding. I know I have mentioned a birding trip here and there, and I have posted a few photographs when we’ve seen some bird that’s really cool.

So, it should come as no suprise that I have added a birding category to the site, as well as a few really good birding links. All of you people who follow my political rants will have to put up with a few birding posts from time to time, and you birders will have to deal with those political rants in-between all of my birding stories.

Okay, that’s it for tonight, except… What the heck is that bird sitting on the bouy?

 

Click on the image to enlarge it. I can’t figure out if it’s a Double Crested Cormorant with weird white coloring or some other bird. Okay, so my newbie-ness of birding is showing, but I don’t care. I can’t learn if I don’t ask questions, now help me out. What is it?

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