Background: Patterico’s Pontifications and Ace of Spades were blessed, if that’s the right word (it’s not), with an email from ‘Alicia Pain’ that could either be read as a warning to lay off digging in further on the Antony Weiner / Betty / Veronica direct messages story*, or a threat if either continued to do so. Ace got more out of the author of the email than Patterico did, mostly by responding and using bad language until s/he slipped up and claimed to be working for a client.
Anyway, speaking as a professional, more or less (and for a change)… absent further data, hard to tell. The email address is throwaway and both Patterico and Ace make their email available but not easily accessible (they’re both Old School), which argues against the ‘random lunatic spouting off’ theory; however, the Internet is full of people who like to make grandiose claims about what they do for a living, what shadowy networks of powerful people they belong to**, and how other people should listen to them when they’re only trying to help. None of the people really associated with that name on the Internet already seem to be a good fit for either possibility, so I suggest waiting for more info.
Moe Lane
*Which I haven’t covered mostly because I’m not inherently interested in it, people who are inherently interested are covering it just fine, and I figure that if they find something interesting they’ll let me know.
**Speaking as somebody who sort-of, kind-of, if-you-squint-you-can-see-it does belong to a shadowy network with powerful people in it: trust me, it’s not like the movies, the books, or the websites with the annoying animations and psychotic chameleon color schemes. No secret conspiracies, no tactical squads (combat or hacker), no hidden basements full of quasi-Masonic rituals. Instead, I get callbacks when I cold-call various legislators and groups, and I’m on a variety of embargoed-until-delivery speech distribution lists. I hope that this doesn’t disappoint anybody…
And here I thought you were part of the vast right-wing conspiracy that seems to be everywhere and sees everything!
What about costumes? Calling cards? Tag lines?
Moe, the title is a false alternative. Particularly since most Democrat “operatives” appear to be nuts as well.
What Rob said: the two are less mutually exclusive than simpatico, from what I can tell.