March 29, 2024
Annapolis, US 39 F

Annapolis Loses A Political Blogger

Paul Foer, the longtime publisher of Annapolis Capital Punishment has decided to turn in his microphone and keyboard. He spoke his last words on WNAV this morning and penned his last blog entry this morning on Annapolis Capital Punishment.

Without a doubt, Paul has his opinions; and woe be the person who disagrees with them. However, his blog most definitely served a purpose in the political scene in Annapolis.

After reading his farewell tome (which, in and of itself, is ironic considering the criticism he leveled at Joe Gross when Joe retired his column), I left a congratulatory/thank you comment (fully identified as he likes):

Paul- I wish you all the best wherever your roads may lead. We rarely saw eye to eye (but that’s ok), but no one will deny that ACP was a great resource for the civic-minded folks in Annapolis!

John

PS–are you also Bud The Blogger at The No BS Zone? He has also hung up his keyboard!

This week, we have lost two political bloggers. Bud The Blogger who runs The No BS Zone up in North County also called it quits. But my comment was sincere. But, I guess that the differences we had, were too insurmountable for Paul:

While I thank you for your note,although I am not sure what to make of it. Are you trying to gain points? I must set the record straight. It is not a matter of us seeing “eye to eye” (but that’s okay as you say). It was a matter of you writing nasty, false and offensive things about me, accusing me of behaving unethically and of generally acting in a manner that I consider to be less than honorable–not to mention things you said to me. And no I am not Bud The Blogger and even suggesting as such or even for a second believing such a thing is silly at best and an example of your character at worst. How many times do I have to say that I don’t write anonymously or under a pseudonym or under false pretenses? A second blog would mean the first was not enough? You started up your blog in a haze and first denied you were involved, then said you were just writing a few things and then said you were actually the publisher. You consistently write in comments to my column at the Capital questioning just about everything I write and you support and possibly even conspire with other hate bloggers. And you continue to allow the son of a powerful, national political figure to write under an assumed name. AND…this is the best part….you bought the domain www.annapoliscapitalpunishment.com so it would link to your blog. I would never have written any of this stuff–and I did not as you can see–but your comment–which I have trouble taking seriously,brought me to clarify matters. But thanks for the positive comments.

I am not sure about most of what is said, but I will take a stab at setting the record straight as well in the hopes that Paul’s memory might be jarred. We have always carried a feed from Annapolis Capital Punishment on this site. You can look at all the times Paul Foer was mentioned here and see that we were critical once–when he used a year old column from The Sun to make his point. In fact, there were several times when we offered congratulations for milestones in traffic and for the very successful political forums he hosted. I have personally commented on his Ninth Ward columns in The Capital when warranted. Yes, I did suggest that  he ought to disclose that while he was bashing one politician in The Capital, he was collecting a check from his opponent for an ad on Annapolis Capital Punishment. Perhaps he was upset that my comment may have been the impetus behind Josh Stewart’s scathing blog entry.

Yes, I do own the domain annapoliscapitalpunishment.com. Yes it does re-direct to this site. But the story behind this was that Paul asked me to help him grow the traffic on his blog. I spent several hours with him offering suggestions–one of which was the acquisition of a real domain and a move off of the free Blogger platform. He felt it was too complex and I told him I could buy it, set it up for him and then let him take it over. I bought it and he never did a thing. And besides, it’s just business; he should have protected his brand. Remember when whitehouse.com used to go to a hard core porno site?

I did not realize that my post script would display an example of my “character at worst”. Actually, I forgot to put in a “LOL” or a smiley icon to indicate that it was a joke. Bud (who I communicate with regularly) is basically pretty far to the right and a card carrying NRA member, and Paul is pretty much not.

So there you have it. A sincere offer of congratulations, thanks and good luck, turned all upside down. When Joe Gross penned his final column, this is what Paul Foer had to say:

Joe’s inanities will hopefully never again grace the pages of The Capital. If we are to believe Joe, the reason the paper is a success is because of him. In a typical rambling and almost incoherently narcissistic tome of 1573 words, Joe uses the pronoun “I” 20 times–and that’s only in the first 13 paragraphs. He writes “I’m” and “I’ve” more times than I care to count.

For the record…Paul’s swan song…2368 words (excluding the ramblings about Guy Fawkes)…122 uses of the pronoun “I”….10 uses of the word “I’ve.”  In this race, it’s Foer by 20 points on the number of words and 72 points on the pronoun!

Now that the record is indeed set straight, I do wish Paul all the best. Annapolis Capital Punishment will be missed. He served a good purpose and kept many of our politicians on their toes (well the ones who would answer his calls anyhow), and broke several good stories which kept The Capital on their toes.  In all seriousness, all the best to you Paul!

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