The first thing I thought when I saw the Grand Rapids Press coverage with my name was, “Hmmm, being on the Intelligence Committee must come with some privileges!”
Secondly, I said to myself, “So much for anonymity with private domain registration!”
Somehow, the Hoekstra Campaign tracked down that the owner of the domain is me, Ben Padnos.
I grew up in Holland, Michigan, graduated from Holland High School, and attended the University of Michigan before moving to California in 1994. I now live in Manhattan Beach, just outside of Los Angeles.
I want to start with one important point regarding anonymity. I intended to be anonymous purely to avoid any possible embarrassment for my family members, who live in Pete Hoekstra’s district, and have a business in West Michigan. Anything written on PeteHoekstra.com represents ME, personally, and not any of my other family members.
You’ll note that even though I perceived myself as having anonymity, everything I posted I’d feel completely comfortable looking the Congressman in the eye and saying to his face. The Internet purist in me – I’ve been involved in online industry since 1996 – doesn’t like the low-brow level anonymity sometimes provides. We’ve been hard-hitting, but not vulgar or profane. People often hide behind anonymity in “Cyberspace” and take it to a very low, crass, disrespectful level. I don’t like that.
Now, on to the story….I’ve always had an interest in politics. I actually worked stuffing envelopes for Guy VanderJagt in 1990, and interned in Washington DC for Congressman Fred Upton in the summer of 1994.
I am a Registered Independent here in California – I am not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic Party. If anything I lean Libertarian.
I honestly remember the optimism and idealism that Pete Hoekstra had when he ran for Congress in 1992, riding around the district on his bicycle. I also remember how passionate he was about “having perspective” and promised to stay a maximum of 6 terms.
The Congressman’s office even arranged a ticket for me to attend the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996!
But Pete Hoekstra is now in his 9th term, and a lot of things have changed over the years. He’s gone from an upstart Congressman to one who represents an extremist fringe wing that is divisive and polarizing, attacking virtually anything that comes from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Which brings up a very interesting point….Here’s the ranking Republican Member of the House Intelligence Committee failing to do something as simple as registering his own .com domain name. It makes you think….you have to have some empathy for the Obama Administration and the Department of Homeland Security on how daunting the job of dealing with hundreds or thousands of terrorist threats every day…..you can see how one lunatic getting on a plane in another country can slip through the cracks…
The domain name, PeteHoekstra.com, has been available for a long time. I own thousands of domains and follow the industry closely. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t reserved his over the years. And when Pete Hoekstra sent a letter out to his constituents raising money on the backs of a terrorist attack, I found it SO grotesquely distasteful, I decided to register the domain — 6 days ago — and do something with it.
I’ll also add that we own domain names of other US Senators and Representatives.
I’ll wrap up in summarizing the goal and spirit of this blog: the State of Michigan needs a bi-partisan, optimistic, forward-looking, technology-savvy champion of the People. Not a Chief Executive who represents an extremist minority group. We need someone who will run the State competently, like a successful business, with a culture of respect and collaboration.
Pete Hoekstra is not that guy.
Thanks for reading, and for spreading the word about our efforts!
Wishing you all the best in the new year — and new decade — ahead!
Ben Padnos
P.S. There is absolutely NO financial motive here. And the domain name is not for sale. Any income derived from anything related to PeteHoekstra.com will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Holland.
I grew up in Kalamazoo, and my wife is from Grand Haven. Hoekstra is extreme even by West Michigan GOP standards. He would be as awful for Michigan as he is for the Republican Party.
Awwww man! You’re a professional cybersquatter? You people are the scum of the earth.
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really appreciate the idea of someone having had enough or seen enough and doing something about it. So, I love the idea of the website.
My own thoughts about Pete Hoekstra comes from an interview he did after a visit to Guantanamo Bay in which he was quite certain there was no torture occurring and prisoners were being treated well, etc. At that time I was reading stuff written by Seymour Hersh and Jane Mayer that made this highly suspicious and eventually proven to be just wrong. Let’s just say I didn’t think he ended being much of a fact-finder on that fact-finding tour, but maybe it’s the same with all of those trips.
Another thought regards your wish that the next Governor run the state like a business. Governments are not businesses and ought not to be run that way. If governments were run like businesses we would have no public education or public parks. All police and fire departments would be fee-for-service entities. I don’t that would be so good for the public.
One last thing. I’m not sure being tech-savvy is a necessary qualification for governance. Technology is a tool, for government and other things, it does not represent the ability to be a leader in government or anything else.
Keep up the good work! I too was disgusted with this clown trying to raise money on the guise of fear.
Some rebuttal material here….
To KGB: Pete has been in Congress for 9 terms. This site was registered 7 DAYS ago. To call this cybersquatting is a distortion of the term. Nice try…please play again later.
To Michael: I want my congress critters at least minimally tech savvy. Tech is here to stay and it’s getting more complicated daily. The last thing I want is some dinosaur (series of tubes, anyone?) crafting…let alone voting on…anything that has to do with technology.
You, sir, are my new Hero of the week.
I read about your site at Daily Kos and am positively THRILLED you are doing this. Will you have other contributors or is this a one-person operation?
Good luck with your most-awesome enterprise.
Hi Ben.
Have a look at this big story on drasties:
Voetballer Peter Hoekstra nept congressman Pete Hoekstra
(Soccerplayer Peter Hoekstra obstructs Congressman Pete Hoekstra)
Apparently the Dutch are very excited about your initiative to prevent another Bush-fan getting elected.
JANdeWIT.
http://www.drasties.com/
Dutch on the world. World on the Dutch
Hi Ben,
Thanks for raising an important issue. Seems as though many politicians will stoop to the lowest measures to go after a buck. This one is certainly insensitive on Hoekstra’s part.
By chance, could he be part of “The Family/Fellowship?”
So Pete Hoekstra is as stupid as he is dishonest?
Looks like it.
You’re a good writer and seem like a sensible, analytical guy. I too despise anonymity as a way of spewing crass insults. Your reasons are completely understandable. Best of luck. This is the sort of dissent I am proud to see the Internet be a vehicle for.
Thanks for the positive feedback! In both my personal and professional life, I operate with the standard of “would I say this to the person’s face”. That’s my barometer, and nothing we’ve written on PeteHoekstra.com breaks that rule!
Thanks for bringing this one to our attention — amazing how the story has spread internationally!
You raise some interesting points. Some of our additional concerns are included in an updated post. Hoekstra’s polarizing style will be ineffective in Lansing at a time when Michigan needs a leader who can work across party lines.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but we’re hardly “squatting” on this domain. It’s clearly being put to good use, and there are no financial motives @ PeteHoekstra.com!
What a great site! I’m so glad that someone is taking the time and effort to “out” Hoekstra in the Race for Governor. He has shown repeatedly in Congress that he is a RINO and that his word can’t be trusted (such as his “promise” to serve only 6 terms, which his original “promise” was two-terms, hence his nick-name “Two-term Pete). I still can’t believe that the people of my district re-elected this buffoon only weeks after he voted for the Wall Street Bailout.
Hey Ben,
You grew up in Holland, like me, so you know I’m not exaggerating when I say I’d heard about your site and your connection to it on Monday. It wasn’t the intelligence committee that outed you….just the good ol fashioned small town network.
While I’m sorry for your loss of anonymity and understand your reasons for wanting to stay below the radar, rest assurred you are not alone in your feelings about Pete. And your family is pretty tough, so I think it will all be OK.
Keep up the good work!
Stay in California. You think Granholm was bipartism????????????? What a joke. What has she done for the state???????? President Obama calls the attempted Christmas bombing an incedent, this was not an incedent but an attempted bombing by a terrorist. Just stay in California and we here in Michigan will be fine.
Looking into how a privately registered domain was leaked may yield politically and legally damaging information on Mr Hoekstra. If he used government resources to find out private information he was abusing his power.
Ben,
I don’t know you but I have known your father, your grandfather, uncles and aunts for 40+ years. I have significant respect for their accomplishments AND the fact they typically chose to stay out of the limelight regardless of their political affiliations. You say you have commanded the domain name for non political reasons. Based on your statements above I beg to differ. Support whatever cause you want but for someone who is so “cyber savvy” how could you think your ownership would remain anonymous???? You would not be what you are (financially) without the efforts of your grandfather and his brother and their father. Show more respect and class and less desire to be recognised for being anything more than a privileged grandchild of a family who worked really hard through difficult times, you owe them more than this.
[...] the registration was presumably private, somehow Rep. Hoekstra’s staff was able to out the owner, Ben Pardos, a longtime Internet entrepreneur who claims to own thousands of domains, including [...]
Anything that embarrasses Pete Hoekstra is awesome, imo. Great work!
Ben, you have rendered a great public service. I would think the Padnos family would be proud rather than embarrassed. It’s comforting that a private citizen has come forward to effectively criticize this candidate.
Thank you for the kind words about my family. I’m proud of what my family stands for in Western Michigan. You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion, as I’m entitled to mine. The views expressed on this site are exclusively those of me, Ben Padnos. Remember, I intended on being anonymous — it was the Congressman’s campaign who released my name. This was never about personal gain or drawing attention to other family members. The overwhelming majority of feedback in both the public comments as well as the emails sent through the Contact Us link is positive. Your views are in the minority. I hope the fact that we published your comment despite the negative opinion shows you how committed I am to this site being a public platform. I probably won’t ever change your mind entirely, but I hope you’ll at least consider respecting my perspective, as I do yours.
So the domain name was researched prior to Christmas so that tells you what the motivation was here all along. Padnos is just in it for the money and the only way to get the press to notice you these days is to be a liberal and controversial. So there you go – congratulations on a well thought out business plan.
Hoekstra – extreme for West Michigan Ken? Where have you been holed up? My goodness – just more liberal gibberish.
This is about garnering attention for an interner entreprenuer who lives in California/not Michigan, bought steroid Barry Bonds baseball tying Hank Aarons homerun record (is it still worth $187000, now that Barry steroid use is public knowledge?), lives in a bubble of non reality, Ben go back to website creation, stay out of politics. I’m sure Jeff, Doug, Dan, Shelley, Mitch, Stuart and Seymour love the attention, not! Bill might though since he leans much more left like you.
Wow, “mitee” — can’t use the “man” because not sure it applies to someone who is afraid to use his own name, while thinking he’s clever by listing Ben’s relatives. That’s a straight up Soviet tactic.
SBell, are you smoking crack or meth or something? I have no clue what the heck you just said.
Hey Paul…at least we HAVE gibberish
miteeeman mouse, whatever, for someone who throws the Padnos family names around, you don’t seem to know a lot about the people themselves, particularly Ben. I suggest you do a little googling about his career. While his families work probably helped with the education part, he seems to have done quite well on his own. Actually you just sound like another grumpy Holland Dutchman. Dime a dozen your type are around here.
[...] saw the articles and press on this Petehoekstra.com article and couldn’t stop laughing. What kind of dumb ass running for office fails to buy [...]
Thanks for the support, “Native Son”. I’m proud of where I come from and am also proud that I’ve been fortunate enough to have a decent amount of success on my own in the Internet and technology industry over the past 15 years. Everything I’ve written on the site has been reasonable and respectful. Despite this, there have been a couple of mean-spirited personal comments — some we’ve posted, others too vulgar to deserve publication — and I take those in stride. Ultimately, everyone is entitled to their opinion, just as I am mine.
If anything, it takes courage and initiative — and a willingness to take criticism — to speak out publicly. But if you just sit back on your hands and don’t take action, nothing ever changes.
My position is very simply:
>> The state needs the optimism that a fresh perspective brings. And Michigan needs someone who can help all Michiganders, not just “Red” ones. Ultimately, Hoekstra’s divisive style would be worse than where we are today.
>> The State of Michigan needs a bi-partisan, optimistic, forward-looking, technology-savvy champion of the People. Not a Chief Executive who represents an extremist minority group. We need someone who will run the State competently, like a successful business, with a culture of respect and collaboration.
Thanks again for your words of encouragement.
Native Son,
I am English not Dutch, I was born in the area, I know the family very well, I have been in many of their homes, (I will divulge no more information), I have know the family longer than Ben has been alive. I respect the grandparents and the children very much. I own a multi state business that I started from the ground up, some of that business is in W. Michigan, none is with the family business directly. I respect hard work, and performance. I have issue with liberal agendas, that quote Huffington Post, Daily Koz, MSNBC, that are less than objective media and then the blogger states, an “extremist minority group”?? One could easily argue that Nancy Pelosi is an extremist and Obama, which I tend to agree is the case. Hoekstra’s style is no more “divisive” than the media quoted on this page. So lets not contradict ourselves.
I am far from grumpy, I have been blessed with a wonderful family, a wonderful life and never take it for granted. Because I challenge someone’s opinions makes me wrong? Enjoy patting each other on the back, I’m done with this charade.
*sigh* the English have such thin skin…
Miteeeman, if you had taken the time to elaborate on your relationship with the family a bit more, sir, my confusion/irritation could have been avoided. While I don’t agree with you assesment, I do give your opinion a bit more credibility now that you filled in the blanks. My perceptions come not from family interaction, but from a look about the internet regarding this site’s operator. Your information is apparently more personally based. Therein, politics aside, lies our disagreement. And while we do disagree on politics, the majority of the information I see on this site is of a more personal nature than long “Daily Kos-esque” and/or “Red State” posts containing a myriad of information from what may perhaps be the biased sources you refer to. Maybe that will come later, but my perception is that Mr. Padnos has had to spend more time lately defending himself from local detractors than promulgating information about Rep. Hoekstra’s record or ability to hold the Governor’s seat.
And, as for being”done with this charade”, the fact that you checked in at least three times today leads me to believe I’ll be hearing from you again sooner than later, which is something I look forward too.
I, too, am disturbed by the ability of Hoekstra’s campaign to secure the name of the anonymous registrant and yet not the ability to register the domain in the first place. As a user of private domain registration as a means to protect myself from spam and other unsavory Internet garbage, I am concerned that the extra layer of security can be so easily unearthed.
If the Congressman or his staff used connections within the government’s intelligence community to unearth confidential domain registration information without the proper and lawful use of a search warrant or subpoena (for which they surely would not have had just cause to obtain), then they should be held accountable in a court of law. But for obvious reasons, I find this outcome extremely unlikely.
Interesting..
“I’m proud of what my family stands for in Western Michigan. You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion, as I’m entitled to mine. The views expressed on this site are exclusively those of me, Ben Padnos. Remember, I intended on being anonymous — it was the Congressman’s campaign who released my name. ”
It takes a big man to stand up and put his real name out front so that people can judge whether the criticism is real or that of a political adversary. Your family which has a tendency to contribute to the Democrat establishment with a few exceptions has not seemingly been ashamed to fill out the disclosures. Your contribution here could have at least carried the weight and conviction of your blog http://www.benpadnos.com/ which must have lost a little of its excitement with a last post of excitement about Obama 4 months ago..
If you believe in something put your name on it. Sad.
ben- kudos to you for choosing to take a stand. thank you.
also being a from holland (go WO!) and now out of state, i find your commitment, candor, and thoughtfulness amazing. it’s easy for many folks to leave home and not look back–minus holidays or summer visits to the lake–to become solely focused on their new home and community. but you haven’t.
hopefully your example will encourage others to think critically, model to folks that it’s okay to challenge family and friends politically, and push people to realize that the “good ol’ boy” club does not equate effective leadership of a struggling state.
i have tremendous respect for this site. i haven’t agreed with everything you’ve said, and i don’t expect too. it would be weird if i did. what matters is that you want a better michigan, and so do i. thanks again.
omigoodness, this is the MOST FUN I”ve had in a few hours. I am SO impressed with your understanding of some of the folks in the race to be Michigan’s next Governor…KEEP IT UP and I am posting your link far and wide, friend! THANK YOU for your honesty (PS Maybe you’ve not talked politics w/ your family lately—W Mich has become an enclave of a LOT of little Ditto Heads….it’s amazing how partisan and angry they all are…Hoekstra is just helping fuel their perceived rage….
Wow, I’m a Stoke City fan from the UK and I just stumbled upon this website looking up football videos – YOU SIR, ARE A BLOODY LEGEND! Keep up the good work! When politics is taken out of the hands of ‘the proletariat’ and people like this Hoekstra of yours is profiteering from this whole climate of fear, the power needs to be taken back by any means necessary, and the internet is just as powerful a weapon as any nuke in this day and age. Hope that fascist gets whats coming to him!
Also, trying to ‘out’ you is very low. Looks like your politicians are just as big a bunch of crooks as ours…
Much peace & love from across the pond,
Rich
You must have a lot of hate for Hoekstra to attempt to influence an election that will not effect you.
You should stick to politics in California.
Thanks for attempting to expose ole Petey for the danger that he is! Keep up the good work and don’t be intimidated by the illegal espionage his secretive thugs.
Ben,
I too remember the ’92 campaign and the impression of optimism and idealism when shaking Pete’s hand at the Tulip Time parade on Van Raalte Ave when he said he wasn’t like the other career politicians. But the moment he took office it was a different story and every time I think back on it I feel like I should wash my hand.
Pete is dangerous for America so please keep this site to keep reminding people of what he really is. I’m glad he was defeated in this 2010 Governer’s race, but I suspect it won’t be long before he tries again for political office. He’s addicted to it.
This is not the time for Hoekstra bashing! Realize now that Republicans are not in control anymore otherwise this monstracity of a Health Care bill would have never passed. We need experience in Congress and especially ranking members of committees to squash the Democrat’s agenda. A freshman congressman his/her first year is too busy trying to find adequate staff and the restroom in the Capital. I lived in Washington for 4 years and its not what you know or where you are from, but the people/contacts you meet along the way. Its all about getting things done the old fashioned way.
As a former michigander, it’s people like Pete that made it easy to leave
Hi Ben, I live in West Michigan. We’ve met and have mutual friends. I found this -”your”- website while looking for info on Pete Hoekstra. Our political views are very similar.
Two thoughts:
1. I think Hoekstra’s SuperBowl ad was offensive and he should be ashamed of himself.
2. I think that registering and using a domain name of another person or entity against them is dishonest and probably should be illegal. You should be ashamed of yourself.
That guy makes me want to puke!
Hope Debbie blows him out of the water.
Dear Todd: It’s ironic that you would condemn Hoekstra’s ad but not say it should be illegal, but then turn around and condemn another method of free speech, a domain name and a blog.
There’s nothing illegal or dishonest about using a domain name. Pete Hoekstra does not own any rights to a name shared by many around the world. It’s not a trademark. He should have bought it when he had the chance. It’s fair game and free speech in both cases.