Not too long ago I saw a tweet from the venerable Ace Of Spades HQ about Sandra Fluke.

For some reason I decided after reading this tweet to find out just who Ace of Spades was, or more importantly, who was behind the Ace of Spades HQ tweets. Of course one starts out using available search tools, so I started at their wiki to see what was available. It mentioned several people work behind the scenes and post on the main website under their respective nicknames.  It also claimed that Ace had been on several Fox News programs, so I started looking for the person who claimed the Ace of Spades nick on Fox News. Of course none were found on Fox, all I ran across concerning Ace was the usual suspects of Michelle Bachmann and Michelle Malkin commenting about what Ace had said, or how some tweet or post from Ace somehow made their assertions as fact. So from there I decided to start digging into the background of Ace, and what I found out was very interesting. Turns out its a woman by the name of Michele Kerr and below you can read more about her.

Many of us who have read Ace of Spades tweets, posts, and various comments have always thought that Ace was a man. In fact, Ace is a woman. And that part startled me for a bit. Not that I have anything against women bloggers, be they right wing or left wing, but for some reason Ace always reminded me of a guy. At times, one of those fat beer guzzling guys sitting at the corner bar giving everyone a good stare and a talking to about his views on life, sports, and oh yeah, them Muslims out to get us. But in this case this was not to be. Ace it turns out was started by Michele Kerr. And Michele has quite a history online. Here are a few tidbits:

Stanford University: Education Program Tries to Keep Outspoken Student from Enrolling, Demands Access to Private Blog

http://thefire.org/case/799.html

Victory for Freedom of Speech at Stanford: Student Graduates Despite Ed School Efforts to Revoke Admission, Investigate Private Blog, and Declare Student Unfit for Teaching

http://thefire.org/article/10900.html

They Messed With the Wrong Blogger

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/07/they_messed_with_the_wrong_blo.html

Some of the things said in the Washington Post article piqued my interest and are underlined below:

I wish the supervisors of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) at that university’s School of Education had checked with me before they decided Kerr’s views and her blogging were inappropriate for a student in their program. They appeared to have decided her anti-progressive views were disrupting their classes, alienating other students and proving that she and Stanford were a bad fit. Kerr says they tried to stifle both her opinions and her blog, and threatened to withhold the Masters in Education she was working toward, based on their expressed fear that she was “unsuited for the practice of teaching.”

At times, Kerr has made her Stanford tormentors look silly. There is, for instance, the email Kerr sent to her classmates after the program’s director, Rachel Lotan, said some of her fellow teacher trainees found her “domineering and intimidating” and didn’t want to sit next to her in class.

“For those of you who wish to continue requesting that you not sit with me in practicum, make sure you mention the reason so that Rachel can build her case for the next time we do our little dance. ‘Rachel, I do not want to sit next to Michele in practicum. It has nothing to do with her views; she’s just a domineering, overbearing bitch.’ DOB. We could print up cards or something. Don’t Sit Me Next to the DOB!” she wrote. “I’ll continue being me, and those of you who feel uncomfortable can maybe learn how to speak up. Or not. Your call.”

She was almost 46, much older than most other STEP program admittees. Single, with a son in college, she had a long career as a business process management consultant, but began to tutor high school students struggling with difficult courses and standardized tests. She found she was good at it. Why not teach full time?

But in September, Kerr’s blog, “Surviving Stanford,” which she had routinely referred to in her STEP classes, became an issue. Kerr is an expert in online communities and privacy, and thought she understood the rules. On her blog, she praised Sequoia and never identified Sequoia students directly or recognizably.

I think this is the same theme that most right wing extremist bloggers use when confronted with their views being right wing or extremist. The first thing that comes out of them is that they have a First Amendment right to say whatever it is they are spewing, but somehow the liberal person that fights back doesn’t have such rights, and is often seen as threatening them or stalking them or victimizing them. Second: they always seem as if they are disruptive to what is considered the norm. And third: they are often domineering and intimidating, and always saying that others are trying to stop them from telling some truth that they and only they have and need to tell the world about.

So one might ask just how we came to these conclusions? Well, it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t that hard either. It all started with looking at the domain breadcrumbs and going from there.

Domain Name………. aceofspadeshq.com

  Creation Date…….. 2005-01-06

  Registration Date…. 2005-01-06

  Expiry Date………. 2013-01-06

  Organisation Name…. Ace of Spades

  Organisation Address. P.O. Box 3638

  Organisation Address. —

  Organisation Address. Santa Clara

  Organisation Address. 95055-3638

  Organisation Address. CA

  Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

 

Admin Name……….. J.M. Kerr

  Admin Address…….. P.O. Box 3638

  Admin Address…….. —

  Admin Address…….. Santa Clara

  Admin Address…….. 95055-3638

  Admin Address…….. CA

  Admin Address…….. UNITED STATES

  Admin Email………. aceofspadeshq@yahoo.com

  Admin Phone………. +1.4082304624

At first I thought J.M Kerr was a man, so I went at it looking for J.M. Kerr. But as this rabbit hole went deeper I ended up with this:

Billing Contact Name:                        J.M. Kerr

Billing Contact Organization:                JMK Enterprises

Billing Contact Address1:                    750 W. Greenwich Court

Billing Contact City:                        Palo Alto

Billing Contact State/Province:              California

Billing Contact Postal Code:                 94304

Billing Contact Country:                     United States

Billing Contact Country Code:                US

Billing Contact Phone Number:                +1.4082304624

Billing Contact Email:                       perfecto@theperfectworld.us

The Perfect World.us. Well that site is also linked in the main blogroll of Ace Of Spades HQ website. And now I had JMK Enterprises to look into. Of course what I didn’t know was that the ownership was staring me right in the face with the phone number. But before I called it I dug deeper and ended up here:

THEPERFECTWORLD.US

Domain ID:                                   D2705349-US

Sponsoring Registrar:                        R&K GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES, INC. (000DOMAINS.COM)

Registrar URL (registration services):       whois.domains.com

Domain Status:                               ok

Registrant ID:                               DOT-Y1UFSBQCTG4T

Registrant Name:                             JM Kerr

Registrant Organization:                     JMK Enterprises

Registrant Address1:                         19500 Pruneridge Avenue, #9202

Registrant City:                             Santa Clara

Registrant State/Province:                   CA

Registrant Postal Code:                      95055 3638

Registrant Country:                          United States

Registrant Country Code:                     US

Registrant Phone Number:                     +1.4082304624

Registrant Email:                            jmichelek@gmail.com

Of course I did the usual address searches, but the email stuck out at me on this domain. So what I ended up with was not a man, but someone named Michele, as is evident in the email for this domain above. Of course the phone numbers pretty much stayed the same throughout, and eventually I ended up calling it. It went to voice mail and revealed one Michele Kerr on the other end. So going through that I decided to look into it even further before I came to any solid conclusions about Michele. This is what sealed it for me, buried in a Google cache shows that Michele Kerr owned the email The Perfect World and was using it while going to Stanford:

 

Those who wish to see the actual email can go here: The one thing you will notice however is that the email to and from parts are missing in that email. However, Google cached it and left it as it was above where it is highlighted for all to see. This was in effect the smoking gun for me on who was running Ace of Spades HQ, and who started it and or owned it from the beginning. As one can easily see the email in question was Michele Kerr talking about the STEP program at Stanford that she was involved in, so from the above stories one can easily put two and two together.

So it is case closed on the anonymity of Ace of Spades. The real Ace of Spades is not a guy, and also has never appeared on Fox News either, which makes the Wiki about Ace wrong. Of course anyone can edit the wiki so its not hard to have it say whatever one wants it to say and get away with it. While I am sure Michele Kerr has a number of co-bloggers running the day to day operations, we now know who started Ace of Spades, and who really owns it, even though Michele tries hard to obfuscate the Ace of Spades HQ website with MN.NU domains and so forth. I will say this about obfuscating with .NU domains like MU.NU, that doesn’t really work Michele if you leave a trail of breadcrumbs all over the net leading straight back to you. Of course I guess you never really thought anyone would call you to find out or dig that deep into you either lol.

A few words to Michele Kerr:  No, you are not an expert on online communities and privacy as you told the Washington Post. You were really rather easy to find. Your trail of online breadcrumbs was also too easy to track. If that qualifies you as an expert, well, seems like experts these days are a dime a dozen.  From now on those who want to know who runs Ace of Spades HQ, well, your questions about it have now been laid to rest. If you don’t care or never cared, then this article will not matter to you. I will note that Ace was a very good friend of the late Andrew Breitbart, and also is a friend of John Patrick Frey of Patterico.com, as Frey has used Ace quotes a number of times in various posts that Frey has written. So this is just more of the connections between them being exposed for all to see.

18 thoughts on “Ace Of Spades HQ Unmasked”
  1. You make a few huge jumps in your investigation here. First, you jump from connecting this Kerr person to AoS connected sites to thinking she is Ace himself.

    Second, Ace’s voice is available online, I heard it during Weinergate, and its clearly a male’s voice, so your blogpost is either badly flawed or deeply disingenuous.

    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stranahan/2011/06/26/weinergate-betty-at-1230-with-guest-patterico – look at 49:20.

    As for wikipedia and alleged appearances on Fox, that is unsourced, yes. Not necessarily false, I can’t tell if its misinformation without looking farther. That info was added by an editor named “Scooge” a few years ago, they have edited the Ace article, Protein Wisdom, and Robert Stacy McCain. So they right righty blogs and may be connected to one or more of them.

    1. You make a few huge jumps in your investigation here. First, you jump from connecting this Kerr person to AoS connected sites to thinking she is Ace himself.

      The entire investigation wasn’t posted. Suffice it to say Kerr started AoS, ran it, owned it. It shows in the trail of crumbs left on the net.

      Second, Ace’s voice is available online, I heard it during Weinergate, and its clearly a male’s voice, so your blogpost is either badly flawed or deeply disingenuous.

      A number of people are now part of the AoS crew and can easily be said to be Ace or act as a spokesman for Ace which obfuscates the real person behind it. It isn’t deeply flawed or disingenuous to post the results of who is really behind AoS. The key is the constant use of the same phone number to show the ownership of each of the domains, from theperfectworld.us to other domains bought and paid for by Kerr, one can see the same exact pattern of ownership. Theperfectworld domain is also part of the AoS blogroll, and shows up as linked to the AoS HQ domains. The smoking gun was the email showing Kerr using theperfectworld domain as her email address while going to Stanford and while involved in the STEP program that Kerr had complaints about. That domain is also listed to JMK Enterprises which also is listed as the AoSHQ ownership trail. Both also use the same phone number for ownership.

      While it is not a stretch to say that today AoS is used by a number of people, the real ownership started with Kerr, and is probably still used to a large degree by Kerr who owns the domain as well as the other domains associated with it. That is one fact that cannot be changed. It is a FACT that Kerr does in fact own the AoS HQ domain, whether Kerr injects herself into the running commentary on Twitter and in other ares of the articles posted on the AoS website is unknown. However, that being said, I am sure that Kerr is a vocal part of AoS, and has been since its inception. Else why continue to build on the reputation that AoS brings to the table and still maintain ownership in the domain? It would have been easy for Kerr to just sell the domain to someone else if she did not wish to be a part of it anymore. But she has not done so, and instead continues to own the domain until it expires in 2013, which I am sure will be bought for even longer when the domain comes up for renewal.

      Domain Name………. aceofspadeshq.com
      Creation Date…….. 2005-01-06
      Registration Date…. 2005-01-06
      Expiry Date………. 2013-01-06
      Organisation Name…. Ace of Spades
      Organisation Address. P.O. Box 3638
      Organisation Address. —
      Organisation Address. Santa Clara
      Organisation Address. 95055-3638
      Organisation Address. CA
      Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

      Admin Name……….. J.M. Kerr
      Admin Address…….. P.O. Box 3638
      Admin Address…….. —
      Admin Address…….. Santa Clara
      Admin Address…….. 95055-3638
      Admin Address…….. CA
      Admin Address…….. UNITED STATES
      Admin Email……….
      Admin Phone………. +1.4082304624
      Admin Fax…………

      And:

      Domain Name: THEPERFECTWORLD.US
      Domain ID: D2705349-US
      Sponsoring Registrar: R&K GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES, INC.
      (000DOMAINS.COM)
      Registrar URL (registration services): whois.domains.com
      Domain Status: ok
      Registrant ID: DOT-F3A4GBSXES75
      Registrant Name: JM Kerr
      Registrant Organization: JMK Enterprises
      Registrant Address1: 19500 Pruneridge Avenue, #9202
      Registrant City: Cupertino
      Registrant State/Province: CA
      Registrant Postal Code: 95014
      Registrant Country: United States
      Registrant Country Code: US
      Registrant Phone Number: +1.4082304624
      Registrant Email: [email protected]
      Registrant Application Purpose: P1
      Registrant Nexus Category: C11
      Administrative Contact ID: DOT-LY0XHBFUPZ62
      Administrative Contact Name: JM Kerr
      Administrative Contact Organization: JMK Enterprises
      Administrative Contact Address1: 19500 Pruneridge Avenue, #9202
      Administrative Contact City: Cupertino
      Administrative Contact State/Province: CA
      Administrative Contact Postal Code: 95014
      Administrative Contact Country: United States
      Administrative Contact Country Code: US
      Administrative Contact Phone Number: +1.4082304624

      There is no escaping the above, and no matter how you slice it, Michele Kerr owns Ace of Spades HQ. It doesn’t really matter who she elects to be her public face or who she crews with or has on twitter or any other social network. The fact remains that Michele Kerr started Ace Of Spades HQ in 2005, and still owns it today. If you think you can refute those facts, you are welcome to try, else, own up to it and realize that Michele Kerr is the domain owner of Ace of Spades HQ.

  2. Hey Milowent, Ace sends men out to sometimes to be the public face of AceOfSpadesHQ, but Michelle is really Ace. It’s all part of her protection/disinformation game. I know this because I know one of those faces real well and he told me that she was doing everything to protect herself because she was working for school system in California and did not want to get fired or harassed by her supervisors. Michelle is very passionate but also very protective of her privacy.

  3. I have been reading Patterico’s tweets about Ace and he of all people should know that Ace does what Robert says –she puts people out in the public domain to keep people guessing and to keep her out of the limelight. I worked with Michelle recently and she took quite a hit over the Stanford hit and she has chosen to protect her income base over her political blogging. What is really crazy is that Patterico is now the right wing’s chief attack dog, protecting Zimmerman, Aaron Walker, James O’Keefe, and now Ace. He will steep to the lowest low to make sure slime are protected. It’s interesting that all the people he is protecting have been attacking blacks, Muslims and other non white Americans. Patterico is a friggin racist, pure and simple, and he hides behind his badge while strutting about belittling and bullying people. He is a weak man who thinks he can raise his stature by putting others down. What a slime monger.

    Come on Patterico, let’s see you make a video of Michelle Kerr telling the world that she has nothing to do with AceOfSpadesHQ. Oh, yeah, tell her to explain the emails and the registering of the domains while you are at it. You won’t do it because she won’t do it. Yeah, you might be able to get some “deep voiced” man to parade around and say he is Ace, but it’s all BS, just like you. You want to talk about fail, let’s talk about Derrick Bell, or about Andrew Breitbart raging like a lunatic at CPAC when he was diagnosed with heart disease and had a wife and four kids. Breitbart failed as a father, husband, and as a businessman. What good was all his hate and antics if he is dead and his wife and kids are left with memories of someone who would rather hate on people than take care of his health and his family. What a dumbass–the ultimate fail. But you, Mr. tough guy Patterico want to defend America’s most famous hater. You’re a dumbass too and you will probably croak from a massive coronary too because you spend all your time hating on people while your family suffers. As a female, let me tell you something–you are a really stupid man.

  4. It is always fascinating to read an account of something when one happens to know more than the average bear about the issue. It is astounding, and troubling, how often the “reported” facts don’t match up with reality.

    This is a classic case. Could even be a case study in how (not) to do investigative journalism.

  5. Phil is right. I’ve known both Ace and Michele Kerr online since 1998, and they are not the same person. Ace was interviewed on TV a few years ago, and though they did not reveal his name, he was on camera. He looks something like the guy who used to host that short-lived show called ROFL, Alex Koll. Maybe not–but more like than like Michele Kerr. Ace was not Internet savvy back in the day and likely had Kerr register the domain for him.

    When the WTC attack occurred–well before that domain was registered and before Ace was known by more than a few people as an online persona–he was in New York. Kerr was in California.

    See this thread as evidence that I know what I’m talking about re how long Ace has been around.

    1. Have no idea on Phil or his comments. However, to make a minor point, no one here said that Michele Kerr was in fact Ace. What we have said here is that Michele Kerr OWNED the domain AceofSpadesHQ, and for a long period of time Michele Kerr had a very interesting blogging career, which was noted on The Washington Post article on her, and was also a devout right winger. Some would say even extremist in her attitudes. We have read a number of her articles and felt that she had a very close resemblance to how Ace operates. And the fact that she owns the domain, and a number of other domains that are all referenced at the AceofSpadesHQ website, made us very suspicious that she was possibly using Ace as a cover. However, and this should be noted, the Ace nick and twitter handle and website, as we have stated, is run by a number of bloggers, and not just Ace. Thus, anyone could in fact be Ace and get away with it. The fact is that Michele Kerr OWNS the AceofSpadesHQ domain, and has complete control over it. And also she recently updated the site to cancel the redirect to ACE.MU.NU from AceofSpadesHQ.com, and blackholed the domain so it won’t redirect to the AceofSpadesHQ domain, and probably because we here at BU have been unmasking her ownership. Thus, and this is key, she is the controller behind AceofSpadesHQ, and we have stated that from the beginning.

      Also, I don’t buy Ace being some idiot when it comes to websites or making up a domain or even controlling it. Even if that were true, he has had plenty of time to learn enough about the web and have the domain changed over to himself. The fact that he hasn’t done this is very suspicious, especially since the website itself, and all relevant feeds from it are very web or net socially oriented. You can only get away with being stupid for so long before it becomes humorous when using that as an excuse. No matter, the point is made, and that point is as we have stated from the beginning: that the AceofSpadesHQ domain is owned and controlled by Michele Kerr who is an infamous blogger in her own right. The fact that others have been trying to cover up her ownership of the domain seems odd and almost surreal. And if she had no further use for the domain, then why keep holding onto it? Kind of suspicious in and of itself. And that is what we are probing here at BU.

      Thank you for your comment.

  6. Nicholas, I read the thread where someone named AceOfSpades commented in 2001. I really don’t know how that proves your point. Maybe Michelle posted those things. And your argument that Ace did not know how to register a domain is really kinda strange since anyone with a grade school education can do so, or call GoDaddy for assistance. But that’s not the point, instead of everyone being defensive about this, how about a little transparency. Since you know both Michelle and Ace, just have them come out and ID themselves along with their role in AOS. That will clear the air, but she needs to stop having her surrogates like Mr. Patterico making a fool of themselves by arguing that she is not Ace. If she owns and controls the domain, she is Ace no matter if she did it for another person. And if she did do it for another person, then say so by identifying that person and say simply that she was hired by him to register and maintain the domain. But to keep saying that she has nothing to do with Ace when its in black and white, and then expect us to believe she is not Ace just because she and you say that, is not going to fly.

    1. I have no dog in this hunt, but just wanted to make a few comments.

      There are a lot of computer illiterate people who seek help from others when it comes to web management. I’m a software engineer and I have probably over 100 domain names currently in my name that I simply hold on to and help manage for various friends and such. Concepts like DNS can get hairy fast. So totally plausible.

      Second, have you done a FOIA inquiry into Ace Corp? There is a company that owns the site and they collect ad revenue, etc. I think you’d have better success going in that direction. The owners of the LLC are public information. They are also required to list a mailing address, etc.

      I think though based on Ace’s way of speaking I think it’s a guy. If it’s a girl she’s masks it well by talking like a guy. I’m a fan of AOSHQ myself, although I get irritated from time to time, he’s more of a neoconservative than a conservative. Although with the economic winds and constant GOP backstabbing that tide seems to be turning slowly but surely.

  7. Texas: The link was to show that when I said I’ve known them for a long time (since 1998) I wasn’t just making that up. Michelle Kerr is also in that thread, by the way, under her normal pseud but I’m not going to say which one because that’s not my call. You can probably figure it out. If you want to see what AceOfSpades looks like, watch this Fox network interview with him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCU9Hs5sEy0. He’s interviewed about 40 seconds in. Your argument about domains is kind of contradictory. Do you think GoDaddy “is” all those domains it’s registered? I expect Ace is more Web savvy now than when he started his blog, but he’s never been a techie.

  8. Nicholas is largely correct.

    Ms Kerr is a fringe techie, while Ace’s tech skills rank somewhere lower than my dog’s. Kerr is a pretty kooky biddy who used to go by the pseudonym, CalGal. She clearly has issues that go far, far beyond her wingnut political bent.

    OTOH, Ace is pretty well-known. He’s a chubby little guy named Kevin.

    1. JadeGold is absolutely correct. Ace is Kevin, and Kevin is Ace. There’s a shit ton more information about him that’s readily accessible, too.

  9. This is a nice article about who registered a domain name. I always wanted to know that. I realize most people are more interested in who is the mind heart and soul behind the message, and they have teased you quite a bit, but I’m more of a collector of names of people that once registered a domain. It’s a hobby of mine. Thanks for putting so much time into it!

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