Ellie Light speaks … and speaks … and speaks ….
posted at 9:30 am on January 25, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
I have followed the story of “Ellie Light” with a mix of fascination and amusement, for a couple of reasons. First, Astroturfing campaigns to get letters printed in newspapers are nothing new, but rarely have been as successful as we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks. Until the Cleveland Plain Dealer blew the lid off “Ellie Light” and people like Patterico began digging, an inordinate number of newspaper editors couldn’t spot the frauds.
That brings me to my second reason, which was that I had been receiving these astroturfing e-mails all along and sending them to my spam folder, which is generally where they belong. They looked to me to be the equivalent of what we call in talk radio “seminar callers,” people who plague talk-radio shows and work off of scripts in order to get someone else’s propaganda on the air. Why “Ellie” would send these to a blog that doesn’t print letters from readers is anyone’s guess, but I assume it was part of a shotgun approach that succeeded beyond Ellie’s fevered imagination with newspapers. Only one of the “Ellie Light” e-mails remained in my inbox, which pushed for a humanitarian response to the crisis in Haiti and was apolitical. I sent that over to Patterico along with the source code, and he got some interesting information from it.
Yesterday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Ellie Light sent them a follow-up e-mail explaining herself:
In a Sunday morning e-mail to The Plain Dealer, Light denied speculation that she’s actually President Obama, his wife, Michelle, or National Security Council member Samantha Power.
“I’m flattered, and I must give the Tea Partiers credit for even knowing who [Power] is,” Light’s e-mail said. “But what I want to point out is that, if I were a person trying to imply this huge groundswell of support for our beleaguered president, then I would have signed the letter with different names. However, as you may have noticed, my main point is that absence of support for the president.
“I am not surprised that an article that tends to discredit a pro-Obama letter-writer has lots of readers. I understand that there are 10 million dittoheads that daily scour the airwaves, print and online press for something nasty to say about the president, so I’m sure your article will get more hits,” she wrote in another e-mail later Sunday. “I’m not sure why you would write me that people would probably be interested in what I have to say. My impression is that my letter could contain Chinese food recipes with a Pro-Obama subject line, and the event would be interpreted as fodder for that same highly-motivated, but narrow class of people.”
I hate to rain on the CPD’s parade, but Ellie also wrote to me … and everyone else on her list, I’d bet. The content is a bit different, perhaps a little more baiting, but otherwise the same kind of clueless writing style that made her and her cohorts, whose missives I’ve also received, obvious “seminar writers.” Instead of using Ellie’s message, I’ll just open up the message header (with my info redacted) and see if that helps anyone track Ellie down:
From – Mon Jan 25 06:42:56 2010
X-Account-Key: account11
X-UIDL: UID204928-1203640919
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
X-Mozilla-Keys:
Return-path: <ellie.light@yahoo.com>
Envelope-to: hotair@edmorrissey.com
Delivery-date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:38:46 -0500Received: from tosh-PC (host11-164-dynamic.59-82-r.retail.telecomitalia.it [82.59.164.11])
by (Postfix) with SMTP id DBC0C1E1C6AB
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:38:30 -0600 (CST)
Received: from [82.59.164.11] by web335.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 25 Jan
2010 12:22:20 GMT
Message-Id: <TP4BAHOV.52UJRH7@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:22:20 -0400
From: “Ellie Light” <ellie.light@yahoo.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla 2.0 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Let’s try the open-source method and see if that works.
Update: Dan Riehl has been doing some sleuthing as well — and gets an Ellie Light comment that is almost identical to the e-mail I received this morning.
Update II: Little Miss Attilla got the same message Dan and I got.
Blowback
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Technically, they are inside their own loop.
We aren’t causing this tailspin, we’re only watching it.
logis on January 25, 2010 at 10:19 AM
I doubt it was Axelrod directly, but I doubt this is a single determined activist… it’s probably some contracted out PR company…
ninjapirate on January 25, 2010 at 10:19 AM
Ed – I think there are at least 2 people compiling the letters – a main writer and a proofer. It’s pretty likely that one has already said something to someone.
Frankly they did a very poor job on content, their initial letter is an anemic persuasive argument. And the excerpts from the follow-ups are typical ruminations on a long running themes. This is why they were published and overlooked. Their desire for recognition is why used the same name over & over – otherwise no one would have even noticed the letter.
The person(s) involved in this want to be “caught”, they want to be thought of as clever.
batterup on January 25, 2010 at 10:20 AM
The saddest part of the story is the part that will never be told. And that is how op-eds publish so few articles from conservatives and cherry pick the choicest pro-Obama stuff.
It is all Pravda.
The art of selling is to not look like you’re selling but just making a good case. To do this you want to look unbiased so you’ll even agree that you competitor/opponent has some good points. The MSM is uniquely positioned to do this under the cover of “journalistic integrity”
TheSitRep on January 25, 2010 at 10:22 AM
So, if Ellie Light is explaining herself to the CPD, is she also going to answer to other news organizations that have published her missives?
Politico, Washtimes?, Staunton News Leader et al.?
There are nearly 4 dozen other editorial staffs that have some answering and fact checking then reporting to do on this story.
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 10:25 AM
At least she’s more polite than most Obamabots. She used the term Tea Partiers instead of Tea Baggers. I think that pretty much rules out anyone at Daily Kos or HuffPo.
vsatt on January 25, 2010 at 10:28 AM
telecomitalia.it is Italy
It does trace thru Amsterdam
J_Crater on January 25, 2010 at 10:30 AM
Looks like our lovely new friend, ‘Ellie’, is in love with the word “I”. To think I’m actually stoking their ego by writing this.
RepubChica on January 25, 2010 at 10:31 AM
The IP addresses are coming from multiple places (Italy, Saudi Arabia, etc.). They’re either doing IP spoofing or using a SPAM relay to cover their tracks. That doesn’t make them untraceable but it takes resources to find the originator.
Daggett on January 25, 2010 at 10:32 AM
82.59.164.11 is registered to Pisa, Italy, according to this site.
Plug in the IP address and it sends you a map of Pisa…
Scranton on January 25, 2010 at 10:33 AM
Ellie light
l.e. light
Liberal Elite light
Light = illumination
Ellie Light is the illumination of the ideas of the liberal elite.
Mo2Do on January 25, 2010 at 10:34 AM
I wonder if Gibbs will get a question on it today.
barnone on January 25, 2010 at 10:35 AM
Patterico, if you’re reading this, check your email.
Abby Adams on January 25, 2010 at 10:35 AM
Who is Ellie Light mmmm mmmmm mmmmmm
Dr Evil on January 25, 2010 at 10:36 AM
It went through a Toshiba PC, and is getting a dynamically allocated address in Italy via Telecom Italia… that is not the most likely set-up for something like a TOR multi-level referral out system (not impossible, just not something you would want to dedicate a laptop to do). As it is a dynamically handed out address behind a static IP address, that indicates access to the Telecom Italia system to get verified to get such a dynamic address.
As an example I use a DHCP router at home to masquerade multiple machines behind a static IP address, so you would get the static IP address as part of that but the strong possibility of a masquerade also coming through attached to it as the base address.
While it is impossible to rule out something like a TOR enabled machine behind the firewall in Italy handing out addresses from that machine via the telecom system, it is damned unlikely. More likely is a Toshiba laptop with cell phone plug in device that also allows TCP/IP so one can pick up internet capability on the go via a laptop connection. Either way you get a long term Telecom Italia subscriber doing this (either directly from the laptop or running a TOR interface for others to use). That doesn’t remove spammers from the equation, of course, but the simplest explantion is the best… someone in Italy using a cell phone adapter (or ISDN/DSL home adapter) picking up dynamic addresses in Italy to post messages and e-mail.
Anyone in the Obama camp taking a vacation the last week or so in Europe?
ajacksonian on January 25, 2010 at 10:40 AM
I don’t know how to confirm this one, but I read it yesterday, and found it really interesting…
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/01/doj_hires_bloggers_as_propagan.html
capejasmine on January 25, 2010 at 10:41 AM
These people are Marxists, so why is anyone surprised by any of this?
The conservative blogosphere alone is absolutely infested with Ellie Lights – trolls who show up for a day or two; posting a 2-3 sentence diatribe that consists of “Republicans are racist” or “Bush did it!” talking points; and never responding when their lies are refuted.
The fact that their efforts are being exposed more and more often is truly the most heartening thing I see in our political landscape. Control of the information channels – and most especially, the news media – is the Left’s lifeblood…without it, they simply cannot sustain their lies.
That media dominance is unraveling; hence, their utter desperation to jam through as much uber-statist legislation as possible. They know that, in another 20 years, they’ll be facing a much more well-informed citizenry – so they’re doing everything they can to yoke as many of those citizens to the entitlement cart as possible.
Keep your feet dug in and keep fighting, folks. We just need to hold the line until our fellow Americans catch up with us…20 years may seem like a long time but it really isn’t.
rvastar on January 25, 2010 at 10:42 AM
First of all, no disrespect to the mighty El Rushbo, but some of us are also HotAirheads as well. But the sheer mention of the word “dittohead” is a tell that this had to come from the White House. Just another continuation of waging war with Rush and those of us who listen to the once true leader of the GOP. LOL!
And yes most of us do know who Powers is. We also know how many states there are, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and the difference between a terrorists or a bank robber. One gets a warp speed ticket to visit a CIA intelligence gatherer, and the other gets his Miranda Rights read to him by either the FBI or a local cop. Major mistake of the Left to constantly assume we are 1) a bunch of mind numbed robots and 2) just flat out stupid.
freeus on January 25, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Why is Ellie Light hiding his/her identity?
There is nothing wrong with supporting and defending the president. There was nothing dangerous, anti-American, threatening or defamatory in what this person wrote. It is completely understandable for this person(s) to be an ardent supporter of the President, there is nothing wrong with that.
However, why the anonymity?
There is nothing illegal about emailing dozens of newspapers in support of the President.
What is the motivation to hide that support of the President through pen names and track covering through email tricks?
In this country, you have the freedom to support or not support the President and there is little reason to mask your identity or your location–unless there is something more to hide?
What is it?
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Ya know, Ellie’s slightly rambling style doesn’t sound unlike AnninCA.
Hmmmmm…
eeyore on January 25, 2010 at 10:48 AM
Ellie will be at the SOTU address.
She will be wedged tightly into the seat next to Queen MO.
Obumble will give her a shoutout.
justltl on January 25, 2010 at 10:52 AM
this was sent to the Staunton News Leader in response to Ellie Lights post on 15 JAN.
I have not had a response yet but would encourage others to pursue other editors in similar fashion.
PS> write your own damn request, will ya ;)
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 10:53 AM
+100 Ted.
JusDreamin on January 25, 2010 at 10:55 AM
lol, Ted Ted Ted, that’s not how it’s done :)
JusDreamin on January 25, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Scour? Finding reasons to hate this President and his policies is hardly a task of Hurculean proportions!
highhopes on January 25, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Classic. The entire conservative blogosphere is reduced to scampering around the e-globe and making lame wisecracks while “Ellie Light”, a single manufactured entity, makes fools of us all.
jay12 on January 25, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Perhaps it was more orchestrated than just writing letters. I wouldn’t put it past the editors to be on particular mailing lists that “special requests” could be made through. Just seeing how my local paper handled its online forum posting rules right when the healthcare debate started being heavily discussed makes me wonder about this potential. Why the need to change the forum from no-time-limit threads in which links and facts can be posted and discussed to strict 24 hour limit on each LTE that start at 3am and leave time for little more than name calling?
I suspect Ellie got a wink and a nod from more than one high-up newspaper employee.
rogerb on January 25, 2010 at 11:05 AM
-
Would appear to be relatively old browser running on a Mac.
-
-
-
Mac-compatible Toshiba laptops appear to quite rare. Toshiba had some available for a time prior to 2008.
-
So Ellie seems to be using reasonably rare hardware and software. Although the entire thing could be a virtual machine in which case the clues are all meaningless. Somehow I don’t think Ellie is on the technological cutting edge….
Metanis on January 25, 2010 at 11:07 AM
I think what you should deduce from this is that this person, Ellie Light, is obviously not a sweet old woman writing letters to the newspapers of the world to defend Obama. Sweet innocent old ladies don’t try to hide their location with proxies.
tflst5 on January 25, 2010 at 11:09 AM
More likely the user agent is messed with… Ellie Light has already routed their IP address through a confirmed Saudi bot net and an IP in Italy…
ninjapirate on January 25, 2010 at 11:13 AM
That’s NOT the Ele Lite I thought I knew.
Roy Rogers on January 25, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Classic. The entire Marxist nutroots is reduced to scampering around the e-globe and pretending they’re someone else, as writing as themselves is too scary, making lame “Ellie Light” letters, a single manufactured entity, making fools (as if today’s J-School types can be made any bigger fool of) of newspapers.
Fixed
MNHawk on January 25, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Update: I’ve sent Patterico some possible information on Ellie Light, including her real name and a picture. I am 95% certain that it is her, but don’t have quite all the tech skillz to connect all of the dots. I don’t want to give away too much, but if he can fill in some gaps, stay tuned.
:-)
Abby Adams on January 25, 2010 at 11:16 AM
If Ellie is a single, Obama supporter, then why the need to cover her tracks and lie about the location. Can someone live in Ohio (?) and be an Obama supporter and express that support by using their own, official residence when writing to a newspaper in a different state? Sure–nothing wrong with that.
What was it that these newspapers found so compelling about this singular author that allowed this letter to keep getting repeatedly published? Either this was pure literary genius and it coincidentally grabbed the attention of these editorial departments, or there was some other external influence that compelled them to publish this letter?
It is unlikely that this author struck gold 4-5 dozen times just by simply filling out an online form and mailing newspapers. I could see 1-3 getting published, but 47? Come on! She may not be directly working for someone, but could someone be influencing someone else to “consider” letters from certain “sources” a little more heavily than others?
That’s a possibility.
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 11:18 AM
What is clearly evident is Ellie Light is following everything written about her.
Sue on January 25, 2010 at 11:20 AM
Using the same name allowed the campaign to easily track the number of times the letter was published. It’s similar to retailers telling listeners of a radio program to use a code word when ordering to get a special offer, it helps the advertiser to track the volume of business it receives from various media outlets.
Especially since so much was printed in small local markets and overseas, they probably figured no one would notice.
obladioblada on January 25, 2010 at 11:21 AM
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 11:18 AM
In Memphis, there was Boss Crump. In New York, there was Tammany Hall. In Washington, we have The Obama Administration featuring Axelrod and the astroturfing Troll Brigade(TM).
kingsjester on January 25, 2010 at 11:23 AM
You know what just occurred to me? The pseudonym being used sounds awfully similar to the one of the main character in Death Note. Light.
I think this a** clown who is writing these letters has a god complex. That being said, I think the writer feels like he is able to control what readers think.
Just a thought.
madmonkphotog on January 25, 2010 at 11:26 AM
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/21/did-obama-use-the-nea-to-stump-for-obamacare/
Abby Adams on January 25, 2010 at 11:27 AM
The main point is the 64 different home addresses and the incompetence of the local papers.
mankai on January 25, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Sorry bout that —^
Abby Adams on January 25, 2010 at 11:28 AM
The last Received: header is actually the first one added:
Received: from [82.59.164.11] by web335.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP
That is Ellie’s machine using IP address 82.59.164.11 talking to Yahoo’s email server. Ellie’s IP address was dynamically assigned. I guess there’s ways to spoof that, but it definitely appears she’s posting from Italy.
Molon Labe on January 25, 2010 at 11:28 AM
Gotta love the condecending nasty and dismissive tone of her followup answers. Pretty typical.
ldbgcoleman on January 25, 2010 at 11:28 AM
This was in the comment section on Newsbusters Ellie Light identified?
Too Funny
Dr Evil on January 25, 2010 at 11:29 AM
Are you kidding me? This has been the democrats M.O. forevah!! What do you think welfare, social security, medicaid/medicare is? ‘Entitlement’ minded people, created and nurtured by the democrats, love their creators as long as the money doesn’t dry up…
Ltlgeneral64 on January 25, 2010 at 11:29 AM
Does this type of writing fall into the category of “asks” that the NEA was going to make on artists/musicians/writers(?) before Yosi Sargent went by the wayside? I know messaging was an extraordinary part of the Obama campaign and they swarmed multiple outlets–text messaging, emails, video, music, art–with products favoring Obama.
It is simply troubling that, if Obama is such a great candidate and President, then what is there to hide behind? Why the anonymity? Why the lying about residency and the emails getting covered up? If Obama is doing so well and in need of support, then it would seem that his supporters would be willing to do that publicly and honestly. I think that would help substantiate their case for the President a lot more.
However, anonymous email spamming that appears to shore up support (in locations where support may be waning or nonexistent) by authors lying about their place of residence does not do the President any help at all. If the President has to rely upon anonymous letter writers for support, then both the letter writers, and the President, have some very real problems.
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 11:30 AM
Heh…
OmahaConservative on January 25, 2010 at 11:30 AM
We were promised a magic wand… it cost $800 billion and it was supposed to magically stop unemployment from rising above 8%… and bring it down to close to 7% by 1Q 2010.
Magic time!!
mankai on January 25, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Your concern is noted.
Seriously, though, I think the fact that this person lied to a couple dozen editorial boards ought not go unmentioned in any continued discussions.
DrSteve on January 25, 2010 at 11:33 AM
At The Corner:
mankai on January 25, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Italy huh, who lives in Italy? George Clooney is Ellie.
farright on January 25, 2010 at 11:44 AM
Ed, you’ve been promoted. Now, Hotair works for you.
neurosculptor on January 25, 2010 at 11:46 AM
@Ed
on cursory analysis:
This is the browser identification of “Ellie Light”. It’s spoofed: “User-Agent: Mozilla 2.0 (Macintosh; I; 68K)” means that s/he would be using an Apple computer manufactured around 1996! However, the machine name of the client says it’s a “tosh-PC”, i.e. a Windows PC incapable of running the Apple operating-system from 1996.
More:
* the IP belongs to a DSL reseller called “Alice”, popular in Europe
* that IP address range is known to be used as a “leased” gateway by TOR users, i.e. for anonymizing internet access
Niko on January 25, 2010 at 11:50 AM
This is what the 0ne would call “transparency”. But I don’t think he understands the meaning of the word. Although, I will say, for those of us who refused to drink the kool-aid, he is, and was from the beginning, transparent. We saw right through him.
4shoes on January 25, 2010 at 11:50 AM
Okay. I think the answer is in the name. I’m thinking a Yale person. Probably works on or runs the Yale newspaper.
Redglen on January 25, 2010 at 11:53 AM
Whoever this person is, his/her respectful use of the term “Tea Partier” is interesting. Before Massachusetts, “teabagger” was the preferred pejorative term used by the Left. Only after Brown’s shocking victory did the Obama Clown College finally acknowledge that Tea Partiers weren’t an insular little circle of racist Southern rednecks that they could ridicule or ignore with impunity. I’ve sensed a newfound feigned respect for Tea Partiers (not “teabaggers”) among the White House thugocracy — hell, even Obozo himself now claims to be born of the Tea Party spirit of rebellion against the status quo. *Spit*
I suspect that “Ellie Light” is closely aligned with the Obozo Administration if not an actual member of it. Don’t forget that there is a huge pile of TARP slush funds just sitting around in Washington available for unaccounted use by this administration. I’ll bet my right arm that big chunks of it are being doled out to people like “Ellie Light”, along with detailed talking points that ensure that the “grassroots” support for Obama that they express will dovetail precisely with the administration’s current political posturing.
Obama and Axelrod are just thugs, and not even particularly clever ones.
Cicero43 on January 25, 2010 at 11:55 AM
I haven’t read all the previous comments, so I’m not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but Facebook has scrubbed its search engine so the “Who is Ellie Light?” group doesn’t show up on a search for “ellie light.” You have to do a search for “who is ellie light” to find it.
vermillionsky on January 25, 2010 at 11:56 AM
ACORN?
Dr Evil on January 25, 2010 at 11:57 AM
Ed, did you forward Ellie’s letter to fishy@whitehouse.gov? Linda Ellerbee (a name not unlike Ellie Light, interestingly) wants you to send all fishy emails to her, so that she can take your name down and put you on a list that will help your air travel in the future.
neurosculptor on January 25, 2010 at 11:57 AM
This person can change “her” name anytime she wants, misrepresent anything she wants to anybody she wants, and there is no way for us to stop it, trace it, or convince media to avoid printing it. We’re beginning to win despite Ellie Light, and that means there is a very large plurality of people who are identifying and rejecting “her” drivel.
Left-leaning publications are dishonest and have been for a very long time. They don’t care if they print letters from astroturf. Doing so is nothing compared to everything else they do.
jay12 on January 25, 2010 at 12:01 PM
Ellie – The Meaning of Ellie – (F)
Meaning: Light » Origin: Greek
Interesting. First name means last name in Greek.
Suspicious.
carbon_footprint on January 25, 2010 at 12:03 PM
The odds of this not being someone associated with the NEA are remote. This is not the language of someone from the PR/marketing world. The comment about Power to the PD speaks volumes. No PR flack or hired gun is going to be aware of her enough to speak in such a amazed tone that someone else knows who she is.
Batterup is right to deduce an editor or proofreader is involved.
The Italy IP is not the origin. Dagget is right about this.
As for the name, it’s an anagram for Eliter.
budfox on January 25, 2010 at 12:05 PM
Ellie Light =
L. E. Light =
Linda Ellerbee Light
She’s been bored and ticked off since that whole fishy fiasco.
neurosculptor on January 25, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Besides the NEA, wouldn’t this logically turn out to be a Plouffe assistant? It has his passive-aggressive tone.
budfox on January 25, 2010 at 12:08 PM
L Light? Ellie Light? Good shot on the reference.
The whole God complex thing was already obvious without it though.
Chaz706 on January 25, 2010 at 12:08 PM
literate?
OmahaConservative on January 25, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Ellie Light aka Harry Vederchi.
AltTuning on January 25, 2010 at 12:09 PM
eeyore:
I had the same thought. EL’s style very much resembles Ann-in-a-Can’s.
Dhuka on January 25, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Much like Obama’s campaign donations.
** insert big HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM here **
UltimateBob on January 25, 2010 at 12:22 PM
More on Tor here.
Forget the Italy connection. Red herring.
Molon Labe on January 25, 2010 at 12:24 PM
And, George Soros is greek.
Could there be a connection?
** insert another big HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM here **
UltimateBob on January 25, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Ed, the only truthful line in the header will be
a) the one you removed showing your mailserver being connected to by the Ellie Light border mailserver.
Return-path is added by your mailserver to indicate the RCVD FROM portion of the envelope.
All e-mail has the following information:
a) Connection info, which includes the local and foreign IP address pairs. This cannot be spoofed, because e-mail is delivered via TCP, which has a handshaking protocol, and the protocol would break to the point that the e-mail could not be delivered.
b) Envelope information, such as HELO/EHLO (text identity of sending server), RCPT (To:), and RCVD FROM (From:). Only RCPT must be correct, because if you don’t give a valid recipient e-mail address, the receiving mailserver does not know to whom to route the e-mail.
c) Header information, all of which can be falsified, and
d) Body information (the text of the e-mail, including any attachments). This is the payload the sender wants delivered for you to examine, for whatever purpose.
Your mailserver adds a (Received From:) header, detailing the connection information, as well as the EHLO/HELO salutation used to deliver the message; that is the line you removed.
Your mailserver also added “Envelope-to” from the RCPT portion of the envelope.
The Received lines in the text you provide are in the wrong order (should be latest handler first, with the lines going back in time), unless you reordered them while pasting.
My mailserver’s DNSBL blocks telecomitalia.it — it’s a known nest of spammers and scammers. If anything came out of there, it was probably anonymized out of recognition.
That someone is going to this trouble to fake headers indicates a criminal operation (or that these people have obtained copies of criminal-style mailers such as SpamBlaster). Normal mailers don’t do this stuff.
X-Mozilla-Keys indicates that you used a Thunderbird reader and placed the e-mail into a local folder (as opposed to using LDAP). If that header came in the e-mail, that’s a bug in the sender’s mail agent.
I can’t see anything that would give you the information you are seeking.
If you feel comfortable, put back in the missing “Received” line but remove YOUR mailserver (the “by” portion) from that line. Then we’ll have a real piece of data to go on.
unclesmrgol on January 25, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Hungarian.
neurosculptor on January 25, 2010 at 12:29 PM
4Chan?
Dr Evil on January 25, 2010 at 12:36 PM
Cool. That is my local rags web site. I searched it many times and found nothing. Good job. I have sent tips to local tv media to see if they will cover this.
kahall on January 25, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Once you find Ellie, will someone please tell me where in the world is Carmen San Diego?
Wyznowski on January 25, 2010 at 12:49 PM
If “Ellie” is a WH astroturfer, then it’s a given that her favorite uncle isn’t “Sam”.
Daggett on January 25, 2010 at 10:05 AM
How about “Uncle” Jeremiah Wright?
Buy Danish on January 25, 2010 at 1:08 PM
Egads. Sorry about that double strike. Let’s try that again:
How about “Uncle” Jeremiah Wright?
Buy Danish on January 25, 2010 at 1:10 PM
I guess this was my first thought (as a Yahoo mail user) when I saw Ellie’s Yahoo email address…what she is doing is TECHNICALLY a violation of the Yahoo Terms of Service – specifically Section 6g
This would most assuredly fall into the “spam” or “junk mail” categories…..
LL
Lady Logician on January 25, 2010 at 1:13 PM
I’ve seen several people comment this has been mostly in smaller, local papers but I read Ms. Light’s letter in this past Friday’s USA Today. She was a resident of Long Beach, Ca. How many hundreds (thousands?) of letters do you think USA Today receives and they picked Ellie Light’s letter also?
PatMac on January 25, 2010 at 1:31 PM
Dr Evil – Seems as likely as not.
SarahW on January 25, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Omaha – that’s the way I first read it, also, but they’re trying for “Elite”, but Lighter is the more common surname than Light so IMO, they truncated it or else it would read “E-liter(ate)”.
budfox on January 25, 2010 at 2:04 PM
Here is the WHOIS information from ARIN via RIPE on the originating IP address (82.59.164.11):
inetnum: 82.56.0.0 – 82.59.255.255
netname: TELECOM-ADSL-6
descr: Telecom Italia S.p.A. TIN EASY LITE
country: IT
admin-c: BS104-RIPE
tech-c: BS104-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
remarks: ************************************************
remarks: Pay attention
remarks: Any communication sent to email different
remarks: from the following will be ignored!
remarks: Any abuse reports, please send them to
remarks: abuse@retail.telecomitalia.it
remarks: ************************************************
mnt-by: TIWS-MNT
mnt-lower: TIWS-MNT
mnt-routes: TIWS-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered
person: BBBEASYIP STAFF
address: MDBLAB
address: Via Val Cannuta, 250
address: I-00100 Roma
address: Italy
phone: +39 06 36881
e-mail: info@irnetco.net
nic-hdl: BS104-RIPE
mnt-by: IRNETCO-RIPE-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered
———————————————
Telecomitalia.it is a favorite launching point for professional spammers. In the past couple years I’ve sent at least 20 LART complaints to the abuse address listed above and never got a response.
Gideon7 on January 25, 2010 at 3:04 PM
Ellie = Letter to Editor (LE)
Gideon7 on January 25, 2010 at 3:05 PM
Patterico has his Axelturf step by step up on his site. Could it be that, on one end, supporters are encouraged to “use” that site and on the other end, news outlets are encouraged to use information/letters from that site? I doubt that there is a specific link from the WH to the “Ellie Light” then to the newspapers. I could be wrong though, although it is still awfully strange as to why someone would lie over and over again about their place of residence in writing something as innocuous as a letter of support for the president. You are entitled to your opinion, and we are entitled to either agree or disagree–but we’re very inclined to disagree when we are clearly being lied to. No one person can claim residence in 40+ cities simultaneously.
Why the lying about where you live Ellie?
Why are your email tracks covered so well?
If what you say is so true, then why hide the truth? It weakens your argument–an argument that could be supported or refuted with evidence may convince some that you are right, or refuted to show that you may be wrong. Hiding in anonymity and lying doesn’t help you, or the president.
ted c on January 25, 2010 at 4:42 PM
That was getalife who called us nascar fans. She also took cheap shots at Cornhuskers.
This is wrong…how? I take cheap shots at Cornhuskers.
The N is for kNowledge.
I R A Darth Aggie on January 25, 2010 at 4:49 PM
Ellie Light’s email to Ed is typical lefty shallow and inconsistent. It also has the typical ad-hominem right at the start. She may have had decent manners with using “Tea Partiers”, but she follow that up with a backhanded compliment questioning our intelligence.
She then goes on to attack the opposition with an accustaion that flies in the face of that earlier assertion:
Which is it, sweetheart? Do you really think after “Scouring the airwaves”, we would not come across Samantha Power?
Arrogant and ignorant is no way to go through life, honey.
JeffWeimer on January 25, 2010 at 4:49 PM
Forgive my slow and dimwittedness, but I am still unable to grasp the heightened level of inquisitiveness. It seems to me that someone wrote a letter, and instead of sending to just his/her local paper blanketed many publications then changed his/her locale for the attempt at authenticity. Probably used an assumed name (for a few reasons) but may have been sloppy about keeping the same one over and over.
Also, the amount of publications that decided to print them, admittedly at first seemed odd, but who knows how many attempts were made at others.
I still, even after reading up on the subject, just don’t get it.
anuts on January 25, 2010 at 4:55 PM
It’s the dishonesty in their attempt at authenticity.
From her second letter, it’s pretty obvious she thinks we’re stupid and probably didn’t think anyone would catch on. Now we want to find out if it is just one ham-handed activist or is it a coordinated effort by a pro-administration group?
JeffWeimer on January 25, 2010 at 5:12 PM
Let’s see:
.
1. Foreign location of sender …… probably anonymized beyond recognition, as pointed out earlier.
.
2. Virtually identical letters selected for publication in ~47 papers nationwide ……what are the odds?
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#2 is the link you seek.
.
There are 47 newsrooms and there’s bound to be at least one employee who’s tired of his local J. Jonah Jameson clown editor making him play “Envelope Licker Boy” or be put on the short list for layoffs.
.
This is the story to run with. Scream it from the rooftops. The newspaper industry is knowingly complicit in spreading political propaganda for a President who’s bound and determined to act aginas the will of the People.
.
Run thread after thread, mention editor’s and reporter’s names. Who selects letters to be published?
.
Did someone approach one or more editors to get the letter printed at the paper in question?
.
Was there a payoff involved? Many papers are going under, many newspaper employees are looking for jobs; who recently quit to take a new job, and where? Look for someone who went to a company that makes donations to political causes and politicians.
.
.
Sooner or later, someone will stumble on the truth or a pressure-point that makes someone talk. Perhaps the wrong guy will get cut, and decide to talk.
.
My guess is that pressure on the various editors to prove their “journalistic integrity” will yield the best and fastest results.
.
Arbalest on January 25, 2010 at 5:16 PM
People that want to hide their identity use something called a Proxy Server. Proxy servers hide your identity by obscuring your actual IP address.
Remember when that kid gained access to Sarah Palin’s email account? He only used a single proxy server and was scared that he was going to get caught. (he was.) If he had used at leasts two proxy servers he would not have been caught,
Why would network traffic from someone in the US travel to Italy and then back to the US for delivery to another US address? Bottom line: it wouldn’t.
However, proxy servers are often configured to intentionally route traffic all over the world in order to make it difficult to trace message origins. This is what the sender of these messages was doing. Intentionally obscuring his/her address to avoid being detected.
Astroturf at its finest. I pray that we find the source of this and that it leads straight to the White House.
cannonball on January 25, 2010 at 5:44 PM
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