The Light Worker

This Ellie Light story is interesting. The Plain Dealer got it started and now Patterico and others are reporting. Oddly, Patterico quotes a story from Glenn Greenwald, the same blogger he once accused of sockpuppetry. The world has definitely turned upside down.

I don't know anything about the Light person but was familiar with the Sunstein paper (about inserting sock puppets or rogues into the communications system to defend government policies and knock down 'conspiracies') so the Greenwald story was going to give me an excuse to post this from Jack Cashill. The Light story is far more interesting at the moment.

Ellie doesn't seem to show up at any mid-south publications, including the Commercial Appeal, Memphis Flyer, Paducah Sun or Jackson Sun. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is now a pay site, so not sure there, but it does seem she's bypassing our red state paradise.

She (may be a he for all we know) could be anyone--your guess is as good as mine. I'm obviously an advocate of anonymity on the web and would never bust anyone for employing it, but sockpuppeting and fraud are entirely different matters (claiming to live in the regions where the letters are being printed, which is fraud). Recall that Congressman Grayson wanted a suit brought against the person that started this web site because they claimed to live in his district but did not. What this does prove is that getting a letter published in the paper doesn't require an actual address. How many other examples exist?

As to theory it's a good bet the person is just a rapid Obama nut doing their part for the Lightworker, maybe taking a cue after the Sunstein story broke. One might think an official would not carry on an email back-and-forth with the Plain Dealer columnist but one thing's for sure, the letter (and it's message) are now getting much wider play based on the mystery. But an official strategy? It just can't be.

Then again, the bizarre stories out of the creepy White House media office, such as Linda Douglass and her flag@whitehouse.gov (fishy); the Anita Dunn war on Fox News; and the reporter on the payroll are all rather Orwellian stories when taken in combination with Obama's socialist-leaning czar cabinet, so who knows.

MORE 1/24/10

I'm sure those interested in this story have already hit Patterico, Reihl, and Hot Air for updates, so I won't bother linking. My comment is on this link to the Baltimore Sun Chronicle page from Patterico, where an Ellie Light letter appeared--the sleuths are on to "Mark Spivey", but the whole page looks weird. The editor's note at tops says that due to volume they can't print them all, but one guy gets about 6 or 7 letters? And "Janet Leigh"? Is there anyone minding the store? Or are the store minders perhaps involved?