OFA is source of astroturfed letters

Organizing For America (barackobama.com) ^

[JimWayne]

http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout has various calls for writing letters on several topics. Many letters on this site appear verbatim in various publications. Examples:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/YouthLTE?js=false&zip=12345

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22In+most+states%2C+companies+are+permitted+to+charge+a+22-year-old+woman+1.5+times+the+premium+of+a+22-year-old+man.%22&filter=0
The google result gives several links with sentences in them that are identical to the astroturf website of Teleprompter Jesus. e.g.: "In most states, companies are permitted to charge a 22-year-old woman 1.5 times the premium of a 22-year-old man."

Also click on the link to support Sotomayor

http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/SotomayorLetter?js=false&zip=12345

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22She’s+also+credited+with+saving+baseball.+In+1995,+Sotomayor+effectively+ended+the+baseball+strike+by+issuing+an+injunction+against+major+league+baseball+owners.%22&filter=0
Here the letters are verbatim as on OFA website.

[Tunehead54]

Bump! ;-)

[Billthedrill]

A BTT. Busted.

[gitmo]

OFA stands for Obama Forking America.

[narses]

+

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[kalee]

ping

[fullchroma]

Oh, and I signed it "Reverend Wright" - was that a bad thing?

Bad thing? Heck no, it's effing brilliant.

[Rebelbase]

Write a letter about the climate crisis. http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/ClimateChange

Here is the first sentence: "No nation will be able to meet the challenges of growing the economy and creating jobs in the 21st century without a serious investment in green technology"

Google Hits: Results 1 - 10 of about 3,770 for "No nation will be able to meet the challenges of growing the economy and creating jobs in the 21st century without a serious investment in green technology". (0.17 seconds)

Another one: "Private banks are currently making huge profits by taking taxpayer money and acting as the middleman for millions of students."

Results 1 - 10 of about 407 for "Private banks are currently making huge profits by taking taxpayer money and acting as the middleman for millions of students.". (0.44 seconds)

[Palladin]

I just sent one to several NYC newspapers and USA Today. I used a popular Hispanic name.

Will we get busted?

[JimWayne]

You can get a single page version of each topic without having to fill in your personal details by either clicking on the link that says the form does not work for you or changing js=true to js=false in the URL. e.g.: http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/ClimateChange?js=false&zip=12345 gives you a single page version.

[JimWayne]

If you get busted, you claim that you now confess that it was all astroturfed by Obama’s website. :-)

[RonDog]

From www.associatedcontent.com:

Some questions obviously remain.

First, clearly Ellie Light, if she exists at all, is part of a scam designed to create an appearance of grass roots support for President Obama where it does not exist.

Is there an actual person named Ellie Light sending all of these missives?

Or, is Ellie Light a made up name on the part of some organization, possibly the White House itself, but also possibly some group working on behalf of the White House.

[Faith]

Thanks for the great post. Makes me feel like I need a shower after going to the links. Here are the Quick links that you cited:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout
http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/YouthLTE?js=false&zip=12345
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22In+most+states%2C+companies+are+permitted+to+charge+a+22-year-old+woman+1.5+times+the+premium+of+a+22-year-old+man.%22&filter=0
http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/SotomayorLetter?js=false&zip=12345
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22She’s+also+credited+with+saving+baseball.+In+1995,+Sotomayor+effectively+ended+the+baseball+strike+by+issuing+an+injunction+against+major+league+baseball+owners.%22&filter=0

[RonDog]

From that same website:

...how is it that so many newspapers, some of them quite prestigious, fell for the scam?

Most newspapers have procedures verifying that letters to the editor are legitimate, requiring phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses as contact info.

But strangely only the Cleveland Plain Dealer followed up before printing the letter.

[Faith]

I believe that Samantha Powers, wife of Cass Sunstein is considered by some to be Ellie Light. I’ll try to find the link.

[JimWayne]

Thanks. Didn’t realize that I needed to add the HTML code for the links to be clickable.

[greyfoxx39]

ALERT

[RonDog]

And, from patterico.com:

This post gathers links to letters by Ellie Light or Ellie Jeanne Light
written to newspapers or other online media sources as discussed in
Patterico’s posts here and here.

It will be updated with additions and corrections as we find them.

Current totals:

62 publications in 29 states and the District of Columbia.
3 national publications and a Yahoo link.
2 foreign publications.

[Lazamataz]

I posted this to Ms. Eaton's Cleveland Plain Dealer webblog.

[purplelobster]

Wow, Dems no longer need to have the ability to write or even think with the Barry-O-Matic propaganda letter writing software. The only skill required is copy and pasting. It’s extraordinary that this comes directly from Barry’s own website. It’s not enough that the editorial page of newspapers are stocked with delusional Obama cheerleaders, now the letters section of the paper is filled with letters written directly by Barry under the names of people who fraudulently represent the words as their own.

[JimWayne]

...how is it that so many newspapers, some of them quite prestigious, fell for the scam?

I guess when you send it from barackobama.com or democrats.org, it gets mailed directly to their contact person in the newspaper. Or else, it could be that if multiple people had sent the same letter, the newspaper would have caught it unless they decided not to catch it. If each newspaper received only one copy of the letter, that means this sort of stuff is done at the higher levels to avoid the mistake of sending the same letter with different author names to the same newspaper.