Head spinning and Angry

[Monkeyman]

Today i receive a card from Il State Senator Kirk W. Dillard . Front os this card it says I read about you in the news. Inside this card is a letter to the Editor with my name and address. Ok fine I do write a lot of letters that end up being printed by the newspapers. But here is what pisses me off I did not write this or ever would. It is a freeper letter using my name and address. I want you to hear this letter you tell how pissed off you would be.

Lost its way

The McCormick-Tribune ear may have had divergent stands but they all intertwined around one fact:

The Paper was conservative and Republican. That was its Strength; it stood for something, like it or not,and readers knew and expected, if not respected,this.

Other papers, especially the morphed Chicago Sun-Times ,were noted for a more liberal slant,and that was their strength, as well.

Readers were well-served by this dichotomy. Read one view, then another, and garner a perspective based upon the respective differences.

However, the Tribune long ago eroded into just another version of the liberal press and doing so lost its cachet.

And here insert my name and address. Now Kirk Dillard head of the State Republican Party in this card says to me YOUR RIGHT THE TRIBUNE IS VERY LIBERAL. Now at first I taught it was a joke. Its not and its not funny. Everyone who reads my letters I do get printed knows I am the Head of a Veterans Org. going after Republicans. So see why my head is spinning today and I been is one hell of a bad mood. I needed to talk to you people I know and respect to blow off steam.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Can you talk with the paper?

Seems to me it isn't right that they are printing LTTE with your name that you didn't write. They should, at the very least, print a retraction. As for the state senator....yuk.

[Monkeyman]

4. I did they will print my letter saying I did not write this drip

[rodeodance]

2. Have a FUN write back to your Senator (and send him examples of

your previous LTTE).

[mike_c]

3. contact the editor of the paper that published it IMMEDIATELY...

...and tell them that the letter was not sent by you. Also, contact your local district attorney. In some states it is illegal to misrepresent oneself that way-- this happened in one of our local papers recently and ended up crushing the reputation of the guy who did it (a locally well known liberal, as it turns out, who was firing off letters with other people's names and addresses on them).

[Monkeyman]

5. Local District Attorney worked in Kirk Office

I live in DuPage County most Republican County in Il. I will file Monday with Lisa Madagin States Attorney. But hell I feel like I been used and swiftboated .

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. I don't blame you for feeling the way you do

but fight back! Make sure the State's Attorney knows you are keen on following this up-and that you will let folks know how she handles the situation. As I recall, State's Attorney is an elective office, so she should be willing to fight for her constituents.

[Monkeyman]

11. Lisa would kill me Lisa Madagin Attorney General of the State

See head is spinning

[Fridays Child]

13. Good! File! Some freeper needs his ass kicked for this.

[rebel with a cause]

26. I feel for you

I live in the deep south of the state, really conservative federally, but we have mostly democrats when it comes to Congress, Senate and local offices. bush has a big backing here, well he did before the tide turned this year. I don't know how they feel about him now. I don't get out much, and I've learned not to talk politics when I do because I got tired of fighting with the right wingers.

Anyway, the paper is suppose to call you before they publish any letter credited to you, so you should be mad. I think I would send a letter to the newspaper the letter was about to and let them know the situation. Just a little payback for the one paper not checking out the source of the letter and using your info in error.
:evilgrin:

[alfredo]

6. Dillard could be a candidate for worst person in the world.

[Lurking Dem]

7. Mail fraud is a Federal crime.

[monmouth]

9. Palm Beach Post always, always calls me and checks to be sure it's

my letter. They know me well but still always check. The paper was very wrong here, my suggestion is to write your defense letter and make sure they put it in a prominent space so a retraction of "his" letter can be noted. Sorry this happened but am sure it will be rectified with some follow-up.

[EFerrari]

17. They're supposed to check. What on earth happened here? n/t

[Fridays Child]

10. I second what mike_c says about contacting the DA.

What happened to you is nothing short of criminal libel, in my opinion.

[karlrschneider]

12. Every LTTE I've had printed was after they called me on the phone to make sure

I wrote it. Hmmmm.

[Monkeyman]

14. They call me too Thats why I am upset

I get printed a lot because of my stand on Veterans Issues. I also send a copy to my friend in Nancy's office

[China_cat]

15. but you can also put in your own phone number

and, if you have caller id, answer as the letter writer. It's real easy to fake

[Monkeyman]

18. Didn't think of that

[karlrschneider]

25. Yeah, I suppose so...seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to

facilitate a shitty trick on someone. Maybe whoever did it has some kind of personal grudge...?
Weird.

[China_cat]

31. If someone's going to go to the trouble to make it look like

you wrote something you didn't, do you really think they aren't going to go all the way to make sure your name gets smeared?

[LeftishBrit]

16. First of all, is there any possibility that there is someone with the same or similar name to

yourself who did write this (very stupid) letter, and that you're being confused with him? If so, then it should be sorted out as soon as possible!

If someone really wrote the letter with their own ideas and signed your name to it, then that is bloody disgusting - maybe even sue-able. I have come across such things once or twice before, when an academic editor introduced his own ideas into an author's chapter without attribution; and the ideas were basically "My rival Professor Bloggs' work stinks and is a load of rubbish, yar booooooo!" expressed in slightly more academic jargon. I call such actions - where someone falsely attributes his own writings or ideas to someone else - "reverse plagiarism"; and they aren't any better than the ordinary sort of plagiarism. You have every right to make a fuss. Good luck with getting this sorted!

[Monkeyman]

19. Thanks I am not letting go of this

[benddem]

20. I don't blame you

where do you live in DuPage Co? I escaped from there years ago. B'Ville

[Monkeyman]

21. Darien

[benddem]

22. Never heard ot it

must be a new "village."

[Monkeyman]

27. Na just 20,000 people right next to Westmont

[Little Wing]

23. That's one comma abusing asshole

[never cry wolf]

24. Did he really write "YOUR RIGHT" seriesly!

as opposed to you're right of course.

[Monkeyman]

28. Yep word for word

Kirk loved it

[never cry wolf]

33. They must require repukes to unlearn english

Totally freeperish!

[Dastard Stepchild]

29. The Tribune... liberal?

Really? I mean, I know that is not the intent of your post, but I am just moderately surprised that someone could look at the Tribune and think, "Hmmmm... liberal claptrap." If anything, its editorialists swing very much to the right, with little effort to hide this slant.

Perhaps your best course of action is to contact the paper - perhaps they can help you track down the original LTTE and you could clear things up with them. And a letter to your Senator to clarify that it wasn't you might help, too.

This wasn't one of those mailing list cards, though, was it? My father has received such mailings on the basis of what we assume to be is living in a majority Republican county. They always suggest some degree of familiarity and even hint at his prior support, even though it has never been the case for him.

[Monkeyman]

30. Chicago Tribune is hard right

At least thats the way I feel.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

32. This Makes Zero Sense Logically. Either The Editor Accidentally Put In The Paper The Wrong Name And

address (like an accidental swap, maybe one of your letters has someone else's name), or someone with your name and address wrote it (which of course, would seem illogical as well).

If someone were to write an LTTE as a joke using your name and address, it is almost certain that it would've been done in a far more revealing way.

Why would someone use your name and address for such a benign topic? Does that make sense to you? We may not agree with the premise of the letter, but it is written in decent and somewhat intelligent manner and there is nothing about it that would imply ill intent or vindictiveness. If someone wanted to intentionally send an LTTE masquerading as you in an attempt to make you look bad, it would be far more logical that the topic would've been a bit more of a provocative one, or some like 'ultra loony liberal' type viewpoint that would try and pin you off as someone who is irrational and delusional or intended to demean you in some other way.

But this wasn't like that. The letter was simplistic and benign, regardless of whether we are for or against its premise.

I can say with almost 100% certainty that no one did this intentionally. It would make zero sense for it to have been.