With his usual precision, Matt Drudge wrote that "Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign released the e-mail addresses" and that "a software glitch nearly crippled the campaign's e-mail alert system."

According to Drudge, the email glitch was a "nightmare" for the Clinton campaign. People are outraged and the Hillary campaign is in big trouble, Matt scowled darkly, producing one anonymous outraged source.

After Drudge's story, however, the list was posted in freerepublic.com, a Conservative forum. The Clinton contacts are now receiving tons of hate mail and other mail bomb nasty tricks. I queried the 300 names last night (thereby adding one more unsolicited message to their misery) and am now receiving replies.

Candian newshawk Pierre Bourque pierre@achilles.net reported "being bombarded by emails from just about every wacko political voice on the continent."

WABC's talk radio host Lynn Samuels lynnsamuels@hotmail.com told me:

"I was signed up for 120 email news letters. I have received five or six confirmations from an x-rated porn post card site for dirty cards I have allegedly sent to heaven only knows who. I also have gotten 50 or 60 nasty anti-Clinton messages from the from nuts.

"I was not mad at Hillary's campaign. it was just a dumb mistake. Drudge was the one who made it a real pain in the neck by making the list accessible to the nut element. It is an annoyance so far, not a tragedy.

"Check out freerepublic.com and see their plans for spamming us all and totally screwing up our email. They are the culprits."

I inspected the forum and found messages threatening or reporting email attacks and urging others to do the same, with instructions on technique. In two messages, the list has been cleaned up for easy email spamming.

The freerepublic.com forum is filled with full-text articles from national and local media. A disclaimer calls this "fair use." I guess it's all fair use and free speech -- publishing the e-mail addresses, running rotten tricks -- but it smacks of terrorism to me. The love bug was a Third World college prank. What happens when professionals decide to bring down a political opponent's campaign structure at a crucial point, say just before a major debate or mass event?

Ponder this, concerned Internet viewers.

Signing off here at Hillary Media Stars Central, we have the following exchange with Patrick Healy, a senior editor of The Chronicle of Education:

----Begin Message Text----

At 08:58 a.m. 16/05/00 -0500, you wrote:

>Hello: I do not cover Hillary Clinton or the issues that you care about.

I'm not trying to tell you anything. I'm doing a column on it and asking for your comments. This makes you even more interesting for the case at hand. I've received some great replies to my poll, but this is the best yet! You're not even on the Hillary beat. And you are receiving her adrenalin alerts. Then you get on the goonball firing line. Next people like me are asking you how you feel about this.

You can see how this is going to look at http://cafecancun.com/hillary.htm Give me about an hour or so to get this up.

>Would you please be so kind as to take my off your email lists?

No problem. Just let me know if you want to be informed when the piece is published, as you are now in it. Many thanks for the help. Absolutely beyond great. My point exactly.

----End Message Text----

As an afterthought, I look at his bio:

Senior Editor: Patrick Healy

Subjects covered: State higher-education policy and policy makers, political trends, college desegregation; affirmative action; higher-education issues in the federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

Phone: (202) 466-1071
Fax: (202) 452-1033
E-mail address: patrick.healy@chronicle.com

More things to ponder. Why am I not interested in these issues? Did I receive a form letter? Of course. Is this all a Turing test? We'll talk about that in the next installment of The Journal of the Absurd.

Jules Siegel is a writer and graphic designer living in Mexico since 1981. His work has appeared in Playboy, Esquire, New American Review, Best American Short Stories and many other similar publications. You can read more about him at http://cafecancun.com/bookarts/jsiegel.htm.

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