Matt Diller's column, "The Democratic paradox," is a notable example of how easy it is to distort facts to push your agenda. Diller accused the Democratic controlled Illinois General Assembly, and specifically State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, of taking actions detrimental to the University of Illinois. According to Diller's column, Rep. Jakobsson voted to take money away from the University of Illinois and send it to Chicago State University. This is simply false. If Diller had actually read HB 2671, the legislation appropriating funding for state universities for fiscal year 2004, he would have discovered that the University of Illinois was granted $823,929,998. That amounts to a 4.9 percent decrease from the previous year, which was the smallest decrease among all state universities. Chicago State, on the other hand, received a 27.1 percent decrease from the previous year, more than five times as much as the University of Illinois. Rep. Jakobsson voted for HB 2671 because it was the best option on the table.

What Diller mysteriously forgot to mention in his column is that Republican State Sen. Rick Winkel, R-Champaign, also voted for HB 2671. Yet I haven't heard Diller or the College Republicans accuse Winkel of hurting the University of Illinois or ignoring the concerns of students. I don't recall seeing a cardboard cutout effigy of Winkel at the College Republican protest last week. It seems that when your objective is to maliciously destroy a good woman's reputation, the truth is a minor inconvenience. Facts don't make for entertaining journalism. The College Republicans can't win a debate on the issues, so they resort to juvenile and amateurish attack gimmicks. Their brand of hateful and exceedingly negative campaign tactics is what has turned off so many young people to the political process.

Justin Cajindos