Re: Submission: "My Hand Shall Be Against the Prophets"
Subject: Re: Submission: "My Hand Shall Be Against the Prophets"
From: EllJhns8@aol.com
Date: 8/14/08, 20:45
To: gmail.com@imo-m13.mail.aol.com


Howdy-

Went out drinking last night, but am ready to begin discussing this now.
Okay.
I largely agree with your general take on how we can go about doing what needs to be done, but I would also invite you to think about the peculiar manner in which information warfare is now conducted when it is conducted correctly, which it rarely is.
Well, it's like what PETA does.  You sometimes have to be outrageous to get media attention.  When  you are polite and play by the rules, the media ignores you.
The best way to raise one's visibility is to have one's enemies do it for you. This has always been true, but it is truer today. You may be familiar with the term "trolling" in the context of the internet. You will see this term be used in other contexts very soon, because it applies in any context in which information is being transmitted - which is to say, it always applies.
   Oh yes.    But the thing is this.  If the opposition is well-informed about who we are supporting and endorsing they will mobilize their BIG GUNS to defeat those same people.   It might be best to stay under the radar here and only concentrate on getting our supporters to know about us through the regular channels.   We can't compete with the religious/conservative political machine - yet. 

More from me is below.
For instance, I wrote a little book. The little book was not marketed properly. No money was expended to promote it. But it ended up getting promoted by William Dembski, whom I made fun of very, very thoroughly within that little book and even in the marketing copy that he managed to get his hands on before the book had even come out. People of a particular emotional state - religious and secular alike, but mostly the former - simply cannot resist responding to my attacks. This is because I know how to attack people.

Dembski attacked me twice before he read the book. After he read the book, he stopped attacking me and didn't mention it again. This is because the book was written in such a manner that to attack me any further based on the book's actual content would backfire very, very badly. But at this point, he had already done more marketing on my behalf than my damned publisher had done, because Dembski's other enemies read Demsbki, and Dembski's other enemies tend to have blogs and literate readerships. On a somewhat related note, I will probably meet him soon, as I'm attending the wedding of Marvin Olasky's son in November. You may assume from this strange fact that I lead a bizarre life, and also that I plan on asking Dembski a very amusing question about why it is that his little intelligent design journal has not released any new articles since 2005, and that I plan to videotape this and also to drink a lot of free liquor and bask in irony. Clearly, there is a god, and it is Loki.

Then, you have this. I am very pleased with this:

http://www.stthomasrichmond.org/node/3050

Notice how our charming English friend here uses me to start up his Super Special Transfiguration Sermon, and promptly starts comparing me to Dawkins (and, apparently, several prominent Hebrews). Incidentally, he also misrepresents the Treaty of Tripoli in order to take an ill-conceived shot at me.

But why does he do all this? Why elevate some punk kid such as myself to the subject of a sermon? He does this because he simply could not resist doing it.

Now, within all of this bragging on my part lies an important lesson in addition to the less important lesson about how much I enjoy bragging. Though the fundamentals of information warfare remain the same, the internet has changed the game. The internet, thus, must be harnassed.

Everything I am going to propose to you will cost no money whatsoever and will raise the visibility and effectiveness of GAMPAC dramatically. This is an incomplete list:

1. We need a blog. I will promote it very thoroughly by way of my nifty ability to send a message to everyone who bought my book off of Amazon, as well as by way of other, similarly nifty tactics.
We plan to have a blog at the GAMPAC site. 

2. We're going to need a better server and a better website design. My associate Andrew Stein, who is a very talented programmer who serves as a consultant for firms like Hearst, and who is also an atheist, can handle this if you'd like. We have a very reliable server. Check out our little production company website at texodusmedia.com. We just launched it last month and it's still a work in progress.

I'd give my right arm to be able to go with him but I'm sure we can't afford him or your server.  What is the monthly server fee?
    I will show you the mock-up of our new site.  I paid someone $500 to create this new site.   He will send me the link to the home page tomorrow. 

3. We will need to produce short videos for YouTube and make a GAMPAC YouTube account. I will make a simple one this week and will present it to you upon completion so you can see what I've got in mind.

That is awesome.  I can't wait to see it.

These will be simple at first but will increase in production value as more of buddies arrive in Brooklyn; they are very good with video production.
4. We will need a GAMPAC account at reddit.com, digg.com, and other social networking sites (reddit even has an "Atheism" section, so that will be particularly effective). All of our video clips will be submitted to these sites and will, I wager, go moderately viral on occasion.

Can you set up those sites?  I know what digg is but that's all I know.

5. We probably need to step up operations with regards to providing helpful information and ideas to local candidates.

I'm not sure what you have in mind.  The only things we have to offer candidates right now is our endorsement, money and a volunteer professional campaign advisor.  I don't have anything else at my disposal to offer. 
Additionally, we can produce YouTube ads geared towards specific races. These will be mentioned in the local press and will garner lots of attention; I have occasionally worked as a journalist myself and know how their minds work.
That sounds splendid - splendid.  Thank-you so much.  Ellen
We can discuss this further at your convenience.

Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302




On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 2:11 PM, <EllJhns8@aol.com> wrote:

Great.   Here is some more information about the pac.  We only have a board of advisors so no one can fire me.   We do not have members. People donate money to the pac which we donate to campaigns. 
   I occasionally go to Congressional fundraisers in DC which you saw if you went to the website. 
   I think our focus should be to do what the religious right did 20 or so years ago.  Ralph Reed wrote the handbook for us.  He wrote a book called "Active Faith" and it is was his gameplan for the religious right to become political heavyweights.   They became influential at the local level.    This is what we are beginning to work on.  We are completely ignored at the national level so we have to show that we are a voting bloc with some power.
  We have a professional campaign advisor who offers his advice to candidates who we support.  He is an Atheist. 
    Please know that the GAMPAC is concerned first and foremost with state-church separation issues and the civil rights of non-believers.  We can't be concerned about other social, political or economic issues.  There are other organizations and pacs to work for them. 
    If a local candidate comes to us and asks for our endorsement or support I find out if they are an Atheist.   If they are - fine.  If they are not - fine - as long as they support the separation of state and church, and will do so if elected to office.  
    They can run as "stealth" candidates.  That is fine with me if they want to keep their Atheism a secret - as long as they don't pretend to be religious.
    I also want to know enough about a candidate to know that they aren't a nut.  Again, we endorse in a non-partisan way and this may upset some people but if a Republican happens to be an Atheist (and there are plenty) and they want our support they would get it.  Believe me, that isn't going to happen too often.
    I ask our diverse board of advisors for their opinions on almost everything but I make the decisions.  My decisions are not carved in stone.  I can be reasoned with.  
    We relied on American Atheists webmaster to do our website work but he is not reliable and too busy to do the amount of work we needed.  We have decided to scrap that site and start from scratch with  a new server and new content.
    Among other things for the site, we will post links to newspaper articles related to our issues.
    We will send out action e-mail alerts and press releases on candidates who we oppose and support.
    We will link to CafePress with GAMPAC merchandise.
     We will have a blog at our site.
  
   Your ideas are welcome.  You are welcome to be part of any of it.  Please let me know if want to help in any of these areas or something else.

Thanks so much. 

Ellen
    



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**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
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