Hi, Ellen-

Good to hear from you. It's been a fun week; I'm now writing comedy scripts for a high-level official of the World Bank who also does shadow puppets and thus often guests on Letterman and that kind of thing. He's really into political humor, too, so this should be interesting.

Glad you liked the logo. Again, the guy who did it, John Ruiz, is going to totally revamp that logo soon and make it quite a bit better; he's kind of a perfectionist. He'll be up here in Brooklyn soon and will be working with us on various projects, including GAMPAC. Coincidentally, he's also worked in the t-shirt logo business, so we'll have plenty to talk about regarding merchandising; we'll get back to you about that next month.

We'll definitely get GAMPAC set up on MySpace and Facebook. Again, this is one of those things that would be very easy yet very helpful, so I'm glad you mentioned it. We'll take care of it from over here.

I'll put my friend Andrew Stein in touch with you or whoever handles your tech stuff in order to get the GAMPAC site on our server. It's my understanding that this would be very easy and would take only a bit of time; will ask tomorrow.

I'll send you all the videos we make before they are posted anywhere. Been delayed on the first script as I scrapped it and then got busy, but we'll get it to you perhaps next week.

I will review the info regarding Kephardt and get back to you tomorrow or thereabouts.

Thanks,

Barrett

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 12:40 AM, <EllJhns8@aol.com> wrote:

Hi Barrett,

   Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.  I was waiting for Peter Nuhn to get back to me about a few things. 
    I love the logo.  That is so cool!  We have a logo. Please thank your friend for me.  I want to sell GAMPAC merchandise at the site via CafePress.   I can use the logo.  I look forward to seeing what kind of changes he will make.  I would try putting black letters inside colored circles and seeing what that would look like.  If you and your friends would like to give me some input on what kinds and colors of t-shirts, hoodies, hats etc. that you like, it would be very helpful.
   What do you think about putting the GAMPAC on MySpace and FaceBook?  I don't visit those sites so I wouldn't know what goes there or even how to do it, but what do you think about it?  I've been asked to do this for the GAMPAC.
     How do we put the new GAMPAC site on your server?
     I think that the YouTube videos are a fantastic idea. Can I see them before you post them?
    I think that providing opposition research talking points is the perfect thing to do but it will be difficult for our candidates because they are local candidates.   Below is information on the latest candidate we want to help.  He is Gary Kephardt.  He has asked us NOT to endorse him because he is afraid it will hurt his candidacy. That's okay.  I'm all for having stealth candidates.  Ralph Reed did this too.  We are going to send Kephardt $500. 


Ellen
  
   
   
   
    
From Gary Kephardt: 
Ellen,

Thank you very much for writing me. I'm very aware of who you are, having been a member of the American Atheists for some time. I think I dropped out so that I could use the money to pay off my debts, but I was a member for several years. You've done a great job in representing us to the rest of the population. Keep up the good work. I am also aware of GAMPAC, but haven't followed the news about it much. BTW, I'm a member of the Orange County Atheists (http://ocatheists.com/).

The Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD, http://www.smwd.com/) is governed by a board of five elected directors, three of whom are up for re-election this year. The district covers two cities and five unincorporated communities. It is "Orange County's second-largest water district, providing water and wastewater treatment services to more than 150,000 residents and businesses".

I've been toying with the idea of getting into politics for a while, but never got involved. When Bush got elected in 2000, I was annoyed, but I thought "what harm could he do? He'll be out in four years." But when he got re-elected in 2004, I was outraged. I also thought *I* could do a better job than he could. I had to get involved, and so I did. I am hopefully on my way to a political career, but I can see just how hard the road's going to be.

I'm a Democrat. In my district (which is in Orange County, CA) of 80,000 or so voters, 56% of them are Republican and only 23% are Democratic. And not just the regular type of Republicans. I live around 10 miles from Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. On our communities website, there are forums where we can chat with each other. I've "outed" myself there as an atheist (before I decided to get into politics), figuring that most of those who object to atheists just haven't met an atheist before. I was going to be a friendly, good atheist. But I have been in some heated debates with Bible literalists who just won't listen to reason.

So this is what I'm up against. First, I have to get around being a Democrat in my part of Orange County, and then I have to get past people who already know I'm an atheist. Plus, this is a bottom-of-the-ticket race, where hardly anyone votes because they simply don't know who any of the candidates are. I'm working to get known, by walking precincts, handing out water bottles, sending mailers, but I am worried (here it comes) about a huge backlash from some group that finds out I'm an atheist and then spends huge amounts of money (compared to me) on negative ads about me. Heck, I'm even worried a bit about attending the AAI dinner, because there might be "spies" (for lack of a better term) and word will get back to my area.
I've worked hard to make my issues non-partisan. I'm not advertising that I'm a Democrat. What I'm hoping for is a sort of stealth campaign where I get elected and they might find out *after* the fact that I'm an atheist.

So, here's the dilemma. Having my endorsement on your web page might come back to bite me. You didn't mention it, but having your endorsement on *my* web page, where I don't have any endorsements (yet) would stand out. However, I do need money for my campaign, and I'm assuming there's some along with the endorsement. Right now though, sadly, I'm leaning towards not taking your endorsement. I'd really love to see the day where being an atheist in a political campaign is about as relevant as hair color. Today, however, is not the day.

Here's the ray of hope, though. I'm looking in the future to be in some higher office. After I get elected to this position, I'll be less shy about my atheism, because they'll have had four years (my term) of me in office. I'll have a legislative record behind me that *may* offset my being an atheist.

Thanks for your time, and feel free to call me if you want to discuss it more.
  Gary
M) 949.290.1913




On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 1:21 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, Ellen-

Sorry for the delay; I just started doing a new blog for National Lampoon, so was getting set up for that. Regarding our last e-mail exchange:

   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.

I have the same concern. Here's what I'm planning - we will have two categories of "marketing collateral," as it were. The first will be YouTube videos meant to promote the visibility of GAMPAC in general. The second will be YouTube videos which will consist of attacks on various candidates who advocate for theocracy ; these latter will be listed as coming from Texodus Media (and they will, as we'll handle all the production), as Texodus Media is set to branch out of traditional marketing and into politics, advocacy, and video games. This way, GAMPAC can grow and increase its fundraising abilities and influence and whatnot while also avoiding putting itself into a direct connection with candidates who might be hurt by its support. We want Dobson et al to spend his time attacking GAMPAC, because doing so increases our visibility, thus bringing us more funds from more secular Americans; also, if the theocrats are attacking GAMPAC, that's less time they have to attack candidates who might actually be hurt by their attacks. Tricking fundamentalists is obviously easy enough; they are, by definition, people who have already been tricked.

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

Yep, I'll do that this week.

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.

We can provide them with opposition research talking points and, again, we can support them indirectly by way of Texodus Media videos, which we can put up on YouTube in order to attack certain candidates in a surrogate fashion.

That sounds splendid - splendid.  Thank-you so much.  Ellen

No problemo. I've been wanting to do this sort of stuff since 6th grade, when I got in trouble for blasphemy at my Episcopal school.

Also, the new website looks much better. We'll talk about some more technical details later.

Word,

Barrett


On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Oh, it's still going on.


On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 8:50 PM, <EllJhns8@aol.com> wrote:
Hope you had a great birthday celebration.
  

Ellen



In a message dated 8/15/08 3:20:06 PM, barriticus@gmail.com writes:


Hi, Ellen-

I'll get back to you at greater length over the weekend; will also have a sample script for you to look at, among other things.

Thanks,

Barrett





**************
Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.
(http://autos.aol.com/cars-Volkswagen-Jetta-2009/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00030000000007 )












**************
It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)