Creator of 1984 video revealed

American Thinker ^ | 03-21-07 | Clarice Feldman

[Alia]

Blue State Digital was founded by four Howard Dean supporters:

History of Blue State Digital

In the final months of Howard Dean's Presidential Campaign in 2003-04, Jascha Franklin Hodge, Clay Johnson, Ben Self and Joe Rospars -- four principals of Dean's Internet Team -- conceived of Blue State Digital. As leaders of a campaign that made history for its innovative use of the Internet, the four wanted to continue developing best practices for online communications, fundraising, organizing, and technology. So, on March 5th, 2004, the four founded Blue State Digital.

About two years later, Blue State Digital operates offices in Washington, D.C., Boston and Los Angeles, employs a team of twenty-five and has worked with more than sixty clients including: national and state Democratic parties, international political organizations, political action committees, environmental advocacy groups, progressive think tanks, online communities, news organizations and campaigns of every size.

Pass the popcorn!

Seriously, the incredible popularity of this video shows how utterly stupid the Campaign Finance Reform Act is. The only thing I hold against Fred Thompson is that he supported it. I am pleased that he's said he's rethinking it and now believes that it should be replaced by a law that simply requires all contributions from every source be immediately posted online. I also think ithe law should forbid all foreign campaign contributions (something the 527 loophole permits). Even so, the wildfire spread of YouTube campaign propaganda like the Clinton 1984 shows that it is going to be very hard to track the producers of these videos and that voters will just have to be more discerning.

[steve-b]

Blue State Digital was founded by four Howard Dean supporters

All of whom should stay far away from Fort Marcy Park.

[holden]

I doubt that Vince got to Ft. Marcy Park that day of his own volition or under his own power. That is, you could've told Vince that fateful morning to stay away from Ft. Marcy Park, but on top of the deer-in-the-headlights look, telling him that wouldn't have changed anything.

OTOH, I do agree that saying "avoid Ft. Marcy Park" cuts to the quick with the message, "Look out! You could be next" (on the Clinton list).

HF

[GAB-1955]

My theory on Vince Foster's death is that he killed himself in the White House, and staffers panicked. The staffers were very young and inexperienced in Washington ways; I had some professional dealings with them when I worked for the government. Rather than have a full-scale police investigation into the workings of the White House, which would have turned up who knows what, they wrapped Foster's body in a rug, carried him to Fort Marcy Park (which is only 10 minutes away in the middle of the night from the White House) and left the body as a suicide. It was, but they got all the details wrong , including the pistol and the hand Foster carried it in.

Now, the Clinton political machine is relentless and will attack enemies with all the means of power they have, be it the press, appointments, or arrests and prosecutions. The tragedy of the Clintons is that many of these things need not be. For example, Billy Dale's post at the White House Travel Agency was a political patronage post. It would have been perfectly licit to fire an appointee from the previous administration, but instead the Clinton machine wasted its energy in a fruitless prosecution. The only reason I can think of this is to cow would be opponents.

So, Hillary is ruthless. We know that. It's nice that the Left realizes Hillary is ruthless, and I suspect that this time around, should she gain the White House, Mrs. Clinton will go after the traitors to her cause in the Democratic party. This is good for the Republicans, because it means that the 2008 nomination process will be long, bitter, and alienate party faithful.

We should, as Republicans and conservatives, avoid the mistakes Hillary and Blue State Video are teaching us. Let us resolve to discuss issues fairly and without malice, and let us resolve to back our nominee, even if he is Rudy Giuliani or Romney, to victory, lest the IRS and the FBI turn their attention our way.

[Lee'sGhost]

Didn't Hillary! say that this was from the VRWC?

[jiggyboy]

Worst
excerption
ever!

[VaBthang4]

Okay, I did not read anything that said they ctreated it.

Perhaps a more sane use of the excerpt rule is in order.

Who the hell made it?

[VaBthang4]

"My theory on Vince Foster's death is that he killed himself in the White House, and staffers panicked."

What are you, an idiot?

Some dumbass Liberal staffers carried a dead body out of the White House in a rug and none of the permanent White House staff or security or the media saw it?

Okay.

You wanna try again?

[GAB-1955]

No, I'm not an idiot. I live in the Washington area and I used to work by the White House. If the deed were done, it was at 1 or 2 a.m. There isn't much traffic on the streets of Washington, and there's no media presence outside the White House. If they ran a van in, they could get him out without much notice.

[VaBthang4]

Okay.

/eyeroll

[Alia]

Did you check out Clarice Feldman's article?

Pretty darned short - could have just posted the whole thing, it was so short. Just wanted to highlight that Howard Dean's people were involved.

[Alia]

Who the hell made it?

You read it all and you still can't figure out who made it?

[Stultis]

Seriously, the incredible popularity of this video shows how utterly stupid the Campaign Finance Reform Act is.

Yep.

I remember when it was being debated.

Numerous commentators pointed out that, because the law would cut off (soft) money normally spent by the national political parties, those funds would instead flow to and be spent by narrower and less accountable special interests: EXACTLY what happened.

This "unintended" consequence was obvious, predictable and actually predicted, dozens if not hundreds of times over. But McStain et al were too dumb to see it. Heck, McStain was too dumb -- or too full of hubris -- to see it even after the fact. Why else would he have spent the whole 2004 election cycle complaining about the 527's as if they were someone else's fault?

[NeoCaveman]

This ad wasn't even orginal, it was first used against Liebrman by a Ned Lament supporter.

This one was much more professional, though.

[NeoCaveman]

Phil de Vellis ripped off CT Bob a Lefty blogger

[Alia]

This ad wasn't even orginal, it was first used against Liebrman by a Ned Lament supporter.

Fascinating, I didn't know this.

[Alia]

You are paying good attention!

From your link:***

Could the intrigue over Phil de Vellis' controversial anti-Hillary video become more a question of some copy-cat work? Former Plain Dealer Cincinnati bureau chief Bill Sloat presents the goods in his Daily Bellwether blog.

It seems that the anti-Clinton video created by de Vellis, a political operative who once worked in Sherrod Brown's Senate campaign, is pretty much a carbon copy of a video that Ned Lamont supporters (specifically, ME) put out last year in their unsuccessful attempt to take down Sen. Joe Lieberman. Check out that video here.

Now compare it with de Vellis' work here.

Most of the content is lifted from an Apple Computers ad. But de Vellis was not the first guy to use it for political purposes (though perhaps he was the first to lose his job over it). "Such amazing creativity," notes Sloat's site. "Or is it plagiarism?"

I tend to lean towards plagiarism myself, but I'll wait and see what develops before I make any definitive judgement.

[NeoCaveman]

I wasn't paying attention, I read Bill Sloat's blog from time to time. As an Ohio blogger I try to keep up.

Here is the poorly produced original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1O63aHyqDQ

[NeoCaveman]

From the post

"Another veteran of Ohio Democratic politics, Tim Tagaris, worked for the Lamont campaign in 2006 and pointed out the existence of Adams' work. And there's more from Bob. It looks like Ohio really is the heart of it all.]"

My take: Sherrod Brown's campaign blogger ripped off the ad, maybe alerted to it by Tim Tagaris.

[NeoCaveman]

Looks like more might break on this story tomorrow.

According to this lefty Ohio commie blogger

http://www.plunderbund.com/2007/03/22/vote-different-more-coming/

The lefty blogs in Ohio are going nuts. hehehe