Democrats.com hijacks WND (and FreeRepublic)

A website run by Democrats is "hijacking" a number of other sites – including WorldNetDaily.com – in a "spin-control" campaign that some feel is derogatory.

Democrats.com is using the address rightwingnutcases.com to bring readers to WorldNetDaily's page that lists commentaries written by former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, now a columnist for WND.

"Patrick Buchanan has won the right to send people to www.rightwingnutcases.com to find his extremist commentaries," declares the site, which is operated by Democratic activists, but has no formal connection to the Democratic National Committee. "Since Pat has now left the Republican Party for being too moderate, how much longer until he renounces his American citizenship and seeks asylum in Paraguay?"

Buchanan, who in addition to writing columns is also selling a new book, "The Death of the West", says his political opponents are apparently returning to a familiar strategy.

"Devoid of ideas themselves, leftist Democrats have taken to the old name-calling and smear tactics, interfering with speakers and writers, that they perfected when they were all wallowing in the mud of Woodstock in 1969," Buchanan told WorldNetDaily. "Where conservatives gave us Ronald Reagan and victory in the Cold War, these folks gave us Bill and Monica and the soiling of the White House. As they have nothing to say themselves, they can only attract attention by interfering with and attacking others who do have ideas."

No one with Democrats.com responded to repeated inquires from WND, but the site explains its intent on one of its pages:

"Democrats.com is proud to announce a major new achievement in our ongoing effort to recapture the English language from reactionary forces who would hijack it. Today we are releasing version 1.0 of our exclusive new Spin Control Machine. The Spin Control Machine makes it possible to relabel websites that misrepresent themselves. This has become urgent since the events of September 11th, since it is now commonplace for the extreme right to try to appropriate the language of patriotism and claim exclusive proprietorship of the words indicating a love of America. ... Congratulations for setting new lows and shame on all of you for testing the limits of tolerance."

It goes on to list what it calls "crazy conservative zealots," creating hyperlinks to relabeled addresses, among them:

"We've been framed!" was the initial reaction at ConservativeHQ.com, according to its Internet consultant, William Greene. His site has since inserted a code to break out of the framing by Democrats.com, but staff are nonetheless enjoying the attention and view the label as a badge of honor.

"We must really be making a difference in the fight against liberalism if Democrats.com does something silly like this," Greene said.

Some Web surfers might confuse Democrats.com with the official site of the Democratic National Committee, as their addresses differ only in suffix. The DNC's homepage is Democrats.org. The DNC refused comment about what Democrats.com was doing, except to say, "We have no control over this website."

Although names of the people responsible for Democrats.com appear nowhere on the site, a public-records search of registrants indicates the domain name has an administrative contact of David Lytel of the Sherpa Consulting Group in Syracuse, N.Y.

The site says of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, "Only an idiot would believe he's fair and balanced," to which O'Reilly replies, "These fanatical websites are popping up all over the place, both on the left and the right. Some are well-financed [such as Slate.com and TomPaine.com], but all of them are fringe outlets. I ignore them as most of America does."

Ann Coulter, another weekly columnist for WND, doesn't appear bothered by the rightwingcrazies.com label.

"I'm delighted Democrats are reading my column!" she said. "I just hope their lips don't get tired."

But not everyone is thrilled about the relabeled hyperlinks. WorldNetDaily's Editor and CEO Joseph Farah feels it's a clear violation of Internet etiquette and thinks it will make many people angry.

"What should we expect from people who describe themselves, apparently proudly, as Democratic activists?" Farah asked. "If ever there was a philosophically bankrupt political party, devoid of values and virtue, bereft of ideas and without a moral center of gravity, it is the party of Bill, Hillary and Carville and company."

Etiquette is one principle, but law is another, and hyperlinking to other websites by creating another domain name doesn't appear to be illegal. That according to Brian Marcus, an intellectual-property lawyer in San Francisco. He says there's no problem as long as "they're not passing off someone else's information as their own."

"As far as 'right-wing crazies,' I think that's First Amendment and protected free speech," Marcus said. "If I were to have a link to knuckleheads.com and have a link to your website, that is in essence protected free speech."

Because the Internet is relatively new compared to other media such as newspapers and broadcast stations, there's not a plethora of existing laws governing it. But some standards were spelled out in the Digitial Millennium Copyright Act, considered a hot potato by many involved with copyright law, according to Dr. Robert Diotalevi, director of legal studies at Mountain State University in West Virginia.

"Some claim the DMCA would hinder concepts of fair use and other acceptable means of validly utilizing copyrighted materials," wrote Diotalevi. He states others believe it "stifles operation, free thought, expression, system corrections, etc."

President Clinton signed the measure in October 1998, saying, "This bill will extend intellectual protection into the digital era while preserving fair use and limiting infringement liability for providers of basic communication services."

Despite the state of the law on the matter, the notion that one website would purposefully create derogatory domain names for others still leaves WND's Farah amazed, especially when it comes to Democrats.com.

"They have no imagination of their own, so all they can think of doing is to rip off and deface the ideas of others," Farah said. "They can't debate. They can't stand toe to toe with people of principle. They are like a desperate band of

The RATS will come to this thread, LOL. Then they'll know that we found the vast left wing conspiracy:

"The New Democrats, who helped bring about this shift, have surged in power and influence. The DLC and its think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), have blossomed...

...By 1990 major firms like AT&T and Philip Morris were important donors. Indeed, according to Reinventing Democrats, Kenneth S. Baer's history of the DLC, Al From used the organization's fundraising prowess as blandishment to attract an ambitious young Arkansas governor to replace Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia as DLC chairman. Drawing heavily on internal memos written by From, Bruce Reed, and other DLCers, Baer says that the DLC offered Clinton not only a national platform for his presidential aspirations but "entree into the Washington and New York fundraising communities." Early in the 1992 primaries, writes Baer, "financially, Clinton's key Wall Street support was almost exclusively DLC-based," especially at firms like New York's Goldman, Sachs.

.... One month after the election, Clinton headlined a fundraising dinner for the DLC that drew 2,200 to Washington's Union Station, where tables went for $15,000 apiece. Corporate officials and lobbyists were lined up to meet the new White House occupant, including 139 trade associations, law firms, and companies who kicked in more than $2 million, for a total of $3.3 million raised in a single evening. The DLC-PPI's revenues climbed steadily upward, reaching $5 million in 1996 and, according to its most recent available tax returns, $6.3 million for 1999. "Our revenues for 2000 will probably end up around $7.2 million," says Chuck Alston, the DLC's executive director.

While the DLC will not formally disclose its sources of contributions and dues, the full array of its corporate supporters is contained in the program from its annual fall dinner last October, a gala salute to Lieberman that was held at the National Building Museum in Washington. Five tiers of donors are evident: the Board of Advisers, the Policy Roundtable, the Executive Council, the Board of Trustees, and an ad hoc group called the Event Committee--and companies are placed in each tier depending on the size of their check. For $5,000, 180 companies, lobbying firms, and individuals found themselves on the DLC's board of advisers, including British Petroleum, Boeing, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, Dell, Eli Lilly, Federal Express, Glaxo Wellcome, Intel, Motorola, U.S. Tobacco, Union Carbide, and Xerox, along with trade associations ranging from the American Association of Health Plans to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. For $10,000, another 85 corporations signed on as the DLC's policy roundtable, including AOL, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Citigroup, Dow, GE, IBM, Oracle, UBS PacifiCare, PaineWebber, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn, and TRW.

And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC's executive council, including Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron,IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications. ....... many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included. Some donate enormous amounts of money, such as Bernard Schwartz, the chairman and CEO of Loral Space and Communications, who single-handedly finances the entire publication of Blueprint, the DLC's retooled monthly that replaced The New Democrat. "I sought them out, after talking to Michael Steinhardt," says Schwartz. "I like them because the DLC gives resonance to positions on issues that perhaps candidates cannot commit to."

A key member of the event committee for the 2000 annual fall dinner was Mike Lewan, who runs a boutique lobbying house that has represented clients such as Oracle and BellSouth. In the late 1980s, Lewan, who joined the DLC because he was "one of those disaffected Democrats," went to work as Lieberman's chief of staff--and promptly introduced the Connecticut senator to the DLC. Today, Lewan helps recruit support for the DLC on K Street. "It's astonishing to me how much support the DLC is getting from the professional Washington people, the lawyers, the lobbyists," he says. "There's a relationship and a trust level that's been built up."

Joining Lewan on the event committee were several dozen of Washington's elite lobbyists, including representatives from the Dutko Group, Greenberg Traurig, the Wexler Group, Verner, Liipfert, and SVP Kessler and Associates, all with blue-chip clients, along with lobbyists for Chevron, Citigroup, Salomon Smith Barney, and others. One was Arthur Lifson, vice president for federal affairs at Cigna Corporation, one of the nation's largest health insurers and a company that stands to gain enormously if, say, Medicare were privatized along the lines proposed by the DLC and by one of its founders, Senator John Breaux of Louisiana.
How the DLC Does It

Hey, you all, I think we've been dissed! I mean, all we get is www.rightwingnuts.com??? Jesus Louise-us, I thought at least we'd have rated somethinglike www.rightwingrubberroom.com or www.rightwingasylum.com, or something like that. All we get is wingnuts? We're not trying, friends!!!!

Speak for yourself! I, for one, not only pride myself for being a card carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, but a Southern, SAWB! It is not our fault that they cannot label us correctly, no matter how hard we try to lead them in the "right" direction! Or any direction at all, for that matter. Any party that prides itself to have Klinton, Carville, and McAuliff as their leaders is circling the drain!

Jesus Louise-us, do we have to put a goddamn disclaimer at the end of everything done for a funny ha-ha around here, or for a little satire? Or did funny ha-ha suddenly become politicaly incorrect. Personally, I'm P.O.ed that Damnocrats.con gives Viguerie www.rightwingfruitcakes.com. I mean, come on - I know we've got a lot more zing, zip, and pizazz than that walking bedpost! The least they could do is give us something completely singular, completely off the wall, and thoroughly often-imitated-never-duplicated. Unless they're trying, in their halfwit way, to tell us and anyone else who cares to listen that they think we're irrelevant. (As if...) We at least deserve something as singular as...

www.rightwingsouptonuts.com
www.rightwingtwojokersshortofafulldeck.com
www.rightwingtwoballsshortofastrikeout.com

I mean, surely we deserve some recognition as to our vast and awesome power, right?

May you inherit a hotel with a thousand rooms. And, a stomachache in every room. - Yiddish proverb.

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