Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Sender: pinknoiz@pinknoiz.com (Unverified)
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 07:23:48 -0700
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
From: Parapolitics list
Subject: GEORGE W. BUSH JR. ATTACKS DRUGS AND FREE SPEECH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 1999
GEORGE W. BUSH JR. LASHES OUT AT PARODY WEBSITE
Bush learns about internet a moment too late
Contact: Ray Thomas (mailto:bushinfo@rtmark.com)
Zack Exley (mailto:zackexley@yahoo.com)
Bush attorney Benjamin Ginsberg
(202-457-6405, fax 202-457-6315)
URLs: http://www.gwbush.com/, http://rtmark.com/gwbush.com,
http://www.georgewbush.com
Bush letter to F.E.C., etc.: http://rtmark.com/bush.html
Each week, thousands of people seeking information on probable
Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, Jr. type "gwbush"
into their web browsers and end up at http://www.gwbush.com/.
Bush has tried hard for weeks to shut down the rogue site, which
parodies Bush's official http://www.georgewbush.com/ and discusses
his past cocaine use, as well as parodying U.S. politics in general.
Bush's legal efforts began April 14 with a cease-and-desist letter
claiming that gwbush.com violated copyright laws. Shortly thereafter,
on May 10, Time Magazine reported that the Bush campaign had just
purchased sixty additional domain names, including bushbites.com and
bushsux.org, in an apparent attempt at damage control. Bush's most
recent effort is a complaint filed with the Federal Election
Commission that may have widespread implications for free speech on
the internet.
gwbush.com is owned by Zack Exley, a Boston computer consultant. Most
of the content on the website was provided by RTMARK, a group that
specializes in calling attention to corporate subversion of the U.S.
political and electoral process. gwbush.com is listed as an
unofficial Bush campaign site in Yahoo! and elsewhere.
Bush's latest legal effort against gwbush.com, a complaint filed May
3 with the Federal Elections Commission, asserts that Exley has
violated election laws by not registering as a political committee,
and urges that the site's "fair market value" puts the endeavor well
over the $1000 threshold that defines a political committee under
election law. (At one point, Bush's counsel had asked Exley at what
price he would sell his domains, which also include gwbush.org and
gbush.org; Exley quoted $350,000.)
The F.E.C. case may set a legal precedent in the area of internet
speech in electoral campaigns. One F.E.C. employee, who preferred not
to be identified, said the commission has recently established a
"special inquiry committee" to discuss possible regulation of sites
such as gwbush.com.
"George W. Bush Jr. apparently thinks small-time folk should have to
register with the government before exercising free speech on the
internet," said Rita Mae Rakoczi, a lawyer and RTMARK representative.
"The implications of such a precedent could be quite serious."
RTMARK and Mr. Exley represent the unlikely kind of collaboration the
internet makes possible. Mr. Exley is a computer consultant to the
Boston financial sector, and describes himself as "a Christian who
loathes hypocrisy." RTMARK is primarily devoted to anti-corporate
activism, and counts the very companies that Mr. Exley works for as
some of its targets.
By reserving the domain names, Exley initially hoped to sell them
back to the Bush camp for a small profit. That changed, however, when
he read news articles that discussed Bush's refusal to deny past
cocaine use. His interest in the matter has since escalated into
something of a crusade. "Bush won't deny he used cocaine, yet
hundreds of thousands of people are serving very long sentences for
equivalent or lesser crimes, including many in Texas [where Bush is
governor]. Clinton just got away with perjury while a hundred people
are in jail for that crime. Do we want our children to learn that a
crime is only a crime if you don't have power?"
Exley first invited RTMARK to provide content for gwbush.com after
hearing about their "franchise" program, in which the group provides
a tailor-made thematic website to anyone with an appropriate domain.
According to RTMARK spokesperson Ray Thomas, "Bush himself was
originally a secondary issue for us. We just wanted to use
gwbush.com as a platform to make various points about how
corporations have subverted and sabotaged the political and electoral
process, and hoped it could illustrate the low level to which
campaigning has sunk. The more Bush has tried to get in our way,
however, the more we've chosen to make the site a direct attack on
his 'stealth' presidential campaign, and the worse that makes it for
Bush." (RTMARK's first version of gwbush.com is now archived at
http://rtmark.com/gwbush.com/.)
While the controversy surrounding http://www.gwbush.com/ represents
the first time RTMARK has been drawn into political conflict, clumsy
legal actions are nothing new to RTMARK. In April of last year, for
example, Geffen and BMG Music wrote RTMARK and Illegal Art letters
demanding they cease distribution of Deconstructing Beck, a CD of
music made entirely from samples of Beck recordings. Those letters
(posted at http://rtmark.com/lawletters.html) helped RTMARK draw
widespread attention to issues of fair use and copyright law with
what had begun as an obscure release with a very limited audience.
The full text of the Bush lawyer's letter to the F.E.C., his
cease-and-desist letter, and other materials can be found at
http://rtmark.com/bush.html. The pages of http://www.gwbush.com/ that
deal specifically with Bush's cocaine use can be found at
http://www.gwbush.com/bushpramnesty.html and
http://www.gwbush.com/bushq3.html. For more on Bush's domain-name
buying frenzy, see http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990513/bn8.html.
RTMARK (http://rtmark.com/) uses its limited liability as a
corporation to sponsor the sabotage of mass-produced products. One of
RTMARK's ultimate aims is to eliminate the principle of limited
liability. Occasionally, as with http://www.gwbush.com/, RTMARK
participates in advocacy directly related to issues of corporate
abuses of the political process.
