FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 1999
BUSH REQUESTS "LIMITS TO FREEDOM"
Internet bites Bush: Not news. Bush bites Internet: News!
Contact: Ray Thomas (mailto:
bushinfo@rtmark.com)
Zack Exley (mailto:
zackexley@yahoo.com)
The satirical website
GWBush.com has received several million hits since
a press conference Friday at which Texas governor and probable
presidential candidate George W. Bush called its owner "a garbage man" and
said "There ought to be limits to freedom." The outburst followed two
separate attempts by Bush campaign attorneys to shut down the site. (For
coverage of the comments, please visit the press archive at
http://gwbush.com/.)
Those behind
GWBush.com--a Boston computer consultant named Zack Exley,
and RTMARK--ascribe their site's newfound notoriety to the interesting
nature of Bush's words themselves, and also to the ease and speed with
which ordinary people can make their voices heard on the Internet. The
statement, besides being broadcast on television and reprinted in hundreds
of newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, immediately became a hot topic of
discussion on the Internet.
According to RTMARK spokesperson Ray Thomas, "Anyone at all can now
compete for attention with huge, wealthy corporations--or with well-funded
candidates. Bush's 'limits to freedom' quote is interesting because it
reflects the (usually unspoken) desire of certain market segments to
suppress this potential of the Internet."
"The Internet has amplified the voice of the ordinary citizen," said
Exley. "This web site is only two months old and cost only $210, yet we
already have more readers than many major political magazines. Americans
are excited about this new power and freedom, and they will distrust a
candidate who says he wants to limit that freedom."
Bush's statement was the latest in a series of widely-reported gaffes
related to
GWBush.com. Here follows a blow-by-blow account of the action:
1. The Bush campaign fails to reserve permutations of Bush's name, and in
December of 1998 Zack Exley purchases
GWBush.com,
GWBush.org and
GBush.org.
2. Upon noticing
GWBush.com, with content by RTMARK and Exley, Bush
campaign advisor Karl Rove belatedly scrambles to reserve up to 260
'bush'-related domain names (Bush campaign accounts of the actual number
vary). When this frenzy becomes a running joke on the internet, Bush
spokespeople claim the names were reserved in the summer of 1998.
(Internic records available to the public reveal that the domains names
were in fact reserved two months after Exley reserved his.)
3. Bush attorney Benjamin Ginsberg sends Exley a cease-and-desist letter,
and shortly afterward registers a complaint with the Federal Elections
Commission.
4. The Bush campaign tells press interested in the above situation that
GWBush.com contains click-throughs to pornography sites. RTMARK and Exley
are inundated with emails from frustrated visitors seeking pictures of
nude women. (Note:
GWBush.com has never contained nor linked to
pornographic images of any kind.)
5. The Bush campaign tells press that
GWBush.com is deceptive.
(Meanwhile, the Bush campaign uses the negative domain names it has
bought--bushblows.com,
bushsux.org, etc.--to point unsuspecting Internet
users to the official campaign website.)
6. Governor Bush himself lashes out at
GWBush.com at a televised press
conference, calling the site's owner "a garbage man" and saying "There
ought to be limits to freedom." The quote is widely reported and becomes
a hot topic of discussion on the Internet.
7. Domain name speculators begin snapping up other names related to the
Bush campaign, like
gwcocainejr.com,
bush-lite.com, and
cokeisbush.com.
GWBush.com itself has so far reserved
justsayyestobush.com,
fantasticbush.com,
bushisnicelydressed.org, and about a dozen others.
For more about
GWBush.com, including a partial press archive and letters
from visitors, please visit the site itself.
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.
# 30 #