Disqus - Latest Comments for Jim Gilliam

Re: Bill O’Reilly’s clownposse attack Jim Gilliam

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 22:01:54 -0000

Hey Niklas... the situation is confusing (and absurd), but a little different than you mention here.

They want me to take down the actual link to O'Reilly's column on the News Hounds blog, not the link on my site to the News Hound blog. I operate the technical aspects of their blog (not the content), which, presumably, is why they've directed the request toward me. I've refused to do it, and the News Hounds have also refused to remove it.

Re: Facebook Pages Directory: Where Is It?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:40:09 -0000

I bet they don't want people to know how few fans these pages have.

Re: Mindrosia: App Ideas Generated Through Horseplay

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:41:51 -0000

Tricking people? I think Amir has already illustrated why his apps "are not popular."

Re: Facebook Gets Tough On Fake Pages

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:30:10 -0000

Brave New Films just got our satirical FOX News Porn page banned. It's not justified at all. We even tagged it as 18+, which they require for "mature and risque" content according to their TOS, even though all the footage aired on the FOX News Channel. Just to be safe.

We're trying to appeal it but there doesn't appear to be any appeal process at all.

Anyway, here's the website: http://foxnewsporn.com/

Re: Blogger Educates O’Reilly’s Neighbors

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:06:41 -0000

Yep, same guy.

Re: “War is going well…if you watch it on FOX”

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:47:34 -0000

san fransicko! haha. you are hysterical.

Re: Fox Cuts Off Sally Field’s Anti-War Speech at Emmys

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:08:25 -0000

You can bleep a single bad word, but they cut to total darkness. That's like a Bill O'Reilly move.

Re: The Daily Show visits Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:45:16 -0000

"there are more young African-American men in college than in prison."

this is supposed to be some great achievement?

it's like saying more husbands love their wives than beat them.

Re: MySpace - Murdoch’s Attempt To Control The Internet

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:35:52 -0000

they deleted our spoof murdoch profile too. it was the most popular with over 5000 friends.

Re: Looking For A New Host FOX News?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:55:32 -0000

i find this guy pretty interesting, actually. he's clearly brilliant... even galileo's contemporaries thought he was a heretic.

Re: O’Reilly Muzzles His “Ombudsman” — After FOX ATTACKS! Decency Launches

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:18:16 -0000

I so wish we could take credit for Mary Diaz from Ft. Myers' question. It really does look like we planned it.

Re: O’Reilly Muzzles His “Ombudsman” — After FOX ATTACKS! Decency Launches

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:21:21 -0000

It's interesting how they are positioning Dhue as the hard nosed, no-nonsense woman. Giving her that prime slot with O'Reilly is definitely about grooming her for her own show.

Re: FOX ATTACKS! Obama’s Staffer Breaks 300,000 Views in Less Than Three Days!

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:54:39 -0000

uh, no cheap theater.. it is not configured to play automatically on the foxattacks.com homepage at all.

Re: The Clinton Fox Debate: Through the Eyes of a B-Movie

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:11:05 -0000

Yeah, I think this might be one of the greatest posts ever.

Re: FOX: What Party is John McCain In?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:50:17 -0000

I wonder if this was done on purpose. As you point out, there have been several stories like this where they screw up the party affiliation of a politician. And they spread like wildfire over the internet.

Knowing this, what if the person responsible for the chyrons wanted to get the story out that conservatives aren't into McCain... maybe he/she is a hardcore conservative pushing for Huckabee.

Once or twice as a mistake, I can believe that... but at this point, it's just too obvious.

Re: BRAVE NEW REVIEW: Shut Up & Sing — the Dixie Chicks vs. War-Crazy America

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:47:38 -0000

"cyberpunk hooker clowns" -- no wonder I love them so much!

As for the not speaking loud enough... man, if Natalie had done anything more than that, she may not even be alive today.

Re: BRAVE NEW REVIEW: Shut Up & Sing — the Dixie Chicks vs. War-Crazy America

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:47:38 -0000

"cyberpunk hooker clowns" -- no wonder I love them so much!

As for the not speaking loud enough... man, if Natalie had done anything more than that, she may not even be alive today.

Re: O’Reilly compares Arianna Huffington to Nazis, KKK

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:52:50 -0000

Mary Katharine Ham, the right-wing: "You're gonna make me defend Arianna Huffington!?"

Re: Clinton Hands O’Reilly Ratings Win

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:42:13 -0000

They are doing it now so they can distance themselves from the 'elite left' (that would be you and me, apparently) as they try to court 'working class white people.' And they know we won't *really* go after them on it, because well, we want to win. So we'll protest enough to reinforce their point that the left doesn't like what they just did, but not enough to actually make it more painful for them to screw us than not.

Re: FOX Attacks Obama: Terrorist Fist Jab?

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:17:32 -0000

This is not The Onion. Repeat, this is NOT The Onion.

Re: Did E.D. Hill Really Lose Her Show Over “Terrorist Fist Jab”?

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:46:55 -0000

Murdoch just came out in support of Obama a few weeks ago, right?

Re: 2006/02/15/firefox-is-dead-long-live-opera/

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:41:31 -0000

i've found that it's the extensions that tend to cause the problems. keeping to the more popular ones that have been around for awhile and not using too many has helped my firefox stabilize.

Re: 2007/07/11/lookery/

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:53:30 -0000

did i miss something? i thought facebook forbid any ads on apps?

Re: 2007/07/17/google-custom-search-business-edition/

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:44:17 -0000

Would you mind providing better links in your posts? A link to something specific about this Google offering and not just the Google homepage would be really helpful.

Re: 2007/09/16/wordhugger/

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:27:59 -0000

This is a ridiculously stupid idea.

Internet real estate? Huh? It's called a webpage.

Re: name for new company

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 03:49:36 -0000

Clearest Channel Productions is pretty funny.

Some of the ideas we've thrown around are Moving Media, and Big Picture Productions. Unfortunately, neither of these work because there are other companies with these names.

Re: aclu…. and the lawsuits,,,, march 1

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 15:09:29 -0000

the ACLU's press release:

http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm...

Re: aclu…. and the lawsuits,,,, march 1

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 07:09:06 -0000

testing..

Re: name for new company

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 06:26:03 -0000

Chris-

George Lakoff suggested "Outfox" .. which I kinda like... clever, empowering, hip..

Re: And the finalists are…..

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:18:39 -0000

Trent...

Jesse (the web designer) and I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. We want evil smiley! Robert disagrees with me... if we start a campaign to save evil smiley, will you support it?

SAVE EVIL SMILEY

Re: And the finalists are…..

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:42:04 -0000

We're really trying to stay away from the "Un" and the "Out" titles... while we liked many of them, it doesn't help the politics of the film. Reaching into red state america. I realized after asking for title suggestions that we should have said that up front.

Re: And the finalists are…..

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:44:51 -0000

right on, trent! EVIL SMILEY

Re: San Francisco mayor to introduce Wal-Mart Movie

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 08:33:28 -0000

please don't consider this a defense of home depot, but there *is* a big difference between walmart and all big box stores in general. yes, they all have sprawl issues and small business issues, etc. but there's something uniquely special about walmart's evil that could make it logically consistent for a person to support say best buy or costco, and not walmart.

Re: Wal-Mart week is here!

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 04:43:53 -0000

The film doesn't say that. It says the Hunters were not given a chance to compete with Wal-Mart because the bank devalued the property when Wal-Mart started construction on its store. They explicitly stated it was because Wal-Mart was coming to town and they knew there were going to be a bunch of empty stores soon.

You obviously haven't seen the movie, so I will point you to this page here for more details on the Hunter story:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/jon_hunter.php

Re: Clear Channel censors truth on Wal-Mart

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 04:11:55 -0000

Clear Channel's entire business is posting misinformation. It's called advertising!

They're just not sure how to handle the truth every now and then.

Re: Help me survive The Colbert Report!

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 01 May 2006 12:45:43 -0000

Sorry for the unsubscribe problems. I'm probably more upset about it than you are cause it makes us look like idiots. The unsubscribe via email method stopped working recently, and there's no word on when it will be fixed. (this affects numerous activist groups using the same technology provider). In the meantime, anyone who wants to unsubscribe can do so here:

http://www.bravenewfilms.org/unsubscribe.php

Re: Iraq For Sale: The Trailer

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:52:07 -0000

This is great feedback... thanks everyone. Our hope in getting this to you first would give us feedback so we could make it better. Editing time was crunched to meet a deadline (we're showing this at the Yearly Kos convention tomorrow night)... but we will re-attack it before pushing it to a wide audience, and definitely before sending it to theaters for promotion.

One note: we deliberately left out everyone's ID (except Karpinsky, who is well known) so as to provide some level of protection for them this early in the process. We didn't want to make it particularly easy for the bad guys to track them down.

Re: Iraq For Sale: The Trailer

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:04:57 -0000

For the people having problems seeing it... can you try watching the older trailer on youtube, and tell me if that works for you? it'll help me figure out what's going on.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RvQojxtOe8Q

Re: Iraq For Sale: The Trailer

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 13:03:36 -0000

Robert's on the road right now, so he is going to read and respond to the comments later tonight, hopefully.

A question though... a lot of comments have focused on the lack of hard evidence, material. This too is something we've left out on purpose at this stage in the game. We don't want to reveal what we've got, right?

So I'm wondering whether this might be a fundamental problem with what we're trying to do with this. Are we caught somewhere between a "teaser" (where almost nothing is revealed, and it's obvious cause there's no real footage) and a "trailer" that comes out closer to the release date(where the risk is in revealing too much in an effort to get people to see it)?

Keep it coming.

Re: Iraq for Sale stickers are on the way

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:19:28 -0000

The DVDs you buy off the site here are Region 0. They work in all players. If you buy the DVD at a retail store, it will be region 1.

Re: Profiteering from war offends all citizens

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:41:27 -0000

You can see where it's showing in the U.K. here:
http://iraqforsale.bravenewtheaters.com/screeni...

there are only two screenings so far.. so consider hosting one yourself!

Re: Profiteering from war offends all citizens

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:27:27 -0000

Early November it looks like... check the page there!

Re: Watch a 7 minute LinkTV report on the film

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:40:00 -0000

That stinks. Not much I can do about the LinkTV site, but there are other videos here and on YouTube you can pass around. click on the 'trailer & clips' link on the right.

But yes, you should definitely get the DVD, it's totally different watching the full movie...different tone, emotion, everything.

Re: Watch a 7 minute LinkTV report on the film

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:23:21 -0000

This happens with all of Robert's documentaries. The basic problem is just that there isn't enough time to do them right. Robert prefers to change them up until the very last minute rather than n get them to look aesthetically pleasing. It does ruin it for some people, but it doesn't seem to ruin it for everyone. He would argue (and does) that the effort was better spent on making the story as strong as possible in the time available. Your reaction sort of indicates he achieved that.

Re: Robert will be in five cities this week

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:17:29 -0000

Everyone who's asking about additional screenings and screenings in their own towns.. click on the 'screenings' button on the right. There are screenings happening all over the place, and you can even sign up to host your own.

Re: Robert will be in five cities this week

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:00:17 -0000

yes, yes! you can get a dvd and show it anywhere. that's the whole point! just click on that 'screenings' link.. all the details are there.

Re: Organizing chaos

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:50:55 -0000

You should have it any day now.

Re: Fascinating book on war profiteering: Blood Money

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:04:26 -0000

No disrespect to the wonderful LinkTV, with whom we have done all kinds of work with, but a deal with them would perclude other possible TV deals with a broader reach into 'middle America.' We share the same goal and agenda to reach the most people, we're just trying to navigate the waters as best we can.

Distribution these days is complex, and even more so when you make films like these.

Re: Fox is Not News

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:03:26 -0000

Kent J-

I'm a liberal!

The issue we have with Fox News is not that they are conservative, it's that they are Republican... and refuse to own up to it, pretending to be news... very deceptive to viewers.

Re: Arabic translator fired from the Navy for being gay

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:08:20 -0000

Comments are working again. Sorry about that, folks!

Re: Hello Brave New Film Fans

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:46:59 -0000

Welcome Cliff!

Re: BLACKWATER : THE SHADOW WAR

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:32:35 -0000

This is great! Thanks for sharing.

Re: Elizabeth Edwards Confronts The Adam’s Apple

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:43:27 -0000

i love elizabeth.

Re: Freedom

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:15:11 -0000

this is one of my favorite youtube videos ever.

Re: Daily Show: Michael Moore

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:18:50 -0000

in america "even cancer should turn a profit."

Re: Colbert Report: Daniel Gilbert

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:26:46 -0000

Gilbert's book, Stumbling on Happiness, is fantastic. When I read it, I felt like the entire world made sense. Highly recommended.

Re: MTV Moron/David Horowitz Appendage Kurt Loder Is SiCKO

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:57:28 -0000

I'm so completely sick of all the lies from the greedy corporate shills about health care.

They scared everyone into thinking that single-payer health care would mean you couldn't pick your own doctor. But it's their HMOs that prevent you from picking your own doctor!

They scared everyone into thinking that single-payer health care would mean you'd have to wait months and months to get the treatment you needed. But it's their money-first corporate system that just completely refuses to pay for doctor-recommended treatments. And when they don't refuse to pay, it can still take months and months to even be seen by the right doctor.

Down is up with this these people, and it's all for money. It's just completely SICKO.

Re: TPMtv: The kind of thing that makes people cynical

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:26:00 -0000

Off the rails crazy.

Re: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at LIVE EARTH

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:36:12 -0000

hmm... i just swapped it out w/ a different video, hopefully this one will stay up?

Re: Amazing Response To Our Impeach Cheney Campaign This Past Weekend

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:18:32 -0000

We just used what was in H. Res 333. It does seem like different charges though.. fabricating threat of wmd, and fabricating ties between iraq & al qaeda. only with both of those lies were they able to sell the war.

Re: Impeach Dick Cheney

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:46:27 -0000

repulsive? really!?

over 55,000 people signed a petition after watching it.. the highest views-to-people-signed ratio of any of our campaigns so far. so it's not been counterproductive either.

Re: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at LIVE EARTH

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:05:09 -0000

he has three sons with asthma you dumbass. you might get 'emotionally involved' in what happens with the environment if you had asthma or other lung disease.

Re: Larry Flynt is investigating 2 senators and 25 congressmen

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:39:22 -0000

He's investigating 2 senators and 25 congressmen!

Re: Conservative Cartoon All-Stars Protect You From Murderous Abortionists And Those Who Block Prayer From Our Schools!

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:12:53 -0000

COWABUNGA BABY KILLER!

hahahah

Re: John Edwards goes off on health care corporations

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:46:18 -0000

I think it's that so many of the people I know who would normally be into Edwards, are in lust with Obama right now.

Re: Lowe’s Pulls Ads From O’Reilly Show

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:08:52 -0000

W.A. is mad because he's a troll who posted a stupid comment laced with profanity just to make the site look bad. yeah, i deleted it. it's spam.

Re: “War is going well…if you watch it on FOX”

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:47:34 -0000

san fransicko! haha. you are hysterical.

Re: Miss Teen South Carolina answers the question perfectly

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:56:33 -0000

The U.S. Americans par-teeeeee

Re: George W. Bush Is Ms. South Carolina!

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:27:54 -0000

We should make shirts that just say SOVEREIGN on them.

Re: What to expect when you’re invaded by the U.S.

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:35:09 -0000

Here's the post.

So you’re about to be invaded by the United States? Here are some tips on what the expect and what you might want to do to prepare for the aftermath of the initial assault.

How will your world change when the United States government invades? The following is far from a comprehensive list, but it reflects a growing body of evidence and historical patterns. As the US government has remained basically the same over the last several decades, so have its habits in war, and the results of those wars.

First of all, you should expect a major increase in drug/narcotic-related activities. If you are living in a region suitable to the cultivation of drug crops, you should expect that such cultivation will either begin or dramatically expand following a US invasion. If you are not in an area suitable to the cultivation of drug crops, you may become home to chemical ‘labs’ devoted to the production of more chemically sophisticated types of drugs. These factories often produce large quantities of deadly and toxic residues, so beware.

In either event, or in the event that your area is for some reason totally unsuitable for the production of drugs, you should still expect to become a trans-shipment point for illegal drugs traveling through the global black market. This will most likely cause a major influx of organized criminal elements and add a further dimension of violence to your local area.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. Organize a local group to keep the drug industry out of your area
2. Keep your head down and hope you don’t get mixed up in the situation
3. Become part of the situation, i.e. courier, farmer, etc.

Secondly, you should expect bribery to become an integral part of your daily life. It is reasonable to expect that every day after the invasion you will either be bribing someone or become the victim of third party bribery arrangements. Government workers will inevitably be paid a very small amount of money, which they will attempt to supplement via bribery. But private sector workers will also likely resort to the same means. Be prepared to bribe your doctor, your dentist, your children’s teacher, etc. You will also likely be bribing criminals to leave you alone. You may also find yourself bribing your way through a maze of official and un-official roadblocks. It is impossible to anticipate all the scenarios that may lend themselves to bribery.

Furthermore, you should expect that you may become the victim of other people’s bribery arrangements. For example, via bribery someone else may gain control of your home or business, or any other of your possessions. Bribery may also result in the kidnapping or arrest of yourself or any of your friends or family, possibly resulting death.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. Start saving money now
2. Try to have a wide variety of negotiable items on hand, i.e. cash local currency, cash foreign hard currency, jewelry, precious metals. Try to have a variety of values or denominations. Remember you are probably not going to get change back if you pay too much.
3. Have official proof of ownership for everything you own on hand
4. Try to have friends or relatives in as many different armed groups as possible. These people can hopefully be prevailed on to help you out if their group comes to you seeking bribes.

Thirdly, you should expect the widespread destruction of infrastructure. Of course, this process will have begun spectacularly during the actual invasion, but do not expect the process to cease or reverse once the US forces move in. You should expect that roads will be largely impassable, even if there are no roadblocks. (Also expect administrative restrictions on movement, even where it is physically possible.) Many, if not most, bridges will most likely be impassable or destroyed. You should expect public utilities- such as water, electricity, and sewerage- be only sporadically available, if they are available at all. Mail delivery will likely be non-existent. Phone service will likely be either sporadic or non-existent. This may be partly remedied by the acquisition of a satellite telephone, such as those available from Thuraya or Iridium. But the use of such phones may mark you as a bombing target. Schools will likely be closed or nearly useless if they are open. A relatively minor issue will be entertainment. In a situation of more or less enforced confinement, with shortages of basic necessities, and with little or no electricity, boredom may lead to arguments and even violence.

Housing will be at a premium due to widespread bombing. But despite the increased costs, the quality will likely be very low owing the difficulties associated with repair. It is also possible that repaired structures may be damaged or destroyed subsequently and/or repeatedly. Expect to be cold if it is cold out, wet if it wet, hot if it is hot, etc.

Another issue to watch out for in connection with this change in living arrangements will be the danger of fire. If you have fire fighting services now, do not expect that they will continue to function. Further, the poor quality of construction of post-invasion living arrangements frequently renders them much more susceptible to destruction by fire.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. Try to have a fall back location outside the area of greatest destruction. A rural area that is accustomed to poor infrastructure would be ideal, if you can reach it when necessary. An area with a lower concentration of people may be preferable in conditions where sanitation and the availability of clean water may become an issue.
2. If possible you may want to stockpile water, basic food supplies, and wood or bottled gas for cooking. Also consider stocking boards games, books, paper and crayons, etc for entertainment.
3. If you anticipate that your home may be damaged or destroyed, you may want to arrangement alternate living quarters with friends or relatives who live at some distance. Failing that, you may want to keep some camping supplies on hand, such as a tent, sleeping bags, etc.

Fourthly, you should expect widespread shortages of basic goods, such as food, medicine, and gasoline (and housing, as mentioned above). Most other items will also likely be in short supply. Therefore, the cost of such items will be much higher than you are currently used to. Coupled with the increased costs stemming from bribery, this will make for a very expensive period. Furthermore, you should expect that your job or source of income will likely no longer exist. If you work or receive a pension, you will almost certainly be financially ruined. This will make it doubly difficult to survive under conditions of such increased costs.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. In order to continue your income you may wish to develop some talents which would be marketable in the event of an invasion. The ability to repair small machines may be in high demand, since it will be increasingly difficult to obtain replacement machines. Auto mechanics may be in demand, but only if there is sufficient gasoline available for people to operate their vehicles. The same goes for gasoline powered generators. There may or may not be demand for the skill to repair or operate such things. However, battery operated radios will probably continue to be widely used. Simple machines such as grain mills and coffee grinders will also likely be in widespread use. The ability to repair bottle gas stoves may be in demand. And so on.
2. As mentioned above, you may wish to stockpile basic necessities. Staple foods and common or prescription medicines should be at the top of such a list. You may also wish to obtain spare prescription eyeglasses and dentures.

Fifthly, you should be prepared for the revival and expansion of a host of diseases and other plagues which you may not be accustomed to. Depending on your location, you may experience one or more of the following afflictions:

1. cholera
2. typhus
3. life threatening diarrhea
4. malaria
5. severe respiratory problems
6. malnutrion/starvation
7. frost bite or heat stroke

The above is far from a comprehensive list. You should also expect a rapid increase in vermin, such as rats, cockroaches, flies, etc. You may also possibly experience an increase in the presence of wild animals which were formerly very rare or unknown in your area. These might include wolves, lions, tigers, etc. Depending on the level of violence, you may also find yourself living in an area where feral dogs have become accustomed to feeding on human flesh from the many dead and dying persons in the vicinity. Most people find these dogs to be extremely troublesome.

Many people are now also reporting severe hemoraghic afflictions resulting from direct or indirect contact with US military forces. It is not clear precisely what the source of such afflictions is, but do not be surprised to find apparently uninjured people dying from severe internal hemorrhages within hours or days of exposure to US weapons and personnel.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. If there is time, you may wish to enroll in a basic first aid class. Or if not, you might purchase one or more first aid or field medicine books.
2. As mentioned above, you may want to stock pile common or vital medications. You may also wish to stockpile oral rehydration tablets, bandages, splints, and other items that may become necessary in the wake of an invasion. Keep in mind that you or someone you know may be injured in the violence or otherwise require medical attention at any time. The chances of having access to trained medical care will be substantially reduced once the invasion begins.

Sixthly, in addition to the revival of more or less naturally occurring diseases and plagues, you should also reasonably expect that your area has become heavily contaminated with chemical and radiological poisons as a result of the US invasion and occupation. The most commonly reported contaminants are typically lead, mercury, and uranium- all of which are used in American munitions. As a result of this contamination, you should expect to see an immediate and sustained increase in local cancer rates. Horrifying birth defects, still births, and spontaneous abortions will all also most likely increase dramatically. This contamination will also affect livestock and food crops. If you detect or suspect such contamination in your area, you should reasonably expect that the contamination will persist in the environment longer than you will. So try to plan accordingly.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. If it is practicable, you should obtain a Geiger counter or some other radiation sensing device. This will allow you to know whether you are being exposed to radiation, and if you are, what amount of exposure you are receiving. If you are able to obtain any testing materials to identify the presence of hazardous chemicals, you may also wish to do that.
2. Try to familiarize yourself with the early symptoms of chemical or radiological exposure. If there are any practical treatments, try to have the means to provide such treatments on hand.
3. If you are in a contaminated area make every effort to relocate to a more healthful environment. If you can not leave the area, then make every effort to minimize your exposure. Masks, glasses/goggles, gloves, etc. can all help to minimize exposure. Frequent washing with clean water may also be helpful.

Seventhly, you should anticipate that violence will become much more prevalent in your daily life. Even if the US forces remain stationed at remote bases, it is likely that either criminal elements, militias, or government forces will take advantage of the unsettled situation to perpetrate violent crimes such as rapes, robberies, and murders. Kidnapping in particular will likely become a topic of daily conversation. If it does, you may rest assured that either you, or someone you know, will receive the finger of a loved one as a token of the seriousness of the kidnappers demands.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. You should develop or improve your ability to defend yourself in the event of an attack. If there is time to enroll in a self-defense class before the invasion, you may wish to do so. In general, however, the better your physical condition and mental preparedness are, the more likely you will be to survive in a violent environment.
2. Try to obtain firearms or the best available type of weapon that you can safely operate. The possession of a weapon very frequently means the difference between becoming the victim of an unplanned crime and continuing on your way unmolested. It is true that organized criminal gangs will be eager to disarm the population, but consider that you will be no less of a target when you are un-armed than you were when you are armed.

Eighthly, which is very difficult to write, you should expect a massive death toll among civilian women and children. It is a well-established historical trend that wherever the US government intervenes, women begin to die in astounding numbers. These deaths will come very largely from violence, but also from lack of food and health care.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. You should try to identify now places that would be suitable for mass burial grounds. Many invaded nations have recently had good results with the use of soccer/football fields. Sports fields in general may be the best locations that are readily available. Along with this, you should consider how you will dig graves, and how they will be marked. The issue of marking graves will become one of first importance once the death toll begins to mount.
2. If possible women and children should be evacuated as far from the invaded areas as is practicable. If they can be evacuated entirely out of the country that would most likely be best, unless they are placed in a refugee camp. If it is not possible to evacuate, then the most secure areas available should be reserved for them, and they should be as well protected as possible.

Allied to this issue will be our ninth point, which will be the explosion of slavery in your area. The vast majority of your people who will be enslaved will be women and children. Many of them will be killed on the scene. But many more will be shipped off the the Middle East and North Africa where they will live as slaves until killed by their masters. A smaller number may also find their way to the nations of east and southeast Asia. In general, you should expect that women will become far less visible, influential, and present in your society as a result of a US invasion.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. It is difficult to say what courses of action are best when faced with this situation. By definition, people taking your loved ones into slavery will be in positions of power, and will almost certainly be armed and accompanied by ruthless enforcers. Your two main options may the classic ‘fight or flight’. Evasion is the best solution, but if you have a strong extended family or a strong neighborhood solidarity, you may be able to push the slavers off on to someone else. If neither of these options is successful, it may be possible to buy back your loved ones, provided that you have enough money and can find them.

Finally, there are two issues which are intimately bound up with all that has been written above.

The tenth point to keep in mind is that you should expect to see a massive influx of foreigners into your country. These people will be ‘aid workers’, ‘consultants’, ‘advisors’, ‘specialists’, ‘contractors’, ‘observers’, ‘inspectors’, ‘guards’, or anyone of a number of other similar types of people. There will also likely be members of the foreign media present, but you will not meet them unless you happen to have business within their enclave, which will usually be a luxury hotel with an independent supply of water and electricity. All of these people will be entering your country with expense accounts and highly inflated rates of ‘hazard pay’. In addition to this, many of them will also be in control of the disbursement of large amounts of money intended for ‘reconstruction’. (Of course, there will also be US soldiers present, but the typical US soldier is very poorly paid. Many of their families rely on public assistance to supplement their government pay.)

All of these people will be in your country with a feeling of new-found wealth, and many of them will quickly come to the realization that there is little or no supervison or law to restrain their actions. So you should expect that first all, areas with a large concentration of foreigners will be extremely costly. Areas surrounding foreign ex-patriots will typically see apartment rental costs ten times the average cost. Food and other consumer goods will be much more readily available in ex-patriot enclaves, but the prices will be extremely high. You will be much more likely to find a good paying job working for an ex-patriot group, but you may find the job to be rather hazardous.

If you go to work for an ex-patriot group do not be surprised to find that either your employer, their colleagues, or their acquaintances are rapists, pedophiles, or murderers. You will also find that a lot of smuggling is being arranged via these ex-patriot workers. Unsavory characters are irresistably drawn to unsettled, war-zone type environments. Expect them to be everywhere in the ex-patriot community.

This brings us to the final point, which is looting and smuggling. If you live in an area with any sort of cultural or historical endowment, you should be aware that after the invasion, if not sooner, very sophisticated foreign groups will be ranging over your area with shopping lists of valuable pieces of art and antiquities. They will be stealing these and spiriting them out of your area for sale to private parties outside the conflict zone. Museums and archeological sites will be prime targets. Of course, precious metals, precious gems, convertible currencies, and all other things of high value will also be looted and/or smuggled out of the country. The same routes used to smuggle drugs and slaves will be used to smuggle gold and other precious items.

Possible Courses of Action:
1. Each individual must consider these issues and reach their own judgment on how to respond to them.

Re: The REAL Rudy: Mistakes in 30 seconds

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:40:33 -0000

Concerning the comments about personal life.

This is just supposed to be a funny teaser. We have several more videos coming that are very serious and get into the substance you're looking for.

One of the poll responses is "daughter supports Obama for president". Clearly this is a bit tongue-in-cheek everyone!

Re: The REAL Rudy: Mistakes in 30 seconds

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:41:12 -0000

Re: Giuliani: “For Me Every Day Is An Anniversary Of Sept. 11″

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:34:29 -0000

who needs another 9/11 when you can relive it every day!

Re: The Oprah Effect

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:02:51 -0000

And none of those folks ever had a real chance of winning. So yeah, it's not the *only* reason.

Re: Fox Cuts Off Sally Field’s Anti-War Speech at Emmys

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:08:25 -0000

You can bleep a single bad word, but they cut to total darkness. That's like a Bill O'Reilly move.

Re: Fred Thompson Is The Laziest Man Alive

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:59:32 -0000

After he did that Michael Moore response video, I was all expecting Fred to BRING IT online, but no. His announcement video was long, boring, and awful, and now he's phoning in his youtube vids?

I sat in a BNF meeting trying to convince everyone that the rumored announcement video was gonna be great, just because he so nailed that Moore video, but it must have just been a fluke. Or maybe he's bored with this whole running for president thing.

Re: Another GOP Nightmare: Bill Richardson For Senate?

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:38:47 -0000

oh hell yeah. this would be great!

Re: John McCain Hates Medical Marajuana…And Lies About It

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:46:53 -0000

As someone who thought the whole medical marijuana thing couldn't really be *that* effective...

Wow, was I wrong. I had a major operation and afterward could not eat much of anything, was throwing up and just hated even thinking about food. I lost a ton of weight and it was a life-threatening downward spiral.

My doctor put me on a prescription pill version of marijuana called marinol. I was afraid it would turn me into a pothead, but it didn't at all... all it did was give me an appetite and make me want to eat. I got the munchies, and stopped losing weight and am now putting it on bit by bit getting stronger and stronger.

That shit saved my life.

Re: Another GOP Nightmare: Bill Richardson For Senate?

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:48:18 -0000

politico is reporting that the richardson campaign is denying all this.

Re: MySpace - Murdoch’s Attempt To Control The Internet

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:35:52 -0000

they deleted our spoof murdoch profile too. it was the most popular with over 5000 friends.

Re: Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:29:04 -0000

What better way to launch a presidential campaign than getting the Nobel Peace Prize!

::dreaming::

Re: 37 GOP Scandals In 4.5 Minutes

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:45:40 -0000

he starts blinking like crazy as soon as he start making the oath. he knew he was full of crap.

Re: Looking For A New Host FOX News?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:55:32 -0000

i find this guy pretty interesting, actually. he's clearly brilliant... even galileo's contemporaries thought he was a heretic.

Re: Oh. My. God.

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:17:51 -0000

oh come on.. all they needed was a sound guy and it would have popped.

:)

Re: O’Reilly Muzzles His “Ombudsman” — After FOX ATTACKS! Decency Launches

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:18:16 -0000

I so wish we could take credit for Mary Diaz from Ft. Myers' question. It really does look like we planned it.

Re: O’Reilly Muzzles His “Ombudsman” — After FOX ATTACKS! Decency Launches

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:21:21 -0000

It's interesting how they are positioning Dhue as the hard nosed, no-nonsense woman. Giving her that prime slot with O'Reilly is definitely about grooming her for her own show.

Re: Bill O’Reilly in The O’Sexxxy Factor

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:27:30 -0000

actually i think they both flashed him.

Re: Michael Moore cut this scene from Sicko because no one would believe it

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:06:31 -0000

Matthew-
If you click on the "LiveLeak" link underneath the video, there is an embed code for myspace on that page.

Re: Rudy Giuliani’s Taxpayer Funded Adultery

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:41:44 -0000

that cover is fantastic

Re: Forget About MTV - We Want Respect

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:25:34 -0000

Amen!

And I'm sick of boomers romanticizing the 60's like they were out there changing the world. They were doing a lot of drugs and fucking like rabbits.

Re: John Edwards: The Iowa Movie Trailer

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:16:03 -0000

Best ad yet! Really great.

Re: John Edwards will not negotiate with health insurance corporations

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:52:06 -0000

He was only a lawyer for corporate America for his first couple of years in the early 80's. Then he started fighting them.

I worked for corporate America for my first few years, and ditched it for this work once I figured out what was going on.

I don't see how you can possibly fault him for this.

Re: The Winner of the War on Greed contest

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:20:47 -0000

hey dominick-
the site crashed for a few minutes, those links should work fine now.

Re: Live Iowa caucus coverage starts tonight at 7pm ET

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:12:19 -0000

yeah, M F, we got a few reports of the emails coming in way way let. i don't really know why, just one of those weird internet things.

Re: Live Iowa caucus coverage starts tonight at 7pm ET

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:06:25 -0000

D-
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

Clinton support was pretty small in the audience, which I've heard is pretty representative of the progressive blogosphere in general. The poll we did before the results started coming in on who folks were pulling for on the Dem side:

Edwards 38%
Obama 32%
Kucinich 19%
Clinton 9%

I was trying pretty hard to both keep the discussion on the topic at hand, and include as many different voices as possible.

Maybe recruit some Clinton supporters to come participate for our New Hampshire coverage Tuesday!

Re: Last Night’s Dem Debate

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:26:13 -0000

I think Hillary ranting about how she makes change will be the clip that historians look at to explain why her campaign cratered.

Re: FOX ATTACKS! Obama’s Staffer Breaks 300,000 Views in Less Than Three Days!

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:54:39 -0000

uh, no cheap theater.. it is not configured to play automatically on the foxattacks.com homepage at all.

Re: ITT Tech says NO SAVAGE!

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:56:43 -0000

Rex,
You might want to check out our fox attacks decency, and fox news porn videos. Both searing indictments of FOX's misogyny that reached well over a million people.

We can fight for equality for more than just one group of people. As GWB might say, we can chew and walk gums at the same time.

Re: Esteban Colberto interviews Lou Dobbs

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:44:04 -0000

Well, apparently the editors aren't on strike.

Re: Intuit says NO SAVAGE!

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:17:27 -0000

I am so thankful I can still use TurboTax! I've used it my whole life, and I was really dreading having to come up with a different solution.. like talking to a real person or something.

Re: Obama Your Mama

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:54:42 -0000

I want a Chief Justice Jenna t-shirt.

Re: GEICO keeps changing their story about SAVAGE

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:24:33 -0000

Update! GEICO just pulled out. NICE JOB!!

Re: Barack Obama’s response to Bush’s final State of the Union

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:59:49 -0000

It's interesting to me that Obama excels speaking to a lot of people, but you don't get that same energy when it's just him and the camera.

If Obama became President, I wonder if he'd put himself in that situation more. Why not do a press conference with 3000 real people, instead of 30 reporters?

Anyone can submit their questions online... the ones that get voted up the most, he actually answers.

Re: The Clinton Fox Debate: Through the Eyes of a B-Movie

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:11:05 -0000

Yeah, I think this might be one of the greatest posts ever.

Re: FOX: What Party is John McCain In?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:50:17 -0000

Re: Obama Robocalls telling WA voters wrong caucus date

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:26:08 -0000

Nonimus.. where do I sign up for the Scarlett Johanssen telephone calls?

Re: Can you rate anything lower than 1 star?

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:35:23 -0000

Make that 5 times. This tune is stuck in my head and it's killing my pro-duc-tiv-i-ty!

Re: Best Obama Quote Ever

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:47:39 -0000

Geez, the man is brilliant!

Re: Can you rate anything lower than 1 star?

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:54:13 -0000

Here's more on the Gene Wang band, from the NEW YORK TIMES: "Gene Wang is a three-time chief executive with a fancy Silicon Valley pedigree and a string of big-money successes. Most recently, he sold Bitfone, a maker of software for portable gadgets, to Hewlett Packard."

Re: SHUT UP & SING — Brave New Review

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:47:38 -0000

"cyberpunk hooker clowns" -- no wonder I love them so much!

As for the not speaking loud enough... man, if Natalie had done anything more than that, she may not even be alive today.

Re: John McCain… with a LOT of help from his “friends”

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:51:55 -0000

Jay-

The entire point of this video is to use the Vicki Iseman hook to point out all the lobbyists surrounding McCain and running his campaign. It's a chance to use the interest around this story to reach more people about the core issue.

It's precisely because we wanted to get the real message out there (and not the prurient one) that we busted our butts to get this out so fast.

Re: Is Nader Running?

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:10:36 -0000

I'd certainly prefer Nader not run... for the obvious reasons.

But I don't ascribe nefarious, narcissistic, ego-maniacal motives to him. It could actually be quite the opposite.

Look, he's certainly no idiot, so he knows he's not going to win. So why would he do it?

For the attention, of course. But not just attention for himself, for the issues he cares about. The issues he feels (and probably a lot of us too) should dominate the media this year. It's what we do at BNF -- trying to change the dialog in the country through the media -- he's just doing it through the megaphone of a political campaign instead of a YouTube video.

Obviously, I could be wrong about his motives, or maybe it's a nuanced mixture of narcissism and a desire to do the right thing, but there *is* a possibly non-traitorous reason for doing this.

Is it worth the risk? In the primaries? Sure. In the general? No way.

Re: O’Reilly compares Arianna Huffington to Nazis, KKK

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:52:50 -0000

Mary Katharine Ham, the right-wing: "You're gonna make me defend Arianna Huffington!?"

Re: CONGRATULATIONS JIM GILLIAM!

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:13:08 -0000

Thank you! All the love is a little overwhelming. I'm very lucky to work with so many creative and talented people at BNF.

Re: Merci McCain

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:50:05 -0000

that is awesome. the picture of mccain with the moustache is photoshop gold.

Re: Maddow Schools Scarborough (Extended)

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:58:06 -0000

She mentioned the dream act!

Re: Condi Must Go!

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:56:39 -0000

We're all for impeachment.. and we've been trying on that front, fwiw. Our Impeach Cheney video/petition got a lot of traction, but obviously didn't work out.

We have a better shot right now at getting the presidential candidates to call for her resignation than trying to get pelosi to initiate impeachment.

Re: Bosnia and Back Again, starring Sen. Hillary Clinton

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:32:37 -0000

go jed report! great stuff.

Re: How Hillary Can Still Win

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:33:28 -0000

John-

Are you Socialist Pig?

Re: How Hillary Can Still Win

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:33:14 -0000

Yes, Kanuk25, after reading your comment, I looked at the log files, and John E and Socialist Pig are the same person, 100% for sure.

This was very deceptive, and John will not be posting any further on the BNF homepage. He may or may not show up in the comments under who knows how many pseudonyms. I won't stop him from posting comments unless they violate our policy of no personal attacks, etc.

I apologize for all this, it's not at all what BNF is about. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Re: Watering the Pennsylvania Grassroots

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:37:15 -0000

"It's raining! People will be at home. Let's knock on their doors!!"

Awesome.

Re: Clinton Hands O’Reilly Ratings Win

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:42:13 -0000

Re: Menendez: “Thank God” Economists Don’t Make Public Policy

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:38:53 -0000

smart people are retarded... duh

Re: Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:48:36 -0000

AND the movie just looks awful.

Re: Lindsay’s Incredible Update!

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:58:12 -0000

Go Lindsay and crew!

Re: What Does RFK’s Assassination Have to Do with It?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:34:07 -0000

"I don't want to attribute ::nervous laugh:: motives or strategies to people."

Re: Hillary for VP?

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:29:31 -0000

I'm with Jimmy Carter, it would be a huge mistake, adding a slew of negatives to the ticket.

Such a huge mistake, there's not a chance Obama will make it.

Re: FOX Attacks Obama: Terrorist Fist Jab?

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:17:32 -0000

This is not The Onion. Repeat, this is NOT The Onion.

Re: Reagan Girl (The Original Obama Girl?)

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:11:43 -0000

this is so great. i love how they made it look like it came from an old vhs tape that's been copied a bunch of times.. there are even some audio filters that gives it an older analog feel. totally rad.

Re: Want Your Opinion Heard This Convention Season?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:13:59 -0000

I deleted this entire thread. Start over.

Re: Over 35,000 People Think Lieberman Must Go!

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:05:26 -0000

The comment is probably just a little too long. If you go here, you can sign the petition with as long a comment as you want. (it's a weird technical thing)

Re: Is Obama a Conservative or a Progressive Realist?

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:16:32 -0000

I think Obama wants to solve problems and restore America's greatness. He's a pragmatist, not an ideologue of either persuasion.

Re: Stop Oil Speculation Now

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:42:47 -0000

This initiative is being led by the airline industry, which I think is incredibly newsworthy in itself. In an open letter to all their customers, the airlines basically said that rampant greed (speculation) in the oil market is destroying the eeconomy. There must be regulation of the free market. Read the letter.

Re: Oliver Stone Brings Us George W

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:19:49 -0000

Wow, this is gonna be great.

Re: Rev. Warren Lied — McCain Wasn’t in “Cone of Silence”

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:00:28 -0000

I think Warren assumed McCain had been in the cone of silence and just didn't know that he hadn't arrived yet. Remember, he was on stage with Obama for the entire hour before, and presumably was busy getting prepped before going on. Add in all the Secret Service craziness that must have been going on, and it's quite possible he had no idea McCain wasn't in the cone of silence.

And if Warren knew this, it's really unlikely he would have made a joke about it to begin. That's something only the most pathological of liars would do, and the past gives us no evidence that Warren is a liar.

So I don't think Warren lied.

But McCain definitely did, and there's plenty of evidence he's a pathological liar. Not to mention a cheater too.

Re: Making the Future

Jim Gilliam — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:23:59 -0000

WH2 will be running on NationBuilder. Technically, it's all the same codebase, I've just been making the whole thing more customizable behind the scenes. Development will continue on full time, I've got a whole ton of ideas for this.

Re: How do you deal with competitors in open systems?

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:44:05 -0000

Thanks for your thoughts.... I do remember reading recently about the registration/moderation approach having the opposite effect of what was intended.

What about the people who in fact want the *general* project to fail. Let's say I'm running Craigslist in an open fashion, anyone on the internet can be involved on how the company should be run. It's quite reasonable to expect that people working at newspapers might view the success of Craigslist as directly hurting their ability to make a living. So they participate in how Craigslist should be run, and suggest things like charging for listings so their classified ads wouldn't be undercut.

I suppose more and more transparency does help that, although it might be hard to actually get that out of people. But if you know that 70% of the people supporting this one idea all happen to work in the newspaper industry, then you can take that into consideration.

So then, how does that manifest itself on a website in an easily digestible way. We can't expect everyone to delve into everyone else's background. Maybe there's a means of tagging other people? In politics, it could be something like "20 people tagged this person a lobbyist"...something like that.

Re: Introducing act.ly – Petitions Designed for Twitter

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:15:32 -0000

Thanks Eric. I've thought about that, whether a tweet should be required to sign. I think it should be, because it gives the signature a lot more weight. You're not only willing to sign this petition, you're willing to tell everyone about it. Petitions have gotten less and less useful over the years as we've made it easier and easier to sign. One thing I like about doing it on Twitter is that we can make it *even easier* to sign, while making it a more meaningful signature, AND spreading the word. It's kind of beautiful.

Re: Introducing act.ly – Petitions Designed for Twitter

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:09:51 -0000

You can't have more than one target. I'm starting to think about how that could work though, part of the problem is that you run out of tweet space pretty quickly. But there's probably room for a couple folks, and I can see people wanting to run a petition to both senators in a particular state, that sort of thing.

On the multiple people starting a petition. No, not right now. What you can do in the meantime is include information about the other person who started it at the bottom (or top) of the petition text area. You can include links to organization websites, whatever you want.

Re: People from 26 Countries on the list for NationBuilder

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:45:38 -0000

31 countries!

Added Guatemala, South Africa, New Zealand, Netherlands, and the Philippines.

Re: Introducing act.ly – Petitions Designed for Twitter

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:05 -0000

Yes. If you're thinking about something specific you want, just drop me an email and I can get it to you sooner in non-official form.

Re: A Challenge to Citizen Journalism

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 15:45:28 -0000

At Brave New Films we're doing our damnedest to get out there and tell stories that aren't being told. Getting our hands dirty with original reporting. These are films, but really it's more citizen journalism combined with citizen distribution -- using quick production cycles, cheap DVDs and distributed grassroots screenings.

And funding it all is a nightmare. Attacking the media establishment (outfoxed), and Hollywood's sugar daddy (wal-mart) makes a lot of funders scared.

So that's a big reason we use DVDs because at least we can sell those and have some kind of revenue stream. People are willing to pay for that (at least for now).

Re: 2.0 Business Model Doomsday Scenario

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 04 May 2006 16:48:01 -0000

Attention is becoming ever more scarce... people will go to greater lengths and spend greater sums to try to grab it.

Re: What If No One Will Pay For Content?

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 07 May 2006 16:40:38 -0000

what if you were a media company selling products to increase someone's influence?

brave new films.

i almost never plug, but there are some interesting things around what we're doing:

1. we just finished an online fundraising campaign for our next film, iraq for sale. about 3000 people donated because they want to use the film to bring attention to something they feel is critically important. and we put their names in the credits.

2. those same people will host (mostly free) screenings to generate attention when the film comes out for the cause, their organizations, and themselves.

3. a lot of our sales are now bulk orders (we offer a discounted five pack of the walmart movie) for people to give to other people they know.

Re: The Solipsism of Web 2.0

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 12 May 2006 22:11:45 -0000

soooo true. and the stuff that makes arrington excited is frequently just worthless crap. remember him going crazy about chat on a blog post? geez.

Re: The Unbearable Lightness of 2.0 Business Strategy

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:53:56 -0000

myspace is enormously valuable because of the relationships it is enabling. if they insist on turning that that value into money, then they just need to enable transasctions between those relationships.

if you were a teenager... you are a lot more likely to buy something through a friend, than through some corporation. right?

same applies across the whole chain..

just cut everybody in on the money flow.. like distributed credit card fees.

Re: The Unbearable Lightness of 2.0 Business Strategy

Jim Gilliam — Sun, 21 May 2006 21:53:22 -0000

ted-
myspace is the equivalent of a teenager's bedroom. the bedroom is supposed to be *my* space, but the parents won't let me paint the walls black. on my space i can do that.

so where's the "closet" section of my space? i want to share the clothes i'm wearing with my friends. and if they buy them, i should get a cut. maybe i even made my own t-shirts on zazzle.

their ipod is basically there, it's just not something kids can make money from yet. but they could if all the bands could sell tracks off their profiles, and the kid who introduced their friend to the band got a cut.

Re: Google Video Ads May Accelerate Paid Media Advertising Death Spiral

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 23 May 2006 22:52:54 -0000

i wonder if google really does understand that video ads like this just aren't going to work, but that their sales folks are hearing demand for it. so they feel compelled to offer it. google hasn't really done that in the past, but what if they feel that the industry just needs to get the pay-per-click video stuff out of its systetm, so it's going to offer it to appease them, and then show them exactly why it sucks.

and that's why it's nowhere on google.com?

Re: Has the MySpace Downturn Begun?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 26 May 2006 01:24:24 -0000

other possible explanations...

finals? summer starting?

both are so large now, cyclical stuff will start to set in. particularly w/ facebook.

Re: Billy Bragg Walks Away From MySpace

Jim Gilliam — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:15:32 -0000

youtube is the next myspace: alexa graph

Re: Increasing Advertising’s Low Return on Consumer Attention

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:53:55 -0000

so sellers can pay you to buy it from them..like a coupon? only easier? kinda?

Re: Increasing Advertising’s Low Return on Consumer Attention

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 21:46:23 -0000

'ShouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t the advantage go to the company that allocates the greatest value to the consumer?'

Seems like Google is already establishing a great foundation there. Adwords sales tracking, Analytics.. now Gbuy. All initiatives to capture information on the actual sale so they can funnel it back into ad targeting.

Re: Google Is A Very 1.0 Shopping Engine

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 01:05:10 -0000

If we're talking about where people start first to shop, then the comparison shopping engines are irrelevant. Amazon is what matters here.

The greatest general online buying experience right now is Amazon. I will not buy much of anything without consulting many different reviews on Amazon. One-click checkout is huge.

That's a lot of what this is about Google going after Amazon's one-click shopping, just like Amazon is going after Google's search w/a9.

Re: Google Is A Very 1.0 Shopping Engine

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 12:09:54 -0000

You're absolutely right..It will be hard to compete with Amazon's massive library of reviews. Very very hard.

Google has a certain ethos: It's better if a computer can infer something than explicitly ask a person for the info. They figure people are lazy, and it's better, possibly even more accurate, if the computer can infer based on their behavior the same information.

This is what made Google. They figured out they could infer what the best website was with existing information already out there... the links people use. They didn't need human editors (yahoo), or a distributed network of human editors (dmoz) to do it.

Another example. The address book in gmail. It just adds all the people you email, and it puts the ones you email the most frequently, on the first page. Brilliant! I pretty much don't have to maintain my address book anymore... it just works.

That's what Google will do here as well. They will try as hard as possible not to ask people for information if they can figure it out by watching what they do. Adding products purchased can infer an awful lot, far beyond 'just' better ad targeting.

Re: Google Is A Very 1.0 Shopping Engine

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:22:39 -0000

The 'people are lazy' comment was rather flippant developer-talk ("eh, people are lazy" sayeth the softwarer developer in me), but since people are discussing it, I should be more accurate.

We obviously aren't lazy overall, otherwise we wouldn't have huge economies and all that. But we like it when technology comes along and makes things easier for us, particularly when we don't have to do anything special for it.

We also like to be involved in shaping the world and our surroundings...making a difference, being heard and respected.

Re: PayPerPost Will Taint Us All

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:17:07 -0000

This crazy blog thing will create an awful lot of thick skins. Celebrities have had to deal with attacks, accusations and allegations for a long time... but what happens when everyone has to deal with it? 4.8 million E! True Blogger Stories on youtube?

Re: Paying for Bad PR

Jim Gilliam — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:36:55 -0000

Now that you're registered on the site... does that mean your credibility is completely shot?

KIDDING!

Re: What Does Google Want to Be?

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 12:24:24 -0000

Brilliant!

Re: Distributed Revenue-Sharing Ad Platforms Are the Paradigm For Monetizing Social Media

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:10:05 -0000

I'm not sure I see people rushing to put their own ads on their profiles. I think they'd be more interested in the opposite -- paying to remove the ridiculous ads myspace puts there already.

Most people are on MySpace for attention, not money. People put movie posters and corporate logos all over their rooms and bodies, but do they charge for it? Not generally (minus a few high profile celebrities and the occasional crazy person).

Re: Distributed Revenue-Sharing Ad Platforms Are the Paradigm For Monetizing Social Media

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 17:24:26 -0000

"Jim Ã¢â‚¬â€ youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re still thinking in old media terms. "

You're totally right.. after reading your response, I realized that's exactly what my business already does.. I just never thought of it as cost-per-action advertising with a revenue split. I just think of it as people giving & selling my dvds to their friends/neighbors/co-workers, because they want to bring attention to the issues they care about. But yeah, it's the same basic thing.

Re: Netscape Could Beat Digg By Focusing on Average People

Jim Gilliam — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:42:44 -0000

It looks like netscape.com might have lost a lot of traffic because it didn't handle the transition for my.netscape.com users very well. Afterward, they added a big notice: "attention netscape users".. what the heck happened? type of message. Clearly they got a lot of feedback from people who obviously don't like change otherwise they wouldn't still be using my netscape and netscape mail!

I think it's to be expected that there will be a drop in traffic on such a major change, a re-trenching as it finds a solid user base, followed by steady growth if it's a good product. This happens in any news business. You launch a new cable news show, switch anchors, whatever. At first there's interest cause it's new.. then you lose some previous folks as they realize they don't like it or just don't want change. but if it's good, and the network sticks with it, it finds an audience.

Based on your analysis, Scott, one of the smart things Calcanis appears to have done is have the top stories picked by editors. It gives it a consistency more in line with traditional news.

So is that a social media revolution? You're right, probably not.

Re: Google Local Coupons: A Limited Offer for Consumers

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:08:15 -0000

Sure, it's not the most efficient system, but it's got massive scale out-of-the-box because they are able to integrate an entire existing infrastructure of coupons. And it's a marketing concept that every local business understands.

It may not be brilliant from an economic or technological perspective, but it's brilliant from a marketing perspective.. and it'll make a lot of money for Google and help local business too.

Re: Brands Will Have a Tough Time on YouTube

Jim Gilliam — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:32:58 -0000

Just remember the long tail folks.. youtube is only partially about the stuff on the front page, ie, the stuff the masses want. There are an almost infinite number of niches to carve out an audience.

Re: Collateral Wii Damage and The Law of Unintended Technology Consequences

Jim Gilliam — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:25:52 -0000

If Nintendo didn't anticipate this, then why are there wrist straps on the controllers, and warnings to use the wrist straps in all their materials?