Maker of Anti-Clinton Video Outed, Loses Job

Raul654 writes "Philip de Vellis, the author of the anti-Hilary Clinton viral video was outed yesterday on the Huffington Post. The company he worked for, Blue State Digital — a Democratic Internet strategy company that does work for Barack Obama — has now fired him as a result. Said Vellis: 'I made the "Vote Different" ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process.'"

Comments

Clarification

[voice_of_all_reason]

From a reply to the Huffington Post article by the creator:

I've resigned from my employer, Blue State Digital, an internet company that provides technology to several presidential campaigns, including Richardson's, Vilsack's, and -- full disclosure -- Obama's. The company had no idea that I'd created the ad, and neither did any of our clients. But I've decided to resign anyway so as not to harm them, even by implication.

Re:Clarification

[l4m3z0r]

De Vellis was an employee with Blue State Digital, an Internet company that provides technology to presidential campaigns, including Obama's. De Vellis said he resigned from the company "so as not to harm them, even by implication." The company issued a statement Wednesday, saying he was terminated.

"Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately."

From: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/21/clinton.you .tube/index.html

The CNN version has quotes from Blue State Digital's spokesperson saying that he was in fact terminated.

Re:Clarification

[jnaujok]

You do realize that Bush won the Popular vote in 2004 by three million twelve thousand four hundred ninety-nine (3,012,499) votes, right? I'm not sure what "popular vote tally" you're looking at.

Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 by about five hundred forty thousand (543,811) votes. And if you want to be technical about it, the recount in Florida was not stopped illegally, it was started illegally when Gore's campaign filed a suit to prevent the certification of the election. Had they allowed the election to be certified, Florida state law would have automatically required a state-wide recount of every vote. By preventing the certification and tying the Florida Secretary of State up in court until they reached the deadline for appointing Electors, Gore insured that the State of Florida had no choice but to "illegally halt" the recount. Had they not, then their Electors would not have been selected in time for the meeting of the Electoral College, and the entire state of Florida would have been disenfranchised. (Resulting in a Gore win.) So, if that's the basis for your argument that Bush lost in 2000, you'd be right.

In fact, only in the case where all election law was thrown out and the most liberal (not *that* meaning of "liberal") definition of "vote" was used (the Palm Beach County "Pregnant Chad" rule), and you only recounted the five most democratic counties in the state of Florida, only in that (incredibly invalid and illegal case) does Al Gore squeak out a margin of 22 votes. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/s tories/main.html Heck, had Gore won his home state of Tennesee, the whole thing would have been moot anyway.

In retrospect, Bill Clinton never won the majority of the popular vote. (He won pluralities in both elections.)

Fired?

[Aladrin]

I see nothing in that article that says he was fired. I see user comments to that effect, but those aren't cited, either.

I heard on the radio this morning that he quit when he realized he was going to be unmasked. That's quite a bit different than being fired.

Old Strategy

[TheMeuge]

This is a very old, and very nasty strategy:

1. Get somebody to make an offensive attack ad
2. Get it noticed by the press
3. Enjoy seeing your attack ad on the air FOR FREE for a dozen news cycles or more.
4. Offset the blame, since you never "approved" the ad. ...
5. Profit!

Neither Side Knew That He Made the Video

[ras_b]

From his blog:

The campaigns had no idea who made it--not the Obama campaign, not the Clinton campaign, nor any other campaign. I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.

Re:I don't see the problem.

[spun]

Marx's original plan was that communism was a transitional government on the road to real anarchy and self governance. But it was criticized by true anarchists from day one. Anarchists such as Proudhon said that communism would invariably lead to a concentration of power, just the same as capitalism.

In any case, I think the post you were responding to was not raising a critique on that level. I think it was more along the lines of "They wants to take mah propurtai!"

Re:Freedom of speech

[Billly Gates]

Your free only from government prosecution. Having a job is not an inalienable right and the employer has a right to fire him because he could hurt the business if Obama drops his contract with the company.

It sucks but thats how it goes. Yes you can run around office screaming the star spangled banner like a maniac and have security escourt you out and its your right to do so and lose your job of course. It only means the government can not prosecute you for doing so.