Jim Gilliam's blog

We're hiring two Ruby on Rails developers

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:29:24 -0600

Brave New Films is looking for two Ruby on Rails developers to join our small tech team and help us build the next generation progressive media platform.

You like raising hell, your politics are liberal, and you want to use your talents for good. You’re pragmatic and like getting things done quickly. You’re enthusiastic, committed, and more inspired to change the world than get rich.

We've launched many innovative websites, from Brave New Theaters, the people-powered movie distributor, to FOX News Porn, something you just have to see to believe. You'll be creatively challenged, you'll have a lot of fun, and you can work from home.

We use Linux, MySQL, Apache, Lighttpd, etc. We know what happens to servers when half a million visitors show up, and we hate going down. We care less about writing perfect code or complying with every standard, and more about birthing the clever idea that’ll wreak havoc on the establishment.

Salary is based on experience, and we're well aware that one great coder can be more effective than a dozen mere mortals.

To apply, email Jim Gilliam (address at the link) with some sites you've built, and why you're the right person.

Scarborough: McCain platform is less jobs and more wars

jgilliam — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:17:52 -0600

Huckabee Girl: "You're gonna be the president of heaven!"

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:32:29 -0600

Sweetheart Deal

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:52:06 -0600

The DNC gives us a Valentine's Day video celebrating John McCain and George W's love for each other.

John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush on a wide range of issues. From his early and strong support for the Bush-McCain war in Iraq to his pledge to make Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy permanent to his lack of knowledge on the economy, it's clear that John McCain would just be a third Bush term.

Can you rate anything lower than 1 star?

jgilliam — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:21:33 -0600

This video has gotten 9,000 views and 1100 ratings on YouTube. The average rating is 1 star.

In other words, people enjoy hating this video so much, that 1 out of every 9 people took the time to come to the YouTube site and rate this with 1 star.

And the comments have been disabled.

As Jesse, my colleague at BNF IM'ed: "it's so bad it's good, it's gone all the way around the circle." I've now watched it 3 times.

Hillllll R eee, 4 u & me, bring back R dem O kra see!

John McCain wants you to know Bill Clinton thinks he's electable

jgilliam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:37:13 -0600

AmericaBLOG has the scoop.

So I'm doing a Google search for "John McCain" last night and the first link I see is his campaign Web site. I click and land on a page where there's a rather prominent YouTube video of Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton? I figure it must be a pretty damning video, more Clinton bashing from the right, etc. In fact, it's a very nice video of our former president saying all sorts of kind words about John McCain:

John McCain's Day at the Beach (he's talking about the Iraq war)

jgilliam — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:27:15 -0600

This is a new video from the DNC on McCain's statements prior to the Iraq war about how easy it would be, and how he's recently changed his tune.

2006
"We had not told the American people how tough and difficult this could be. It has contributed enormously to the frustration that Americans feel today because they were led to believe this could be some kind of day at the beach." [McCain in Columbus Ohio, Press Conference, aired on CNN, 8/22/06]

2002
McCain: "And I believe that the success will be fairly easy." [CNN, Larry King Live, 9/24/02]

2007
Tim Russert: "Go back, Senator, to 2002 -- the administration saying we'd be greeted as liberators." [MSNBC, 1/10/07]

2003
McCain: "There's no doubt in my mind that once these people are gone that we will be welcomed as liberators." [MSNBC, Hardball, 3/24/03]

2002
McCain: "I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time." [CNN Late Edition, 9/29/02]

2008
Questioner: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for fifty years."
McCain: "Make it a hundred... That would be fine with me, I hope it would be fine with you." [McCain Town hall in Derry, NH, 1/3/08]

2002
McCain: "We're not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad." [CNN Late Edition, 9/29/02]

2003
McCain: "It doesn't take a large number of people to cause difficulties in house to house fighting we've just seeing right now in southern Iraq." [MSNBC, 3/24/03]

2006
McCain: "We have not told the American people how touch and difficult this task would be... they were led to believe this could be some kind of day at the beach." [CNN, 8/22/06]

Scientology Raids

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:38:41 -0600

Photos: Austin, Milwaukee, Clearwater, Los Angeles, San Diego, London, Australia, and more!

Barack Obama wins Maine, and the Grammys

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:29:45 -0600

He beat out Bill Clinton for best spoken word album.

Fascism

jgilliam — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:52:53 -0600

Frank Rich on the Clinton campaign's "bigoted lie"

jgilliam — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:31:33 -0600

Frank Rich in this morning's op-ed:

Last month a Hispanic pollster employed by the Clinton campaign pitted the two groups against each other by telling The New Yorker that Hispanic voters have “not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.” Mrs. Clinton then seconded the motion by telling Tim Russert in a debate that her pollster was “making a historical statement.”
It wasn’t an accurate statement, historical or otherwise. It was a lie, and a bigoted lie at that, given that it branded Hispanics, a group as heterogeneous as any other, as monolithic racists. As the columnist Gregory Rodriguez pointed out in The Los Angeles Times, all three black members of Congress in that city won in heavily Latino districts; black mayors as various as David Dinkins in New York in the 1980s and Ron Kirk in Dallas in the 1990s received more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote. The real point of the Clinton campaign’s decision to sow misinformation and racial division, Mr. Rodriguez concluded, was to “undermine one of Obama’s central selling points, that he can build bridges and unite Americans of all types.”
If that was the intent, it didn’t work.

The War on Scientology

jgilliam — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:29:35 -0600

There is an online movement growing, led by a group called simply Anonymous, to destroy the 'church' of Scientology. From their latest statement:

Many of you may wonder how Anonymous plans on launching into the task of dissolving the Church of Scientology. As a fundamentalist, totalitarian organization that seeks control of information and manipulation through fear, the Church of Scientology possesses inherent flaws. Anonymous is studying these flaws, and has made them the basis of a long-term strategy.

Our first major objective is the revocation of this cult's tax-exempt status wherever it has managed to obtain one. Indeed, the privileges awarded to the Church of Scientology under US law are significantly more generous than those enjoyed by major religions.
Other objectives set out by Anonymous at the present time include - but are not limited to - exposing the criminal practices of the Church to public scrutiny, neutralization of its fraudulently obtained assets and corresponding operations, the liberation of members coerced and blackmailed to work for the Church in illegitimate ways, declaration of the Church and its shell corporations as prohibited criminal organizations and the criminal prosecution of the persons responsible for particularly heinous acts performed in the name of this Church.

They are using new forms of activism, and the latest technology to wage an Anonymous battle against an institution legendary for destroying lives and intimidating its critics. More in the Houston Chronicle.

Huckabee: "I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles."

jgilliam — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:04:30 -0600

"I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out. Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles." -- Mike Huckabee

You just can't make this stuff up!

Are you an organ donor?

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:59:46 -0600

Donate Life Illinois is trying to register 3.5 million Illinois residents as organ donors in the state's new registry. Many people think that signing the back of your driver's license is enough, and frequently in your state it is NOT.

Most Illinois residents do not realize that signing the back of your driver's license is no longer adequate to ensure your wishes to be an organ/tissue donor are carried out. You need to RE-REGISTER post Jan. 1, 2006 to be included in the new donor registry.
Help us save the lives of the 4,700 Illinoisans and over 97,000 people nationwide who are waiting for an organ transplant and a second chance at life.

Support organ/tissue donation and register or re-register online today at www.IAmAreYou.org

If you're not in Illinois, you can find out about your own state's requirements for being an organ donor here.

Obama Baby: "Politicians are like diapers..."

jgilliam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:51:30 -0600

Straight talk from Senator McCain: More wars to come

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:02:28 -0600

This video is from CNN Newsroom, broadcast January 27, 2008.

Speaking in Polk City, Florida, U.S. Senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain (R-AZ) pledges expansion of access to health care for soldiers injured physically and psychologically not only in the current war, but in wars he says are sure to follow.

Less Jobs. More Wars.

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:29:52 -0600

What is this 'Iraq war' charge on my bill?

Live Super Tuesday coverage starts at 4pm ET

jgilliam — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:10:13 -0600

Brave New Films and The Young Turks are back with all night coverage of Super Tuesday election returns. We've had an overwhelmingly positive response to our coverage of South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa, and we're going all out tonight to bring you the smartest, most in-depth and exciting progressive coverage anywhere.

You will get the inside scoop from movement all-stars like Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Sherrod Brown, DNC Chair Howard Dean, The Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington and MoveOn.org's Eli Pariser.

Our revolutionary new format completely bypasses the gatekeepers in the corporate media, and unlike TV, you can watch it at work (or at least those of us with desk jobs), in any country, and without commercial interruptions. We'll have the most up-to-date returns, and a team of folks answering your questions and explaining the ins and outs of how this crazy democracy works. And you can participate live, by sending in tips, commenting and voting in instant polls.

WHAT: Super Tuesday with Brave New Films and the Young Turks, hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz.
WHEN: Tonight 6pm-1am, pre-game liveblog starts at 4pm.
WHERE: http://bravenewfilms.org/network/5-super-tuesday
PRICE: At Brave New Films, you set the price!

SCHEDULE
4:00 Liveblog pre-game show starts
6:00 Video starts, Senator Sherrod Brown
6:20 Senator Ted Kennedy
7:10 Anna Burger, SEIU
7:30 Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle
7:40 Dolores Huerta
7:50 Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood
8:10 Melody Barnes, CAP Action Fund
8:50 Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake
9:00 Howard Dean, DNC
9:40 Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org
10:00 Robert Greenwald joins to co-host
10:00 Alexandra Acker, Young Democrats
10:10 Joe Conason, Salon.com
10:20 Trailer World Premiere, This Brave Nation
10:30 Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation
11:00 Wes Clark Jr. joins to co-host
11:30 Todd Beeton, MyDD
11:40 Keith Boykin/Malia Lazu, Daily Voice
12:00 Joan McCarter, Daily KOS
12:20 Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post

Please tell your friends. We've put the total # of viewers up at the top of the page so we can all see how word spreads. So spread it! And vote!

Star-studded Obama music video

jgilliam — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:00:54 -0600

Wow. Watch "Yes We Can" from Will.i.am.

Hollywood comes together for Obama.

With Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Amber Valetta and Nick Cannon.

Progressives uniting: Edwards supporters choose Obama

jgilliam — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:44:24 -0600

Today, both MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org released results of who their members are supporting in the primary:

MoveOn.org: Obama 70%, Clinton 30%

ColorOfChange.org: Obama 69%, Edwards 12%, Clinton 11%

Color of Change, then did a poll after Edwards pulled out and 56% of Edwards supporters chose Obama, and 9% chose Clinton... 32% are still undecided.

Progressives are clearly uniting behind Obama. Maybe America will too. We'll find out Tuesday during our live election night coverage of Super Tuesday.

And don't forget to vote!

March 19th is the 5 year anniversary... what will you do?

jgilliam — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:05:06 -0600

Here are some details from United for Peace and Justice on how you can get involved in stopping the war on its 5th anniversary. From their new site 5 Years Too Many:

March 19, Mass Nonviolent Direct Action in Washington, DC: UFPJ has initiated the planning and organizing for what we hope will be the largest day of nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience yet against the war in Iraq. We encourage people to be in Washington, DC, on March 19th to be part of the civil disobedience, or to assist in support work. We are working to have all 50 states represented in this massive action.
March 19, Local Actions Throughout the Country: We encourage those who are not able to make it to Washington on March 19 to organize local actions. These actions may vary in location or character, but they will all be tied to the protest in Washington and all sending a message to the policy makers: It is time to end this war and occupation!

Yes, California decline to state voters can vote in the primary

jgilliam — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:08:25 -0600

You just have to request a Democratic or Republican ballot.

Where do Edwards' delegates go?

jgilliam — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:53:27 -0600

MyDD breaks it down. Very helpful!

The bottom line is, they go wherever they want.

Anyone know where that is?

Behind the scenes with an Obama and a Clinton campaign intern

jgilliam — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:11:49 -0600

Bush will be gone soon, but his ideology will live on

jgilliam — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:08:24 -0600

Last night's State of the Union might have been Bush's last, but as Andrea Batista Schlesinger from the Drum Major Institute notes in this video, the ideology behind all of the same tired policies of the past will live long after Bush is gone.