Little Tony continues to copycat WorldPeace

I opened my political web page January 1, 2001, a year ago. All Sanchez had on the web last year was a stupid picture of himself and some detritus from the U T Regent web site. At the end of 2001, Sanchez had a web site and that site has continued to grow significantly in the last few weeks. The problem is that there is no real content to his page.

A few weeks ago, I put a picture of myself wearing a stetson hat on my web page, and very shortly thereafter, Tony had a picture of his little self with a hat. Of course he cannot wear it because his hair piece might come off with the hat. Also, symbolically he can't wear a stetson because he is not governor material. 

In the last few days, I have distributed on the Internet two graphic emails: one) shows Tony next to Ken Lay and reminds people that he is a Bush "pioneer" and that he is rich like Lay was and that he bankrupted Tesoro Savings and Loan and cost the taxpayers over $161 million in a bailout. two) A second email went out showing a picture of Tony and Henry Cuellar with Homosexual written across Henry in red. There was also reference to a Houston Chronicle article reminding people that Tony is a homophobic who used homosexuality to try to embarrass Henry. Also on the email was a list of 60 Democratic Party bosses who endorsed Tony and consequently endorsed his homophobia.

Now Tony is going to use email to get out his message. I am having a hard time writing this epistle because I am laughing so hard. If I run naked around the capitol, how long will it be before Tony falls in behind me?

I have had a web page on the Internet for over six years now where I have been promoting WorldPeace all over the world. I understand the Internet probably better than anyone in regard to getting out a message. More importantly, I know what not to do and the repercussions of pissing off cyber vigilantes.

In addition to being a silly little rich guy who freezes up in a debate, a simpleton who can't say anything but "education, education, education" and then really says nothing, someone who had to have his goons and the police stop me from attending a fund raiser where he spoke in League City last year because he is scared of WorldPeace, and a copy cat, he is just an all around stupid little puppet who has about a dozen people who control everything he does. I am reminded of a scene in the movie "The Last Emperor" where the little emperor is surrounded by advisors who are carefully examining his leavings. 

I am sure that Tony has no understanding of the Tao but I am sure he can pay someone to explain the following to him.

"When you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chances are that you'll cut your hands...

The Master has no possessions.
The more he does for others,
the happier he is.
The more he gives to others,
the wealthier he is...

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus he has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds the people 
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things...

The truth is often paradoxical."

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas
No more corruption. No more Monicas.
God Bless Texas

February 6, 2002

_________________________

Sanchez buys e-mail list for mass mailing
By Ken Herman

American-Statesman Staff

Wednesday, February 6, 2002

Deep-pocketed gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez has bought his way into the e-mail in-boxes of Democratic voters across the state. 

Working with a purchased list of e-mail addresses of Democratic primary voters, Sanchez is trying to build a communications network that could pay off at the polls on March 12. 

Campaign spokeswoman Michelle Kucera on Tuesday declined to say how much it cost to buy the list, how many voters have been contacted and how often they can expect to hear from Sanchez. 

"It's a strategic thing," she said. "We are not going to tell the opposition how many people we are contacting." 

Sanchez faces former Attorney General Dan Morales, Houston lawyer John WorldPeace and Waxahachie businessman Bill Lyon in the Democratic primary. The winner will face Gov. Rick Perry, who is unopposed on the GOP ballot. 

The e-mail strategy by Sanchez, whose multimedia campaign also includes an ongoing, high-dollar TV advertising blitz, is being watched by political pros eager to gauge whether he is on to the next big thing in politics or merely sending potentially annoying spam, the term widely used for the Internet form of junk mail. 

"It would be huge," GOP consultant Todd Olson of Austin said of the possible upside of direct e-mail. 

Sanchez's unsolicited e-mails -- which Kucera said are no different from direct mailings to targeted recipients -- will continue unless people click through to a Web site that deletes them from the list. 

A Sanchez e-mail now making the rounds touts the technology's potential. 

"The Internet and e-mail has made it possible for you and I to communicate in ways that we could have only dreamed of a few short years ago," he said in a recent message. 

Kucera said the campaign bought the list from Responses, a direct marketing firm that compiled it by matching Democratic primary voters with a list of e-mail addresses of people who have "opted in" to receive online information. That list includes people who had no way of knowing they were inviting political solicitations. 

Kucera said the e-mail effort is "definitely not spam," although she acknowledges the effort is "slightly uncharted territory." 

"Compared to the large number we sent out, we got very few responses or complaints," said Kucera. 

That's not surprising, said Stephen Keating, executive director of the Denver-based Privacy Foundation, noting that fewer than 5 percent of e-mail recipients will respond either way to an unsolicited message. 

Though most of the e-mail communication will be of the one-way variety, with no response from the recipient, Sanchez touts the effort as "a new two-way communication channel" between voter and candidate. 

Previously, that channel has generally opened by asking campaign Web site visitors to sign up to receive e-mails. The Sanchez effort takes the next step by sending unsolicited e-mails. 

"While I would very much like to communicate with you via e-mail, I also want to fully respect your privacy. If in the future, you would prefer not to receive messages from me via e-mail, just click below," Sanchez says in the e-mail, directing recipients to a Web site that deletes them from the list. 

In addition to the potential benefits, consultant Olson sees a possible downside. 

"Spamming, whether you are a candidate or a corporation, is going to lose you votes and lose you customers," he said, adding that Sanchez might annoy voters by requiring them to do something to stop the e-mails. 

"He is saying, `I'm taking you along unless you tell me you don't want to come.' It's lazy, and it will backfire," Olson said. 

Jim Moore, senior adviser to the Morales campaign, said his candidate will have e-mail contact only with people who submit their address through the campaign Web site, which went up on Tuesday. 

"When you do e-mail campaigning in politics there is a very fine distinction between reaching out to supporters and potential supporters and spamming people," Moore said. 

Gov. Rick Perry's campaign uses e-mail addresses it collects directly from voters who volunteer them at events or in responses prompted by Perry's campaign Web site, according to Deirdre Delisi, Perry's campaign manager, who sees peril in Sanchez's effort. 

"The Sanchez campaign is putting the burden on the recipient of the e-mail rather than on themselves, and that's probably not appropriate," she said of the process for getting off the list. 

Experts contacted Tuesday disagreed on whether the Sanchez effort meets the definition of spamming, which, in its broadest sense, is sometimes defined as unsolicited e-mails sent to a mass audience. 

"I think that's a good first evaluation of what he is doing," said Stephen Keating, executive director of the Denver-based Privacy Foundation. "But it's somewhat of a different situation from most commercial spam because he has targeted an audience which is likely to be sympathetic to his solicitation." 

Keating said Sanchez should lose points for forcing people to opt out of the system if they want the campaign e-mails to stop, rather than asking them to opt in if they want them to continue. 

Donna Hoffman, co-director of the eLab project at Vanderbilt University's Own Graduate School of Management, said the Sanchez e-mail meets one definition of spam because it is "unwanted e-mail." 

"But on the other hand, that's not to say that once people saw it, they wouldn't be interested," she said. "In that sense, it comes a little bit closer to target marketing." 

The real question, she said, is whether anyone reads this stuff. 

"Increasingly, consumers are deleting them. If you have legitimate purpose, you run the risk of just being lost in the electronic shuffle," she said. 


You may contact Ken Herman at kherman@statesman.com or 445-1718.