To:
brigade@Majordomo.net
Dearest Brigade,
I've held off sending you this email in hopes that things would change, but they haven't.
Last Wednesday night Bay Buchanan fired me. She told me that six weeks ago she hired a team of Web professionals to replace me who she felt would do a much better job than I have done. She explained that the campaign was going in a different direction and that I no longer fit in with her plans.
She also gave me notice that I would no longer be needed at (TAC) The American Cause (I was on a temporary leave while I worked on Pat's campaign site). She told me know that the work I did for TAC was never what she had in mind when she hired me - that I didn't conform to her specifications. She has given my job to a consultant, Tim Hathaway, and to her friend Brandy Anderson - they are now the permanent webmasters for TAC.
I was in a state of shock and disbelief. I reminded her that for the last five years my whole life has been dedicated to Pat and our Cause. For over three years I volunteered as webmaster for Pat on my http://www.buchanan.org website. While mployed for the last two years at TAC and for the campaign, my work has received high raise from the Brigade and even the establishment Media. For five years I've kept the Brigade list running at full throttle and used it exclusively to help Pat and to fight for our issues. And finally, I reminded her that from 1992-1995 I devoted myself to the Reform Party - first as an activist and district chairman for Perot '92, then United We Stand America, and finally the Reform Party in Alabama.
I was just stunned and I asked her to help me understand how she can believe that I'm going in a different direction. Bay told me that the professional webmasters have been working on the new site for six weeks, it was already built, and would be ready to go up on Monday the 18th. She said my final day would be last Friday and offered me two weeks severance pay.
These past few days, I've felt like there has been a death in my family. I kept hoping that someone would call and say it was all a big mistake.
Last Thursday afternoon when I tried to update our Website I found that the passwords had already been changed and I was locked out of the site. Yet, I still trusted that over the weekend someone would help her to realize that my work was of some value to Pat and our Cause.
But, when I got home last night and logged on to our site - http://www.gopatgo2000.org - I found that they had deleted all of my work and put up the version created by Bay's new webmasters.
Yesterday and today, I've received 100's of email requests from you asking me to put my original Website back up. Friends have told me that the phones are ringing off the hook at campaign HQ protesting the new Website. I was just told that because of the public outcry, the professional webmasters are now copying my ideas from the old Website and putting them on their new site. It's just a shame that it took this long for the senior staff at HQ to finally realize that some people did appreciate my work. I wish I could change the Website back, but I can't. I am no longer with Pat's campaign. I still love Pat and I'll always love him. I'm just so sorry that Bay feels I'm no longer needed.
I just want to make sure that all of you in the Brigade know how thankful I am for everything you have done for our Country, but especially for your friendship and dedication to our Internet effort. You are the reason our site was the BEST campaign site. It was your ideas that I implemented and your activism that made the Internet Brigade a force to be reckoned with. And it was you who put Pat Buchanan's book on the New York Times best-seller list. Yes, I webmastered Pat's site, but the bottom line is that it was also our Brigade site, and we have a lot to be proud of (see the National Journal - Hotline review below).
Well Brigade, I probably could keep finding more things to say but I better end it for now. I'm going to take some time off for rest and reflection. God speed to all of you as you continue fighting the battles for our issues, and also standing strong for Pat as he leads our Brigade.
As always, For the Cause Linda ----------- >From The National Journal - Hotline - April 22, 1999:
"Patrick J. Buchanan owns the kind of rip-snortin', rootin'-tootin', ride-to-the- sound-of-the-guns ... political site that other presidential candidates can only dream of ... Even Buchanan's URL screams energy and enthusiasm -- www.GOPATGO2000.org. ... Linda Muller, [is] probably the best political webmaster east of Jesse Ventura's ... In fact, Buchanan 2000 violates a lot of the rules I think make for a good and effective political Internet site. But it still works, 'cause Muller never, ever loses sight of the goal: The voting booth on Nov. 3, 2000...
Whoa! It's a wild ride, and you find yourself clicking on links in spite of the seeming disorganization. Part of Muller's genius is that she knows how to write a catchy headline... And, oh, does Muller understand the Net. It's one thing to have a Web site, spewing out the traditional hired-gun PR horse hockey. But Muller understands the organizational power of e-mail and knows that Webbies like to talk back. In fact, they demand it.
...In 1996, if you believed the Net "polls," Libertarian Harry Browne won the election 'cause his Web backers stuffed the ballot boxes everywhere. Now Muller is doing it, and she links to new polling sites as quickly as they come online. Can you see George W. Bush or Al Gore doing that? They're too busy measuring the drapes in the Oval Office.
I don't know if Buchanan really believes in the power of the Net, but he's acting like a good sport and playing along. He calls in from the road and does we're-here- and-here's-what- we're-doing reports from the campaign trail, complete with crackling phone connection ... For gosh sakes, it's Buchanan reporting on Buchanan. Show me someone else doing that!
I have no idea how far Buchanan will get in the White House sweepstakes this time ... But Buchanan will likely scare the bejeepers out of George W. at least once or twice before the coronation in Philadelphia. And this time, the Web will be playing a role..."
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