I got an e-mail from a gun dealer poking some fun at the Brady Campaign (who in recent years has gone farther and farther off the scale in wackiness). The point of the blog post I was reading was just poking fun at the Brady Campaign having only about 50K members nationwide, with only about half that being active in the last 12 months. The numbers speak for themselves:
- 50,581 DONORS/MEMBERS (TOTAL FILE)
- 40,765 DONORS/MEMBERS (24 MOS)
- 28,417 DONORS/MEMBERS (12 MOS)
"But where did those numbers come from," you may be asking yourself. Well, oddly enough, they come from a website called NextMark.com where you can buy other people's membership and mailing lists.
"WHAT'S THAT," You ask? Let me spell it out for you in simple terms: When you donate money and join the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, your address and other such information goes onto a list. That list is then sold via NextMark to whomever buys it. Just the same way your name ends up on any other targeted spam or junk-mail marketing list. So the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence is selling your PERSONAL information. But they're not the only ones...
Are you one of the listed 409,550 people who joined Friends of John Kerry? Or perhaps you live in California and chose to be one of the less than 12,000 people who supported Senator Diane Feinstein. Maybe you're one of the 7,902,336 people who are A+ Democrat Donors or one of the 2,695,588 people who are who donate funds to the Democratic National Committee.
And there are more. Of course, many lists get sold daily, it's a disgusting part of the marketing business, and of course, supporting these groups DOES open you up to public scrutiny, however, donating to a political party or politician's campaign and THEN having your personal contact information sold to whomever will pay? That's just absolutely, unequivocally wrong.
Unfortunately, it's not just the Democrats being so slimy. "Hey, we gotta make money!"... For example, are you one of the 155,295 people listed as an Affluent & Influential Republican Donor? Perhaps you're one of the 187,031 Reliable Republican Donors. Older? Maybe you're one of the 248,322 Republican Senior Donors, one of the 6,000,000 Republicans Ready to Give, or even worse, one of the 21,356,230 people on the Republican Party Voters E-Mail Mailing List.
The point is, you are out there. The people you expect to lead your party are selling your personal information to mass marketers. Ever wonder why you get so much Junk Mail? Just go to a place like NextMark and search for random strings:
Gay?
Lesbian?
Like Trucks?
Or Dogs?
Barbeque?
Das Aggregator!