Top 7 Conservative New Media FAILS So Far this Year
Michael Steele has made a big deal of reaching out to online media in the same way that Democrats have done very effectively -- cultivating what is known on his side as the "rightroots." And of course, honorable mention goes out to former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), who spoke of the GOP's need to compete in the "ethernet." So how's it working out for them?
In just the last few days, we had two ignominious events from just one state. A prominent South Carolina GOP activist, Rusty DePass, said on his Facebook page that Michelle Obama was a gorilla (and not in the sense of the evolutionary fact that we are all apes -- DePass actually seems to be offended by this). He kind of apologized -- but said Michelle started it.
And another South Carolina Republican operative, Mike Green, apologized for a racist Tweet against President Obama himself:
Newt Gingrich Tweeted that Sonia Sotomayor was a "Latina woman racist" who should withdraw her nomination -- sparking a controversy that didn't quite work out the way he probably hoped it would. He later backed down from the explicit use of the word "racist."
An attempt to create a unified brand for right-wing Tweeters, "Top Conservatives On Twitter," collapsed a month and a half ago due to internal disagreements. It had lasted just several weeks as an officially-organized effort, though the "#tcot" tag still shows up on individual bloggers' posts.
Rep. Joe Barton boasted on Twitter that he'd "stumped" Energy Sec. Steven Chu by asking where oil comes from. Chu was indeed stumped -- that someone who is apparently this dumb is an elected official:
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (R) accidentally Twittered a public announcement that he was challenging incumbent Sen. Robert Bennett for the Republican nomination -- he thought he was sending private text-messages to a friend.
Back in February, then-Virginia GOP chairman Jeff Frederick Tweeted that a Democratic state Senator was in negotiations to switch parties and give the Republicans control of the chamber. The Democrat in question then ended up not switching -- with some reports indicating that the Tweet itself played a part in any potential deal falling through. Frederick was later removed from his post as chairman, due to various complaints of mismanagement.
Even the relatively less embarrassing Twitter incidents can have their own unintended consequences. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a prolific Tweeter who has attracted a big following -- mainly for the reason that a 75-year old elder statesman posts online messages in the cyber-lingo of a 13-year old.
So what's next? Will we see an explosion of interest in the online blogs, once the political winds truly start to turn and the people involved find their way through the learning curve? Or will we see a continuing implosion, of one blooper after another?
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
LOL!
June 16, 2009 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I laughed hard when I read that line. :)
June 16, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I caught the video that night - Chu totally has a "WTF?" look on his face.
And I absolutely think he was thinking, "How the frak did THIS idiot get elected?"
June 17, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Michael Crichton tried to warn us about the dangers of the arrogant neophyte using complex technology without a clear understanding of the ramifications. Fortunately, the Republicans don't believe in dinosaurs, so they won't be trying to clone them anytime soon.
(However, there is that pesky nuclear technology thingy....)
June 16, 2009 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lest we forget, Michael Crichton was also a global warming skeptic (I don't know if he ever changed his mind at any point, but he spoke at a lot of panels as the designated "expert" arguing that global warming is not man made). The man could come up with some great science fiction ideas, but that doesn't mean we should listen to him without a few grains of salt.
June 16, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
No one gets everything right, particularly novelists. Nonetheless, his warnings about playing with technological fire were pretty cogent. His belief in chaos theory probably biased his views on global warming, but no one has the indisputable facts on such a complex system (which chaos theory posits can't be controlled). What he says about standing on the sholders of giants not making you any intellectually taller makes a whole lot of sense to me.
June 16, 2009 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
"bias" is not a verb.
June 16, 2009 8:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry. It "bias" can be a verb." I don't think it was used correctly, but nonetheless, it can be a verb.
June 16, 2009 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
"His belief in chaos theory probably biased [influenced] his views on global warming...."
Please indicate how you would correct this sentence.
June 17, 2009 6:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Michael Crichton got a lot of stuff wrong:
His rampant racism even thinly disguised by Rising Sun...
and his sexism was celebrated in Disclosure.
He wasn't a scientist, he was a nonpracticing MD, and it is highly unlikely he had any serious understanding of chaos theory.
He wrote popular, formulaic novels which were readable only on airplanes, and very popular with his target audience: right wingers who know nothing about science.
June 17, 2009 8:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, but "fail" is not a noun. Using it as a noun doesn't make it a noun. To paraphrase a line from Spinal Tap, "There's a fine line between clever, and... sounding like a 12-year-old."
Also, I think it is becoming clearer every day that anyone who twitters is a twit.
-- ARG
June 16, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Language change is dictated by users, not dictionaries. If enough people use "fail" as a noun, it becomes a noun and the dictionary falls in line.
When I was a kid, "contact" wasn't a verb, or so my teachers insisted.
June 16, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and a "kid" was a baby goat then too. Any other usage merited a rap with a ruler.
June 16, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was a contact something that you put into your eye?
June 16, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you guys seen this about the twitter-sphere?
From Current TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w
June 16, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
excellent.
June 16, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's funny; nobody minds language change--as long as it happened before they were born.
How many people get upset and bemoan the "debasement of our mother tongue" or some such melodrama that we say "you", "you", "your" and "yours" instead of "thou", "thee", "thy" and "thine"? Or how many English speakers are up in arms that we no longer use the "long s" (as in "in Congreſs Aſſembled")? Answer: nobody.
If Anglo-Saxons of 1000 years ago heard us speak, they'd no doubt rail against our "bad Anglo-Saxon". And if some Indo-Europeans of 2000 years before the Anglo-Saxons heard the King Alfred "debasing" their beloved Indo-European, they in their turn would no doubt have some sharp words for poor old Alfred...
June 16, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. As a good friend used to tell me, "It's a living language."
To which I would always reply, "Despite all efforts to kill it."
-- ARG
June 16, 2009 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like yer gonna hafta stay away from James Joyce!
June 16, 2009 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, indeed. I think Joyce's work would qualify as "clever". A bit too clever for me, however.
I hope you had a happy Bloomsday!
-- ARG
June 17, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I used to believe (since I was thus taught) that reference and access are nouns, while refer and acquire or connect were the appropriate related verbs. I have since been disabused of that quaint understanding of English usage and have learned to accept the admonition that when hack wordsmiths seeking a patina of erudition have at the lexicon, no rule is ever safe.
June 16, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
L0LWTFBBQ N00B!
June 16, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scintillating. You burn me up, I'm a cigarette....
June 16, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your use of "NOOB" surely does give you a fine patina of erudition, imho.
June 16, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's an awesome take on NOOB that lends to your evocation's humorous tendencies (I think I'm trying too hard to use these Big Words, heh heh).
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=noob
June 16, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
This, from the urban dictionary link you posted, is priceless. It is about trying to talk in noob language:
That is just too stinking hilarious.
June 17, 2009 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I was cracking up when I read it. And it started so innocently. Just musing, "so do I really know what a N00B is?" "Does it just mean a neophyte or does it mean a bit more?"
Well, after the definition, it's obviously a bit more.
fbh gwe8'5 (Ouch!)
June 17, 2009 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you're implying that my friend here is a hack wordsmith, then I shall have to ask you to step outside!
June 16, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL, sorry.
June 16, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sir, you are a prince among men.
June 16, 2009 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Verbing weirds language." —Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes)
June 17, 2009 3:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wasn't a fan of twitter until this week. We'd know less about Tehran were it not for Twitter.
June 16, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Same thought, but I was slower.
I agree, I kind of thought it was just a communication toy until this week.
June 16, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought it was a useless device for people to voice every single thought as it occurs. And some thoughts should just be kept silent. I thought it was another piece of technology that would erode people's ability to think through something, to think independently, without an audience, to think, period. I loathed the idea of twitter. Loathed it.
But after the last five days? Not so much.
June 16, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed, and don't forget the Internet played a part in getting news out during the USSR 1991 coup.
As has been said: the Net inteprets censorship as damage, and routes around it.
But not just Twitter and Blogs -- other telecommunications technologies have been in use since before the WWW or even before the Net was called "the Internet"...
One such technology is the Usenet, and we do injury to consider this tool as somehow "evil" in itself. It can be used for good, or for evil...just like a modern telephone. And these Internet trusts (duopolies, such as Comcast/ATT in this neck of the woods) do injury to our civil liberties when they (try to) block access to the Usenet.
June 16, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
um, s/Usenet/Internet/g, surely?
Usenet is dead. No one uses Usenet anymore - it's too crowded. Besides, the content is nasty, and the portions are so small.
June 16, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, that's /bin/sed many times before!
June 16, 2009 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I gotta agree with Lucy Stone. As long as a language is living, it's going to change.
Also, I have to disagree with point 2 too. Have you been keeping tabs on what's going on in Iran? Twitter has been a major communication device for the opposition.
June 16, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
If by "point 2" you mean this comment, then I'm afraid you misunderstood its gist. It wasn't a shot at Twitter; it was a shot at the arrogant users of Twitter, the subjects of this particular post: the GOP twits.
June 16, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was just going after "Also, I think it is becoming clearer every day that anyone who twitters is a twit."
If ARG said 'most people' or 'most Republicans' then I'd agree.
June 16, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry -- I lost track of the response line and didn't see to whom you were replying. Please disregard.
June 16, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Understandable. Sometimes I wish you could 'roll up' (what's the proper term? Mind's blanking) threads with a click on this site.
June 16, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you ARG. Not because I'm worried about evolving usage, but because I think it sounds corny, and is now badly overused.
June 16, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am aware that certain slang phrases become fashionable from time to time, but I question whether TPM really needs to promote their use.
I guess it's a question of style. Or poetic license.
I look at TPM as a legitimate new site. Sure, this is a fluff piece, mostly for entertainment value. But I am trying to encourage high editorial standards.
-- ARG
June 16, 2009 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you find that you only receive idiotic "tweets," perhaps it is time to get some new friends?
June 16, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Internet is, among other things, verbifying nouns. A linguist friend of mine says there's actually a parallel in German to this kind of construction in English. (I'll take her word for it.)
June 22, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, I meant to say it's nounifying verbs. Sorry.
June 22, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Norm Coleman is going to help teh GOP get this Ethernet thingie.
June 16, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's another one: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/16/racist-e-mail-aimed-at-obama-raises-hackles-in-tennessee/
June 16, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't it seem twitter is being rammed down everyone's throats? I think the sign up said it keeps track of a person's every movement. If they keep track of a person every movement, they can customize their political message to the individual. Almost every website I visited after signing up for twitter had a torture petition to sign. I also got an email berating me for not signing it. This whole twitter thing is Orwellian.
June 16, 2009 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please rest assured Twitter is not following you around on the Internet or anything.
June 16, 2009 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
What’s gone wrong with the world? I can’t even take a bath without 6 or 7 tweets jumping in with me. They’re in my shirt cupboard and Gingrich and Grassley are in the kitchen now eating my wife’s jam! Oh, they are cutting off my legs! I can see them peeping out of my wife’s blouse!! Why doesn’t Mr. Obama do something about it before it is too late?! Ohhhh….God…
June 16, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you sure it isn't following me around? lol I stand discredited.so twitter isn't tracing anyone's internet activity? is it really choice when we are being bombarded by it everywhere? why is the GOP embracing this particular social networking tool?
June 16, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republican love twitter so much because even their most sophisticated thoughts are under 140 characters.
June 16, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
ROFLMAO
someone needs to create a web site for the intellectually constipated GOP tweets much like the web site
http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/
for one stop shock and awe reality checks to keep an eye on those who seem to think protect America means aiding and abetting fellow criminals.
June 16, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Twitter may well become a permanent fixture, but so far it's pretty much the CB radio of the decade – useful in limited cases (like the current unpleasantness in Iran), but primarily a tool for the self-absorbed to prove their own banality.
Changes in English usage are a different matter. The language continues to evolve, but too often the new "usages" are nothing more than widespread mistakes (e.g., "irregardless," or "the thing is, is…," or the near-universal inability to tell "it's" from "its.") Millions of people making the same mistake don't create a new acceptable usage, they only prove the sorry state of public education.
June 16, 2009 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just proved the old axiom that anyone commenting about proper English usage will make a mistake. That last comma should be a semicolon.
June 16, 2009 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like your analogy that Twitter is the CB radio of this decade. May I use it as my own, please?
Perhaps Twitter was a solution in search of a problem. And maybe with the Iran situation some actual utility has been discovered. If so, that's a good thing.
But the concept was as you described: a new toy for narcissists.
-- ARG
June 16, 2009 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Help yourself. Enjoy. I hereby declare the metaphor to be in the public domain.
June 16, 2009 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes it depends on the perpetrator. Shakespere, for example, used around 20138 new words in his work. manager, accused, invulnerable, ladybird, malignancy are just a few examples. One wonders what the Bard would have produced if confined to Twitter.
June 16, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shakespere = Shakespeare
What the heck -- he spelled his own name four different ways!
June 16, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem isn't so much new words as sloppiness, like the near-universal usage of the phrase "could care less" when people really mean "couldn't care less".
June 16, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
When the guy across the street lost his job at Chrysler and then his house went into foreclosure, I told him he should sign up for Twitter.
Then he threw a rock at me.
June 16, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL. So, since English is evolving and all, you might say that your neighbor rocked you. Or that your neighbor rocks!
Rock on, neighbor. Rock on!
-- ARG
June 16, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I joined Twitter yesterday. By the time I confirmed my account through the emailed link - i.e., ~3 minutes - I already had 4 "followers," all of which were obvious spam. A few minutes later I had another request from some narcissist weirdo whom I will forego naming here in case he happens to be able to afford effective, if psychopathic, legal counsel.
Count me among the under-impressed. Surely some of us have learned along the way that very few of our passing thoughts deserve to be articulated to anyone but a priest / shrink / indulgent friend.
dz.
June 16, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
On topic, I submit my nominee for the eighth conservative new media fail:
Eric Cantor.
June 16, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's a fail, alright. And a disappoint.
-- ARG
June 17, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
And for the ninth: Michele "Batsh*t Nuts" Bachmann. Not only the owner of a mental health practice, but in dire need of its services, too. Also.
June 17, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have not texted, twittered, tweeted, telepromptered, telephoned, or televised anything recently. I do enjoy regular sex and meals but cannot understand how this is happening.
June 17, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since the election of President Obama, the GOP and neo-con media should be held responsible for unleashing dangerous white extremists upon the American people and their families
I’m a retire soldier that served my country for 20 years. I find the GOP conduct as government official total absent of any honor, or leadership, when it comes to conservative new media’s.
The sad thing is, conservative new media reflex none of America real values. The images receive abroad from conservative new media bring in the question, can you trust a political party, that’s disrespectful and seek to destroy their government from with thin, because they disapprove of America first Black president
The GOP and their supporters are seen around the world not as a political party, but as a anti-government group, that will not accept America first Black president
June 18, 2009 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
As I sit here in front of the puter reading some the more astute linguists, I can't help myself laughing out loud to some of the more pointed comments about language and the use of the correct punctuation marks." never was a strong suit for me" I have to laugh about the public education remarks, I've known a few so called privately educated individuals who wasted their parents investments in their future, one comes to mind is the flappable flyboy who some how managed to get himself installed in the highest office of the land.
In this case we managed to install the fracken nutcase two times and it shows.
The base is still using flash cards to recognize what a wrench is used for.
Ok I won't burden you with much more of my missive denigrating one the most colossal failures this country has ever been burdened with.
To that end the choice of the nut case could be re-worked to say we put into place a Repickanut, a bad habit with neo-conservatives, and their brain matter such as it is needs the armor the shell of a walnut provides, its round and a tuffy to crack unless you use a hammer and or gravity to crack them.
It don't always work, but the effort is at least a positive sign that we care about their ignorance.
Twitter has definitely found a niche, The Iranian people demonstrates that so eloquently.
June 21, 2009 5:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Haven't any of you something more constructive to do than sniping at Republicans?
Come now, gentlemen, your love is all I crave. You'll still be in the circus when I'm laughing in my grave.
June 22, 2009 1:05 AM | Reply | Permalink