10. In a section devoted to "future leaders," there were none.
9. In the subsequent rush to get up a "future leaders" page, they choose "you."
8. The last GOP accomplishment cited on the accomplishment page was from 2004.
7. The what's up page -- hip! starts with this sentence: ""the internet has been around for a while now"
6. Administrator passwords were accidentally posted.
5. When the RNC hosted a kick-off conference call, the website was down.
4. The website cites Jackie Robinson as a GOP hero. Robinson wasn't a GOPer, and he criticized the GOP on race. Robinson left the party because of its views on race. He had been, as a reader points out, a Republican for many years.
3. The first question on the conference call was from an Hispanic Republican who asked why the GOP site didn't have a Spanish-language page and noted that the White House had one.
2. Bragging about web redesigns is so 2004.
1. It's not timed with the start of any major advocacy campaign -- or political campaign. And it portrays itself as something it's not: diverse and ready to embrace new ideas. That may be what the party leadership aspires to, but, at least when it comes to diversity, a few pictures of Hispanics and African Americans doesn't make up for ... well, the history of the party.
And "Fizzlin'"? Are you implying that the Republicans will take a lesson from Snoop Dog and offer up the "Fizzolator" so that we can translate all of their many bold and profitable new ideas for America's future into more realistic language? Fo' fizzle?
Why are you giving us such a hard time on this, Marc? It's a well-known fact that young techies hipsters like the Democrat party, and everyone else in this country likes Republicans. OK, so we don't attract web designers to our party, but we've got useful skills, from plunging toilets to hunting wolves from airplanes to banjo-playing diet-following preachers.
If you think everyone other than young hipsters "likes" the GOP, you live in an alternative universe (one in which polls on, say, "party brand popularity" do not exist). Which is, frankly, why the GOP is doomed.
Reality: Try it some time.
After reading the last sentence, namely the "hunting wolves from airplanes to banjo playing diet-following preachers" I sense that Almatt was not being completely serious. That or him, Joe, Sarah and Mike are all real close friends...
I don't *think* you have to be a young techie to prefer facts, such as Jackie Robinson leaving the party and criticizing its leaders on racial issues. But as the man said, bragging about web design is very old-fashioned - and one would hope the GOP could contract for such talent it didn't have internally.
However, being of the "not young" persuasion myself I find the irony of leaving blank the section devoted to "future leaders" nearly mind-boggling. The most glaring problems seem more to to with "content" than technology.
I also heard the RNC got the licensing rights from Roger Meyers, Jr for its website to have exclusive rights to the use of Poochie to increase the coolness of the site
Techie hipsters may tend leftwards but most of them would design a really cool Web site for invaders from the Planet Xytron for the right hourly fee. This one sounds as though some GOP senator's 15 year old son was the low bidder and threw it together when he was supposed to be studying for his history exam. I tried watching but after three minutes of waiting for the first page finally to load, the process died when I attempted to read about "Republican Accomplishments."
I've been a web developer since 1995 and I have never seen such a badly designed site.
You know, don't you, that the RNC can be sued for that site? It is -not- 508 compliant and -all- public sites must meet accessibility standards set by the US government. Section 508 was the off shoot of a class action suit against AOL for not being accessible to persons with disabilities. See here: http://www.section508.gov/
Frankly if I had the time and fell into the disabled category, I would sue the pants off them. Just saying ... Any takers?
Has anyone actually verified those Robinson quotes, or is everyone taking the word of a blogger for them? Just asking since the press is lazier than, well, nothing really compares. And it seems like they might have caused an uproar amongst Jews at the time, or even now.
Through the amazing power of a tool called "the google" one can search "jackie robinson goldwater," click the very first link, and find excerpts from his autobiography such as this:
A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany....It was a terrible hour for the relatively few black delegates who were present. Distinguished in their communities, identified with the cause of Republicanism, an extremely unpopular cause among blacks, they had been served notice that the party they had fought for considered them just another bunch of "niggers".
Robinson was a Rockefeller Republican, an unironic liberal Republican back when there were such. The Goldwater convention changed this.
The irony of needing to explain how one can do a basic factcheck using the power of the internet in a post about the fizzling of the GOP's latest tech attempt is not lost.
Surely Michael Steele as Clippy deserves an 11?
And yes, you have over-grammaticized the chairman's blog.
@ Scott A:
Worst. Website. Ever.
Why are all the Republican heroes dead? Why are there great gaps in the years of republican accomplishments? Confused....
They certainly went out of their way to put lots of black faces in the "GOP Heroes" section, obviously a desperate attempt to attract black supporters. But the effort is insulting to blacks' intelligence. Anyone can glance at the pictures and see that most of these folks lived before the era of civil rights legislation supported by Democrats LBJ and Harry Truman. This caused southern Democrats (like Strom Thurmond) to become Republicans, northern Republicans to become Democrats, and blacks to join the Democratic Party in droves. Today's Democratic and Republican parties are essentially reversed from where they were pre-civil rights. Of course it's Republicans that benefit from this since they can point at the Democrats of yore and say, look, Democrats were racist slave holders! Uh, yeah, and they were also the GOP's political forefathers.
Most of the "GOP Heroes" would without a doubt be Democrats if they were around today. Lincoln went to war against states that were trying to break free of the federal government under the guise of "states' rights." Can you imagine the GOP praising anyone else who so increased the power of the federal government at the expense of "states' rights"? They wouldn't, except for the fact that Lincoln is 1) a (nominal) Republican, and 2) a legendary American hero who freed the slaves.
Here's the thing: I went to the GOP website a few weeks ago and it was ONLY a place to make a donation. It lacked a place to submit ideas. If I were willing to listen to Michael Steele for more than a minute, maybe I could find one on the new site -- but I couldn't, not easily. On the other hand, I drop ideas on the Dems and the White House about three times a year. Because hey, there's a means to do so.
I ended up putting up a post on my site because the 'Republican HEROES--see them all' page was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. Loaded with Reconstruction-era African Americans, a prohibitionist, Clara Barton and Susan B. Anthony. Sure, why not start with them? Can anyone remember Barry Goldwater anyway?
Another 'hero' that's problematic: José Celso Barbosa was part of a political party that had the word 'republican' in it, but in early 20th century Puerto Rico that was an entirely different political party than the mainland one. At that time, and now, political parties were pretty much entirely focused on the island's political status vis a vis U.S. colonialism. The Puerto Rican Republican party that Celso founded was focused on advocating statehood for the island, clearly not an issue that any congressional Republicans have been supporting much recently.
Talk about disingenuous and pathetic.
I wondered about the PR 'Republicans,' figures.
And why is prohibitionist Judith Ellen Foster included in this Benetton ad for the GOP? She was a superintendent in the whites-only-no-Catholics-or-Jews Woman's Christian Temperance Union. A racist group fighting beer drinking--that's 'heroic'? Bizarre.
oh yeah, don't anyone forget to start ragging on Air America for bragging about their new website design:
http://airamerica.com/news/10-12-2009/welcome-new-air-america/
I mean that is so "very old-fashioned", right?
I didn't even know Air America had a website, let alone existed anymore.
Just found another GOP.com Fail, rather by accident!
Noticed this time when I loaded the site, the "O" in GOP was none other than Hiram Revels. Only, upon closer look, he was captioned as Hiram Rhodes (I think Rhodes was his middle name?).
As important as he is to the GOP, you'd think they could get his name right...
I'm not great at screencaps, but here you go: http://ow.ly/uodz
intro animated sequence is eerily similar to a short film produced in great britain 4 years ago that was critical of the bush administration. a strange source of artistic inspiration for a GOP site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO_8RwXMMwI
Robinson left the party because of its views on race. He had been, as a reader points out, a Republican for many years.
Numerous sources verify that Robinson supported both Democrats and some liberal Republicans. But I can't find any reliable source which says he was a member of the Republican Party.
Some online sources do say this, but they appear to be repeating things they have heard rather than basing this on solid information. (The Wikipedia entry on Robinson, for instance, claims Robinson was a Republican. But while a different fact in the sentence making that claim is footnoted, no citation is provided for that claim.)
Could someone please provide a citation to a primary source they have read which states that Robinson was a Republican? A page reference from his autobiography, for example, would be fine, and would help settle this matter.
What the GOP really means to say:
http://onelproductions.com/?p=1318
The platform is generally regarded as a grassroots effort. I'm sure that they would make sure that it was highlighted on the website. Hmm...can't find it. They sure know how to make the grassroots feel welcome.
JenJen--right you are, hilarious. It's as if they don't seem to know much about their own 'heroes'. Quite mystifying, eh?
Bily/digpro11, that is fricking perfect, really funny. If you don't mind, I'm going to borrow a copy of that and append it to the post. Let me know if that's a problem, cheers.
Ever wonder who's coaching Michael Steele?
http://bit.ly/3ppyiu
(satire)