(Diarist's note: Satire.)
June 16, 2009
WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele today announced the creation of a Republican message-a-day calendar service in print and online, to be maintained by Chairman Steele and a committee of veteran GOP voices such as former talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
"I am proud to announce the creation of both this service and the committee of principled Republicans who will serve to guide it in this time of great unrest in the face of unprecedented trouble in our Nation's Capitol," said Chairman Steele. "This service will e-mail and otherwise digitally send messages of the core Republican platform to all subscribers and will serve to remind Americans of the Party's continued commitment to growing America through small business ownership, tax reform and relief, limited government, gun rights, fighting terrorism, traditional families, the sanctity of life and more."
Steele added, "This service will be available as a daily e-mail, but it will also be available via text message and Twitter. Users will be able to sign up to receive a 140-character 'tweet' daily and will also be able to sign up for the e-mail service, which will provide a more extensive daily Republican message."
Steele said the e-mail would include an option for the user to receive a video recording of the message of the day. "We're going to have strong leaders like the members of the committee giving these video messages, and we're also open to the idea of having users submit their own messages. At this critical time in our Nation's history, it's more important than ever for the people to believe they have a voice in Washington, and I firmly believe this will do just that."
Steele said the messages would vary between reactions to the Democrat Party's socialist ideas for changing America and core reminders of what about the Republican Party appeals so many millions of Americans.
"Recent elections have reminded this Party and this Nation what about the Republican Party's message resonates with the American people. We believe the people of this great country will really identify with this new outreach program," Steele concluded.
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June 17, 2009
GOP college student hacks into database, blasts new calendar
Says it's 'out of touch, not forward-looking'
THE BOGUS NEWS PRESS
PHOENIX, Ariz. — When Arizona State University senior computer science major Greg Hacket told his father, Paul, about the Republican Party's new digital calendar, the elder Hacket said he thought it was "a great idea for moving this party forward."
Both Hackets signed up, and then early the next morning, after he got the first calendar e-mail, Greg decided to do a little digging.
"I wanted to see how much of this calendar they'd already done up versus how much was going to be those daily ... messages about what Congress, the White House, all those guys were up to," Hacket said.
Ten minutes later, Hacket was looking at a database that included several dozen video messages and other material he says looked ready to be sent out on specific days.
Hacket said he has since contacted the RNC about the security concern and that while the spokesperson he talked to was initially enraged, "I think in talking to one of their techs, they realized they had an opportunity here, so it was nice that they didn't send the cops after me."
Hacket said an agreement he and his father later reached with the party prevented him from revealing exactly how he was able to access all that data or any specifics about it, but he did say that what he found "troubled" him.
"I mean, I guess it's a work in progress, which is what the guy I talked to said, but as a younger guy who has a lot of concerns about the future of the party and the country, I was kind of struck by how much of this calendar was really just not forward-looking. It's a lot of people who sound like they're just giving their talking points."
Hacket added that the calendar portions he saw make "the party look, to me and a lot of my friends, kind of out of touch with where we are as a country."
A family conversation
After Hacket discovered the files, he called his father, who was upset at something else.
"My son called me up at about 6 a.m., which is another story," Paul Hacket said with a laugh. "But he says, 'Dad, I was on the Internet, and I went to the GOP Web site, and I got curious, so I tried to see if I could get a better look at the calendar, and suddenly I'm looking at all of these files.'
"So we talked some about what he'd found -- he was still on the site at the time, and so I had him look through the videos they'd put on there. And these guys, this Michael Steele and all of them, they barely quote Reagan at all, they give message spots to a lampooned vice presidential candidate who makes Dan Quayle look like a damn Rhodes Scholar, and ... it just looks like they're running from their past," Hacket said.
"I know President Bush -- the last one -- wasn't so popular in some places, but to leave him and Vice President Cheney off completely? To tap into his father once? And then you have (former House Speaker Newt) Gingrich, who appears like once a week. This is a man who hasn't held elected office this decade, and he's only recently come back to prominence because of the leadership vacuum," Hacket continued. "And (talk show host Rush) Limbaugh is a funny guy, has some insights on his show, but first, he's not a politician, and we shouldn't be looking to him for ideas going forward, and second, you want to have him on there instead of maybe (Indiana Congressman) Mike Pence? Or a, you know, some other people who are involved in the policy-making and that sort of thing."
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele issued a statement through his office, calling the hacking "an unfortunate act of malfeasance that does not represent the party's full plans to take advantage of new and emerging technology to communicate core Republican principles to the country."
"We hope the Hackets and their family and friends, and all Americans who are concerned about the future of their country, will be open to our plans to grow this daily service into something all right-thinking patriots can be inspired by as they go to school, work and church," the statement continued.
Lack of diversity
Greg Hacket was struck by the lack of diversity among speakers.
"You have Steele in there, so there's one African-American. And you have (Alaska Gov. Sarah) Palin in there occasionally. I think she had five taped messages. ... of probably 50 or 60 that I saw. And then something on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina from (Louisiana Gov.) Bobby Jindal. And so that's nice. But no messages from Latinos, from Hispanics, you know? No messages from Jews. Nobody in a military uniform. I know they're hoping for messages from people my age, so I hope we'll see some of those. But it was really just a lot of white guys and then some tokenism."
The RNC would not comment on the ethnicity or other demographic factors of the calendar, saying only that "we are proud of the voices and people in the calendar. They represent all Americans, and you don't need to belong to a particular group to understand very fundamentally that all Americans want the same things: lower taxes, less government, family security and law enforcement."
An aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the calendar represents "one of many ways in which the Republican Party is committed to interacting with the American people to restore this country to a path to fiscal discipline and family values."
"And fiscal discipline and family values are things Americans of all backgrounds believe in and vote for," the aide continued.
Hacket said the lack of diverse speakers "probably already" has affected how his friends view the calendar.
"Some of the messages aren't bad," he said. "There are some interesting ideas. But my friends and I are worried about how bad the job market is, so a message about how the government is socialist -- and the word should be socialistic -- doesn't help pay my bills.
"I saw in the news a few days ago about how illegal immigration apprehensions are down," Hacket continued. "Well, does that mean there are fewer illegal immigrants coming in or fewer getting caught? And what is the party's position? There's something in there from Rush Limbaugh on how we need a border fence to keep all the, quote, 'dirty aliens out of our country before they take it over.' That's not something that's going to attract my Hispanic friends to this party. They may be interested in fiscal discipline and maintaining a strong military, but they hear that anti-immigrant stuff and, you know, it's kind of embarrassing. They hear stuff that offends them and they don't want to give those other ideas a chance."
An RNC spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity wouldn't comment on specific elements of the calendar because they're "in flux" but said the calendar represented "some viewpoints that are in the party, and you don't have to necessarily agree or disagree with them. Some of them are just meant to start a conversation."
Running away from the past
"I voted for George W. Bush both times and for George H.W. Bush both times," Paul Hacket said. "I liked what those men had to say about the party. America did, too. And so, if you're going to attract new voters, you have to give them an idea of their party history.
"It's like when you introduce your girlfriend to your family. You say, 'Hey, here are my parents,' and then as time goes on, you say, 'Here are some pictures of my relatives who have passed away, because they shaped who I am.' And maybe they weren't perfect, and no president is, but you know, I wouldn't mind seeing a Dwight Eisenhower or someone like that. Certainly they could use more of the first President Bush. My son told me they had one Lincoln quote, but nothing from Teddy Roosevelt, nothing from Hoover, not even a mention of the only man to be elected vice president and president twice."
Hacket was presumably talking about former President Richard Nixon, who was elected as President Eisenhower's vice president in 1952 and 1956 and president in 1968 and 1972. He resigned amid the Watergate scandal on Aug. 9, 1974.
The McConnell aide referred questions about specifics of the calendar planning to an aide to Palin, who wouldn't comment on what plans the party had for the calendar.
As for Greg Hacket's future hacking plans, the college senior wouldn't say if he'd be visiting the site again but did say he hopes "the party will invest in some better computer security."
"For the party known as the law and order party, the party that has invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and went to the Persian Gulf in 1991, for a guy like me to get past their security ... it doesn't really look very good. The folks at that liberal blog Daily Kos are really going to skewer this."