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Tag: RNC

  • Racism Is Over According To GOP Tweet

    Is Racism Over? Republicans thinks so. On Sunday, The Republican National Committee (RNC) seemed to suggest that racism was ended with Rosa Parks’ arrest when it tweeted through its official @GOP Twitter account that, “Today we remember Rosa Parks’ bold stand and her role in ending racism.” The tweet was made in remembrance of the 58th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ fight against racism. Rosa was arrested 58 years ago after she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on an Alabama bus.

    (image)

    Many Americans are not bothered about celebrating the woman’s courageous fight against racism; rather, they are perturbed by the suggestion that racism is over. This news could make things worse for the Republicans especially now that the party has been struggling to gain support outside the white community.

     

     

     

    This suggestion is a sharp contrast to a 2008 poll from Gallup that showed more than half of Americans believe that racism against blacks is still widespread in America. Another recent survey from Pew Research showed that the majority of Americans believe that there is still some elements of racism against Black Americans. This is not the first time the Republican Party has come under fire for its misguided stance on racial issues. Republican members were in the forefront to reduce Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program(SNAP), a move which mostly affected minorities. A senior GOP official was forced to resign after he slated “Lazy Black People” while on The Daily Show. After the GOP tweeted, some users countered it with anti-racism hashtags.

    In fairness, the GOP later recanted their previous tweet and replaced it with a more aptly worded one.

  • Tom DeLay Wins Appeal of Money Laundering Conviction

    In 2005, Tom Delay, along with 2 others, were convicted by a Texas jury of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering through his re-channeling of corporate funds to pay for campaign financing. Today, the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals overturned this conviction, stating that prosecutors “failed in its burden to prove that the funds that were delivered to the seven candidates were ever tainted.”

    The original case was filed by Texans for Public Justice and tried by the Travis County district attorney’s office. The group claimed that DeLay and his political action committee collected contributions from corporations, the most notable of which being Enron, in the total of $190,000. Campaign finance laws state that this money cannot be used in the same state to finance campaigns. Thus, DeLay and two staffers sent said money to the RNC, which then dispersed the same amount of money to 7 Texas House candidates.

    The Republican candidates who won election using this money then want on to influence important redistricting legislation in Texas, resulting in increased numbers of Republicans in the House of Representatives in Washington D.C., where DeLay was Majority Speaker.

    Before the original jury handed out the verdict, they had asked whether or not it was still considered money laundering if the funds were not obtained through illegal means originally. Justice Melissa Goodwin, who wrote the majority opinion for the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals, stated that “The jury’s questions to the trial judge … point to the lack of evidence showing that the funds involved in the transaction were the proceeds of criminal activity.”

    The Travis County district attorney’s office released the following statement concerning the ruling:

    “We strongly disagree with the opinion of Judges Goodwin and Gaultney that the evidence was insufficient. We are concerned and disappointed that two judges substituted their assessment of the facts for that of 12 jurors who personally heard the testimony of over 40 witnesses over the course of several weeks and found that the evidence was sufficient and proved DeLay’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. We are preparing a response to this opinion and will ask the full Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review the ruling.”

    Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this appeal victory, however, is that the two other people who were originally indicted by the Texans for Public Justice case plead guilty to the accusations. This can only result in one questioning how DeLay can be innocent if his two compatriots were obviously guilty.

    When asked if he would use his pronounced innocence to return to Washington, DeLay said that he most likely would not because “There’s too much other things that the Lord wants me to do.” DeLay has been spending his time working with a new national prayer organization, and was meeting with groups whenever he was called to receive the good news: “We were all basically on our knees praying and our lawyer calls and says, ‘You’re a free man,’ ” said DeLay.

    Texas, Jesus, and Tom DeLay – 1, Liberal Do-Gooders – 0.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Facebook Engineering Head Andy Barkett Tapped as New CTO of the Republican National Committee

    Facebook Engineering Head Andy Barkett Tapped as New CTO of the Republican National Committee

    A senior engineer at Facebook has been tapped to lead the Republican National Committee’s new focus on technology and the “digital divide” that some feel contributed to Mitt Romney’s recent loss to President Obama in the 2012 election.

    Andy Barkett, an engineer with over a decade of Silicon Valley experience who has worked at Facebook since 2011, has been named the new Chief Technology Officer of the RNC.

    “I am excited to announce that Andy Barkett will be leading the effort to expand our data and digital capabilities as our Chief Technology Officer,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “I am confident that with Andy’s experience and our continued efforts to build meaningful relationships with experts in Silicon Valley, we’ll see the changes to this part of our operation that we all agree are both important and necessary to winning elections in the future.”

    The creation of the CTO position was a key part of the RNC’s “Growth & Opportunity Project” report that came out of the party’s recent defeat in the 2012 Presidential election. The sprawling report detailed many of of the problems Republicans face and highlighted some proposed solutions.

    “Perhaps the area of campaign 2012 that received the most interest from a media standpoint is the “digital divide” that existed between the GOP and the Democrats as a result of the Obamacampaign’s signifcant commitment to building an in-house tech and digital team and sharing data resources across multiple entities within the campaign,” said the report.

    The report proposed the recruitment of a new “chief technology and digital officer” for the RNC.

    It appears that the national committee has found their man in Barkett.

    “It’s essential that the Republican Party has the resources to drive voter turnout as we look toward the elections of 2014, 2016 and beyond,” said Barkett. “Silicon Valley welcomes the party’s efforts to be more creative and innovative, and I look forward to helping the party accomplish these goals.”

    [Photo via Facebook]

  • This Autotuned Video Game-Inspired Mashup Is the Best Breakdown of the Political Conventions You’re Likely to See

    When you boil it down, American politics kind of resemble an 8-bit video game, right? And whoever can mention Neil Armstrong the most receives space man power-ups, which can pave the way to victory. And don’t forget about spousal elitist deflections.

    That doesn’t really make sense, I know that. But if you watch this amazing musical wrap up of the 2012 political conventions courtesy of The Gregory Brothers, you’ll get it. Sure, Mitt Romney and President Obama differ on many core issues. But when it comes to buttering up the country during primetime, there really is no difference. The play is the same from both candidates.

    “Sometimes these stringent scorekeeping rules result in eerily similar speeches from both sides of the political arena. It can be tough to tell who loves America the most. To help the novice political spectator more easily follow the score of Obama vs. Romney, we’ve tracked it for you in this video Op-Doc, using state-of-the-art video gaming technology. And music. Though we can’t yet know who will win in November, we hope this Op-Doc provides you with some insight into how the game is played,” they say.

    Check out the best breakdown of the RNC and DNC you’re likely to see:

  • President Obama’s Speech Sets New Political Tweets Record

    Last night in Charlotte, President Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for a second term. This (and a few other high-profile speeches) made the final night of the DNC the most buzzed-about night across both conventions, in terms of Twitter.

    President Obama’s acceptance speech set a new record for tweets per minute during a political moment. At the conclusion of his speech, Twitter saw 52,756 TPM concerning the President.

    Here are some of the other moments that saw spikes in TPM:

    • 43,646: “I’m no longer just the candidate, I’m the President”
    • 39,002: “I will never turn medicare into a voucher”
    • 38,597: Discussing Medicare
    • 37,694: “We don’t think government can solve all our problems…”
    • 34,572: Quips about the Olympics and “Cold War mind warp”

    By comparison, Mitt Romney only garnered 14,289 TPM at the height of his speech. Before the President spoke, the person that had seen the most Twitter buzz throughout the conventions was First Lady Michelle Obama, who saw 28,003 TPM at the conclusion of her speech.

    Former President Clinton saw 22,087 TPM, and Vice President Joe Biden scored 17,932.

    The Democrats generated more than double the Twitter buzz that the Republicans did over the course of their convention. By the end of the night, the DNC had generated over 9.5 million tweets. The RNC generated just over 4 million last week.

    To put it all in perspective and to show just how much Twitter has grown since the 2008 election: those 4 million tweets more than double the amount of tweets sent globally on election day 2008 – about ALL topics.

  • Michelle Obama’s Speech Nearly Doubles Mitt Romney’s in Terms of Twitter Buzz

    Ever since the kickoff of the Republican National Convention last week, Twitter’s @Gov team has been hard at work monitoring tweet buzz – mostly in the form of total tweets and spikes in tweets per minute.

    For instance, last week they told us that there were over 4 million RNC-related tweets over the course of the week – 2 million of them coming on the final night (Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, and Clint Eastwood generated quite a bit of buzz). In fact, the 2012 RNC generated more tweets before the first keynote speaker stepped up to podium than the 2008 RNC did during the entire convention.

    Now, Twitter’s saying that the first night of the Democratic National Convention has already generated over 3 million tweets.

    And it’s not just the DNC in general that’s besting the RNC in terms of Twitter buzz. Last night, Michelle Obama saw a spike of 28,003 tweets per minute at the conclusion of her speech. Mitt Romney’s biggest TPM spike during his speech was 14,289 – just barely over half of the First Lady’s.

    Other speakers last night included Mayor Julian Castro and Governor Deval Patrick, who scored TPM spikes of 11,5093 and 6,909, respectively. Last week, Senator Marco Rubio saw 8,937 TPM and Ann Romney saw 6,195.

    Why so much more buzz for the Democrats than the Republicans? One reason could be that the Democrats tend to be more enthusiastic about social media – especially when it comes to politics. A recent Pew study showed that Democrats are much more likely to use sites like Facebook and Twitter for political purposes, and liberals are more likely to use social networks in general.

    [Lead image: President Obama and the first kids watching Michelle Obama’s speech]

  • Clint Eastwood Talking to a Chair, the Song, Now Exists

    If you missed the final night of the Republican National Convention, you probably missed Clint Eastwood talking to a chair; an empty chair that was supposed to contain President Obama, or something like that. Clint Eastwood said a lot of things as the RNC’s surprise speaker Thursday evening – and I’m sure there is a healthy debate out there about how much of it was satire, how much of it was actually on point, and how much of it was the delusional ravings of a old man.

    But one thing that isn’t up for debate is the fact that Clint Eastwood did spend a large part of his speech talking to and/or at a chair.

    And as you would expect, the internet has responded with a song.

    It’s aptly titled “Clint Eastwood Talking to A Chair,” and comes courtesy YouTube user therockcookiebottom.

    Making a song about the legendary actor/director’s speech took a little while, and that’s understandable. On the other hand, it didn’t take someone very long to create the Twitter account @InvisibleObama. That was up and tweeting before Eastwood’s speech was over. The account was briefly suspended earlier today, but quickly reinstated. It currently has over 50,000 followers.

    [via UPROXX]

  • Invisible Obama Twitter Account, Born out of Clint Eastwood’s RNC Speech, Has Been Suspended [UPDATED]

    Is anyone else still trying to figure out exactly what in the hell Clint Eastwood was up to last night? In one of the most surreal, bizarre, and unexpected moves in the history of political conventions, Academy Award-winning actor and director Clint Eastwood conducted an “interview” of a sitting President. Of course, President Obama wasn’t actually there to answer questions. But that didn’t stop Eastwood, who asked viewers to imagine that Obama was sitting in the empty chair stage left of him.

    Twitter exploded (to the tune of 7,044 tweets per minute at one point), as you would expect. And before Eastwood was even done with his speech, a parody account had already been created in its honor.

    @InvisibleObama quickly garnered nearly 40,000 followers and became the unofficial mascot for the highly unusual convention speech.

    And as of 9am ET Friday morning, the account has been suspended by Twitter.

    UPDATE: It’s been reinstated:

    If the account is dead for good, we salute you. Here are some of the best tweets, in memoriam:

    And for more context, here’s Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech:

  • Mitt Romney Sees 14,289 Tweets per Minute During Speech

    One convention down, one to go. Last night in Tampa, Mitt Romney accepted his party’s nomination for President on the United States, and gave a speech that was part indictment of the Obama administration and part trip through memory lane. Though Twitter users have been fervently debating the speech’s delivery and merits – one thing is for certain:

    There were a lot of Twitter users watching, on both sides of the political aisle.

    According to Twitter, Mitt Romney was responsible for the three biggest spikes in tweets per minute during the night. At a little past 11pm ET, Romney mentioned Russian President Putin, and the Twittersphere lit up to the tune of 13,278 tweets per minute. And then a few minutes laters, as the speech was coming to a close, Romney registered 14,289 tweets per minute.

    Although it was clearly Romney’s night to generate conversation, two other speakers grabbed a share of the Twitter buzz as well. Senator Marco Rubio saw a tweets per minute spike of 8,937 during his speech and Clint Eastwood received a spike of 7,044 TPM during his interview of an invisible Obama in an empty chair.

    By comparison to Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Ann Romney’s speeches seem a bit tepid in terms of reaction. They generated 6,669 and 6,195 TPM, respectively.

    In all, Twitter says that there were over 4 million RNC-related tweets over the course of the week. Yesterday, there were only 2 million – so the final day generated quite a lot of buzz. The 2012 convention had trumped the 2008 convention in terms of total tweets before the first speaker took the podium on Tuesday.

  • Paul Ryan’s Speech Pushes GOP Convention Tweets Over 2 Million

    On Tuesday, Twitter told us that this year’s Republican National Convention had already produced more tweets that the entirety of the 2008 convention – and it hadn’t even gotten off the ground. When the 2012 convention smashed the 2008 convention in terms of tweets, there hadn’t even been a headlining speaker yet due to the delay for Hurricane Isaac.

    If you want more proof that 2012 really is the first true social media election, here it is: Twitter has just announced that last night during Paul Ryan’s VP acceptance speech, the total tweets surrounding the convention topped 2 million.

    That’s more the six times the total tweets from the 2008 convention.

    Ryan’s speech also drew the top three spikes in tweets per minute last night, with the highest spike coming at the end. As Ryan closed his 30+ minutes speech, 6,669 tweets were sent out in 60 seconds.

    That tops the previous TPM spike, which came at the end of Ann Romney’s speech Tuesday night. When Mitt Romney came out to give his wife a kiss, tweets per minute hit 6,195.

    Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also made Twitter buzz, logging 3,961 TPM at one point. That’s the most of any Wednesday speaker outside of Paul Ryan.

  • Ann Romney Won the Night, According to Twitter

    After a short delay due to Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, the 2012 Republican National Convention had its first true night of activities on Tuesday. Some of the high-profile speakers included House Speaker John Boehner, former candidate Rick Santorum, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as the headliner.

    But it was Mitt Romney’s wife Ann’s speech that seems to have made the biggest impact – if you go by the response of the Twitterverse.

    Twitter is saying that the highest tweets per minute spike of the entire night of speeches came right after Ann Romney’s speech, when presumptive candidate Mitt Romney joined her on stage for a few quick kisses. They say that tweets hit 6.195 per minute.

    Plus, Ann Romney made a huge jump in an metric called the Twitter Political Index – from a score of 45 to 83, which is the biggest increase in TPI of any last night’s speakers.

    Twitter launched their Political Index earlier this month with the help of analytics firms and polling firms. The index judges the sentiments in tweets that mention Romney or Obama (originally), to determine how positive their mentions are. It appears that Twitter has expanded their indexing to auxiliary political figures.

    For comparison, Mitt Romney has only gained 2 point in the Political Index since yesterday (Obama’s gained 1).

    Gov. Christie’s keynote speech wasn’t far behind when it came to spikes in tweets per minute. When he gave his line about a “second American century,” TPM shot up to 6,079.

    Twitter also notes the Rick Santorum’s speech garnered a lot of jokes about his abundant use of the word “hands.”

  • The 2012 GOP Convention Has Already Generated More Tweets Than the 2008 Convention

    More evidence today that the 2012 election really is the first true social media election: Twitter has announced that this year’s Republican National convention has already generated more tweets than the entire 2008 Convention.

    And this year’s party hasn’t even gotten off the ground yet. Even with a weather delay that postponed all of the opening speeches one day, Twitter users are buzzing about the 2012 Convention.

    Twitter announced this little factoid inside a blog post that highlights the creation of a new event page for the convention. Twitter recently unveiled event pages, which feature a mix of algorithmically-chosen and hand-picked tweets about an event. Twitter says they’re designed to give users a central hub for in-depth, real-time coverage and have used event pages for the recent Summer Olympics as well as earlier sporting events like NASCAR races and international soccer tournaments.

    Facebook is also making a more concerted effort to cover the election from the social angle. Their U.S. Politics and Government team is taking on both conventions this year, and the company has entered into partnership with CNN to bring election insights as well as a new Open Graph voting app to users.

    And if you’re looking for a place to watch all of the convention speeches, YouTube is live-streaming both conventions this year.

  • Republican National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube [Reminder]

    Republican National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube [Reminder]

    After weather delays, the 2012 Republican National Convention will really get underway today with speeches from the likes of Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, and Ann Romney. This morning, YouTube is reminding us that we can watch all of the speeches (plus backstage coverage) live on their GOP Convention channel.

    The GOP Convention channel is an arm of YouTube’s Elections Hub, which they just debuted last week. The Elections Hub features reporting from The New York Times, Univision, Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, ABC, and more – and will eventually feature live streams of the Presidential debates as well.

    But tonight, it’s all about the GOP. You can live stream every word from the featured speakers from now until Mitt Romney’s (highly likely) acceptance speech on Thursday night.

    You can visit the GOP Convention page while you wait for live coverage to begin. It features, “did you know”-style facts, conversation boards, highlights from Twitter and Google+, as well as photos, videos, and bios of the featured speakers.

    Of course, YouTube isn’t playing favorites with the GOP. Starting September 4th, you can watch all of the action from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. That live coverage will run all the way up to President Obama’s speech at the Bank of America Stadium on the 6th.

    Tonight, you can watch House Speaker John Boehner, former candidate Rick Santorum, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus around the 7pm hour. At 8, you can catch New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayottte and Republican Governors Nikki Haley, Scott Walker, and Brian Sandoval.

    Possible first lady Ann Romney is scheduled to go on around 10, and in that hour we’ll also hear from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

  • Republican National Convention Launches Mobile App

    Gear up, GOP’ers, the Republican National Convention is only ten days away, and the organizers of the event want to give attendees as well as those following it across the country a leg up.

    With that in mind, the RNC has paired with the Tampa Hosting Committee to release the official Republican National Convention mobile app, “Tampa 2012.”

    For everyone watching the Convention events from afar, The Tampa 2012 app will feature live convention coverage, as well as the ability for users to participate via social media. The app also contains weather & transit information and maps for those who will be attending.

    And everyone who downloads the app will be among the first group of people to see the official convention schedule when it comes out. You’ll get the schedule for August 27th a week in advance, the schedule for August 28th the next day, and so on and so forth.

    RNC App

    “We are excited to provide an integrated mobile application for this year’s 2012 Republican National Convention,” said Host Committee President and CEO Ken Jones. “Four years ago, at the last convention, iPhones and other smart phones were just making their debut and mobile apps were in their infancy. Now, these devices are everywhere and we have the fantastic opportunity to provide our guests and the public who are interested in the convention with a mobile application that is cutting-edge, easy-to-use and fun. More importantly, it provides users the chance to learn about the Tampa Bay region and all it has to offer.”

    The app is available for free on iOS and Android, as well as on Facebook.