AND…this ought to make me some friends.
I was invited to be a part of WCPAC because of my Twitter following and experience with grassroots online conservatism. Also because, unlike the parade of people I described in the previous post, I’m entertaining and fun to listen to. I’m a helluva ballroom dancer too.
But enough about my lack of self-confidence.
I’m very passionate and serious about online conservative activism, especially on Twitter. There is an opportunity there that we’ve been taking advantage of so far while gaining the upper hand over our counterparts on the Left.
The essence of what I said to the people in attendance yesterday was that conservatives have a golden opportunity to use new media to drive the narrative and control our destiny without having to leave everything in the hands of politicians who continually disappoint us. I also mentioned that I still meet people who tell me they don’t “get it” when it comes to social media.
Conservatives have been plagued by people who don’t get it for too long and we don’t have the luxury of keeping them around to screw things up any longer, even if they write nice checks.
So that’s what I said in a funny and preachy way that seemed to have gotten through to people.
Until the douchebag after me spoke.
Christopher Carmouche (rhymes with…) began his thought vomiting by giving Ed Morrissey a hard time for blogging about the impeachment nonsense earlier in the day. He then proceeded to regale us with a tale about his distaste for Twitter and Facebook, complete with a “why can’t we just pick up the phone” line that he pulled out of both his ass and 1989.
I looked over at Ed Driscoll and whispered “What in the **** is this idiot doing on the ‘New Media’ panel?”
I regret not saying that into the mic now.
After insulting the most prominent blogger there and pissing all over the reason for the panel, Carmouche then gave everyone a little lecture about avoiding the in-fighting that has plagued the Right for so long. “Planet Kruiser” fans can probably figure out who my “Tool of the Week” is going to be next Friday.
So why was he there? I’ll go out on a limb and say that he may have made a donation.
The rest of us did too but we donated talent, exposure, ideas and credibility instead of money.
Carmouche runs something called GrassTopsUSA. Here’s what Mr. “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” and his company do:
This cutting edge organization charges people to send a fax to politicians. That’s right, a fax, by God! If the fax doesn’t do the trick you can order GrassTopsUSA’s premium service where they give you a stagecoach ride to Washington, D.C. and teach you how to churn butter outside your representative’s office until he or she pays attention to you.
Carmouche and his ilk are the kinds of dead weight, dinosaur idiots that conservatism doesn’t need around any more, no matter how fat their wallets are.
The principles of conservatism are enduring but the way we apply them and make them understandable to each generation changes all the time. The Christopher Carmouches of the world think being clueless anachronisms are part of the conservative way.
Buh-bye.
There is always going to be money out there. We don’t need to indulge people who claim to be conservative but will do more to undermine the cause in a week than everyone at DailyKos and HuffPo can do in a year. I am sick to death of having to deal with wasting time overcoming the damage “friendly” people are inflicting on us from within our own ranks.
Carmouche and his buddies can go fax impeached birth certificates while listening to their 8-track tapes all day long.
But they should stay the hell out of the way of those of us who are doing the real work to make sure conservatism survives and moves forward.
Maybe I should just pick up the phone and tell him that.
Bravo! I’m glad you got some pepper in ya’!
This post was well worth the wait!
This is my favorite quote “I am sick to death of having to deal with wasting time overcoming the damage “friendly” people are inflicting on us from within our own ranks.”
I may get that tattooed somewhere on me tomorrow
I’m exhausted but I’m still angry about it. Hope I don’t bump into Fax Boy any time soon.
I don’t know, Carmouche has stiff competition with Keene. Both seem to be pricks, but threatening, name-calling, and then tossing John probably should bump Douche boy out of the winning slot.
Stephen, after the Red Eye appearance last week, I should have emailed to remind you to switch back to decaf. Oopsie! Mah bad.
Seriously, I’ve read nothing but ‘great’ about you (like Ed Morrissey @ Hot Air). Unfortunately, part of the new conservative movement means to dump the power-clingers-for-power-sake as they are part of the problem. Need an example? Look at some of the class of the Revolution of ‘94. Once power became the central focus, conservatism was tossed in the back seat as they ripped out the rear-view mirrors.
Bad enough we must battle the left, we also need to pitch the dead weight.
Nice going Kruiser! Glad your on the right team.
Maybe you should send him a fax…?
The new media panel at CPAC was not exactly stellar either (not that bad however). One I went to I made a point of twittering how bad it was as I watched it. (The people on the panel were going about social media and “young people” assuming no one over 25 did it) We hope to have a few better ones next year.
The thing about this panel was that it WAS pretty good. Andrew Breitbart, Ed Morrissey, Ed Driscoll, Jim Hoft and Erik Telford were all on it with me. There was some powerhouse information being doled out about blogging and social networking then Fax Boy stunk up the place.
Huh what the hell was this guy doing in a “New Media Panel” Does anyone actually use fax machines anymore??? OR does anyone actually use phones anymore, hell, my cell phone is more for twitter and facebook than for actually talking to anyone.
And everyone is wondering why we are loosing????
[...] Read the rest here [...]
[...] then, an Old Guard funding type got seated on the New Media panel. Stephen Kruiser reports what happened: Christopher Carmouche (rhymes with…) began his thought vomiting by giving Ed Morrissey a hard [...]
[...] Western CPAC: The Douchey | Stephen Kruiser [...]
[...] Kruiser on the good, the bad, and the ugly at [...]
Somebody please convince me that these poppy social networking sites which grew from the desire of middle school children to quantify the number of ‘friends’ they have, are somehow the freaking keys to the success of the conservative movement.
Blogs, definitely. Faxes, definitely not. But Twitter? What in the hell has our sense of communication devolved into.
This Myspace crap (and by that I mean everything it spawned) represents the first time – in our history – that low culture has found a way to organize itself. I’m sure conservatives do good things on it. But 99% of this stuff is noise.
Can we at least stop using the word “tweet” so I don’t feel like we’re all turning into goddammed hollywood-addicted junior high braindead celebrity worshiping fadwagon dipsticks every time I hear it?
And I’m 21 so there is definitely nothing dinosaur about me or my outlook. Maybe I just need to be convinced, by people whose opinions I respect, that this garbage is really the key to our movement.
I’d love to get in on THAT action. Whatever he’s charging people to FAX their representatives, I’ll beat it by 50%. Hah!
That was beautiful, what you said.
This “garbage” is about the rapid, economic movement of ideas and information. Twitter does that faster than any other online medium at the moment. It really is that simple. The Tea Party movement got its momentum from Twitter first, then the blogs and lastly television. Twitter also happens to be the first area online where conservatives established themselves in greater numbers than progressives. It’s an effective tool and that fact is so blatantly obvious that I wonder how anyone at all can miss the point.
Steve,it’s all about communication. It doesn’t matter how right you are; it matters how many people know it. It doesn’t matter that your opponent is lying, if your target audience doesn’t know so. Conservatives need to exploit every possible way to bypass the Liberal stranglehold on information and communications.
Also, Twitter is “media hot”: immediate, attention-getting. Twitter allows the capability to send out soundbites, corrections, and reponses in realtime to breaking issues. Witness how much traction Sarah Palin has gained by twittering about issues that concern her- without having to spend a single second with Katie Couric.
And I’m almost 40, don’t watch television, and don’t even HAVE a Twitter account, so you can safely say I’m not just a “hollywood-addicted junior high braindead celebrity worshiping fadwagon dipstick”… which is, BTW, kinda the wrong attitude to take if you want to make converts.
Like I said, I’m sure we’re doing a lot with it. But is the big picture not one of decay when it comes to actual networking?
Until recently, communication was advancing with a focus on becoming clearer. The ideal was face-to-face correspondence, and technology was moving rapidly TOWARD that. Telephone, cordless telephone, cell phone, cell phone that can take pictures and record videos – and then once we hit webcam we began to move BACKWARD. Now we exchange of 140 character messages literally force the majority of communication to become shorter, less grammatically sound, less clear, and for the first time, FARTHER away from the real thing. And this is the next big advancement because it has somehow legitimized spam technology in the eyes of the pop media.
Even professionalism suffers in the noisy pool of careless pseudo-communication that you guys have embraced.
As a system of delivering short, important updates on events and stuff, fine. But as a real networking? No. I’m sorry, but, do people really think all of their friends are reading and appreciating every one of their updates of twitter and facebook? People act differently behind a computer screen. The empty communication generated by these sites is largely pointless, and often insincere.
Twitterers, (or whatever you call yourselves) try starting a blog. There is no limit to what you can write. You can type lengthy musings which actually convey your thoughts in a meaningful way. It may be more difficult to get people to read it, but is that really a bad thing? At least you’ll know that the people willing to read your blog possess something which we as human beings used to refer to as an “attention span”.
Video: The Abu Ghraib Of The Great Society — Andrew Breitbart On ACORN…
Recorded this past Saturday at Western CPAC, when Andrew Breitbart of Big Government, Big Hollywood and other sites in the burgeoning Breitbart new media empire held an interview with the bloggers covering the event. Breitbart expands on the remarks he…
I was astounded when my man servant read this to me at luncheon, I shall send a courier to this new fangled “fax” sending Carmouche fellow to extend to him a cleft stick with my missive that shall regale him with my tale about how these “telecommunications” shall not endure, why can’t we just send messagers to AND fro?
Well, the guy obviously read Ed’s post via the internets. Ed should have asked for a show of hands of those who’d read Carmouche’s faxed reply?
Steve,
If make me sad that someone that should be young and excited about new mediums would take such a nasty approach. Sorry you’re too good for “poppy” mediums like Twitter, but the fact remains that only 22% of Twitter users are in high school or college. It’s not a young demographic.
I think it matters GREATLY in the scope of communication. Most people on Twitter DO have a blog, and Twitter is the reason many of them generate traffic and get readers. Go to any conservative conference and you will find people introducing themselves by their Twitter handles. It’s how this movement has coalesced.
You can blog all day long, and have amazing things to say, but unless you find a way to disseminate that information, no one is going to give a rat’s ass.
It’s as simple as that. Way to be shortsighted though.
[...] has been doing an excellent job documenting some of the less-than-stellar moments there, including the gentleman on our new media panel who espoused the virtues of a truly bleeding edge social media technology [...]
Refreshing! And we concur wholeheartedly. Although churning butter is a lost art, and now we’re craving some toast.
I wouldn’t be so sure about him reading Ed’s stuff, Chip. He’s probably too busy sending smoke signals whenever the fax gets jammed.
For what it’s worth,
“Though Twitter is currently in the spotlight as a media darling, only 8% of advertisers and consumers think it’s a very effective promotion tool, according to (pdf) results from a LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll.” http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/only-8-of-advertisers-say-twitter-is-effective-promo-tool-9919/
and
“More than half (54%) of professional communicators think Twitter is a fad and believe that the burgeoning number of users and tweets will eventually reach a plateau and likely decline, according to a poll by Ragan Communications and PollStream.”
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/half-of-communicators-think-twitter-is-a-%E2%80%98fad%E2%80%99-9710/
Anyway. I’m sure I’d be into this stuff if I was about 11-13 years old and worried about superficial faux-socializing, but I appreciate the way conservatives are using it, and the arguments about rapid response time and flow of information. Maybe one day that will become prominent enough a function of this fad, and I’ll consider jumping aboard.
While I agree that the content of the guy’s speech, from the sound of it, was probably absurd, the tone of your article sounds like those anti-Prop 8 protesters we had here in California. I can tell you it did nothing for their credibility or to generate sympathy for their cause when they referred to their opponents as feminine hygene product receptacles. It just made them look like the kind of people you don’t trust to be wise or gracious, and that’s something even worse than fax-bound Luddite-ism.
Steve-You can send me a thousand articles like these a day and it won’t change what’s actually been accomplished already. You don’t seem to understand that I’m not speculating about any of this, I’m doing it every day. You also fail to grasp that ALL new media is faddish. One utilizes what’s hot at the moment but prepares to move on to the next thing when the time comes. Sitting around waiting to see what “sticks” indicates a of fundamental lack of understanding of the hyper pace of media evolution in the information/digital era.
Chris-I waited a day to calm down before I wrote about this idiot. You should have seen what I was texting about him during the panel. Trust me, “douchebag” is the kindest description you’ll get from me regarding this tool.
As an aside, I worked in a U.S. Senate office for eight years. We routinely took those faxes and directly throw them away because they didn’t meet spec for meriting a response. All they do is tie up Senate office fax machines and prevent them from being used for legitimate purposes, such as constituent service. And, of course, waste government paper, toner and money.
When I left, several offices were purchasing new technology that (instead of printing a fax) puts a transmission into memory. From there, it can be inspected briefly to see if it is a prepackaged form letter from an organization such as GrassTops. If it is, it is quickly deleted at minimal cost to the taxpayer. If it’s not, it is printed out and dealt with.
We always considered Carmouche and his ilk to be con artists. They may send these unread faxes to Congressional offices for “free,” but then they ask for a donation. Carmouche & his colleagues are mostly expert at separating well-meaning citizens from their money. They have no impact on policy whatsoever.
[...] Western CPAC: The Douchey [...]
Steve, thanks for stimulating some good discussion here. There are plenty of statistics out there, the main number in my head is the 53% of people that voted for Obama. It doesn’t mean they were right.
I didn’t “get” Twitter last year, I didn’t see the need or use for it. But once I started using it I quickly realized its power for networking, mobilizing and educating. Much of corporate America is still in the fax/postage stamp era. Those that are adopting newer technologies are gaining huge advantages in their sectors.
Give it a try, I think you will see that Twitter will continue to be a useful tool. I’m not too worried about what gray haired idiots or interns that answer marketing surveys think about technology and fads. Once upon a time Popular Science said “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.”
[...] worth noting that the panel member, Christopher Carmouche, is in the fax blasting business. Yes. Really. A number of bloggers and attendees speculate that Carmouche “donated” his way onto the [...]
[...] Kruiser on the good, the bad, and the ugly at [...]
It’s time to pitch the “good ol’ boys” that have ruined the Republican party. If only McCain, his daughter, Lindsay Graham, and about 20 others had followed their good friend Arlen Specter out the door, we would be in a better place leading up to the 2010 elections. Our party’s leadership rests in the incompetent hands of John Boehner, who’s idea of fighting back is penning a letter to the president outlining his “disapproval”.
It’s time to start weeding out the “obstacles” to conservatism that have made themselves at home attempting to represent the Republican party.
[...] rules. Unfortunately, most of the rules are being delivered online and they’re all still sitting by their fax machines waiting for updates (I couldn’t resist one last [...]