Hip Hop G-Ho-P: Republicans Plan To Get Down and Boogie, As It Were...

"Err, Chivers, would you be so good as to bring the..err..hoop-dee round to the front of mah crib?"

From Talking Points Memo:

Steele Promises New Image For Republicans In "Hip-Hop Settings"

By Eric Kleefeld - February 19, 2009, 10:38AM

Michael Steele is promising a drastic makeover of the Republican Party's image -- and he really means it!

"We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles," Steele told the Washington Times. "But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings."

"It will be avant garde, technically," he said of the new public relations team he's signing on. "It will come to the table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook." He also added: "I don't do 'cutting-edge.' That's what Democrats are doing. We're going beyond cutting-edge."

This sort of sounds like a middle-aged man talking to his kids, trying his utter best to sound as if he's cool.

Ever Wonder Why The GOP Never Gets More Than 10% of African American Votes For President? The Reason Is People Like This

The official newsletter of the Republican women's group in California's Inland Empire ran this as the cover illustration.



As you can imagine, there were some who felt the imagery might perhaps possibly be construed as racist. Presumably the watermelon, ribs, and fried chicken. On a food stamp. I know, it's pretty subtle, so you can see how group head Diane Fedele might have completely missed the nuance here.

The few African American women in the group certainly did find it troubling.

All this is reported here in the Press Enterprise web site. The shocked head of the group insists the imagery was not racist.

Fedele had this to say:

"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement. I really don't want to go into it any further," Fedele said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I absolutely apologize to anyone who was offended. That clearly wasn't my attempt."

Actually Diane, the word you were looking for is intent. Remember that the next time you accuse anyone of not speaking English to your presumably lofty standards.

Diane went on, and made it worse.

Fedele said she got the illustration in a number of chain e-mails and decided to reprint it for her members in the Trumpeter newsletter because she was offended that Obama would draw attention to his own race. She declined to say who sent her the e-mails with the illustration.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

Oh my. The article goes on:

Hector Barajas, the party's press secretary, said the party chairman likely will have a conversation with Fedele, and Barajas will attend the statewide California Federation of Republican Women conference this weekend in Los Angeles to handle any news media there to cover the controversy.

The newsletter is not the first such episode Barajas has had to respond to this week. The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday posted an image it said was captured from the Sacramento County GOP Web site that showed Obama in a turban next to Osama bin Laden.

It said: "The difference between Osama and Obama is just a little B.S." The site also encouraged members to "Waterboard Barack Obama," a reference to a torture technique. The Sacramento County party took down the material Tuesday after being criticized.

Tech Crunch 50: Want a Great Vacation? GoPlanit!

One of the companies I saw at Tech Crunch 50 that I have been remiss in discussing is GoPlanit, a travel site that actually helps you plan your stay in a locale based upon your time, money, traveler intensity, and interests. The site is really interesting. You input a destination (there are 10 for the beta, and a much broader set is planned for the launch), dates, and the system plans your days from meals to activities. You can adjust the planning parameters based upon your budget and preferences for an intensity level in your days.

To test the platform I asked it to plan a trip to San Francisco in late September, for a week, with a moderate budget. I figured I’d be able to put my tourist hat on for “my city” and determine how well it plans fun an interesting days. Results were really quite interesting, and by interesting I am not finding a nice way to say “odd.” The choices combined tourist essentials plus an eclectic set of restaurants and down time activities that was refreshing.

Another great feature is the ability to pre-populate the system with your plans, and have it fill in the gaps. So, for example, if you were headed to Vegas and already had purchased tickets to Zumanity, you could input the date and time of the show and then have Goplanit fill in the rest of your day.

Goplanit offers more than just travel recommendations. Here is how the company describes it features:

GoPlanit helps save you time/money/aggravation every step of the way - before, during, and after your trip!
"One-Click Travel Planning" - Create a personalized trip calendar with our virtual travel agent in a matter of seconds! We'll do the legwork for you and find things to do and see while you're on your trip
"Cut Through the Noise" - Use our filtering engines to personalize your search results and return more relevant items based on your preferences
"Sharing is Caring" - Invite friends to go with you on your trips. Keep track of responses, comments, and more!
"Bring It With You" - Access your trip itinerary from your mobile device. Find nearby things to do and see
"Travel Microblogging" - Don't wait until you get home to write about your trip, update your trip journal with your musings right there and then while you're on your trip! Just send a text message to "70589" and start your message with the word "blog" and your travel blog will be automatically updated for all to see! Ex. blog 5 stars: I love this place!

The service is in beta, so not all the kinks are worked out. But I see a lot of promise in this offering. I would imagine that services like paid inclusion will be a part of their model, in addition to advertising. They could also charge commission for subsequent sales that they drive online. In short, there are a lot of directions they could go to make good money with this great idea.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.