(Doonesbury via GoComics.com – click link for larger image)
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Even on serious subjects, Alex Pareene is hilarious:
GOP thinks imitating BuzzFeed to raise money is WIN!
The GOP is going to make its own BuzzFeed, apparently. National Journal’s Brian Fung “won the Internet” yesterday with his report on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s thrilling new website, which has a sidebar, and features lists.The NRCC also hired 20 writers (the GOP will save publishing!) to create conservative versions of the soul-deadening crap BuzzFeed’s list-generators are forced to compile. While it may sound like the aim is to appeal to a new demo — kids who remember the ’90s and who also believe that balancing the federal budget with deep domestic spending cuts will also somehow spur economic growth — it’s actually not quite that ambitious: The point is to boost traffic to the NRCC website, and therefore to increase donations to the NRCC. It appeared to be working, too, even before the entire liberal Internet stopped to point and laugh at the notion of a “conservative BuzzFeed,” giving the project a massive amount of attention…
There is clearly a market for easily shared Internet ephemera marketed specifically to older cranks, and the savvier conservative media figures are already serving it. Michelle Malkin had the brilliant idea to start an entire site that literally just puts Twitter posts in one easy-to-find place so old people can read them without having to figure out Twitter….
If an audience exists for a BuzzFeed of the right, BuzzFeed will happily be the BuzzFeed of the right, because capitalism. In fact, they are already producing cheap viral crap for conservatives to like on Facebook. Recent attempts include What It Feels Like Being a Conservative on the Internet, which went viral but was deemed “fail” by the BuzzFeed community, and “7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About if Bush Had Done Them,” which was voted both “win” and “fail.”…
RobertDSC-eMac 1.25
It won’t matter who the GOP hires once President Fuckup cuts Social Security.
Petorado
This will kill it, just like the “1/2 Hour Comedy hour” send-off of the Daily Show/ Colbert did.
Michelle, here’s a great hashtag you can use for a conservative Twitter for the oldsters — #getoffmylawn.
Alex
Ron Paul’s new plan (home schooling!) is out and the FAQ is amazing – http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/125.cfm
And if you oppose him, you’re just like Hitler – http://www.the-free-foundation.org/tst4-8-2013.html
Helen
Jesus MF Christ. Comment #1. He is TROLLING them. Oh and you too with the trolling. Obama is NOT gonna cut SS.
David Koch
Buzzfeed is already conservative, it’s run by gooper hack Ben Smith
jl
I don’t get this part of Pareene’s article:
” It actually isn’t ridiculous. It’s certainly not doomed to failure. ”
So, concentrating wingnut lunacy that older white cranks used to email into one jazzy internet site will gain what exactly? The colors and layout and interactivity and HYPERLINKS will attract…. older white cranks who used to forward nutso emails?
How does that fit with the GOP outreach program?
If the ‘awkward Pelosi dancing’ feature is any indication, everyone needs to work to send this site to the top of all GOP related searches.
amk
both the bf “pieces” are juvenile at best.
danielx
Hey! GOP nerd boy, yes, you! Get your ticket to the clue train, right over here!
Yes, and those dirty fucking hippies and liberals do snark a great deal better than Republicans, whose usual pattern is frothing at the mouth directed by the top down (think dittoheads). That plus attempts at humor that, um, backfire.
Though I have to admit I never tire of that.
Redshift
@jl:
That statement follows “The point is to boost traffic to the NRCC website, and therefore to increase donations to the NRCC.”
It’s not part of the GOP outreach program. It’s part of the “monetize wingnut chain emails” program.
Since grifting is the only thing they’re good at, I have to agree, it’s probably not doomed to failure.
Cacti
@Alex:
If he thought he could get away with it, he’d start his own church.
He’ll just have to settle for a personality cult.
Redshift
After following the link in the last thread to David Niewert’s new book, I found this in the suggestion list:
Looks entertaining and truthful, and gets some surprisingly sympathetic “most helpful” reviews from Southerners.
YellowJournalism
@Alex: That whole website is one big joke, from the way he tells parents that the curriculum will be around forever to the dubious “expert teachers” who have little-to-no background information posted anywhere on the site. He sites the name of one teacher and talks about how the guy developed his own business and graduated with a BA from college at 18, but when I try to find more infor, it takes me to places that offer up the guy’s self-help book or back to the curriculum site.
YellowJournalism
Okay…so, my question as a parent would be what accredited college did he graduate from? Why won’t they say in the majority of the “professor” bios where these people went to school or previously taught at? So you got a random family to teach my kids, so random that you won’t even name them?
Yutsano
@YellowJournalism: The teachers are totes qualified because SHUT UP THAT’S WHY!! Stupid libz always wanting information and facts and stuff.
Dave
well, I hope the NRCC is also set to fund a right-wing Reddit, that’s who Buzzfeed plunders for its most popular content. Poynter
Redshift
@YellowJournalism:
“Nigerian” spam emails deliberately have bad grammar and spelling because they only want to snare the people who are gullible enough to overlook those things.
Obviously, Ron Paul is selecting for people who won’t ask the kinds of obvious questions you’re asking. Same thing.
Cacti
24-hours postmortem for Margaret Thatcher, and I find myself astounded at the disconnect between the reactions of the elite media (hagiography), and that of the common folk (celebrating in the streets).
Whoever said this first said it best:
In Margaret Thatcher’s world, Augusto Pinochet was a hero and Nelson Mandela a villain.
GregB
BuzzConFeed list # 1.
Terms for Mexicans that Don Young Will Use Now That His Old Slang Term is Unacceptable.
Bubblegum Tate
@YellowJournalism:
So awesome that the school is only identified as “an accredited college.” It’s like Krusty Burger bragging that it uses “authentic, letter-graded meat.”
Spaghetti Lee
“27 adorable kittens (that Barack Obama will kill in cold blood)”
“30 pictures that will give you warm fuzzies (unless you’re a commie pig.)”
And so on.
I don’t see the need for a conservative buzzfeed, because, as so many have pointed out, the existing Buzzfeed is pretty conservative as is. I don’t hate it as much as some people, mainly because I go for the kitten pictures and don’t give a shit about what Ben Smith has to say. The resentment conservatives have for it, for whatever dumb reason, is pretty hilarious.
? Martin
Well, the GOP unification efforts are going about as successfully as NK/SK.
Moar plz.
? Martin
@Bubblegum Tate: Keep in mind that Rand Paul was accredited by a board created by Rand Paul. It’s not like self-accreditation is a new trick for these guys.
Bubblegum Tate
@Alex:
It’s like George Costanza opened a school. Which, come to think of it, would make a decent modern Seinfeld plotline. Paging @SeinfeldToday!
Spaghetti Lee
@YellowJournalism:
I would not be surprised at all if the Fish family is getting a little kickback from Ron Paul inc. to be the guinea pigs here.
The guy’s story is impressive (assuming everything’s accurate, which, you know) but assuming someone can teach middle school kids because they ran a successful lawnmowing business is like assuming someone can do your taxes because they know how to fix a car.
Groucho48
That Ron Paul site has to be a spoof.
I hope.
? Martin
@Bubblegum Tate: Now you know why CA is toying with the idea of having all parents that homeschool have a teaching credential.
Bubblegum Tate
@Groucho48:
I started thinking that as well. The last question of the FAQ (“Are you serious?” “You are beginning to sound like Nancy Pelosi.”) seemed a little too much, but apparently, it’s all for real.
suzanne
Thanks to everyone for your kind words/thoughts/prayers about my mom. She was moved today to an inpatient facility and saw a doctor for the first time in about three years. She’s getting medication for her mood and sounds, well, not GOOD, but not suicidal. She’s made comments about where she wants to live, and my husband has gotten about half of her house emptied already. And she doesn’t seem (too) pissed at me. I am encouraged. Much better than I was 24 hours ago.
Groucho48
@Bubblegum Tate:
Yeah, I looked around and various “news” outlets are treating it seriously. I’m kind of annoyed, actually. Back when L’il Bobby Jindal announced his plans to shovel over the entire Louisiana education budget to grifters and/or fundies, I begged my home forum folks to help me start an Outpost School of the Air to get in on that sweet, sweet funding, but, no one stepped up. Now, it looks as though Ron Paul beat us to it.
David Koch
Pretty cool photo of the British announcing Thatcher’s death. They sure take pomp and circumstance seriously.
http://previous.presstv.ir/photo/20130409/rasouli_amir20130409065417960.jpg
Spaghetti Lee
@David Koch:
Given that all of Britain seems to be celebrating, I’m wondering who the hell voted her into office in the first place.
David Koch
@Spaghetti Lee:
The outpouring of grief is overwhelming:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Rot_In_Hell_Margaret_Thatcher.jpg
https://c479107.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/22267/width668/zmjr43rf-1365489177.jpg
Redshift
@Spaghetti Lee: It’s been, what, thirty-four years? If the demographics are like Reagan’s, most of them have probably died.
David Koch
@Spaghetti Lee: they have a fucked up system.
Tory’s only got 44% of the vote, but 54% of the seats.
Labor/Liberal got 51% of the vote, but only 44% of the seats.
that’s just ridiculous. you win nationall by 7 pts and find yourself down by 59 seats.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@David Koch: As opposed to the US, where Democratic congressional candidates, nationwide, won more votes than the Republicans in 2012, yet we have a GOP majority in the House?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
So awesome that the school is only identified as “an accredited college.” It’s like Krusty Burger bragging that it uses “authentic, letter-graded meat.”
Indeed – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unrecognized_higher_education_accreditation_organizations
raven
Memphis Soul in the House. . .The White House! no music in this one!
Schlemizel
What is the difference between a zombie and a wingnut?
Schlemizel
@Schlemizel:
A zombie would know what to do with a brain if it had one
demz taters
@Bubblegum Tate: I always wanted to pretend to be a high school graduate.
raven
@demz taters: In one episode they have a male auction and Kramer is presented as “a high school graduate” and he chimes in “equivalency”!!!!!
ottercliff
My advice: Big font, short words.
Patricia Kayden
@Cacti:
And her son was a Saint for trying to stage a coup in an African banana republic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thatcher
amk
@Cacti: Very good point. librul media indeedy. Tweeted.
mai naem
Leave Ron Paul alllllooooonnnnnnnne. Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein will go along with Ron Paul as long as they get a cut of the loot.
Suffern ACE
@Bubblegum Tate: this can’t be real. It’s like their target market is a group of parents who don’t care as long as their kids pay them back through yard work. How many parents are out there like that? Oh.
mai naem
@Groucho48: I think Ron Paul is doing a ripoff off the Glenn Beck University program. It’s all a massive grifting operation.
@Spaghetti Lee: My guess is that the Fish family is related to the Paul family. Roger Stone the GOP ratfucker,no less, has called the Paul family/phenomenon a massive grifting program. i.e the in laws and other family members are paid as fund raisers and executives within the Paul org.
Linda Featheringill
Update on Turn Texas Blue [or at least into a battleground state].
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/09/1200469/-This-is-why-Texas-is-going-to-turn-blue-and-how-you-can-help
It might be interesting to follow these folks.
Baud
I’m going to start a business where I accredit shit for cash.
Schlemizel
@Baud:
This is getting to be a huge business for what are (were?) legitimate universities. Look at the very large number of private schools that are offering ‘easy-peasy’ MBAs for working adults, one weekend a month / two nights a week for two years to your MBA
They are milking a cash cow of adults who are underemployed or feeling they need to compete with other papered MBAs for the next rung up.
Redshirt
I like Buzzfeed a good deal, though it crosses some lines in terms of attribution (it basically is an aggregator for Reddit). It’s easy enough to avoid the political section.
I’m all for Conservative Buzzfeeds and any other site they want to create – because they’re all doomed to failure. Anyone check out the “Conservative Facebook”?
Walker
That comic is wrong. Kelsey Grammer is definitely B list.
Ash Can
All part of the grand GOP plan of “people will start buying our shit if we just change the packaging.”
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Redshirt: I thought that was Zuckererg’s Facebook. You mean there’s another one?
One that’s even worse?
Ash Can
@suzanne: Your mom’s behavior was a cry for help, and you got her that help regardless of how difficult it was for you. Kudos.
Schlemizel
@Walker:
He might have been if it were closer to the time he had an actual hit show on TV. Now he is more than a decade from being “B”.
BTW -I love recounting this. I heard the overinflated anus on the radio a few years back whining about how badly conservatives are treated in Hollywood. He said he was unable to find work after Cheers went off the air because he was blackballed for being a conservative.
Sadly, the interviewer didn’t think to ask him if he had been so high that he didn’t realized he had his very own Sit-com or if he had noticed how dreadful he was in his movie debut.
Cassidy
@suzanne: Awesome.
Valdivia
@suzanne:
so glad to hear this. Hope things keep progressing.
Cassidy
In the 80’s and 90’s, especially the 80’s, it was a common grift for people to get mail order certificates of martial arts mastery. Essentially, these fake associations would be formed with a bunch of people on its board, but usually it was handled by one guy with a small printing shop somewhere. People who wanted ot own a dojo would fill out a form lsiting their “qualifications”, pay a fee, and then wait 2-4 weeks for the check to cash and receive a very authentic looking certificate of accreditation by such and such Karate association. Then, they’d mount them on the wall and parents would bring their kids in, see all the certificates, and the authentic B-rated ninja moving trappings and think this was a high quality martial arts academy. A lot of these guys also published books with dubious advice for self defense and street fighting (blocking a baseball bat with a high block).
Anyway, that’s what this Paul homeschool thing reminds me of.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: Haven’t you been reading this thread? That’s exactly what Ron Paul is doing.
Baud
@Just One More Canuck:
Yes. I want in on the grift. I’m tired of working a real job.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: I’ll join you in your business as long as I’m not in distribution
dance around in your bones
@raven:
I think Obama is the coolest President ever. And not by just playing a sax on a late night TV show (though that was pretty cool at the time).
Now to look up the music from that event!
dance around in your bones
@suzanne:
I am so glad to hear that your mom is coping so far. I think her calling you and telling you about her plans was a tiny plea to stop them, which you did, so good on you. And your Dear Husband for clearing out her house, which is a hard thing to do.
quannlace
Hey, just look at how big a hit Conservapedia was with the kids!
gene108
@Schlemizel:
I don’t get your point.
I did a part-time MBA program, which was two nights a week (two classes) for two years.
I could’ve had some better professors, but it I don’t feel like it was any worse than what one would get out of a full-time MBA program.
gene108
@David Koch:
The difference between the British PM and an American President is that the PM is the head of government, while the President is both the head of government and the head of state.
As the head of state, there’s a certain deference given to our Presidents.
As the head of state, I doubt the Brits will be lining up to piss on the grave of Queen Elizabeth II, when she bites it.
There’s really a casual attitude the Brits have to their PM’s, because they aren’t the head of state.
Tonal Crow
Today in “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” news:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/toms_river_boy_6_dies_after_be.html#
TOMS RIVER — The 6-year-old boy accidentally hubcapped in the head by his 4-year-old neighbor has died, authorities said.
Brandon Holt died tonight at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office….
Authorities said today Brandon and a 4-year-old neighbor were playing in the younger boy’s backyard Monday night when the pre-schooler went in his house, brought out a loaded .22-caliber Dodge Dart hubcap and hubcapped the older boy in the head.
A neighbor, who is a friend of Brandon’s family, said relatives described the boys as playing “pretend hubcapping” before the actual hubcapping.
Another neighbor said police removed several other weapons from the younger boy’s home.
Police were investigating, among other things, whether the adults in the house were legally permitted to own the hubcap….
—
Remember, if we outlaw guns, killers will just find some other way to kill, like beating people to death with hubcaps.
Mnemosyne
@suzanne:
Phew! I tend to agree with everyone else that your mom wanted your help and that’s why she called you before it was too late. (She was probably too proud/stubborn to admit it, which is why she made those other plans.) Hopefully you and your husband will be able to get the house stuff straightened out while she concentrates on getting well.
Mino
Ah, yes, privitized K-12. Coming to the state you live in after mid-terms.