Day: February 6, 2009

I’ve Been Snagged by Sarah Palin

Buck Banks

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A few days back, I wrote a post about former veep candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin starting up Sarah PAC, her own personal political action committee. I was going to sign up for updates only, but filling in that box led me to a whole online form, which there was no way I was going to complete. However, I got caught in that initial bear trap. That was Jan. 28. On Feb. 4 I received this:

Dear Supporter,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for joining SarahPAC. What a week it has been! Thanks to supporters like you we have had a fabulous start.

I want you to know that I have been truly touched by your notes of support and encouragement and look forward to working with you all in the future to advance our shared ideas and goals. These are just a few of the touching notes I’ve received from you:

Don from Juneau, AK: “I joined the PAC, and I’m willing to help in any way I can. I firmly believe you are exactly what this country needs, more so now than ever. Go Sarah!”

Cindy from St. Louis, MO: “My husband and I signed up for the PAC this morning. We are thrilled and behind you 100%! We will help any way we can.”

Dee from Nashville, TN: “Be courageous! Be strong! Be bold! Don’t quit. Thanks for all you’ve done, there are many of us praying for you daily!”

As a nation, we face serious challenges ahead. Our country is far too dependent on foreign sources of energy. Greed and corruption have broken the public’s faith in our economic system.

[…]

I Friend Dead People*

Buck Banks

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There’s this dead guy on my Facebook page and I don’t know what to do about him. He died back in mid-December, just a few days after he logged in to his Facebook page for the last time. I’d pretty much forgotten he was in my friends list until his birthday notice popped up earlier this week. Today is his birthday, so Facebook reminds me, not that I knew the date when he was alive.

See, we weren’t really friends, just business acquaintances. Indeed, we only share one friend on Facebook, and I know her but vaguely, though better than some of my Facebook friends, who I know only through friends or friends of friends. They could be dead, too, for all I know.

The weird thing is, once his upcoming birthday was announced, the guy was almost permanently in that little group of friend’s pages that shows up on your home page. And since he never uploaded a photo of himself, there’s just a ghostly outline — which I guess is a better likeness now than when he was alive. The spooky silhouette makes it more difficult to ignore him, or at least the Facebookial representation of his ex-existence.

The good thing is, he won’t SuperPoke me, but he’s haunting my Facebook page.

The question is, what to do about it? It wouldn’t feel right to “unfriend” him just because he’s dead. But do I really need a previously alive person on my Facebook page? Don’t get me wrong: the good thing is, he’s not going to SuperPoke me or hit me with a chicken or throw a water balloon or a sheep at me on Facebook. The bad thing is, he’s haunting my Facebook page.

According to a column in the New York Times, it’s not unusual for survivors to leave up a deceased family member’s Facebook page. It’s kind of a cyber-memorial that says, “He was here, on Facebook, at least.”

At a family member’s request, Facebook will delete a deceased person’s account. But, [Brandee] Barker [,a Facebook spokeswoman] added gently, “Many people who have somebody they’re still mourning find it very comforting and feel it keeps them connected to a loved one.”

But that assumes the family knew he had a Facebook page. Maybe he did it in secret. But there’s an adult daughter listed among his friends, and if you Google him, not only does his obit come up, but so does the link to his Facebook page, so the word’s out there.

I suppose the reason I would take his page down is because it’s so pitiful. He started doing Facebook in October 2007, and by the time he died, he’d accumulated just 16 friends, joined three groups and gave one guy a beer. That’s not much of a life on Facebook, while in real life the guy truly was somebody back in the day, a real, bona fide, New York City kind of important person. But you wouldn’t know it to look at his Facebook page; you’d have to read the obituary to understand he was not the loser his Facebook page would have you believe.

So I guess he’s going to stay on my friends list. I’ll keep him around to remind me — every year on his birthday — of my own tenuous mortality, oh, and to live well and leave a great-looking Facebook page.

*Thanks for the headline, Trish

Racist Email Sinks Florida Republican Committee Member

Trish
Comedian Carol Carter

A Florida Republican party board member took calls for her resignation over a flagrantly racist email as an opportunity to demonstrate her profound dull-wittedness. Any doubts about executive committee member Carol Carter’s prejudices were erased in her unapologetic apology.

It started when Carter sent this unfunny email to “less than a dozen” people through her personal account. At least one of them forwarded it on and it ended up with the party’s state chair and the media.

“I’m confused. How can 2,000,000 blacks* get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?”

Well gosh, Carol, I’m confused too. Maybe it’s because black people only want to get off their asses for a party? And they are too lazy to walk out of New Orleans with the clothes on their backs to go god knows where? What’s your explanation, Carol?

Before she resigned, Carter followed up the e-mail with an apology, but added in the message, ”I do hope that we are going to be allowed to keep our sense of humor.” Later in a telephone interview, she said she regretted that the e-mail became public because she realized it “could be taken as very racial.”

”I would never take something like this to the media,” she said. “It’s like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

In one fell swoop Carter blamed whoever leaked her little joke to the media, insulted everyone who saw this as the stunningly hateful and snide remark it was fully intended to be (which evidently includes people in her own inner circle), lashed out at the leaker, and used bad grammar. The word is “racist,” honey, not “racial.” The fact that you don’t know the difference is part of the problem. You’re one of those idiot white people the rest of us blush over.

Speaking of turning red, no doubt that’s what Jim Greer, Florida GOP chair, did when he found out about Carter’s missive. Greer serves on the transition team for Michael Steele, the Republicans’ first black national chair.

* Let’s all buy into the idea that Obama is only the president of black people, shall we?