Spain… Britain… France… Germany… all these and more have had terrorist attacks. All these deal with terrorists. But only the United States of America has a Guantanimo. Only the USA does not entrust captured thugs to the justice system. Only our Constitutional democracy does not treat these murderous fanatics the way they should: as common criminals, no different than gang members.
Try ‘em, convict ‘em, and imprison or execute ‘em. Let ‘em rub shoulders every day with their incarcerated peers.
And let ‘em supply their own vaseline.

Using limited resources to the best effect is a tricky balance, but some kinds of technology naturally dovetail with others, and there are recommendations I can make:

The RNC needs to spend the money where it will do the most good. In terms of technology, web-based outreach, and particularly things like Flash-based ads and animation, it needs to part with the money and hire enough talented designers and programmers who really want to work (and get paid) to make their presentations successful. All of them should be socially-networked and leverage social networking to disseminate their work, but the most important thing is to hire enough talented designers to really provide good feed material.

I agree completely with the on-the-ground aspect, also: meeting people face-to-face is much more important than sending them an email. Those meetings should be coordinated as closely as possible with direct mail campaigns. The “boots on the ground” and “direct mail” parts of the equation naturally dovetail because when someone receives a piece of mail in their mailbox that is followed up with a personal visit or coordinated with one, it adds a level of agency that is simply not possible with electronic communication.

Since when can Mike Duncan offer the “Right Perspective On Technology”?!?!? Question for you, Mr. Chairman – do you even understand the better part of this puff piece that someone wrote for you (ie, your understanding of “the Twitters”?)? Under your watch, the GOP has gotten its technological butt kicked! Why in the WORLD should we ask for more of the same by re-electing you?!?!?!?

Precinct captain – sure. RNC Chairman? NO WAY!

I am happy to see that you understand that technology is a tool for these contacts, not a replacement for them.

If you do get re-elected to lead the party, please focus your efforts on bringing new people into the party and following up on people who have made inquiries. Too many people give up on the party because they indicate their willingness to help, but never get a call back.

Anyone who presided over the humiliation of the last couple of years should not even have the audacity to continue in the position. What kind of arrogant fool are you to ask for support to stay in a job you should have honorably resigned from on election night and then gone home to draw your warm bath and slit your wrists?

Mike Duncan said:

The maxim that ‘information is power’ has never rung more true than in our current political environment.

Most people I know who are in my age group (36-41) are not highly into the toys of technology or their use. Sure, we all have and know how to use iPods, laptops, the Internet and email. However, the these are toys, not the end all of our existence. Moreover, the portals that are described as the most powerful to reach an audience, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace are places used by kids who are insecure to feel involved with the world around them.

But the delivery of the message has absolutely no use unless the message is one steeped in conservative principals. And unless that message is strong, slathered, if you will, in Reagan quality conservatism with an absence of the “can’t we all just get along” limpness that has been ever present in the party since 2004, the GOP is doomed; no matter how good the tech team is.

As conservatives we have a huge hill to climb when battling the media and their daily onslaught of mis- and nonfactual information concerning conservatism. And just this morning we hear that our own Presidential nominee, John McCain is causing trouble for Republicans again.

The party is doomed no matter how involved we are in technology if we do not deliver the right message. Because right now we have been pummeled like the British at Dunkirk.

The only way most of us at the grass roots can participate in Party Politics is to attend conventions and participate in shaping our party platform and influence the communication of what we as a party represent. I didn’t read a word here about what you believe about our party beyond a generic mention of Conservative values. I don’t hear a word about what place our platform should hold in shaping party policy and influencing what our representatives should look to to guide them in shaping their actions in elected office. I don’t read even a tacit acknowledgment from you about the important place grass roots activism plays in the strength and vitality of a political party. I didn’t read a thing about what you have done, are doing or will do to increase education, and participation of grass roots activists in the party process…I don’t read a thing about programs to educate the grass roots on how to participate and reach out in order to grow the party base….I don’t hear anything about whether or how you would break up the consolidation of money, message and power to the inside the beltway establishment of the party!

All this talk of Micro targeting is a huge part of the problem…we’re focusing most of our efforts on people who are already with us…I hear nothing from you about what we are doing to bring more people along….nothing about how we are communicating what we stand for and why new people should sign on with us….on top of that…all I get from the RNC are letters begging for money pumping out propaganda about how bad the other guys are which we already know and ignoring what’s being done or not being done to counter the bad guys. We don’t get info from anyone about what bills are being introduced…what’s been introduced by the opposition and how we can help either forward out bills or stop theirs!

There is no information dissemination about what our guys believe and what they will do in office and everything about what the other guys are doing. In the few instances where you do talk the talk…such as a generic commitment to “Conservative values” , there is no instance where the people we elect are walking the walk…message doesn’t matter for a steaming pile of sheep ShXX if we don’t see the communication carried out in some form. How can you, or the party have any credibility of our leadership does nothing to carry out party policy when all we can do is watch guys do the exact opposite of what they’re saying!

We’re being told the RNC and the Party Leadership believes in a smaller and more limited government while voting for over $2 Trillion Dollars in big government programs, nationalizing our banking industry, bailing out Unions and Auto Companies, and clamoring to get in line for another $850 Billion dollars in “stimulus” as proposed by the Democrats! Despite the popularity of School Vouchers and the growing strength of the movement to privatize public schools, we see Republicans lining up to help the Dems perpetuate the Public School monopoly and pander to the teachers unions at the expense of our children….We’ve got proposals being thrown all over the place on so called market based health care initiatives that do nothing more than further Democrat designs on nationalizing our health care system. We’ve got leaders in the party including it’s standard bearer in 2008 pushing for a Global Cap and Trade system reminiscent of Al Gore’s carbon tax of 1992. We’ve got the party leadership berating us for the need for blanket amnesty of 12 million illegal aliens despite opposition from over 80% of the party…We’ve got the so called standard bearer of our party standing up in the well of the United States Senate chastising Republicans for raising questions about what foreign influence will be exerted on our Secretary of State by foreign governments who are giving millions upon millions to her husband’s bank accounts…We’ve got the great Lord of bipartisanship and patriotism applauding Obama’s move to shut down GiTMO without a word about what we’ll do with the murderous thugs we have there! We’ve got large segments of party leadership engaged in a verbal holy war trying to shut out and shut up 2/3s of our party who are socially conservative and finally a seeming fixation on reaching out to people who wouldn’t piss on us if were were on fire in order to “Expand the base” while the base is throwing up it’s hands in disgust because no one in leadership will even throw us a bone let alone listen to us!

Bottom Line….all your investments mean squat when there is no message…even worse…when there is a message…nothing that is being said means a thing since no one believes a word you say!

What I’m trying to say here is that you can’t expect people to send money to you if you refuse to tell us what you’ve done with it….what you’ll do with it…what it will be used to advance our goals and why we should believe it will be used in any way that is not against our beliefs and interests!

As for the databases…what do you have to say about the fact the Party sold the data the party had gathered to a well connected firm with influence and is now incurring additional expense renting that info for use in mailings and solicitation?

Now I’ll ask a simple question before I close:

Why haven’t you bothered to answer the questions posed to you and the other candidates for RNC Chair here at Redstate…Saul, Michael Steele and Ken blackwell have taken the time to address these questions yet you have not if I’m not mistaken,,,is it because you are so out of touch with all of us that you don’t even know about them…or is it that you just don’t give a damn about what we think as long as you get to continue making the mess that’s been made of this party since you assumed leadership?!

Finally; You say:

Republicans believe in personal responsibility

Do you bear any responsibility for the fiasco that has ensued the last several years and what makes you think you deserve another term as Chairman given the obvios failures of your policies?

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson