Crazyworld

Click here to see the list of comics shipping this week, courtesy of The Tangled Web.

Green Lantern books are must reading for DC fans. The franchise has been red hot since Geoff Johns and Ehan Van Sciver reinvigorated it with Green Lantern: Rebirth a few years back. And now, with Blackest Night approaching, this book is a can't miss.

Also looking forward to New Avengers No. 50 this week. Mighty Avengers? Not so much. I'm very close to giving up all Avengers books that don't have "Bendis" somewhere on the cover. Marvel needs to be careful with this franchise... They've been pushing it, but we all remember what happened in the 1990s with the X-universe. Please, not again.

If you saw Sunday's paper, you know that one, perhaps two people from Spartanburg will compete for the chairmanship of the S.C. Republican Party. Current county GOP Chairman Rick Beltram is seeking the spot -- he's made his interest in the seat known for quite some time now -- and former Spartanburg County Council Chairwoman Karen Floyd may run. Floyd has not yet said whether she'll seek the post.

Columbia attorney Kevin Hall is also in the race. In fact, Hall was the first candidate to officially enter. (Beltram said he was waiting for current S.C. GOP Chairman Katon Dawson to decide whether he would seek re-election before committing to run this year.) You can see Hall's Web site here. Full disclosure: It's where I swiped the picture from.

Hall, 44, started out with a bang, with an endorsement letter for his candidacy circulating like wildfire on the Internet this week -- a letter signed by both Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint. The letter highlighted Hall's volunteerism, fundraising success, and ability to get the party's message out.

"We have to present a clear, conservative brand of limited government, fiscal responsibility and freedom," Hall said. "If we return to those fundamental principles of the party, and work like there’s no tomorrow, we will win."

Hall, too, has three people working with him on his campaign: George Ramsey, who was political director for Jim DeMint's campaign in 2004 and also worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in South Carolina; Shell Suber, former Richland County GOP chairman and political director for the Republican Victory '08 effort; and Allen Klump, the Upstate field director for Victory '08.

Hall said he has been volunteering with the GOP since he was 15.

After following the race for Republican National Committee -- which, to me, seemed extremely high profile considering the number of people who could vote in it -- I see something similar happening on the state level. I asked Hall why he thought that was. He cited the process of selecting leadership through precinct reorganization, county conventions and state conventions.

"That’s the way we bring new life to the party," he said. "The reason these campaigns start early is because we want to recruit more women, more young people and more energized activists to the party. And with precinct reorganization starting in March, that work has got to start now."

Beltram is critical of the fact that consultants and elected officials have gotten involved in Hall's campaign.

(We'll see how that holds up as the race progresses -- i.e. what happens if or when certain elected officials want to get involved in his.)

He cites instructions from Dawson, who said Saturday, "We hold the Republican Party accountable -- our elected officials, and ourselves. Character and integrity matter. I would tell you, that this next chairman is to be elected by you (the activists). As the elected officials weigh in, or try to effect this race, I charge you: The next chairman is your chairman, and needs to be your chairman. ... We are the ones who pick up the pieces, who pick up the signs and who make the phone calls. We go home without the ticker-tape parades."

Beltram, too has made it a point to say he would offer to keep the "winning team" -- the staff members at the S.C. GOP headquarters -- in place if he is elected chairman. 

I mentioned this to Hall, who said, "For any candidate to talk about staff, five months before an election... I think I’ll pass on that. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to speak on staffing questions until after I was elected chairman."

A handful of vicious e-mails also began circulating this week. I'm not going to bother to link to them because they're easy enough to find on several South Carolina political blogs.

Hall said he did plan to visit Spartanburg as part of his campaign. It will be interesting -- and perhaps telling -- seeing him interact with a crowd that's been under Beltram's leadership since 1999.

I have not yet had the opportunity to speak with Floyd about her political ambitions or, if they include running for chairman, her vision for the future of the party.

Beltram has said he has a plan, but I haven't seen it yet. He's said it includes diversifying the GOP, and he's said he laminated the front page of a copy of a January edition of the Herald-Journal -- one that features profiles on a white family and black family heading to the inauguration of President Barack Obama -- to use as a prop to illustrate his point. I hope this isn't true -- I haven't actually seen the prop -- but something tells me it's for real.

One thing that does concern me is the amount of time and resources we devote to covering this. With one candidate from Spartanburg, it needs to be on our radar. If we have two, then maybe we should focus a bit more on it. Probably more online than in print. After all, there's really only a very small number of people statewide -- and even fewer in Spartanburg County -- who will actually be able to vote in this election. If you're a reader, feel free to let me/us know whether you're interested in this.

Dawson's announcement that he will not seek re-election follows.

Click here to see comics shipping this week, courtesy of The Tangled Web.

There's a lot coming out this week, but far and away the book to buy is Batman No. 686 -- the first of the two-part "What ever happened to the Caped Crusader?" storyline by Neil Gaiman. I mean, it's Neil Gaiman. On Batman. Buy it! (Just as long as I get a copy.)

So, Tuesday, just before lunchtime, my head exploded.

It wasn't just watching U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis grappling with the best ways to use social media – particularly the current Next Big Thing, Twitter – in front of what he would later describe as a “with-it crowd” of 60 or so people.

The event, on the third floor of the Innovate building on River Street in Greenville, was fascinating, informative and entertaining. Plenty of people there were micro-blogging during the event, their comments feeding onto a screen behind Inglis. (See the 11 pages of posts here.)

But what blew my mind was the similarity in problems that the congressman is facing while exploring Twitter, Facebook and other online watering holes to those I've been trying to come to grips with myself, as a journalist, particularly in the last few months. And this isn't an ego thing. Our industry, moving toward the World Wild Web faster than ever these days, desperately needs not only to master the world of social networking, but find its rightful place in it. I left with a notepad full of ideas.

Deep breath. Start at the beginning. Write about the Inglis event. That's the easy part. Hopefully, we can explore several of the themes touched on more in the coming months.

Tuesday, it seems, not only shattered stereotypes but opened Inglis' eyes to the kind of people who use social media – and what they can use it to achieve.

Living online no longer means living in your parents' basement, anonymously posting rants about whatever pisses you off. (It hasn't for a long time, but that idea is still catching on. See: Newspaper message forums.)

It means being a professional, making contacts, marketing, branding, organizing, mobilizing, being up to date and up to the minute on anything and everything that's going on around you. Yes, it can be overwhelming. Thankfully, there are some apps out there to help manage the information flow. Personally, I like TweetDeck, but I haven't experimented too much beyond that yet.

And, to the congressman's apparent surprise, social networking actually facilitates human contact. He called it “reversing the 'Bowling Alone' concept.”

Inglis had recently returned from a House retreat where he was told to “Go home and get your kids to give you a tour of Facebook.” But he's been on Twitter a couple of months now – every tweet has been his own, he said, not posted by a staffer – and when a recent article on TheHill.com lifted quotes directly from tweets, instantly granting him a couple hundred new followers, it was time to reach out and ask for help in designing the way his office uses social media.

(It was pointed out that following someone does not constitute a political endorsement. That's important. Just to drive it home, keep an eye out for Christina Jeffrey of Spartanburg or Andrew Smart of Greenville, both of whom have said they will run against Inglis on the Republican ticket in 2010.)

Part of the challenge comes in navigating the collision of new media with old media.

“The benefit of a general circulation newspaper is that it forces you to read stuff you don't like,” Inglis said. “People go to their news islands, and are never challenged about their opinions ... and they get further and further away from the mainstream.”

For example, he said, at a recent “Let's Talk” luncheon in Spartanburg, he ended up with two bankers and three people who wanted to abolish the Federal Reserve. Those three turned off the bankers, Inglis said, and that's who he needed to hear from.

One of Inglis' concerns with social media is that he'll end up hearing more from outside the mainstream – and the potential political and ethical ramifications of that. What if someone in the Ku Klux Klan follows him on Twitter? What if he unknowingly follows someone in the KKK? What if the person in the KKK doesn't advertise the fact but only talks about bunnies?

He also has the gut-wrenching challenge of keeping “official” and “campaign” communication separate – a task that has become more and more complicated as technology makes it more and more easy to communicate.

Because the advances in technology carry with them their own expectations.

“Transparency is not an option any more,” said Trey Pennington with Showcase Marketing in Greenville. . “... It's like putting your pants on in the morning.”

Phil Yanov, a writer and blogger, added that “Twitter has reduced the cost of listening to next to nothing.” Further, he pointed out that the 140-character limit on Twitter causes people to focus their points and creates economy in communication.

“When somebody's writing a letter to the editor (in a newspaper), you wish to God they were limited to only 140 characters,” he said.

The general consensus was that Twitter carries with it the expectation of authenticity. The uncensored, unmoderated, fast-paced exchange of ideas forces honesty and in some ways, could help return us all to the idyllic world of the 1950s – if you do something wrong, everyone will know about it by the time you get home.

(There was also a concern about how to separate the personal and the professional, given how sites like Facebook and Twitter can blend the two. I've found myself in this gray area a lot lately.)

“I really do believe that social media is a chance for us to reconnect with our community,” said Pennington, who admitted to somewhat harassing the congressman over the last few weeks for not responding to tweets directed at him. “Bob Inglis isn't the answer to our problems. We are the answer.”

Pennington has helped establish a Social Media Club in Greenville that has 301 members, and one in Columbia that has 216 members. He's been working on the idea in Spartanburg. This city's first Social Media Club meeting is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 17.

It's unlikely that Inglis – or any congressman, for that matter – could respond to every e-mail, Facebook post or tweet directed at him. The sheer volume versus time constraints work against that.

But Mihaela Vorvoreanu, an assistant professor of communication studies at Clemson University, suggested setting aside a night every now and then for a “burst” of engagement, for chats, for answering questions. Inglis liked that idea and said he wanted to try it.

Vorvoreanu – Dr. V, for short – has studied social media and some of the social norms that develop because of them. When Inglis was asking for the best way to reach and interact with constituents, Dr. V told him not to worry much about Facebook at this point. You can respect other people's space by staying out of it, she said.

Inglis was concerned about the demographics of Twitter, whether devoting too much time to it would leave people out. He threw out the idea – perhaps a glimpse of a larger strategy peculating in the GOP? -- of getting access to cell phone numbers to send out text messages to people in his district, particularly African-Americans. That didn't go over too well. Nobody likes spam.

Geno Church, the word of mouth information officer at Greenville-based Brains on Fire, pointed out that, “If you get into the social media game, it needs to be a long-term game.”

“People are excited that the congressman is using these tools,” he said. “No matter how far Bob Inglis goes down the rabbit hole... this is a step toward more accountability, transparency.”

Edit: Changed title at 9:34 p.m.

OK, so better late than never, right?

Just created a Facebook group for Spartanburg people to share stories, photos, etc., from this year's inauguration. I hope more than just the group of people we went with join. It's an open group, so hopefully some of the school groups and other individuals from this area will pick up on it.

You can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/db75r5

I'm listed as the creator but I don't really plan to do much in the way of moderating. So, please, behave yourselves :)

I figure it will get some attention early on, and then people will forget about it, and then over the years revisit it now and again.

Oh, and yes, that's the best name I could come up with. Sorry.

As always, feedback is appreciated.