R O O T S ! !!

Holy crap! Am I the first one? Take back the country!

Fitz! and Jane! and her beautiful Mom!

Rats, zero’s cooler than one. Oh well, I’ve been lurking for a long time. Just wanted to say you guys are doing a great job. Sometimes I feel like the rest of the world doesn’t mind liars and cheats anymore. Good to see some righteous outrage.

BoBo, BoooBooo, Blehhhh Bleehhhhh. David Brooks is supremely pathetic. Does he realize how silly he looks, what he’s become? Amazing what a little lefty convention in Las Vegas can do. Imagine the possibilities!

Attack! Attack! Attack!

Stop being little weinies!!

Egregious, if you are here–

Thanks for showing me how to embed links. I tried it at Squirrel thread 95 and it worked.

bicmon: did Markos say we could?

I hate being first!!!!!!!!!!! Anybody for sloppy seconds?

Pach:

Markos did not say we could. He said WE WILL!

Markos told me to say that because he is the overlord of the blog world!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Technically speaking, do lambs get rabid? Are they dangerous? Do they aspire to public office?

Pach,

I’ll have to check with HQ and see if authorization has been granted. Will advise.

I hereby summarily declare myself a la Kosa Nostra Made Man. Ready to kick sissy Gooper ass every day. Just ceremonially cut my own wrist and shared the blood with my Lucie (my daugher reincarnate), who will take sissy Gooper legs off without any prompting.

http://www.bgladd.com/Lucie.jpg

I have been thinking about why this whole thing with Kos and TNR hasn’t phased me.

I guess the reason is, as much as I admire Kos and what he has done, I don’t see him as being that PERSONALLY INFLUENTIAL.

In fact, many of us have disagreed vehemently with him, on his site, and actually taught him a lesson or two. I can recall, in particular, when he posted a link to the private personal webpage of Alan Keyes’ gay daughter. It was full of heart-stoppingly sweet and personal reflections of a gay teenager, moping and beaming about crushes, holding hands, kisses, and small slights. Many of us were quick to tell Kos that this was crossing our personal bounds, for him to use this as fodder on Dkos, and we made our point. There was an actual two-way discussion (Kossacks Kos) about direction and methods of dealing with Keyes’ homophobic campaign.

Actually, I find Digby and Atrios more useful for just soaking up quick opinion on what is happening for the day. Dkos is mostly a sharing point, because you can post your own diaries. And because of the threaded nature of the comments, you can carry on extended dialogues with the authors of other diaries without it all being lost in the black hole of Haloscan.

Does Brooks get all this? Probably not. Perhaps he is mystified by the blogosphere. Perhaps he just wants to take a quick potshot at it. Clearly he is frightened by it. But this garbage doesn’t matter to me, because, really, none of this is about Kos. It’s about the danger our country is in.

And him comparing Kos to Delay… Oh, that is so rich. You have to wonder how he could write something like that without experiencing at least a pang of guilt over the hypocrisy of it.

On the subject of culture wars, from Robert Weissman at Huffpo:

The Bush administration has worked with cable television companies to obtain records of everyone in the United States who has watched World Cup games, the Miami Herald reported today.

“Real Americans obviously don’t watch soccer,” said one administration official who requested anonymity

In an interview last night, Federal Communications Commission Chair Kevin Martin acknowledged the program was in place.

“We have strong reason to believe that anyone in a sleeper cell would be watching the World Cup,” said Martin.

Had to read it 3x to make sure it wasn’t the Onion.

Egad, are you sure it wasn’t some kind of satire?

From the thread overshoot sector: Here’s a post on the minimum wage from Dean Baker to go along with Ian Welsh’s Long Suck post.

Cultural shift: the biggie is gay hate has dropped. Doesn’t seem to be a “defining issue”. Also, I saw a poll today on the dramatic decline of “values” being a political concern. In other words, It’s getting harder out here for a pimp.

I think conservatives only “get” hierarchical power structures, not distributive ones like we’re building.

assuming the Times retains the capacity for embarrassment. . . quite the leap, I’ll grant you)

giggle giggle giggle

what if any cultural change do you think is going on?

something I happened to catch just this week

the 15 year old loves this MTV dating game show – it shows gay & lesbian kids about 30% of the time – after watching with him a few times it became obvious – MTV is not featuring the G&L kids to be ‘out there’ or sensational -those segments are produced and edited exactly the same as the hetero kids AND my kid doesn’t see it any differently –

it isn’t b/c he’s been raised by a homophilic mom, it’s ALL about da hook up to him – and apparently lots of kids watch

an entire generation that wont have to be slowly exposed or mollycoddled along to deal with it – imagine being the left out fundie kid telling your peers ‘that it’s sinful!’

I am not ignoring the hate and bigotry still out there, or the pain it brings to evreyday life for so many Americans and their families – but it’s too late for those clowns – wider and wider acceptance is coming – just as inter racial dating was once a big deal for our generation – if you’ve got a teenager at home, you know that that isn’t even worth mentioning

I can imagine one of my grandchildren asking me “Nonnie, what does fa**ot mean ?

pssst!
so difficult for me to see that word in print

LOL Pach I just watched the video. I haven’t seen it before, but the song is part of my cultural history. You don’t need Bobo to know which sheep are rabid.

It’s my hope that the “values voters” are seeing the results of being used by carney pitch men and mid-south wrassling announcers who really have no clue how to govern. You cannot conduct a war and an occupation and expand the size of government by thirty percent and cut taxes. People are starting to wonder where did all that money go.

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature!

Keep it up.

actually OFG,

these clowns expanded govt. by 46% by the end of their 4th year !

By the way, did anyone else notice that Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace.com?

Dumbo 15 — you do bring up a good point. We do have the advanage in this particular battle; Bobo and the others have no idea who (or what) they’re fighting. Martin Peretz said yesterday he’d never read Kos before that day, yet he went after him anyway. The artlessness of the attack was a tribute to Peretz’s total cluelessness.

We read their work relentlessly, have been doing so for years, know their history, their strengths and weaknesses, and can use that information to effect. They, on the other hand, have got no idea what they’re talking about but feel compelled to bludgeon it anyway. It’s like Republicans with humor — it just comes off as a couple of fists wrapped in tape pounding the table, there is no skill or precision to it. Maybe now that the beast is waking up they’ll pay closer attention and in the future their critiques will be more damaging, but right now they’re quite laughably inept.

I’m not the writer Jane or Wolcott are (who is? – and check out those snark examples I link – many diamonds in those mines!), but I would never, ever write the words “rabid lambs.”

Just. Doesn’t. Work.

Really embarassing.

The Markos and blogczar story is hilarious, even if this Jerome’s problems with SEC are not. The non-reactionary blogs should celebrate it. I think the only problem I see is that the “lefty” blogs are not aggressive enough in making sure the URLs get prominently displayed in any discussion or responses to any editorials (”What’s my name, you bland, vapid, incapable-of-doing-any-basic-reporting-reseach middle age boomer coots! What’s may name? Say it! Now!”)

I see the whole fuss as a great opportunity to get more people to log on a take a look around. I think most people would feel much more at home at DailyKos or FDL –if only we could clean up some of the language. I’d love to get the URLs of the reactionary sites and the lefty blogs out there and let people compare.

So that is my only concern, not enough URLs flying around when this stuff is discussed in the press and on other media.

waving, sending virtual hugs to Jane Hamsher -

did you see Roger Ailes’ weigh in on the TNR bs?

Just poured a generous “double” Stoli after a lovely dinner with a few great friends and lots of wine and political talk.

Adios, amigos. Ofbicmon requires my immediate attention.

The time for war is past. Astrologers say keynote of the Aquarian age will be group consciousness. What’s good for the group will be accepted as the best direction.

I wonder if one blessing to come from all these awful storms and other disasters is that everyone now senses that they could be next and are softening a bit, and becomming more sensitive to the agonies others are going through. Being rich doesn’t make you safe from Mother Nature, who looks like she’s not yet done with her hissy fit.

Jane, very very sorry to hear of your loss, you are very brave to look in on us in the comments. I was in a complete fog for three months after I lost my mom. many hugs.

Wow. The Bobo is, like, a parable.

And in what universe does Kos resemble DeLay? That just shows you how much power they assign him, but what nonsense.

By the way, I saw An Inconvenient Truth tonight. Very powerful. I highly, highly recommend it, and Markos may even command it.

Is Markos sending his kid to CT to kick Joe in the shin?

“And in what universe does Kos resemble DeLay?”

I’ve got it. On K Street! K Street is named for Kos! DeLay was just his bitch!

Neo, brilliant! Let’s go unleash some venom!

I’ll see his rabid sheep and raise him one machine gun kitty

Thanks, Alice. Much appreciated.

meta #35: Well, DeLay supports corrupt reactionary thugs, while Kos supports non-corrupt far left nut cases like… Webb and Tester… DeLay ruan a ruthless powerful money-driven political machine that crushed anyone who gets in his way. Kos started a blog-aggregate that lets hundreds of normal people get national exposure for free, and people regularly criticize him and make fun, and he theoretically has the power to deprive some blogs of what could be maybe almost pocket change. The parallels are obivious to me.

I want the URLS prominently displayed in every public discssion of this kind of thing so everyone who gets tired of reading their sports or recipe blog will have it at hand so the can take a second to find these lefty sites and see just how completely true every word written by TNR and Books is. How totally on the mark these old fogeys are –in their ininformed imaginations.

Man! All of thse dad-gumbed bloggers mocking me and my cron… ‘eh, adminishrashionaters.

Karl, can’t we do something to make the highways of the internets become more few? How’s that Last Mile chokehold thing comin’ with Comcast, Verizon, AT*T, & thems?

Meta, 12:”Technically speaking, do lambs get rabid? Are they dangerous? Do they aspire to public office?”

Technically, yes, lambs can get rabid, though even then they do not “unleash venom,” since rabies is a viral infection, not a poison.

And yes, they do occasionally run for office…as Democrats.

But really, it seems pretty obvious that something is afoot. First Zengerle and the rest at TNR, followed predictably by a gang of wingnutospherians, and now Brooks. Smells to me like Rove’s petty cash drawer has been opened a few times these past few days.

OfT: E-Mails Detail Abramoff Requests, Contacts
By JOHN SOLOMON
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 24, 2006; 9:30 PM
“WASHINGTON — Wanted: Face time with President Bush or top adviser Karl Rove. Suggested donation: $100,000. The middleman: lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Blunt e-mails that connect money and access in Washington show that prominent Republican activist Grover Norquist facilitated some administration contacts for Abramoff’s clients while the lobbyist simultaneously solicited those clients for large donations to Norquist’s tax-exempt group.
Those who were solicited or landed administration introductions included foreign figures and American Indian tribes, according to e-mails gathered by Senate investigators and federal prosecutors or obtained independently by The Associated Press….”

Deeper in the article, I loved this “non-denial-denial,” in the “imperial we” :
“We do not solicit donations in exchange for meetings or events at the White House, and we don’t have any knowledge of this activity taking place,” said a White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy.”

Well, I just don’t understand. The squealing must not be in a high enough frequency.

“Cheneyesque?”

One thing I think we tend to forget is that the David Brookses and others of his ilk can get away with the crap they present as truth because a large percentage of the people who either see them on TV, or read their columns, are not people for whom “blog” is even a word in their vocabulary. These are people who, if they even know what a blog is, are likely to think that it is either all about radical leftists who wear tie-dye in real life, head-in-the-clouds liberal academics, or twenty-somethings sitting around in their pajamas, getting high and still asking Mom what’s for lunch.

That’s how they get away with it, and until the progressive voice makes it’s way into a mainstream venue in which it can speak for itself, we are likely fighting an uphill battle. I mean, David Brooks in a suit and tie is always going to have the upper hand with some individuals just because he looks so much better than what they imagine (and their imagination is helped along by the David Brookses of the world) progressive bloggers look like. In this day and age, it’s all about packaging, and for the moment, we have not been able to break far enough into the media game to be able to push off the screen the David Brookses who are being allowed to provide the definition.

And look what happens when a few faces of the blogosphere begin to show up on mainstream TV. The push-back from the overlords of the traditional is pretty hard; right now, I think it’s more about not wanting to cede any turf. Underneath that is fear that we might be able to do a better job of what they have been fooling the public into thinking they are already doing.

Starting to rant now, so I will take a moment for a deep breath or two.

Jane, regarding what we talked about today. There is a young single mother across the street from me. She leaves with her babies way too early and comes home way too late. Her grass is always a little too tall. After talking with her, she stopped by the tag agency and registered. We can help her and I invited her to let us try. It is the only way to reach this market. I can say much about this, but I would like you to think about it on the road.

John Casper 46 -

Hell, that piss-ant Mayor of New Orleans Nagin was charging ten grand for access.

David Brooks’s English teachers must be writhing in the grave. Rabid lambs! He ought to be heckled with that wherever he turns up. It could be the Kossacks’war cry.

Brooks says Kos “sits at his computer, fires up his Web site, Daily Kos, and commands his followers…” I was wondering: Is Kos’s Web site an automatic, or does it have a stick shift?

I think Dr. Nobody at 45 might be on to something. I followed the link to Brooks, and had the impression that he is afraid or worried. The level of vitriol in his column seems so disproportionate to what he is writing about, and he is usually more cerebral or distant from his topic. Or, he used to be before he went behind the firewall and I quit reading NYT opinion columns.

“I followed the link to Brooks, and had the impression that he is afraid or worried.”

Maybe Karl has pictures…or NSA tapes.

“squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom on those who stand in the way.”

Delusional writing not even acceptable in creative writing class… I’d give him an F- and a prescription.

The thing of it is, 2/3s of the diarists on Dkos could crap better prose than David Brooks has ever, on his very best day, been able to come up with.

Only thing worse than a pathetic has been is a pissy never-was.

Neurophius 54 Um, with lambs?

Susan in Iowa

Let’s hope for Bobo’s sake that he’s had his rabies shots.

what’s that joke about somewhere men are men and sheep are nervous…

oops, forgot why I was going to comment on this post. I’ve been looking for GOTV and voter rights sites that would provide an opportunity to do something constructive.

Here is something interesting I found. I live close enough to Pombo’s district to maybe get involved. Pachacutec did ask for *****Watch sites. Well, this used to be VoteWatch, but is now the Election Science Institute. Anyone know about them?

http://www.electionscience.org/

This isn’t called *****Watch either, but it’s a GOTV blog for Dems. Anyone know about them?

http://www.growdems.org/?q=blog

Know of any better groups to work with?

I’m looking for recommendations for effecive voter rights and GOTV organizations that would be good to get involved in. Like in the Pombo race. I cannot believe that the Dem poobah’s will not support some one like McNerney. Even after he, like, wins the primary. Unbelievable.

And finally, one more time, here is what seems to be a slick highly financed GOP blog that functions as a voter fraud alert system for the Dark Side -and surely a good source of BS for the BushCo noise macine. Where can I find something similar for the Dems? Is there one?

http://www.blogsforbush.com/mt…..raud_alert .html

Sorry to repost some stuff from last nights Lieberman toga party post, but I’m getting stoked about upcoming elections and wanna do sometin about it. GOTV and stopping state and local vote suppression seems like a winner this year. I gave some dough to some of the progressive primary winnters earlier but am looking for more intrepid stuff to do in four months.

“squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom”

You’re shitting me.

Were these Diamondback lambs?

I think it was Wyoming (can anyone say “Dick” Cheney?)

Anne:

I pretty much agree with you, but as attempted takedowns go, this stuff from Brooks is a big swing and a miss. Really, it shows more weakness than strength. We’ll see where things land with Jerome when the SEC thing runs its course, but Zingerle has some real reporting questions to answer:

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot…..en_23.html

Neurophius, let’s not go there. The mental movie is not one i want to watch.

“I jus’ wantcha t’ know, ’bout last night, I ain’t no queer…”

No silence of the lambs around here. We’re all angry, hateful, venomous lambs!

It’s interesting to see how, after forty years, so many boomers have become what they derided and despised in their youth

I constantly chastise members of my parents generation for dropping the ball. Entirely to much fun, especially the conservative converts.
Also I agree, attention from brooks is a good thing. As someone mentioned earlier today it is time for step three(fight).

The language and the attitude are condescending and trivializing. If Brooks only knew the source of our power….

The pump don’t work ’cause the vandal took the handle.

OfT: Nonprofit Groups Funneled Money For Abramoff Funds Flowed to Lobbying Campaigns
“Newly released documents in the Jack Abramoff investigation shed light on how the lobbyist secretly routed his clients’ funds through tax-exempt organizations with the acquiescence of those in charge, including prominent conservative activist Grover Norquist….”
Byline warning, Steno Sue co-authored this.

Susan in Iowa

I guess I’ve shot enough fish in that barrel to call it an evening. After a few, it isn’t that much fun.

I think the real truth is that Brooks is apparently a closet gamer. Google “rabid sheep” and you get multiple references to:

http://sales.starcitygames.com…..duct=33242

In your heart, projection of a sheepish journalist aside, don’t you just know he is hoping to get some kind of onslaught of attention from bloggers. As if he really had a “voice” that was being listened to attentively.

Plus, he’s worried. That rabid sheep attacking with venom stuff is going to end up on someone’s “worst prose” list somewhere. We know it, he knows it, and it’s just a matter of waiting for the year end lists to be compiled.

I’m betting on him making the ‘wooly thinking, baaaaad writing’ list, but that’s just one option.

By the way, if you watch Dylan in Don’t Look Back that’s some serious snark in there, too.

#48 Anne: you are correct that many people do not know or have access to the internet. But the politcal blogs penetration is still small compared to what it could be. Look at the stats for sports and marketing and auction blogs. And every teenager I know knows all about blogs of some kind and chat rooms. So the future is on the internet.

When I first came to FDL, cynical old near boomer coot me was surprised at the friendliness and family atmosphere. Blog like FDL have potentially a much greater audience than they do now. Dang it, I want drummers at every whistle stop and cross roads with the URLs ready to go. Fliers, that’s what these blogs need, fliers I say.

#52 bolt action

Dumbo #15

“Perhaps he is mystified by the blogosphere.”

Brooks like so many in the traditional media don’t get the speed, interactivity, memory, and relentlessly self correcting nature of the blogosphere. Their reaction is to deprecate it and us. OTOH they like to think it’s all a passing fad: “Those horseless buggies will never catch on.” OTOH they are, despite themselves, forced to acknowledge our presence and our growing power. So you get these weird juxtapositions. Kos is a self important nobody and he’s also Tom Delay until recently one of the most powerful politicians in the country. Which is it?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit I am a long time Brooks mocker. There are few out there who can compete with him for sheer airheadedness. A commenter a few days ago said it best: If I had a dime for every time he said something stupid enough that I wanted to throw a shoe at the TV screen, I would have enough money to hire a hitman and never hear from him again.

Finally, about rabid sheep. This reminded me of a BBC special where they described the Andrewsarchus, a rhino sized ungulate and top predator of the Eocene Age, as a “sheep in wolf’s clothing.” Brooks is thinking Little BoBeep but the power of the blogosphere is fast becoming Andrewsarchus and he is increasingly looking like lunch.

“baaaaad writing”
ROTFLMAO

“We’re building a progressive community here unlike any I’ve seen anywhere on the web.”

Maybe, maybe not so much. I don’t enjoy tonight’s “musical” selection any more than I enjoy 50 cent. It ‘aint too good but hey I’m 53 and I like a melody. Hendrix; now there was a melody.

“For the comments, what if any cultural change do you think is going on? What do you see happening out there, or around here. . .”

What I’ve seen here, (in the comments section) particularly after the Yearly Kos get-together is a palpable vibe change.

Community ? What’s the password ?

Pach, The Schumer site is terrific. it has got to be a thorn in the over-inflated side of the Senator, and your suggestion for expanding the universe of similar sites is right on.

Pach – and I think the more people like Brooks show their fear in a way that is obvious even to those who may be unfamiliar with this corner of the universe, the better. It might, in fact, even prompt some people to check it out on their own, to see if the blogs warrant the kind of purple prose flowing from a writer who is not known for writing about rabid lambs.

What we have to think about, too, is the difference between reporting and editorializing. Brooks is not a reporter, and at the moment, he isn’t doing such a great job in the opinionating department. Where I think the blogosphere begins to have impact on opinion is from the reporting end.

What the David Brookses of the world fear most is the end of being able to be complacent and secure in their positions atop the leader board.

too bad he didn’t add “frothy” to his ravings.

lemmeseehere:

frothy squadrons, frothy venom, frothy followers, rabid frothiness?

Sir Bobo of the Froth.

Please, people, respect the purity of the prose: it’s “rabid lambs.”

Not sheep. Lambs.

Genius, I tell you.

Brooks-
“…squadrons of rabid lambs”.

WTF???

One can only surmise that this revealing turn of phrase might be attributable to an unfortunate and traumatic childhood incident on the Brooks family farm when Little Davey’s crude advances on a fetching young ewe were rebuffed, and he was set upon, en masse, by the angry flock.

“squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom”

Is it possible for a snake to contract rabies? Or for a lamb to fly an airplane?

Somebody fetch me a drink!

So, people think Brooks is a secret rabid sheep computer gamer. Out the guy and wreck him, I say.

In the meantime, we need an astroturf blog that will be an expose of how absolutely looney outrageous and compeletley insane this left blogosphere is. I mean something, you want to see SCANDAL, check it out. You will *not* believe your eyes at what thesenuts are doing. Bad language too. List all the URLs. Point out the really insane sites, like DailyKos and FDL and TPM and media matters, and Think Progress. Out of control shit, and everyone needs to take a look.

John Casper: Bwaaahahah!

Words that do not belong together:

Rabid lambs

Military intelligence

President Bush

OFG: LOL

Anne #79: I agree 100%. There is little news in the corporate media anymore. News and serious analysis that ends with a conclusion is old, out of it, and uncool. It is all buzz. That is what the opposition is counting on -a cynical social environment that thinks on buzz and buzz alone. Editorial buzz. Shallow news analysis buzz. He-said she-said stenographic buzz.

Buzz is important to them. Turning everything to buzz is their strategy.

I hope for more nonsense like this, as long as the URLs get out to the public.

wesgpc @ 74

Fliers, that is what these blogs need, fliers I say.

not that effective in this day of charge/debit cards, BUT

I actually write http://www.firedoglake.com, Had Enough ?, and Stop Calling It A War, It’s An Occupation! on every piece of paper money – actually ordered a couple rubber stamps for same just this week -

yeah, I know, a little kooky – but it’s one more little way to get it out there

excellent cbl

OFG, Hokeystraaa=Chairman of the Intellegence Committee. Whew!

Great news, the FDL/Howie Klein effort to raise funds for North Carolina progressive Larry Kissell is going great!

So far we have raised nearly $1,100. Help us get to our firedoglake goal of $1,200.

Thanks!

bet thats one mighty small committee

cbl #89: I may be a little out of date. I guess drummers on the Sothern Pacific and Sante Fe lines all the way from Frisco down to Calexico ain’t the way to go now. Door to door fliers and ads on the Greyhound buses maybe a little old fashioned too. I dunno. Somebody will have a better idea.

Also, I think it is impossible to read Brooks and not end up mocking him, at least silently in one’s head. Does the notorious KittenStomper blog have a post on Brooks?

We learn of a third possible answer to this question:

http://www.jxflagg.com/images/brooks.jpg

He may have been bitten by a rabid lamb.

Poor man. His poor family. The worst part is when he mistakes the woolrich plaid throw for an encroaching male and charges headfirst across the room to butt it.

I hope that Schumer and Emanuel are lambs in wolves’ clothing, and we are the reverse (except wolves working for good, not evil).

The reactionary blogonexus seems to be rabid lambs in rabid lambs clothing. But they do have more parties. I think they drink more too, at least from what I can compare from the DailyKos pictures.

HA!!! David Brooks and Marty Peretz were completely fooled by the fake out, and swallowed the bait hook line and sinker!!!

They don’t have a clue that this “Markos of the Rabid Sheep” gets his marching orders from his “Jane Hamshers of the Left” micro chip implant.

That whole “Townhouse” group thingy? A deep embed signaling system, that puts Deep Throat’s flower pot and Bob Woodward to shame. Of course, putting Bob Woodward to shame is like that whole fish barrel thingy, so we won’t go there.

At any rate — David Brooks and Marty Peretz have exposed themselves as fools and tools in Karl Rove’s super duper double secret psy-ops network, while not one “Jane Hamshers of the Left” operative was revealed, nor a single cell compromised.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to move a flower pot.

cbl- that is brilliant. Truly. Absofablutely. Don’t let this one go. Please email RH and JH with the idea.

neurophius at 7: Egregious, if you are here – Thanks for showing me how to embed links. I tried it at Squirrel thread 95 and it worked.

Yer welcome. You have no idea how many mistakes I made til finally getting it right.

In fact I have a hobby of collecting categories of mistakes. Always interesting to find a new one. One of my favorites was when we got lost following a very detailed set of instructions. The mistake was thinking that detailed directions = accurate directions.

Perhaps Brooks has had the wool pulled over his eyes for so long he can see nothing else.

“Ask not for whom the lamb bleats, it bleats for thee.”

John C – I am watching the Abramoff revelations too. Still waiting to see something (anything?) that ties in to the Ashcroft email on the NMI report or the Rove – Black demotion etc. issue. I’d hate to see those get buried, but they sure don’t have any buzz.

Tonight, I had dinner with David Brooks, Maureen Dowd and David Broder.

I am never coming back to this blogofascist fever swamp again.

As the Geico caveman would say, you people are “not cool”.

-GSD

GSD: Did Broder dribble soup on his chin again?

One of the ways that driving instructions are given around here is something like the following: Okay, so, it’s about half a mile past where the old Piggly Wiggly used to be. If you get to the corner where Cub Foods was, then you’ve gone too far.

Guess what. All of the Bush Putsching in the middle east has had some interesting results. Surprisingly Iran is not being isolated at all.

(Snip)

Arab governments once hostile to Iran have begun to soften their public posture after decades of animosity toward Tehran. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt met Iran’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, in Cairo recently, and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, visited Tehran this month and declared the two nations to be good friends. In addition, Iranian officials recently sent messages of friendship to every Persian Gulf state.

-GSD

I’m off to bed, folks. It’s been a blast, and I’ll catch up with your comments in the morning.

Soup? It is Rove Chowder.

-GSD

wow, GSD– Dinner with Bobo, Modo and Bro… Did you have the butterflied lamb with the frothy cabernet sauce or the welsh rabid? venom tart for dessert?

anagram

rabid lambs

=>

dismal barb

Bogus directions are a hassle for me. Especially when your load is sixteen feet tall and you find a 13′4″ bridge.

Jane Hamsher @ 24

They, on the other hand, have got no idea what they’re talking about but feel compelled to bludgeon it anyway.

Sounds kind of like Bush and Iraq, too.

wesgpc

wasn’t saying you were out of date – was just saying we use a lot less paper money these days

recently went back to working in a restaurant, so the bulk of my earnings is in paper money again

and you’re right, you’re right, you’re right about getting those url’s out there – I keep thinking of those dunderheads in KY who blocked state employees from accessing some progressive blogs – I’m willing to bet 40% of them went home and looked up those sites ! wish I could remember the names – would love to check those site meters

Pach-Fantastic post!
BTW, Subterranean Homesick Blues. and you claim to not be a boomer? Maybe not in age, but…
The “SchumerWatch” idea is great. I’m reminded of conversations here about building progressive “Think Tanks”. This must be where they begin.

Mary

Given your name and all, I would think you would be a little hesitant to make lamb jokes.

cbl @ 21 — I don’t watch MTV — there are no teenagers in the house, and the music bores me and scares the dog — but I do watch HGTV. For the uninitiated, that’s House & Garden, and if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it. Perhaps because a lot of the shows are shot in Canada, both gay and interracial households are routinely featured, and it’s no big deal. In fact, it’s so routine that it’s the best kind of subversion. It’s ORDINARY. And I think it’s quite popular with ordinary people. The times are definitely changing.

Tim @ 77 — The password is buried in the recipes. Of course, you’ll have to visit the Louvre to get the code. Watch out for albino monks. :>)

More generally, someone ought to write the New York Times and let them know that BoBo’s computer has been hacked and some idiot is posting columns under his byline. Squeaking venomous rabid lambs? Nope. You can’t fool me. The real David Brooks is not (to put it mildly) a deep thinker, but he could not possibly have written such execrable prose. His Ivy League college would revoke his degree. Heck, his middle school would revoke his degree. Has to be a hacker.

Looks like we are finally seeing “what’s the matter with Kansas” come to life in front of our eyes.

-GSD

I ate his liver with trailer trash pie and a fine chianti.

neurophius- oh that one is gonna make my guts hurt from laughing. Thank you.

I thought GSD would certainly have quail

who let lou doobs have cspan 1 (now) ?

BarbaraB- BTW I left you a reply back on the watertiger thread. No need to respond. I just wanted to make sure you see my reply.

egregious 99

On more than one occasion, I have gone to church and arrived just as the service was over, only to realize that Daylight Saving Time began the night before.

Pach is a young boomer, I think –

There are two age cohorts in the baby boom; those born between 1945 and 1955, and those born between 1956 and 1965. (I think)

Anyway — the two groups are radically different, in that the older ones were shaped by the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam, while the younger group were shaped by Watergate and the rest of the 1970’s.

neuro 114 – LOL

I did catch these two sheep, deep in discussion of a rabid, venomous plot to attack Brooks.

Or follow me to school.

Either way – Baaad Sheep!

http://www.healingtaobritain.com/pictures/pre july 03/lambs.jpg

Mary @ 95 and CK @ 97 … almost fell off the bed laughing! wonderful!

I love seeing how our communities respond to this nonsense … a perfect example of how little importance Suellentrop, Zengele and Brooks have any more … how do you scar a target when the embrace the slings and arrows with snark?

Interesting to me that the whole cycle began at the Times with Suellentrop then jumped to TNR now back at NYT … echochamber anyone?

David graduated from U of Chicago with a degree in history in 1983 (from wiki):

“David Brooks will be joining the faculty of Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy in the fall of 2006.”

Poor little lambkins at Duke…

1965 here and I was not shaped by that man, dick nixon. I was shaped by armstrong. *g*

Mary–

no joke this time; when I followed your link to the “Baaaad Sheep” site, my computer said that page does not appear to exist.

So do we call Kos “Pappy”

Like Boyington, or is that too obscure even for FDL?

neuro – appearances can be deceiving (and it sounds as if you have a very polite computer).

Trying again

http://www.healingtaobritain.com/pictures/pre july 03/lambs.jpg

Mary

Black Sheep Squadron–that’s probably the theme of some of Brooks’ worst nightmares.

David Brooks graduated from U of Chicago with a degree in history in 1983

That would make him a young boomer — since the U of Chicago is a notorious indoctrination center for button down right wing reactionaries, all of his secrets are revealed.

Plus — someone saw BoBo at an event in Aspen, and discribed him as 4 foot tall easter egg (he was wearing a yellow shirt).

If the link still won’t work, here’s a pic of the squadron, planning to engage in rabid frolic.

http://www.users.globalnet.co……/lambs.jpg

A new philosophical point to ponder.

Do rabid lambs frolic?

Mary
mmm… People chops.

Mary

I think the problem with your link is that it is partially underlined. When I cut and paste it, it works.

ck

Was Bobo attached at the roots to Libby and Judy?

David had a rabid lamb,
Venom as white as blow,
And every where that David went
The lamb was sure to go;
All this made him so afraid
For David was a tool
How we laughed to see him played
For he was such a fool

If Markos wants to tell me what to do, he’ll have to wait his turn and be prepared for me to tell him to bugger off and play king with someone else.

I don’t take orders well.

Wow, it is really becoming sort of a cultural meldown freakshow with so many.

I think that Coulter wickedness was another moment that pushed people further into either camps.

Most people with a modicum of decency were pretty repelled by her….

The rest who fell for her vitriolic shtick, well, we know what historical footseps they are goosetepping in mow.

-GSD

How many universities hire faculty without an advanced degree?

Now….not Mow…..moo…baa…

-GSD

I’ve got it. On K Street! K Street is named for Kos! DeLay was just his bitch!

Wait until you read the Late Nite post I have planned for tomorrow night.

#124 and #130: Brooks studied history, huh? Of what planet? Like G. Will. History used to be a respectable subject.

I tried to be impartial. But you have to admit, one of them is cuter than the other.

Pour yourself a festive adult beverage, raise your glass, and join in on the chorus — in harmony, of course . . .

From the keyboards on our desktops,
To the place where liberals dwell,
Come the dear, old commenters we love so well,
Sing the Firepups assembled,
With their glasses raised on high!
And the magic of their singing, casts a spell.

Yes the magic of their singing,
Of the songs we love so well:
Songs of protest, songs of labor, and the rest!
We will serenade our Hostesses,
Till health and voices fail,
And we’ll pass and be forgotten with the rest.

We are poor little lambs
Who have lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We are little, black sheep
Who have gone astray!
Baa! Baa! Baa!

Firepups, songsters, off on a spree,
Doomed from here to eternity.
Lord! Have mercy on such as we,
Baa! Baa! Baa!

Mary,127: “Like Boyington, or is that too obscure even for FDL?”

Not too obscure for this old ram: Pappy Boyington, World War II ace, leader of the Black Sheep Squadron .

Mary- I tried to fix this, but couldn’t. I think the problem is that WP does not like the % sign and so the link ends up being truncated. Same thing happened to me when I tried to repost. I did get to the picture by copying all of the link, not just the underlined part, and pasting it into my browser. And, let me say, I wouldn’t have gone this far for anyone but you.

Mary @ 127

Seems to me that Pappy had a problem with authority, too, IIRC

;)

Wise Hampshire Sheep –

Hampshire Sheep that simply . . . WORK!!!

http://www.countrylovin.com/wisehamps/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampshire_sheep

p.s. anyone but you or TRex.

“Like Boyington, or is that too obscure even for FDL?”

F4U Corsair

http://www.compass.dircon.co.uk/corsair_68.jpg

Dig It !

TRex, and if you are still reading, could you go back to my comment 104 or thereabouts and confirm that this is how directions are given? Oh, maybe not in small towns… never mind.

ck

Our entire Flock is Foot Rot Free.

I feel better already.

angie,

I don’t know if Douglas Feith has an advanced degree but he is teaching at Georgetown. I think the course is F*%king up the Government 101. It’s a lot like Bush becoming President. If he can do it, anyone and I do mean anyone can do it.

A Poem
by TRex, Grade 4

I am, I am
a rabid lamb.
For Kos I bow
and scrape and scam.
For Kos is great and
Kos is good,
we follow orders
like we should.
No NYT
nor SEC
nor smear campaign
launched from D.C.
Will dim my trust
in Kos the Grand,
for all I am
is a rabid lamb.
That’s what I am.

Thank you.

*runs offstage*

VG – you are a gem and I feel sheepish. ;)

Closing shop (Kos told me to). I hope you all sleep like lambs. Rabid, venoumous lambs.

I feel better knowing my kids are getting the news from Jon than the possibility that they might think Fox is balanced reporting and that they should vote accordingly.

TRex

I will be sure not to miss it. He he he!

Pachacutec says:
June 24th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
By the way, I saw An Inconvenient Truth tonight. Very powerful. I highly, highly recommend it, and Markos may even command it.
———————————————————-
I saw it tonight, too. (Sorry I didn’t wait for you to tell me to, Markos.) Take home message: Don’t buy any beachfront property in Florida.

Here’s a question for the military types: Has anyone ever considered the use of glacial ice as a weapon? What would happen if someone set off a nuke in the middle of the Greenland glacier?

Valley Girl 98, not so fast with the money marking scheme – it’s illegal.

“In more detail, there are two sections of the U.S. Title Code that concern marking on money.
…
The second is Title 18, Sec. 475. Imitating obligations or securities; advertisements. It states that it is illegal to advertise on money.”

Atheists have already researched it while protesting “in god we trust” on currency.

http://www.godoffmoney.com/faq/index.html?id=8

The secret is, the leftyblogczar is Kobe. Kobe is a poodle, and poodles are smart. Note that this said Kobe is important enough to be escorted (escorted special, mind you) to CT, for an *important campaign* trip. And note that all the FDL minions are *very eager* to go out of their way to say that their accomodations are very larg dog friendly. 1 1, my friends, nothing more. Futhermore, I have read in these comments that Kobe is a rather large intimidating poodle.

Case closed. I’m calling the big media. You guys have only peanuts and my retirement account is low. The scoop will be out tomorrow. It’s over. Brace yourselves:

“Koala, the large pekinese-doberamnn mix of FireKoalalake.blogorg.spot is the hidden lefty blog czar. The notorious communists Ike and Alf Landon owned his ancesters and his front, Christine Hamsher Pach, has bred a secret army of leftwing dogs who would be poised to conquer the earth, if they can only escape their mom and dad’s basement. Koala is traveling in a vaguely eastward or westward direction, or something in between cleverly disguised as a rabid lamb.”

I’ve cracked it and can sleep now.

Hugh– I remember reading that– he has a JD.

I wish students would sign up, show up and turn their backs on him, hum for the duration of the class and drop the course after the first day en masse.

Is George W Bush taking his well-deserved credit for bringing Egypt together with Iran? I guess he really is a uniter!

omigod, TRex! I just don’t know what to say that I haven’t said before!!!!!! Brilliant!! Hilarious!!!! A Unique Treat!!!!

oh, and BTW, I have a reaction similar to yours re: Agatha Christie. Truly.

VG 119 — Thanks for letting me know. I would love to talk about it with you some more, and the short answers are no, you aren’t, and intellectual property law. I hope your moderator status entitles you to harvest my email address, but if not, let me know and I’ll figure out how to post it without attracting spam.

Peterr — I certainly like your version of the Whiffenpoof song better than the original!

I wonder what kind of bullshit Rove is getting ready to pull while the Jane Hamshers of the Left Fever Swamp are all distracted with tales of Kommander Kos and Bobo’s rabid sheep rants…

Bobo really seems to have lost it. Fortunately, like “The New Republic”, he’s been irrelevant for a while now. (Though not nearly as long.) Can anyone remember the last time one of his pieces made it into the NYT’s top 10 most-e-mailed articles?

(Incidentally–and I say this as an incurable Icelandophile–what does it say about the NYT’s reporting on world news when an article on Iceland’s Ring Road is their number one e-mailed article?)

T Rex,

VG beat me to it – a doggone gem, whipped out in , what? 3 minutes – you’re slaying us child

I saved it -

op99- you are probably correct. However, there is nothing wrong with marking currency, as far as I know. I have come upon a few bills that are stamp marked with a link to an internet site where people can report encountering a particular stamp marked bill. I can’t remember what it is called. Follow the money?

BarbaraB- I can get in touch with you. But it won’t be for a while. I am overwhelmed. And then I will be on vacation without internet access. Thx.

Blair and Bush rockin’ at the gay bar.

Very funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..=t&f=b

-GSD

…what if any cultural change do you think is going on?

I am going to completely ignore the tripe passed off by Bobo as serious commentary; it’s merely an example of writer’s block therapy, a form of masturbation pawned on an editor in lieu of actual fresh content. Whenever the Republican-owned corporate media types can’t readily find something to write about that day, they pull blogging out of their butts and start scribbling away like a monkey with a Bic pen and a freshly painted wall. “Look! Voila! Today’s Op-Ed on Rabid Lamb Bloggers!!” Using bloggers as their bete-noir for the purposes of baiting their sick little Muses replaces bashing some other group or individual; bloggers are the boogey-man du jour, almost as faceless and nameless and legion as al Qaeda, but treated with less skepticism by the average American now that the same JoeSchmoe now realizes that al Qaeda was a boogey-man used by the Bushistas to manipulate them.

Kos is merely a lightning rod, a focal point. If it wasn’t him it’d be some other progressive blogger. Or will be soon, just like the rolling changes in the al Qaeda batting roster.

The snark that “Dick” Morin claims TDS uses to rot the minds of young rabid lambs is nothing, absolutely NOTHING new. This late Boomer-early GenX’r remembers Laugh-In and many other snarky outlets that bashed Nixon and Reagan and Bush after him. Dana Carvey’s imitation of GHWBush’s shallow milquetoast bit on SNL? Spot on. The only thing that’s new is the youngest generation hearing this argument and they are incredibly adept at seeing through bullsh*t like this — and at using Google to make their case.

The fundamental change we are both participating in and witnessing is dualistic in nature; we no longer merely watching from the side lines, we are active participants in the process. We don’t just read what is pushed at us by newspapers; we chew it up, spit it back at them and demand better in our blogs and in comments in blogs. We don’t just lie back and allow television and radio to have their way with our minds; we use our owned damned cameras and computers to make our own media to augment or replace their commercial crap altogether.

This is what Bobo and the rest of his dinosaurish clan cannot grasp: DailyKos is NOT Kos. WE are DailyKos. WE are FireDogLake. WE are DemocraticUnderground and TalkingPointsMemo. WE are a movement of participatory democracy, both in free speech and free press, in what we expect of our relationship to our government. WE are not bound to a keyboard, having met our kind in the flesh at Meetups and YearlyKos. WE are something far larger than they can grasp, having this dual nature and great network-enabled reach.

And they are merely caged monkeys with Bic pens herded by corporate-paid editors.

So is the Iraqi Prime Minister serious? I can’t wait for the Congressional vote on amnesty for terrorists.

VG — No rush. A vacation without internet access? Really? Not even a smartphone? (She shudders artistically.) And my definition of roughing it is no MSNBC (only for Olbermann, of course) or Comedy Central on the hotel TV! Have a wonderful time; you have certainly earned the rest.

about cultural shifts… my thought just in terms of the media:

the short version–
how ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen paris?

we’ve had a taste of the power to self publish and it’s pretty heady stuff.

i think the media is waking up to the fact that a massive end run is taking place by consumers of news. consumers they took for granted, and appear to have contempt for. with the power to self publish, critique, and shape cultural and political discourse in the hands of everyday folk, i think we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the media’s ability to, literally, mediate our experience. that’s a power they do not want to give up. and the struggle is playing out.

sen. reid, at yearly kos, compared the introduction of the printing press in Gutenberg’s time to the technology that allows blogs to flourish. it was an apt comparison. the print revolution dismantled the controls that the wealthy and powerful had for ruling their world. blogospherics are doing the same thing for us today.

when people take more control of the means of communicating, they take more control of their own culture. who knows where it’s going to go, but it’s going to be exciting… if chaotic for a while. i’m very hopeful.

wesgpc— oh!!! Jane really does need to read your analysis. Outloud to Kobe?

Rayne

You make a strong case.

“The only thing that’s new is the youngest generation hearing this argument and they are incredibly adept at seeing through bullsh*t like this %u2014 and at using Google to make their case.”

Maybe that’s why the big corporate interests want to get rid of net neutrality–to put a gag on Google.

cbl 121, http://www.firedupmissouri.com/
is one of the blogs that were blocked.
I don’t see a site meter at the bottom of the page, though. Maybe they have a different kind?

The most powerful result is the great leveling quality that easy access to the sources of information have for us all.

Bush: “War is a dangerous place.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..mp;search=

this is a pretty cool t-shirt:

http://www.peaceplease.com/shirt_enough.html

Hey GSD- A FDL utube thread with all of the stupid horrible etc. things that Bush has said would be, well, I was gonna say great, but that is hardly the right word. I am on dialup so I never check out the utube links. Is there enough out there on utube to comprise a takedown?

Once Bush is out of office, that YouTube video and a means to view it should be installed at the Smithsonian.

By the way, the rabid lambs remark? I read it and thought, “Aw, wabid wambs.” ;) I wonder if that phrase has that goo-goo baby talk effect on other readers.

Why does Rove even allow him to make speeches?

I am late to comment on the excellent TRex rant about feckless Dem response to “cut and run.”

my two cents:

Stop sacrificing our kids for political purposes.

p.s. If anyone wants a “Self Cleaning Pet Brush” I will release this adspam from the spam filter. Maybe.

jwp

Didn’t you get the talking points? They aren’t sacrificing our kids for political purposes. They are sacrificing our kids to honor the kids who have already been sacrificed.

And my definition of roughing it is no MSNBC (only for Olbermann, of course) or Comedy Central on the hotel TV! Have a wonderful time; you have certainly earned the rest.

Barbara B, I’m travelling with you. That’s the spirit!

I don’t do camping. How can you possibly shop in the woods?

We will not cut and run, we will slice and jog.

-Bush

TRex- if you have time to read, I have left you comments at 163 and 104

Also, a late ‘Father’s Day’ selection of power tools courtesy of Youtube.

I recommend the jackhammer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..tisfaction

-GSD

OT
Need a legal opinion (or any opinion, really) about this concerning Noe in Ohio, the dirty coin dealer guy:
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beacon…..tstory.jsp
“Prosecutors in the case of a major GOP fundraiser accused of stealing from a state investment in rare coins tried to have his attorneys disqualified, but a judge sealed court documents explaining why.”
I won’t even speculate why this might be, but it sure is interesting.

Kos told me not to write this, but Kos is not the Boss of me. :P

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the MSM (and subsidiaries) have been stumbling around trying to define the netroots. (Has anyone seen any press get it right?) The press thinks we have to be organized under a leader, the same way DFA or MoveOn were organized. That’s why they glommed onto Kos. They needed a face for the Netroots.

Wrong! If anything, this is the face of the Netroots!

Also, IIRC, FDL is the site that got the ball rolling on Lamont, not Kos. But in a way, with the press not “getting it” perhaps that’s a weapon to our advantage.

Sorry for jumping down to post this without checking other comments first. Had to get this off my mind as it was distracting.

Now to go back up and read and click links…

Oh PS: Why can’t I read IANAL as “I am not a lawyer”? What my mind does with it is “I, Anal” sort of like “I, Robot”. Sorry sometimes my mind creeps me out.

I guess Brooks must be a little in shock from the usual silence of the lambs. Are Ewe?

mmmmB-a-a-a!
Oh excuse me (hrmp! hrmp!)

Although this thread has some good stuff—love the lyrics and that image of BoBo charging the plaid couch throw—the funniest thing I’ve read lately is a little past halfway down this article about the suicide vests of death case in the UK, analogous to our own Mubtakkar of Death nonsense from this week. It begins with

The odds small-scale wanabee chemical terrorists face look even poorer if we consider the examples of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, al Qaeda and Aum Shinrikyo.

and really takes off a couple of grafs later with

It pumped out the wrong kind of anthrax (the veterinarian, non-fatal type) from its factory for a protracted period, resulting only in the neighbours complaining about the smell. It attempted hits on rivals with sarin – they appear not to have noticed, but an Aum Shinrikyo operative needed an antidote when it went off in the wrong direction.

More follows. Someone really should incorporate this into a gallows comedy (is there really any other kind?) script.

One of the ways that driving instructions are given around here is something like the following: Okay, so, it’s about half a mile past where the old Piggly Wiggly used to be. If you get to the corner where Cub Foods was, then you’ve gone too far.

Indeed. And you drive past that intersection where they’re thinking about putting in a drive-in bank. Where Dr. Loomis’s office used to be.

Good night, Firedogs. Let’s hope for safe journeys for our Jane.

Audrey Yoeckel,

That great Norman Rockwell has been used as a photo header at least once here at fdl. You’re right….

Just saw a NYTimes article that says there’s a thing that’s sorta like a timetable for getting out of Iraq. I don’t think that could be true, because our nation’s security depends on our not cutting and running from Iraq. You be the judge:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06…..mp;emc=rss

(H/T to Taylor, who saw it first).

Audrey Yoeckel @ 11:11 pm (#192) – If it makes you feel any better, I have the same problem with that acronym.

TRex — Any time. A day without shopping is a day not fully lived. BTW, Kathryn of MA and I spent a lovely afternoon in Las Vegas at the Fashion Mall. She can travel with us too. As for camping, heavens no. The closest I get to camping is a hotel where the hot and cold water come out of separate taps. I will fight to the death to preserve Anwar, but don’t exect me to visit it until the Marriott goes in. :>)

Yup, I remember, Ed*ard. I think it was used in a similar way then, too. Still a cool painting. But that was before Kos became the *kingpin* of the blogger mafia. Don’t want any confusion on this issue. ;)

Whew! Thanks Cujo! It really does. *G*

Audrey192,most of the people trying to “deal” with the blogs have only the top down command structure as a example of organization.I look at what is happening as almost a evolutionary step,….not as good as telepathy…but its the closest we have….souls talking to souls…only your words and thoughts are projected,the limitations of the meatworld,and our automatic built-in responces to people of other colors,sizes and shapes and/or sexes are compleatly divorced from each other….where this goes is exciteing…but I fear the powers that be will kill it if given the chance,because this kind of intellectual freedom of association can destroy a “command” societal structure.{peak oil will do that soon anyway}

Audrey and Cujo — You’re getting your acronyms confused. IAAL is the synonym for “I, Robot,” firepup lawyers being the exceptions that prove the rule. And now I, too, must toddle off. I have been frothing, squeaking, and baa baaing for several hours, and it is too, too exhausting. G’night, all.

Why doesn’t General Casey support our troops? Why does he want to cut and run?

I sent this to the Anchorage Daily News over a week ago:

“I was surprised to see an article about Ann Coulter’s most recent book below the fold on page A1 of Tuesday’s Anchorage Daily News. She’s hardly a credible author. Time and again she has insulted veterans. She was fired from employment at MSNBC for saying to a paraplegic veteran, according to Coulter, “people like you caused us to lose that war.” She has recently insulted Max Cleland and John Murtha, and has accused John Kerry of inflicting his own wounds in Vietnam.

The book which your article promotes through such prominent placement is now being investigated for plagiarism. She is being investigated for felony fraud in Florida in a separate case. These facts could have been researched before you printed the Associated Press article so prominently.

Where have your editorial standards gone? I could imagine the Voice of the Times promoting this slut, but the Daily News? Good grief.”

An employee at the editor’s desk called me a week ago, asking that I changed “slut” to some other term. I suggested “slattern” and “floozy.”

I just got this e-mail:

“Mr. Munger,
An editor has reviewed your letter and will consider it for print if you revise your last paragraph. Essentially, you call Ann Coulter a name, something we discourage in letters to the editor. That is what we take issue with.

The editor already reviewed your alternative word choices and rejected them, saying you’re still simply calling her a name. Please find a more appropriate term for that paragraph so that we can schedule your letter to print.

Mary Hattie
Letters to the Editor
Anchorage Daily News
ph: (907) 257-4547
fax: (907) 258-2157″

any suggestions, late night doggies?

orangejumpsuit @ 10:09 pm (#145) – No, that was Robert Conrad. People get it wrong all the time ;)

I think I saw a DVD set the last time I was at a Best Buy.

TeddySanFran @ 11:56 pm (#203) – Apparently, it’s OK to cut and run if you leak the news at the worst time in the news cycle. Wonder if any of those Sunday talking head shows will mention this?

Ed*ard

I think it is more important to get your letter published than to have the “final word.” I would suggest “disreputable person” because disreputable is an adjective, not a noun (or “name.”) You could point that fact out to the editor. It doesn’t carry the full impact of “slut,” but it is factual, and it might get your letter printed.

Or you could just say, “whore.”

Try referring to the words published rather than the person, e.g. “this meretricious venom.”

Ed*ard Teller @ 11:56 pm (#204) – Suggestions? Explain to them the meaning of “irony”.

Another possibility is substituting the word “harpy” or “sociopath” for “slut”. I actually don’t mind if she’s a slut. What I mind is that she’s a sociopathic lunatic bitch who calls people she doesn’t even know traitors because they don’t agree with her.

But that would probably be considered name calling. How about explaining the meaning of the word “irony”?

Teddy

It’s only cutting and running if a Democrat proposes it. The Republican Party has proprietary rights to that phrase and does not allow it to be used to describe administration proposals.

Ed*ard

How about this:

“I could imagine the Voice of the Times promoting the filth that this person peddles…”

ET – how about “promoting a work from such a disreputable source” ?

Ed*ard — Since “vicious lying bitch” is probably out, too, may I suggest “calumny”? Alaskans are smart folks. They won’t have to look it up. And now it really is bed time!

BarbaraB @ 12:11 am (#213) Apparently, Alaskans are smarter than I am. Good thing I don’t live there.

thanks, so far, firepups. I’m catching up on e-mail after my big annual fishing expedition, but should be back here in 20 minutes.

I’m leaning toward neurophius @211……..

On the Casey cut&run plan – do the math …

he is only talking about combat brigades of which they claim there are currently 14 in Iraq which would be about 49,000 of the claimed 127,000 now serving there.

Casey would decrease those 49,000 to 17,500 for a troop total remaining in Iraq of 95,500.

His cut&run would not take place until December 2007 as well – so levels stay the same for the next 18 months.

Sounds like they want to run on the war and on the troops out but they sure as hell don’t plan to bring a significant number of troops home any time soon.

E*ward

One more suggestion:

“this rabid lamb”

If it’s good enough for The New York Times, who is the Anchorage Daily News to disagree?

Ed*ard – How about “foul tempered, cheesy-headed, fact-challenged purveyor of calumny”?

siun @ 12:18 am (#216) – There’s more than one way to do that math. There are fourteen combat brigades, and the troops and higher headquarters that support them. As those brigades leave, so do some of the support and higher HQs. I don’t know what that will make the final numbers, but that’s probably more like two division’s worth, or about 50,000 troops.

neurophius @ 12:18 am (#217) – Don’t forget “venomous”.

Thinking it over, it seems like Brooks’ and Rove’s attack on the Kossacks is an attempt to recreate the atmosphere a couple of years ago (during the ‘mercs’ controversy), when they could tar candidates with being associated with the “radical” MoveOn and DailyKos. I don’t think they can manufacture that, though, much as they’d like to. Too many people know too much.

They are afraid.

Goodnight BarbaraB, thanks for the clarification on IANAL v. IAAL (FDL personnel and commenters excluded).

Ed*ard — You could call her an “un-American” or you could call her a “liar.”

I don’t really understand what the editor means when she asks for an “alternative term.” It sounds like she wants you to call Ms. Coulter a nicer name. So, you can call her a name, just not a not-nice name? Confusing….

I agree it’s best to get the letter published, though, since it packs a lot of punch. Why not eliminate the sentence that uses the word “slut” completely? I think the letter stands quite well without it. You might also want to add that Ann supports Joe Lieberman for the US Senate, along with being investigated for felony voter fraud.

…Ed*ard: how ’bout…”I can imagine the Voice of the Times stooping over to peel up this excrement from the sidewalk but…”

…or how about…”poor excuse for a woman”…or “Rove mouthpiece” or ‘Ho for the administration’ or…oh, never mind…
…problem is it neuters the letter to change the last paragraph…suggest Mary Hattie compose her own last line. It might be even richer…

Please don’t waste it all on the Coulter woman. Save some for the likes of Erice (The Dauphin) Posner who in my view is much more worthy:

Finally, even when deciding the length of ordinary criminal sentences, judges often take account not just of guilt but of a defendant’s dangerousness. A sentence, in reflecting dangerousness, may be longer than is justified by the defendant’s guilt.

In none of these cases is a person dangerous just because the government calls him dangerous. But the standards vary with the context. To detain a mentally ill person, the government must usually show that he has a mental disorder that prevents him from controlling himself. To detain an enemy soldier, a relatively informal military hearing must establish a connection between him and a battlefield.

The half-truth that one can be punished only for committing a crime needs to be filled out with the larger truth that the government may detain dangerous people in order to protect the public. The question of whether to close Guantanamo is a question about whether suspected members of Al Qaeda are as dangerous as people made violence-prone by mental illness, enemy soldiers during wartime, undocumented aliens who have committed serious crimes, recidivist violent criminals and traditional subversives during times of emergency.

If they are, the United States government can, without offending American legal traditions, lock up suspected Qaeda members without the protections afforded by a full- blown criminal trial. Whether doing so is wise policy depends on the extent to which Al Qaeda continues to pose a threat to American security, the extent to which traditional criminal law protections hinder necessary security measures, the moral harm that occurs when the government erroneously detains people who are harmless, and the diplomatic constraints imposed by allies. It does not depend on an appeal to general principles.

siun @ 12:18 am (#216) [followup] – The plan is for the brigades to not be replaced when they’re rotated out. The first two would leave this September. The remainder will leave over the next fifteen months:

Under the plan, the first reductions would involve two combat brigades that would rotate out of Iraq in September without being replaced. Military officials do not typically characterize reductions by total troop numbers, but rather by brigades.

So, the biggest group will probably be 10,000 or fewer, depending how much support is removed with each brigade.

…or you could say…”perhaps Ms. Coulter’s shots didn’t work…she ain’t a proper bitch!”
…no and nevermind…that should come from a woman…

Edwatd Teller: …….poster girl for hate and racial slurs

Ed*ard Teller — I agree with prostrateddragon and neurophius that the best way is probably to change it slightly to refer to the work, rather than the person. “Promoting this garbage,” for example.

ET–

unpatriotic, rapacious rabble-rouser.

merchant of hate.

scrofulous narcissist.

mendacious narcissist.

liar.

geez ccmask…you make it sound so 40’s…freshen it up and all that!

ET- reread TRex’s late nite post of late for further suggestions.
http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..-the-tape/

angie @ 12:31 am (#230) – hateful, mendacious narcissist?

such a Nazi bitch she’s probably wishing she had been fucked by Hitler?

Oh oh… a moderator will probably delete that one….

Redshift,

“promoting this garbage” is GREAT.

I’m just back from my big annual subsistence fishing trip where I’m allowed to catch dozens of the best tasting fish in the world – the Copper River Sockeye. I did.

We catch them in a rugged canyon where the Copper River is compressed through a gorge as it seeks the northern tip of the Gulf of Alaska through the 13,000 foot Chugach Range.

A boat dropped my two friends and me onto a ledge above the swirling, silty miasma. The water is too thick to swim in and too thin to walk out of. It is 38 degrees F. If you fall in, you die. We sweep five-foot diameter hoops full of fishnet, attached to ten-foot or longer poles into the current. Time and time again. I’ll be sore until Wednesday.

At about midnight, Thursday/Friday, as I leaned over a ledge in the canyon, to see what was making such a ruckus in my net, I realized I had netted the largest King Salmon I’ve seen in a while. In the four seconds between that realization and my next, a lot happened. I was leaning toward the river and unroped. I had a foot of handle to spill out of my hand before I got to the end grip. As I moved toward a loose safety rope with my left hand, my right sought another grip on the end handle, felt the end grip and the incredible force of the fish, and I realized he was going to pull me into the river. I had to let go.

There went my best, luckiest dipnet, and we watched a magnificent – 65 pounds might not be a fish story in this case – fish struggle in its death as it flailed on down through the upwellings, whirlpools and rips, tangled in the web and pole, in its untimely and useless death throes.

Better that fish than me, eh? I always wondered what I would do if it were the fish or me. Maybe I know now.

Snuffy,

Audrey192,most of the people trying to “deal” with the blogs have only the top down command structure as a example of organization.I look at what is happening as almost a evolutionary step…not as good as telepathy%u2026but its the closest we have…souls talking to souls…only your words and thoughts are projected,the limitations of the meatworld,and our automatic built-in responces to people of other colors,sizes and shapes and/or sexes are compleatly divorced from each other…where this goes is exciteing…but I fear the powers that be will kill it if given the chance,because this kind of intellectual freedom of association can destroy a “command” societal structure.{peak oil will do that soon anyway}

That’s the beauty of this. We know they’ll pull out all the stops to take down our leader…if they can find him/her. We have to have their backs on this. My point about Lamont support being generated here: It was mentioned several times in the comments on Lieberman threads and Jane ran with it. Created an ActBlue page. Etc.

In a sense, they are amazing leaders, but they don’t rule…there’s no real structure for that because it is from the bottom up instead of top down. My biggest frustration with most activist organizations is that because they are top-down, there’s so little for me to actually do besides what they tell me. (Of course, I do more–but not as a part of the organization.) By the time the detractors catch on to the actual nature of it, hopefully, it will be too late for them to come up with an effective strategy to do us harm.

that’s good, Cujo!

This is much better than waking up from a nice little slumber; couldn’t get back to sleep and now I get to think about other stuff than the yucky stuff that woke me..

VG– WWMS? (what would markos say)

Good one! Valley Girl, I’m telling the moderator! *G*

With that, I’m off to work. Going on 3:00 am here. Talk about graveyard shift.

G’night all.

ET…wow…all the salmon that won’t be on the grill…and the gear gone too…really sad…

I am glad you are still among us, ET– next year the fish will be bigger and you can have another go.

“Well Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming”

Sounds like quite a trip, Ed*ard. Glad the fish didn’t get you before you got him.

It’s about time for me to leave the net.

Now, don’t forget to set your Kos decoder rings to E-8 in the morning. If we don’t get that right there’ll be squadrons of venomous rabid lambs who knows where tomorrow. And we know how bad that can be. Venom’s too valuable to waste on people who already have lots of it.

Oh, and don’t let anyone named David Brooks help you over a fence.

Good night all.

Hello from a quick trip to San Francisco…

Ed*ard Teller, I think “sternutator” is a good substitute for Coulter.

In this week’s Economist (read in-line waiting for Al Gore to sign a few copies of “An Inconvenient Truth” this afternoon), the lead US article is about Lamont/Lieberman in CT with some snarky comments about “netroots” and an obviously-wasn’t-there allusion to YKos. Just like Bobo, they don’t get it. (Of course, if they did they’d have to re-think their support of the Iraq War again)

Cujo … I was doing quick math – the way they are promoting this makes it sound like W is planning to “bring our boys home” but then you find out that the brigades are only 3,500 leaving 78,000 troops unaffected by this scheme (or thereabouts?) so we’re still talking major occupation force but with a veneer of cutting.

for your late night viewing pleasure and in honor of ETs slutorama … a little Miles for late night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtamURcUd2Y

compliments of a poster on Moon of Alabama

and a little Miles and Coltrane ca 1958

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4TbrgIdm0E

ET

Thanks for the fishing story. I get spawning steelhead up here in the creek behind my cabin in the Santa Cruz, CA mountains. The largest number I’ve had at the same time was 12. Your experience sounds magnificent!

–de-lurk– It seems that Marshall McCluhan’s “Gutenberg Galaxy” & “Understanding Media” may be appropriate to discussing Brooks & TNR & NYT &tc. We see our internet(s) traffic on a device resembling a television screen (a HOT medium), but the text(s) are old school print looking stuff a la Gutenberg (a Cool, or possibly Kewl, medium). And almost all of the posts resemble conversation–speech. What a hodge-podge, perhaps the ideal medium???? Brooks & his ilk are stuck, forever, in a typeset realm of the 15th century. Taking their Times Roman on-line is a lot like sending keyed up Morse code over an interstellar microwave relay.This is toooo esoteric, but “bobo” in Japanese slang means something on the order of “fucker,” in a sense such as “one who frequents brothels.”Well my squadron must re-deploy now to the Enterprise (starship? or attack aircraft carrier?) so that all of us rabid lambs can bleat our way to a special whorehouse in Kobe, with no puns intended–especially on poodles.

My short Culture Wars essay:

On my above mentioned fishing trip, I hired a 19-yo kid to help me fillet my 59 fish. His dad is pastor of a nearby evangelical church with a reputation as being more conservative than most. Somebody once told me they had a .50 cal. machne gun mounted in the tower below the cross.

I’d recently cut my hair and was wearing Carhharts and a baseball cap with an American flag on it. We got to talk. I’m a college prof, so I ask kids his age many questions when I have an opportunity. I decided I’d pretend I’m conservative. He began to trust me. Here are some highlights of how he perceives the culture war:

He’s going to go to a Baptist College in Wisconsin. Then, he’s going to join the Army, hopefully the 3rd Infantry or the 82nd Airborne. I told him I’d been in the army, and if I had that to do over again, I’d be a Marine. He sort of agreed, saying John Wayne in “The Sands of Iwo Jima” had always been an inspiration to him.

He feels the combination of evangelical education, military training and a biblical outlook toward the movie and television industry could remake the country, but if the liberals continue to control “everything”…………..

He paused, looking at me to see if I was trustworthy enough. I asked him if he’d been able to see any of the three “Left Behind” movies yet. He owned them all. He decided he trusted me.

This kid says he’s been told the reason evangelicals are trying to take over the military is because we need to reformulate the country on a biblical pattern, and everyone who doesn’t accept JAHPLAS (Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior) will be evaluated and processed.

An hour and a half later, after driving through Glennallen, the fungelical capital of Alaska, I put Bruno Walter’s 1938 recording of Mahler’s 9th Symphony on my van’s stereo. Walter premiered this wonderful work after the composer had died. It is early 20th century Vienna to the core. A few weeks after the 1938 performance, the anchluss occurred. All of the wonderful Jewish musicians in the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and all other aspects of Austrian culture were evaluated and processed.

spiderpaws- How about a red light district girl trying to pass herself off as a lady from the silk stocking district….

I am having a very hard time bringing up this website tonite. I have high speed cable and I have been trying since I last posted. This has been happening all night. Anyone else have this problem? I ended up going over to Billmons and clicking on the doglake link there and it took about 5 minutes….

ccmask,

I think youtube headers slow the reload down considerably. Too bad! That’s one of my favorite Dylan videos. If you buy the recent Dylan documentary, it’s on there in HQ.

Cujo359 – I realize you’ve left for the evening, but just in case you check back later, interesting timing on Casey’s troop reduction plan:

The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say.

Amazing how they know now what things are gonna be like on the ground 3 months from now. (I mean in Iraq, you cynic you! November has nothing to do with it)

Thanks Pach for this most excellent post. I used to know all the words to that song. Or I thought I did, until i saw some of the cards ;-}

Imagining Bobo sitting at his keyboard, so pleased with himself for this, this…cringeworthy piece is a laugh riot. I hate it when I feel sorry for someone, it spoils the schadenfreude.

At my little dem club meeting the other night, I met an FDL family member. We discussed doing a local blog.

ET- I have no authority to ask or suggest this. But, CHS aka RH has been very grateful for extra articles to post at FDL. One recently from a regular commenter. Very interesting discussion. What you’ve just said about your recent experience 248 needs more attention. At the very least, I suggest you think about it, and perhaps email RH.

Well I’m on dial-up and I haven’t been having any problems. When things are slow I turn off the “load images” option in FireFox.

Fellow doggies,

Most of you are in your kennels now, but I have to say “thanks” for help on my response to the Anchorage Daily News. I’ll cc fdl asap :)

The responses to my simple query were just more of many examples of how the left blogosphere is SO different from how msm wants us to be portrayed. The comments above ranged a bit, but helpful, civil and wise they were. Funny, too.

I send a letter to the editor (by e-mail – what If it had gone snail mail?). They mull it over a couple of days. E-mail me back. I’m gone fishing. I think about changes to the letter, ask some friends, make the changes. I e-mail them back. If they print it, we’re coming up on three friggin’ weeks! No wonder their circulation is in a death spiral…

“The silent sheep slippin’, riffin’, trippin’
Give ya a glimpse of the reality I’m grippin’”

Rage Against the Machine

I posted this over at Arianna’s

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..23718.html

Then started reading this thread(the nyt stuff etc in particular) and thought how apropos…

VG,

When I first started posting here late last summer, I had been lurking at the best Plame site. But something came up that I felt I could add to, even with all the witty and brilliant stuff being contributed. Jane immediately thanked me. That made all the difference. So have you been helpful during that time.

There may come a time that I could help more with a theme here. Jane has my address, Thanks.

ET- and thank you too. Theme? Brainwashing does seem apropos. BTW, I sent TRex a link to your experience re: the letter to the editor first comment. Seemed like something he needed to see. TRex is a brilliant satirist (also DJ on classical music station), so it may not be apparent that he has a deep and worthy intellect. (oh, I didn’t say that right, did I?). Anyway, you can probably figure out his email address by clicking on his blog spot address.

A pop quiz!

Can you guess which of the two lambs in this picture is the liberal blogger?

Find the blogger!

(Feel free the steal my cheezy graphic.)

oh, and one of TRex’s memorable comments to me on the phone- we were talking about Iraq- both of us opposed to the invasion from the get go. He said something like- it’s even worse than ~you break it, you own it~ – ~you break it, it owns you~.

Just put Strider, my real dog, to bed. I’ll put a new load of chips on the smokehouse firepot, walk down to the lake, watch the light play off the northern horizon in our sub-arctic light, and go to bed, hoping Ann Coulter will become soomething less of a slut by the time I get up.

Love ya, VG!

ET- Hope you’re still around to see my p.s.

…ccmask: yes, I had trouble for two nights trying to get back in and finally gave up…re AC, exactly, a slut from the red light district trying to pass herself off as quality…a common occurance in New England where I was born…some feel if they aren’t from the “finest” families they will pretend they are, as if that were everything..as my mother used to say, when you speak you show either your class or your ass….

They’re coming, my pretties

;>)

With the frequent discussion of community recently(something I whole heartedly support, yet, my Tae Kwon Do teacher Faazal Khan’s words anyone wanna get a ‘griffin’s eye’ view of military grunts and echo in my mind ‘Trust is Earned not Given’)

I would love to see someone do a historical/sociological write up of the blogoshpere…..message boards…..email lists(okay now were getting to before my net time)

Here are the two places that introduced me to the concept of Net Town Centers:

This was…my first. I was dumbunded, astounded I can take part in a discussion hosted by George “freakin Genius’ Massenburg.
Interstingly this was also the place I found out about the attacks on New York, in real time due to a very, very early appointment that morn.

This thread is great I dug this one up and have the link starting at where I get into it with Parusha(religous extremist). It starts with theoretical physics and well….. develops.
http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi…..7/p/2.html

And a second, warning some avatars risque!

http://r1-forum.com/forums/sho…..genumber=2

I like emoticons, and avatars dammit…reason and wit are all fine and good, but there’s nothing like a twinkle in yer’ eye….

for all the loveslaves of our kingpin, newsweek article on he who must be obeyed here:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13531726/site/newsweek/

(I must say – how dare he buy a “daybed”!!!)

and Talcott, an interesting book for a historical view – Michael Schrage’s Shared Minds which came out in 1990 and previewed the potential of collaboration online (though in a somewhat different form) http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ…..p;n=283155

I remember reading Schrage’s book when it came out and feeling that he was the first mainstream writer to understand the feel on online communications though at the time we all used compuserve fora and the occasional, and expensive, long distance call-in to either the well or world.std.edu for net access. If someone wants to do a historical study, this is where I would begin since communities like FDl grow out of those early attempts (some quite successful) to develop online communities.

All this attention on “lefty” blogs from Brooks, TNR, others, idiotic Morin piece on TDS (& don’t forget Rove saying progressive blogs promote hate & anger) can’t be coincidental. The cornered rats fear rabid lambs.
Just wondering…I have thought since the net neutrality issue came up that corporate $ is not the only engine driving the train to get paws into the internet. (The last 6 years has turned me into a very cynical skeptic). The first line in the article “US Plans to Fight the Net” by Adam Brookes, Pentagon correspondent, BBC news, 1/27/06 is “Bloggers beware.” The Pentagon’s “Informations Operations Roadmap” 2003 signed by Rumsfeld has more than one reference to “fighting the internet”. What are FDLers thoughts?
I have to laugh at the attempt to paint progessive blogs as raging haters. So much of the wingnut comments I have unfortunately seen are incoherent, frothing at the mouth, filthy lunacy. The pharma companies are missing out here & need to beef up their marketing of anti-psychotic drugs. Ads could say, “Ask your doctor about X if you suffer these symptoms: When exposed to a lefty citing facts, you begin to stutter & all that comes out of your mouth clearly is, “You don’t support the troops, moonbat, traitor, Jane Fonda………”

G’morning, pups. Sorry I missed last night’s threads, especially Pam’s post, in person, but they’re still great reading.

Morning papers, anyone?

WaPo: Warnings on WMD ‘Fabricator’ Were Ignored, Ex-CIA Aide Says
McLaughlin the pivot-point in Curveball’s mutation from “liar” to “liar who destroyed Colin Powell”?

LAT: War’s Iraqi Death Toll Tops 50,000
No doubt still undercounted, but already the equivalent of 570,000 Americans in three years.

NYT: Italians Weary of Scandals Generated by Phone Tapping
Preview of coming attractions here: “This is a country where civil liberties don’t exist and where no one respects privacy.”

ToL: Key insurgents vow to reject Iraq peace plan
“Representatives of 11 Iraqi insurgent groups told The Sunday Times yesterday that they would reject the peace offer because they did not recognise the legitimacy of the government.”

Guardian: Democrats dare to dream of recapturing the Bush heartland
“From Kansas to South Carolina, Republican moderates are turning their backs on the neocons and defecting to the enemy”

I didn’t read all the comments, but I want to toss out a thought.

The blogs did not get too much attention by the MSM sods until Ykos and until the Ned Lament thing.

What IS skeering them out there is that the netroots shows enormous potential at organizing… Roots, Crashing the Gate and so on.

Although I did not attend YKos my first impression is that the netroots needs to organize ACCESSIBLE REGIONAL CONVENTIONS, like Ykos every few months.

The “synergy” of the netroots meeting face to face seems to be what REALLY REALLY fires up people to action.

What say you people about having these conventions all around the country every few months? Why not get people into action who want to be and need a bit more motivation? Putting these meet ups with some great speakers and panels will draw out many people.

This will have multiplying effect and give the netroots a real public face and make us a force to be reckoned with… as they are belatedly discovering.

I suspect we will see more and more mainstream pols “seeking out” support from the netroots as they see the passion of political activism and people power at work.

What say you?

Continuing my paper route (sorry, moderators — I shoulda known better than to try a multi-linker at this hour; maybe one-at-a-time won’t clog things up) . . .

Carl Hiaasen’s son Scott bags today’s lede in the Miami Herald:

Did feds foil — or foster — terror plot?
Some suggest the seven men accused of terror-related offenses were victims of entrapment by federal authorities who manufactured the crime. Officials argue they thwarted a potential attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago and buildings in Miami.

Good Morning all,

They’re scared shitless, so they attack. The punditocracy see the imminent devaluation of the cocktail weenie, inside-the-Beltway Dems are slowly recognizing that you might have to deserve the job in order to keep it, their useless consultants see the trough being tipped over. The corporatists don’t see an “in” without ownership.

For their part, the Right has no understanding of the power or potential of a netroots community; it’s simply another pipe in the Mighty Wurlitzer.

If we can pull this off, it will be a fundamental paradigm shift.

Hi, tommy. How was that ripsnortin’ ‘cue?

I don’t see how this can be anything BUT a paradigm shift. Just as the old system subsides into decadence and rot (see the headlines ^ ), along comes the Net in the nick to enable renewal. I’m not saying it’s pre-ordained or anything, but history does have an organic rhythm, don’t you think? Here we are playing our individually-necessary and -motivated roles, but they are also what history requires. The Right can’t acknowledge this out loud, of course, but we can tell by their hysterics that they feel it coming too.

Two centuries from now (that is, if we’ve arrived to our jobs in time), our era will be known as “Renaissance II” or some such. I really believe that.

Brook’s wife could have her eye on some pricey institutions of higher learning for the kids, cosmetic surgery, or even some marble for the bathroom. At any rate it seems David has employed the mother Gump method of income augmentation.

the truth about Stewart is that the pols in DC Are as bad as he portrays them.

thanks for the Dylan clip

Valley Girl says:
June 24th, 2006 at 10:57 pm

p.s. If anyone wants a “Self Cleaning Pet Brush” I will release this adspam from the spam filter.

Alas, I do not own a self cleaning pet.

hi lotus!

my wife pulled it when i was out for a walk. i’ll have a little tasty when i finish the sauce.

it was low and slow supreme: i put it on around nine in the morning and took it off at four in the afternoon. that smell–a combination of rendering fat, hickory smoke, brown sugar and paprika–is sublime. me man. man cook with fire.

each of you is welcome to a virtual taste.

new thread — old faces

Gawrsh, tommy, that’s yummy. Thanks!

OT and somebody may have already noted this, but yesterday Mary was wondering how in the world Grover Norquist could conceivably escape prosecution.

So was Raw Story’s Paul Kiel:

Yesterday, I noted former federal prosecutor Melanie Sloan’s opinion that the Justice Department would not be pursuing Norquist on criminal charges for using his nonprofit, Americans for Tax Reform, as a money-washer and lobbying front. He’s in real trouble with the IRS, she said, but it’s not clear he committed a crime.

We at TPMm have some current and former federal prosecutors in our readership, who wrote in to disagree with Sloan’s analysis.

One, who currently works in the Justice Department, wrote in to say that any material false statement by Norquist in his filing documents with the IRS would be a felony.

And here’s another reader, a former federal prosecutor:

If Norquist was running ATR as you describe (or as the Senate report describes), it’s virtually inconceivable that he was doing so completely on his own. But if he had even a tacit agreement with at least one other person to make ATR appear eligible for 501(c)(3) status when in fact it was not, then he and that other person conspired to impede the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service, which is known to federal prosecutors (like myself, once) as a “Klein conspiracy.” It gets you up to five years in prison under section 371 of Title 18 of the United States Code.

There is a big difference between the netroots and the msm. Although cream always rises to the top (isn’t that the myth?)… the net is really a very democratic place where anyone with a PC and a few bucks can start a blog and become an “op ed” commentator. Not sucking up, ass licking or litmus tests to pass from the boyz at the top.

It will be interesting to see how the net manages democracy when the number really bloom. When the scale goes from a few hundred or thousands to a million or more it is hard.. without hierarchy to be heard.

This IS a real conumdrum. How can you have everyone’s voice heard and when you do slip into a hierachy are we really the same old same old, but perhaps with more progressives (better) at the top of the pyramid(s)?

FDL is pretty intimate as a community… powerful and tight. That is the key to it’s beauty. Can it grow by leaps and bounds and maintain what it is today?

I do think the shift is occuring with young people with much of this culture war stuff.

Today’s college student or college age young adult doesn’t give a horse’s behind about gay marriage.For the most part I’m just not seeing that age group(and teens,the group I’m most familiar with)thinking gay people are some horribly flawed group of people with designs on taking over the world with some sort of”agenda”.

Abortion?Same thing.I’d bet most young people have known someone who either had an abortion or dealt with becoming a parent at a young age.Those experiences help form an opinion one way or the other.And once alot of kids(and I say kids,because my oldest is 24.Not as a put down)get into college,away from home for the first time,the opinions of their parents have much less influence.That’s a natural process,this breaking away and finding your own way.

While college GOP groups do their best to get new membership and teach hate,dishonesty,and cheating to win,they aren’t the majority.And really,what kid wants to support repressive and backward ideas when they are just getting ready to spread their wings and fly on their own?It makes no sense.

Instead of framing this the way the rightwing does,when they scream about gay marriage or abortion,we need to be coming back with”how does that make college more affordable for working parents?”or”how does this help people find jobs that pay enough to live on?”or “how does this give more people health insurance”or”how is this insuring clean drinking water or a clean food supply”,or whatever REAL problem we need to hone in on.

I’m not sure how to go about it,but with the rightwing using “wars”(culture wars,war on poverty,war on terror,drug wars,etc)to label everything,it’s time to point out that they have(and I’ve witnessed this myself coming from certain megachurch”ministers”)declared a “spiritual war”on the rest of us.The fundies don’t like it much when you point that out,but it needs to be done,IMO,as much as possible to change the arguement around to our side.Declaring war on your neighbors shouldn’t be an endearing quality.

I live in one of those places where the creationism(it’s NOT”Intelligent Design”,it’s creationism) crap is becoming an issue AGAIN in our schools.Just when you think it might have gone away,they’re baaack.These people are relentless.And it’s just 2500 people(in a district of about 100,000 families with a kid in public schools)who deluge the school board with calls,send their members to meetings,letter writing,etc.In other words,NOT a majority.Just a loud and obnoxious minority.What worries me is that the idea of the schools being broken beyond repair is starting to resonate with people(but no one talks about WHY,and why someone would WANT to break them).The problems we have in schools relate to stupid policy decisions made much higher up than locally,and far too much standardized testing.Art and music programs are barely holding on.Science is under attack,and teachers are being pressured to be less creative in the classroom.All the time and money spent dragging this crap into court takes time and resources from the kids,where that money and energy belongs.

Heh, Brooks’s piece reads as little more than a child having an air-slapping-bitchies tantrum.

#56boadicea says:
The thing of it is, 2/3s of the diarists on Dkos could crap better prose than David Brooks has ever, on his very best day, been able to come up with.

Only thing worse than a pathetic has been is a pissy never-was.

—–

YES!!! One of my laments is there is never enough time to read all the great comments on any given subject on just a few of my favorite blogs. Brooks baby and his species have held the pretense that they are the voice of the smart set for way too long but they can read the writing on the wall. The pathetic whimpering from articles like his are not read anywhere near as much as the snarky takedowns of it. That is something they can’t quite wrap their brains around and it just burns them up!

darkblack:

Woot!

I knew you’d be on it.

The only rational response to Bobo tonight is “BWAAHAAAHAAA!” Seriously, this is funny. You call that snark? What a pissant chickenhawk.

I was reading the paper on a bench outside this morning, and literally laughed out loud when I read the opening paragraph. A couple strolling by looked at me kinda funny, but that’s okay.

What a maroon! I generally find Brooks hard to follow–he’s not all that well acquainted with logic–but he is a reliable peddler of the talking points. This one was just too funny, even funnier than Peretz, who read DailyKos for the first time last week so he could plausibly write a column deriding Markos.

Of course, this will have the opposite effect of what he intends. He’s gonna drive traffic to the site by giving it this play. And even mentioning the blogosphere in these exalted circles raises its profile.

And it’s all so completely pointless and clueless. Markos is not the blogosphere. Markos could be arrested tomorrow for some heinous crime and DailyKos would go on. He did develop the model for collaborative blogging, but we have the model now. It’s not going away, no matter what happens.

jane says (good song):

We read their work relentlessly, have been doing so for years, know their history, their strengths and weaknesses, and can use that information to effect. They, on the other hand, have got no idea what they’re talking about but feel compelled to bludgeon it anyway.

That’s something else they just don’t get. They just don’t realize that we’re paying attention. Even when we do point out that we’re paying attention, as with Li’l Debbie and the Froomkin flap, they cover their ears and shout “Partisan! Partisan!”

And they’re so freakin’ lame. Peretz doesn’t have a problem running piece where he plainly had decided on its content before he had even read a word on DailyKos. He and Brooks couldn’t be bothered to get in touch with Kos. I guarantee you he didn’t call Jerome for confirmation or denial of the Zengarle claims.

They just parade their awful journalism up and down the thoroughfare. They’re going to eventually realize that this just won’t work anymore, but it’s going to take a while.

That Bobo is so unhinged by Kos is definitive proof of what a GIGANTIC WUSS he is.

“Rabid Lambs” is a great name for a punk rock group.

As many of you have acknowledged on FDL, the real culture war is not about religion, fundamentalism, progressivism or conservatism, but about hierarchy versus heterarchy.

What the right doesn’t “get” is that the technology is now available and the latent democratic (small “d”) sentiment is able to express itself. It seems that they are only now becoming dimly aware of this change.

And, from a sociological point of view, the change is breathtaking. When the Gutenberg press was invented, it only took a few years for presses to spread throughout Europe, after centuries of latency. What we are witnessing now is many orders of magnitude greater than that change.

Take a look at some of these maps of the internet backbones in the US and Canada.
http://www.nthelp.com/maps.htm

The idea of many-to-many is not well understood by those who only think in terms of one-to-many.

Like the Internet itself, this new social network does not need a single leader as a focal point, and if one leader is lost, there is another who will take their place, just as when one server goes down, many others will carry the message on to its destination.

I think Brooks is calling Kossaks rabid lambs because they follow his agenda or they can’t post on his site. There is a great piece on HuffPo about their rabid response for anything different from their views. Sometimes the truth hurts.If Armando really worked for a law firm which represents Wal Mart..it is easy to understand the repub lite tone of Kos.

Ed*ard Teller says:
June 25th, 2006 at 1:13 am

My short Culture Wars essay:

On my above mentioned fishing trip, I hired a 19-yo kid to help me fillet my 59 fish. His dad is pastor of a nearby evangelical church with a reputation as being more conservative than most. Somebody once told me they had a .50 cal. machne gun mounted in the tower below the cross.

I’d recently cut my hair and was wearing Carhharts and a baseball cap with an American flag on it. We got to talk. I’m a college prof, so I ask kids his age many questions when I have an opportunity. I decided I’d pretend I’m conservative. He began to trust me.

Three things I learn from this short essay on the cultural wars, not of which are very comforting to me, also a college prof.

1. There is now an unverified rumor circulating on the net about a certain unnamed church with a 50 mm machingun under its tower. True? maybe. False? maybe. Does it matter whether or not this is true? I think it does.

2. That someone in my profession thinks it o.k. to “pretend” to be something he’s not, for the purpose of tricking a 19 year old kid into trusting him. Is it? Is it not? I don’t think it is. For what five letter word is “pretending” a euphemism?

3. Subverting a person’s trust is o.k., as long as a liberal does it and does it for an approved purpose. Is it? Is it not? I don’t think it is.

Sorry if I sound cranky about this, but I am cranky about this. The 19 year old kid comes out of this exchange no wiser than he went into it, which is his loss. Or, just maybe, he sussed you out and fed you line which you bought, hook line and sinker, in which case both of you lost. Maybe a 19 year old fish fileter isn’t as astute as at least some 19 year old college sophomores are, but you’ll never know that for sure.

Have you heard about the Akaka primary Hawaii? It’s a reverse Lieberman situation, where anti-war Akaka is being challenged by Bush sympathizing Case. Akaka is one of 13 Senators to vote for a firm timetable of withdrawl of U.S. troops from Iraq, while Case rubberstamped Bush’s war in a house vote the week before. I just wrote a big blog posting about it that I thought you might be interested in. Akaka needs as much support as we can give him.