We are so far, far beyond any of this.

Uh, good morning, BTW.

[Mod Note; good morning to you as well. Let’s remember, one FDL monicker only please.]

But___look___what___it___takes___to___get___progressive’s___ire___up

___enough___to___speak___up.

republicans and US corporate media lie and smear democrats and progressives because its fun for them, Americans find it entertaining, and it disguises the unAmerican republican positions that only 35% of Americans actually know what they are and support them. That’s what the the left is up against. If the left doesn’t find a way to counter this pervasive smearing on their own terms, the regressive right will again, very soon be back in command.

Keep in mind that if bush hadn’t fucked up and invaded Iraq, his reaign would have been as disasterous in every other area as it is with the Iraq invasion – the bushliar-criminal regime and the neocons are disaster makers across the board. Without the focal lens of Iraq drumming in the daily unfolding disaster, only a very small minority would be outraged at the disasterous fascism of bush.
.

I’d like to ask commenters (& Cliff, if he’s still around) this question: during the recent Edwards blogging “scandal,” I noticed in the comments threads at Kevin Drum’s, Ezra Klein’s, & Matt Yglesias’s blogs — maybe Tapped, too, I can’t remember — that a lot of people were criticizing Amanda Marcotte. I was amazed at how many people were basically saying, well, Amanda’s extreme, she’s rude, she brought it on herself. And then of course Melissa McEwen was forced out by hate mail as well, which pretty much destroyed the idea that a “good liberal” would never have gotten into trouble like Amanda did.

Now, I just want to know, how do people here feel about this? It’s disturbing me to think that when the rubber hits the road, the left blogosphere is no better at standing up for itself than are Democratic politicians.

Way EPU’d. I thought it was a victory for RightyLand and a humiliation for Edwards. Edwards didn’t protect himself or his staff from assault by fierce pixils. Whether it was could not or would not, same to me. A man who lets his squires bleed to death (from flying pixils, no less!) in his service does not come across as a knight. So. He’s gonna take on BushCo? He’s gonna get us out of Iraq? Can’t see how if he’s afraid of a few flung pixils.

Being right, and nice, doesn’t cut it in America anymore. Its just not Christian to be civil, tolerant and fair.
Maybe this has been a long time in the making.

I remember some years ago a Sports Illustrated article featured NCAA football linemen players of the year. In every photograph, and there were many, the star player was committing a penalty. This really struck me and I wrote SI pointing it out that although football is a violent game it is governed by rules. Did they really have to feature pictures of rules being broken to glorify these players? They ignored me.

At about that time Newt Gingrich was featured on TIME’s cover titled “the politics of anger”. The GOP took congress that year and have kept it since.

I see todays MTV and hiphop/rock music and I see that menacing mean-mouthed aggressive nasty hate-filled people, both men and women, (personas at least)are the stars of today.

I see the GOP/Christian coalition from 1992 onwards pursuing Clinton with blinding reasonless hatred and Americans re-electing them even after they impeached him out of nothing but resentment and spite.

I look at TV and I see the reality and tabloid shows, “the agony of defeat” and humiliation, misery, pain and failure of others are the most popular and valuable programs.

I’m sorry America. But you people suck. Your pop culture, corporate culture and political culture suck. Your country is sick.

And its seem the only possibility of salvation is to beat you into submission.

Which is why the democrats should just impeach Bush, and every other GOP prick they can get their hands on, NOW! That’s the game being played in America. Americans understand and appreciate that….and nothing else it seems.

**Mod Note: It hit moderation due to the # of links in CP’s original comment. Released now – Refresh**

John Casper @ 149

Thanks for responding, John. And yes, I guess it would be good to provide some examples of what I was talking about.

Some relevant comment threads can be found here, here, here, and here. As you can see, most of the comment threads came from the relatively mild-mannered, TPM-type part of the left blogosphere, which might not be representative of the more activism-oriented Firedoglake crowd.

To lay my cards on the table: as a Christian, I was mildly offended by what Amanda wrote. I thought that these posts were suffused with a good deal of sophomoric atheism. But I also thought that she had a valid point — the Catholic church’s advice on birth control was, at best, incompetent and lazy. And in any event, I’m too busy getting angry at Pres. Cheney’s efforts to turn my country into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton to get angry at the village atheist.

But at any rate, the linked comments threads will take you to a surprising number of observations that it was all Edwards’s fault for hiring Amanda, and/or Amanda’s fault for having a big mouth. Am I nuts, or is this just the blogosphere making the same mistake that Democratic politicians have been making for years — hoping that if we’re just a little more accommodating, a little meeker, then the Republicans won’t pick on us any more?

Thanks very much for the response. I think you’re spot on wrt the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on birth control. I was raised Catholic and consider myself a Xtian. FWIW, I have been very impressed by the number of committed agnostics and atheists at FDL and throughout the reality based community. Look forward to seeing you at FDL.

Thanks for responding, John. And yes, I guess it would be good to provide some examples of what I was talking about.

Some relevant comment threads can be found here, here, here, and here. As you can see, most of the comment threads came from the relatively mild-mannered, TPM-type part of the left blogosphere, which might not be representative of the more activism-oriented Firedoglake crowd.

To lay my cards on the table: as a Christian, I was mildly offended by what Amanda wrote. I thought that these posts were suffused with a good deal of sophomoric atheism. But I also thought that she had a valid point — the Catholic church’s advice on birth control was, at best, incompetent and lazy. And in any event, I’m too busy getting angry at Pres. Cheney’s efforts to turn my country into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton to get angry at the village atheist.

But at any rate, the linked comments threads will take you to a surprising number of observations that it was all Edwards’s fault for hiring Amanda, and/or Amanda’s fault for having a big mouth. Am I nuts, or is this just the blogosphere making the same mistake that Democratic politicians have been making for years — hoping that if we’re just a little more accommodating, a little meeker, then the Republicans won’t pick on us any more?

just when are we going into the streets?

tomorrow?

next week?

next month?

americans who truly love this country care need to go into the streets!

when are we going to go?

it’s going to happen!!!

when?

who will lead?

how about you – TREX?

into the streets:

- against the mendacity of george bush and dick Chaney and their advisors

- against the unnecessary and horrendously cruel war against iraqis, conducted, very likely, for the purpose of dividing up iraqi oil reserves (see cheney energy symposium of 2001)

- against the repeated use of american soldiers as a shield to prevent criticism of or political action against the pres’s war on iraq AND criticism of his domestic agenda

but most importantly

- for the president’s, the vice=-president’s, and the administration’s repeatedly displayed contempt for our constitution and our hard won, two-hundred-year old wisdom in both governing ourselves and waging war (read: military courts and geneva conventions).

when do we congregate in the hundreds of thousands daily in the streets of washington?

not just united for peace.

not just the american friends service committee.

but republicans and democrats who have a deep affection for the institutions of government and of war that our nation has worked out over two hundred years.

[Mod Note; not that we know of, but asterisks don’t always help you avoid it.]