While there are individuals such as yourself and others around our nation that truely care, the military machine and our need for fuel trumps the care that any of us may display and act upon individually.

I think most people know this and it is just too depressing to talk about. Most Americans do not give a fuck! That is the brutal and ugly truth.

Even though I will work on these upcoming elections in 2008 even when the pendulum of our nation swings back to the middle millions of Iraqi’s lives have been lost in the process. Our nation lost its soul long ago and people around the world know it!

*plink*…nudge…nudge…bottle with cork and note inside.

Text of note:

“Suggestion: Keep the front page just like it is – free and open but moderated – but add ‘affinity/culture gathering spots’ on the sidebar with status/activity indicators – and consider having those be available (all access) through monthly subscription.

Let the gathering spots carry the front page and comments, but give the ability for those in a gathering spot to comment either inside the spot thread only, or to both the spot and the main thread. That way each ‘affinity’ group could have it’s own version of ‘thread etiquette’ and defined appropriate manners.

So, for the sake of example – suppose Christy is the active front pager and her commenters are chipping-in their usual great insight and humor.

There may be one or more active gathering spots on the side – for instance ‘Breakfast Club,’ ‘Parenting Support’ and ‘Law Review,’ among others. The people in each room would be seeing both Christy’s main thread plus comments AND carrying-on a ‘Cup of coffee and a shout-out’ thread at the same time in the Breakfast Club.

A design that would both encourage visitors to roam around the site, and to establish themselves as regulars within affinity groups would be ideal, and have the best chance, imvho, of bringing more lurkers into the conversations.”

DrDick @ 19

Great post, Christy. I think it also highlights the difference between the modern progressive movement and modern American liberalism (ca 1950-2000). Liberalism in this sense is actually a compromise position, which largely seeks to maintain the status quo while accomodating some of the demands of the more vocal and active components of the oppressed groups within society. It is the politics of the comfortable, albeit passively moral. The modern progressive movement is inherently more active and more reformist. In this regard, it more closely resembles early twentieth century progessive movements, which united elements of the classical liberal movement (pre-WWII) with the less extreme elements of the radical left (socialists). Both the earlier movement and the modern movement are activated by strong emotions and a profound desire for change, as well as a sense that the country is on the wrong track.

***

That is one of the best explanations of the difference between liberals and progressives that I’ve seen.

I’m a sometimes (mostly absent) moderator of a small politics and religion chatroom. Mind if I quote you next time I’m trying to explain that to someone? (with full attribution and link to this thread, of course)

Be my guest.

They do not care what happens to our country and they should be removed from office now by whatever means necessary-The rule of law is an impediment to that desire and rightly so, if we circumvent it now it will happen again and again and we will be left with country with no real purpose, or stability.

That leaves us in this untenable position of having to live with this son of a bitch ’til congress gets the message that we are done talking, and boy are we done.

Of course there was plenty of discussion after the street actions, particularly after the July Days, but the fact is that it was the people who were being shit on who drove that revolution.

Not enough people are suffering here yet, too many people still believe that the American Dream exists and will carry their children through life. Even sending kids to college now has become so commonplace that many people don’t realize that a college degree isn’t necessarily going to do it any more.

Foreclosures, pension thefts, eviscerated social security and medicare, Wal-Mart aprons for everyone with NO benefits….that’s when people are going to wake up in this country.

The damage of the past generation of GOP presidents and GOP;lite in the person of Bubba is not going to be reversed that easily. Just rooting out the Federalist Society pukes is going to take a long, dedicated effort.

Any thoughts on this one? Could we get it into the public discourse somehow?

dmg @ 8

“Do nothing and everything will be done.”

Chinese proverb (Confucius, perhaps)

actually from the Dao De Jing (tao te ching)