Hot Air. 4 July 2006
Posted by marisacat in 2006 Mid Terms, Big Box Blogs, DC Politics, Democrats.trackback
A slow start. There are not enough Altibassi espresso roast beans to get this day started… and i just heard the first blast of a fireworks go off. 4:55 am.
David Corn weighed in on Joe. I don’t agree with all points but it beats the FP of Daily Kos from yesterday (one of six). That was scraping bottom. I think they finally found the nadir. God knows they relentlessly searched for that hard landing.
One poster who drops me the occasional very welcome email, not at all a naive communicant at the altar of the party, well informed and a sharp observer of both a battle ground state (home ground) and one of the early states, where the poster lives now, wrote this in an email of a few days ago, and I think many early commenters at Dkos would concur
My anger towards the “Boyz” is that they used
my hope as the foundation of their wannabe empire.
Well fuck it and them
Machine politics, online… sums it up. Nor does it get much uglier. However they euphemistically talk of “seeding hurricanes”…
The 4th of July, with a far away war – as ugly as can be, a racist, foreign war, waged as counter insurgency on the ground - guerilla warfare which utterly dehumanises the warriors, all of whom - those who live - will be coming home, are home. Think of Green, here among us…
An air war, so classified we don’t know the numbers of air sorties any longer.
My early morning ABC news brings an update on the “business” men who want to build a casino within two miles of Gettysburg. Why die for ”America”? That move makes it clear, you are dying for a gambling empire. If one can believe Chalmers Johnson, and why not?, we have 1,000 foreign military bases, only 700 or so that we admit to.
But, it is enough to vaguely say Bush has badly managed “the war”, to qualify as an anti Iraq War candidate.
This is the day we will push Discovery into the skies, despite that small problem near the fuel tanks. It is clear the media prefers we only remember Columbia and not remember that it is two that failed, Challenger – a symbol of America’s militant heart, one might think, and Columbia - perhaps evoking its soul… On the eve of war, one of the shuttle buses, blew up and scattered shuttle and human parts across Texas.
A hero of the Israeli nation was on that flight, Ilan Ramon, one of the pilots who had led the strike agaisnt Osirak in ‘81, taking out a military site of Saddam’s.
He was on the flight to “study dust patterns” over Israel, with his very particular pilot’s eyes. I read that at the end of Newsweek’s very bland article on the explosion, it was at that moment I felt, Bush not only wants to use a nuclear weapon, he and his junta plan to use one, if they possibly can.
We are so skrewed.
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Oh yeah, I agree with this:
“they used my hope as the foundation of their wannabe empire[.]“
In fact, I’m sure I’ve said virtually the same thing. I know you have as well. I wiped out every single diary I ever posted on that site, and would have wiped out all my comments too, if possible.
I keep forgetting the possible military uses of these shuttle flights, thanks for the reminder (very subtly done, btw!). I guess the current Rush To Launch is because they’re intent on snooping on the latest developments in Persian rug technology. “Study dust patterns over Israel,” indeed. Interesting to consider the only thing that saved Iraq from being hit with a nuclear bomb is that the fallout would have spread too far for Israel’s (and to be fair HouseOfSaudi Arabia’s) comfort. I doubt any such strictures will apply WRT a strike in Iran.
I wanted to wipe out my diaries, but I can’t seem to delete ones that are older than a certain date.
NYCO, there are two edit buttons on a diary; the one at the bottom worked for me.
i hardly did diaries, but am rather proud of the last one. LOL. All the DLCers / NDNs showed up. LOL.
Salut! Soldats!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/9/201840/0502
DemFromCT, who played the “reserved cop” most of the time, unleashed his Danbury claws. Just one tidbit.
Operatives and machine politics. And I should know, in a machine town.
Empires are crumbling.
MLW has been paralyzed by flame wars for more than two weeks. Much drama, of course.
Booman and Bowers are begging for dollars.
It feels like DK is a tower waiting to collapse on itself. (But, by Kos, it will be because of the heat from the fires, not from any charges placed intentionally.)
Once upon a time, I believed this whole medium held real possibilities. Build communities without walls. Information to community to action. Pitched it.
The alternative information has value in and of itself when the regular media lose their integrity. I remember how hard it was to really find out what was happening in November and December of ‘00. I’m thankful for that improvement.
A few succeeded in making dollars. That touting experience helped.
But has anything really been accomplished?
Technology once again proves to be less empowering than corrupting, less liberating than manipulating.
observer
I had little time for weeks but toured blogs over the past few days… and concur. The problem – one of the big ones – iwth both MLW and BMT is the heavy games of ”favorites”, it is diversion from political discussion and it drives people away… And, sorry to be rude, but, imo, a basic dishonesty exists with both blog “owners”. Armando wields a heavy hand at both sites, with both personalities. Whihc is what they are, personalities.
And BMT is readying to launch pro-Casey crap, at a site heavy iwth women. Good luck. They have a former “lefty” beard from the FP at Dkos to soften up the terrain.
MLW… hard to be Snow White after you were a close traveller in threads with Delaware Dem. It does not get uglier and he is an organiser and an online whip.
Bowers is overwrought. LOL I expect some sort of crash.
From what I hear, they run low level, young underpaid operatives out of SSP, sent to work campaigns, the very campaigns that the sites with traffic push. All tied together. And I suspect intersection wtih DNC/DNC opeatives, or, at least DFA. Certainly the Deans trucked with Hackett and with Lamont… and seem to have no problems with Casey, none at all. If that is accurate, the absolute end of the line with me.
I am off all buses… LOL.
Operatives and wanna bees.
Back when FDL picked up the NARAL bashing (and I do not defend NARAL National, nor Keenan and i have written clearly where I land on all of that) they had a line in some tabloid bashing they (hamsher) did, about Kate O’Beirne, a truly despicable R operative… they referred to her ‘’sandpaper snatch”.
Fine with me, I don’t care, say whatever you like…. But what did it – and all the rest of the ugly ugly screaming – get us?
Now they declare their love, across several sites for very conservative Dems, Dixiecrats, for Repubs recruited to run as Dems (remember, Clark and the boyos)… but they champion Lamont who, should he make it, will be another Obama. I suspect some of the same machinations behind Lamont (and against Lieberman) as behind Obama.
Basicly they turned a new medium into slop for pigs… And they worked hand in hand iwth the Dem Party, factions within a sagging contortion of a party…
Operatives and machine politics. Thugs.
From what I hear Booman is not being totally honest in relating exactly how he came to be… not as independent as he claims to be.
Thanks for the tip. It worked.
It took me a little over two hours, but all 471 of my Daily Kos diaries have now been wiped away, dating back from October 2003.
I saved a few of them, less than a dozen. Mainly they were poems or political ditties, and a couple of the more earnest Dean-related ones, but other than that? Well, I’m decidedly dry-eyed. And disgusted, really, that so many people there were having their hopes and good words used for the greater glory of a bunch of wannabe political operatives. Dean was a good guy who was being screwed over by the operatives just as much as we all were. I’m glad to see that (at least in the narrow context of party politics) he is fulfilling himself as an organizer rather than a candidate.
So much of my posting of diaries there (on various pet subjects, as well as election oriented stuff) was an exercise in ever-hopeful bashing against a brick wall. Fortunately I realized months, even years ago that my online time and writing time was better spent elsewhere, even as I continued to post diaries just as an easy outlet for whatever writing urge I had that day (though I was completely absent from dKos for about 6 months – not after the pie incident, though… I just got bored) Pretty pointless, though, because as is now being treated openly there, it’s all about being the new boss, same as the old boss.
There was one diary title I wish I could have saved (not so much the diary)… “Grassroots Club for Men.” I think that says it all. Maybe “Grassroots Club for Lawyers” would be a better slogan.
On the subject of blogging and progress, Observer: you might be interested in some specific thoughts of mine here:
http://www.silent-edge.org/wp/?p=339
I think blogging has definite practical applications for change. Just not the way the Kossacks seem to believe.
Oh NYCO, I’m sorry you deleted your diaries — did you save your all that writing somewhere – you had some fabulous material and analysis…
I was on the web before there was a web, and I still hold out hope for the medium, just not what these guys have done with their little toehold on it… Agree with you about the need for local/focused attention – living in the DC-vortex it’s hard to do here, but I’ve been trying to get a grip on county politics and it’s, frankly, much more interesting and more ‘real’ than what happens across the river.
(except in the unfortunate sense that their asinine policies and neglect have real effects on real people, of course..)
Riehl update. Starting to following the money.
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/07/how_the_grassro.html
aemd,
thanks for that… I popped it up as a post… even before I went thru all the links. Why wait… enjoy.
OK…
Can someone please explain to me why it would cost $2,000 to set up a stupid one-joke website???
Can we have a cost breakdown? Because I don’t get it. What is the $2,000 for? How much traffic were they expecting for a silly spoof site (that apparently doesn’t even exist)? What a waste of time and money.
Pointed criticism, and mostly accurate. But I would like to note that it has been a long time since I began making my mea culpas over my behaviour during 2004, especially the sort to which you refer as being a “close traveller with Delaware Dem.” I have apologised rpeatedly to the world at large, and altered my behaviour radically; I guess my question would be, does it ever get forgiven, or will it be forever brought up when you wish to denigrate me?
Because I’d really like to know what it takes, in your eyes, to make amends for that horrid behaviour. I’m ashamed of it, I wish to christ I could take it back.
I’m learning a lot through this last “drama” at MLW — much of the trouble IS personality and favourites-driven, and I’m hoping to reverse that. Armando, by the way, is not an active member at MLW, and probably won’t be again.
It seems to me, Marisacat, that you and I have a lot more in common than we have in opposition — not least of which being utter disgust with the Democratic party and its leadership — and the blogospheric assimilation therein.
I would just like to offer an olive branch here, to bury whatever hatchet we may have shared — and move on in harmony.
But perhaps you don’t consider that a possibility?
And one other thing, while I’m ranting away…
The Big Box Bloggers’ aggressive courting of Big Media attention has been absolutely, positively DEMENTED, and they’re reaping the “fruits” of it now as Big Media defines them. (And is doing quite a good job of defining and thus neutering them, despite all the defensive posturing and sputtering from the Kos crowd.)
If I was a blogger who fancied myself at the vanguard of some subversive revolucion, appearing on Meet the Press is the *last* thing I would do. I would not want to be noticed by the big media or by the Beltway. Not because I have anything to hide, but because I would want to concentrate on the work of building a real network that flies under the radar of the establishment until there really is an opportunity to strike the anvil. (You know, like the radical Republicans have done so well…)
If big media came calling, I’d let the machine get it. Not in a snotty, I’m-too-good-for-you way, because media can be helpful, but… come on! You’re supposed to only do media if it works to your ultimate, long-term advantage. Which means that, ideally, you do as little media as possible. Ideally the big media doesn’t even know who the hell you are.
There are only two circumstances where you should respond to big media queries automatically: 1) You have a business to promote (and could handle the traffic of heavy publicity). 2) You are a participant in a controversy or potentially controversial situation, and you need to do some pre-emptive impression management, or outright damage control. (In such a case, you MUST respond when big media comes calling; the best thing of course is to never get into such a position.) Other than that? You are playing with fire, and probably for no real profit to your cause. Big media is always going to be bigger, less scrupulous and nastier than you; don’t give them the opportunity to define you and neutralize you in any way. If they want to do that, let ‘em work for it (if they notice you at all).
However, we all know why the Big Box Bloggers pushed themselves so aggressively on the media and responded so giddily to their overtures… it was reason #1, they had a business to promote. The business of being the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss. So, they were only doing what they had to do to become Playas. They didn’t play the game particularly well, though, and seem not to have recognized that playing the Big Media’s game is always a risk and should be calculated. I don’t think these guys calculated much of anything. They thought they were just going to crash some gates and everyone would go ooh, aah.
They’ve been outflanked, co-opted and thoroughly PWNED. (Despite their protestations that this sort of thing is exactly what they wanted. Yeah, I’m sure they wanted Hillary to hire her own blogger.)
Well here is the deal, as I see it Maryscott.
If you have apologised for all that nasty scheisse you worked so very hard iwth the Thugs to produce (and it was not limited to 2004 either), I have not seen it. Perhaps you have apologised privately to individuals.
You were part and parcel of the development of online machine politics and some of the rankest abuse of others that I have ever seen. You reveled in it… and were part of one of Kos’s productions: Diversion.
You were part of ”entertainment” in a most brute form, when what was desperately needed was a forum where all came to the table, discussion was open and the daily fare was political discussion.
Whether you wre paid or not, you carried on as an operative.
One of the big criticisms of you at your own site has been a game of favorites.
A criticism I would level (becasue you can run the site as you wish) is the erasure of comments to the Suskind diaries, x posted at MLW. Suskind erased his diaries at BMT, he left them up at Dkos as the comments were pro-Armando slobber.
Eugene erased over 50 comments from [one of] the suskind diaries at MLW.
I really disdain any site that is tied to any of the principal thugs for its life’s breath.
It seems to me, Marisacat, that you and I have a lot more in common than we have in opposition — not least of which being utter disgust with the Democratic party and its leadership — and the blogospheric assimilation therein.
I would disagree with this in just about every way.
And Armando is never “gone”. He strikes me as in the middle of an extended crash and burn. So common at his age and place in life. I will leave it at that.
I never troubled myself about the slams lobbed agaisnt me at your site. Or slams that were lobbed against LSF. Eugene made himself the impresario of my banning. As did Armando. Sometimes, together they EmCee’d a cute little routine…
The blogs have really suffered from the type of men flying under the cover of “liberal”.
And that people sell out cheap… often for free, for “belonging”.
The thugs, people you aligned iwth, have been behind all the efforts to drive people like me, – whom I refer to as ”Inconvenient Voice of the voter” off the blogs. To silence us, one way or the other.
This site is called Marisacat, as I am proud of every single thing I have written across 4 years online. The only erasure, ever, was carried out by Theoria to please the Thugs – and protect himself. I left LSF immediately.
The next place suddenly got a double set of server moves paid for by an “anonymous company”. Not hard to figure out…
I did not depend on, nor cooperate with, the thugs – nor those who were weak, stupid, foolish and/or vulnerable/emotionally greedy (theoria, em dash and mcjoan, so many others).
We are very different.
Sorry to be blunt. But the game has been to shut me and others up. SO, I am not shutting up.
Marisacat,
Thank you for responding. I’m very sorry you feel I’m playing a game — or that I did so inadvertently, even.
For the record, I have apologised in public for that behaviour — and I repeat that apology here. I am very, VERY embarrassed to have ever behaved like that, let alone to have carried it on for as long as it is perceived to have gone on.
As to the Suskind issue — believe it or not, I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I was around when it happened, I’ve forgotten it. I disapprove HEAVILY of the deletion of diaries or comments, unless they include personal information about individuals who don’t wish it to be public. As to eugene’s role in that and in silencing you at LSF — again, I’m unaware of the details. I consider eugene a friend, however, and I wonder if he’s aware of this at all. It would surprise me — but then, I’m often surprised.
At any rate, I did want to clarify a few things, and that’s happened; whether or not you wish to accept my explanations is wholly your own concern. But just so we’re clear — I’m not playing a game, I don’t want to shut up ANYBODY, and I’m trying very hard to run MLW in a manner of which I can be proud.
MSoC. Good luck and Good Fortune.
To you as well, M.