The comments on the post below have told me a couple of things.
1) There are actually people who read this site. At least occaisionally. Wow!
2) Anyone who is critical of Obama and the Democrats is being booted off of the CommonDreams website.
The latter makes me thing that people need a place to gather and discuss. Its better if we gather together and stay in touch. While the forums at CommonDreams used to be a place to do this, it seems apparent that the new Democratic censorship is going to make this hard to do there.
I don't know if this site is the place to do that. But, I'm willing to help where I can. CD refugees are welcome to comment here. I'd also be willing to open up the posting privlidges here to allow others to write here if they are interested.
And one thing that could certainly be done is if CommonDreams refugees want to post links or email to stay in touch, this thread could be a place to do that.
But, I'm also thinking maybe its time for a new site. I might try to get something started. Maybe have links to articles on other sites, but with the ability to comment freely on that site. So, for instance it could have a link to an interesting article on CommonDreams, but then it could also allow a free and uncensored discussion of that article.
If anyone is interested, leave a comment below. Not only about my ideas, but with your own.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Thursday, November 06, 2008
A new era of Democratic censorship
Its amazing how if you scratch a Democrat, under the fake out outer covering, they act just like a Republican. I dared to post some comments on the CommonDreams site that tried to point out that everything might not be as rosy as the Obamabots are saying it is in the glow of their victory. They tended to point out that Obama still supported the wars, was pushing the wall street bailout, and generally hadn't really promised anything 'progressive' during the campaign. And that he won the campaign with record amounts of corporate money in his accounts, topping the amounts Bush had run on.
Do that on a Democratic site like Common Dreams, and that gets you blocked and banned these days. The Democrats are as intolerant of dissent as the Republicans. That's going to be one of the interesting things to watch in the coming months, as all the 'progressives' start to wake up to that fact. Especially since the Democrats and Obama won't be enacting a progressive agenda and won't be following a 'progressive' foreign policy. When the true progressives start to raise their voices. When they try to do exactly what the Democrats said during the campaign that they should do and try to 'hold the Democrats feet to the fire.', when that colides with the little fact that the Democrats are as intolerent of dissent as the Republicans, then it will start to get interesting.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
No issues
Watching CNN, at least for what I can take before the mute button gets pressed again. And I noticed something about their coverage. They are going into great depth about voters where they live and what their demographics are and who is voting for Obama and who is voting for McCain.
If you want to know that in S.Carolina, black voters went 96% to Obama and white voters went 72% to McCain, CNN will tell you all about that. If you want county by county breakdowns in Indiana of how many voted for Bush last time and how many are voting for McCain this time, CNN will tell you all about that.
But, I've been watching for probably an hour and half now, and I haven't heard any discussion of issues. The words 'war' or 'antiwar' are not mentioned. The word 'bailout' hasn't come up once. Wouldn't it be interesting to know how voters who oppose the war are splitting? Or how the minority who supports the war is voting? Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many voters are telling the exit pollsters they opposed the wall street bailout and how the voters who are upset over that are voting?
Of course, there's no difference in reality between Obama and McCain on these issues. So, mainly you'd be seeing the effects of the campaign propaganda. Even though McCain and Obama would follow the same basic course in our middle eastern wars, the two campaigns have tried to use different propaganda to create the illusion of a difference here. The same with the wall street bailout. So, it would be interesting to see the numbers on issues like this.
I'd imagine CNN will show that eventually. At least they usually do. But they are spending a lot of time on what I'd call 'identity politics'. That's telling, because it tells you a lot about an American election. Its not about choosing the course of the nation. Because both candidates will steer close to the same course. So, the election has to be about something else. There has to something to hype or to talk about. The people have to feel that they are deciding something. So, instead we see that blacks are supposed to vote for Obama and rural whites are supposed to vote for McCain. And, I'd suspect if you asked members of either group in person the question of why, the answer that would come back would be more about their identity instead of their policies.
If you want to know that in S.Carolina, black voters went 96% to Obama and white voters went 72% to McCain, CNN will tell you all about that. If you want county by county breakdowns in Indiana of how many voted for Bush last time and how many are voting for McCain this time, CNN will tell you all about that.
But, I've been watching for probably an hour and half now, and I haven't heard any discussion of issues. The words 'war' or 'antiwar' are not mentioned. The word 'bailout' hasn't come up once. Wouldn't it be interesting to know how voters who oppose the war are splitting? Or how the minority who supports the war is voting? Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many voters are telling the exit pollsters they opposed the wall street bailout and how the voters who are upset over that are voting?
Of course, there's no difference in reality between Obama and McCain on these issues. So, mainly you'd be seeing the effects of the campaign propaganda. Even though McCain and Obama would follow the same basic course in our middle eastern wars, the two campaigns have tried to use different propaganda to create the illusion of a difference here. The same with the wall street bailout. So, it would be interesting to see the numbers on issues like this.
I'd imagine CNN will show that eventually. At least they usually do. But they are spending a lot of time on what I'd call 'identity politics'. That's telling, because it tells you a lot about an American election. Its not about choosing the course of the nation. Because both candidates will steer close to the same course. So, the election has to be about something else. There has to something to hype or to talk about. The people have to feel that they are deciding something. So, instead we see that blacks are supposed to vote for Obama and rural whites are supposed to vote for McCain. And, I'd suspect if you asked members of either group in person the question of why, the answer that would come back would be more about their identity instead of their policies.
Election results from ....
They say sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. The richest company in the world, the company that rakes in obscene profits every quarter, these are the people telling you who just won the election.
The next President of the United States, brought to you by ExxonMobile. Of course he is.
In the United States of America, we have an election system that is deliberately designed such that money plays a huge role in determining who can and can not win. ExxonMobile makes huge profits every quarter. So, this picture is just so fitting. The choice of the next President brought to you by the company that makes record profits. Yes he is.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Progressives. Those who oppose the wars. Now is the time to act.
To all who oppose the war. To all who really call themselves 'progressives'. This is the time to act.
We can see the course of this election. Obama and the Democrats win this in a landslide. That's the big course of things and its set and its already in motion.
We are going to see an Obama administration with the Democrats in control of Congress. We also know that the Democrats won't want to listen to us. That they'll still want to continue the wars. That they won't want to prosecute the Bush criminals. That they'll want to give our money to their rich friends on Wall Street. That they'll want to call us 'idiot liberals' and ban us from the room. We know this from the Democrats. We have seen this from them over the last few years.
How do we make an Obama administration respect us and listen to what we want? We keep hearing that we have to be the ones to 'pressure' an Obama administration. How do we do that?
The only language they understand is political power. We need to show it. We need to have every Democratic Representative or Senator looking at the combined Nader\McKinney vote in their district or state and saying 'holy cow!'. The more votes we put on the board right now, the more we get their attention and the more respect we get. By putting votes on the board right now, we show real political power.
Its a safe vote. Obama wins this in a landslide. The Democrats win this in a landslide. The states 'in play' are traditional Republicans ones like Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina. To even think about winning, McCain has to sweep every state where he's even within shouting distance of Obama, and then maybe even one or two more. Obama and the Democrats have this one in a lock.
Spread the word. Now is the time. If there was ever a moment to vote your conscious and vote for an alternative to the corporate parties, it is this election. Its a safe vote. Obama wins big regardless. The key point for right now is that actually, the closer we make this, the better it is for us. If the Democrats are holding their breath on election night saying 'oh my gawd!' while they watch the numbers roll in with state after state they thought was solidly in their win column instead becoming razor thin with big vote totals for Nader and McKinney, then that's great for us. We want to give them a heart attack. That's the only way they'll take us seriously.
Do you want to really stop these wars? Then vote your conscience. Register a political earthquake the Democrats can't help but feel.
Do you really want to protect the environment? Do you really want to turn the tide seriously back against global warming? Then vote your conscience. Register a political earthquake the Democrats can't help but feel.
We want every congressional Democrat looking ahead to the 2010 elections while seeing a strong Nader\McKinney vote in their districts. We want each of them shuddering at what the prospects of an angry, progressive, antiwar, third party campaign in 2010 in their districts would do to their congressional careers. Do you want to really change things? That's how to do it.
Now is the time. This is the election. This is the moment to act.
We can see the course of this election. Obama and the Democrats win this in a landslide. That's the big course of things and its set and its already in motion.
We are going to see an Obama administration with the Democrats in control of Congress. We also know that the Democrats won't want to listen to us. That they'll still want to continue the wars. That they won't want to prosecute the Bush criminals. That they'll want to give our money to their rich friends on Wall Street. That they'll want to call us 'idiot liberals' and ban us from the room. We know this from the Democrats. We have seen this from them over the last few years.
How do we make an Obama administration respect us and listen to what we want? We keep hearing that we have to be the ones to 'pressure' an Obama administration. How do we do that?
The only language they understand is political power. We need to show it. We need to have every Democratic Representative or Senator looking at the combined Nader\McKinney vote in their district or state and saying 'holy cow!'. The more votes we put on the board right now, the more we get their attention and the more respect we get. By putting votes on the board right now, we show real political power.
Its a safe vote. Obama wins this in a landslide. The Democrats win this in a landslide. The states 'in play' are traditional Republicans ones like Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina. To even think about winning, McCain has to sweep every state where he's even within shouting distance of Obama, and then maybe even one or two more. Obama and the Democrats have this one in a lock.
Spread the word. Now is the time. If there was ever a moment to vote your conscious and vote for an alternative to the corporate parties, it is this election. Its a safe vote. Obama wins big regardless. The key point for right now is that actually, the closer we make this, the better it is for us. If the Democrats are holding their breath on election night saying 'oh my gawd!' while they watch the numbers roll in with state after state they thought was solidly in their win column instead becoming razor thin with big vote totals for Nader and McKinney, then that's great for us. We want to give them a heart attack. That's the only way they'll take us seriously.
Do you want to really stop these wars? Then vote your conscience. Register a political earthquake the Democrats can't help but feel.
Do you really want to protect the environment? Do you really want to turn the tide seriously back against global warming? Then vote your conscience. Register a political earthquake the Democrats can't help but feel.
We want every congressional Democrat looking ahead to the 2010 elections while seeing a strong Nader\McKinney vote in their districts. We want each of them shuddering at what the prospects of an angry, progressive, antiwar, third party campaign in 2010 in their districts would do to their congressional careers. Do you want to really change things? That's how to do it.
Now is the time. This is the election. This is the moment to act.