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Chris Blask's Blog
My thoughts, some of the things I have been posting.
About me: right-of-center registered Independent.
Crossposted at MyDD and DailyKOS We are in the fourth year of an unprecedented change in political registration. Never before has there been as sustained a pattern of decrease in one party's registration and increase in the other's. Jennifer Steinhauer today in the New York Times discusses this significant trend. Read More »Crossposted at MyDD and DailyKOS. With no power beyond his use of words, the person who will next month become the Democratic nominee for the office of President has caused more action at home and abroad than those who hold the reigns of power in their hands. Read More »Crossposted at DailyKos Reading Reaper0bot0's diary tonight reminded me very much of all the Internet Security debates I have been involved with since the early nineties. I invented one of the early firewalls (BorderWare), and since that time it has been my mixed pleasure and angst to engage in heated debates that are very very similar to this one. The people who know a lot about Internet security are by and large very smart technical geeks who spend all their time thinking and worrying about keeping bad folks from doing nasty things. We get really passionate about it - if we screw up people are harmed. In some areas of our profession like Critical Infrastructure (which I focused on 2005-2007), when we screw up, people die. Tempers get very sharp about the specific things we should do, and how we can do them. The worst part? I never know whether what I believe to be the right thing to do is not horribly wrong, and may lead to horrible consequences. But since the alternative is doing nothing, I have to do the best I can and live with the results. Read More »Met a Proud PUMA on MyDD today. He makes a compelling argument for supporting John McCain and I just have to agree with him. There is no price too high to show those media pundits who's boss, to slap back at the horrible Democrats for betraying their base. No price too steep for the personal satisfaction of sitting back and smugly grinning as the Chickens Come Home To Roost.
With some help from the Jed Report, I stand firm with this handsome gentleman in striking back at the sexist media, at Obama for not battling FISA this week, at all those who conspired to thwart his wishes. No price is too high to pay for justice. Read More » Politico - Five things to look for in Indiana By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 5/6/08 4:22 AM EST Hey TomDavie! The media is changing now, it will be interesting to see the state it is in for the next cycle in four years. This campaign marks the beginning of the public providing more content than the established "media". Conversations like this one, Dailykos.com, mydd.com... these are the beginnings of what the Obama campaign has shown to be possible given the current proliferation of computers in homes and semi-evolved mechanisms on the Internet to support the public generation of media. Four years ago was a whole 'nother world in communications. CNN was it for most people. Now, a huge part of the population has actively engaged in the conversation, and a large part of that group has spent a significant amount of time at it. Four years from now, this will be old hat to millions of people and the structure will have evolved in likely unknowable ways to further the impact of public media. The days of the monopoly on information are over. From this point forward various pieces of TV media will go through fractal gyrations trying to find their niche. Meanwhile, pubicly-generated media consolidates into well-worn patterns fit for mass consumption and broadens to cover more and more information more and more deeply. All good stuff for economics, freedom and effective democracy. Fun times! -cheers! -chris blask tomdavieParty: IndependentReply #4 Here is something to save yourselves a lot of time. Look for Clinton to win Indiana by 5 to 10 Look for Obama to win North Carolina by 5 to 10 Look for the vast majority of the media to tap dance the results to fit whatever they need to keep selling headlines. I bet they are all on their knees tonight praying Clinton wins enough to stay in, but not enough to put the BELOVED meal ticket Obama in danger of losing the nomination. That about sums it all up doesnt it ? I have learned for more than a person WANTS to know about how the media works in this election cycle. The longer this cycle goes on, the more Obama and Clinton have to spend on TV ads. The more the ratings go up as they talk the nomination process in circles on and on ad infinutum ........ad nauseum. . Its very sorry to watch Bill Oreilly sit on his show and SUCK UP thru the television BEGGING Obama to come on his stupid show. My God Bill. Apparently the spin DOESNT stop there. All this is highly toxic to the american people. We need some kind of media reform in this country . HI folks! Another example of Senator Obama's ability to unite America. http://www.huntersandshooters.com/index.php AHSA Endorses Obama Obama: He "gets it"Today, as President of the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), I announced our endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Because the gun issue has recently become a factor in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, I want to share the remarks I made today: Hi folks! Ah, we are not as divided as our politics suggest! Some of us have taken it upon ourselves to bring a bit of sanity to MyDD.com. Below is an exchange that proves that there is Hope for all of us. http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/4/16/224624/795#60 Re: Debate: ROLLING STONE article cited by Barack (0.75 / 4) "We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means!" The crowd whoops and amens as Wright builds to his climax: "And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS SHIT!" ARE you telling me that these are not the same comments that caused the uproar? (RACIST/ ANTI AMERICAN ) ARE YOU THAT BLIND in your following! ARE you telling me a SENATOR who reads the very comments above is JUSTIFIED! to keep associating and GRANT A POSITION to the REV in his campaign for a presidential run. YOU GOT BE KIDDING ME!!! LOL by ATLJay on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 10:57:50 PM EST You don't understand. (2.00 / 2) Rev. Wright is not racist and he is not anti-American, and there is a degree of truth to a lot of his controversial statements, even if they were out of line. Take a look at Obama's speech on race relations. Maybe you'll understand this a little bit better. If you don't want to do that, read the diary I wrote on it. Maybe you'll understand this a little bit better. It takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush.by psychodrew on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 12:12:02 AM EST [new] It's an honor to Mojo a Clinton supporter (none / 0) AltJay, FleaFlicker... these folks cannot be seriously Democratic (or Republican, for that matter) and it's hard to believe they even support basic American ideals. This whole election cycle is, to me, an encouraging sign of the strength of this country. I've lived in Canada (off and on) half my life. Travelled a decent chunk of the rest of the world, and talked (some would say too much ;) to thousands of people from all walks and all geographies. Free Speech, Individual Rights and Responsibilities - all of these would be pipe-dreams if people were as stupid and gullible as those like AJ would have us believe. But we aren't. For the first time in all of history, millions of people are directly involved in the debate about world leadership. For the first time ever in human history there is more information and opinion being put forth by individuals than by Powers (Monarchies, industrial powers, dictators...) - and It Is Good. People aren't stupid. I have had the chance to try to figure out why people support those I oppose, and even some of those foaming at the mouth in honest opposition (I reserve a tiny sliver of possibility that even AJ is one...) often climb down to have informative discussions quite frequently. I've directly debated with white supremacists and their opposites, Earth Firsters and Pave the Earthers, communists and libertarians. It's amazing what happens when people actually speak to each other - moderation and understanding materialize (and ideological trolls are exposed for what they are). Thanks, psychodrew! I may hope your candidate loses, but I hope you win. :~) -cheers! -chris "A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things." Admiral Grace Hopper, computer pioneerThe word "racist" has been used a lot of late. Often by others, sometimes by those of us. I would just like to say a few words about that - and other - nouns. In German there is no word for "Heroin Addict" - the best it can be translated is "Heroin Seeky". I like this way of looking at people. Someone is not an Object/Noun ("Addict", "Racist", ...), they are a Person with an Adjective modifying them ("tending to seek a drug", "having a behavior"). The whole disturbing trend of using the "r-word" is not much better than the other-consonant-word. When you do that you objectify the person - you turn them into a noun that identifies them as something other than a person. I remember a good Canadian friend telling me, when I was in my 20s and had just moved down to South Carolina from Toronto, that she was a "bigot bigot" (iow - "intolerant of intolerants"). I had a desire to agree with her - so I did, out loud - but I was beginning to learn that the "bigots" that I had expected to meet in SC were usually people who I got to know and like before I discovered their "bigotry". Even then I was having a hard time reconciling my view of these nouns called "bigots" and the people I was getting to know and appreciate in their complexities. Words matter. "person" is the noun. Other words describing a person need to be adjectives. People can often choose to change their adjectives. -chris Hi folks, My Step Father is here today, he was in Selma and much more before that. Rev. Karl Lutze began his civil rights work in 1945, organized many of the voter registration efforts in the south and did so many more things I can't list them. He still does. Karl still lives across the street from Valpraiso University, still writes, still speaks and is still a part of all that legacy. It's always strange for me, because he is just Karl - the wonderful man who makes my mom and my children happy. But when we talk about all of this it is hard to imagine and hard to forget that he has bridged the gap between where we were and where we are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCg05pTYt0A Bobby Kennedy, April 4, 1968 Seeing that video sitting here in Key West, Karl sleeping upstairs, all the current foolishness being said in today's media, the amazing speech Senator Obama gave that I watched again with my brother last night... It's hard to comprehend the magnitude of where we have come from, hard sometimes to reconcile where we are, and impossible to allow us to not go to where this all leads. Recently I do and say a lot of things because I want us to get there, and part of it is helping Barack Obama become president. Not because I care that he's black but because I don't care and I'd rather no-one else would, either. I don't want my children to even think about such things. He's an immensely qualified man and the fact that it is even mentioned shows that the ice hasn't melted entirely. Not just yet. So if the price we pay today is a scrimish of words to chuff the last of the ice off the windshield it's so very worth it, and it's nothing at all to do. It's nothing compared to the price Bobby paid, or his brother. Nothing compared to what Dr. King paid. Sleep well, Karl. I've got the torch. -chris http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/4/14316/24086/227/489961 Hi folks! Senator Clinton has specifically attempted to place herself among Cheryl and her comrades and claim their valor. Thereby diminishing the valor of Cheryl, specifically, and millions of others who have gone into harms way and in many cases not come back. > How about standing near the gate of our compound, talking to an Iraqi whose mission that day seemed to be to waste my time with trivialities? I was trying to tell him I only wanted information about the bad guys, when suddenly a mortar fell not very far from where we were standing. Without skipping a beat, I pointed in that direction and yelled at him, "THAT! That's what I want to hear about! If you have any information about who's doing that, come talk to me!"
Hi folks! -cheers! Poted on DKOS - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/29/84251/2727 Hi folks! This issue of Stolen Valor has been much on my mind of late. The Bosnian Sniper incident has fueled my thoughts because it is so charicaturishly over-the-top even for those with the mentality of moral superiority that is the real point of this diary. My distaste of the entire attitude is at the core of what drove me from the Democratic party and the Left, prior to Barack Obama dragging me kicking and screaming back into this fray. Hillary Clinton's theft of the valor of all soldiers of every country who served in Bosnia is the definitive end of her run for the office of President. But if the Democratic party, the United States and moreover the Western World as a whole are to move past the era of condescending superiority that has driven people like me to distance ourselves from them, we need to spend some time analyzing what it is that we have done so wrong with the good intentions we began with. I will start by examining Senator Clinton's recent negation of what may well have been honorable acts on her part in Bosnia, but my point is beyond that so please read to the end and comment as you see fit. Senator Hillary Clinton's Theft of Valor The offensive, cavalier assumption of the credit that those who have been under fire in the protection of liberty that Senator Clinton displayed in escalating recounts of her harrowing trip into war-torn Bosnia is perhaps the greatest gift she gives us during her now defunct Presidential candidacy. If we only learn the lesson of humility and respect for the abilities and work of our fellows that this incident so starkly demonstrates, we will have taken a huge step in the direction of healing the Democratic party. If the Democratic party is capable of climbing down from it's lofty perch of moral superiority and retaking the ethical foundations of equality and respect for individual freedom, perhaps it can set a tone for the Liberal Governemnts of countries like Canada and much of Europe where the left has also become the dictatorial power it was created to prevent. In Senator Clinton's speeches on the topic of Experience she has not only inflated her own credentials but much worse she has denigrated and demoralized the rightful, quiet pride of those she has usurped. Soldiers rarely talk about their service and when they do it has been my experience that it is prefaced with an almost agonizing exercise in spreading credit and minimizing the risk they faced. When Tammi Hetherington wrote her letter to the *Pennsylvania Progressive* this week in response to Senator Clinton, she did both of these things: http://pennsylvaniaprogressive.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/bosnian-vet-acc.html It was my fortune to be working in the Headquarter building as a Communications Specialist, and while I did go out to the ZOS (Zone of Separation) once and lived under "Full battle rattle" rules, I would never in any way compare my experience with those who daily risked their lives. That was the M.P.'s who went on daily missions trying to round up weapons and militant individuals who opposed the Peace Accord and the contract workers who aided the Multi-National forces in trying to rebuild the infrastructure (bridges, communication, water) that had been blown up. If, as I believe, it is improper for me to compare my involvement with those who took the bulk of the real risks it is even more improper for any visiting dignitary to compare their own for any reason, let alone for personal gain. ... My father still works as a Civil Servant at WOMAK on Ft. Bragg, NC and a couple of years ago he met a Bosnian woman and her daughter, who had lived through the worst of it. They got to talking and found out that I had been over there and told him to tell me 'thank you' for what we had done. It still humbles me and chokes me up a little to know that even after all of these years there is appreciation for our past efforts. Major General (Retired) Walter L. Stewart, Jr., in response to Tammi's letter, validates Tammi's honorable approach and then he himself goes to what may seem like extreme lengths - to a jaded civilian - to clarify his own credentials and assign credit where it is due: I commend Tammi for her service to the nation – service that continues in her courageous willingness to speak truth to power. I commanded thousands of fine soldiers during my almost four decades of active and reserve service, and I would have been honored to have had Tammi among them. Before I go on, I want to correct misreporting about my service as a Guardsman and as an Army major general in Europe. I was never “leader” or “commander” of the Pennsylvania National Guard because that authority belongs to the Adjutant General. I did hold the same military rank as an adjutant general – major general – but did so as commander, 28th Infantry Division, and as the deputy commander of the State Area Readiness Command (figure that one out). In Europe, my service was at Headquarters, United States European Command (HQUSEUCOM), not at the Army command (USAREUR). EUCOM is the superior headquarters and USAREUR reported to us. I know this minutia seems irrelevant, but in the military accurate representation of titles and performance are at the core of ethics. This from a man who has every right - from the perspective of a person liky myself who has seen bullets fired only on television - to silence a room with any one of his personal stories. General Stewart goes on to explain better than I the level to which Senator Clinton has sunk in the view those who adhere to the standards of military honor: This is why fabrication of service or battle credentials – what we call “valor theft” - is so offensive to service members and veterans (or should be). Be you soldier or civilian, if you didn’t “earn it” in service to your country, for shame that you might be wearing it or talking about it - and it is equally shameful for those who have served with honor to defend the dishonor of others. Valor theft degrades every service member and veteran, and, as a point of honor, I call on the former admirals, generals, and service veterans who are publicly in support of Senator Clinton to renounce that support. Continue it, and her dishonor is your dishonor. It is this specific act of Valor Theft that has allowed me to connect all of the resentment I have felt for the Party and the President I once supported. In a discussion of the roots of the Tech Boom of the Nineties I wrote this - http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/chrisblask/gGBZtc - recently while trying to express my frustration with the public belief that somehow the Clinton Administration had been responsible for creating that period of economic growth. That administration deserves te credit for not screwing up the work done by tens of thousands of my comrades in business, but to give them credit for creating it is to perform Theft of Pride on all of those who, in fact, did. Beyond Theft of Valor - Theft of Pride This diary is not simply an exercise in pillorying Senator Clinton for her act of dishonor. There is a broader issue at hand that is even more pervasive and which directly impacts all of us in this party, this country and this world. Condescending attitudes have grown from the seeds of righteous indignation sown during various stages in the evolution of the Democratic party and they offer the same type of threat to our culture as theft of valor does to the necessary mutual respect in the military culture. Theft of Pride robs us and our fellow citizens of the honor of our intentions - and those who are not members of our Party or supporters of our Candidate *are* our fellow citizens, notwithstanding. This oft-repeated attitude of exclusive ownership of the Moral Highground has become - in my view - perhaps the most defining characteristic of the Modern Left. It is an attitude that says: "either you agree with my views or you deserve my condmenation as a lower form of human life". This begs us to believe that the world is full of selfish, hateful, ignorant individuals and is only saved from perdition by the few intellectually and ethically pure who can rise above our normal state of squalor. It has been my own path from a youthful perspective that can only be characterized as emodying the previous paragraph to where I am today that makes me so clearly aware how wrong I was when I believed those things. How horribly misdirected this approach is to actually achieving the stated ends of making the world a better place than it is. I have been fortunate to have moved from area to area within the United States and Canada growing up, to travel internationally a fair bit as an adult, and to have had conversations and relationships with an extremely diverse cross-section of humanity along the way. With decreasing frequency I have gone into situations or demographics where I expected to find the morally inferior rabble that I had allowed myself to believe existed outside my own charmed circle. I expected to find racists in South Carolina as a young adult, and what I found were caring individuals and a rich culture. My expectations of exposing the underbelly of Conservative pomposity in Canadian politics while doing television shows there was muted by a largely unrelenting litany of thoughtfully voiced objectives and open discussions. The tyranny of Corporate Greed was at my fingertips to ferret out as I rose in my career, and what I found at the top of the largest businesses on earth were in most cases people with children and grandchildren who were as interested in saving the poor and the planet as I was (and often as not more effective). When we march off with banners flapping to Topple the Evil Powers we are in most cases meerly attempting to rob them of the Pride they <strong>rightfully own </strong>for their own attempts to achieve the same goals we profess. When we sneer at the masses and accuse them of failing to live up to the morals we believe only we are capable of embodying we, in fact, expose our own lack of belief in the value of our species and our fellow man. This is as much a part of the sentiment that Barack Obama has tapped into, I believe, as any single statement he has made or policy he has put forth. It is a message that we are all ready to recognize, now, since we have seen in our own lives that the policies of exclusion do not work any better for the Left than they do for the Right. This - <em>the message that our opponents in philosophy are not less than us </em>- is the fundamental bass-note of the current human composition that we hear in Senator Obama's speeches. It stirs us because we know deep down that it is more inherently correct than any single belief that we more often put to voice. It is <strong>this</strong> message that we have to live up to if we are to execute on the vision of Hope that Senator Obama has offered us. -cheers! -chris blask I denounce and renouce your pouncing on denouncing and renouncing! There remains a chounce to bounce the renoucish denounconomy, but I would rather Flick Fleas while my flea flicker flicks than risk being late to the Party and therefore dejected and rejected. Sorry if my renouncy denouncy is a bit flouncy and bouncy, but I heard tolerance was the Word in the Party so if I face denunciation and renunciation the situation won't stretch my imagination of the combinations of invitation and aggravation, really. ~sigh~ I'm sure there is somewhere that people care for fair play and, anyway, what I say is that no matter the shape of your heart or part you take, you're all OK with me. I think that is what this Party was meant to be. ------------------------- Posted here http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/3/22/24640/9925#52 in reference to the sordid pit that is so often MyDD, specifically, here http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/3/27/19376/2624#76 -chris Hi folks! This was published on the Pennsylvania Progressive today. This is a story that the Main Stream Media should be reporting. Send this to all local and national media outlets. -cheers! -chris "A veteran of Bosnia who was at the event in Tuzla where Hillary Clinton falsely claimed to have landed under sniper fire is accusing the Senator of theft of valor. As General Walter L. Stewart Jr. of the Pennsylvania National Guard said earlier today on a conference call, soldiers who actually have been in war zones and performed under fire deeply despise those who falsely claim such valor. They feel this way because it attempts to cheapen or make less, their real and actual valor." Read the whole story here: http://pennsylvaniaprogressive.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/bosnian-vet-acc.html
http://thevote.abc13.com/2008/03/obama-speech-up.html?cid=107503458#comment-107503458 Hello, Tom, Very good commentary. It is interesting, because I have been working to put this speech into full context since watching it live, and there are two addresses in American history that come to mind: "I have a Dream" and "The Gettysburg Address" It is also interesting to note that during Lincoln's life and Dr. King's there were many many vocal critics. Enough so that they were both in the end killed by the most adamant of their hate-filled opposition. But history concludes without doubt that they, and not their nay-sayers, were the Great Men. Their adversaries ring down through time only as the greatest villains in our collective memory. You can find words of opposition to both of those men, and they sound not dissimilar to the words of some of those who comment here, and in many other places. Some of these are only supporters of others who wish their own horse to win a gambling wager they are partaking in - some of them are serious in their unrighteous indignation. In either case they will fall on the side of history that, for most of them, they themselves despise. That is the true shame of hatred and fear. These people blindly shouting in the face of a great man attempting great things are not themselves incapable of recognizing and admiring greatness, they are simply afraid to do so without the support of their peers. They are not intrinsically evil people, but they are capable of displaying behavior that those who come after them will later pore over in search for the reasons behind their flight from opportunity and prosperity. There is a town on the Mississippi that is divided by the river. On one side has always been the jobs, the opportunity, the schools and the stores. On the other side there had always been a poor black community. During the 1960s the sherrif of the town had cancelled the ferry that brought the people from the poor community over to the schools, stores and jobs. He was filmed behaving as the classic white racist of his time and place, angry and hateful and using words that today would cause withdrawls by civilized people everywhere. In the documentary I watched on this town, they interviewed this same former sherrif, then elderly and having spent decades working to undo the sins he had committed against the people of the poor black community. To listen to him explain and condemn the deeds of his younger self - a man of advanced years unable to control his tears and his voice but also unable to live with the clarity that time and perspective had given him on his own acts - is something that stays with me and I think about quite often. I hope that I do not have to address that level of pain late in my life because of things I did in the heat of anger. Words that I used at a time when I allowed myself to lash out unjustifiably and injure others. Deeds that left scars on innocent people no worse than me. I am inclined to lash out at those who would attack Senator Obama even now, on the eve of an address on the topic of unity that is likely to be seen by our descendants as one of the great moments in American history. But I cannot help but remember the elderly sherrif and his tears. It is my profound hope that none of the people today mocking a great man duing a great time in our lives will have to suffer the same pain when they review their own lives. It is my profound hope that this country will take up Senator Obama on his promise of improvement as we did with President Lincoln and Dr. King. It is my heartfelt belief that we are capable of doing so. -regards -chris blask ---------------------- Also posted here, with the following preface Hello John, Good words. And Tom, thank you for that link to your site. You were the first person to say what I had been thinking but afraid to put into words myself. After following the activity of Senator Obama for more than five years with a critical eye I will take the opportunity to say for the first time, out loud: I am comparing him to Lincoln, and to King. These men, as they wrote to tell those of us who came later, did not see themselves as Great Men but merely as men who did what they could, where they felt they had to. But to speak for certain types of justice at certain times seems a simpler thing than it is, and history tells us that for these two men were indeed Great in every sense of the word. I do not have the benefit of hindsight to know whether my comparisons will withstand the long-haul view of history, but I have been feeling this long enough and it is time to say it. If Senator Obama can take the stand in full view of the world to say the things he is saying, then the least I can do is to take my own small stand and say what I believe, as well. I wrote the following on your blog at ABC 13 Houston, but since John's blog led me there I will put it here as well. I note the lack of the negativity, for now, on this page in contrast to the voices of some of those commenting on yours and so many others elsewhere, so some of the context may be lost until they arrive to share their views. But I think it stands regardless in the context of the current debate, and I offer it to you below. -best to both of you -chris http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/03/18/black-white-religion-and-politics/#comment-237006 ................................ Hi John, I understand, you don’t want Obama to win. That’s OK. You *can* vote for someone other than Obama and still reject cynicism, racism, hopelessness. That’s your right. But just to clarify for you, since you may have been multi-tasking when you were watching the speech with the rest of us: o Sen. Obama specifically did not say *anything* to call on “white guilt” - in fact he said the opposite. o Sen. Obama specifically did not say he was the only answer to to American Unity - he said that you and I are. Given a different set of candidates I wouldn’t be voting Democratic, either. I usually don’t - and if Sen. Clinton is the Dem. Candidate I still won’t. For all the standard conservative reasons that you state. But short of the self destruction that Sen. Clinton and Rush Limbaugh are teaming up to create, this is the period for a Democrat president. You recall that two-party (or more) thing that the Founding Fathers put in place to help mitigate the kind of genetic Monarchies that had been the norm for all of human history? Turns out it works pretty well. So, while I agree with you on basic fiscal and military conservative issues, I also believe in the Founding Fathers. This country was neither destroyed nor glorified by the last Democratic president. This country was neither destroyed nor glorified by the last Republican president. We are responsible for that, either way. So, while you are (thankfully) free to dissect the most powerful speech in living memory, it does not make a difference. Obama will be the next president, and he won’t destroy this country, either. -regards -chris blask Hi folks! OK, I was wrong. I have not washed my hands of the DNC blogs. In fact, I see an opportunity for us to demostrate precisely what the difference is between the two candidates - with the primary audience being the superdelegates, party leaders and party faithful. As I wrote in my last post, I went there by chance and ended up writing and recoiling in horror (or maybe in the other order, but regardless). This site is a concentration of all the Pro Clinton rabid bloggers we find on newspaper and other websites. There is more inflammatory fractricide being perpetrated on the Democratic Party's own national website than there is anywhere else I've seen. My first reaction was to have my say and run like hell. The closest I can compare my feelings was when a friend in business passed away recently and I went into a public forum recently to post my thoughts and found lurkers dancing on his grave and, in response to my comments, insulting my wife. In that case I did choose to retreat from the conversation, nothing to be gained from dancing with fools. But this is different. Here we have a party that is being torn to pieces by the current battle. The National Chairman and Speaker of the House as well as all the Superdelegates who will - like it or not - decide this race are literally squirming in their seats regarding the flaming divisiveness and what it means for the future of their party. We have the chance to show them a future where they win - by fixing their own house. I would like to invite all of you to register on democrats.org. To create and engage in the threads taking place on the site, and in doing so raise the tone of the debate there and the value of the site *demonstrably* in the explicit name of Barack Obama. By debating as he would. Camly. Clearly. Forgivingly. Understandingly. Strongly. This site has nothing like the population of MyBO. When I posted my first comment on MyBO I was ranked somewhere near 30,000 - on democrats.org I was around 6,000. After two posts I was befriended by the person ranked 43rd on the site. We can "friend up" on the site as in MyBo and create common content. There is no competition for rational discussion on this site. With a decent movement of those of us here who can speak clearly and sanely we can *own* this site, and in doing so we can not only save the Democratic *website* from self-immolation we can prove that the organization and message of Barack Obama can save the *party*. And it will be more visible to superdelegates and party leaders than all of the comments we can write on news sites combined. In fact, we can and will ensure that is so. I have created a Google Group called "mybo-dnc" to organize this effort and control trolls (it will be simple to identify trolls and have them removed from the DNC site if they try to make trouble that way). Please go to the link below and add yourself to that group (myself or another Manager will have to approve you). This group is setup in a Digest Mode by default (one email a day), but if you choose you can set it to get every email and handle it as a Rapid Responder and direct others to threads that need intervention. http://groups.google.com/group/mybo-dnc/ I cannot be clear enough - this is *not* the place for flame wars - our job is to stop them wherever possible and as inclusively as possible. -cheers! -chris Hi folks! We can call this one the Fall of the Roman Empire I guess. A quick trip into the blogs of the Democratic National Committee quickly becomes Dante's Descent into the Seven Circles of Hell. I got in, posted the comments below (linked) and got out. Either Barack wins this election or the Democratic party seems bound for perdition. -cheers! -chris http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/aheimermann/CJXL#comment-gGgxTZ ---------------------------------------- Comment Title: The Democratic Deconstruction Folks, Chairman Dean, you and the party leaders have some choices to make. I know you are aware of this, but look at this link included in this letter and ask yourself: "Is this what I spent my life working for?" The rest of you, look deep inside yourselves and ask what you are doing this for. I cannot imagine the answer would be something you would be proud to tell your mothers. -regards -chris blask ---------------------------------------------------------- PS - it just goes on http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/jessejackson/CJXr and on... After posting my comment I paged through the DNC Blog and finally, in disgust of finding a rational thread to comment on, posted my final thoughts to democrats.org at the lnk below and hereby wash my hands of the whole sordid mess. http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/marysullivan/CpsL Senator Obama - please, for the love of god - win this candidacy, win in November and let's change the tone of this party and this country forever.
Hi folks!
Posted the following on http://pennsylvaniaprogressive.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/the-jeremiah-a.html?cid=107110444#comment-107110444 I've waited to put my thoughts together on how to respond to this rathole of an issue. It has been suggested (rightly) that we need to stop taking bait and move the discussion to our candidate's strengths. Let me know whether you think I've found the right chord, but it feels correct. -cheers! -chris =================================== Hi folks! I think it showed a great deal of moral character to stand up against the statements of a family friend but refuse to throw him under the bus. As has been mentioned here and in the televised news, Rev. Wright is not alone in making wild statements from the pulpit, and virtually all (if not perhaps, even in fact: all) Presidents and candidates would have to be atheists to avoid associating somehow with them. It is simple to point to folks like Hagee and Parsley who were sought out specifically so a candidate can state that they "share their views" to gain voters, Falwell (let's not even go there) or even the respected Billy Graham who uttered gross prejudices in the Oval Office itself. But that's not the point. I just look forward to a president who does not impose their religious views on the rest of us and can maintain a rational separation of Church and State (Bush: "the Holy Land" - really? whose Holy Land? "Americans appreciate Muslims" - huh? Americans *are* Muslims [Christians/Jews/atheists/...] you blank blank blank!). Obama strikes me as a Christian guy who neither ditto-heads his Church nor asks the rest of us to Worship him for going to one or the other. Good. In all religious teachings that make sense to me, God is telling us: "You are my church. No other can tell you what it means to follow me, that is My job and your responsibility". It will be a nice change to have a President who listens to his creator and lets us do the same. -cheers! -chris Hi folks! This is a coment I posted on the Pennsylvania Progressive site. As alway, please feel free to use my words. -cheers! -chris ----------------------
I have no idea what Sen. Clinton's own ties to Rezko imply - perhaps the same "nothing" that the Tribune concludes after deep investigation of Sen. Obama - but it would be interesting if she would discuss it (or, for that matter, anything) with the same level of candor as we are getting used to seeing from the Senator from Illinois.
Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.
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