Mobetta open space… 1984 in 2008
As a founding blogger of BoB, humbly beg to report I am thoroughly disgusted at the recent narrowing down- and simpling down- of the subject focus here. Hilla should this, Barack should that. The Dems this, the Dems that. While my observations and transgressions in such areas are duly noted, the mashup of “engagement” and “focus” and the softness of messages that project whatever the BoB “brand” is are as milquetoast as William Kristol and as effete as Bob Shrum. I don’t see any “impact stuff” on these pages. Maybe a few “keywords” that could be picked up by an automatic blogreader and dumped into a bin with the other “C+ rated” keywords to help formulate or validate a stat or a focus group question. One might think the visit of Ahamadinejad to Iraq and the images of that visit have a particular importance level to “Campaign 2008″ and might be discussed here. But the MSM didn’t give a hoot when the Ayatollah Khomeini was living in a villa on the edge of a golf course in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, neither. For my two cents, I belive that the visit of the Iranian “fuehrer” to Iraq is as important as Chamberlain returning from Munich, or Hitler viewing Paris after its capitulation in 1940. He is in Iraq to take a look at his new real estate while US troops and privatized “democracy builders” there are being paid with US tax dollars to suck dry what’s left of America’s “social net” and “national patrimony.” Nobody on this blog gets it. Few in the MSM get it. No wonder politics remains America’s #1 fantasy football, american idol-style “spectator sport.” One more reason to think that Dick Cheney was right when he told Dick Durbin to “go fuc* yourself!” on the Senate floor. The Red Queen called it “brainwashing” just like the cold war CIA. Today, we call it personal branding, or reputation management… hold that thought… but not for more than 8 seconds, with or without Ritalin. Like Dr Spock used to say, if you don’t like the kids, you can take your bucket and shovel and play in another sandbox.
Posted: March 2nd, 2008 under Afghanistan, Ain't That America, Best of the Blogs, Cheney, Democratic Debates, Do The Right Thing, Dumbocrats, GOP, Hillary, Iran, Iraq, McCain, Obama, Oil, Religion, The Big World Out There, Uncategorized.
Comments: 16
Comments
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: March 2, 2008, 2:06 pm
Well jumping right in, I can say an amen to that and add a couple of regrouping thoughts. I’m the default hall monitor here and the milquetoast merchant. I’ve been around the block enough to know that my recent “Open Space” postings are not working. I thought they would be a way for folks to comment first rather than just react to a post, but it looks like I was wrong or maybe I just picked some dumb stuff. So they are gone and anyone can change the subject on any post any time as a way to fill what ever void this might create.
We are still at work on the new look. Some real paying gigs are taking up some of the time, and I’m the low tech guy in the band. But it seems also that some of us have started playing it safer to avoid the rancorous comment or two that comes with a strong-stated post. At least I have been. I’m not bothered by the rancor in some of the comments some of the time but I guess I am projecting when I sense those who choose not to comment are put off by the tone in the post and in the comments. For a while we had King David with his Pug spit, but he is gone.
On the other hand, Groom could be offering some nouveau milquetoast and I just fell for it. Afterall, he is from Cleveland.
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: March 2, 2008, 2:42 pm
I wasn’t speaking to your “open space” posts, Josh. I like them, I am addressing the overall “tenor.” Some folks comment and this is good. I am examining the “overall” tenor…
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: March 2, 2008, 3:18 pm
I still stand by my comments, and I certainly did not take your post personally in anyway.
I like it when Lefty roars and Sasha sasses and JAB punts or plays around and John cools things and Max muses on military matters and bdr takes us to the deli and Groom does his Hunter Thompson thing and when it juices up the comments and the beat goes on. Standing still is no fun, not for me.
Comment from suzanne
Time: March 2, 2008, 5:19 pm
So are you inferring that the earlier discussion that “Bob has an agenda” was not far out of line? If so, thank you Groom Lake. The commentary on this blog is never short of brilliant IMO, but over the last few months I have felt increasingly alienated by the one-sided (overall) and oftentimes mean-spirited posts. It has indeed felt a bit like “1984″ in here. The Blog Buzz links, however, have been fairly balanced (kudos dudes). And talking about Hillary and Obama again . . . Joseph C. Wilson’s article should be required reading for all Texans and Ohioites though it’s probably too little too late.
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: March 2, 2008, 5:24 pm
Agenda, heavens no. It was scattershot at the git-go, and only in the past couple of years have I sensed the “eau de agenda” among contributors other than me. There is way too much going on as the candidates fiddle and Rome burns, to focus on “the candidates” as much as some BoB contributors are doing. And in the unwritten rules of the blogosphere, the content mirrors its audience, or is it the other way round? Please clarify if you know. BTW,are you talking about the former ambassador Joe? The multimillionaire?
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: March 2, 2008, 5:25 pm
I mean one who has last name Wilson, not Kennedy…
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: March 2, 2008, 5:26 pm
Similar egograph though…
Comment from Sasha
Time: March 2, 2008, 6:36 pm
Sas? Moi? *blinks innocently*
So I guess I should have dragged that post about how mean-spirited I am over here. It wasn’t about Hill or Barry.
Seriously, I have an agenda. I said it before. The Supremes. I care about that more than anything right now. Anything that gets me closer to a supreme court that will uphold the Constitution has my attention.
Comment from aj
Time: March 2, 2008, 6:47 pm
I say Obama as appointee to the Supreme Court.
Comment from suzanne
Time: March 2, 2008, 7:26 pm
Groom - Ha! Who edits the blog buzz here anyway? The link to Joseph C. Wilson’s article (yes, the multimillionaire former ambassador) has already disappeared from the Blog Buzz and the Huffpo. It’s been swiftboated to the archives. Not terribly surprised though as it’s kind of indicative of what I was talking about earlier. IMHO(H stands for humble), the audience mirrors the content and not the reverse. If the audience doesn’t like it they can always move on, right? I keep coming back for the genius (even the mean-spirited kind).
Comment from suzanne
Time: March 2, 2008, 7:32 pm
Geniosity?
Comment from Sasha
Time: March 2, 2008, 7:36 pm
Suzanne, blog buzz is a feed. Nobody here edits it.
Comment from Leftcoast
Time: March 2, 2008, 8:06 pm
Groom: Thanks for the post and for being BoB’s conscience.
I agree it’s critical to step outside of the bullshit and ask contextual questions. For the past couple of months, I’ve posted a few “While you were sleeping” posts aimed not at the nitnat of the campaign but on the ongoing erosion of everything that I think is good and right about America that no one is talking about here, or frankly anywhere else. I’ll do more of it and things like it–it’s more in my nature. There is a shitload of nasty stuff going on from our friends in Bushworld and certainly in the Soviet Union and Cuba these days that should not only keep all of us up night, but should cause us to ask some real hard questions of our future leader, no matter who that might happen to be. But I have to tell you, it doesn’t generate nearly as much commentary as pointing out an Obama weakness or a Hillary excess. So be it, quality over quantity any day.
Random thought: I’ve blogged here for (I think) nearly five years and it was rare for BoB bloggers to jump into the comments section, unless there was something specifically directed to the writer or there was a correction/expansion. As I reread our past couple of months, it’s all BoB bloggers, all the time (guilty as charged). We ought to reserve the comments section for our readers and get our big fat asses out of there. I’d rather hear from our readers and it might defuse some of the cheerleading…
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: March 3, 2008, 12:11 am
Actually, comments are what a blog is about, regardless of who makes the comments, it is a rolling thunder (or lack of) of what people are saying related to what comes and goes, before them, after them. There is no blame to assign. If the Bob is going to be more “blog like” then it should look more inviting to do the blog commenting at the top, not at the bottom. There is lots of stuff to talk about while “rome burns.” The two years of botched flu vaccine, the beef recall that happened after all the meat was eaten, the 1/4 billion Pfizer spent on advertising hung on a doctor from Utah named Jarvik who is not licensed to practice cardiology, let alone medicine on humans. The suppression of information that the class of SSRI anti depressants really don’t work like the experts and short term studies say they do. This is a lot more megabucks that what is being sticked by the croupier toward Barack, Hilla, Hanoi John, Mormon Mitt. And the greater issue of why America denies that religion is not a factor in politics. Or like the hotel manager at the Gritti Palace in Venice told Gustav Mahler in “Death in Venice,” no sir, there hasn’t been one case of “the plague” in Venice. I think he forgot the stiff he tripped over at Washington and Abbot Kenney…
Comment from Sanctimonious Drivel
Time: March 3, 2008, 1:06 am
There was a time, when “we the common readers of this blog”, had the feeling we were contributing to the topic of conversation, even if it may have been minimal. Somewhere along the way the atmosphere shifted and if the contributor wasn’t in full agreement with a post, his or her comments were silently kicked to the curb and I assume, considered inconsequential. Prior to this silent censorship we certainly expressed our differences but it was congenial and polite.
As of late there has been more than a hint of sarcasm and at times outright rudeness and it has turned many of us off - thus fewer posts. There is one thing in particular that I find especially offensive, that being the venom spewed in statements about Hillary Clinton. The “repugs” at Red State didn’t turn on their own, the way people here have of late and it is not very inviting if the intentions were to have an open discussion.
I don’t know how Timr feels about this, but I have always enjoyed Leftcoast’s contributions on most any subject because it was always food for thought, but I have been surprised of late with the piling on that takes place, when he differs with an other’s perspective.
Everyone here is sick of the shit we’ve had to endure for the past seven plus years, to turn on our own out of frustration at this stage of the game is not only disgusting but idiotic as well.
Where’s Pat, Bob, Timr, where’s Susan and even KD, or are they too, considered simpleton’s of debate ? I am outta here …..
Comment from timr
Time: March 3, 2008, 9:56 am
I like to read everyones postings here, altho, I do kind of discern a slight lowering of tone, a feeling that some here have totally invested themselves in one candidate or the other. I think that before one comments, one should think. Before inserting ones foot in ones mouth. The internet anonymity has led to rudeness, something that would not happen in face to face or phone conversations.
Groom, in your post above, I thought that ‘the dick’ told Sen Leahey(sp) to go f**k himself, not Durbin.
On the prez of Iran visit to Iraq. It should indeed be a major topic of discussion, but knowing the MSM, that will happen only when hell freezes over. That said, the most important point was made at the start of the visit. Note that there were zero flack jackets-body armor- in sight. Instrad a red carpet visit, long planned, unlike gwb’s short(hours only) sneaky-MSM only told when visit over. One other big thing that I noticed, Iran prez took the airport highway into town, something that no american poobah will do. The contrast is startling, and makes americans, by inference look both small and cowardly-It also showcases the amis distrust of all things Iraqi, as does the failure to hire locals, instead hiring people from other 3rd world countries. It makes our interaction with the citizens that we are attempting to win over less and less. Failure in the making- compared to Iran’s prez-I will not even attempt to spell his name, I know that I will mispell it. Don’t think that the comparisons between the Iran prez and gwb’s actions within Iraq will not be seen and understood by all living in the mideast. The comparison will just make our rep worse than ever.-Headline;gwb afraid to walk and drive where Iran prez does in total freedom, without fear of attack. Get us out of Iraq. Except for a very few, they hate and dispise us. They want us to leave. We should. The repig meme that alQaeda will take over-a minority of sunni taking over a country now run by shia-is ridiculous on it s face, but a large number of the great unwashed will buy it hook line and sinker.
BTW, on 60 min last nite, did anyone see, during the Obama segment, the “dem” repeat all the s**t rumors about Obama as if they were true, and when the 60min guy attempted to correct him you could just see his brain close down. Don’t confuse me with the facts, I got my version of the truth from the repigs.
Thus ends my rant for the day.-The last segment on 60 min really got my blood boiling. WTF is going on when the richest country in the world has to depend on a charity developed for the Amazon basin to provide medical care for its own people
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