Normally, I don't ask my readers to agree with me; a jolly disagreement can, in fact, be one of the joys of blogging. But this is election season, and trolls (paid or voluntary) are common. Some trolls are so deceptive that I can't easily discern genuine outrage from the products of what has been called "persona management software."
Bottom line: This blog has been getting a lot of comments that bug the hell out of me. No matter what the topic of any given post, some of you find ways to twist my words into an excuse to slam the Dems mercilessly.
Well, I slam them too, and I intend to keep doing so -- after election day. Now is not the time.
The camel-back-breaking straw was a recent published comment that said some very unfair things about John Kerry. I started this blog in 2004 to do my small bit to put Kerry in office. I've admired that guy ever since I first saw him on television in the early 1970s. I really, really, really did not appreciate the dolt who decried Kerry as the equivalent of Mitt Romney.
I'll get back to dissing Obama (whom I still wish had never sought the office) after election day. Right now, two factors -- the Supreme Court and the likelihood of war with Iran -- make opposition to Mitt Romney of paramount importance. If you still (foolishly) feel that there is no difference between the candidates -- well, you've already registered that opinion.
Over and over. Daily.
And now you shall register it no more, at least not here.
Why? Because even though I remain angry at Obama, I've "fallen in hate" with Mitt Romney. And I'm horrified at the prospect of that creepy Randroid Paul Ryan being one heartbeat away from the highest office. At any rate, I suspect that Ryan will be the true power in a Romney administration. He'll be the new Dick Cheney -- except his brief will be domestic policy, not foreign policy.
Do you disagree with my new "grudgingly tolerant" attitude toward the current administration? Well, you have plenty of other places to express your feelings, so if I tell you that you no longer have a voice here, you can't pretend that you're undergoing a great hardship.
Until election day, if your message is "Both parties are the same" or "Vote for Romney as a protest against Obama" or something similar, your comments won't appear, even if you are a longtime friend to this site. After election day, of course, we will turn over the Etch-A-Sketch and give it a good shake.
This new rule will strike some of you as terribly unfair. But Blogger is free to everyone, and you can always start your own site. My attitude might be different if this were a paying gig, but it isn't. A race car driver puts ads on his car because he is paid to do so; he doesn't put ads on his personal vehicle, especially not for products he dislikes.
This site is my home. It is more my home than is my physical home. All sorts of guest are welcome here -- but all guests must try to get along with the guy who owns the place.
If my new (temporary) rule is intolerable to you, perhaps you had best find other places to visit, at least for the next couple of months. If you leave, I hope there will be no hard feelings -- but even if there are, my position will remain as stated.
19 comments:
What about advocacy of, say the Green candidate? A la Nader 2000?
Perhaps that is best soft-pedaled here. In a swing state, voting green is voting red.
Good decision Joe. There are plenty of "I was once a democrat" blogs around for the rats to peddle their goods.
Your wishes are repsected Joseph. I'd feel the same, I guess. I'll continue to read but not comment.
I like to try to understand all points of view beside my own.
Oh,please comment! But just...go easy on anything that encourages a Romney victory for now. I talk about all sorts of stuff here, you know.
Okay, Joseph. What's yours is yours. My criticisms of Barack Obama (which are ever more severe with each breath he takes) are not veiled suggestions to vote for Willard. I myself plan to vote for Jill Stein (a candidate for a party that has ballot access to 403 electoral votes). What I don't understand is why you won't openly support Jill Stein of the Green Party and instead enforce the opinion that a binary system is all we have, black or white, and that is all we will ever have. It's the thought that there is capitalism and communism and nothing inbetween or outside of. It's as if saying there is no 3rd path or 4th path or 5th path, etc.
I was thinking earlier before I read the above. How long has it been that Americans voted for a candidate instead of against the other one?
Had the house price bubble not burst before the election 2012 would be Hillary vs a John McCain incumbent.
Obama has some luck, the collapse then running against a pair of lunatics.
Fortune smiles on the un-virtuous.
Forgot to add ...
Joe, I hope you are right about Obama not going into Iran or nominating Right Wing ideologues to the SCOTUS.
I've been reading up on Wyden and wishing he were running. :/
"paid trolls"
Is there really such a thing? I hear that on both sides.
Soros, Koch?
Ben
Mike, I understand your distinction about voting FOR your candidate, as opposed to voting against the other guy.
I voted FOR Clinton (at least in '96), FOR Gore, and FOR Kerry. I kind of, sort of voted FOR Dukakis -- although I definitely voted FOR Jackson in the primary. Mondale was a good man, but I preferred Gary Hart.
As for the binary election thing -- in 1980, I went third party (Barry Commoner) and regretted it ever since. Back then, I disliked Carter about as intensely then as I do Obama now. In hindsight, my distaste for Carter went overboard -- but a lot of liberals thought as I thought back in '80.
Funny, I made much the same argument (a vote for a 3rd party is a GOP vote) on a blog the other day and got flogged for being an Obama stooge. I despise Obama, but I am going to vote for him. I'm with you for sure on this issue.
The Beltway media types hated Carter with a passion because he was from some backwater town (Plains, Georgia) even though he had a life none of them could aspire to. Same with Bill Clinton and Al Gore, it's easy for little people to tear their betters down. They like the Bushes for the same reasons, New England Blue Blood, their kind of people.
Why is it journalism if populated by dimwits, is it the only major they can pass?
Carter got slammed with the post Vietnam recession (end of Military Keynesianism) and OPEC turning off the spigot. No telling where he would have ended up on the political spectrum without that.
As to the binary thing, since it's the Electoral College that chooses why not have Red State Democrats vote Third Party or write in Hillary at the top of the ballot?
To an extent Blue States could do the same if the point spread is wide enough and Purple States could vote the Lesser Evil party.
Or would that be a message wasted on Obama and the big cheeses?
"paid trolls"
Is there really such a thing? I hear that on both sides.
Google the phrase "persona management software".
I've previously commented here that the issue of war dictates one and only one electoral decision this fall.
It is a moral imperative that Romney and his merry band of neo-con foreign policy butcher advisers not receive the job.
I still think it wise to remember the similar situation that existed with LBJ and Woodrow Wilson-- elected on anti-war pledges, but somehow, once they were in, we found ourselves in war anyway.
So it's not a sure thing we'll avoid war with an Obama re-election. However, given that it is a sure thing we will have a war in the event of a Romney victory, we must choose the candidate who represents the greater likelihood of avoiding war.
XI
I was reading one of Hopsicker's recent posts on Facebook yesterday, and I suspect you two could commiserate. You could sense his rising frustration (and blood pressure) as one truther after another chimed in to praise his work for having shown them how 9-11 could only have been an inside job -- despite Hopsicker's repeated protests. Finally, he threw in the towel, closing with, "If these are credentials that tell YOU that the "real" issue of 9/11 involves discussions of the "free-fall" of buildings, have at it."
"Google the phrase "persona management software"."
Anonymizers? I know about that. I just have seen no evidence there are paid trolls. Alex Jones sees evidence. Sitemeter and similar tracking databases make it a waste of time, because the UNKNOWN ip stands out.
Ben
I'm with you across the board -- Willard/Ryan is a certain catastrophe for all of us New Deal/New Frontier/Great Society stalwarts, the 8 of us left. We need strong consumer/enviro/labor/civil liberties movements but an indy electoral project is doomed to failure.
Confession -- I too voted for Commoner and although I still see Carter as profoundly conservative and even setting the table for Reagonomics, I wish I hadn't. BTW, the anti-Kerry bile seems weird+out of context but he had a shadowy target in his sights during Iran/contra (and the BCCI scandal). There's still plenty of hatred out there for him.
I too voted for Anderson in 1980- a vote I still regret, considering the AIDS holocaust that Reagan bears some responsibility for. Learned my lesson, straight Democrat ticket ever since. People who didn't live through the Reagan years have no idea of the brutality of the time - homeless people living in the street for the first time since the 1930's, while Wall Street and the S&L's went into a frenzy of speculation.
Perhaps the worst legacy of all was the overturning of the decades-old Fairness Doctrine, which opened the door to Rush Limbaugh, his army of "hot talk" clones, and Fox News.
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