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GOP Vows to Work With Obama

Into a Republican? Just two, One Senator and one Repub in the next bathroom stall next to him in the MN airport.

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 11:50 am

Electron microscopes are not readily available?

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 11:47 am

Heh!

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 11:47 am

Cool! I’m going to tell my friend Anita Hand!

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 10:21 am

Very funny!

In the spirit of the day, a couple of today’ Onion headlines:

U.S. Government To Save Billions By Cutting Wasteful Senator Program

and

Rich Guy Feeling Left Out Of Recession

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 10:15 am

No but I blanked out the “WO” on the “WOMEN” sign on the bathroom to let the hilarity ensue.

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 10:10 am

I think he went to the men’s room with Ben Dover.

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 9:59 am

Me too!

I debated on whether I should blow it out as the article went on, had a section about them vowing to return to using the filibuster as historically used but even that bit seemed to tip the hand too much.

Kind of a sad commentary that the GOP just using the filibuster properly would be seen as preposterous.

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 9:58 am

I think it would genuinely be a great tactic that would oddly give the GOP the moral high ground and finally a reason to vote for them instead of against Dems. Meanwhile, the Dems would be in conflict with half refusing to cooperate based on past performance and the possibility that it was just a ploy.

But Repubs aren’t that that clever.

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 9:56 am

Very funny!

Sincerely,

Mr. Katz

» Posted By AdLib On April 1, 2010 @ 9:53 am

Progressive media’s wrong turn: adversaries vs. advocates

You’re right, I am totally with you.

Anger against the opposition is at the heart of capitalist/corporatist backed political outlets and blogs.

No question in my mind that indeed, if the financing of advocacy comes from the grass roots it will be far more positive and constructive.

That’s what the people really want…but they are too vulnerable to being seduced away from constructive sensibilities by the corporatist pandering to their fears and anger.

» Posted By AdLib On April 2, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

I know what you mean. HP looks like a parody of itself now with all the ads (even ads for the CoC opposing Obama), Twitter garbage, Bing searches, Facebook crap and pop ups, listings of other HP articles all over the page…

…it’s A.D.D. paradise.

As for the commentary and tone of discussions, there are occasional sharp insights from bloggers in a sea of dumb snark and petty hatred.

It’s nice to be on a sane Planet.

» Posted By AdLib On April 2, 2010 @ 11:27 am

My curiosity though is, did an accumulation of years under Bush create an environment for a HuffPo and an AAR to both come to fruition and morph. DailyKos and some others came into existence before or in the first year or two of Bush, a different environment than post Iraq War which could account for some of the difference in tone.

By 2004, things were different in the Progressive community, it was primarily about opposing Bush which, considering he was attacking and undermining just about everything we cared about, appropriate.

I remember where my sensibilities were when AAR came along in 2004 and it was one of great frustration and resentment at 4 years of Bush (including the Patriot Act and the Iraq War) and the prospect of his reelection that year with more disasters ahead (little did I know).

In that election year, it was naturally an adversarial environment, opposing Bush was the overriding theme as it will be for Repubs in 2012 for Obama and any presidential reelection cycle.

I can’t speak about HP at the time, I wasn’t blogging there yet so I don’t know what the tone was. I can say that in 2007, in the roll up to the 2008 election, HP did have a relatively affirmative tone. The tone at HP changed for the worse towards the beginning of 2008 and accelerating a steep downward decline into 2009.

A bottom line for both HP and AAR is that they were multimillion ventures with investors that no doubt expected and required profits. The quickest and easiest path in the entertainment business is pandering to the lowest common denominator and in politics, that seems to be anger.

The other blogs you mention, at least as far as I’m aware, came up from the grass roots naturally or at least without big investors launching them.

As they say about power, money corrupts and a hedge funds corrupt absolutely.

» Posted By AdLib On April 2, 2010 @ 11:21 am

A very comprehensive and enlightening article Nellie, well done!

I wonder if some of the changes in Progressive outlets has something to do with the oppression of the Bush years.

People can become conditioned after a while. Going 8 long years under such a horrible regime could have contributed to the adversarial role becoming deeply imprinted over advocacy.

And maybe some of the purist Dems are suffering from PTSD so they’re just continuing their behavior.

I certainly learned from blogging at HP that people can seem to be colleagues and allies as long as that common enemy exists but once Bush was gone, some folk turned on their own pretty quickly.

As you illustrate though, there is a business and financial element here that is very powerful. Web sites want to make money and grow, they need to pay their bills and try to build up their business.

The sad fact is that conservative or progressive, sex, violence and exploitation will attract greater audiences than insight, wisdom and principle.

Once the commercial, highly funded versions of radio programming and web sites set their roots down, they sucked up audience. But they have investors and a big hungry budget to satisfy so it is natural that the financial pressures would eventually outweigh all others. And using exploitation is the quickest and easiest path to growing and retaining audiences.

Then, all the outlets that want to compete, have to appeal to the Walmart shoppers or go out of business.

However, I think there will always be a niche market for those folks who have genuine concerns, principles and standards.

» Posted By AdLib On April 2, 2010 @ 12:43 am

The Passover Seder

Thank you so much for this and your previous post about Passover!

However, I still have to watch The Ten Commandments just to hear Edward G. Robinson say, “Myah! Where’s your savior now? Myah?”

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 9:45 pm

I Know You Are But What Am I?

Cher, great comment and thanks for the video. I didn’t know the formal term for this but I know how it works on people.

I do think that electronics are bright shiny toys that keep people child-like. Computers (and blogging) are an exception, they aren’t passive. TV and Wii/xBox are pre-designed entertainment which is technically passive, one follows along instead of creating.

And you are right on the money, the pharma industry has turned normal human emotions, sensibilities and feelings into syndromes that can be solved with a pill.

I am not a believer in ADD and it has been documented that kids have been over-medicated on Ritalin for hyperactivity and ADD…which in most cases means, being kids.

And when kids learn at a young age that whenever they can’t concentrate, it’s an illness that needs medicine, pharma has them.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 9:34 pm

Love that story, Kalima!

BTW, I doubt you ever acted like that spoiled little girl.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 9:18 pm

Daddy’s Little Teabagger!

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 9:09 pm

Isn’t that also the problem for Obama dealing with the GOP? He tried treating them like adults, they just dissed him for it because as petulant children (adolescents may indeed be a more exact characterization) they don’t understand nor respect it.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 6:06 pm

YES!!!

I thought it was terribly insulting that the MSM pounded the meme that many oblivious Americans wondered, “Why do they hate us?”

Where the hell were they for the last 60 years?

They kinda forgot about Israel and Palestinians? The Shah of Iran? Saudi Arabia’s oppressing of its people?

The past just doesn’t exist for children, only the present.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

When you think about it, the generation that made it through the Depression were thrifty, responsible with their money and not crazy about borrowing money.

They paid off their houses and left the equity where it was.

Nothing like living in desperate times to make one adopt a very mature and pragmatic view of finances.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 5:28 pm

That impulse to conform, peer pressure does seem to have its roots in childhood.

All the other kids are doing something and peer pressure comes into play.

People can revert into childhood mode when in a group.

And you are absolutely right, there is no monopoly on incivility, Dems can be just as uncivil. But in reality, as they are in power, they have no huge reason to be so right now and thus this is primarily a Repub behavior.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 5:26 pm

I’ll keep my eye out for it. Funny thing is today I was thinking about foreign films. That used to be a big thing, going to the art houses to see foreign films. Today, they can barely get into theaters and those that do don’t typically stay there for long.

Last year I saw the Baader-Meinhof Complex which was a powerful, based on true events, story about a group of citizens becoming militant to oppose an oppressive German government…and how corrupt they became in their pursuits.

Very poignant and fascinating in these times but too few people will ever get a chance to see it. Instead, they got to see, “Alvin and the Chipmunks, – The Squeakuel”.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 5:18 pm

Or a WWE Wrestling bout against violence?

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 5:12 pm

Or a War on Wars on Wars?

How about a March Against Activism?

Or a Sit Down Strike Against Couch Potatoes?

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 4:58 pm

Bullseye!

I haven’t and don’t have the interest to watch either of those shows.

But you are so right, the high school popularity contest…for adults!

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

Good thinking! Maybe the best way to deal with our depression is a continent-sized container of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream that we as a nation eat and by the time we eat ourselves to the bottom, our depression will be gone!

But it will be replaced with coast-to-coast guilt.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 4:52 pm

Civility is the action of an adult. It should not be expected of children.

Rush acts like a bratty child, of course he’s not civil. Of course the teabaggers yell at town halls and scream and spit at black people and Dems, they’re angry, insecure children.

One shouldn’t expect for civility from those who are emotionally children.

To raise the quality of dialog in this nation, there’s got to be a lot of growing up.

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 4:49 pm

Thanks Sue!

Glad you mentioned 9/11 as a call to go shopping, what greater evidence is needed as to how citizens are treated as ignorant children to be exploited for their naivete.

Your description of being responsible instead of raiding your home’s equity reminds me of the classic fable of the grasshopper and the ant.

Wonder if the Greeks had a housing bubble in Aesop’s day?

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 4:42 pm

How about the top 5 movies of last year?

1. A DIGITAL CARTOON – Avatar – $740,916,066

2. A MOVIE ABOUT A TOY – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $402,111,870

3. A CHILDREN’S BOOK – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – $301,959,197

4. A TEENAGE GIRLS’ BOOK – The Twilight Saga: New Moon – $296,621,418

5 A DIGITAL CARTOON – Up – $293,004,164

» Posted By AdLib On March 31, 2010 @ 4:37 pm