Newscoma

Nobody can break it down as well as Vibinc can:

Once again, this question, “We know what you’re against, but what do you stand for?””, has come up to the blogging community. The question gets asked a lot by people who end up on the wrong side of bloggers, the intent often being more about “getting the hell off my lawn” than anything truly constructive. It takes on certain significance, particularly in the wake of the fairly recent criticism of the TNDP and losses that spawned that criticism. So maybe, just maybe it’s time to clarify some things.

First, there are some things you should know about me. I don’t do this because I’m paid to do it. In fact, I don’t even have advertising of any kind on my blog. Truth is, most TN bloggers don’t make a dime off their blogs. This is due to laziness on my part, and that I want to keep my “loves” separate from a “job”. I tried to “monetize” my love of performing music throughout the early 90’s and burned myself out. Making this a job is not something I’m interested in at this point.

Passion is a good thing and Vibinc has plenty of it. In politics, don’t you want the guys with enthusiasm who aren’t “Yes” men on your side?’ I’ve never understood why politicians don’t realize these are the people that you need. Why not engage in a realistic conversation instead of, as some politicians do, believe that you are being ganged up on? Not everyone has a stick nor do they want to beat up on politicians which is a misconception.

But they want engagement and not spin. That’s what I got out of Vibinc’s post and he makes several good points.

Subscribe to his feed and you will not be disappointed.

Everyone has been talking about Margaret and Helen’s blog so I headed over there to see what it’s all about.

This has to be the quote of the day:

If I hear that McCain is a Maverick one more time I just might throw myself to the floor and break a hip.

Helen wrote that and is 83-years-old and rocks it. Despite your political preference, these women are fun.

I give you this earworm.

I do these things so you don’t have to.

I’m starting to get interested again in politics. A lot is happening, especially in this state.

First of all, Fred Thompson had a big shindig over in Lawrenceburg over the weekend. Sugarfused went and took some crowd shots. It was her first political rally and she was pretty excited about it.

We had a rally here (and it wasn’t as big as Fred’s. Shocking, I know) and we had the likes of Mike McWherter, Lowe Finney, Roy Herron and John Tanner.

Mayor Willie Herenton being a no-show at a mayoral forum is bound to be the talk of the Memphis blogosphere today.

Russ McBee has been one of the bloggers covering the Knoxville News Sentinel’s civil trial against the Knoxville County Commission. He is being very detailed about the slant of words, their meanings. This has been a very interesting read over the past week. If you want to see something a bit different, I suggest you go get yourself a cup of coffee and settle in with Russ’ blog for a few minutes.  KNS asking for feedback from local bloggers is revolutionary and they are getting what they asked for.  Compelling.

Fox or Emmy producers, who knows,  censored Sally Field when she made an anti-war statement. And this shocks who? Not I.

With all of that said, I think things are going to start picking up. Reminds me of the chorus from the Butthole Surfers song, Pepper for some odd reason.

I was wandering around the blogosphere this a.m., and found this article about what presidential candidates really CAN’T, or won’t rather, say while being on the campaign trail, and in all honesty, what they can’t do because of the status quo.

I found it to be very interesting. The writer cites that candidates are not going to get too “passionate” about certain things. They want us to think they are leaders, sure, but they only want to touch on things just enough to get our hineys out to the polls on that infamous day in November.

We don’t know what they’ll do in all honesty. Did we expect what we have now as a nation?

Some of the things the post discussed where items like illegal immigration (where they come out and say NO, we can’t get 12 million folks out of this country in a mass sweep cause it just isn’t going to happen) or that conspiracy theories become urban legends that the media reports as facts.

They are going to say what the majority of people who actually vote or going to buy. Retail, of course.

Interesting. Some of the list of the 20 things candidates won’t talk about will most likely make folks mad, but it’s an interesting dialogue to say the least.

Here is a snippet:

What’s sort of weird about all this is that a lot of people actually seem to agree with the “fringe” candidates – those who confront some of the taboo topics on my list. Ron Paul has had some luck pressing forward with ideas and positions that are considered taboo. He’s the breakout “fringe” candidate this year, but fringe nevertheless. And substantial numbers — maybe even a majority — of Democratic primary voters like Dennis Kucinich’s positions on the issues better than those of Clinton or Obama. But Kucinich’s campaign has never even caught a light breeze.

Obviously, perception trumps content. Voters may agree with nearly everything a fringe candidate says, but when the media echo chamber dismisses that candidate as “fringe,” they are drawing a big “L” for Loser across the candidate’s face. And while voters will eventually develop some measure of contempt for the actual President, loser candidates are beneath contempt, and can’t really be taken seriously.

The idea of retail politics gives me a case of the wiggums. Because it’s a selling technique and that’s about it. It also works on the theory that the squeeky wheel gets the oil.

I think I would add the quote “Mission Accomplished” to that list as something that will never be uttered by a president for the rest of this country’s days.

Ironically, I found this post on Fark.

Just saying.

So, the Democratic candidates for president all got together yesterday at the Yearly Koz Kos convention.

Here’s some of what they said according to an Associated Press story:

The first question went to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was asked why he once cited Justice Byron White, a conservative, as a model Supreme Court justice. “I screwed up on that,” he said. “I love John F. Kennedy and figured if Kennedy had supported him …,” Richardson said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked what three lessons she learned from her failed health care reform effort during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton.

“It is not enough to have a plan. You’ve got to have a political strategy,” the New York senator, adding: “In 90 seconds, I don’t have the time to tell you all the mistakes I made.”

Another leading candidate, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, said he would allow the U.S. to continue running a budget deficit to meet health care and other needs. “We’ve got to make some investments.”

Edwards received the largest applause when he suggested his rivals were tinkering around the edges – “I just heard some discussion about negotiation, compromise” – rather than overhauling government. He said the nation needs “big change, not small change.”

Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee, called on the field to join him, along with Obama, to forsake donations from lobbyists. That is a pledge he said Republicans should take, too.

“We don’t want to trade their insiders for ours,” he said.

Clinton, who accepts such donations, did not respond.

I blog. I like blogging, but I can’t help but think of what Slartibartfast wrote last Thursday in regards to the Nashville Mayoral and councilmen races.

I’m afraid that tonight we’re going to get a reminder of just how little influence we bloggers have on local Nashville politics.

And, all in all, he spoke the truth.

We blog. We read other folks blogs, be they politically right, left or center. The candidates see that the Internet can make things happen, that social networking avenues can easily and inexpensively get their style across (notice I didn’t say substance) and that we are in a time of change when it comes to disseminating and distributing information and news. But, from what I read about Nashville’s races, there was a great lack of interest in this contest that will impact a major metropolitan city in the next four years and many blogs were talking about it a great deal. And, of course, it came down to money in that race which, who had it, who didn’t and guess who came in the front.

Candidates with dough.

Those 1500 bloggers who showed up at Yearly Kos are going to vote anyway and they had the cash to actually go and see the candidates yesterday. Can they make a difference in the big picture? I’m thinking there might be an impact but folks can’t get too ahead of themselves. The internet does tend to shine a light on things. But is it taken as seriously as we, as bloggers, think it does?

Yes, candidates need to take into the equation that power of the tubes. There is no doubt. But they are still going to have to be very aware of traditional media outlets, and sometimes the two entities collide. Candidates’ biggest enemy, or friend for that matter, is going to be the immediacy of the internet. They know that, but there is just a lot more to it.

And sometimes I wonder if there is so much information out there that it gets lost in all the static. And smaller bloggers are already being edged out a bit by the guys that are making money. (CYNIC ALERT.) So, if a little guy has some crucial information will it be lost in the virtual highway?

Just pondering it all.

And this is what I’m thinking about today.

Update: I have been schooled on spelling. Spellcheck didn’t catch it. And, I’d moved on to other things.

You know, it is a big deal, tonight’s debate on CNN cosponsored with YouTube.

The Internet collides with democratic candidates for president in a controlled arena. And, let’s remember, it is being controlled. This isn’t random. This is either a big pile of waste or will honestly show, even to the old media folks, that the times they are past changing.

Which is what I believe, of course. And I like Anderson Cooper just fine although I do miss me some Aaron Brown.
So, I’m going to watch. I think that this could be a wonderful thing or a colossal nightmare. But I’m holding out hope. Is this the way, as bloggers have thought for years actually or there wouldn’t be so many political blogs out in cyberspace trying to be heard, that this will actually be effective.

And, with visionaries showing up in mainstream media (there are a few, believe it or not) this could go, once again, in a couple of directions. It will either control what’s going on via YouTube or open a door of citizens finding their voices are being heard again.

I’m hoping for door number two.

UPDATE: Jack Lail has more on how John Edwards is going to utilize Twitter tonight. I don’t know how I missed that.

Harry Reid wants folks to spend the night with him. Umm, okay.

See, I’m not sure if this is going to make a difference but if it does, alrighty, I was wrong.

Forcing his Republican colleagues to put up or shut up on the notion of an up-or-down vote, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just moments ago announced that he will immediately file a cloture motion on the Reed-Levin troop redeployment bill and, if Republicans follow through with a filibuster, will place the Senate in a prolonged all-night session Tuesday to force a true continuation of debate.

Debate, my friends is good, even if the opposing parties disagree. Because debate inspires … wait she always says this ….. Dialogue. On things of importance.

Geiger also says this:

And I’m sure more than one Democratic Senator will remind the public that Republicans screamed at the top of their lungs last year when it came to getting up-or-down votes on Bush’s right-wing judicial nominees, but expressing the sentiments of most Americans and protecting America’s troops gets no such treatment from them.

Yikes. Give ‘em hell, Bob. Or Harry. Or both.

This is in the files of we will have to see what comes out of this.

Yeah, I’m a cynic. With weird hair.

Do I get points for that?

Dear Steve,

Can I call you Steve?  I’m pretty darned proud of you on this fine, bright summer day and I sit here this morning after a long day yesterday of meetings and non-virtual world mayhem. I wasn’t on-line for several hours and I didn’t get to watch the news last night.

Not that you would have been on the news anyway because they would have been too busy talking about Paris Hilton or TomKat as they are wont to do. The war is around minute ten of network news, because news channels honestly think I care about if Nicole Ritchie is pregnant or not as they think it’s more important for some weird reason.

Yeah, it’s disturbing to me too. I digress.

I watched the video twice of you saying exactly my sentiments about the whole Harriet Miers thing in committee.

I saw it the first time and was like “Right ON!” And due to YouTube having what you said online over at a few places, I sat my entire family down and encouraged them watch it.

They did. And you know what, Congressman, we all smiled.

Because as of Wednesday night, at my house, we were all just about done with all you guys in Washington on both sides of the aisle. Because, it all hit us that we have no voice anymore other than this little ole blog. I write letters, I try to smile through it all, but, you know, I sort of want my government back. The one that believed everyone was created equal, the one where my voice, as tiny as it is, mattered.

The Emperor has no clothes indeed.

So, when I saw you express the same sentiments as I have and raise a little hell about it, it made me wish I could vote for you.

Cause, you know, I would.

So, Give ‘em hell, Steve.

And, if you could, next time you go to the White House, could you give the current administration a copy of this. They apparently have lost theirs and it’s pretty good summer reading.

Respectfully,

Newscoma

I think it goes without saying that there is a great deal of disillusionment in this country right now. I’m one of those people going through this.

I was asked a few days ago what bothers me the most and for me, it’s the news of citizens of this country not getting accurate information on science, on the war and a plethora of other issues.  And this morning, while I was reading this, it really made me ponder on what is true and what isn’t.

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

snip

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.

I think there are people on both sides of the political spectrum that, I believe, are as disconcerted as I am about this. But you know, we are getting the tales of our government being taking away from us frequently. And I’m sure that political considerations have been an on-going thing in Washington since, well, George Washington.

But it doesn’t make it right.

When I was a kid, my grandfather was a Republican and a World War II veteran. My mother was not (crazy kid growing up in the 60’s having her own mind about politics.) There was always, and I mean always, civil discussion about politics. Because, you see, I was taught that that pesky old Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were things of beauty and value. It was something they both could agree on.
And, idealistically, that America was about the people. We don’t need another King George, we had one of those more than two centuries ago. And the bottom line is, we fought for our independence and for the right to have a government that was open. That had guideline that should be followed. We have laws that  are supposed to give us the protection that we need.

But, it’s scandal-o-rama in Washington these days. And I don’t want to get into the “Clinton did this, or Clinton did that.” Surgeon Generals have gone through this for years, from what the article said. But I’m talking about the here and now. And I’m talking about the Surgeon General story is just another story that will get buried to join countless other reports about that “it’s just politics as usual” in Washington these days.

My point is that this is just one more story in a never-ending list of elected officials doing what they want to do instead of what they should be doing.

It’s hard for me to swallow that I’m reading on an almost daily basis of how the American public are being treated like sheep.

This morning, as I read this, I just wonder if we can repair our international alliances and gutted programs in this system that have been hit with “political considerations”, will the next president be playing a game of clean-up. Be it Fred Thompson, Barack Obama or whomever. Whoever gets into the White House is going to have to be a janitor for awhile.

They are going to have to clean up some huge messes.

So I implore both parties that are in Washington right now, don’t treat the American public like cattle to graze off of. This country deserves better.

And I implore that the GOP and the Democrats elected to the House and the Senate quit playing games, because we elected you and we have a right to good government, not to be treated as pawns for political infighting.  Find your spines and get busy.

I can only tell you so much about my evening of lovely and sweet debauchery with my blogging buddies in Memphis. If you I told you everything, you would be sent to Dick Cheney’s office and he just might shoot us all in the face, so secrets must be maintained.

A.) Lynnster and Squirrel Queen almost saw my ultimate demise last night with a drunk or possible insane driver last night. That I’m alive is honestly amazing.

B.) I love talking me some politics. And drinking beer. So this was right up my alley.

C.) Carol Chumney seems to be a lovely woman although I was to busy dreamily staring at Left Wing Cracker, the freedonian and Autoegocrat for an abundance of hours where much beer was consumed, by ummm, well me.

D.) Dang, crepes at IHOP are good at 2 a.m.

E.) I can now die happy cause I hung out with Kblitzer and dang it, my crush is intact and soaring as it always is when I read him. I love me some Baker. Seriously.  And although I just met him briefly, Pesky Fly also is of the good.

F.) No one has any idea that Lynnster is really a rock star amongst bloggers, do they? And me wandering around Rite Aid on Union Ave. at 2:30 in the morning with her must have been just real amusing or annoying depending on one’s point of view.

G.)  There is a possibility that SQ might leave me to live a life of literature for a poet who I am also smitten with named IQ and, man, can that man write. He let me run my fingers through his dreads.  I asked first. And yes, IQ and LWC, I am coming to the music fests. Send me the details!

H.) Yes, Carter, we talked about you.  I told everyone you were tall.

I.) I am too old to drink as much beer as I did last night. My eyelashes even were impaired.

J.) West Tennessee Liberal David Holt is a saucy boy. Put this man in office soon.

K.) Must go back to reality today at this.

L.) Memphis Blue, I agreed with every word you said about Humboldt.

To everyone in the Bluff City, Thank you for a great evening. It was so much of the good and I’m just smitten with the lot of you.

Okay, I don’t do these very often but this one was just to bizarre to let go. I was surprised, actually.

Found this at Similar Minds via Paterphilisophy.