I am assuming Kos was serious when he wrote this, but this made me laugh out loud:
Few if any of us ever get polled. So here’s your chance. Take the poll:
Overall, do you approve, disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling his job as President?
Strongly Approve
Somewhat Approve
Lean Toward Approval
Mixed Feelings
Lean Toward Disapproval
Somewhat Disapprove
Strongly Disapprove
If ever there was a poll with foregone conclusions about the results, this was it. As I write this close to 2000 votes have been tallied, and the results are 96% strongly disapprove, 1% strongly approve.
Heh. Because those results are a SURPRISE!
Steve
Did you vote? :)
ppGaz
One percent of any group approves?
That is a surprise.
Maybe that one percent can get on Larry King.
King: What part of his performance do you most approve of?
OnePercent: I think it was that first flyover. He looked so … presidential … looking out the window of Air Force One. That showed me that he cared a lot.
John Cole
DougJ- I am just going to delete the overtly stupid comments from now on.
Blue Neponset
I think you assumed incorrectly. Love or hate him, Markos isn’t an idiot.
Defense Guy
Is it a rule to always point out what the ‘other side’ is up to now? You know, because, as Goldstein might say, of the hypocrisy?
Personally, I question the timing.
Defense Guy
Suddenly my post does not make sense anymore. I volunteer for a deletion.
DougJ
DougJ- I am just going to delete the overtly stupid comments from now on.
DougJ
Actually, delete that last one of my mine with the block-quoting error, please. I hate screwing that up.
John Cole
Heh. I give up.
Andrei
Zing! That was friggin’ brilliant even though the blockquoting got screwed up.
DougJ
Seriously, delete those last two, please. Sorry I’m giving you such a hard time. You do a great job with this site.
Blue Neponset
DougJ, get a hobby dude. If you are trying to be an ass you have succeeded.
Steve S
I’m trying to think of something I approve of that Bush has done.
You know it’s funny… I was reading a story about Laura Bush hiring a new executive Chef. I had heard the rightwing spin on that, saying that the old chef didn’t know how to do bbq right. Nope, turned out they didn’t like the old chef because he was too american. They wanted more of a french chef. I got a good laugh out of that.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4153794.stm
Frankly, if I was President, the Whitehouse dinners would serve Bisquits and Gravy for breakfast, Pork Tenderloin sandwiches for lunch, and Yankee Pot Roast for supper every day.
And no Broccoli! Hey has GW gotten rid of Broccoli? That was something I approved of his father did.
MI
I assumed he was joking for the obvious reason. And what’s up with DougJ?!
Jim Allen
I took the poll, and the only surprise was that there were (at the time) 70 votes for “strongly approve”.
Jim Allen
OK, now I want to know what DougJ said that was stupid enough to deserve deletion.
Put it back! Put it back! Put it back!
(I need the laughs)
JoeTx
Good way to gauge the number of repubs on the site. Which would be about the same if they had that poll on Fox, they just want to see if any non kool-aid drinkers are browsing their site…
DougJ
Why not just make this a flame thread?
Sorry to be a pest earlier.
db
Why do this on Kos?…. To convince themselves that Bush’s approval numbers are actually below 39%?
Jim Allen
Yeah, when Fox or O’Reilly put up their equivalent polls, the lefty polls (Kos, AmericaBlog, Atrios, et al) recommend their readers take the poll as well. Probably some of that going on with Kos from the other side.
Usually, it’s the only way for lefties to get comments of any kind up on the conservative blogs. Our Man Cole is one of the few brave and/or masochistic enough to allow all of us LibTrolls to post. And hooray for John, say I.
TallDave
That poll definitely proves something, but probably not what Kos intended.
Mike S
You must have missed the latest CBS poll.
1% of Republicans and 2% of ind’s think President Bush’s response to the hurricane was “too quick.”
DougJ
“And hooray for John, say I.”
I second that.
jg
I approve of how he handled Afghanistan….early on.
capelza
SteveS..Bush, Sr. endeared himself to me (ducks glares from fellow libs) when that whole kerfuffle was going on..”I’m the President of the United States, I don’t HAVE to like broccoli”
I saw the poll…thought it was funny, like there was ANY doubt what the vast majority of it would be. Maybe he did want to see if it would be “freeped”…I never thought of that. “Freeping” wrecks any poll that is not done under controlled conditions and so pretty irrelavant.
vinc
96% of readers strongly believe it was a joke.
Krista
Are they on glue?
I can see those who think the response was quick enough. I wouldn’t agree with that opinion, but I can respect it. But to think that his response to a national disaster was “too quick”? I think I just fried a synapse trying to comprehend how anybody could think that.
ppGaz
Tom Tomorrow
For a real taste of life outside the Kool Aid pitcher ….
Defense Guy
Still Kool-aid, just a different flavor.
xrepub
“FEMA confiscates guns”, So much for Repubs protecting the second admendent. How much more are you going to put up with?
ppGaz
Right, of course. Anything you say.
You’re doing a heck of a job, DefenselessGuy.
(This is where you wink).
Defense Guy
Is this the witty banter part of the program?
Wink.
DougJ
I like you, Defense Guy.
Tractarian
Mr. Cole, it’s your blog and you can post anything you want, but if you want to steer clear of he-said-she-said partisan bickering, maybe you should focus on real issues of importance (like the performance of our elected leaders) rather than the predictable and unconsequential silliness of the hyper-partisan blogosphere?
Steve S
ppGaz – That made me spit my Kool-aid out on my monitor. LOL!
Defense Guy
I feel your love DougJ. Right back atcha.
circlethewagons
I strongly disapprove of the witty banter part of this program.
Krista
Witty banter is rather refreshing after some of the profanity-laced venom that was spewed all over this blog recently.
Maybe we should do our own poll? “Overall, when posting to this site, do you consider yourself to be:
a) perfectly reasonable and always right
b) perfectly reasonable and always right
c) perfectly reasonable and always right
d) perfectly reasonable and always right
e) at least I’m not as bad as Darrell.
Krista
My apologies to Darrell. Don’t mean to pick on you, but you do have a certain gift for inciting ire in others.
Defense Guy
Krista
I’d like to participate, but I don’t have a #2 pencil. I had a #2 pencil, but due to Bush’s initiation of federal budget cuts providing pencils to…..
Mac Buckets
These 70 people will have their Kos accounts deleted this afternoon, as they are clearly “trolls out to make trouble.”
And Krista…
can there be more than one answer to your poll? Color me A and C (but not B).
Defense Guy
Damnit my (inner) child was left behind.
ppGaz
For me, yes. For you, it’s the crawling-out-from-under-relentless-scorn-and-ridicule portion.
It’s all a matter of your point of view, you see.
Jim Allen
Re: “These 70 people will have their Kos accounts deleted this afternoon, as they are clearly ‘trolls out to make trouble.'”
Kos doesn’t require you to have an account to take a poll or to comment, only to post a diary.
Jimmy Jazz
The individual responsible for sacking the person responsible for the credits has himself been sacked.
And now, back to the dKos polls:
Tom Delay: effective public servant or a cronyistic, greedy, scum sucking bottom feeder and licker of Dobson’s anus? Take the poll!
over it
Now THAT is funny! :)
Nash
Yeah, all those polls at the Fox News website give unpredictable results too!
It’s been a while since I’ve called you a flaming hypocrite, just thought this was a good example and a good time.
Mike S
It cracks me up when people still use the stale K for C krap. I understand that he is a “political teen” but it just strikes me more as grade school.
You guys have some real winners coming along. Why this kid may almost be
dumbsmart enough for President Bush to appoint him to a key position in the administration. All he needs now is a connected room mate.DougJ
I’ve got another poll. Which do you hate the most?
(a) Freedom
(b) America
(c) The troops
(d) Hate all equally.
Another Jeff
“You guys have some real winners coming along.”
Says the guy from the party of Oliver Willis.
Clever
Im sad that they forgot “pie” as a choice.
Mmmm….pie.
over it
You forgot:
(e) Jesus
Defense Guy
Don’t worry ppGaz, I hear they are doing great things in ego-reduction surgery these days. One day, G-d willing, you will be able to see yourself for the sad pathetic old man the rest of the world sees you as.
Oh, you don’t believe in G-d? Forget it, yer f**ked!!!
Anderson
Some images I do *not* need. Thanks!
ppGaz
See, there you go puffing yourself up again.
The “rest of the world” doesn’t hang out at Balloon-Juice, compadre. Hate to burst your bubble.
the “rest of your world” might, though.
Defense Guy
ppGaz
Seriously man, you need to either drink far more or far less. Besides, there is no world outside of my frame of reference. The voices tell me this, and they NEVER, ever lie to me.
NEVER.
Well except that time regarding Jodie Foster and the Olson Twins, but that was taken care of with little fuss.
ppGaz
Rock on!
kl
Looks like 4% of the Kos Kidz are about to get BANNED!
Northman
How could they not with all the witty banter going on here?
ppGaz
To say nothing of the bitty wanter.
ppGaz
And the batty winter.
jg
You think Oliver Willis is stupid? I can understand disagreeing with him but to compare him to political teen? Whats that about?
kl
All available evidence.
Clever
Bitter wanker?
I kid, I kid.
Yaay anagrams…and extra letters.
jg
Since liberal now means ‘doesn’t agree with the views of Bush supporter’ I guess stupid now means ‘doesn’t see the world the same way as a Bush supporter’.
DougJ
Not quite: technically “doesn’t agree with everything Bush says or does” means you are a member of the loony far left, that you hate the troops, hate freedom, hate America, and are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Let me know if I left anything out.
DougJ
Not quite: technically “doesn’t agree with everything Bush says or does” means you are a member of the loony far left, that you hate the troops, hate freedom, hate America, and are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Let me know if I left anything out.
Narvy
I sincerely regret not having come to this thread earlier today. I think I’ve missed something. Making up for lost time:
without all that bickering there wouldn’t be any threads at all. We would be threadbare.
Bashing Kos is not important?
This seems to be the only thread that talks about anything else. Oh, sorry, I forgot about Intelligent Design.
All words preceding blogosphere in that clause are redundant.
Mike S
I find Oliver sometimes tedious. But these days I’m finding balloon juice the same.
No relection on John Cole, just the rest of us.
Mike S
much the same and reflection.
Krista
Just to play Devil’s Advocate (because it’s fun!), it also seems that the prevailing view is that “conservative” now means ultra-religious, unsophisticated, anti-choice, anti-contraceptive, pro-war, pro-torture, country-music-listening, brainless sheep.
Of course, anybody with half a brain realizes that there are plenty of diverse views within BOTH sides of the political spectrum. But when emotions run high, it’s all too easy to fall back on stereotypes, isn’t it?
Just a bit of off topic, did anybody else hear about Frank Stronach, and what he’s been doing for the evacuees? A fine, fine man.
Krista
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1126267349095_21/?hub=TopStories
DougJ
Liberals and conservatives have always stereotyped each other. There’s nothing new there. What’s new is sterotyping anyone of any political philosophy who criticizes the president.
jg
Thats my point. I criticize Bush but I’m not a liberal, yet I’m always called a lefty. (To be honest I do golf and bat left but I write and throw with my right hand).
Krista
It’s true, isn’t it? If you criticize anything about this administration, you immediately get labelled a liberal. And yet, there are hardcore fiscal conservatives who are absolutely appalled at the profligate spending by this administration.
ppGaz
But he’s a uniter, not a divider.
If there’s a problem, it must be you. This is no time to be playing the Blame Game.
Please don’t politicize this national crisis.
If there is any politicizing to be done, the President will do it for you.
Krista
ppGaz –
Yikes. They’re really masters of manipulation, aren’t they? I thought my mom was good, but they’re REALLY good.
DougJ
Krista, that’s kind of the point of this website, I think. John Cole wants to show people that you can be a conservative without worshipping at the Church of George Jesus Bush. He does a good job of it, I think. That’s why I was disappointed he lapsed into Bush apologist mode about the hurricane. I can see why he did — some nutty allegations were being hurled at Bush, no doubt — but it wasn’t really the right tone for this blog. That’s why I went a little nutty there.
Krista
We ALL went a little nutty about the hurricane. I think it was impossible for anybody to be cooly analytical and rational when we were seeing so much tragedy. It is really too bad that the Republican party’s voice has been hijacked by the type of people who think that George Bush really does have a direct line to God. And it’s also too bad that the Democratic party doesn’t actually have anything resembling a coherent, strong voice. Politics here are just as weird, if it’s any consolation. The Liberal party is full of corruption, and the Conservative party, if in power, would turn us into the 51st state.
Great choices we all have, no?
DougJ
Krista, neither party is conservative. Conservative means small government. At this point, the Democrats are probably a little more conservative, because they actually pay for their small government with taxes. A true conservative, if forced to accept big government, at least insists on paying for it.
And at the national level, the Republican party is more corrupt. Locally, it varies of course, I would have said that locally the Dems are more corrupt but after Coingate, I can’t say that anymore.
Krista
That’s the thing — these parties that are billing themselves as being conservative: they might be SOCIALLY conservative, but they’re in no way fiscally conservative. There was a woman who ran recently for leadership of the conservative party who was so incredibly refreshing, because she was socially progressive, but wanted to increase our military spending and reduce the bloat and waste in our government.
Of course, she didn’t win the leadership. Instead, we got a social antiquarian with creepy eyes who wanted Canada to join the “coalition of the willing.”
Mike S
They wouldn’t do that. Little Sean Hannity labeled the Westborough Baptist Church, http://www.godhatesfags.com/, a “anti war left group because they were protesting a soldiers funeral.
A main view of the left is that “God hates fags” right?
DougJ
Just so you all know, the new Rove line is to compare Katrina to 9/11 over and over again.
Krista
Why am I not surprised? The government had phenomenal support and goodwill after 9/11, and so maybe they figure that if they compare the two often enough, some of that goodwill might magically appear and apply to this situation.
jobiuspublius
I see John Cole has found a way to contain us.
Boronx
Bush isn’t liberal or conservative, he’s out to sea.
His foreign policy is adventurist and doesn’t take national interest as a top priority, so it’s not conservative. It’s also a humanitarian disaster and damaging to international law, so it’s not liberal.
Bush’s domestic policy is corrupt and over budget, so it’s not conservative, but it’s regressive and ineffective, so it’s not liberal either.
jobiuspublius
He’s a looter.
Richard Bennett
In a recent poll conducted by the Beirut Daily Star, 95% of Iraqi Kurds approve of the removal of Saddam.
What do they know that our Bush-haters don’t?
jobiuspublius
That Rummy was selling that bastard the weopons that evil turd used on them?
DougJ
That they’re going to get their own autonomous state when civil war breaks out between the Shiites and the Sunnis.
jobiuspublius
DougJ, who the hell are you!?!?!
ppGaz
That the United States doesn’t exist to give impetus to their political ambitions? I don’t give a flying fuck what they want. It’s not my problem. I’m not the world’s caretaker.
Richard Bennett
I don’t see a prize-winning answer yet, but the Kos talking points are getting their daily walk.
jobiuspublius
Kurdistan, the new Isreal.
ppGaz
What a lame goddamned thing to say.
What does Kos have to do with what I said? What does Kos have to do with the idea that the blood and treasure of my country is wasted on the political whims of people in fucking Iraq?
Screw you.
Richard Bennett
So the desire to escape genocide is now a “political whim?”
That’s an interesting Kossack reduction.
ppGaz
I don’t care what you call it, it is not my problem, or my responsibility. The world is full of despots and fucked up countries. I have no interest in going to war to save any of them. None. Zero.
Iraq can start taking responsbility for its own stability. Today. Whatever I might owe them is due entirely to the fact that my country stupidly started a war there for the wrong reasons and with wrong ambitions. The United States is not in the democracy business, and never has been. We have been in the anti-democracy business in the region for decades (Saudi oligarchy, Kuwaiti oligarchy, Shah of Iran … just to name a typical few).
They can take their crummy poll and put it where the sun doesn’t shine. Take it to some other sucker country that wants to play Save the Arabs from Themselves.
Narvy
DougJ says
Merriam-Webster begs to differ:
Yes, yes, I know evolving language, common usage, and all that, but I am compulsively pedantic.
I’ve aasked this before: Exactly waht are American consertives interrested in conserving, other than teenagers’ virginity? Why does “small government” always seems to mean “only implementing laws and funding activities that I support and not any others”?
Narvy
So many typos. Oh, the horror, the horror.
Narvy
Perhaps ppGaz’s apparently controversial statements should be taken to mean that it is not the responsibility of the United States to wage war to solve the internal problems of another country.
Richard Bennett
Exactly waht are American consertives interrested in conserving,
The usual answer to this is that they wish to conserve 18th century liberalism.
Richard Bennett
it is not the responsibility of the United States to wage war to solve the internal problems of another country.
Should I tell the hurricane refugees to fuck off and die because it’s not Oregon’s responsibility to help Louisiana?
That seems neither liberal nor Christian.
tBone
In a related poll, 95% of torture victims approve of the removal of the red-hot poker from their ass.
They are split, however, on whether the lemon-juice enema is an improvement.
ppGaz
Well, you’ve descended all the way down to non sequiturs now.
The answer to your non sequitur question is: No. Because, you see, Oregon and Louisiana are in the United States.
Iraq is not.
Shall I send you a World Atlas? Then you can see for yourself.
jobiuspublius
Let me explain. I don’t think that all the support that was given to the creation of Isreal was altruistic. If Kurdistan gets support I expect it will also be similarly non-altruistic. And, I’m not sure their desire for self-determination is just a whim.
ppGaz
Could be, but their desire to have me underwrite them is definitely a whim, because from me, they don’t get that.
Tough shit.
When I see Iraquis fighting like hell to have a stable country, I’ll be impressed. But not enough to commit the resources of the United States much longer. If we hadn’t foolishly gone in there in the first place, I wouldn’t support it for one day. But we did, so I must.
And to the other poster’s “Dos talking points” issue:
I’m afraid Kos might have gotten them from me. I haven’t changed my mind on this subject in 15 years, long before Kos ever existed.
jobiuspublius
A) Pork Growth, if you go by today’s congress.
b) Because it’s just a sales pitch.
Richard Bennett
ppGaz, it’s a good thing that people like you don’t get to elect a government.
Narvy
Touché! But do you see any indication of that among those who currently call themselves conservative?
Mike S
Make sure to mark the page for him. He doesn’t seem all that bright.
Richard Bennett
I’m looking at it now, and I see that Oregon is purple and surrounded by a dark line. Louisiana is green, and surrounded by a dark line. There’s another page where the US is pink, and Iraq is green.
Are you saying that only the green places can only be helped by the purple places and not the pink places? But doesn’t that mean Oregon still has to help Iraq?
It’s all very confusing to me, being not very bright and all. Please help me (if you’re the right color, I mean).
Narvy
Forgive me. I was under the impression that Oregon and Louisiana were parts of the same country called the United States, and that it was incumbent upon the United States to pool its constituents’ resources to provide relief (not quite the same as waging war) to other stricken constituents. Thank you for setting me straight.
Indeed, it would be neither. But I believe waging war without a clear threat to the nation (or all those unrelated entities like Oregon and Louisiana) is also neither liberal or Christian. Well, if we’re talking about waging a Crusade, I guess that would be Christian.
Narvy
The pedant says make that “… is also neither liberal nor Christian.”
Narvy
Please somebody, tell me that my sarcastic comments are not this silly. Please!
Richard Bennett
I seem to recall the US going to the aid of the UK a few years ago, at great cost in blood and treasure, but most Americans were OK with it. Sure, there were some who said it was just a bunch of dirty Jews and we shouldn’t worry about them, but we did it anyway. We even helped out the Froggies and the Russkies and we didn’t even like the Russkies.
I guess those Kurdistan dudes just aren’t as cool as all of them Europeans, right?
(I realize it’s hard for the Buchananites and the Kossacks to keep up, so I’m trying to keep this real easy.)
jobiuspublius
Narvy, sarcastic comments not silly. That’s my turf.
jobiuspublius
The problem with Kurdistan is that they don’t have any beach front property. That’s no fun.
ppGaz
That’s quite evident, but it’s not my problem.
This, to prove your point about being not very bright? Really, it was not necessary.
However, since you asked, we didn’t “help” Britain to helo those cute blonde people. We went to war against a common enemy that posed a real threat to the West, and the world, and the United States.
That was not the case in Iraq. There was no proximate threat, not in 1991, and not in 2003.
jobiuspublius
I miss DougJ.
DougJ
There are no conservatives in American political life anymore. Does that answer your question?
Narvy
I guess you’re right. It was proper for us to respond to Iraq’s request for aid against a hostile neighbor.
Or it was improper for the US to respond to come to the aid of the European powers and “the Russkies” because Germany posed no threat to the US, only to its allies. Yes, I know, Hitler is supposed to have entertained fantasies of dividing the world between Germany and the US, but I’m not sure that deal would have held for the entire thousand years of the Reich, and maybe that’s why Germany was seen as a real threat.
Y’know Richard, it would be helpful if you would point out the parallels between the threats from Germany and from Iraq, and the parallels between our European allies in the mid-twentieth century and our Kurdish allies at the turn of the twenty-first century, and why the two situations called for similar military responses. I can be turned if you can present a cogent case.
And charges of anti-Semitism are not cogent. Or supported by anything I’ve written.
But wait! Perhaps you’re implying that (1) because I don’t think war with Iraq was justified (2) then I must not think that World War II was justified and (3) therefore must be an anti-Semite, which is (4) an absolutely Holmesian chain of deduction.
And while we’re doing exercises in parallelism, exactly what are the similarities between Pat Buchanan and Kos &Co.?
This is the longest post I’ve ever made. I must really be pissed off.
jobiuspublius
I’ll be happy the day the c and l words finally die.
Narvy
Yup. I can’t believe I actually typed “consertives interrested”. Must have been my evil twin.
DougJ: What about the other question in that post?
Narvy
Crackpot and Libertarian?
I don’t make the language Dude, I just use it.
Narvy
Friends, I have homework to do and a working weekend ahead, so I really have to leave. But not before observing that John Cole is truly prescient. He named this thread “This Made Me Laugh” before Richard Bennett posted a single word.
jobiuspublius
Yeah, I hate when I burst out in obscenities, but, what can I do?
jobiuspublius
ROFLMAO, Narvy.
Narvy
But before I actually go, this coda:
Take a look at the ad in the upper left corner. The title of the book is “Hollywood Nation”, and it’s being advertised with the slogan “Now entering Hollywood Nation – where fact blurs with fiction…” The author really ought to talk to his ad agency.
Narvy
Thank you. Wait, I can’t do that, I just left.
DougJ
That’s what ALL government means. No one wants to implement laws they don’t support. I think the government should fund as few activities as possible, but let me add that I think that protecting citizens from disasters is very high up on my list, maybe in a a two way tie with keep the nation safe from disease and keep the nation safe from attack. But really no one wants the government to do things they don’t support, do they?
Anyway, what do I know? John says I’m a liberal.
DougJ
John, also why always picking fights with Kossacks? No one thinks that highly of them. How about the americablog guy or talkingpoints guy? You’re not going to improve until you start playing against better competition.
jobiuspublius
DougieJ, what happened? I detect a disheartened tone. You were on fire.
DougJ
I am disheartened.
DougJ
The death of conservatism depresses me deeply. Almost as much as the fact that my favorite city is under water.
Narvy
I came back.
I wasn’t clear. Maybe I should have said “only implementing laws and funding activities that I support and actively opposing any others no matter what merit they might have”. I think it is possible to be neutral about a law or program to the extent that it may not fit with one’s own wishes or philosophy but might be seen to benefit civil society as a whole. Or not, if you don’t agree, in which case I guess my question is answered.
Narvy
As someone who frequently takes a liberal position, I find a lot – not all, mind you – of what shows up on Kos to be an embarrassment. I agree heartily with DougJ, you ought to engage with bloggers who show some ability to see and think.
Re my liberal positions: I have been known to crack open a copy of Reason Magazine, although I think Ayn Rand wrote comedy. Very badly. (Take me, Howard Roark!!!)
Tree
I have a poll I would like too see world wide:
Who is the most hated man in the World in the last fifty years:
A: Hitler
B: George W. Bush
C: Castro
Who do you think would be the Number #1 Winner?
I think it would be A:
jobiuspublius
Ah, but, DougJ, now you are free. Look at it this way, now you twice as many quacks to shoot. It’s like being a kid in th candy store again.
jobiuspublius
Oh, I forgot about NO, sorry. Um, thoe quacks are bound to keep pissing everybody off. They always over reach. NO will be saved.
Tree
OOPS….
Meant B:
Silly me.
Narvy
Depends on where you take the poll. I doubt that Hitler would win in South Florida.
ppGaz
Good grief, some of the silly crap that passes for comment around here!
DKos, first of all, is a clearinghouse. Thousands post there, dozens advance diaries.. It is not the work of a self-appointed “diarist in chief” who steers the threads and manages the comment traffic. It’s basically an electronic streetcorner, and maybe the most peopled one in the political blog world.
The founder, Markos, is a rather modest and unassuming chap who keeps a rather low profile and generally speaks softly, when he speaks at all.
The only constant at DKos is a wide variety of comment, viewpoints, and styles. There is wide and deep and outspoken disagreement among posters, and it is about as democratic and free-wheeling as it can get and still maintain its liberal integrity.
It is very rare, in BJ or most other of these chat rooms, to see any comment about DKos that is in any way aligned with reality.
As a denizen of several blogs, including DKos and BJ, I’d describe them this way:
DKos is an essential read. The pointers to other material alone are worth the time. BJ is a better place to post. Markos is a brilliant political thinker, who often hides his light under a bushel. What he’s done over there is remarkable and has changed the landscape.
BJ, on the other hand, is all about one person, really. Which is fine, but trying to compare the two sites is like comparing apples ….. and ocean liners.
DougJ
It’s possible, but I think that as a citizen you should try to decide whether you’re for it or not.
jobiuspublius
Um fifty years back would be 1955? Maybe Mao can make the list.
Tree
My fingers got too fast and hit A: by mistake. I truly believe the George W. Bush would win hands down in a World Wide Poll.
Hitler would more than likely be a middle of the road second and Castro would hardly get any votes, except by the Cuban Americans and Cubans.
Narvy
C’mon, get real. Assuming you mean polling in the US only: Bill Clinton. Ted Kennedy. Richard Nixon. Joseph McCarthy. Hillary Clinton. Well, she is reputedly not a man so she may not fit your criteria. Donald Rumsfeld. Dick Cheney. Barbra Streisand (oops, another woman, doesn’t count). Too many most hated potential winners to count.
jobiuspublius
America: The Bananna Republic Years, 2000-2008
Narvy
Accurate, but I stand by my earlier comment.
Tree
Yes, we can add Mao to the list. Also lets make it 75 years instead of fifty. Anyone else to add? Any ideas?
jobiuspublius
When was the last time the US had to accept foreign aid?
jobiuspublius
“Bubbles” Coulter: Boo Boop Dee SCREACH
Narvy
In that case, maybe Josef Stalin? Y’know, Bush’s reputation can’t touch Hitler and Stalin. Which goes to support the proposition that Bush is a loser.
Narvy
Yeah, you could say we’re in a Gap.
DougJ
Let’s not play the blame game, people.
Narvy
Fortunately, your brain did not.
ppGaz
If my remarks are accurate, yours earlier comment is meaningless.
I assume that’s what you are referring to.
That’s a little like saying that a lot of what goes through the phone lines is embarassing. Is that about the phone company? Or the people talking to each other?
DKos is about as close to pure bandwidth as you can get and still have any structure at all. The content is about the content providers, not DKos.
“Unrestrained speech is often embarassing.” Now, that is true. Let’s go with that. And let’s consider ourselves lucky that we have unrestrained speech. At least, for now. Bush is still in office for several more years.
ppGaz
Who is the most hated figure in the world?
A. Kim Jong Il
B. Satan
C. The Grinch who Stole Christmas
D. The Big Bad Wolf
E. Cindy Sheehan
F. Geraldo Rivera
DougJ
Which is why it is too easy to cherry pick for dumb comments. It’s like going through FreeRepublic for stupid things — which Kos itself does. (There’s actually a Kos diary devoted to the idiocy of my earlier DougJ persona, how dumb is that?)
ppGaz
I don’t know. I couldn’t get you to talk about your personas.
As far as I still know, you could be a creation of John.
For that matter, so could I.
jobiuspublius
Glad to see someone is on fire. :)
tBone
Link?
Also, I hope that Tree is a new “stupid liberal” persona you’re trying out. Because I don’t want to believe he could actually be for real.
Tree
OK, let me rephase the question:
Who was\is the most hated Leader in the World in the last fifty years:
A: Hitler
B: George W. Bush
C: Castro
D: Mao
E: Stalin
F: Kim Jong Il
Tree
OOPS… Should read:
Who was\is the most hated Leader in the World in the last 75 years:
A: Hitler
B: George W. Bush
C: Castro
D: Mao
E: Stalin
F: Kim Jong Il
Narvy
Let’s try it your way:
I find a lot – not all, mind you – of the wide variety of comment, viewpoints, and styles to be an embarrassment. Does that have no meaning? I find a lot of [any plural or collective noun you care to plug in] to be an embarrassment. I dunno, it looks like a meaning to me.
I don’t think the analogy holds. All the phone conversations on DKos are accessible simultaneously by anyone who picks up a receiver. But if you want to hang on to it, a lot – not all, mind you – of what I hear when I tap into multiple phone conversations is embarrassing. That says nothing about the phone company, and what I said says nothing about the DKos website as a medium of transmission.
Come to think of it, where did I say
Did you read my comment as an attack on Kos personally? Not my intent. I just find a lot of what his diarists and commenters publish there … embarrasing to one who likes to think of himself as a thoughtful liberal (with libertarian leanings, which is probably the very definiton of meaningless).
Peace, brother. (Disclaimer: This is not to be construed as a sexist assumption. I guess that you’re a guy.)
ppGaz
No.
But I did think that essentially saying that “speech can be embarassing” was a little odd …. considering the source and the venue we are in.
I think I’m arguing that speech is just speech, but now I’m too tired to be sure.
Narvy
Sheesh! While I was carefully crafting my thoughtful, persuasive, conciliatory reponse to ppGaz, all hell broke loose about Tree’s asininity and DougJ’s imitation of a John LeCarre novel. I can’t keep up! Slow down, dammit!
DougJ
Here’s the link to daily kos diary that talks about the old DougJ
BTW, I’m still the same old G, I just couldn’t keep that stuff up after the hurricane.
ppGaz
I’m sorry, the cat knocked my decoder ring behind the bookcase.
What’ a G, again?
Narvy
Well, there you are. It wasn’t about speech as SPEECH, it was about thoughtless, unanalytic, kool-aid drinking parroting of some knee-jerk, unnuanced, by-the-numbers doctrine. The Right does it big-time, but the Left does it, too.
DougJ
Ppgaz, I suggest you spend a little quality time with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s classic album The Chronic.
ppGaz
Succor!
I’m a 59-year-old white guy. Liberalism has its limits.
;-)
WTF is a G?
ppGaz
Yes, in my family, that was my mother.
DougJ
Ppgaz, it stands for gangsta.
DougJ
While we’re on the topic of hip-hop, no matter what John thinks of him, Kanye West is the best rapper to come along in quite a while. Really literate, clever without trying to hard.
tBone
It’s a homey. A brutha. A swell pal.
ppGaz
Ah, the hip, but imprecise, pronoun.
Sorry to be a stick in the mud. I spent 50 years studying American popular music. I can’t really convince myself now to include something that sounds mostly like a motor with a bad connecting rod.
I realize it’s very hip, witty, literate and theatrical.
DougJ
Tbone’s description is more accurate. I was just saying what it stood for.
kl
Paging Dr. Freud…
Narvy
Sure is. You can tell that from the titles.
DougJ
I didn’t say The Chronic was literate, I said Kanye West was.
ppGaz
Fa shizzle dizzle, its the big Neptizzle
with the Snoopy D-O-Double Jizzle!
‘Night, awight.
ppGaz
Word.
DougJ
I like Snoop, but that always sounds kind of like yiddish to me.
tBone
Well, “Deeez Nuuuts” is a sensitive exploration of gender issues in 1990s America. Or so I’ve been told.
ppGaz
Bei mir bist du shoen.
Narvy
I can’t post in this language. I’m going to go listen to some Dr. Sondheim lyrics and do the homework I alluded to sometime in the last century. Please don’t post anything entertaining while I’m gone.
Narvy
It’s “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.” So now I have to go listen to the Barry Sisters and do my homework.
Narvy
Make that the Dr. Barry Sisters.
Narvy
Actually, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” was recorded by the Dr. Andrews Sisters, but it’s late and I’m tired and my ethnomusicology guru has gone missing so I make this kind of mistake.
ppGaz
I think shoen, shein, sheyn and other soundalikes are tolerable alternate spellings of this transliterated word.
Narvy
I suppose you can make this argument if you start with the Hebrew characters expressing Yiddish. But the Yiddish shoen, shein, sheyn, whatever is a transliteration into Yiddish of the German “schoen”, which is really spelled that way. Tolerable, yes, but you know by now that you’re dealing with an OCD-enabled, nit-picking, pedantic perfectionist, so just let me have my way and we can go on to something even more trivial.
ppGaz
“Tolerable” is relative, of course.
I must now sign off, as my only remaining brain cell just exploded.
Narvy
pp (I feel that by now I can use the familiar form of address), this is a lot of fun – human interaction without actual human interaction – but I have to stop. Can we pick this up later?
ppGaz
Thud.
Gray
Hmm, I’m surprised. More than 800 (=4%) repub nutcases visit Kos?