My diary history at Daily Kos, part 2

Well!  I put up part one of my annotated diary history at Daily Kos (the annotations are what make it something new) last night, and when I tried to put up part two tonight it was administratively removed.  So I’m going to post it here and link to it.  Initially, I’m going to post it as one huge file if I can; then I’ll break it up into multiple pieces.  (I’m not sure what the posting limitations are here.)  I had origially wanted it to appear in one diary, so maybe this will turn out for the best.  I stopped when the software here refused to post anything more.

It’s leading up to pretty much what you’d expect.  Sorry to use up so much of your space, buhdy, but you owe me.  (I’m not sure for what, but I’ll think of something.)

This diary may be the most self-indulgent thing that I’ve ever seen on [DKos], so I’m posting it at a quiet hour and asking that people do not recommend it.  (I mean it.  I don’t want to spawn imitators.)  Note that I’ll soon be traveling, possibly without computer access, so my year here is over and I choose to mark it in this way.

When posters have complained about a lack of reader response, about never making the Rec List, and so on, I’ve sometimes suggested that they take the word “diary” literally.  A traditional diary may one day be published, or may serve as grist for a memoir, but it is foremost written for ourselves, to memorialize our own thoughts.  (We just happen to do so out here in the open.)  If we’re lucky and so disposed, a diary may also change others’ thinking and perhaps the world.  Regardless, it has value in its being written and being ours.

And so: here is part 2 of an easy-to-read annotated list, from latest to earliest (in proper blog form), of every diary I have written here at Daily Kos as Major Danby (less the first 78 that I listed there.)  Thanks to Markos, the CEs, and my friends and readers for helping me generate, publish, refine, defend, and now compile the work described below.  Without you, there would have been nothing.

Like all of the others listed below, except where indicated with a “CA-42” designation, this diary is not affiliated with any candidate or campaign.

Diaries marked with a “+” after the number of comments are ones that I feel represent my best writing or are otherwise notable.

(124) An open letter to voters, dated March 7, 2010 – foretelling a future in which Republican claim that perpetrators of crimes uncovered in Plame investigations have “suffered enough” and arguing that deterrence requires they continue (27 comments)

(123) Restoring Our Constitution: Habeas – Corpse? Part 4 — It Could Happen To You – reviewing the social psychology of denial of collective threats, then asking whether the legal term “unlawful enemy combatant” could apply to U.S. citizens.  I think so (49 comments) +

(122) Restoring Our Constitution: Habeas – Corpse? Part 3 — Changing the Law – analyzing the Military Commissions Act with an eye towards what should be changed (66 comments) +

(121) Restoring Our Constitution: Habeas – Corpse? Part 2 – Executive War Powers – describing the Administration’s mangling of the law regard war powers (32 comments) +

(120) Restoring Our Constitution: Habeas – Corpse? Part 1 – Jurisdiction Stripping – first of four diaries in Jay Elias’s “Restoring Our Constitution” series, this one explaining the dangers of “jurisdiction stripping” (118 comments) +

(119) ACTION: Where do House Dems stand on defunding? – in which I respond to Armando’s “nightly diatribes against the Dem Congress on defunding” by suggesting that we count votes to facilitate lobbying (41 comments)

(118) Starting a serious blog – a “how to?” diary – asking for advice on how best to start blogging (87 comments)

(117) Huckabeeyond belief: “losing WW2 would’ve been OK” – the Huckster says that unlike any other world war we’ve ever fought, World War III (in which we are presently engaged) is one we cannot afford to lose.  I make fun of him.  Bookmark it if he gets nominated (327 comments) +

(116) “We can fight one of two wars in Iraq” – still arguing that the best approach in Iraq is to tell Americans that we will redirect our forces to fight against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia only (37 comments) +

(115) No, you will not get to say that you were right – a challenging and controversial diary, arguing that we all have different roles in fostering activist and that identifying a problem without offering a viable solution shouldn’t get one much credit.  Also criticized “impeachment underwear gnomes” (674 comments) +

(114) A nasty diary about repealing the “martial law” provision – we can agitate for repealing the NDAA 2007 Martial Law provisions of, but let’s not even try unless we plan to follow through (59 comments)

(113) My GOD how I love the new “recs” page tab! – silly meta-diary celebrating others’ diaries that I had once recommended and were now collected in one place (119 comments)

(112) Can Bush stay in Iraq based on the 2001 AUMF? – arguing that if we repealed the Iraq War Resolution, Bush would argue that he could stay in Iraq anyway on the pretense of fighting Al Qaeda (58 comments) +

(111) I think that we are now ready to impeach Dick Cheney – while continuing to oppose impeaching Cheney for substantive crimes, favoring impeaching him for his rejecting all oversight.  Popular largely for the title, I’d bet (641 comments) +

(110) Feingold & Iraq: do we use a hammer or dynamite? – standing with Feingold against the “defundamentalists”; first truly explicit diary in a long, sad series (205 comments) +

(109) Is Malkin in bounds?  I say “yes.”  Now for revenge. – disagreeing that Malkin’s attacks on Amanda Marcotte were somehow out of bounds, but resolving to make her regret them (88 comments)

(108) Why the Dems are caving on a non-binding Iraq resolution – favoring using symbolic resolutions like Reid-Feingold I as wedges to turn up the heat on Republicans.  Not a popular position, but an interesting discussion (49 comments) +

(107) The War Power Debate Redux (evening edition) – turning a response to Armando into a diary arguing that Congress need not choose between a blank check and defunding a war but can choose middle approach (104 comments) +

(106) Success in Iraq hinges on my dating Parminder Nagra – the joke was that Bush was using the threat of “failure in Iraq” to push for the surge despite its not likely improving our situation, and two can play at that game.  Funny comments (104 comments) +

(105) So what do you do for a living? (Jan. ’07 edition) – thinking about health insurance, wondering how people earn a living.  It was interesting (198 comments)

(104) Sheehan, Waters, Pelosi, Feinstein, and Tauscher – using these women as examples, discussed how people across the political spectrum ought to interact productively  (201 comments) +

(103) (squirm baby squirm) BushCo inferno! – Every once in a while, after a series of good diaries, I like to post something truly pointless like this celebration of the SOTU Address.  Readers responded appropriately (19 comments)

(102) “OK, ‘pro-lifers’: will you pay to raise this baby?” – brainstorming a novel approach to family planning clinic protests; I still think it’s worth considering (128 comments) +

(101) They might like us more if we’d stop raping them – a rant against Bill Kristol and our Iraq policy that rests above all on asserting our right to take what it not ours.  The words “rape” is mostly metaphorical, which got discussed (215 comments) +

(100) DKos is worth killing – I hadn’t realized before now that this was my 100th diary.  Highly controversial defense of Markos’s decision to crack down on copyright violations with photos, which led to a variety of good, bad, and odd consequences (433 comments) +

(99) Registered lobbyists on DKos – asking that people come clean about their affiliations and preferences.  I eventually implemented this on DKosopedia, to almost universal indifference (133 comments)

(98) Drinking Liberally tonight in Santa Ana (plus fire ants) – just recruiting people to come meet the new kid in town; met some nice people (22 comments)

(97) Sen. Gordon Smith, your bill has come due – challenging Sen. Smith to live up to the good press he got when he switched to oppose the Iraqi occupation (21 comments)

(96) If we leave Iraq, do we bomb future Iraqi Al Qaeda sites? – prefiguring Sen. Feingold’s position that even post withdrawal we could still target Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia’s sites and satisfy the public’s security concerns (64 comments)

(95) My vigil last night, your vigil today – photo essay describing my private New Year’s Eve vigil at the Huntington Beach Civic Center (85 comments)

(94) Midnight tonight, with candles and a list of names – when the 3000th U.S. soldier died on New Year’s Eve, many vigils got postponed one day.  I decided to stick to the original plan of how I’d mark that day and hold my own (24 comments)

(93) Dick Cheney has a point- one of my favorites among my diaries.  Don’t judge it by it’s title: the “point” is something that Dick Cheney wants to prove: that “our country [cannot survive in the 21st century as a liberal democracy.”  This is the Three Days of the Condor diary (524 comments) +

(92) Herman Melville on political motivation – this is a trifling diary citing a passage from Moby Dick (“I am game for his crooked jaw….”) that I still think says a lot about disputes within the netroots; take a look (26 comments)

(91) Volley 4 in ‘The Impeachment of George W. Bush’ – my second interchange with Vyan about impeachment, on Christmas Day (64 comments) +

(90) Place your bets: what will the Iraq escalation bring? – had I bee a columnist, this would have been a reader-generated effort (71 comments)

(89) Put your Presidency where your mouth is, Mr. Bush – challenging Bush to wager his Presidency on whether the surge would lead to meeting benchmarks (and no, I never thought he’d do it) (44 comments)

(88) The Defense in the Impeachment of George W. Bush – part of an extremely worthwhile exchange of diaries with Vyan discussing actual viable grounds for impeachment (541 comments) +

(87) Is Bush waiting for another 9/11 to save his bacon? – discussion of whether the surge was a stall tactic, waiting for an attack (87 comments)

(86) Vigilant advice: How will you honor 3000 dead troops? – discussion of how to do vigils (34 comments)

(85) Bush Admin squeezes ACLU to turn back time on leak – a breaking news diary from the NYT on BushCo anti-ACLU courtroom shenanigans (36 comments)

(84) A naked subject to the weeping clouds – it’s easy to say that we should leave Iraq, and hard to grapple with the shape in which we leave it.  This diary sought inspiration on the subject from Shakespeare and Juan Cole (28 comments) +

(83) A website of Indians, governed by Swedes – another meta-based skirmish in the OPOL wars that looked to rip the site apart after the election; similarly unpopular, but I think similarly worth a read today (281 comments) +

(82) The function of attitudes towards impeachment – the analysis in this one stands up, though it was not popular at the apex of the impeachment drumming (64 comments) +

(81) Barack Obama, Lincoln Chafee, and Sister Souljah – actually sort of a nice think piece admonishing Obama not to triangulate against the secular Left (133 comments) +

(80) In Praise of Those Not Chosen – remember in 2006 when you could cut the tension over FP selections with a knife?  That’s what prompted this appreciation (52 comments)

(79) On a big argument I had in someone’s diary – this was riffing on my then continual fighting with my now-friend OPOL, to get people to read an article from Slate that vindicated occams hatchet’s earlier writing on Godwin’s Divide (61 comments)