Category: Meta

The Legacy of War — and Lessons Unlearned

In his farewell address to the nation after spending 8 years as president, in 1961 Eisenhower warns of a growing danger.

Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Why would a respected President, set the sights so high, for his successors, and for America, as the dawn of the Television Age, blazed its path, towards an unknown Future?  

Welcome New Users

I’d like to extend a genuine welcome to people who are joining the site out of a desire to find a spot that is a little port of orange.  When I joined dK it was to find a place where I could express myself without the fear that I might expose myself as a (shudder) Democrat.

And have no doubt about it, I am a yellow dog Democrat who stopped voting Republican even for dog catcher many years ago.

Equally I am interested in Democratic electoral victory since I understand that only with overwhelming majorities will our supposed Representatives overcome their craven, cowardly instincts and occasionally be persuaded to do the right thing.  Indeed I think the emergence of a Democratic Democratic Party can only occur after the Republican Party, the party of thieves, murderers, despots, and liars, is as dead as the Whigs so our Representatives can no longer threaten us like gangsters to choose the lesser of two evils.

Nice little country you’ve got here, shame if anything happened to it.  Vote for me.

I understand the mission of dK and agree with it, but I don’t agree with them on all things.  To choose a trivial but early example, I think the 0ne Diary A Day policy is stultifying and unnecessary and I have expressed that sentiment on numerous occasions.

When buhdy provided me the opportunity to be a Contributing Editor and later Admin here I was grateful for the opportunity to help shape a system that addressed some of the flaws I perceived.

Which is not to say that there aren’t rules and procedures.

Meet the deadatom and how i learned to relax

Hi!  I am deadatom!  Or rather, i am the person who uses this handle on the world wide web.  A lot of people have made me out to be some sort of monster.  Those people are wrong.  I’m much worse!  A human being like everyone else who is prone to errors and bad judgement calls.  

For example, when i was a younger man i was a real sack of shit.  One time, in the year 2000, i even defended no child left behind! shudders.  How did i go from right wing idiot to the deadatom that i am now?  Basically i did a lot of drugs for 4-5 years straight.  Good times!

Buhdydharma Is Bad For Daily Docudharma!

Rules, rules, rules.

So, I’m in a meta mood, and I never met a meta I didn’t abhor. Even my own.

I’m an administrator at this site, and my UID is #6, which has all sorts of implications, if you’ve ever been to Portmeiron, Wales or hung out at Daily Kos, so I have some things to say.

First of all, Israel and Palestine both suck. I haven’t decided which sucks worse, but when I do, I will be sure to post all sorts of hateful diaries about it. Because I’m pure.

Second of all, Daily Kos sucks. I could list countless reasons why it sucks. You can list countless reasons why it sucks. Buhdy doesn’t want this to be a Daily Kos bashing site, but I’m an administrator, here, and I want to bash Daily Kos! I haven’t written a thing there since earlier today, and I intend to prove my hatred for the place by not writing anything there ever again, until I feel like it. Which might be tomorrow. But it still sucks.

Third of all, you’d better be very nice to me or I’ll ban your ass! I like money. Money is good. Give me money, and I promise I won’t ban your ass. Other parts of you, maybe, but not your ass.

Fourth of all, I’m tired of counting. I’m tired. I have a toddler and a newborn, and I’m tired.

So, I guess traffic here has picked up, the past few days. Next thing you know, we’ll be inundated by pootie diaries, and then Keith Olbermann will bless us with his presence, and we can all fawn and drool. I can’t wait!

We haven’t had a good GBCW in quite a while. That’s what you n00bs are here for. We’re going to start picking on you, so some of you can get offended and leave. I can’t wait!

So, welcome everyone. Do your best to offend people and be offended, and you’ll fit right in.  

Redemption Songs

Crossposted from Agent Orange … those who can still rec over there, feel free.

An Open Letter to TocqueDeville

This is going to be short as there is not much to say about it, but the Dog thinks it needs to be said. Integrity is something the Dog strives for, but does not always achieve as well as he would like. It is in this spirit that he would like to offer the text of an e-mail that was sent this afternoon.  

Meta — Engineering.

So, The Dog Was Completely Wrong About Sen. Specter

Okay, there is nothing the Dog hates more than having to admit to being wrong (being a member of the First Church of the Fonz it is nearly against our religion!) but when you start to try to be in any fashion credible in commentary, even as a lowly poster on a community blog you have to be ready to walk back statements or arguments that are wrong.  

Just posted a diary on DKos that you might enjoy regarding DH

I don’t come here often anymore, even knowing that it’s a good crowd, mostly because I have found I have a hell of a time monitoring more than one web site in real time.  But occasionally I post something at DKos that I think people here will enjoy.  This is one of those times.

Mastering the Incredible Adjustable Houle Hoop!

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

Most conservatives and some liberals — pay attention to those words “most” and “some,” because they will become important later on! — prefer to argue in generalities, both in terms of whom they attack and the grounds on which they attack them, because that makes it easier both to hurl charges and to defend oneself from countercharges later on.

If you’re reading this manual, it is probably because you have just been given a Houle Hoop — the device that makes this tactic easier!  You will learn below how to deploy your Houle Hoop so that it can be adjusted as often as needed to ensure that people will be dazzled by your ability to avoid contradiction for any claim you make!

My 2¢

I tend not to write meta, but I recently felt frustrated to be part of the Docudharma community and wanted to share why. I’ve debated against sharing my opinions, but I decided against self-censorship in this situation.

So the following essay is my opinion only and does not represent the Docudharma admins of which I am not a part.

From a WTC essay, I learned of the talking point many of in our community apparently share. The view seems to be that there was a non-al-Qaeda-led conspiracy that contributed to the WTC towers collapse and anyone who disagrees with that assessment has their eyes closed or has been brainwashed or something. I feel such ‘group think’ discourages a reasoned, thoughtful, perhaps even skeptical discourse.

The essay was cross-posted to Daily Kos in, what I feel was, a childish mocking of their site’s guidelines. I feel it was as if the writer was deliberately trying to annoy that community and the comments in the essay seem more to be about the Daily Kos connection than about the validity of the subject matter of the essay.

Another essay lambasted what the Daily Kos community failed to cover. While it is mildly interesting that, for the most part, that blog’s community had largely turned a blind eye to Larry Summers part-time Wall Street gig that landed him $5.2 million, I think it misses the mark. Instead of focusing on some other blog’s omission, why not write essays damning the corrupt Larry Summers? The void creates an essaying opportunity on an important topic for the Docudharma community.

I’m disappointed that the Docudharma community seems more upset about the lack of coverage on another blog than the actual subject itself. Why should someone else cover it when we here at Docudharma only seem to care about the lack of the Larry Summers coverage on another blog?

I’m confident there is a wealth of opinions about Daily Kos, but I feel wallowing in them here is counterproductive to Docudharma’s own identity and energy.  

Prosecuting Those Responsible.


(After quantifying US casualties on September 11, 2001.)

These measurements obviously did not capture the full meaning of September 11. A familiar terrorist threat announced itself that day with frightening new proximity and ambition. But decision made in the White House, in response, had incomparably greater impact on American interests as a society.

Barton Gellman in Angler – The Cheney Vice Presidency, page 132.

It is entirely by design that bringing abusers of power to justice will be riddled with setbacks. The Bush 43 leaders and high level advisors used deliberate sleight of hand to insure their prosecution was improbable. They are counting on the fact that the decision to prosecute them is entirely political, and that willingness to to spend political capital for crimes gone by will be small. But they’ve also fortified their steps with subtleties that make it harder to figure what went wrong.

It will take a lot more than just energizing the left wing behind the cause and supporting Senator Leahy to bring lawbreakers to justice. We have to convince the American mainstream if we are going to make prosecution happen. A mainstream that has demonstrated time and again that they are certain to miss the subtlety.

A promise kept

Somewhere among my last entries here before the Election SeasonSM began in earnest last year, I promised to post something about why things are not as bad as they may seem stateside.  Please forgive that I’ve not followed up until now.

(Regarding Election SeasonSM itself, well, Metaphorical Carpet Bombing with facts as munitionsSM, TM in the dkos realm worked out pretty well, IMO.  So began the Revolution.  And most of it was televised after all.)

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