::::::::
Gate keepers on the "Left" and the demise of the American RepublicLet me begin with why this is being posted as a diary and not an article. Last week I submitted an Op-Ed titled "Israel kicks the dog. Again" after having it removed from the current events forum at Arianna Huffington's site "DebateBothSides.com". I left the forum in disgust after over three years of regular posting there because they decided that if anyone expresses an opinion about Israel, it's removed to a separate forum for "anti Semite" posts. Apparently the current inferno in Lebanon is not considered a "current event" by the site's moderators. The article was also rejected here at Op Ed news.
The recent Senate vote universally supporting the absolutely murderous war crimes being under taken by Israel right now, is evidence for me, that as a country, our biggest problem really isn't the Republicans; it's the mis-named "center" of the Democratic party; It has enabled this national nightmare under Bush every step of the way. But this is not a new phenomena. It's been the problem since LBJ escalated the Vietnam war.
I believe the current situation clearly demonstrates that the position taken by Rob Kall his recent editorial, "Middle East Politics Divides Progressives";
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_060721_middle_east_politics.htm
is in fact a viewpoint responsible historically, for every failed policy of the last 40 years. For 40 years, self-proclaimed "centerists" have dominated the Democratic party when in reality, they are not the center of anything, but merely tolerated and occasionaly elected as the lesser of evils. That tolerance is now rightly up against the wall (Iconic cultural pun intended).
A quick scan of Daily Kos today revealed that nowhere on it's front page do the words "Lebanon" or Israel" appear. Given what's taking place, and knowing how Kos actually operates, I do not find this to be coincidental; we who are truly progressive in our values, are actively being silenced by those who falsely lay claim to the term progressive. I believe the term should have some kind of meaning, beginning with actual progress. What we have witnessed however, has been a continual assault on the so-called left (and it is not really "the left" at all) from both the right and DLC gate keepers operating within the Democratic party. The misnaming of "the left" and misnaming of "the center" are not only not coincidental, but vital for the purposes of the gate keepers attempting to maintain their hold on power. Make no mistake about it; the Democratic party's "problems" have NOT largely been because they are not in a majority; their problem has been that they've refused over and over again to wield the power they do have. Give them more and there's no available evidence that they will wield it effectively against the forces which have subverted the United States into a nation of slaves forced to fund the global mass murder that maintains the military industrial complex. If you disagree, I suggest you go look at the Senate vote supporting Israel's supreme crime against humanity in their unjustified destruction of the entire country of Lebanon. No, Democrats are not only not going to be the answer, but if elected into a majority, they will do nothing to alter the crisis confronting the United States, that being it's obscene foreign policy and phony war on terror as the pretense. I'm afraid the best one can hope for, is that when the American people are once again herded like sheep into electing the false center of American politics, they'll see the Democrats under assault from the right again and it'll be like the Clinton wars all over again. Repeat after me; Bill Clinton was NOT my friend", nor is Hillary, nor in fact is anyone in congress save for a literal handful of Democrats, and even the Principled Republican Ron Paul. Sorry to be the bearer of terrible news, but we are truly screwed.
Here then, are two articles, the first being my rejected submission from last week, and the second being one I wrote 5 months ago regarding the subversion of the opposition which I believe takes place as a matter of formal policy at Daily Kos:
7-19-06
Israel kicks the dog. Again.
We've watched this little game play out for how long now? Let's begin this dissection with a proper definition of "Totalitarian religious ideology" and "Terrorist". You know, just so we get off on the right track.
Totalitarian religious ideology: "God chose us. He chose us to take your land as our land, and to take your houses as our own". There you go. If you can't agree to that, read no further.
"Terrorism": "Because you've dared to fight back when we took your land and homes, we will kill civilians in the country you live in simply for their crime of their daring not to drive you from their midst".
Now that may well be reductionism in the extreme, but it's useful and very accurate reductionism. It tells you who's right, and who's wrong, without all that messy business of discussing a particular act after the fact.
I don't believe a legitimate definition of terrorism can ever include people resisting a totalitarian imposition. Israel has been armed by the United States and has all the latest hardware of mass destruction and death, while it's dispossessed surrounding Arab population has World War One rockets as their highest technology to resist, and truth be told, it doesn't matter what they have because Israel will kill them for so much as picking up a rock.
Israel has been playing the kick the dog game for a very long time now, and every time they do it, it appears to be intimately associated with some kind of major olive branch offered by the people they oppress. After decades of conflict, HAMAS finally states that they are willing to recognize Israel's "right to exist", and just like clockwork weeks later "Boom", Israel is killing scores of innocent civilians. Coincidence? I think not. Israel does not want peace and they never have. But wasn't Israel attacked? Did we not already find the definition of terrorists and totalitarian ideologies? Yes. So Israel was responded to. Hezbollah CAPTURED two of it's soldiers. Of course it's not called that when Arab's capture armed enemy soldiers. It's unapologetically referred to as "kidnapped" when an Arab does it, yet mysteriously referred to as a "capture" in the same sentence when referring to Israel's capture of an Arab. The western media is pathetically overt in it's discriminatory language.
Israel has destroyed Lebanon. Again. A nation which it is acknowledged just complied with American demands to expel Syria, and which just held democratic elections. Lebanon did not attack Israel. Israel's actions are much more than an overreaction; they are acts of mass terror against an innocent democratic nation in compliance with international law. It is now being reported that Hezbollah exists inside the United States. Perhaps Canada should begin dropping bunker busting bombs on American cities and neighborhoods to rid themselves of the threat we "tolerate". Would that be OK? THAT is how far over the line Israel has gone here. But why?
There has been talk that all of this, is "changing the subject", and that Iran is the party who wishes the subject to change, so it is engaging Israel through it'' proxy, Hezbollah. If this is true, then Israel should have confronted the nation it's accused of sponsoring the enemy it claims to be fighting. But Israel isn't going to confront Iran right now. Not when they can kick the dog, further degrade the people it's ethnically cleansing, and gain pretense to once again *justify it's expansion onto the land of others. Like the United States war on Iraq, this is about targets of opportunity, not self-defense. What did Hezbollah want? A prisoner exchange. How unreasonable! That anyone dare challenge Israel's right to hold not two, but THOUSANDS of Arabs prisoner WITHOUT CHARGES for six months in make shift camps in the blazing sun.
If this really is "changing the subject", the subject is certainly NOT Iran's "nuclear program". You know, the one which they're legally entitled to pursue as signatories of the NPT treaty, and which was initiated by President Gerald Ford. No, you can't claim the subject is being changed when that's a;; you're talking about under the claim that the subject has been changed. The subject which has really been changed, is Iraq. The daily deaths of scores or civilians, the deaths of our troops on a daily basis, it's all disappeared from public view. Someone is clearly benefiting from a "change of subject" though: Bush. Is anyone so stupid as to believe Israel's new war is another bit of luck for the fortunate Son? I don't. Bush has created a disaster in the Middle East and he knows he can not win. He also knows that in mere months, he may well be on the receiving end of multiple subpoenas for major crimes against the Constitution. Bush knows he's probably toast unless he can change the subject in a very big way. Given the magnitude of his crimes in office, I've thought for some time now, well before "this", that this is a gang willing to start World War Three as political cover. And of course "World War Three" appears to be the latest GOP talking point. Are you buying it? Because he's not just selling it, he's starting it and you should know who to really fear.
I used to support Israel. I supported Israel because I'm an American and I received an American education. Decades of watching the conflict finally resulted in my asking hard questions that shed light on the subject. The subject turned out not to be education, but propaganda and what I had been fed from every source. Israel really has no "right". Oh I know, UN resolutions will be pointed to that claim otherwise. If anyone wants to get their lists of UN resolutions, I can get mine too and we can see who's violated more of them. I'm not concerned about Israel looking good here. But my moral compass is not UN approved. It's direct and clearly points to a people who claim they're "God's chosen", and who will kill anyone who disagrees with them, as dead wrong. From the very beginning in 1948. Whatever mileage Israel has attained by abusing the legacy of the Holocaust has not only expired, but to anyone with a functioning moral compass, they have been shown to have used and abused it in the same way Bush has used and abused 9-11; they have shit on the innocent Jews who went to their death under Hitler by becoming morally indistinguishable their former masters
I do not believe Israel can survive indefinitely. Oh they can win every battle. But they can not win their war because their war is a war with everyone. Given their wretched murderous track record, I do not believe they deserve to. I guess that makes me a "terrorist sympathizer". So be it. I don't claim I was "chosen" above all others by "God" and I think anyone who does is eventually going to be taught a lesson if there is a God. There is. Knowing that, Israel should tremble at it's every "victory" and so should the nation supporting their murders.
http://forums.ariannaonline.com/showthread.php?t=41297
Originally posted 04-29-2006
My two weeks in a cult called Daily Kos.
I joined a couple of weeks ago after casually reading the site for over 2 years. I thought given it's size, and the ability to create blog diaries which had a wider audience, it'd be a chance to mingle with people I considered fellow progressives.
Like most people who join internet forums, I didn't spend much time (O.K., none really) learning how the site actually worked. It had a lot of features I found later I had no idea were there when I joined.
It takes a week from the time you first start posting at kos, until you're allowed to create a diary. My fist diary didn't post because I'd left off the tags.
At my first successful diary post at kos, I decided to take a post I'd written originally to post here, and edit it a bit to remove references or statements about or to any posters in this forum, and I corrected the contexts where required. I titled the post "9-11: come together now". I believed very vehemently in the point it contained, although it was anything but especially popular here. Here's a link to the Kos diary in question: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/26/193435/923
but to summarize the post, it was a request that the divisions within the 9-11 truth community be put aside, and that any and everyone who believes there are serious problems with the official story, find a common page to agree on, for the purposes of laying the groundwork for a desperately needed independent investigation.
I posted the diary, and went off to other things. What I returned to stunned me. There were more than 50 replies, but virtually none of them made any sense to me whatsoever. Pictures of stuffed animals, recipes, candy, horses. I felt like I'd stumbled into bizzaro world.
So I started asking questions, but was simply greeted with more of the same, plus names like "asshat", "ass clown", "Tin Foil", "Troll" and messages like "FUCK YOU".
So I did what most people would do, (and what I usually do) and I got mad. But my replies started disappearing before my very eyes.
I gave up trying to defend myself against these people, and decided to look further into the way the site works, and what the rules are.
Daily Kos is nothing if not Orwelian; Readers get to rate your comments. But a special class of posters called trusted users (TU's) has the power to hand out zeros. Zeros are special: Get enough zeros, and your message disappears. Well, at least to YOU it does. The TU's can still see them, and they can have a regular party behind your back. Get even more, and software bans you from posting at all.
Learning this, I thought perhaps joining this site was a real mistake (and it was) . It seemed like nothing if not a tyrannical infrastructure designed to filter out anything not already agreed with by the group. I did indeed feel as though I had inadvertently mentioned "Xenu" in front of a bunch of Scientologists. One of the rules -it turned out- at Daily Kos, is a ban on so-called "Conspiracy Theories".
I hadn't actually violated the rule. Quite the opposite if you read the diary. But that didn't stop these people from going absolutely shit-bat crazy over my post anyway, and trying to "troll rate" me with enough zeros to get me booted. I watched one guy and his girlfriend misrepresent my diary's contents over and over again to other posters, even in other threads to get them to pile on and hand out zeros, and every attempt to actually engage these people was met with my replies being made invisible.
I gave up, and decided tomorrow's another day. I created a new diary, once again a post of something I'd already written here; "It's a worthless life", a parody of "It's a wonderful life", starring Bush. Maybe some of you remember it being posted here around Christmas time:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/183528/818
People seemed to like it a lot. But immediately, this jerk from the other diary showed up and started hurling obscenities at me, demanding I "apologize". He managed to threaten anyone who said something positive, with zeros and "troll ratings".
In the end, I got banned. Not for any violation of the rules as stated on the site, but because the way the site works, it not only allows "TU's" to sink you with negatives, but it allows them to rate down anyone who steps forward to defend you.
Daily Kos SUCKS. I mean really, really SUCKS. I can only say that it reminded of a bunch of people smelling their own farts and driving Pious hybrids in a cloud of smugness and images that are more often found in the bedrooms of little girls. These people are scared shitless of anything that actually provokes thought; the whole thing is a study in "Group Think". Someone somewhere, has done one hell of a brainwashing job on almost everyone; just the mention of 9-11 and accountability sent these people into a panic that makes me question whether they can even be who they claim to be. One thing is sure; if they allow fear to control what they can talk about or strive to achieve, they're going to be part of the reason the democratic party finds the nearest available cliff to run itself off (again).
In the end, I told them their ponies and candy were gay, and then predictably watched them scream "homophobe" and threaten anyone with zeros who came to my defense, and my ability to post was finally and inevitably "autobanned" by the "zero reading" software. Good; Good riddance to them too.
I guess it all comes down to a couple of things; Arianna has provided the best, most libertarian theatre on the web for free speech, and my wretched experience with these strange cultish conformists has made me really appreciate the nature of what we have here in this forum.
And the other thing it's come down to is this: Some of the people I thought I agreed with, and wanted to see re-gain power, are surely going to abuse the hell out of it if they get it. Give power to anyone over anyone else, and it's "instant asshole, just add authority".
The whole thing feels like a wake up call of sorts. What that's supposed to be escapes me at the moment. But one thought does not: When it comes to authority: Don't trust anyone, it's going to get abused every time. Even if they say they're "progressives".
Long live free speech and the free market place of ideas.
Post script:
So it seems that my assessments regarding freedom of speech at DebateBothSides.com was ultimately met with yet another realization that places which truly allow intellectual freedom, even on the internet, are becoming rarer and rarer. What really does this tell us though?
Whenever an opinion is suppressed, the cause is ultimately fear. Fear that it's persuasive and that those who read it will be persuaded. It's really an admission by someone; as I've often said; "When they can't compete, they delete".
