Hartford Courant Demonstrates Ethics

What?!?

Bad ethics are ethics too... As we are fond of saying at MLN... Time for a Bloggers ethics panel, right?

Maybe we should have a Bloggers ethics panel because some in the traditional media could learn from it.

NO GLITCHES in ConnPost Article

At MLN they have this up on the front page:

Glitches In ConnPost Article

ConnPost: "Glitches didn't affect election outcome" <read>

CTVotersCount.org: "Not So Fast, Please"

A ConnPost article gives a broad brush feel good assessment of the election. We are not ready to agree that everything went fine. We have no reason to doubt that the results were accurate enough that the voters' intent was realized in the results, however, we will wait for the results of the post-election audit and other analysis. Unfortunately, unless this audit goes much differently than the last three we will still be left with a level of uncertainty.

We also have some comments on the details in the article.

The Article says:

Some individuals filled in circles for Jim Himes on both parties.

"Those votes counted and would register under the Working Families party for qualification purposes.," said Bysiewicz. She said the machines would not reject those votes unless the ballot was filled out incorrectly elsewhere.

There must be some confusion on the part of the Secretary of the State or the ConnPost:

Fact: For voters that fill in bubbles for a cross endorsed candidate twice, they should be counted by the machine as Himes Unk (Unknown). When only one bubble is filled in then they would be counted for Himes Dem or Himes Wkf etc.

So unless the particular machine was programmed incorrectly, the article is incorrect.

There is no glitch in the article... I was at the New Milford Town Hall as the results were coming in and they had the exact same issue. I wrote about that on election night. We had the exact same problem with New Milford results for Murphy.

A couple of machines failed early on in Gaylordsville and at the Hill and Plain polling station. They switched them out and things rolled smoothly after that.

Murphy and Obama won. Appropriate NOs and YESs are winning. And Himes won too!

There has been some minor issues with people voting for candidates on their regular party line AND on the WFP line. The votes are, apparently, counted only once for the candidate BUT the vote is given to the WFP. (or something like that?) The software glitches on...

The ConnPost has it right. The votes were being given to the WFP if the voter filled in both lines for Murphy here. And the machines did not catch it.

Thank you Senator Dodd!

Via Missy's Brother at My Left Nutmeg, Americans thank Senator Chris Dodd for working to protect The Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the FISA battle:



The rest of Congress could learn a thing or two about leadership from Senator Dodd, and we thank him for his efforts in protecting our freedoms. Keep up the good work!

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Illegal Surveillance and the Telecoms - Just the Facts

Via PFAW:

• In December 2005, the New York Times reported that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans have had their phones wiretapped by the National Security Agency (NSA) without any judicial review. But the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed by Congress in 1978, prohibits domestic spying unless a warrant is first issued by the FISA Court. By authorizing government spies to bypass the process mandated by FISA, President Bush authorized them to break the law.
  
  
• The so-called “Protect America Act,” which passed in August, made the situation worse by sanctioning a legal infrastructure under which American citizens might unwittingly be subject to daily, repeated invasions of privacy or violations of other constitutional rights. These liberties are not abstract or optional. Freedom from government spying on our private lives is at the core of what it means to be an American – the kind of personal liberty that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died to protect.
  
  
• All parties involved must be held accountable for any illegal activity, including telecommunications companies (telecoms) that satisfied government requests for information about private communications. FISA currently provides sufficient mechanisms to allow telecoms to proceed lawfully with such requests. Every American should have the confidence that our judicial system will ensure that telecoms will not be permitted to circumvent this established process and undermine our fundamental right to privacy.
  
  
• It is unacceptable that the FISA reform being debated now seeks blanket immunity for the telecoms’ alleged complicity in the Administration’s actions. If the telecoms never have to testify, Americans may never know the true extent to which they have been targeted for surveillance. We have a right to know what’s been done and how far the overreaching went.
  
  
• In protecting the telecoms, the Administration is protecting itself. At a minimum, the Administration should not be given the power to bury the secrets of its domestic spying program by keeping the telecoms out of court. Telecom immunity not only has the potential to excuse illegal activity, it also precludes the public from getting access to information and prevents Congress from conducting effective oversight.
  
  
• Immunity compromises will not serve the interests of the American people. Substituting the government as the defendant in telecom lawsuits will only further rob Americans of their day in court by forcing them to sue a government that may use the power of the executive, state secrets, and other “privileges” to withhold information. Reimbursing the telecoms for their legal costs through indemnification rests financial burden on the taxpayers – essentially Americans paying for spying to which they object.
  
  
• Congress should err on the side of our Constitution and not bow to political pressure by signing off on telecom immunity. Americans deserve nothing less.

Now... There is one aspect of this that gets overlooked by many. BooMan makes a reasonable case that the entire lawsuit issue for telecoms is completely bogus:

There is no reason to immunize the telecom corporations because they are already immunized if they had a good faith reason to believe they were following the law. The only reason to immunize them is to prevent the truth about the extent of the lawbreaking from coming to light.

Even if this were not the case and they acted in bad faith the matter of lawsuits was already settled in the market place:

It has nothing to do with lawsuits and everything to do with covering the asses of the politicians that have acted criminally by illegally spying on Americans. Don't let them switch the topic to something as piddly as minor lawsuits that will cost telcoms a minuscule slice of their profits:

The Bush team argue impending financial doom for the telecom industry should lawsuits be permitted to continue. However, at this time, the financial impact is speculative (pdf file) with a market that “seems unconcerned” about the lawsuits filed against telecoms:

For example, when the complaint in Hepting v. AT&T Corp. was filed and when AT&T’s motion to dismiss the suit was denied, AT&T’s stock price remained essentially unaffected. The entirety of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory system requiring public filings and disclosures is premised on the idea that, when the relevant information is available publicly, the market is the most effective indicator of the value of a corporation. That the stock price of AT&T was unaffected by the suit indicates the market’s determination that the company’s financial footing remains sound, despite the potential liability.

Moreover, telecommunications carriers have survived enormous payouts in class action suits in the past. For example, in September of this year, Sprint received preliminary approval from the court for a $30 million class-action settlement. And in 1994, AT&T agreed to pay a $100 million settlement. Just as they have for the other risks incumbent in their business, telecommunications carriers have liability insurance to protect them in the event of an adverse civil judgment. And if, at some point in the future, a series of judgments comes to present a threat of widespread bankruptcy in the telecommunications industry, the government may take action at that time. But any preemptive liability shield is premature and unneeded.

Thus, should the telecom lawsuits proceed and if damages are awarded by the courts and if the damages are not covered by telecom liability insurance, and if Congress then determines that a bailout is needed for the industry, then Congress has the authority to legislate funding to the industry, thus preserving the plaintiffs’ right to a judicial remedy and the public’s right to a transparent government. As Sen. Feingold notes:

If the companies engaged in such widespread illegal conduct that the damages would be enormous, Congress can intervene to limit the damages. That’s a far more appropriate response than simply giving the companies a free pass for any illegal conduct.

Moreover, if the concern is financial liability, why is the immunity so broad that “cases will be dismissed even if they do not seek money damages but only declaratory and injunctive relief.”

The lawsuit distraction is just that... A distraction from the real issue of the bush illegally spying on Americans.

And even if the matter was not already settled in the market place... As Russ Feingold said, "Congress can intervene to limit the damages." Do not let them distract you from the fact that the bush administration was illegally spying on Americans, and not just after 911 but before that, according reports:

A former telecom executive told us that efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source, who asked not to be identified so as not to out his former company, reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a "data-mining" operation, which might eventually cull "millions" of individual calls and e-mails.

Like the pressure applied to ITT a half-century ago, our source says the government was insistent, arguing that his competitors had already shown their patriotism by signing on. The NSA would not comment on the issue, saying that, "We do not discuss details of actual or alleged operational issues."

Any reasonable person would realize that invocation of 911 by anyone is completely bogus when the illegal spying was, in fact, started before that date. Equally important here is the fact that it was not just Foreign calls that were being monitored, BUT all of the traffic on their networks:

Although the president told the nation that his NSA eavesdropping program was limited to known Al Qaeda agents or supporters abroad making calls into the U.S., comments of other administration officials and intelligence veterans indicate that the NSA cast its net far more widely. AT&T technician Mark Klein inadvertently discovered that the whole flow of Internet traffic in several AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the NSA, a charge indirectly substantiated by John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who wrote the official legal memos legitimizing the president's warrantless wiretapping program. Yoo told FRONTLINE: "The government needs to have access to international communications so that it can try to find communications that are coming into the country where Al Qaeda's trying to send messages to cell members in the country. In order to do that, it does have to have access to communication networks."

And when I say all of the traffic, I mean telephone calls, both local and foreign, as well as all internet and Email traffic:

Conventional wisdom has long been that the bulk of the surveillance operations -- groundbreaking because they lacked judicial oversight -- involved primarily telephone calls. However, officials say the Bush administration's program frequently went after e-mail and other Internet traffic.

These actions by the bush administration go far beyond being simply criminal. They are an attack on the The Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

What part of these oaths do the politicians that swear to them fail to understand here?

• Presidential Oath:
  
  "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
  
  
• For Congress Members:
  
  "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter."

Many of these politicians' actions are not simply impeachable offenses for a failure to uphold their oaths of office, but exhibit a heretical acceptance of criminal actions and contempt for the founding documents that could only be described as treason.

Swift Reactions to Me?

Surprisingly, the most reasonable conservative Blogger on the intertubes, and an A-lister by any standards, actually knows my name?

Stephen Herron at Drinking Liberally in New Milford reminds us that February 3 is the first anniversary of Blogroll Amnesty Day, which was once one of the darkest days in the blogosphere, but has now been turned into a celebration of the power of smaller blogs. If you are celebrating this day on your blog, send us a link and we'll post it here and send it out to other blogs who are writing about it. Blue Gal, Barefoot Bum, Mike the Mad Biologist, The S.N.A.F.U. Principle and House of the Rising Sons are just a few of the many blogs that plan to celebrate the weekend of February 1 to 3. And skippy and Pharyngula remind us that some blogs, including this one, celebrate Blogroll Amnesty Day all year round. Blogroll us and we'll blogroll you.

Thankfully, and due to his reasonable nature, I do not have to worry about him being some kind of Conservative terrorist coming after me to enact, with all the rabidity of some mindless Michelle Malkin or Freeper inspired act of terror, some retribution for being a -shudder- liberal. Jon Swift is just interested in participating in Blogroll Amnesty Day Celebrations. Some Blogs that appear to be interested in participating in Blogroll Amnesty Day Celebrations may have some minor stipulations on your inclusion to their Blogrolls, such as Pharyngula:

Finally, with some trepidation, I'm also making this an Open Enrollment thread. Do you want to be on the Pharyngula blogroll? It's easy. First, you need a blog with an RSS feed (I do all my blog browsing with a newsreader, so that's an absolute requirement). Second, you need to give me a link to your blog in a comment here. And finally, you have to pass a test demonstrating that you actually read Pharyngula: name your favorite commenter. (That's a cunning way to get more votes in the Molly nominations.)

Reading and voting? I have been known to do that! Others are taking the Skippy and Jon Swift inspired road, like Barefoot Bum:

My blogroll is always open, but in the spirit of the times, I'm actively soliciting reciprocal links. Link to me and (assuming you don't offend my delicate sensibilities) I'll add your blog to my blogroll. Post a comment to this thread telling me about it. I'll also actually link to you in the body of a post, so you'll get that heady Technorati boost.

I cannot be too offensive since I do bath regularly. Other Bloggers, like myself or Blue Gal, may be trying to find a way to take what might be considered a bit of a negative for some Bloggers and turning it into something that is a positive for everyone:

February 3 is the anniversary of the notorious Blogroll Amnesty Day. It is evolving, quite rightly it seems to me, from a vitriolic attack on A-listers into something more celebratory of us B-C-D-and-DD-list blogs.

We'll be celebrating the small blogosphere that day somehow and suggestions as to how to do so are most welcome.

As small as some of us may be, there is strength in numbers. But for whatever reasons you might have, I encourage you to participate in this with the many Blogs that are doing what they can to help build a better Blogtopia. (y! sctp) Even if only to claim that you are doing some work:

jon swift and skippy have been working together (that is to say, jon has been working and skippy has been together) to spread the word throughout blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, that national blogroll amnesty day & blogroll bloodbath anniversary remembrance day is fast approaching (feb. 3...tho we intend to celebrate all weekend long).

To show how hard I work, I will cut'n'paste my policy on Blogrolling from a previous post here:

If I am on your Blogroll and you notice that you are not on mine, tell me! I will fix it. Heck... Add me to yours and I will add you to mine. Just drop a note in comments here.

Just make sure to note your Blog's name and link in the comments anywhere on this Blog so I am not sitting around wondering whom to thank and link to... :)

Previously Brewed in New Milford:

Celebrating Blogroll Amnesty Day!

It is a little early but Mike the Mad Biologist brings back an idea that skippy the bush kangaroo and Jon Swift got a lot of people involved in last February after January's link assault by some "A list" Bloggers:

"Speaking of Jon Swift, the start of 2008 seems like a good time to have another Blogroll Amnesty Day. If you're not on my blogroll, and I'm on yours, leave me a link below and I'll add you (note: racists, creationists, and flat-out weirdos won't be accepted). Instructions below the fold.

Please put your blog name on one line, and the url on the second line, like so:

Mike the Mad Biologist
http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/

or give me a line of html code, like so:

Mike the Mad Biologist

Thanks!"

Same goes for this Blog. If I am on your Blogroll and you notice that you are not on mine, tell me! I will fix it. Heck... Add me to yours and I will add you to mine. Just drop a note in comments here.

For me, it doesn't matter whether you are covering local Connecticut stuff, national politics, and or pretty much anything else. And if you click around you should be able to get a link from Mike, John Swift and skippy as well as from here! Four Blogroll links just for being astute enough to add 4 links from your Blogroll... Does it get any better or easier than that?

Some ideas are worth repeating over and over again. It is all about building a better Blogtopia! (y!sctp) I was re-repeating the mantra to left leaning people to "Link Damnit!" in a piece on the "Blog Link Meta Backlash" around the time all of that stuff was going down:

(Here I am with another "Link Damnit!" moment...)

Skippy hops along in Jon Swift's "Liberal Linking Policy" footsteps:

skippy the bush kangaroo:
we got yer 'amnesty' right here

"and who are we to limit political discourse diversity? what's going on here? it's as if the major blogs are trying to emulate the democrats in washington who suddenly forget about their constituents.

(ok, it's not. our metaphors suck tonight. but we're pissed. so cut us some slack.)

ergo, we here at skippy are planning to retaliate by offering real blog amnesty. and here's how it goes:

many smaller blogs link to skippy for one or more of a few reasons: out of politeness, out of a hope that we might notice them and link back, or simply out of the imitation of what it takes to make a good blog. it's the second reason that interests us (we really should have put it as the last reason to be more clear with sentence structure (on the other hand, using less parenthetical phrases in a paragraph would go a long way towards grammatical clarity (too late now))).

to wit: any blog that has linked to skippy and has not received a reciprocal blogroll link will now be included on our roll! all you have to do is notify us in our comments section or email us, and we will happily include you! that will show those big shot elitists too good for the little guy blogs! ha!"

At a time when the bigger Blogs need to be doing more to help build the left community some are, and some aren't. I find it ironic that I posted just last week on Chris Bowers argument that we need to link more effectively:

If everyone on the left works a little harder on this we can turn the tides on on the Google Wars and win. We have already made a lot of inroads since this 2004 picture:

The graphs represent the aggregate linkage going on leading up to the 2004 election. Reds (them) are the Republican bloggers, and Blues (us) are the Democratic bloggers. The full expanation of the graphs particulars are on page 9 of the PDF paper. Basically, the first graph connects dots (blogs) when there is strong linkage between them (+25 during the period), the second one where there is less stronger linkage (+5), and they've a 3rd map that includes all linkage that I've not included.

Between blogs then (not taking into consideration that diaries on #8DailyKos and #17MyDD serve to allow massive coordiantion and spreading of message), there's just a lot more coordination through linking among Republican than there has been with Democratic bloggers, at least on the surface of particular URL's. The other interesting thing I noted was that the blog by George Bush's campaign didn't even make the top 40-- now that's pitiful.

We were less coordinated in '04. But in '06 we did little things a little better. I am sure the more recent graphs would look a lot better. But you know that we can still keep on improving on this.

Remember that every time you link to any site you are, over time, creating a kind of GOOGLEBOMB effect on that site when it comes to site rankings, search results, etc.. Tagging and choice of words that are used to link are important in these cumulitive effects as well.

Now this week... Brilliant at Breakfast has the scoop on how MyDD has become an apologist for those attempting to cut out the links that we need to build the Left:

Shorter Chris Bowers

"We innovate more than you, we hired people to help us, and because we did that there is no place for you lone bloggers anymore -- because WE decide who makes it and who doesn't."

Oh, you really have to read this self-congratulatory drivel to believe it. It's truly amazing to see one blogger fellating the entire Big Name Blogosphere in one post, while at the same time consigning the rest of us to the ranks of the MySpacers.

Kool Kidz Klub indeed.

It's funny how Bowers uses a quote by Jeffrey Feldman to illustrate his point, because as I've mentioned before, I had a very nice conversation about blogging just last week with Mr. Feldman, who seems to be in no way a blog snob. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is at least one Big Name Blogger who isn't puffed up with his own self-importance.

But with Kos and Atrios making a big show about "culling the blogroll", and Chris Bowers playing "Mine's Bigger" with the rest of the blogosphere, is this really what it's come to? Is this the Revenge of the Nerds come to fruition? Is this the guys who DIDN'T get laid on prom night finally staking their claim to coolness?

If so, are we going to sit by and take it? Are we going to just toil away while guys like Atrios and Kos and Chris Bowers define the rules and brand the rest of us as useless?

What an amazing flip-flop-contortion there Bowers... This leaves me wondering just how committed he really is to the cause.

Jon Swift puts it all in perspective:

I adopted this policy in a spirit of both self-interest and altruism. In the blogosphere links are like capital. By offering links to others, others would be more inclined to offer links to me. But I am also very grateful to those who helped me out by throwing a link my way or adding me to their blogroll when I was just starting out. Now that I am a Large Mammal, according the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, I have tried to return the favor by helping out those further down the food chain.

Links are capital! It is the foundation of bringing views from fellow bloggers out of obscurity and into the top of search engine results. And just how much does it cost any blogger to spend some of this valuable capital?

ZIP. Zilch. Zero dollars.

Not even one penny to use the most effective marketing tool that Blogtopia has to offer.

All you have to do is put a few seconds into the act of cut'n'paste into your Blogroll or into a post... And you make a huge difference for everyone in our fight.

As ctblogger commented in an earlier MLN diary of mine on building a better community:

We should all work together to fight the good progressive fight and not be so critical in terms of other people's sites. I read CTBlue, Ed's Daily Rant, CT Local Politics, and the watch sites everyday and I learn something new from all of those guys which I incorporate into my site and that's the way it should be. Learn something from me and I learn something from you.

2006 is going to be a HUGE election year and Connecticut will be ground zero in terms of who controls Congress (2nd, 4th 5th district races). The faster we can all work to get this site up to full-speed, the more national attention it will receive.

He also called me out for not having links to his sites... Which I quickly fixed. lol

2006 is behind us but there are still a lot of common causes that we all share, and we can all help each other in achieving our goals. Linking is the first, easiest AND cheapest way to start.

For more background on all of this: Boston Joe has a Meta diary up x-posted at BooTrib and at MLW covering a bit more of this Meta discussion in a thoughtful way. Both have generated a lot of comments. I usually hate Meta... But this topic is the foundation of what Blogging is all about.

We can do better than we have been doing. And if we keep building on what we already have our numbers (and the fact that we deal in reality) will easily overcome the right wing echo chamber's lies and propaganda.

Start the new year off kicking Blogtopia (y!sctp) up a notch! BAM!

Celebrating Blogroll Amnesty Day!

It is a little early but Mike the Mad Biologist brings back an idea that skippy the bush kangaroo and Jon Swift got a lot of people involved in last February after January's link assault by some "A list" Bloggers:

"Speaking of Jon Swift, the start of 2008 seems like a good time to have another Blogroll Amnesty Day. If you're not on my blogroll, and I'm on yours, leave me a link below and I'll add you (note: racists, creationists, and flat-out weirdos won't be accepted). Instructions below the fold.

Please put your blog name on one line, and the url on the second line, like so:

Mike the Mad Biologist
http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/

or give me a line of html code, like so:

Mike the Mad Biologist

Thanks!"

Same goes for this Blog. If I am on your Blogroll and you notice that you are not on mine, tell me! I will fix it. Heck... Add me to yours and I will add you to mine. Just drop a note in comments here.

For me, it doesn't matter whether you are covering local Connecticut stuff, national politics, and or pretty much anything else. And if you click around you should be able to get a link from Mike, John Swift and skippy as well as from here! Four Blogroll links just for being astute enough to add 4 links from your Blogroll... Does it get any better or easier than that?

Some ideas are worth repeating over and over again. It is all about building a better Blogtopia! (y!sctp) I was re-repeating the mantra to left leaning people to "Link Damnit!" in a piece on the "Blog Link Meta Backlash" around the time all of that stuff was going down:

(Here I am with another "Link Damnit!" moment...)

Skippy hops along in Jon Swift's "Liberal Linking Policy" footsteps:

skippy the bush kangaroo:
we got yer 'amnesty' right here

"and who are we to limit political discourse diversity? what's going on here? it's as if the major blogs are trying to emulate the democrats in washington who suddenly forget about their constituents.

(ok, it's not. our metaphors suck tonight. but we're pissed. so cut us some slack.)

ergo, we here at skippy are planning to retaliate by offering real blog amnesty. and here's how it goes:

many smaller blogs link to skippy for one or more of a few reasons: out of politeness, out of a hope that we might notice them and link back, or simply out of the imitation of what it takes to make a good blog. it's the second reason that interests us (we really should have put it as the last reason to be more clear with sentence structure (on the other hand, using less parenthetical phrases in a paragraph would go a long way towards grammatical clarity (too late now))).

to wit: any blog that has linked to skippy and has not received a reciprocal blogroll link will now be included on our roll! all you have to do is notify us in our comments section or email us, and we will happily include you! that will show those big shot elitists too good for the little guy blogs! ha!"

At a time when the bigger Blogs need to be doing more to help build the left community some are, and some aren't. I find it ironic that I posted just last week on Chris Bowers argument that we need to link more effectively:

If everyone on the left works a little harder on this we can turn the tides on on the Google Wars and win. We have already made a lot of inroads since this 2004 picture:

The graphs represent the aggregate linkage going on leading up to the 2004 election. Reds (them) are the Republican bloggers, and Blues (us) are the Democratic bloggers. The full expanation of the graphs particulars are on page 9 of the PDF paper. Basically, the first graph connects dots (blogs) when there is strong linkage between them (+25 during the period), the second one where there is less stronger linkage (+5), and they've a 3rd map that includes all linkage that I've not included.

Between blogs then (not taking into consideration that diaries on #8DailyKos and #17MyDD serve to allow massive coordiantion and spreading of message), there's just a lot more coordination through linking among Republican than there has been with Democratic bloggers, at least on the surface of particular URL's. The other interesting thing I noted was that the blog by George Bush's campaign didn't even make the top 40-- now that's pitiful.

We were less coordinated in '04. But in '06 we did little things a little better. I am sure the more recent graphs would look a lot better. But you know that we can still keep on improving on this.

Remember that every time you link to any site you are, over time, creating a kind of GOOGLEBOMB effect on that site when it comes to site rankings, search results, etc.. Tagging and choice of words that are used to link are important in these cumulitive effects as well.

Now this week... Brilliant at Breakfast has the scoop on how MyDD has become an apologist for those attempting to cut out the links that we need to build the Left:

Shorter Chris Bowers

"We innovate more than you, we hired people to help us, and because we did that there is no place for you lone bloggers anymore -- because WE decide who makes it and who doesn't."

Oh, you really have to read this self-congratulatory drivel to believe it. It's truly amazing to see one blogger fellating the entire Big Name Blogosphere in one post, while at the same time consigning the rest of us to the ranks of the MySpacers.

Kool Kidz Klub indeed.

It's funny how Bowers uses a quote by Jeffrey Feldman to illustrate his point, because as I've mentioned before, I had a very nice conversation about blogging just last week with Mr. Feldman, who seems to be in no way a blog snob. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is at least one Big Name Blogger who isn't puffed up with his own self-importance.

But with Kos and Atrios making a big show about "culling the blogroll", and Chris Bowers playing "Mine's Bigger" with the rest of the blogosphere, is this really what it's come to? Is this the Revenge of the Nerds come to fruition? Is this the guys who DIDN'T get laid on prom night finally staking their claim to coolness?

If so, are we going to sit by and take it? Are we going to just toil away while guys like Atrios and Kos and Chris Bowers define the rules and brand the rest of us as useless?

What an amazing flip-flop-contortion there Bowers... This leaves me wondering just how committed he really is to the cause.

Jon Swift puts it all in perspective:

I adopted this policy in a spirit of both self-interest and altruism. In the blogosphere links are like capital. By offering links to others, others would be more inclined to offer links to me. But I am also very grateful to those who helped me out by throwing a link my way or adding me to their blogroll when I was just starting out. Now that I am a Large Mammal, according the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, I have tried to return the favor by helping out those further down the food chain.

Links are capital! It is the foundation of bringing views from fellow bloggers out of obscurity and into the top of search engine results. And just how much does it cost any blogger to spend some of this valuable capital?

ZIP. Zilch. Zero dollars.

Not even one penny to use the most effective marketing tool that Blogtopia has to offer.

All you have to do is put a few seconds into the act of cut'n'paste into your Blogroll or into a post... And you make a huge difference for everyone in our fight.

As ctblogger commented in an earlier MLN diary of mine on building a better community:

We should all work together to fight the good progressive fight and not be so critical in terms of other people's sites. I read CTBlue, Ed's Daily Rant, CT Local Politics, and the watch sites everyday and I learn something new from all of those guys which I incorporate into my site and that's the way it should be. Learn something from me and I learn something from you.

2006 is going to be a HUGE election year and Connecticut will be ground zero in terms of who controls Congress (2nd, 4th 5th district races). The faster we can all work to get this site up to full-speed, the more national attention it will receive.

He also called me out for not having links to his sites... Which I quickly fixed. lol

2006 is behind us but there are still a lot of common causes that we all share, and we can all help each other in achieving our goals. Linking is the first, easiest AND cheapest way to start.

For more background on all of this: Boston Joe has a Meta diary up x-posted at BooTrib and at MLW covering a bit more of this Meta discussion in a thoughtful way. Both have generated a lot of comments. I usually hate Meta... But this topic is the foundation of what Blogging is all about.

We can do better than we have been doing. And if we keep building on what we already have our numbers (and the fact that we deal in reality) will easily overcome the right wing echo chamber's lies and propaganda.

Start the new year off kicking Blogtopia (y!sctp) up a notch! BAM!

[update] Many Bloggers chose to participate in Blogroll Amnesty Day, but did it work?

Yes! But not perfectly:

Rotus correctly deduced that Technorati and the like don’t recognize blogrolls when they calculate how many times your blog has been linked to. They do count if the links are in a post so, like Rotus, I’m going to make a post of our blogroll so everyone can get a Technorati hit. It is alphabetical and leaves out the retailers.

As always, we have an open blogroll policy so if you want on, drop us a line in the comments. Blogroll after the jump:

A Blog Around the Clock

American Street

Argue with Everyone

Bitch Ph.D.

Center Face

Chuck for…

Clark’s Picks

Crinch Pin

Daily Kos

Drinking Liberally in New Milford

Eschaton

Firedoglake

Hullabaloo

I’ll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book

I’m Jus’ a Lil’ Dizzy

Ice Station Tango

Jon Swift

Kiko’s House

Last Left Turn Before Hooterville

Maryannaville

Memeorandum

Mike the Mad Biologist

Monkeyfister

Moue Magazine

My View of “IT”

Old Fashioned Patriot

On My Mind

One Good Thing

Ornery Bastard

Pandagon

Pharyngula

Pygalgia

Rightwingsnarkle

ROTUS

Sadly, No!

Shattered Soapbox

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

Talking Points Memo

The Crone Speaks

The Culture Vultures

The Democratic Daily

The Ex-Lion Tamer

The Field Negro

The Great Endarkenment

The Impolitic

The Largest Minority

The Mahatma X Files

The Midpoint

The Osterly Times

The Political Cat

The Seminal

Undeniable Liberalism

World O’Crap

Zen Comix

I hope that helps a little in fixing the problem, and I still plan on using these Blogs for references in future posts...

Some end of year fun!

This Holiday Muckorama Contest seems like a really fun way to beat the Muck out of the wingnuts some more:





Maybe some of Connecticut's own video Bloggers would have some extra fun putting together their own video offerings for this?

The one problem with this contest: All these criminals should be getting mugshots, not free mugs. TPM should be sending the free mugs to readers like myself! lol

Should I bother to finish college?

I found this little readability test over at the latest republican defector's Blog, Balloon Juice, where John Cole proudly declared they "is stoopid"...

Surprisingly, my Blog is not as dumb as I look:



Equally surprising is the number of Blogs that I regularly read which only scored at a high school level or lower. Presidential Politics and NB Politicus both rated as "Genius," but I hope they won't let that go to their heads. 1percentmoreconcious scored at the same level that my Blog did, while Think Progress and Glen Greenwald scored at the "undergrad" level, and Talking Points Memo, My Left Nutmeg and Connecticut Local Politics were among many of the Blogs I regularly read with high school level reading scores. Michelle Malkin and Red State had high school ratings, but Instapundit and Free Republic rated "Junior High"...

In a way, I think that scoring lower on this test is a good thing. If your score is lower it means that it is easier for more your readers to clearly understand exactly what you are trying to explain to them. IOW, 10 cent words only add more confusion to your position.

The two things I walk away from this post with are:

1. Now I know why most Republicans don't like my Blog. They can't understand it.
   
   
2. I definitely will finish college (eventually) because I am not wasting a freakin' penny of the Montgomery GI Bill money that the Army owes me.

A third thing might be that I don't really trust tests like this anymore than a stupid and biased IQ test that labels me a genius...

Neo-Weener Supports Joltin Joe for VP

If there were ever a point in time that the Liberul Media were to wake up and stop referring to the revoltin' joltin' Joe as some kind of Democrat, never mind an Independent of any kind, you would have to think that this neocon weener's (William "the bloody" Kristol) editorial would be the memorial to lay that GOP talking point to rest:

In a new Weekly Standard editorial, William Kristol, one of the most prominent and influential voices in the conservative movement, suggests that Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) recent speech attacking war critics may be cause for the eventual Republican Presidential nominee to “offer him the vice presidency.” Peter Wehner, a former assistant to President Bush, endorses the “Joe for VP” meme at the Corner.

Joe Lieberman's consistent lies and propaganda in all things concerning illegal invasions and warmongering belie the fact that Joe is just another textbook definition of the insane neoconservative republicans. And Mr. Batshitcrazy over at the Weekly neoCON Standard proves this point.

More Bush McLiebercainman Success

Via Tparty at MLN:

Two weeks ago, on June 25th, U.S. Army Pfc. Andre Craig Jr. of New Haven was killed in Baghdad as the Humvee he was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device, leaving behind a wife and a six-month old daughter who he had met for the first - and last - time just this past May.

The funeral was yesterday. And Sen. Lieberman, he who "grieves for every casualty of this war" so much that he is doing everything in his power to keep our soldiers in harm's way, wasn't there:

Among those not in attendance was U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman. He sent a representative in his place. That angered some of the mourners like the Rev. Anthony Brown Sr., as well as the curious who gathered in the small park across the street just in front of Dwight Elementary School.

"Sen. Lieberman voted for the war. But he wasn't here to pay his respects to a young man who lost his life," Brown said. "Lieberman should be ashamed of himself. But that's what politicians do. They send someone else to do the job. They send someone else's kids to die for their wars."

While he who "grieves for every casualty of this war" more than anyone else didn't have time to pay his respects to a fallen soldier from his own state yesterday, Sen. Lieberman did somehow find the time to do a radio interview on WNPR, and have an insane warmongering op-ed placed in the Wall Street Journal calling for even more of our troops to have their lives endangered by invading Iran.

Yes, all of Connecticut can be really proud of repulsed by neocon junior's recent behavior. Meanwhile, in Iraq:

Contra Lieberman:

Suicide bombings across Iraq killed nearly 150 and injured scores, including a massive truck assault in a northern Shiite village that ripped through a crowded market, officials said Saturday.

The violence came as the U.S. military on Saturday reported the deaths of eight American soldiers over the past two days, all killed in combat or by roadside bombs in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar. A British soldier was reported killed in fighting in southern Iraq.

The worst carnage unfolded in the Shiite Turkoman village of Amarly, 50 miles south of Kirkuk, when a suicide bomber rammed a truck laden with explosives into the central market, which is near a police station, officials said. The attack killed at least 115 people and wounded at least 210, according to district and hospital officials, adding that they expected the death toll to rise.

If this happened anywhere in America it would be used to justify a nuclear war against Iran. Bet on it. But it didn't happen in America and this wasn't a stupid BBQ tank car bomb that didn't go off.

Had enough of this CATASTROPHIC SUCCESS yet?

Here is another report on the catastrophic success in Iraq from retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez:

Calling the situation there bleak, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez also said America has been in the grips of a leadership crisis since 9-11, and that only a sweeping re-examination of Iraq and a renewed, long-term commitment there that includes a large U.S. troop presence will turn the tide of the conflict.

"I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will — not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat," Sanchez told the San Antonio Express-News. "It's also kind of important for us to answer the question, 'What is victory?', and at this point I'm not sure America really knows what victory is."

snip

"I am absolutely convinced that America has a crisis in leadership at this time and we've got to do whatever we can to help the next generation of leaders do better than we have done over the past five years," Sanchez said, "better than what this cohort of political and military leaders have done."

Again... For those of you that might not understand the picture of the Iraq situation and American leadership that Sanchez is painting for you:

So Much For the American Worker

Joe Dinkin at My Left Nutmeg caught this failure for the average American worker:

Just wanted to make sure this got mentioned here, even though it's not a strictly Connecticut issue, although it certainly effects many people here. The employee free choice act, one of the top priorities of labor in this year's congressional session, is dead. This bill would have allowed workers to form a union by card-check. The Senate did not reach cloture to end debate and vote. (51-48. They needed 60 votes to force a vote) Steven Greenhouse from the New York Times:

The bill would have given workers the right to insist on a procedure, known as majority sign-up, that allows employees at a workplace to form a union as soon as a majority of them signed cards saying they wanted one. Under current law, an employer facing a unionization drive can insist on a secret-ballot election. The bill fueled a feverish lobbying battle between business and labor. Corporate lobbyists and their Republican allies asserted that the bill would infringe on workers’ rights by denying employees the right to a secret-ballot election. Union officials and their Democratic allies said the bill was needed to help reverse labor’s decline, because employers often defeat unionization drives by intimidating and firing workers during secret-ballot elections.

60 Million Workers would join a union if given the opportunity. But this bill didn't even get the chance to get a presidential veto. And those 60 million workers can continue to get harassed and intimidated, and never have the option to gain a measure of job security, fair wages, decent benefits, and self-determination in the workplace.

Sirota sums up exactly what I was thinking when I read the previous link:

So again the question is why? Why would Democratic leaders bring up EFCA as a standalone bill - that is, in a form that is most politically easy for the average Republican to oppose? Is it just that Democrats have no “strategery?” Or is it something more insidious?

Does it have something to do with Democrats wanting to set up a situation that allows them to claim they care about workers and labor rights, while making sure that those labor rights continue to get trampled? This wouldn’t be unprecedented…at all. In fact, we saw this situation recently on the Iraq bill, where Democrats manipulated parliamentary procedure to deliberately engineer a situation that let them simultaneously claim they were doing all they could to oppose the war while helping make sure the war continues. Are we experiencing the same thing now with worker rights? And if we are, does it have something to do with the spate of stories about Big Business showering top Democratic leaders in cash and throwing Democratic Hill staffers offers of six-figure corporate lobbying jobs?

I honestly don’t know the answer, as it can sometimes be very tough to tell whether the behavior from folks in Congress is driven by short-sightedness or corruption. That said, its not like Senate defeat of EFCA was a surprise - Democrats knew from the get-go that it would lose as a standalone bill, meaning it really is possible they don’t truly want it to pass in the first place. Nonetheless, moving forward, the bottom line is clear: If Democrats really want to get EFCA passed - as American workers need them to and as they should as the supposed party that represents those workers - it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than setting up legislative scenarios that make sure EFCA doesn’t pass.

Chris Shays Opposite World

According to tparty at MLN:

Lurita Doan, administrator of the General Services Administration, testified in front of Rep. Waxman's oversight committee in the House this past Wednesday.

Despite the fact that the White House's own investigator has called on her to be fired for her violation of the Hatch Act (specifically, trying to use her office to help GOP Senate candidates), and despite her conveniently horrible memory in a hearing earlier this spring, the decreasingly sane Chris Shays insisted on claiming she was being treated unfairly by the committee, not because she clearly violated the law, or because she refused to testify forthrightly... but because of her race:

SHAYS: Ms. Doan, I think you're a remarkable person. I think you're a beautiful person. I regret that you've been treated the way that you've been treated....

...You know what? I just want to thank you for your service. I hope it doesn't discourage other people like you to get into this. And I will say this to you, I find it -- and this is my own view -- but I find it when an African-American happens to be a Republican, somehow she is treated differently by Congress, and unfairly so.

He even quoted Thurgood Marshall in defense of Doan:

They talk about it being an interrogation. We had, last week, a Democratic member say, I have a lot of questioning, but I have to say that, after being here for 11 years, I hate it when witnesses are attacked. It bothers me, particularly when they are trying to do the best they can, in the words of Thurgood Marshall, "with what they have."

Full transcript of Shays' comments during the hearing below the fold.

Meanwhile... What was really happening to female minorities at the DoJ?

Can't say I'm surprised exactly.

According to a 2005 complaint submitted to the DOJ's inspector general's office, voter suppression kingpin Bradley Schlozman was purging female minority lawyers from the appellate section of the Civil Rights Division -- each of whom had been hired under Democratic administrations -- and replacing them with what he called "Good Americans".

-- Josh Marshall

Welcome to Chris Shays' opposite world... Where every republican is a blameless victim of everyone else that catches them lying.

Just a little update to be clear on exactly what Doan will be charged with:



Doan has violated the Hatch Act, among many other serious charges, and Chris Shays better pull his partisan head out of his petrified bushy ass and start calling Doan out for what she is.

Are you man enough to take responsibility for your party's actions, Shays? And quit playing the victim card... It is so obvious to everyone.