Dome meltdown
Submitted by James on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:06am
As some of you may know, I've been a frequent visitor and fan of the Under the Dome blog at the N&O since its inception. Indeed, I doubt there is another person who has done more to promote their site with links and commentary than I have. In recent months, though, the growth of right-wing vitriol there has been both alarming and off-putting. The same thing has been happening at Talking About Politics and WRAL News.
Recently, a number of Dome commenters challenged me with personal attacks and insults. Having had my fill, I politely signed off. While it's sometimes fun to engage in heated political discourse with extremists on the right, I have come to believe that is largely a waste of time. It's certainly hard to make a case that such exchanges rise to the level of useful debate.
In the long run, I fear that those on the extreme right will out-shout and out-number those on the left, leaving much of the media blogosphere dominated by reactionary voices. And perhaps that's not entirely a bad thing. As they feed off one another, the ranks of those paying attention will likely shrink to the hardest of the hard core. That's certainly happening to the Republican Party in North Carolina in general, especially now that Tom "Not Gay" Fetzer is running the Show.
Please join me in wishing the new crew at the Dome the best in managing the minefield going forward. I'll be taking a break during July from commenting there in hopes that some of the frenzy will abate. But I'm not optimistic.
If you're looking for other good sources of North Carolina political news, try Binker or Laura. Laura doesn't accept comments, and Binker doesn't get many, but maybe that's a good thing.
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As a born-again nice guy
I acknowledge that I used to be part of vitriol problem. And like any "substance abuser" it can be easy to fall off the wagon. So as I've done on many occasions, I apologize for my lapses and encourage as much goodness and light as you can muster.
Be nice.
I probably should
take a break from the Dome too, but I can't stand to see the Pope machine fly under the radar.
That long debate about Merritt's new watchdog group did produce one benefit: when the conservative commenters engaged in a defense of the Puppetshow, that was a tacit acknowledgment that Pope was behind the new foundation.
Those who support the points of view of JLF and Civitas don't see that as an issue, but I don't care about them. I care about the multitudes in the middle who aren't aware of the agenda-driven nature of Pope's entities. When they become aware, the propaganda and misinformation get much less mileage, and is relegated to the status of one side of a partisan argument, which is where it should be.
Thanks for keeping up the good fight
There's no question Merritt's new group is part of Pope's partisan agenda. That's his MO and there's no escaping his influence.
I don't know how many regular people wade through all the Dome threads enough to get to the truth behind it.
I posted on Merritt's new Facebook page, where surprising people are singing his praises. You might join in there and ask some tough questions as well.
FYI + Soros
In case you didn't know already I comment over there as "bnartist", a username I've had for eons. I occasionally attach my name to it for disclosure.
Regarding the red herring of George Soros, if anybody is interested in the status of his appeal of the French court decision to the European Court of Human Rights a document was recorded Feb 9, 2009, a "statement of facts, complaints and questions put by the Court", as having been "communicated to the Government for observations". It's in French but it makes a good case for Soros that French law at the time was ambiguous at best and that Soros was not dealt with in a fair or timely manner.
I did not know that was you
As to my comment about Soros, I frequently go off on a tangent looking at the behavior of private (American) business and investors in other countries, especially in the former Soviet bloc. And his name comes up waaay too often.
Understand, most of these ventures are neither illegal nor unethical, by most American standards. But they do have a profound impact on local/national politics in these countries, and also create an environment of antagonism with a potentially dangerous former(?) superpower. There's a lot more to it than that, including a very strong connection between private money and the State Department. But most politicians (on both sides of the aisle) think that that influence is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that bothers me more than anything.
Soros
There's an interesting PBS interview of Soros by David Brancaccio where they touch on the apparent contradictions of his business activities and the difference between amoral and immoral.
I have little doubt
that Soros' intentions are good, and that he (genuinely) believes in Democratization as opposed to merely using it as a mask, like so many other international investors.
That being said, his influence is pervasive and incredibly complex, and his wielding such a free hand in creating and managing civic projects in foreign lands is not appreciatively different than the empire-building desires of the neocons.
This is just one example of many, but modifying tax laws in the Ukraine to shield profits is considerably more than just philanthropy:
I didn't really intend to go off on a tirade like this, but I just watched (on C-SPAN) a few days ago a Heritage Foundation panel discussing what our policy on the Ukraine should be. You know, get 'em into NATO as soon as possible to counteract Russian influence (dangerous), lay claim (through Ukrainian authorities) to the Russian naval base at Sevastopol (extremely dangerous), and other reckless ideas.
I try not to argue with my television, but I had some choice words for it while watching this program...
It must be a planned action
by the right wing to flame these sites. I've been wondering where all the r's that have started to visit BlueNC were coming from, now it makes sense. Instead of starting their own community and discussing legislation and legislators in an adult manner, they try to destroy liberal sites with their BS.