The Obamanation has benefited from having MOST of his support come from the EXTREME LEFT and oM (old Media) and MsM (Mainstream Media) egos who are Democrats who will forgo honest scrutiny simply to see a Democrat succeed (at least that is what they imagined they could do until now).
However, the key word above is “EGO”. Democrats are far and away more narcissistic than Republicans. Democrats are generally dependent personalities. They seek approval from the masses and need the masses for security, hence they need to be seen as the smartest guy in the room. And so with the oM and MsM narcissists they won’t be able to endure seeing their idol speak in a foreign tongue, to prostitute himself to get votes because after all, the oM and the MsM are his collective figurative PIMP and you know a PIMP won’t tolerate his property working for another daddy or even appearing so.
And with The Obamanation, while they are willing to receive and promote him, they will only do it on THEIR terms. This means that when The Obamanation starts to drift from the EXTREME LEFT to what appears to be the Clintonian left of center, these FRAIL egos become enraged and will attack. It’s the “how dare you” reaction.
As well, lefties are deconstructionists and anti-establishment types. They view The Obamanation as the the new guard for their anarchical doctrine. They are children that want to take over mommy and daddy’s role and do it better because mommy and daddy (i.e. real authority) don’t know better. Lefties are rarely fueled by the clear discovery of the errors or weaknesses of any present authority and the search to make CONSTRUCTIVE correction. They simply want to deconstruct what is established regardless of its goodness and validity, and attempt to build again their age old uptopia dream of a world that holds hands, shares, never disagrees and no bad guys ever arise. Of course no such world exists. You know they like to play house and imagine if we leave Iraq the TERRORISTS will see the light, drink a Coke and be like us who are peaceful and nice.
So as The Obamanation moves to the right, the few legitimate news journalists that still exist will certainly require answers for his hypocrisy. And the frail egos that are the majority of the population of the oM and MsM will have no alternative but to be aghast with what they perceive to be a BETRAYAL by The Obamanation with his FLIP FLOPPING on issues on which he clearly drew boundaries earlier to get the support from these EXTREME LEFT MEDIA EGOS. Have fun Barry.

That any presidential candidate can be surprised by how closely his words and actions are scrutinized while running for office does not speak well for the man. I can only imagine a few choices of why this would be true:
1) He’s so ignorant of the entire process the fact that the press and voters pay close attention somehow eluded him in over 40 years of life
2) He’s deliberately lying and knew it would happen and is trying to mislead people and seem innocent and harmless
3) He’s so stupid he doesn’t understand what he’s doing
4) He’s insane and can’t relate to normal human concepts
none of these choices – and they’re all you’re left with – are attractive. Sooner or later you have to come down to just realizing that this guy’s either incredibly deceptive or just incredibly unprepared for the toughest job on earth.

you forgot at least one:
5) the intellectually challenged parse his words to this extent rather than look at the consistency of what he has been saying from day one – which does not speak well for the press or your third of the american population.
one statement which the press misinterpreted has the righties swarming. if the right had ANY doubt about obama’s intent to change the mission of ongoing combat and occupation and interference to one of ending combat, they would be praising him. instead, they have to play these games like the puerile infants they are.
when righties like guy arthur thomas have no good qualities to put forth for their own candidate, and only toothless hotair of their limbaughs and coulters and malkins and hewitts and oreillys to blow about the democratic nominee, they trot out their lame arguments of “liberal media” and liberal “ego” while they pretend to understand the american psyche. {if you want to talk about fragile egos let’s have a talk about mccain’s war record and the tizzy the right gets in when it’s put to valid scrutiny.) their tactics are tantamount to pulling hair, biting, and scratching. when these don’t work, they pull out the stops and throw their tantrums kicking and screaming and crying the whole way. so while i commend you on your exquisite diatribe, guy, i welcome you back to the real world where we’re working to make constructive corrections to the well known errors and weaknesses of the present authority that is the bush conservative regime.
we’ll keep working on dumbing it down to bumper-sticker slogans so that you can follow along without fears of misunderstanding the nuances that lead you to fart out cries of “flip-flopping.”

you forgot at least one:
5) the intellectually challenged parse his words to this extent rather than look at the consistency of what he has been saying from day one – which does not speak well for the press or your third of the american population.
one statement which the press misinterpreted has the righties swarming. .
we’ll keep working on dumbing it down to bumper-sticker slogans so that you can follow along without fears of misunderstanding the nuances that lead you to fart out cries of “flip-flopping.”
Posted by: anonymous reincarnate | July 6, 2008 12:43 PM
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The only problem with your protest is that it’s your OWN PEOPLE that are doing the MAJORITY of the pouncing on The Obamanation’s HYPOCRISY in this case, the right is reporting The Obamanation’s complaint with the oM and the MsM since of course he isn’t used to be treated like a person who has to account for his doublespeak…..oooopps….once again you forgot the facts…hahahahahahahaha but what’s new for you LEFTIES?

The right wing is getting so frantic that it’s actually rather facinating to watch them flail. The reflexive name calling and snark that everyone used to listen to so respectfully just isn’t getting the job done any more. It appears that they will have to give people a reason to vote for them other than smear and fear, and people have been manipulated for so long that way that it’s wearing off.
It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for them .
But the fact is that they have been so utterly incompetant at running government -for anything other than rewarding their friends- that it’s going to be a hard sell.
That’s why all this nonsense isn’t moving the polls much. And what will they do then- compete in the market of ideas? Uh-huh. That is the thought that really gives them nightmares, because people don’t support the few ideas they have.

The right wing is getting so frantic that it’s actually rather facinating to watch them flail. The reflexive name calling and snark that everyone used to listen to so respectfully just isn’t getting the job done any more.
Posted by: RG | July 6, 2008 1:48 PM
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RG, you represent exactly why you LEFTIES are fumbling the ball as we speak. While accusing the RIGHT of flailing and being reduced to snarky remarks, your entire post is just that and only that, flailing and snarky remarks. But this is one of the most run plays by you LEFTIES, cry in your soup while you complain everyone else is crying in their soup.
My guess is you are hoping someone is afraid while biting your nails and fretting at the reality that The Obamanation’s electroplated clay feet are melting all too soon. The shock on your face when The Obamanation fails to win the election, however, won’t be without company, just turn to the oM and MsM, you’ll have plenty of company. Next please!

Fine, Mr. Thomas. All you said was that Obama won’t win, and that the media will be as surprised as I will be. I guess we’ll all know in November. But can you try talking like a grown-up?
The fact is that Bush inherited a surplus, a strong economy, and peace. And lost all of them. Everybody can see that, except the 25% who have been listening to professional liars for too long. Are you better off than you were? If you are , you’re in the minority. We have to start solving some problems in this country, and I don’t see any solutions from the GOP- except for problems that don’t exist.

RG,
The ECONOMY is fine. The current ECONOMIC structure ISN’T the problem. The problem you MIGHT be experiencing are the results of housing market trends, cheap fuel and food costs increase which the President has nothing to do with.
Fuel is still extremely cheap. What you get for $4.00 is incredible. Try finding someone to push your car at 65 miles an hour and see how much it costs…oh you can’t. Right. The fact is you aren’t even CLOSE to paying what you should for fuel. But never mind that.
The reason for the increase in fuel prices is OPEC and refinement. We cannot refine oil fast enough and OPEN is raising prises. Refinements belong to private enterprise. No one can MAKE them build them. Hey, how about YOU build one. Oh wait, it takes 10 years to see any kind of return to the multi-millions it costs to build but you expect someone to foot that for your convenience. And the President doesn’t control OPEC.
Housing slow downs is the result of THE BABY BOOMERS no longer moving as much due to…AGING. They are now starting to find their LAST HOUSE instead of their first second or third house so the trend toward constantly sales has diminished substantially and the X-Gen and and Y-Gens are together can’t compare population wise to the Boomers. So we are going to have to wait for 10 more years until THEY have the income to begin purchasing HOUSES and once again the trend will begin. The President can’t control demographic buying trends.
Food costs are directly related to fuel costs and again this is not something that a President or Congress can assert control in any significant way.
The fact is WE DO have peace. Has ANYONE attack America since 9/11? NO. America is AT PEACE. It took war to decimate AQ but you lilly livered LIBS don’t have the stomach for what it takes to survive as a nation. You’re too busy wetting your britches over bruises to your social sensitivities that someone called you a f@Wggot or something.
And our economy is VERY strong. There are ASPECTS of the economy that are experience demographic trends yes, but the ECONOMIC structure in America is well in tact. Skilled labor jobs are still as HISTORICAL LOWS. Hint hint, go to school, learn a trade.

But can you try talking like a grown-up?
Heh. RG, you’re asking an awful lot from an internet troll. Clearly, Mr. Thomas is just yanking everyone’s collective chain in order to get a rise out of people. I wouldn’t take their posts seriously.
Reading some of the other blogs on this site (Rod Dreher’s in particular), it’s clear there are plenty of intelligent, articulate conservatives on Beliefnet capable of making substantive arguments, and having legitimate discussions with others. Don’t let someone who is so obviously parroting the stereotype of the unthinking conservative get to you.

Great way to get out of actually refuting somebody LJG. Just label them a troll and petulantly demand they be ignored. Thanks for surrendering so easily.

Heh. RG, you’re asking an awful lot from an internet troll. Clearly, Mr. Thomas is just yanking everyone’s collective chain in order to get a rise out of people. I wouldn’t take their posts seriously.
Reading some of the other blogs on this site (Rod Dreher’s in particular), it’s clear there are plenty of intelligent, articulate conservatives on Beliefnet capable of making substantive arguments, and having legitimate discussions with others. Don’t let someone who is so obviously parroting the stereotype of the unthinking conservative get to you.
Posted by: LJG | July 6, 2008 2:58 PM
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Ah yes, calling me a troll and claiming I am yanking chains or parroting a stereotype is a way to avoid having to deal with the substance of an objection….all the while imagining you are above it all….Next Please!

Just label them a troll
I call them like I see them. That’s all.
and petulantly demand they be ignored.
I’m not demanding anything from anyone. Perhaps you’re reading more into my comment than what I wrote?

Ah yes, pointing out that I am a troll and that I am yanking chains and parroting a stereotype is exactly what I hoped no one would do.
Fixed.

Ah yes, pointing out that I am a troll and that I am yanking chains and parroting a stereotype is exactly what I hoped no one would do.
Fixed.
Posted by: LJG | July 6, 2008 3:30 PM
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And now class we have our second lesson in Libspeak 101. For the lib such as LJG, the truth is painful. In fact often it is so painful that rather than endure its reality, the lib tries to find a way to distort the truth since the truth is in opposition to much of their Utopian ideology.
Here we have again a small scale example of what regularly occurs with LEFTY LIBS, an altered recollection of the truth in order to compensate for their inability to either rebut the case presented by a realist or in order to falsely buffet their fictitious claims of past events.
My original post of course reads as follows:
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Ah yes, calling me a troll and claiming I am yanking chains or parroting a stereotype is a way to avoid having to deal with the substance of an objection….all the while imagining you are above it all….Next Please!
Posted by: Guy Arthur Thomas | July 6, 2008 3:17 PM
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But because LJG’s inability to rebut or refute is exposed by my illuminating the fact LJG can only label and is unable to actually address the substance of the objections, LJG is left with furthering the self-delusion with misrepresenting my own words by altering them and then imagining that is what I REALLY meant. The LEFTY LIB is often reduced to having to comfort themselves in their mind with imagined incidents that never occurred.
And this is a lib. They can’t accept what is in front of them. Reality simply is too painful. They are left projecting onto people’s words their own wishes because the fact someone disagrees or clearly articulates in a way that exposes their gross inadequacy is overwhelming.
A broad example might be the current situation with blacks and whites. Most of the ailments of blacks in America have nothing to do with oppression or racism but with self-inflicted misery. But there is a significant body of BLACK LEFTY LIBS of which such a truth is too painful so they are reduced to labels and blaming others, much like LJG is. So class, don’t find it surprising just learn to identify such weakness and willing self-deception when it occurs.
Now a closing note. LJG being exposed even further will claim satire or sarcasm as a defense to escape the ultimate reality, LGJ is without a genuine rebuttal. Learn to expect that as an excuse. Remember Hillary when she claimed to only be joking? Class dismissed.

Now, for those interested, let’s return to the topic of debate as reflected in the article.

To Guy Arthur Thomas: On whose watch did the worst terrorist attack on American soil take place, anyway? Who inherited a $9 trillion surplus and turned it into a $5 trillion deficit? Who put us into debt to the Chinese communists to the tune of billions and billions of dollars? Who invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses, squandered hundreds of billions of dollars, lost the lives of more than 4000 brave Americans and countless innocent Iraqis, spawned thousands of terrorists where there were none before, including bringing Al Quaeda into Iraq and playing right into the hands of Iran, who now conveniently have their fellow Shi’ites in power in Iraq?
Oh yeah, everything’s just hunky-dory in the U.S. of A. Keep playing that tune on your fiddle, mister; the rest of us are going to roll up our sleeves and see if we can save the ship from sinking.

On whose watch did the worst terrorist attack on American soil take place, anyway? Who inherited a $9 trillion surplus and turned it into a $5 trillion deficit? Who put us into debt to the Chinese communists to the tune of billions and billions of dollars? Who invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses, squandered hundreds of billions of dollars, lost the lives of more than 4000 brave Americans and countless innocent Iraqis, spawned thousands of terrorists where there were none before, including bringing Al Quaeda into Iraq and playing right into the hands of Iran, who now conveniently have their fellow Shi’ites in power in Iraq?
Shh. We can’t talk about those things. They don’t fit into the neat little alternate reality that some folks on the right have set up for themselves.
Never mind the fact that we had a Republican congress and a Republican president during most of Bush’s term– somehow, all of those things are the fault of liberals, or anyone to the left of Attila the Hun.
As for the topic at hand, Obama isn’t saying anything about Iraq that he hasn’t said all along. He’s always talked about a phased withdrawing of troops, at about 1-2 brigades a month over a 16 month period, and that he would listen to his commanders on the ground– something Bush has utterly failed to do over the last few years.
The main issue here is that Republicans have absolutely nothing to run on with McCain except the war. He can’t run on the economy, since he’s just going to continue Bush’s failed policies, and he can’t run on values because of his own fights with the religious right over the last several decades. All he has is Iraq, which most Americans oppose and want to leave except for the die-hard dead-enders on the far right. McCain’s campaign has been floundering all over the place and they think they’ve finally found something to hit Obama on, so they’re whining about a flip-flop where none exists.
This is a non-issue except that the Republicans are targeting the low information voter and trying to play the same Fox News tactics they’ve used in the last two elections.

To Guy Arthur Thomas: On whose watch did the worst terrorist attack on American soil take place, anyway? Who inherited a $9 trillion surplus and turned it into a $5 trillion deficit? Who put us into debt to the Chinese communists to the tune of billions and billions of dollars? Who invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses, squandered hundreds of billions of dollars, lost the lives of more than 4000 brave Americans and countless innocent Iraqis, spawned thousands of terrorists where there were none before, including bringing Al Quaeda into Iraq and playing right into the hands of Iran, who now conveniently have their fellow Shi’ites in power in Iraq?
Oh yeah, everything’s just hunky-dory in the U.S. of A. Keep playing that tune on your fiddle, mister; the rest of us are going to roll up our sleeves and see if we can save the ship from sinking.
Posted by: yelladawgNC | July 6, 2008 4:00 PM
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So I guess since a parent has a child raped while still living at home it is the parent’s fault? Simply because a tragedy occurs while someone is President doesn’t make that person at fault…but of course you aren’t interested in finding the cause, just pointing fingers like a TYPICAL LIB. You CONVENIENTLY forgot the years CLINTON allowed AQ and BL to grow and prosper as a terrorist organization and leader. OOOPPPPSS….so point the finger at your OWN PARTY first.
Boo hoo, we have a deficit IN PART due to a war. Tell me genius, how much DOMESTIC SPENDING have we increased and how much DEFENSE SPENDING have we increased during this time? OOpppps a daisy, DOMESTIC SPENDING WINS. And what is most of the DOMESTIC SPENDING FOR????
Those 4000 lives you know nothing about since you have never BEEN in the military never mind served during a war (yes I have), those are men and women who have volunteered to serve and who understand the necessity and legitimacy of the war. They are free to object due to CONSCIENCE and they don’t so you can forgo attempting to preach for them, they preached their own sermon by serving not only their country but giving the greatest sacrifice for OURS and others. But of course you don’t understand how the conflict in IRAQ has protect America and other freedom loving countries and now IRAQ itself. YOU are clueless and will remain so in a most obvious fashion.
Keep crying while IRAQ becomes a more free nation with greater and greater security from internal and external terrorism. And only a fool imagines IRAQ is interested is some form of control by Iran or will for that matter allow it. IRAQI Shi’ites are just that IRAQIS and they are IRAQIS and not IRANIANS for the most obvious reason they never will be and will never permit, but that historical REALITY escapes you LIBS.

As for the topic at hand, Obama isn’t saying anything about Iraq that he hasn’t said all along. He’s always talked about a phased withdrawing of troops, at about 1-2 brigades a month over a 16 month period, and that he would listen to his commanders on the ground– something Bush has utterly failed to do over the last few years.
Posted by: LJG | July 6, 2008 4:21 PM
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Hmmmm…let’s see. Barry PROMISES a withdraw without VISITING IRAQ or being briefed by any military commanders. Yeah he has a great record of listening to military commanders….hahahahahaaha!
And let’s see, President Bush is urged to increase troops for a surge. He increases troops as urged to by commanders, the surge not only is successful but now we hear of AQ being decimated and in its last vestiges of survival as a fighting force in IRAQ. Sounds like W. listened quite well and the results are just too painful to deal with. Next please!

It takes a lot of nerve to create a mess and then mock somebody else for not being able to clean up that mess immediately. It takes somebody whose sense of shame is completely missing to be arrogant while doing so.
Proverbs has a lovely line about this.’ Stones are heavy, and sand is a burden, but criticism from a fool is heavier than both.’

It takes somebody whose sense of shame is completely missing to be arrogant while doing so.
Welcome to the Bush administration. They’ve had no shame at all in eight years and are the living embodiment of arrogance.
Bush has overseen the most blatant shredding of the Constitution since Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and FDR rounded up Japanese-Americans and put them in camps, the largest expansion of government since LBJ and the biggest international blunder since Vietnam, and people think that anyone is going to be able to clean up his mess in the first 100 days? Pfft.
But heaven help you if you point out the truth. You’re just a hopeless liberal who has no sense of reality. *eyeroll*
Honestly, the cognitive dissonance of anyone still supporting the corrupt administration in power is stunning. You really have to reinvent reality to still support Bush and the rest of his crooks.

Mention Bush and Iraq and the entire conversation degenerates
“one statement which the press misinterpreted has the righties swarming.”
How was it misinterpreted? What did he mean by “refine?” I bet even you Obamanites don’t even know.

For your information, Mr. Thomas, I grew up in the military, the daughter of the chief test pilot for the Air Force, who stayed in 30 years and fought in three wars; he was serving in Vietnam when my mother died. So don’t you DARE tell me I know nothing about the sacrifices made by the military and their families. The lying SOB you support did the worst thing any president could possibly do: send the brave and dedicated people of the armed services into harm’s way under false pretenses. He is a traitor and should be impeached and thrown into prison.
And you should keep your big mouth shut when accusing people you know nothing about of knowing nothing. You, sir, are an arrogant jackass.

How was it misinterpreted? What did he mean by “refine?” I bet even you Obamanites don’t even know.
No, Michelle, I think you don’t know. You’re just one of those dead-enders on the far right that believe that Bush is right when reality tells you otherwise.

refine – to make small adjustments for improvement. refine does not mean backpedal on his intended change of mission like the press played it.

“Mention Bush and Iraq and the entire conversation degenerates ”
no kidding. it would seem that guy and z are unable to have someone make a critical analysis of a military person’s record as presidential qualifications without taking it personally. a few of my military buds used to have the same defensive reaction. we’ve talked about it, and they’ve said that maybe it was ptsd. i know they did things that they weren’t proud of, so that certainly may have played a part, but i think it was partly an ego thing, too. still, these are the few that i mentioned elsewhere who took some time (and a wife and kids) to mature and attain that “true character.” those who had family prior to desert storm certainly came back with a greater appreciation for their families and a greater disdain for needless war.

“No, Michelle, I think you don’t know. You’re just one of those dead-enders on the far right that believe that Bush is right when reality tells you otherwise.”
Typical response. When the left can’t engage in a discussion, they resort to ad hominem attacks.

Michele,
Don’t you think this article is an ad hominem against Obama????
McCain is pretty much getting away with the same stuff and its either out of context, he was telling a joke, or thats not the way he remembered it … even when Tim Russert showed him footage of McCain himself saying the opposite.
McCain has put his integrity as a major campaign issue, so I feel that if you truely want to have a discussion you need to show that McCain is also doing it.
Oh and by the way there are at least 4 dimensions of political preferance. liberal v. conservative, libertarian v populist. I’m not on the far left, but I am firmly in the libertarian camp. The sad thing is that the GOP used to campion liberty. Now liberty issues are divided between the 2 parties. Its really sad when the GOP will not defend the 4th amendment but will defend the 2nd.

Typical response. When the left can’t engage in a discussion, they resort to ad hominem attacks.
That’s hilarious coming from someone whose entire blog is little more than poorly sourced cut-and-paste articles and constant ad hominem attacks against Obama, Muslims, and anything else you disagree with.
The day you actually write a political post that doesn’t involve any of these things will be the day you get to criticize the quality of the comments you get.

Indeed, LIG/July 7,2008 11:51 AM said it better than I can!! If you want to talk about political stuff, have the grace to keep an OPEN MIND! Sorry, my opinion is that your words to Michele are crude, rude and not fit for social interaction!!!! Your opinion is not the only one!!! Wake up about all of it!! It’s very small and one sided of you to think you have all the answers!! No one person has! Best wishes, Rebecca from Tucson, AZ

“That’s hilarious coming from someone whose entire blog is little more than poorly sourced cut-and-paste articles and constant ad hominem attacks against Obama, Muslims, and anything else you disagree with.
The day you actually write a political post that doesn’t involve any of these things will be the day you get to criticize the quality of the comments you get. ”
Ad hominem upon ad hominem. Evidently that’s the extent of the interaction you want to engage in.
And your attack in inaccurate, I actually published a couple posts where I agreed with Obama. So I guess I’m now free to criticize your comments.

Evidently that’s the extent of the interaction you want to engage in.
That’s because I save any real effort at commenting for bloggers that put real effort into posting. You don’t offer much in the way of posts that require any real effort, or thought towards a response.
Perhaps if you improved your blogging, you’d get better comments, and you wouldn’t have such an adversarial relationship with your commenters. You get what you give, and when you give little more than a bunch of cut-and-paste jobs with no obvious effort on your part, you get no effort from your audience in return.
BTW, two posts agreeing with Obama doesn’t negate the rest of your posting history. Your weakness as a blogger is far deeper than just that.

let’s recap:
you initiate the ad hominem attacks against obama, with “I think his amazement demonstrates how green he really is.”
i say, “one statement which the press misinterpreted has the righties swarming.”
then you come back with an ad hominem, “How was it misinterpreted? What did he mean by “refine?” I bet even you Obamanites don’t even know.”
then LJG says, “No, Michelle, I think you don’t know. You’re just one of those dead-enders on the far right that believe that Bush is right when reality tells you otherwise.” and while this is an ad hominem, it’s not the only one here, and it’s not like you weren’t setting the tone for that kind of response. it’s also not that the issue hasn’t already been addressed, but you still fail to get it.
still, i answered your question with “refine – to make small adjustments for improvement. refine does not mean backpedal on his intended change of mission like the press played it.”
you dismiss it, with “Typical response. When the left can’t engage in a discussion, they resort to ad hominem attacks.”
so what does that say about your original posts? or about your own frequent ad hominem attacks? discussion is more than just you posting an attack against obama and some who disagree posting comments. sometimes you don’t listen to understand and sometimes neither do we. because we can’t write initial posts here, it’s up to you to set the tone. unfortunately it’s pretty obvious that most of your political posts aren’t intended to provoke discussion, but rather to poke a stick in someone’s eye.

So, who are these bloggers who illicit your best comments? I want to go to their blog and read your comments to see if they are as brilliant as you claim.

“still, i answered your question with “refine – to make small adjustments for improvement. refine does not mean backpedal on his intended change of mission like the press played it.”
you dismiss it, with “Typical response. When the left can’t engage in a discussion, they resort to ad hominem attacks.”"
Um…didn’t you realize I was addressing LJG?

For your information, Mr. Thomas, I grew up in the military, the daughter of the chief test pilot for the Air Force, who stayed in 30 years and fought in three wars; he was serving in Vietnam when my mother died. So don’t you DARE tell me I know nothing about the sacrifices made by the military and their families.
Posted by: yelladawgNC | July 6, 2008 11:31 PM
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You can grow up (as I did) a military brat all you want…I will restate that YOU do NOT understand the nature of VOLUNTEERS who do speak with their lives and the sacrifices they have made in this conflict and their speaking is NOT as YOUR speak, that their lives were WASTED but were GIVEN…and if anyone is arrogant it appears you are in attempting to determine these men and women WASTED their lives. No yelladawg (how appropriate) you don’t understand in the least their sacrifice.

“So, who are these bloggers who illicit your best comments? I want to go to their blog and read your comments to see if they are as brilliant as you claim.”
You may want to start with Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons blog. His posts are well thought out and comments/discussion is usually respectful, even when there is disagreement. He doesn’t come across as wanting to antagonize his readers.
BTW – the word “brilliant” never appeared in LGJ’s post…only in your sarcastic answer.

Mr. Thomas, Michele evidently deleted my full comments to you, but I’ll let you imagine just what my opinion of you is; when you’ve done that, lower it.
My father VOLUNTEERED to serve 30 years; I understand just as much about the present volunteers as you do. The fact that our soldiers are volunteers in no way diminishes the responsibility of those who send them into harm’s way to do so as an absolute last resort. That was not the case in Iraq, as the entire world knows. I admire and respect the brave and dedicated people in the military. I despise and loathe Bush and his cabal of neocons with their half-baked theories about American empire and their unbridled greed. They are traitorous criminals in my view and should be behind bars.

“Mr. Thomas, Michele evidently deleted my full comments to you, but I’ll let you imagine just what my opinion of you is; when you’ve done that, lower it.”
I don’t delete comments. I don’t edit commits except for the occasional swear word and then I will add an update line to let people know. So, you can never accuse me of doing so.

“I’m not somebody who, like George Bush, is willing to ignore facts on the basis of my preconceived notions.” – Barack Obama
What the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee fails to understand is that President Bush doesn’t have “preconceived notions” he has principals, values and goals. Sometimes to stand by those principals, values and goals you have to accept the facts as they are and still try to live by your principals and values and achieve your goals.

So, who are these bloggers who illicit your best comments? I want to go to their blog and read your comments to see if they are as brilliant as you claim.
Where I comment isn’t the issue. Your posts and their distinct lack of quality are. In general, if your posts were better, you’d get better comments.
BTW, if you want two good places to start here at Beliefnet, I’d recommend Rod Dreher’s blog as well as Steven Waldman. Both of them offer intelligent, articulate posts. Rod’s also a conservative, and his blog is very active with comments. Read both of them. Learn from them. See how they write and how they generate the discussions and topics that they write about.
Another good blog is Jim Wallis’. He offers a lot of really good, interesting writers, all of whom talk about both religion and politics and they do it well.
You could learn a lot by reading them. Maybe if you read them all for a while and if you legitimately learned by their example and tried to improve your blogging from just posting one-liners, out of context or meaningless political attacks, and YouTube videos, you might be able to connect with your audience better.

Michele, I beg your pardon, but there are two versions of my comments on 7/6, both posted at 11:31 p.m., and one of them has been heavily edited, NOT by me. (I did not see that the earlier, unedited version had been posted, which is why I said “Michele evidently deleted my comments” in my reply to G.A.T., who by the way seems to be either semi-literate or viciously insulting, since he doesn’t understand or deliberately misinterprets my moniker, which refers to the well-known usage, “yellow dog Democrat,” meaning someone who, rather than vote for a Republican, would vote for “an old yella dawg.” In my case, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, as I might well vote for Chuck Hagel if the person he were running against had been less courageous than he in opposing this stupid war.)

“Um…didn’t you realize I was addressing LJG?”
yes, but you said “the left.” which, since the right has shifted this country so far off track, i’m now part of “the left.” so, take care when painting with such a broad brush when i provided you with what you asked, without an ad hominem that you accuse the left of resorting to… in the midst of your ad hominem attacks no less.

guy, you’re a great caricature of the loose wingnuts commonly found in conservative circles. thank you!

“yes, but you said “the left.” which, since the right has shifted this country so far off track, i’m now part of “the left.” so, take care when painting with such a broad brush when i provided you with what you asked, without an ad hominem that you accuse the left of resorting to… in the midst of your ad hominem attacks no less.”
Sorry but you are inserting yourself in an argument that you are not involved. I can make a description that fits generally without it fitting you in this particular instance especially when I’m not even thinking about you but the fact that his/her comment was filled with ad hominem attacks.