Blogger Code of Ethics?

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 30, 2004 · 8:13 PM PST

2004/11/30 · 20:13

The following is the "Declaration of Principles on the Conduct of Journalists" (adopted by the Second World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists at Bordeaux on 25-28 April 1954 and amended by the 18th IFJ World Congress in Helsingör on 2-6 June 1986.)

Is there anything here that could not, should not, would not be adopted by "reputable" bloggers? At least in posts proporting to report facts? And would it be useful to have a separation between "news reporting" and "op/ed" in a blog? Should anything in the following principles be added when applied to blogs? Omitted? Read More

Stand up for Juan Cole

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 23, 2004 · 8:27 PM PST

2004/11/23 · 20:27

I'm not here anymore, so feel free to ignore me.

But don't let the courageous, insightful and, hell, important Juan Cole be targeted for a SLAPP (a frivolous lawsuit threat, with the sole intent of censoring and intimidating).

So go read, and help him out by expressing your outrage to the folks on his case.

http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/intimidation-by-israeli-linked.html

Do the right thing, regardless of your stand on the particular controversy. Stand up for free speech.

What is a Liberal?

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 18, 2004 · 4:33 PM PST

2004/11/18 · 16:33

Sen. John F. Kennedy, acceptance of the New York Liberal Party Nomination, September 14, 1960.

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

Read the rest of this brilliant speech below the fold... Read More

Israelis get it even if Americans don't

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 18, 2004 · 9:42 AM PST

2004/11/18 · 09:42

Dan Rabinowitz, writing in Haaretz, constrasts the traditional, if growing, refusal of soldiers on the left to obey immoral orders, with the imminent threat from newly aggressive messianic theocracy, which is calling on soldiers on the right to refuse orders they consider contrary to the imperialist will of God--such as evacuating Gazan settlements.

In Israeli society, which in many ways presages what a Bush America will be like, the two trends,refusal and theocracy, have combined in a new alarming way.

Unlike progressives here, folks on the Left in Israel understand the threat of theocracy all too well, and speak openly and frequently about it. They have no problem separating "moral values" from religious extremism, as many here seem to. And they don't seem to confuse support for rational secular government with "antireligionism"

Not for the first time, we learn something by paying attention to this closest of world allies, both from both the frank openness of their discussion of religious authoritarianism and the powerful growing menace of their theocratic Right.
Read More

Why you can't call them the "Christian right"

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 17, 2004 · 9:37 AM PST

2004/11/17 · 09:37

Timothy Noah over at Slate reports on a new PC movement - the media, under pressure from Dominionists, is changing its language to remove the concept of a "Christian right" from the lexicon.

Welcome to Framing 2.0. The mere existence of a radical theocratic right is being removed from the public consciousness.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2109370/

The correct, consensus frame to expose the religious right is to refer to "Dominionists" and their supporters. For more on Dominion Theology and the Old Testament theocrats, read earlier entries in this diary or do a Google search.

Excerpts from the slate article below the fold. Read More

Deja vu all over again

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 14, 2004 · 4:55 PM PST

2004/11/14 · 16:55

In the fall of 1961 it didn't take very long to discover in Vietnam that we weren't likely to be successful there. It took me less than a week, on my first visit. With the right access, talking to the right people, you could get the picture pretty quickly. You didn't have to speak Vietnamese, or know Asian history or philosophy or culture, to learn that nothing we were trying to do was working or was likely to get better. I read somewhere you don't have to be an ichthyologist to know when a fish stinks.
...

Most of the [high level Pentagon task force officers] agreed with [a US colonel], and with many Vietnamese officials, that the only thing that would change this prospect in the short run would be American combat forces on a large scale. ...But even American divisions, this colonel believed, would only postpone the same outcome. The Communists would govern soon after our forces left, whenever that might be.

excerpts from Prologue:Vietnam 1961
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, by Daniel Ellsberg

The Creed of Reason

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday November 12, 2004 · 2:02 PM PST

2004/11/12 · 14:02

To love justice, to long for the right; to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits; to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words; to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms; to love wife, and child, and friend, to make a happy home; to love the beautiful in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind; to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world; to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy; to fill life with the splendour of generous acts, the warmth of loving words; to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness; to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night; to do the best that can be done and then to be resigned: this is the religion of reason, the creed of science; this satisfies the brain and heart.

Our Creed by Robert G. Ingersoll

US Using White Phosphorus Rounds on Fallujah

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 11, 2004 · 10:05 PM PST

2004/11/11 · 22:05

Usually we keep the gloves on," said Army Capt. Erik Krivda, of Gaithersburg, Md., the senior officer in charge of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force 2-2 tactical operations command center. "For this operation, we took the gloves off."

Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.

Kamal Hadeethi, a physician at a regional hospital, said, "The corpses of the mujahedeen which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/10/MNG6P9P3ER1.DTL

To save Iraq, sir, it was necessary to destroy it.

Excuse me while I go throw up.

Arianna sinks the putt

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 10, 2004 · 5:30 PM PST

2004/11/10 · 17:30

The indomitable Arianna Huffington writes about the "moral values" meme in a way that will hopefully put all this nonsense to a rest.

But only if folks read it.

And Now For Something Completely Different: Real Moral Values

The problem with this tidal wave of values converts is twofold. First, it's based on a media-generated myth about what voters cared most about this election -- a myth based on a poorly worded exit poll question that tried to turn "moral values" into a concrete issue like health care or the war in Iraq, which they clearly are not.

More excerpts below the fold... Read More

Gary Hart: When the Personal Shouldn't Be Political

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 09, 2004 · 9:13 PM PST

2004/11/09 · 21:13

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/opinion/08hart.html

If America has entered one of its periodic eras of religious revival and if that revival is having the profound impact on politics that is now presumed, to participate in a discussion of "faith" one must qualify oneself.
...

My political philosophy springs directly from Jesus' teachings and is the reason I became active in the Democratic Party.

...to pre-empt the ad hominem disqualifiers. I am a sinner. I only ask for the same degree of forgiveness from my many critics that they were willing to grant George W. Bush for his transgressions.

As a candidate for public office, I chose not to place my beliefs in the center of my appeal for support because I am also a Jeffersonian; that is to say, I believe that one's religious beliefs - though they will and should affect one's outlook on public policy and life - are personal and that America is a secular, not a theocratic, republic. Because of this, it should concern us that declarations of "faith" are quickly becoming a condition for seeking public office.

I recommend reading the rest of the article.

Crisis of Faith

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 09, 2004 · 4:58 PM PST

2004/11/09 · 16:58

Here it is folks, my great big, carefully constructed analysis of the "moral values" kerfuffle:

GO READ PASTOR DAN'S DIARY ENTRY ON THE SUBJECT:

The "Values" Debate: What Have We Learned So Far?

Why reinvent the wheel? He articulates the issues, and the pathways, magnificently. We're all in this together and it doesn't matter who the messenger is.

"It's the message, stupid."

Now Go Read. Now. It matters that much.

(and thanks, pastordan, for saving me all that work!)

Blogging vs Journalism

galiel

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 08, 2004 · 5:59 PM PST

2004/11/08 · 17:59

I was going to write the second part of my "what now", about the post-election struggle to reframe the progressive response, but recent events here have spurred me to take the time to (try to) write a careful, thoughtful piece on what is emerging, to my great surprise, as a vital battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. The article, which will hopefully be posted sometime this week, will be titled "Crisis of Faith".

In the meantime, a veteran, retired career journalist from CBS has written a thought-provoking commentary about election-eve blogging and what "real journalism" is all about. I hope it will spark some open discussion and retrospection, rather than blanket rejection. I think we can all learn from frank criticism of this type.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/08/opinion/printable654285.shtml

Newer
Older

RSS