Today, I am deeply shaken. There was a shameful posting on BC blatantly misrepresenting and maligning McAuliffe. I was shocked by the depths to which some Moran supporters could sink. So, I wrote a comment, to get: You are not authorized to post here! I thought my comment was too long and tried to write a Diary. I got the same response.
And that is when I was shaken! I said to myself - What have I done that I have been kicked out of BC? I have hardly any one hating my writing (unlike in Daily Kos, where I have a handful of out of state mutual admirers not happy with my analytical and objective approach)
So with my tail between my legs, in my most humble tone, I wrote to the Support Team asking why I was not allowed to Post. I got a terse one line reply: "See the big post on the main page."
And, I thought, "Oh, my God, have I been blacklisted and put on the main page as ‘Man Outlawed’". So I searched, found the Home Page and discovered the first horrible impact of shameful behavior. I have posted below verbatim, without comment. But, I do have a Poll with a new twist.
All Bad Things...
Posted Mar 28th, 2009 - 04:44 pm by code
* Blue Commonwealth
I'm of course alluding to Lowell's final post on RK, just 4 months ago. At that time, a few of us from RK decided to attempt to maintain the community that had formed around it. We started Blue Commonwealth hoping to provide a forum for discussion. It's been fun, but today we're forced to shut down the blog.
I'm not going to take BC offline - just the blogging aspect. You'll still be able to read previous posts, just not create new ones or comment. In fact, I'm hoping to keep the site functioning and concentrate on providing candidate info, aggregating and highlighting good blogging from other blogs in VA, and advocating for electing Democrats in the Commonwealth.
Why the drastic turn, you ask? Well, today, I was personally attacked by a representative of the Moran Campaign. I have never editorialized on BC. I simply host the site on my server and pay the bills via our PAC (DEMPAC). I've even maintained my strict neutrality in the '09 VA Gov. Primary. Apparently, this still warrants attacking me, and my employer, for things other people post on this blog. It's not even the personal attacks that concern me (I have thick skin) - it's exposing my employer to unfair attacks based on things that neither I nor they have published. If the Virginia Netroots are unable to behave civilly, then I am unable to continue supporting such an effort.
So on that note, I hereby shut down the blog on Blue Commonwealth. I wish I could say it's been fun, but it hasn't, really. It's been all personal attacks, back-biting, and in-fighting. I seriously hope that the Democratic Party of Virginia survives this primary. I'll be right beside the rest of you, fighting for our nominee. I think all three of our primary candidates are spectacular, and I'll proudly support any of them against Bob McDonnell.
Maybe we'll regroup and reform after the primary, maybe not. Either way, it's been real.
Thanks for your all of your support and blogging. I hope you will continue to visit Blue Commonwealth as we create new services and dream up new ways to use technology to elect Democrats in VA.
~ code / Admin / Dave