I pledge allegiance to the flag
Back in the fall of 2002 and spring of 2003, like many people, I was dumbfounded, astounded, flabbergasted and nonplussed by the unthinking rush to the Iraq Debacle cheered upon the by the Very Serious People of the time. It seemed unreal to me. The insanity of the Very Serious People was best personified by Tom "Suck On This" Friedman:
Yes, even the "liberal" New York Times, the newspaper of Judy Miller and Michael Gordon, was insane. And not just about Iraq. But Iraq was the watershed for me. Many people like me spent time scrambling around trying to find sane voices that shared our concerns and views about the looming disaster. I found this blog, Daily Kos, to talk about the insanity. It felt necessary then, just to make sure it was not me who was crazy. That someone else felt the same way. It turned out there were a lot of people who felt the same way. And a lot of them congregated at Daily Kos.
The other day, Markos announced that Scott Wooledge, a/k/a Clarknt67 (whose writing and activism I have admired and who I had the pleasure of meeting at the most recent NYC Dkos meetup), would be a Featured Writer. In that post, Markos wrote:
Through the end of the year, we're going to be making a strong subscription drive. We need to continue staffing up to speed up development times and do the kind of cool things we want to do, like adding new verticals, bringing aboard more cartoonists, and directly supporting community projects like the Kos Katalog.
Subscriptions are cool -- they allow you to view an ad-free version of the site, which isn't just more attractive, but also downloads much quicker. It's a lifesaver if you're on dial-up.
We're also adding new benefits to subscribers. We'll be rolling out three new downloaded e-books for subscribers over the next three weeks.
I'm subscribing in order to support Daily Kos, the site, the community and the potential "force for good." Here's how you can:
You can buy a subscription for yourself or a friend on our subscription page.
If you would like to make a donation to the site, you can do so on our donations page.
On the flip, I'll explain why I am supporting daily kos. Perhaps a "prodigal son's" story (I left the site for four years) might persuade you to do the same.
In 2006, I wrote a post titled What Is Different About This Time. Here's what I wrote:
Is it only blogs that have reacted strongly to this Administration? Consider Paul Krugman. If you only went by Andrew Sullivan, Bill O'Reilly and the Wingnuts, you would think that Paul Krugman arrived on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times after serving a long stint at the Comintern (which reminds me, for those of you who don't know, I am virulently anti-Communist, anti-Castro, dislike and distrust Chavez, and believed the Soviet Union was an Evil Empire.) But Paul Krugman has always been a highly distinguished economist, at or near the top of his field. Do these folks wonder what happened to Krugman to make him "The Shrill One"?
Do they wonder at all? Can the last five years of lies, failures, incompetence, illegalities, warmongering, McCarthyism, and just plain stupidity not register at all to these folks?
Do they wonder why we distrust the Media? After watching its performance during the Clinton Administration and now watching it during the worst, most mendacious Administration since Nixon?
When is "shrillness" and "stridency" ever justified to them? What should our reactions be in their minds? You know, it would have been unfathomable to me ten years ago that the Media and the DC Elite would have been told that the President was deliberately violating the law IN ORDER TO SPY ON AMERICANS and the sum of their reaction would have been "how does it play politically?"
But that is exactly what I expected from today's Media. And the Adam Nagourneys, Sheryl Gay Stolbergs, the Dana Milbanks and the Jim Vandenheis did not disappoint.
This is what they are - incompetent, clueless, souless, amoral - and unreliable. That they wonder why we rage is not surprising.
Indeed, that they wonder is just another indictment of them.
If Watergate would have happened today, it would have been a a story for about a week, and then forgotten. And those screaming about it would have been called "shrill" and "strident." But if a blowjob were involved, Sally Quinn would not rest until the President were held to account.
Since then, Democrats have won elections, the Congress and the presidency. They have also lost a big election. And there has been a lot of debate about the Democrats and the president. Sometimes the debate has been messy. I spent a few years criticizing Daily Kos (and other blogs) for being too complacent with regard to issues. I'm not saying I was wrong (I think I was right). I will say I was wrong to not say it here.
Not because you have to say it here. But this was my place too. I should have said it here. Discussed it here. Fought about it here. Because this is where I refound my place—back when everyone was crazy. Everyone is still crazy of course, and this is still my place too.
I'm staying and supporting my place—Daily Kos. If Daily Kos is your place too, support Daily Kos.
Again, here's how:
You can buy a subscription for yourself or a friend on our subscription page.
If you would like to make a donation to the site, you can do so on our donations page.