HEY, call me crazy. I dunno if it's the sex, the drugs, or the rock and roll this Friday night, but once I saw the front page of DailyKos, I had to put all of that aside and say... congratulations.
Congratulations to Daily Kossacks. Take a look at your front page right now. I'll post it below. But take a look and put it in the context of the History of intellectual thought, and by that I mean the way intellectual discourse used to happen, and who used to take part, have an audience, and determine legitimacy, and why. Dare the word 'paradigm' slip from my tongue? How cliche... But honestly, through the "miracle" of algorithmic amounts of traffic on this site, we have created a living forum for a more Democratic liberal discourse at a scale which certainly America has never before seen.
PUT it in the context of centuries of political thought, journalism, creative writing, and maybe most importantly Non-Fiction... and I think everyone who is mentioned below deserves a huge pat on the back, and while we're all at it (smug as bugs in rugs), let's not be stingy... give Markos a pat as well.
Cause I kid you not, when you think about what a front page like the one posted below means for the future of discourse and thought in America and throughout the globe, honestly... it's the sign of something.
It's either the Apocalypse or the Renaissance. At least I figure...
* Ivorybill's Iraq Journal - the Border recounts his conversations with the two cab drivers who drove him from Turkey to Kurdish Iraq. The result is a beautifully written and thoughtful plunge into the ethnic dynamic of Iraq. This diary represents the political meeting the personal on a grand scale. (ksh01)
* The Reverend and Doctor Omed hurt my brain in a soft kind of way when I read The Fog of War and the Fuzz of God on Hard Facts Ave, a compliation of our collective aversion to cold hard facts. You really need to read the Rev., his ability to create the atmosphere of which he complains is unparalleled in this forum, so sit back in the cadence car for a drive through the lint ball of our reality. (ksh01)
* We continue to pick at the scabs of Vietnam figuratively by not learning its lessons and literally by messing with the simple, understated beauty of its monument. In Learning History at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Rez Dog relates his personal war experience and appreciation for equality of expression at The Wall. (ksh01)
* In Millionaire Repub. Senators hate the working poor, clammyc provides an easy to read primer on seven stinky rich Republican senators who refuse to allow introduction of a straightforward minimum wage bill without including ginormous tax cuts for themselves and a roll back of the Estate Tax. Jared Bernstein takes a closer look at just what these rich Republicans were attempting to stuff into the bill in The Day The System Worked. These are both great diaries for their use of effortless framing. (ksh01)
* Thank God there are some nations paying attention to the impending environmental emergency. An important message to DailyKos, direct from Palau's ambassador to the UN: Colbert, Palau, and the Fate of the Ocean by Petrox. The diarist works for Palau's UN Mission. (melvin)
* Your rescuer frankly does not know what to make of this story. And that makes it interesting. Freelance reporter/blogger sent to prison!]by Eddie C (melvin)
* A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve had gone back on the auction block - after 15 years of hard work to save it. In British Columbia, Selling Out by boran2 (melvin)
* Unlimited Terms of Endearment, Part VIII: America At Its Worst harto continues excellent research in a series of diarieson the shadowy world of ballot initiatives. This entry follows some of the money, and explores links between those pushing "Terri
Schiavo" initiatives and the TABOR crowd. (Land of Enchantment)
* In Eternal Hope's The bizarre behavior of Judith Miller comes home to roost, it would appear that Patrick Fitzgerald may not be done with Judith Miller yet. And the public's right to know about what our government's doing may be the ultimate casualty. (Land of Enchantment)
* A Soldier's Funeral - protest and a response by docstymis s a home-town testimonial about a decent human response to tragedy. It's a simple chronicle of a hometown efforts protect a grieving family from the mean-spirited Westover Baptist Church disrupting the funeral of a fallen soldier with one of their anti-gay demonstrations. (Land of Enchantment)
* wgard's The Competence Is... Overwhelming! examines how the administration's approach to the so-called "global war on terror" is more about its own PR than gaining meaningful results in a "war" it knows full well is inherently ludicrous.(Odum)
* As of Friday, August 4, 2006, the United States has been at war with Iraq for 1,233 days. In this period of time, there have been 2,585 Coalition fatalities, an estimated 39,702 to 4,4191 Iraqi civilian fatalities and 511 days of Iraq War Grief Daily Witness diaries by RubDMC. Many thanks to RubDMC for his perseverance and for being the voice of conscience for so many of us. (Avila)
* With many thanks to wmtriallawyer for proposing The Katrina Blog Project: 30 Days to Remember the Madness, we have two Katrina diaries up for rescue this evening. OffTheHill's informative and well-written The mental health crisis in New Orleans takes a chilling look at the sometimes invisible scars of Hurricane Katrina survivors, the effects of untreated mental health problems on physical health and the collapsed infrastructure of health care providers and facilities after Katrina. (Avila) Katrina, the never-ending story by Chimes of Freedom is a moving first hand account of return home to New Orleans. (Land of Enchantment)
* Duke1676's Honk for English: Fun with maps and hypocrisy is an informative and entertaining look at the debate over English as a national language, with a link to an interactive language map tool. (Avila)
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