Reflections on the Democratic Debate

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

Saturday April 28, 2007 · 11:10 AM PDT

2007/04/28 · 11:10

Crossposted from My Left Wing

I'm very disappointed in most of the respondents to yesterday's Question of the Day, which I posted at MLW:

Set aside, for our purposes here today, ALL questions about electability, money, appearance, history, possible Republican opponents and how your candidate might do against said Republican, and think back to the words you heard from each candidate. If you COULD, in some Utopian existence where none of the above issues were allowable in one's decision-making (not only your own but every voter's), choose a candidate to ascend to the nomination based SOLELY on that candidate's spoken and written words...

Who spoke the words that most closely hew to your own opinions and feelings, and, presumably, therefore would be your chosen Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America come November 2008?

Maryscott OConnor

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

Wednesday April 25, 2007 · 6:23 PM PDT

2007/04/25 · 18:23

Crossposted in full from Stu Piddy's post at MLW

i don't have time to go into detail on this but an Army Warden at Camp Cropper has been charged with aiding the enemy.

The Army tells NBC News that military police arrested Lt. Col. William H. Steele several weeks ago and that he is being held at a detention facility in Kuwait.

I don't know anything about it... except it reeks.

It sounds like this "warden" was possibly going to be a whistleblower might have been gathering information on mistreatment of prisoners and was not sympathetic to the past or present torture and mistreatment on detainees.

Maryscott OConnor

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

Wednesday April 18, 2007 · 12:19 PM PDT

2007/04/18 · 12:19

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Orginal title: You Fuck, You Die

[FINAL UPDATE, I hope]

Well... THAT was interesting. I'll be paying for my abominable reaction to the title change for months to come, no doubt -- and oh, the field day my detractors have had with it. My own fault. i stand by my original title and assertion that if Markos wants to ban profanity in titles, he ought to write the rules to reflect that. Nevertheless, everything I said and did after the title change -- utterly abominable and thoroughly embarrassing. I'd plead insanity, but that ship has sailed.

Maryscott OConnor

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

Thursday April 05, 2007 · 2:53 PM PDT

2007/04/05 · 14:53

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

"The troops" do not generally believe it when people say they "support the troops" but "hate what the troops are doing." They think that's bullshit. They think if you're going to support the troops, you have to support what they're doing, and since they're pretty sure there's no way in fucking hell you can possibly understand what they're doing -- since they themselves do not understand what they're doing -- they kinda sorta wish you'd just shut the fuck up.

Imagine this, please, people:

Maryscott OConnor

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

Monday March 19, 2007 · 11:51 AM PDT

2007/03/19 · 11:51

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

It seems to me that the old cliché, "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it" applies much more to ordinary citizens than to politicians.

In fact, politicians COUNT on that truism. How many people actually know how Vietnam started? How many people further know how our involvement in Vietnam accelerated? How about when the draft was implemented?

And how many know the details of the Weimar Republic, the Reichstag, the supposed “election” of Adolf Hitler, the purported attack by Poland on a German radio station that was, in fact, a falsehood from beginning to end?

The fact that we are, collectively, so very uneducated about humanity’s own recent history, is what the right wing counts on when they send out the attack dogs to decry any comparison between Iraq and Vietnam -- and possibly what the Democrats now dragging their feet on the Iraq Quagmire count on as they tell us every day, "Wait, wait, give us more time..."

Maryscott OConnor

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

Monday March 12, 2007 · 10:33 AM PDT

2007/03/12 · 10:33

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Reading rustydude's reportage on What The Media Is Not Reporting In Colombia, I'm struck by his theory about the two reasons they're protesting Bush's visit so violently over there in Latin America -- Colombia, specifically.

The first reason is fairly self-evident (all emphases are my own):

"... The U.S. has sent nearly $4 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia since Uribe took office in 2002."

Ahh, you mean the US aid is sent to prop up a right wing thug and the trickle down in this case is US manufactured bullets to quell dissension?

But the second reason isn't quite as manifest; at least, it wasn't to me. Might be I'm just slow to catch on (it wouldn't be the first time):

Maryscott OConnor

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

Thursday February 08, 2007 · 1:06 PM PST

2007/02/08 · 13:06

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

I always get a chuckle out of it when I remember it, so it cheered me up immensely this morning to go over to Ted Kennedy's site to see the link to My Left Wing.

There's something terribly thrilling about seeing your home site on TEDDY KENNEDY'S BLOGROLL!!! Even if he does list everybody under the sun. (Ahem... not that there's anything WRONG with that...)

But I'll have you know, there WAS a time when I was one of only SIX sites listed there. And no, the day I saw that, there was NO talking to me. Preening Queen Maryscott, indeed... Not that I actually fancied he read us himself. Dude probably shuns everything but newsprint.

Still, considering his instant classic, fire and brimstone schooling, honest-to-god SMACKDOWN of the Republicans re: their indefensible, immoral, grotesque "filibuster by amendment" of the minimum wage increase a couple weeks ago, being on the blogroll of one of my personal AND political heroes goes a long way toward making up for the big, orange shaped hole left in my back yesterday.

Maryscott OConnor

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

Monday January 01, 2007 · 9:19 PM PST

2007/01/01 · 21:19

I've given this a lot of thought, and come to this conclusion: this apology is owed. I loathe apologising, especially in public, so rest assured -- I would NOT do it if I didn't believe it were absolutely warranted.

My last diary here was a godawful mess (DON'T try to open it, it has almost a thousand comments and it freezes even my computer. If you really MUST read the text, I suggest reading the near-verbatim version at MLW. I'm not being self-serving, the traffic can't do me any good with this disaster -- it's just ridiculously slow to open in its DKos version).

It was a mess not only in its execution but also in its inadequate "research," for lack of a better word. As is too often the case, I used as examples to support my thesis a situation and person that were hideously inappropriate to the issue at hand. Thinking I knew all there was to know about it, I blundered on into the fray, compounding the problem with my stubborn, willful refusal -- until it was FAR too late to undo much of the damage I'd done -- to listen when people told me I was missing crucial information.

Maryscott OConnor

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

Monday January 01, 2007 · 3:32 AM PST

2007/01/01 · 03:32

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Original title:

Free Mumia: Yet Another Embarrassing Topic for Many Liberals

REstored content:

I'm not kidding about the Free Mumia thing: many liberals cite that very phrase as one of those "fringe" topics on the left that make them CRINGE in embarrassment on behalf of similiarly minded liberals.

Every time I've seen someone who is not a troll <font color="orangered">self-destruct like this</font> (hrh's AM I A Troll?) on DKos, it's generally been born of a keen sense of frustration, disappointment and helplessness. And I TOTALLY relate to that, irrespective of any agreement or lack thereof as concerns the substance of the posts.

MLW Version

Poll

424 votes Show Results

Delete this diary?

424 votes Vote Now!

Delete this diary?

Don't care.

121 votes

Yes

54 votes

100 votes

How can you even ASK such a thing? Of course not.

117 votes

Too little too late, but YES, delete this monstrosity.

32 votes

Ruminations... & a Rant

Maryscott OConnor

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

Saturday December 23, 2006 · 10:36 PM PST

2006/12/23 · 22:36

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

I'm in with the in crowd;
I go where the in crowd goes
I'm in with the in crowd --
and I know what the in crowd knows
Anytime of the year, don't you hear?
Dressing fine, making time
We breeze up and down the street,
We get respect from the people we meet
They make way day or night...

I know, I've been out of the loop for so fucking long, this is probably OLD news to you all, but I just ran across it on YouTube...

... and the gob of self-pity I've been carrying around for what seems like weeks got yanked out of me like a cute, freshly washed little black puppy from a bin full of mud-soaked little grey ones...

Maryscott OConnor

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

Monday December 04, 2006 · 12:07 PM PST

2006/12/04 · 12:07

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Diane W suggested in an Open Thread at MLW that "... most evil is done in the name of self-righteous goodness."

And while I can understand how someone could come to that conclusion, I'm going to stick with Hannah on this one:

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."

The Nazis were able to do what they did not because the vast majority of the "Good Germans" were filled with a self-righteous sense of goodness, a sense that what the Nazis were doing was somehow the RIGHT thing to do...

Maryscott OConnor

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

Monday November 27, 2006 · 6:06 AM PST

2006/11/27 · 06:06

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Well, THIS is certainly groundbreaking:

'AMC' Introducing Transgender Character
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Sun Nov 26

NEW YORK -

In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC's "All My Children" this week will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman.

The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday's episode of the daytime drama.

Okay... ZARF?????

But let's just look past that, shall we? Moving on...

Newer
Older

RSS

Reflections on the Democratic Debate

American Lt. Colonel Accused of Aiding Insurgents

Asterisk Asterisk Asterisk Asterisk

On Supporting the Troops

Democrats: End the War NOW

Reflections on the Colombian Protests Against Bush

You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way DKos Blows

Apology to the Daily Kos Community

META

Ruminations... & a Rant

Indifference, Ignorance, Fear, Responsibility & Revolution

ABC Soap Opera to Introduce Transgendered Character