As a public service, my alter ego, Mr. de Gondi, has granted me permission to cross-post his diary on recent developments in the Nigergate caper. Updates and new diaries on the subject will continue to be first posted at Eurotrib.
Read MoreAdapted from an original post to Daily Kos
Daily Kos is booming.
With an average of 810,234 visits and 937,537 pageviews every day now (according to SiteMeter) Daily Kos has undoubtedly become the anchorweight for the national progressive blogosphere. It is a thriving community, home to thousands upon thousands of caring, patriotic Americans. [It has also spurred the founding and growth of new national, wonderful communities – like Booman Tribune].
This site has served its national audience well. But there is one huge area of the blogopshere that Kos does not serve very well – and that is politics at a local level.
Just nine months ago, a team of people, including myself, realized that we in the Pacific Northwest needed some kind of progressive counterbalance to local conservative megasites like Sound Politics (great name, bad logic).
We set out a vision and a blueprint to create an entirely new website to serve the regional progressive community. After just two or three weeks of development, we launched Pacific Northwest Portal, and announced its debut on Kos and a couple other sites, not knowing what to expect.
Read MoreThis is too funny not to post. Media Matters reports:
OREILLY: But if you’re beating a kid, there’s no excuse. Then you’ve lost control of the child, you’ve lost control of yourself. Here’s the litmus test: If you lose your temper, and then you do something to the kid physically, that’s abuse. If you lose your temper. Got it? That’s it. If you’re under control, it’s calculated, you’re disgusted, the kid knows, it’s tempered, absolutely your right as a child [sic]. Now in the Great Depression, every American got spanked. And those Americans went to war during World War II and won the very intense conflict and showed bravery across the board, the Greatest Generation. The Greatest Generation, almost down to the man, was spanked, ’cause that’s the way we did it in America. OK?
So I’m not believing all these sociologists, these fruitcakes, who run around going, you know, you look at a kid cross-eyed, he’s going to grow up to be a heroin addict. I’m not buying that. I think you have to do it responsibly, you have to do it in a way that the child understands what the boundaries are, and is given a choice. Stay within the boundaries, or you’re going to get punished. But I think that 90 percent of the time, you could find another way.
Want audio?
I want a falafel.
Read MoreWith the neos about to become cons and the shouts of “next year in Tehran” getting fainter and fainter, I’ve been trying to find a nugget that succinctly summarizes George Bush’s behavior throughout his life, I came across the following.
Read MoreAs I have commented in other diaries, the proposed Democratic position statement for the 2006 election is a good start, but does not go far enough in my opinion. I will support it as a necessary first step in the correction of a generation of poor governance, but additional steps will be necessary to move the nation in the direction of restoring our moral standing to hold up our government as a beacon of light, hope, and freedom to the public and to other nations.
Or at least take our minds off the interminable wait for indictments.
Since it is more responsible to propose something positive to the public rather than simply oppose current practices without proposing an alternative, I’d like to propose a series of mutually reinforcing reforms to address some of the underlying issues we face. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it represents steps in the right direction. I look forward to the input of others as we continue this conversation. The needs we must address as a nation as we recover from Republican mis-governance include:
Need to Provide Equal Protection Under the Law
Need to Protect the Right to Privacy and Public Right-to-Know
Need to Restore Integrity to the Election Process
Need for Available Health Care for All Americans
Need to Restrict the Abuses of Power by Corporations
Need to Preserve the Natural Resources of the Nation for our Posterity
I explore each of these needs and how Progressives might address them below.
Read More
