Open Letter to Neil, at Democracy for America

Neil,

Big mistake, Neil. Introducing your communication with the subject ‘making headlines’ is a real turn off for me. Bragging about headlines or media attention convinces me that you are like MoveOn and CREDO - far more concerned with the self-serving goals of name recognition and donations than you are with truth.

You call President Obama's proposals "profoundly disturbing" so I will even the score by calling your dangerous, knee-jerk, reactionary communications profoundly disturbing. On second thought, the score might not be so even. I consider what you’ve done far worse than profoundly disturbing.

President Obama did not choose this Congress; we did. That makes it unfair to criticize him for doing the best he can to work with the problems we gave him. Irresponsible knee-jerk reactions of groups like MoveOn, CREDO, and, I guess, Democracy for America contributed to the confusion that made many believe stupid things like 'both parties are the same' and 'President Obama is a traitor'. Consequently, they either didn't vote in 2010 or they cast what they call protest votes and I call wasted votes on 3rd party candidates. All actions have consequences and I am not happy living with the consequences of yours.

Please, remove me from your mailing list. I don't trust what you say and certainly don't want to contribute a cent of my money or minute of my time supporting your group.

Sincerely disappointed,

Sandy

This is the message that Wednesday does NOT want you to see!

Wow! Several of you stood up and demanded that today be Thursday. With your help, we managed to turn Wednesday into Thursday. We saw midnight approaching quickly, got that petition out asking you to TELL Wednesday to step aside and allow Thursday in, and you came through.  

We set a hefty goal of six signatures and you helped us reach that goal before midnight (almost - five out of six was close enough). Now, because we managed to get that petition out and you cared enough to sign it, today is Thursday.

However, our work is not done. We must pursue this project relentlessly. We have to let the calendar know we are serious and we will NOT accept any stalling or going backwards. In order to make tomorrow be Friday, we need your donations. 

Can you help by sending grins, heavy praise, and maybe a few guffaws or knee slaps? We would like to have at least three of each before our 2 p.m. deadline so we can generate the next free petition before midnight.

Your opinions matter greatly to us. Please answer the following questions to let us know what you would like to see us work on in the future.

⃝ Would like to see you change days

⃝ Would like to see you change nights

⃝ Notify me by email

⃝ Just send petitions to my gmail addy

⃝ Need 12 point font

⃝ Prefer 10 point font

⃝ Want to hear from you once a day

⃝ Want to hear from you daily

⃝ Hit me up hourly

Thanks for all you do!

----

To keep my head from exploding, I had a bit of fun with a Thursday petition. Within ten minutes of Ashley Judd’s Twitter announcement that she has decided not to run against Mitch McConnell for his Senate seat, a petition to draft the person we all knew was second in line appeared on my Facebook feed. That petition was as obviously ridiculous and useless as my Thursday petition—since the Clintons are behind Alison Lundergan Grimes—so it hit a raw nerve in me.

I’ll explain this raw nerve in case there is a person who hasn’t noticed the pattern. A number of groups (that seems to be growing daily) realize there is fame and fortune in providing a means for people to feel as though they have contributed when they really have done nothing, sorta like a prayer group. The ones that moved me from pet peeve to raw nerve status are MoveOn, CREDO, and Progress [sic] Kentucky.

The second news hits the inaccurate airwaves (sometimes before the sloppy reporters have even finished their inaccurate, invalidated stories) these groups pump out knee-jerk petitions with which to spam internet sites and email boxes. Sensationalized, often dishonest subject lines and carelessly worded letters accompany said petitions when they hit the email boxes. They demand that we TELL someone and their party what horrible thing we will not tolerate any longer, planting dishonest negative impressions about the person we are telling not to do what they haven’t done, or to do what they’ve already done.

For example, some right-wing nut job posts on Facebook that the girl his uncle dumped last week told him she heard Obama plans to remove all American flags from the White House. Every knee-jerk, lets-build-a-mailing-list-and-collect-donations group in existence shoots out an immediate petition asking us to TELL President Obama and the Democrats in Congress they must not remove the American flag from the White House. MoveOn follows up with a second email encouraging us to make our own petition (I thought about using that one for my Thursday petition because I’ve seen some almost like it come from SignOn), and then a third email that asks everyone else if they want MoveOn to support the one I made.

Then, when President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have the added burden of shirking this ridiculous rumor, and they have not removed the flags from the White House because they never had any intention of doing that in the first place, these same groups shoot out another email reminding us that they were first to warn us, they did the hard work of pounding out a petition and a couple of memes (or maybe posting someone else’s article or video on their site so they can collect hits and credit), and they deserve praise and brand recognition for protecting the American flags in the White House. Now, aren’t they wonderful and can we please send a donation to help them do this again tomorrow?

Not only is this annoying, it is harmful. Most of these Internet petitions are meaningless. I could have reached my goal of six on my own if I had wanted. And, like the people who say a prayer as they pass the hungry guy on the corner thinking prayer action is as good as forking over a smile, a dollar, or a vote for a candidate who might help them, meaningless petitions signers get to think their work is done. This scam provides one set of lazy people an avenue to ask for money and name recognition, and another set an easy out so they don’t have to think about doing the hard work.

I will be happy if my Thursday petition encourages thought and discussion about the groups that are more interested in name recognition and donations than they are about real issues and honesty.

Hubris: When I Told You So Is Not Fun

This feels so wrong. I’m dreadfully anxious as Rachel Maddow’s big reveal grows closer. If my interpretation of common perception is correct, I should be feeling smug – gloating even – about this huge opportunity to say, “I told you so.”

But this isn’t like being the one who correctly identified the lead singer in an old song, or guessing the exact number of miles before the next exit. This is about something that matters greatly and I’m fairly certain that anyone to whom I could smugly say, “I told you so,” will never believe the truth. This is not fun.

I plan to watch MSNBC’s film, Hubris, hosted by Rachel Maddow and based on Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book, tonight (February 18, 2013, 9 p.m.) although I will be shocked if I learn anything that I didn’t already know years ago. Scars will break open as I remember the many times and many ways I tried to convince others to pay attention because the Bush Administration lied and cost us lives, money, and reputation. And I will know that those people will not see this documentary or believe anyone who tries to tell them about it. They will continue to live in the dark, pulling their heads out of their sorry asses only long enough to ridicule others for caring about facts and to share more fear-mongering bushit that they learned from the Brietbart lie machine - since even Republican politicians admit that's where they are getting their lies these days. 

If anyone else still communicates with people who call themselves Republicans, I hope you will invite them to watch the Rachel Maddow show tonight, on MSNBC, at 9 central time.

UPDATE: As expected, I learned nothing new. This information was available to all who were paying attention at the time. I'm still glad I watched because this film was nice to see all if this information collected and presented so nicely, some from the mouths of people involved. Today, I wonder why no action was taken against the people who lied us into this costly (on many levels) mistake.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

Why Romnesia Is Great Strategy

For at least a year, I have begged liberals to stop chasing every distraction the Republican Party throws in our way. They purposely deceive, create problems that don’t exist, and make false accusations because they know they can depend on media and many liberals to chase down that path and ignore root problems.

Romney tried to pull this on President Obama in the first debate. He stood on that stage and puked out rehearsed lies, deceptions, false accusations, and total bushit, pausing only long enough to suck in ridiculously loud breathes of hot air so he could continue on past his allotted time. Fortunately, President Obama is smarter than most of us. He didn’t fall for the attack and distract method. Instead of forfeiting his time and wasting ours to refute that garbage, he used his time wisely.

Sadly, the media and many people who profess to support him weren’t so wise.

The root problem in this election is that Mitt Romney has no conscience. He won the nomination of the lying, cheating party by being the biggest liar and most willing to cheat person they could find. There isn’t time to waste refuting every lie he is going to tell between now and Election Day. Romnesia says it all, and we can have participate and have fun making Romnesia sound bytes for our personal favorite Romney lies.

Our President is brilliant!

Credit to David Corn http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/10/romnesia-0

Debriefing Compliments

Debriefing Compliments

Regurtitated NRA Rhetoric

I look at the people who regurgitate NRA rhetoric and wonder why:

They aren't timid about letting everyone know they are puppets
 
They want to advertise their lack logic and critical thinking skills
 
They aren't embarrassed to live in fear of someone breaking in to steal their beer or sweaty tank top

They expect anyone to be impressed that they can't get a thrill from throwing darts or knocking out marbles with a computer mouse so they need target practice with assault weapons

They never learned to respect life but think someone might be fooled if they whine about zygotes
 
They are unable to see that they've been totally duped by people who misrepresent the constitution making all their talk about needing "well-regulated militias" totally moot

Why I will not be supporting nuns on the bus.

To me, this looks like another Mother Teresa deal where the church gets good PR when they least deserve it.

Why aren't they petitioning their church to feed the hungry instead of sitting on the money (they don't need ALL of that wealth to pay off people that priests have raped)? 

Why aren't they demanding that the Catholic Church give up their tax status since they have their dirty hands in everything political?

Why didn't they hop on that bus to protest the "war on women"? 

Why was there no bus tour to protect women's health care from the Catholic hospital groups, and to protest their church's imposition on women in the birth control fight?