Open Thread

Dan’s credibility in the blogosphere has been shattered.

First, Dan Gillmor kept at arm’s length — and knee-jerk debunked — the amazing reporting in the blogosphere on the Swift Boat Veterans. Blogs have substantiated and amplified their charges, and pointed out multiple overt omissions and inconsistencies in the shrill pro-Kerry counterattack by the mainstream media.

Second, Dan Gillmor jumped into the CBS scandal 36 hours after the leading lights of the blogosphere, when it became clear that there was no ignoring *this* pro-Kerry fraudulent hit job. However, his proclaiming this “a ‘We the Media’ moment” has been **resoundingly ridiculed** in the blogosphere as a cynical piece of self-promotion by a tired old party-line liberal, gunning for Kerry.

Finally, Dan Gillmor adopted the McAulliffe story line about the CBS scandal, that it’s “fundamentally true” (even if the documents are a fraud, but that’s not the story!) Instead, Dan and Terry argue, this shows the “hypocrisy” of the blogging community in failing to apply the “same standards” to the Swift Boat Veterans story.

In reality, of course, this is an extension of the *same phenomenon* as the blogger contribution to the Swift Boat Veterans phenomenon that has put the nail into Kerry’s coffin. Bloggers are holding mainstream media feet to the fire, dissecting their support for a false war hero and anti-American advocate during the 1970s. The pro-Kerry arguments just don’t hold up.

Blogs have upheld the truth.

With his weird spin, self-promotion and pro-Kerry bias, Dan Gillmor has been stripped of his false veneer as a representative of the blogosphere phenomenon. That’s over. It’s settled.

The ridicule of Dan Gillmor may be, in fact, the one moment that deserves the moniker, a ‘We the Media’ moment.

So, who’s upset about Los Alamos shutting down for two months and spending over a third of a billion dollars looking in a dark room for a black cat that wasn’t there?

That’s right, I am. As a proud and dedicated LANL employee, I feel like lab director Pete Nanos owes every one of us an apology. Just as he stood on the mountaintop in mid-July to proclaim to all the world “We suck!” he should again ascend to the summit to proclaim “I jumped the gun, made an ass of myself, and impugned the honor and integrity of 10,000 dedicated scientists and staff. Oh, and sorry about that third of a billion and counting.”

UC’s management contract cannot possibly end soon enough.

“That’s over. It’s settled.” Gee, if only you meant it.

Jim, I hate to say it, but given that Lockheed Martin and maybe now Texas A&M have dropped out of the competition to run the lab, due partly to the very thing you are complaining about, it may be that the UC contract will continue as is. If so, watch your back. Bureaucrats can be mean.

Well just going by the comments here so far we see Amerika is still skewed so far over to the lunar right that it should declare the next Thousand year Reich any day now.
Los Alamos, The state of Kalifornia, the Security agencies and many other Top USSA institutions and traditions are breaking down or have broken down completely.
The mother of all battles is raging and the good guys are winning. It’s still morning on the internet and infoanarchy promises to drive a coffin nail into a few more precious fascist USA institutions.
I’m extremely optimistic about the future of the free world now and the death of the last empire.

Keep it up fella’s ( and Malkin’s )Keep up the good work.

If you’re based in Denmark there’s a Blogger Dinner with Dan Wednesday the 14th of October @ 1800 hours. Read more here – http://www.commonme.org/blogs/001314.html

Political blogging is entertaining for the most part. The first comment posted here is part of an unbelievable quantity of political debate (which is not a bad thing) which is unfortunately dealing mainly with perceptions of Bush and Kerry’s personalities (which I think is a bad thing) rather than the multitude of serious issues facing the USA and its citizens.

Is political science the science of manipulating perception irregardless of underlying data? If so they are getting near perfection. As a Canadian following the campaigning in the USA, mainly for the purpose of learning more about politics down there, I am amazed at the lack of debate on critical issues (premptive war, corporate responsibility, health care, tax policy) especially given that there is substantial supporting data. Instead debate and supporting data is dominated by personal attacks on the candidates that, lets face it, are irrelevant to the good governing of the nation. Since when does being a good person correlate with being a good leader?

So let me put in my own logic. Never before this very moment has:
-international opinion of US foreign policy and activity been lower
-the USA economy been more vulnerable (all the data supports this one)
-have citizens of the USA, and the allies of the USA, been more at risk of serious terrorist action (a side effect of the first point has been to grow the population of would be terrorists)

The USA wasn’t remotely in this position in 2000. So from my point of view, to make things as simple and therefore as inclusive as possible, I would simply wonder:

Is it possible for any new administration to do more harm to the USA in a span of 4 years than the current one has?

That would be an interesting debate.

quick followup on last comment…I found this site. Not sure how accurate the data is though I will look into it!

http://buzzflash.com/areyoubetteroff/

I come from a third world country and more and more I see that politics in America is approaching that of the country I came from

– High level corruption : The looting of America by Enron, Halliburton, drug companies sanctioned at the highest level of govt

– Rape of the environment : Third world dictators like those in Zaire made lot of money from raping their country’s natural resources. Here after hurricanes and warnings from their own scientists Bush and his fellow wackos still want “more studies” while companies are given free hand to destroy the environment for quick profits

– “If you don’t agree with us you are traitors”. This country was founded on the basis of freedom and now we have tinpot cranks like Ann Coul
ter calling liberals traitors. Dick Cheney says “Vote for us or die” and not many are outraged. Await the midnight knock on your door soon

– “It is war so everything goes”. The attack on civil liberties on the strange notion that curtailing liberty actually increases security. How quickly have Americans forgotten Benjamin Franklin “”They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”

– Race Baiting : Ironic that many people from what was one’s Lincoln’s party are now race baiters. Be it gay, feminists, liberals, atheists, muslims…the implicit understanding in baiting them is that they will destroy the “White American way”

– Stupid population : You would think that education would reduce ignorance but seems like many here are so stupid that they can be convinced that some one who fought for his country is a bad guy as compared to one who used his connections to avoid serving his country. Someone can just show your photo with Saddam and Osama and you automatically become them!

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. Ralph W. Sockman

‘thehypocrisy’s’ moniker speaks more truth about its creator than anything s/he writes. s/he praises the blogosphere for its “truth”, failing to note that blogs just might have biased points of view that sum to any one “truth”. Duh!

I ask you ‘thehypocricy’, is there a perfect truth? In a word, “no”. Not in the press, not in the blogosphere, and certainly not flowing from the agitated fingers of “thehypocricy” and his/her ilk.

Yes, ‘the once and perfect truth’ is what we’re *all* trying to get at, but it’s the summing of all our truths that point us in a direction. In other words, diversity of opinion rocks.

It appears that – documents or no – Bush screwed up during his time in the National Guard, received special treatment, and had a grand old time doing what his Daddy’s money let him do – i.e. just what he damn well pleased, while others served in a war that he supported, but wouldn’t have to risk his life in. Looks like GW was thinking about his own freedom, as regards being free to let others die – sound familiar?

GW was missing from even the soft -edged front line of National Guard duty; in fact, he’s *never* really been anywhere near a front line except toi face his own personal demons (which he deserves respect for, but has unduly influenced his opinion of what’s “good” for people).

Rather, GWB’s entire political career has been run behind a phlanx of connected power brokers who value profit over pollution, ignorance over education, war over peace, xenophobia over international cooperation, the upper classes (GWB’s ‘base’) over the middle and lower classes, translucency over transparency in government, fiscal instability over long term fiscal prudence, death over life (look at GWB’s miserable failure to stimulate a re-upping of the assault weapons ban in the face over overwhelming support for that legislation by virtually every police chief in our country), and on, and on.

Simply put, George Bush is a plain old ‘nice guy’ born into money, who by dint of his father’s wealth and just enough native intelligence (including a winning personal manner)has been able to attract the kind of powerful people that have been only too happy to offer their sage ‘advice’ and ‘counsel’ during his administrations as Governor of Texas and as President of this great land. We are all the poorer for GWB’s political service, even though his well-connected friends are richer.