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Was watching today’s version of DemocracyNow and those being interviewed about the NYC ‘stop and Frisk’ program and the thought occurred to me that, despite only some success and the obvious need to keep after the ‘pocket profiters’(which includes those who are elected to supposedly represent the voters(laugh track here)) that ‘actions speak louder than words’.
So I got thinking about the petition Teddy Partridge brought to MyFDL, “Create a Do Not Kill List“. And decided to check in on it. Well, the signatures have stopped incrementing. In communicating with friends about it, on the 4th day after Teddy brought it to MyFDL it had almost 5,000 signatures and given what Teddy said about needing 1,000 signatures a day to reach the threshold for a WH response, it looked like it would get the requisite signatures.
BUT here it is 7 days after Teddy brought it here and it’s nowhere near the 7,000 signatures to keep the pace Teddy mentioned. And how many readers are there of FDL, MYFDL, and News, and other carried blogs?
And I wrote at the time that it – Teddy’s diary- ‘should’ be kept on the ‘recommended’ list until the number of signatures needed was obtained by that suggestion fell on deaf ears.
Is this just a place for whiny people who are afraid to exercise their rights under the Constitution? Is it any wonder people of other nations see Americans as massive hypocrites? Rights are like muscles; if not exercised they atrophy.
And if those who frequent this place really see Obama as a murderer (which I do but I also realize he’s just following in the footsteps of previous Presidents as this country has a LONG history of murdering those who get in it’s way), why not get a world-wide petition (and I’d do it if I was skilled in ‘social networking’) to the Nobel Peace Prize committee asking them to rescind Obama’s Peace Prize as he has shown it’s COMPLETELY undeserved.
Never happened before but I bet well over a million signatures world-wide could be gathered fairly easily.
And who is in charge of the blogroll on the mothership? Earlier today Why I hate CCA and Correntewire were on the blogroll and now they’re not. And Raw Story and Daily Kos are?
35 Comments
Excellent suggestion about rescinding the prize.
Recommended.
I like this idea, ubetchaiam.
“The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian and Swedish: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. It is awarded to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize
I believe that the committee made a mistake. There is no shame in admitting error.
rec’d, and BTW, on my screen (which is not all that reliable these days), WhyIHateCCA is on the list labeled “Blogroll,” but I am not sure we are talking about the same list. I don’t pay too much attention to the list, but since I also hate CCA, I sometimes check the list for that one specifically.
I’m starting to wonder about FDL. Why wouldn’t they keep Teddy’s petition on the recommended list? They have their own agenda but who in the hell knows what that is.
I find Common Dreams, Chris Floyd, and Counterpunch much more to my liking.
And now it’s -the blogroll- has changed again. Even doing a screen refresh doesn’t show what was there so I’ve no idea of how it’s set up. One time it had Pam’s House Blend in the blogroll even tho she’s headlined up at the top.
And I cannot think of a stronger messAge to the PTB’s of the U.S. than for the Cmte. to request the prize be returned. Of course all the Bilderberg folk and the heads of the EU nations would protest BUT if there was over a million signatures from all over the world, it certainly would be a ‘statement’.
But why, given the supposed readership of the FDL associated sites the ‘Create a do not kill’ petition is languishing really is perturbing.
You and I aren’t the only ones ‘starting to wonder’ about FDL; I’ve seen similar perceptions written on the ‘News’ and ‘FDL’ commentary. I do have to wonder whether it’s FDL or the readership though; or just the way things progress in the ‘blog world’(I can’t really ‘buy’ that given a couple of the sites you mention but…).
I thought I remembered that there were petitions out there to lobby the Nobel Committee; a quick google kicked up some stuff.
The ‘ask to get on the WH do not kill me list is out widely, too; I didn’t get that Teddy invented it.
Six months ago there was a movement to force the Prez to answer questions if an issue reached some threshold of e-signatures. Several people said that as that number was approaching, you simply couldn’t sign onto the question or issue. As in: the tweaked the software to keep ya out; maybe that’s why there aren’t more signatures.
It’s become overwhelmingly a place for people who believe that reading what other people have written and sometimes commenting comes under the heading of ‘activism’. Then there are those who use it to <bowdlerisation>stroke</bowdlerisation> their entitlement complexes. A very small minority actually attempt to do something.
Actually you Americans and your Israeli sidekicks are seen as murderous barbarians with major sidelines in hypocrisy and greed for Americans (and their Israeli sidekicks). The sideline in unrestrained gluttony appears to be an all-American thing and is rapidly becoming your defining national characteristic.
That is handled by wordpress. In the Database for common elements is an array of links to sites that constitute the blogroll. For each unique visit to a page on the site the DBMS serves up a selection from that array based upon a “randomiser” algorithm. The array is probably edited from time to time. We used to be on it at one time I neither know nor care whether we still are.
Mohammed Ibn Laith
I don’t understand why you come here, you never ever have a single positive thing to say, why torture yourself?
whiny ?
barbarians? – how does a non-barbarians culture/religion treat women?
unrestrained gluttony? – ever spend a day with the “elite” of mid-east oil producing nations?
Sad – but you have a right to be wrong – and “whiny” – at least you have that right in the US.
I’m not torturing myself. I stop by once in a while to see what’s going on. Is that OK with you??
I have to say I went to sign the petition but was creeped out by the requirement of first opening a whitehouse.gov “account.” I know — they know who I am and where I live no matter what. Still, the ick factor of opening an “account” with an institution that claims the right to detain us indefinitely or kill us outright with no due process just to sign on to an ironic fuck-you statement probably deterred lots of others too. It’s not as if the response Obama would have been compelled to provide would be substantive in any way.
If a new push to obtain signatures emerges, I’ll reconsider.
Would love if there were a way to consolidate all those disparate petitions to get the Peace Prize revoked…or perhaps one to compel the resignation of Nobel committee members who voted for Obama’s prize.
Thanks WD; signed the petitions at the different places(don’t know if the ipetition signing took as I got a donation desired screen after signing.)
That so few have signed if ‘gopetition’ is correct about “Active petitions in over 75 countries” is depressing. One would think that there’d be at least a million in the arabic speaking and Islamic nations that would sign such a petition. But I guess when you’ve been screwed over for so long, you just haven’t any belief in the western world’s power structures.
Didn’t say Teddy invented it; just that he brought it to MyFdl.
“Several people said that as that number was approaching, you simply couldn’t sign onto the question or issue. As in: the tweaked the software to keep ya out; maybe that’s why there aren’t more signatures.” ; nah, the number of signatures isn’t even close to triggering such a ‘tweak’. Probably more like Ralphbon’s response.
“It’s become overwhelmingly a place for people who believe that reading what other people have written and sometimes commenting comes under the heading of ‘activism’.” ; that’s a perception I’m coming to have.
“Then there are those who use it to stroke their entitlement complexes.” ; given the definition of ‘bowdlerisation’ here I don’t understand what you are expressing.
Thanks for the info on the blogroll; makes sense of of what I was viewing.
He didn’t say anything about ‘whiny’ ; I did. And it’s governments everywhere that are ‘the problem’. And it’s the pretense that citizens of ‘democracies’ actually have ‘sway’ over their governments -as contrasted to MENA countries which for the most part are ruled by those who give no ‘sway’ to those they govern- that would appear to be the root cause of perceptions such as those written by Mohammed Ibn Laith.
Just saying.
“but was creeped out by the requirement of first opening a whitehouse.gov “account.” ; and so you let yourself be intimidated. I ,too, got the ‘creeped’ out feeling but then said what the hell. I suspected I had an FBI file going back to my days of leading my college campus in protest about Kent State and I knew that if the PTB wanted to know who I was, they’d have no problem doing so.
“just to sign on to an ironic fuck-you statement probably deterred lots of others too.” ; if that’s how you saw it, then that’s how you saw it. All I know is that if you fearful of even just saying fuck you, then you’ve already surrendered ANY individual sovereignty you had. And are now just one of the sheep.
Heh. I had just mentioned to hotflashcarol that I’d reckoned (as we did becuz of COINTELPRO, and the cameramen on the rooftops snapping pix of us), that I’d had an FBI file since I was seventeen, protesting the war with SDS in front of the student union everyday at…Kent State.
Small world.
Ain’t that something? But I really am disturbed at the lack of willingness by those frequenting FDL,etc. to ‘stick their necks out’. So much easier to give money I guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpgDtoj73DQ
‘Ain’t that something?’: I assume means that we may share some time/space connection to protests at KSU, and you’re not even curious?
But one person here deigns to sign up at the fucking WH asshole-line and you’re taking that are somehow probative as to ‘FDL, etc.’ are?
Get a grip, man.
What I wanted to ask Mohammed Ibn Laith is this: “Given that is the remark and condemnation you always make when you appear here, WHAT ARE THE NEXT TEN, THIRTY, SIXTY WORDS? What would you have us do that we may have spent our lives doing ineffectively, and now that so many of us here are unable to get in the streets for various reasons (age, health, poverty, geographic locations, inability to travel to large civil disobedience venues, what is left for us to do other than write in order that others might grasp that global revolution is all that’s left to us to stop all this evil madness being done in our names?
Is it not words and ideas coupled with deprivation and burgeoning awakening of our connections to our brothers and sisters, both here and around the world, that have moved mountains in the socio-political world? Is it not a good thing that we bring light to the moral vacuity and evil deeds we collectively do the brown and black people all over the globe, and help to prove that there are no longer any remedies within electoral politics?
Would you have me pour gasoline on myself and light myself on fire in Mancos, CO in hopes that it would cause the spark that would ignite a revolutionary conflagration? What are the next X amount of words you would have me/us hear from you lips?”
I didn’t sign the WH petition, ubetcha, not because I’m afraid to stick my neck out; o that every day here with what I write: I’m a troublemaker, rabble-rouser, on any list they keep of dissidents.
I didn’t sign because it won’t matter one iota. Polls don’t matter, voters’ wishes don’t matter: they will do all they can get away with, and continue to so until we collectively find the power in ourselves to make.them.stop.it.
And I was at KSU in 1967 and ’68. (early admissions, while I was still in high school; happened to be back there on the one-year anniversary of the murders.)
Wow. Ubetchaiam, thanks for the diary. Recommended.
If you’re truly wondering whether or not folks here ‘do’ anything, take a look at Occupy Supply…
Also too, the post on the front page right now about AARP changing their survey. That was a direct FDL action.
I personally am not signing that survey because I believe a couple things-
1) It serves no purpose. The White House will never create a “Do Not Kill” list.
2) I don’t want to create an account on WhiteHouse.gov. I know the government monitors our social media presence, but I don’t want to volunteer information.
If your beef is with the survey failing, I feel you. If you thought it was a good idea and wanted it to succeed then I can understand your feelings. If your beef is with the community here, talk to bgrothus or TarheelDem who have both been arrested this year for their activism. Take a look at the Occupy Supply HQ section of the site for photos, videos, and diaries about the direct action FDL members are taking in their communities. Visit Kit’s Watercooler posts nightly.
There’s a ton of activism going on within this community. Maybe you’re just reading different diaries.
Also – the recommended diary thing with Teddy’s diary…
The recommended list is dictated by how many clicks of the ‘recommend’ button vs. length of time transpired. New diaries with one or two recommendations move to the top of the list, where old diaries need to keep getting new recommendations to stay on the list.
FDL doesn’t control that, it’s a function of the platform.
Easy there! I’ve signed enough petitions, written enough letters, marched in enough demonstrations, etc., so that if any of these really counted as sticking my neck out, which I don’t think they do, consider it stuck out.
My point was more to explain why turnout was so limited than anything else. Speed bumps slow traffic; that’s just a fact. My own decision was part speed bump but also part recognition that this clever and ironic statement would, in the best case, elicit a condescendingly dismissive response from the President, reported in the media — if at all — condescendingly and dismissively.
My hat’s off to those who really stick their necks out (e.g., most recently, TarheelDem), including you if applicable.
Ain’t that something referencing the idea that both of us have FBI files(you’re more confident of having one than I am); I wasn’t anywhere near Kent State but in San Diego,CA leading a protest at a local college.
FWIW, as a recently discharged vet who had buddies volunteering to go to ‘Nam despite my telling them not to(their shooting people over there! ; “Ah,we’ll be ok, we’re supply and will be on a base and besides ,look at the extra pay !) and then some of them not coming back. It was Kent State that turned me against the war; the idea that our government would kill it’s own people over their simply protesting a policy.
“But one person here deigns to sign up at the fucking WH asshole-line and you’re taking that are somehow probative as to ‘FDL, etc.’ are?
Get a grip, man.”; WD, you know i care for you and like you but when you write a sentence like the one before ‘get a grip’ all I can ay is ,please, get one yourself. I’ve no idea what you are trying to say.
“I didn’t sign because it won’t matter one iota. Polls don’t matter, voters’ wishes don’t matter: they will do all they can get away with, and continue to so until we collectively find the power in ourselves to make.them.stop.it.”; the evidence would seem to buttress your contention but I just don’t see how ranting achieves anything either(and I’ve done my share of ranting as you know).
When you mentioned the Sftw. tweaking preventing signatures, was that a story anyone sought to follow up on? See, I’m of the perspective that unless effort is expended in the ways given to ‘petition for redress’ (and Ill go back through my diaries to find the one I wrote about that), then one can’t say one really ‘sought to engage the enemy’. And given the supposed number of readers of FDL, getting to 25K I would have thought to be easy; unless the number of readers is lot less than what I’ve been led to believe.
It’s not the activism I see that I wonder about; it’s the lack of such by the supposed number of readers at FDL,etc.
“I personally am not signing that survey because I believe a couple things-
1) It serves no purpose. The White House will never create a “Do Not Kill” list.
2) I don’t want to create an account on WhiteHouse.gov. I know the government monitors our social media presence, but I don’t want to volunteer information.”
If it serves no purpose, why would Teddy -for sure an activist- bring it to MyFDL? As towards ‘volunteering’ info; hell, if your on a ‘watchlist’ because of your activism, you’re not volunteering anything not already known so I miss the point of not volunteering.
Appreciate the info about the ‘platform’; BUT one would think such sftw. would have the capacity to allow the user to set the parameters associated with the subsets.
“My own decision was part speed bump but also part recognition that this clever and ironic statement would, in the best case, elicit a condescendingly dismissive response from the President, reported in the media — if at all — condescendingly and dismissively.”
For my part, the issue- that a President can order the death of someone without due process- is an issue that goes the very heart of whether this is a country of laws or men. And THAT is not something to have any response that is condescending and dismissive accepted. BUT one can’t even object to such a response if that response is not forced. So not signing that petition doesn’t force the response; that simple.
I was very selective with my words there. My belief is that it serves no purpose. Others, including Teddy and yourself, are certainly welcome to other beliefs. I clearly stated that I was offering my personal belief. You were wondering why more people hadn’t signed; I was trying to offer a possible explanation. That’s all.
Well, as first noted, I’m on board if the effort gets a second wind, and I certainly share your outrage and horror. FYI, I first learned of the petition on pharyngula, not FDL, a day before Teddy’s post. It’s one (very) small component of what needs to be a massive, sustained response from all quarters. But I do generally give more weight to petitions that make actual demands.
I think the saying is, ubetchaiam, that there is more than one way to skin a cat. (Never was quite sure about what that means, taken literally, but it works for me.)
Petitions are fine for petitioners. And the point of this one was clever, probably got a laugh too.
I’m not so sure that what goes on here is ranting. Sometimes I guess, we have to get something off our chest, or we look to see if others are as shocked, motivated, amazed by something that shocks, motivates, amazes us. And too, we come to be enlightened.
I’ve remarked on posts I wished would hang around – sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, and it is hard if your heart is with the offering to see that happen. Doing is good; everyone would agree with that. It deserves the highest praise, putting your money where your mouth is, money in this instance meaning risking a lot. There are heroes here who do precisely this.
Some of us have done precious little. But even sitting down and passing on a thought may be helpful to someone – you just don’t know. So, please don’t badmouth the site or suggest ulterior motives. We all benefit, and hopefully benefit others, even if only incrementally.
I can’t measure what a signature on a petition does when we have the leadership we have. Our votes didn’t seem to matter. But that’s just me. By all means, do what you believe is a most effective use of your energy. We all want the same thing, for this mayhem to stop.
It fine to rescind his Nobel Prize but what motivates that can also motivate an investigation by the Hague.
Well, you did say we could rant, so…I did.
I apologize for going off on you, and for mis-reading about your being, rather than protesting, Kent State.
But what I was (and am) ginned up about was that you went off on Ralphbon, and called him a sheep, for not wanting to get an account with the AH White House to sign a petition whose purpose he finds ‘ironic’: I’d have to add the it was mainly snark, and even if not, it won’t cause Obama a moment’s hesitation before he and his sidekicks target yet another ‘Taliban Second in Command’, and go ahead with targeting funerals, weddings, whomever. Guilt by proximity unless proven innocent…after death. Christ.
Add in the fact that most Democrats approve of OBomba’s drone program, and we’re into Devolving Morality country again.
I have no idea if anyone did, or could have, followed up on why the WH made it so hard to create an account; I think that subject was about legalizing marijuana, and the threshold would have meant Obama had to address the question. Sorry, BFD on that one; he’s addressed it plenty, even though in changing themes and misdirections, imo. I didn’t try a second time to register. Holder is having Feds bust state-legal ops and pharmacies; that’s his position.
But when you implied that the evidence that the PTB here didn’t keep Teddy’s diary alive to gain signers since there are XX thousands of readers, and concluded that the site is not activist, your logic fails, imo. It fails again that since you believe Teddy is an activist (I have no opinion), then ipso facto, signing the petition would be ‘activism’. Does not compute for me.
I see your point about petitions as redress’, but perhaps this one fails the test of what you really want (and every person of moral conscience: to end the program, which, by the way, Navi Pillay has said ‘may be illegal’. May.
But in the end, and I did forget to mention it, you could put up a post about the petition, too, and ask readers to keep it going as long as there’s interest.
Now, re: rants. Both you and Mohammed miss the larger reason behind why I post, and that is to get issues into the google/bing cache; it’s why I usually work on the tags a bit even though they are vexing as hell to create. Little pissers, imo; but if folks are searching out a subject, I love it when they find mine. I find stuff I’ve written linked from other sites, and it’s altogether heartening, because it says to me that people are listening. And they are listening to words, ideas, news from a different perspective, news linked to other ideas, angles, objections, ideas for solutions, focused outrage, which you call rants. I’m frustrated that I can’t get out in the world much, but by goddam I’m going to try to do well what I can still do, even if some days it’s just to make folks laugh and take a small vacation from fear, anger, and the feeling of powerless, given the enormity of changing what’s going on, much less unwinding the most crucial parts. Like the fact that for the coming Rio+20 Sustainability conference this month….climate change isn’t even on the agenda, if what I’m reading is so. Holy shit.
Anyway; real life is calling my name. Gotta close; but stay strong, and again, I apologize that my words were unclear, and seemed illegitimate because of that.
And better than an ironic petition, imo, is working at mass numbers of us declaring this government illegitimate, and trying all the war criminals among us.
ubetchaiam, the Do Not Kill petition was begun by David Sirota on his tweeter feed as a rather clever form of snark. Sirota registered donotkill.org at the Whitehouse.gov before Teddy wrote his post here at FDL. Sirota was probably hoping to catch the attention of the writers at The Colbert Report or The Daily Show, which he succeeded in doing so.
Since 9/11 I haven’t visited the Whitehouse website due to the paranoia of our federal gov’t. The likelihood of picking up spyware, such as a keylogger virus, are probably pretty high, also. My fear may be unfounded but I don’t trust the DHS with personal information that you will be asked to give at the Whitehouse website – good way to be bureaucratically placed on some stupid watchlist.
BTW, The Onion satirized a Do Not Kill Registry in Sept., 2010. Humor can convey a serious message but realize the Do Not Kill petition for what it is. And please don’t confuse the petition with serious ongoing efforts by such groups as the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the European Center for Constitutional Rights, which are making attempts to have the Bush/Cheney cabal indicted, arrested, and tried for war crimes and other international felonies. In addition support of CODEPINK and other anti-war groups could be an avenue for activism which many folks here support with more than just a donation, if you know what I mean.
“But when you implied that the evidence that the PTB here didn’t keep Teddy’s diary alive to gain signers since there are XX thousands of readers, and concluded that the site is not activist, your logic fails, imo”;
dear lady, you read into what was written. All I said was my suggestion ‘fell on deaf ears’; I didn’t speculate on the why of it ‘falling on deaf ears’.
And SOMEONE does have control of the ‘Recommended’ list as evidence by your diary of quite awhile ago regarding jane and katie ,again, being posted. It’s NOT ‘just the platform’.
And, bluntly speaking, I don’t give a rats ass whether Navi Pillay thinks it’s legal or not; John Yoo, etc. constructed a legal framework to justify torture; it was STILL WRONG.
“Both you and Mohammed miss the larger reason behind why I post, and that is to get issues into the google/bing cache; it’s why I usually work on the tags a bit even though they are vexing as hell to create. Little pissers, imo; but if folks are searching out a subject, I love it when they find mine.”; ok but I think you’re expending effort that doesn’t reflect that everything is cached.
For instance, using yahoo -not google or bing- and just specifying ubetchaiam and petition for redress gets:
http://my.firedoglake.com/ubetchaiam/2010/10/02/one-persons-efforts-for-change/
It was the second hit listed; point being is that if others wanted to quote me, all the have to do is use my ‘handle’. And the same for you.
You, at least, have a website you can cross post from.
To me, CraneStation’s rationale for posting here makes more sense than your explanation.
And , dear WD, you NEVER have to apologize to me; I believe I know your heart and it doesn’t hold poison.
;o)
Mad World. My signature song. G’night.
I agree Wendy, and will from now on work more on tagging hell outta my posts. I think consider myself, maybe you do too, a very smal-scale non-affiliated pundit/editorialist. I have a very small impact on the overall information stream, but that is different than having no impact.
Being an activist matters too, ubetchaiam is right, and right to be frustrated. Mid-2012, the space for protest is minimal, the possibility of making the fundamental changes needed or even those that common decency requires is minimal, the space for even existing politically is minimal.
Among other things, the ‘Do Not Kill’ list is a passive-aggressive, desperate, sad joke, an admission of powerlessness. One in a parade of similar you can see regularly on the Comedy Channel ‘news programs’, which is what it was designed for. Not saying it was/is not better than nothing, but just barely.
My suggestion is that activists focus on disrupting the Obamney campaign and make two things the education goal: the similarity of of the duopoly’s two candidates and the corporate ownership of Obamney and the whole electoral system. It doesn’t work, it’s a joke, stay home till it’s fixed. This is sympatico with how most of the underclass and working class feels, and there’s not a damn thing wrong with letting their gut reactions lead us left activists. Sorry Rocky Anderson and Green candidate, but voters can register a protest vote by staying home too. Elections are the opiate of the people.
Of course I have poison in me, silly; everyone has a dark side, imo. It’s the degree to which we tame it, or put paid to the amount that it exerts force on us, I reckon, that matters.
I think you were making the claim that this issue’s failure to glean signatures was a sign that this place isn’t ‘activist’, but okay, maybe I read wrong again. And having said that, I could offer that there may be other indicators of that, or at least that some of the front-page authors are biased toward Dems, at least as preferable to Republicans, a position I no longer share. That fact, in itself, may not anything to do with ‘activism’ or not; I’m losing focus on what the term might signify to any of us individually.
My guess is, for instance, that Pam Spaulding reckons that writing a post about men saying that Charlie Crist paid them to not out his homosexuality is a from of activism to her and some other readers; maybe it is, I dunno.
I’m surprised that you missed the irony I brought with the Navi Pillay news, as in: MAY think it’s illegal. As in: who will challenge the sole Superpower of the world? Same answer as: who will bring these war criminals to the Hague?
I was not making a case for why I post *here*, but why I blog at all, so my reasons were to make that case. Yes the rec list is tweakable, and one way I know, is that my posts weren’t allowed on it for some weeks; it got noticeable enough that commenters made jokes about it on my posts. Someone finally changed it, though; nice benefit, especially if ya want your posts to stay up for any length of time.
The one about the open card to Jane only hit the list again because she had linked to it in her post, and some folks must have read it and rec’d it. Even though the comments are closed after some amount of time, a post can still be rec’d. My own perceptions are that some of the professional posts come with rec’s, so they hit the rec’d list fast, not that they always stay up there….I think, lol.
Tags: I was referring to search engines kicking up posts without an author’s name attached just based on their search terms, but yes, if I’m hunting one of my own to link to, it’s the fastest way, given that our archives don’t have page numbers for easier location of past posts, though I can’t imagine why that feature wasn’t included. Mebbe the web designers never reckoned we could be so prolific, lol!
As far as cross-posting, all I have now is my own Posterous site almost no one reads (my other Home place is in suspension for now), but there are a number of progressive sites, some more Lefty (meaning no Dems as authors) that fdl to post, but they require knowing html, and for me, the length of time it takes to post, and that is IF I can get it right (seldom) just hasn’t been worth it. Old dog, new tricks, all that.
Anyhoo, that’s all I’ve got for now, except to say good luck to us all, lol!
Right on with your second graph, too, and this: “…the space for even existing politically is minimal” is a hard truth, which is a reason for blogging issues, not politics, though some are hopelessly entwined.
Your description of the ‘do not kill list’ is probably spot on; I hadn’t given it much attention at all; I wrote a terrible fail of a post months ago along similar lines, and it was complete snark, more along the lines of ‘Mr. President, please I don’t wanna go to Gitmo’.
But we’re back to what constitutes activism, and I guess I don’t believe it only means being on the streets, or actions at banks, boardrooms, Walmart, though I love those things, and wish I could be involved in efforts like US Uncut flashmobs. I do continue to hope that my writing is a from of activism, or else Occupying Mancos, CO for an hour on Saturdays is the extent of mine. ;o)
Boycotting the election: there was a long, heated discussion here a week ago about that. I could understand the case proponents made, but I’ll vote, partially because there are down-ticket races and initiatives worth voting for, AND I don’t think boycotting will happen in any significant numbers, rendering the protest invisible. Now people vote, but don’t vote for anyone for Prez, it would show up that way, but whether or not anyone crunched those numbers for their meaning…I dunno. Someone (crap memory) offered me the opinion on one of my recent posts that a vote for Stein or Anderson would also be serving the 1%; he’s almost convinced me to vote for Alexander; dunno yet.
And I still like to see the coming non-violent revolution as right/wrong, fair/unfair, feudal lords/wage slave rather than just a Lefty movement, which has been another common theme for my writing. Thanks for all your good considerations here. ;o)