Letters to the Editor
CuteNFuzzyBunny
Published Letters: 13
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It's simple, really...
[Read the article: Abject stupidity defined]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...accusations, especially ones that are screamed about, appear on the front page and grab everyone's attention.
Since liberals are, by definition from the rightwing bloggers, evil liars...that is justification alone for the "gotcha" tactics of slander, misinformation, and exaggerations. Like most arguments and beliefs of the right, their ends justify any means.
And if they are wrong, they don't care. Retractions/corrections always appear 3-4 days later, on page 16, or never at all.
What matters is that in their eyes, we are evil, and they believe in their constant vigilance against our evil. What they don't understand, and why they are ignorant (not stupid), is they are -exactly- what they accuse us liberals of being...and they don't even realize it.
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Virus and antibiotics...
[Read the article: The evolution of creationism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Article said: "But like a virus adapting to antibiotics"...
The term "antibiotic" is used to refer to substances with anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, or anti-parasitical activity.
NOT anti-viral. Virus don't respond to antibiotics. Otherwise there would be a cure for colds.
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2004 election...
[Read the article: Mission unaccomplished]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One thing that bothered me was that Kerry -never- used this to his advantage in 2004. I remember being very frustrated that Kerry never took this fight to Bush, and never used this during his campaign. He should have had ads running across the nation that simply showed Bush's "...dead or alive" quote, followed by something as simple as "And what has George W. Bush done to live up to this promise? Where is bin Laden now?"
We Democrats need to grow a spine.
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Not happy with the Clintons over this...
[Read the article: Team Clinton: Obama's now the establishment candidate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The fact that the Clinton campaign is pushing to have the Florida and Michigan delgates seated is a huge turn-off for me.
Those states were essentially frozen when it was declared that no campaigning would be done in them...locking them up for the Clinton campaign way back when the DNC decided to "punish" these states. The Clinton group knew this, and knew that without being able to campaign in those states, there was no chance of an Obama or Edwards victory. The polls showed this, and without any campaigning, it wasn't going to change.
To now go back and reverse their promise has to be one of the most underhanded tactics I've seen from the Clintons. You can't tell me straight faced that if the positions had been reversed, the Clintons would not be screaming bloody murder.
The way the Clintons are running their campaign, I may stay home come November. I expected better than this from them. You can't change the rules mid-game, to your advantage, just because your side happens to control the DNC.
It's underhanded, it's deceitful, and it's, in essence, cheating.
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How blogging and campaigns work...
[Read the article: A note about War Room's reader comments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A while back I worked for a campaign, and one of my jobs was to troll through a variety of blogs...and post the "talking points of the day" that were given to me by the campaign staff. As I read through a lot of comments on different political threads, it is very easy to spot the people who are doing this for both the Clinton and Obama teams here on Salon.
Each morning I'd receive an email from a higher up in the campaign, and this person would list out the points that they wanted us to make, and arguments that they wanted us to counter, on different blogs. There was a small army of us, and we all had certain blogs assigned to us (We overlapped, so it wasn't too obvious).
But a lot of the heated exchanges going on here have the feel of possibly falling under this catagory...Attempts by the campaigns to influence the blogs and to score points on a micro level.
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@jebldmm & @evans evans
[Read the article: A note about War Room's reader comments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You actually did this?
Yes...all the campaigns do it. Thing is, we were not kept on any payroll, as that could have been a little scandalous...Cheating the system like that. It was always "covert".
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@ AKA Smith
[Read the article: A note about War Room's reader comments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How it worked when I did it...
Each morning I'd receive an email from the guy on the campaign staff who was the leader of the "bloggers". He used an anonymous email address, specifically so it could not be traced back to the campaign.
In the email would be a list of talking points and specifics he'd want to get out on the blogs for that day. He would also direct us towards specific statements the opponent was saying, and would tell us how he wanted us to counter them.
Basically, a high up in the campaign would direct us on specific points, arguments and propaganda he'd want to throw out there. This had three effects...
1. It allowed the campaign to direct the flow of discussion, keep it to certain topics, without looking like they had a direct hand in it. They could make charges, question the opponents stance, etc...and not be tainted by "mud slinging".
2. It gave the false impression that knowledgable citizens were out there blogging, and supporting, a certain candidate.
3. Lastly, it allowed the campaign to counter rumors, and start rumors of their own, without being directly involved. Nothing was really off limits.
And yes, when I see the same point being made over and over by certain bloggers on Salon, I do begin to suspect that they are receiving direction on what to say. They always seem to be on point, and aggressive. And like you said, they disappear as soon as their point is made.
Often I would have multiple logins for multiple sites...just so I could post under multiple names, and make it look like more than one person was pushing that days topics.
We always wrote everything in our own words...never cut/paste anything. Wouldn't want to be caught having two different people say the exact sae thing in the exact same way no would we?