Reading the letters posted here has given me a lot of practice in how to frame a post.

This morning, Paul Krugman has an article "The Town Hall Mob" on the agitators at the town hall meetings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html

I posted as number 12 knowing that there would be a ton of people commenting.

My post was put up immediately.

They have now shut off further comments at 101.

In addition, they put my post first, ahead of number 1. And with no number on it.

And they put my post as the only Editors Recommended.

And they put my post as the only one in Replies.

And they put my post first in the Readers Recommendations even though I don't have a counter.

And if you go to follow on pages of letters, mine always comes out repeated on top.

In these dark times, every small victory feels good.

Thanks especially to Jim White and his comment to one of my posts that the trolls were of a higher caliber because "they can spell and write complete sentences."

Here is what I posted.

Don Utter

Worthington, Ohio

August 7th, 2009

6:45 am

The first few comments are classic "concern trolls." They start out by agreeing with you (e.g., I have been a life long Democrat, but this time xxx) and then continue by repeating the talking point of the Republican party or the health industry or whatever.

Beware of trolls who come bearing false gifts. It sure would be interesting to know how many of them are paid to write their stuff. Doing it probably is part of their job at a lobby group or for the party. But some of them are professionals who are paid to post on various commentary sites. The ones here are nice and can spell and write complete sentences. There are other flavors who rant and spew weird comments. One of their main goals is to monopolize the conversation so that reasonable people simply give up.

I wrote earlier how my posting to the NY times was put on top.

Then others couldn't repeat what I saw on my screen.

So, my earlier post on the victory was true at the time, on my computer with several refresh pages, but it was not the same screen on others computers.

It now looks like my post is not even posted.

My 15 minutes of fame went down in flames.

I wish that I could delete my earlier post that is no longer true. It is not worth Glenn's time to delete that message and this one as well. But if he does it is OK since the earlier post is not now verifable.

But there is some good news for democracy.

Juan Cole has a post today on the significant actions of the Supreme Court in Pakistan.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/08/pakistani-taliban-leader-possibly.html

It went on last night and at 7:30 AM has almost 550 comments.

There is a huge attempt by pro Obama supporters to say everything is the same and don't criticize him, but the main thrust is that the progressives have had it with Obama's games.

Here is the link

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/20/769739/-Greenwald-Nails-It:-Rahm-Is-Protecting-the-Blue-Dogs...

Glenn is a national treasure. He is able to articulate what matters.

The Danish theologian/philosopher Soren Kierkegaard "argues that our primary access to reality is through our involved action. ... That means that who I am depends on the stand I take on being a self...Given his emphasis on involvement, Kierkegaard was convinced that philosophical reflection has undermined commitment in the West. In his book "The Present Age" written in 1846, he gave a prophetic description of how all authority was disapearing, all concrete differences were being leveled, everything was becoming indiferent, giving rise to alternative fits of lethargy and excitement. Such was the victory of critical detachment over involved commitment. His whole work was devoted to the question: How can we get meaning and commitment back into our lives once we have gotten into the passionless, reflective attitude we are now in?"

I take this to say that by 1850 the culture was unable to make the distinction between what matters and what doesn't matter.

That is why Glenn is so important. He makes clear what matters.

The quotation above is from "Nihilism, art, technology and politics" by Hubert Dreyfus. A paper in the book "The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger" Edited by C. Guignon, London: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

The time to play politics by counting votes before they happen is over. The issue is getting the bill with the public option out in the open and to see who is with it and who is against it.

Howard Dean says it simply:

1. public option gives people a choice and they can change the system

2. those who are against the people should be punished

There was a time when we followed the rule of law.

It isn't buried that deep. It can be recovered. The fact that the right wing uses the founding fathers to legitimize their acts shows that there is still some remaining remants of the founding fathers and constitution that are relevant.

Time for Obama to be the Constutional Law professor and educate the public about the constitution and the rule of law and encourage the justice department to investigate and if there is enough evidence, prosecute those who violated the laws. This can define his presidency and put the Republicans in the corner.

On the other hand, if he continues to embrace Bush's policies not only does he risk losing his presidency, he risks prosecution for the same violation of the laws.

Will we ever recover our republic? I don't know.