Let's just have the Democratic Party (following the trend of renaming ball fields) be renamed the "AT&T Democratic Party." Think of all the money the political parties could collect by selling the name of the party/convention to the highest corporate bidder every four years or so. Conventions could be broadcast on ESPN. People could root for their favorite teams, wear their colors, and show up for political speeches at corporate-sponsored events without ever having to worry about those sticky policy issues.

Who cares about torture, habeas corpus, lawlessness by our ruling elite?

It's all about horserace. Stop worrying and have fun.

If you don't stand up for your own ideals, and you can't stand up to the opposition party, why would anyone believe you could stand up to the terrorists?

Obama has gone from projecting a strength sufficient to lead this country against the terrorists, to projecting weakness by caving to the right. He's turned into Kerry, and may suffer the same fate. It scares me.

From Newshole:

I propose that everyone who buys Glenn's new book buy two copies. The second copy should be sent to the print or broadcast media reporter of one's choice. Choose a local or national reporter and simply have Amazon send the second copy to them.

And from FMD:

Just include with your gift message the statement "I read/watch/listen to you regularly and I was fascinated by the references to you in this book." Which of these people could pass up an opportunity to see his/her name in print?

How can we get this started? Anyone know a way to get a prominent blogger to post a list of media figures that can be marked off one by one as we send copies of GG's books to them? I pledge to send 5 books to journalists on the list.

Firedoglake sent a "GOP Rubberstamp" to every Democratic member of the House and the Senate in 2006, protesting their cowardice in standing up to Bush. The effort generated a lot of buzz and was highly effective in showing the strength of the liberal blogosphere, while also informing members of Congress of our irritation with their weakness. I think sending the book would generate even more buzz and could be very effective.

How do we start?

with anti-semitism reminds me of my ex-husband's tactics against my recently diagnosed bipolar son. Every time my son disagrees with his father over anything, my ex accuses him of going off his lithium, or of being paranoid, of being depressed or of being manic. In other words, my ex uses my son's real and tragic condition in an attempt to control and gain emotional advantage over him. The cruelty, dishonesty and selfishness of this strategy is self-evident.

My son, a brilliant & creative young writer (if I might say so myself) coined the term "emotional terrorism" to describe his father's actions. And now that he's so aptly labelled the conduct, I see it manifested everywhere. Shutting down debate with emotionally charged words like patriotism, the Holocaust, Hitler and fascism is quite effective emotional terrorism, often used to impose conformity on controversial issues such as war, abortion, surveillence, torture and racism. The emotion of the words simply shuts down opposition.

More to the point, however, is that ADL's very selective condemnation of emotional terrorism in only those cases where it doesn't hurt proponents of an US/Iranian war serves to aid and abet the warmongers. But worse, Foxman has adopted the Hilter/fascist name callers' tactics as his own by invoking his experience of the Holocaust. He intends to cut off debate, to terrorize or shame Glenn into backing off. He has become that which he deplores. It's very sad.

All of that aside, perhaps reasoned discourse would be helped along if respected bloggers like Glenn could promulgate some discourse rules (like ISO standards), and vote to accept the rules. Deviations from those rules could then be quickly tagged. Obviously, a list of logic fallacies would be a good start, and other rules like no Hitler/Holocaust comparisons allowed (except in stated limited circumstances).

Just a thought.

Sins of Our FauxFathers – How the GOP Uses Manly Myths to Disguise War as Valor, Dissent as Treason and Hubris as Certainty (while sliming Democrats as either girly-men or dykes)

The Balsy Boys of the GOP - How the Myth of Manliness Washes Away All Sin

I didn't read all the previous entries, so if someone already came up with these, sorry.