From: Robert Comer 

That's why I don't read anything other than technical blogs...

--
Bob Comer


On Thu, 7 Jun 2007 16:12:10 -0400, "Rich Gauszka"
 wrote:

>There's far too much intolerance on either 'far' side of the blogosphere.
>The opposition is demonized and there is little room for debate nor is any
>attempt made to communicate - just preaching to the choir.
>
>"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
>news:46685b7c$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> When Joe Klein says something bad about the left.  You know it must be
>> really bad.  Because Klein is an idiot for the left.
>>
>> Gary
>>
>> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>>> http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1630004,00.html
>>> But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often
>>> witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of
>>> the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most
>>> extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed-especially people like me who
>>> often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are
>>> therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is
>>> understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are
merely aping the
>>> odious, disdainful-and politically successful-tone that right-wing radio
>>> talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably
>>> furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear
>>> tactics.
>>>
>>> And that is precisely the danger here. Fury begets fury. Poison from the
>>> right-wing talk shows seeped into the Republican Party's bloodstream and
>>> sent that party off the deep end. Limbaugh's show-where Dick Cheney
>>> frequently expatiates-has become the voice of the Republican
>>> establishment. The same could happen to the Democrats. The spitballs
>>> aimed at me don't matter much. The spitballs aimed at Harman,
Clinton and
>>> Obama are another story. Despite their votes, each of those politicians
>>> believes the war must be funded. (Obama even said so in his statement
>>> explaining his vote.) Each knows, as Senator Jim Webb has said
>>> repeatedly, that we must be more careful getting out of Iraq
than we were
>>> getting in. But they allowed themselves to be bullied into a more
>>> simplistic, more extreme position. Why? Partly because they fear the
>>> power of the bloggers to set the debate and raise money against them.
>>> They may be right-in the short (primary election) term; Harman faced a
>>> challenge from the left in 2006. In the long term, however, kowtowing to
>>> extremists is exactly the opposite of what this country is looking for
>>> after the lethal radicalism of the Bush Administration.
>

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