Milestone

We've hit 100,000 visits!

Not much by big blog standards I know, but still... it makes us happy. The unruly mob would like to thank each and every one who opted to click on our humble site. We know how many quality sites there are out there, and how hard it is to visit a fraction of them. So it means a lot to us that you want to hang out with us.

Byt the way, here's the proof:


UPDATE: I don't see a link to us there, but sitemeter says that the 100,000the visitor was referred here from this YouTube video:

NOFX - Wolves in Wolves Clothing

(So be it. You know it totally fits.)

TAGS: Milestones

A Confluence of Gormlessness

My most recent post just happens to contain the following sentence: "Let us all hope that they pay dearly for this latest confluence of utter gormlessness in the service of unremitting evil." Some time after I wrote the post it occurred to me that confluence and gormlessness were pretty rarely-used words. Anyway I wondered if I could find the post by Googling "confluence of utter gormlessness," and yes, there it was right at the top of a very short list (most of the other Google hits were from either a) - databases from online dictionaries or b) - something called All Junky Pages Intentionally Illogical and Inconsistent - I wonder what that's all about.)

If I had stopped there it would have been enough to demonstrate the depths to which I will go just to provide myself the briefest minor amusement, which would hardly have been worthy of a post on the lowliest of cat-blogging and baby-pictures narcissistic mommy blog. (no offense to any of our readers who happen to be narcissistic mommy bloggers)

No, what made this random googling bloggable was when I widened my search to just 'confluence gormlessness' - at which point I stumbled upon a great post about six months old from Pandagon that contains the words confluence and gormlessness (although both are in the comments) - the post harkens back to a post from D-Day - the D-Day post recalls the impeachment of Bill Clinton:

Jesse L. Jackson in 1998:

Let us not be confused. Today Republicans are impeaching Social Security, they are impeaching affirmative action, they are impeaching women’s right to choose, Medicare, Medicaid, Supreme Court justices who believe in equal protection under the law for all Americans.

D-Day, Dec 21, 2007:

Being the anniversary week, C-SPAN decided to air large portions of the House debate [on the Clinton impeachment].

I couldn't stop watching.

You actually can read the transcripts here, but believe me when I tell you that the phony sanctimony from the Republicans is striking. I've never heard so many renderings of history, deep intoning about the Constitution and reverance for the rule of law come out in such a stream of pabulum in my life. Set against the background of the current Administration, which has lied us into war, spied on American citizens, tortured and indefinitely detained suspects without trial in secret sites all over the world, subverted the will of the people through deliberate deception, and brought this country to its knees, all in full view of many of these same lawmakers, the experience of watching them speak is almost otherworldly.

What the Republicans were actually doing is throwing a hissy fit.

Amanda Marcotte, Dec 22, 2007:

...it began to really dawn on me that Republicans and their allies in the media are fundamentally opposed to the idea of democracy. It wasn’t just that the Republicans and the media were trying to oust a duly elected leader on trumped-up charges with the hope that the sexy parts would distract people from the fact that they were attempting a coup, though god knows that alone would be enough. It was also that the more the media and the Republicans persecuted Clinton, the more popular he got, and then the more frantic the persecution got. It really showed how conservatives and the mainstream media hate the workaday voter, and hate the very fact that we have any say at all. The more people liked Clinton, the more his enemies hated him, because he became this proxy for their very hatred of The People.

I suppose if the nation was better educated, we’d have seen it coming. Republicans and their Democratic allies have never met a pro-capitalist military coup they didn’t love, and while the attempted coup on President Clinton was not a military coup, it was still in the same spirit as the coups conducted worldwide.

It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day screwing that's being handed out to the American people by the government and forget the long term year-to-year and decade-to decade screwing that's pretty much always been going on. So I welcome the result of my idle googling for the opportunity it presented to me to rescue a couple of excellent blog posts from the memory hole.

And in case you didn't get the message, this post makes a lot more sense if you read the posts at Pandagon and D-Day that I linked to. And what really comes out of it is how much the rules change when the Republicans control Congress instead of the Democrats, or when a Democratic president occupies the White House instead of a Republican. I understand that the system provides a very weak 'choice' between the lesser of two evils. Still, I continue to believe that even though the lesser of two evils is still evil, it is also still lesser. These two posts and the subject matter they explore are ample evidence of that.

UPDATE: Here's a video that illustrates my last point. Who would argue that Congressman Wasserman Schultz (D - Florida) is just as bad as a Republican? And get a load of the former Bush aide, Brad Blakeman. Speaking to my main point, how many Republicans were arguing just the opposite on Executive privilege during the Monica Lewinski affair? And what a fucking jakehole Blakeman is, constantly talking over Rep. Wasserman and the guy from HuffPo - a constant tactic Repukes use, and that the Lamestream media continues to allow them to get away with.

Congresswoman Wasserman on Karl Rove's Refusal To Appear

'nother update: This video with Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D - CA) is even better. Great analysis from Jonathan Turley.

Sanchez: Rove Should be in jail

TAGS: Memory Hole, The Wider Picture, Republican Toerags, Historical Perspective

Fifty Thousand!

Yowza!

There's a lot going on here at Les Enragés.
Sometime today, someone will be the 50,000th visitor. Not bad since we were just short of 30,000 when we had our first anniversary on Aug. 1.

WE LOVE YOU! You only come here and read us, 'cause you want to. We don't run ads or ask for donations, so I guess we're all here purely because we want to be too.

And, while I do not speak for the entire Unruly Mob, I will say this: If you're visiting here, there are probably a few things you're OK with. You understand:

• "Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774.
• "When patience has begotten false estimates of its motives, when wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality." --Thomas Jefferson to M. deStael, 1807

Jefferson could have played guitar for these guys:

(Just like Ziggy)

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
Its a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
[intermezzo]
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

And we thank you for coming here. Indeed, it's a privilege that WE are READ by you.

Thank you!


TAGS: CELEBRATE!, 50k, Are you kidding me?, I love this place.

The Joys of Upholstery Blogging

In the days before the big Yearly Kos blogger convention, when the blogging on the left was very light, I noticed a few posts here and there about the infamous FISA bill. I didn't believe that a deeply unpopular President who seemed like he might very well be headed toward impeachment--yes, I thought that impeachment was possible as recently as a week ago--could possibly pull off the magic trick of getting Congress to legalize one of his most overt criminal activities. Well, poof! Surprise! He did it. Oh, Raw Story, I thought, when will you ever learn? Oh, Democratic Underground, I thought, you silly alarmists. No way any Democrat would shoot the party in the ass like this. Riiiiight.

Well, we know how that turned out. And as a result I have taken my very productive political blog--which I work my ass off on--out of the political arena. And until some Democrat works in tandem with at least one other Democrat to do something at least somewhat impressive in the fight for our dwindling civil rights, it's going to be wall to wall upholstery blogging over at IST. No, I'm not really going to be posting pictures of furniture with commentary like this--"Check out the vinyl on that baby, wow!" "Upholstery blogging" is just a euphemism for lighthearted, fun blogging, like the cat blogging or flower blogging some people engage in. I'm not saying that stuff is wrong to do, on the contrary, I've been doing it for three days and I love it. I even did a little celebrity blogging today. Talk about relaxing. Did you people know Amy Winehouse is in rehab? You do now. Ironic, huh?

Other than this crazy little post, I won't be bringing my furniture over here to Les Enragés. In fact, the strike thing is just a silly way for me to have a little fun and for me to make almost every post I do about FISA and it won't last too much longer. It's just for IST, and I am very glad that I can come over here and rant my disillusioned head off about this stuff.

But man, I was surprised by this. I never thought we could lose so many rights so fast.

Makes me want to lay down on this nice hammock.
NOTE: Images courtesy of Unconventional Conventionist.
TAGS: Upholstery Blogging, FISA, Capitulation, Amy Winehouse

Happy 1st Anniversary Unruly Mob!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Unruly Mob. Founded in the wake of blogger Sans Culotte's abrupt exit from the blogsphere, the Mob is a place where disparate voices can come together in our mutual mission to speak truth to power. I like to think of us as a grand social experiment. We are a diverse mob coming from many places (U.S. and Canada, as well as readers from around the globe), with different socio-economic backgrounds (although I don't believe anyone has claimed to be filthy rich!) and holding a wide range of beliefs (from atheists, spiritualists, humanists and Christians). We strive for unity in our diversity. And we try to not merely tolerate wide-ranging voices, but rather embrace the inherent goodness in each mobster.

It hasn't always been easy. Certainly no one has suggested that we all move into a commune together! But if we are about creating a more just world, a peaceful planet, then it should begin with each one of us.

And now, will everyone please stand, turn to face Washington D.C., and shout with one voice, "Off with their trousers!"

Answering the Tag(s)

A LONG Overdue Response.

There is an old story from the second of two campaigns for the presidency mounted unsuccessfully by Adlai Stevenson against the very popular Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike, after all, saved the world from the Nazis, or so everyone was told at the time. For his part Stevenson was an intellectual giant and an unabashed liberal. He was ahead of the curve in promoting the environment, equality of opportunity, and a secular government.

(Did you know that it was Eisenhower who is responsible for putting the phrase 'one nation under God' in the pledge of allegiance, and the words 'in God we trust' on American currency? Yeah, it surprised me too.)

We could sure use someone like Stevenson now. To get an idea of what kind of man he was, I went to Brainyquotes.com for a sample of some of his words. He really had some great ideas and expressed them beautifully. He was way ahead of his time.

But back to my story. During a campaign tour, presumably during his second (1956) campaign, Stevenson gave a stirring and well thought out speech at one of his many venues. At the end of the speech, one member of the audience hung around for an opportunity to meet and talk to the candidate. "Mr. Stevenson," he gushed, "After listening to your ideas I don't know how any thinking American could possibly fail to vote for you."

Without hesitating, Stevenson responded, "I'm afraid I'll need a lot more people than that voting for me if I'm to have any chance to win this thing."

I would like to acknowledge the selection of Les Enragés.org not once, but twice for a 'thinking bloggers award.' The first time by Betmo at Life's Journey, the second by Moxie Grrrl. Here and Here respectively. And, respectively, the dates of these posts are April 26 and April 29, so I have to be a little shamefaced about responding so slowly. My only excuse is that the weather has been very good lately, I've had cabin fever after the long dreary Canadian winter, and I really need to walk off the 10 or 15 pounds I've put on over that dreary winter. Also, I was thinking over my response, which I wanted to be something that made you think no less than any other post here.

I chose the Stevenson story because what really tickled me about being tagged by these particular bloggers was that they themselves are very thoughtful, the kind of people who, back in 1952 and 1956 would probably have discounted Eisenhower's heroism and popularity, given Stevenson a listen, and voted for him on the merits of his positions and policies. That's what you're supposed to use your franchise as a voter to do.

In fact, I would go further to say that you have a duty to your country to do so, and you MUST do so if you expect democracy to continue in America. As Stevenson pointed out,

"As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end."

And that requires that everyone develop the habit of thinking. Equally to the point,

"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process."

The point I'm trying to make if there is one, is that it's easy to get those people already in the habit of thinking to think some more. But we collectively have to work on finding a way to get those people who don't think much to think at least a little bit. Adlai Stevenson was the first Presidential candidate to fall victim to a tactic that has gained way too much traction in the current political arena. The idea that it is somehow wrong to be smart. In a global economy that hinges on intellectual property, this is tantamount to national suicide.

Some snippets from the Wikipedia article on anti-intellectualism. You should really look at the original article - it helps explain a lot of what's going on, from the fight to put Intelligent Design into the classroom, right to the morons that currently pose as journalists on TV.

Anti-intellectualism will often be expressed within communities through declarations of Otherness, that is, intellectuals will be said to be 'not one of us'..

..Although a variety of religions have rich intellectual traditions, some rely on arguments from authority that are not independently verifiable, along with a somewhat common tendency to reject secular critical traditions.It is more common for fundamentalist wings of a religion to harbor anti-intellectual sentiments, due to a tendency to reject that which runs contrary to their religious beliefs..

..Anti-intellectualism is often used by dictators or those seeking to establish dictatorships. Educated people as a social group have often been seen by totalitarian elements as a threat because of the tendency of intellectuals to question existing social norms and to dissent from established opinion.. ..Because many intellectuals refuse to embrace nationalism, they are also commonly portrayed as unpatriotic and subversive..

..intellectuals are presented as elitists and tricksters whose knowledge and rhetorical skills are feared, not because they are useless, but because they may be used to hoodwink the ordinary people, who are conceived of as the 'salt of the earth' and the source of virtue. President George W. Bush has used an appeal to this type of populism..

..Scientific and technological learning may be given a grudging respect; but the arts, literature, philosophy, and similar cultural pursuits are all considered a waste of time and money at best, and subversive at worst. Those who pursue them are supposed to inhabit an 'ivory tower' of academia, full of grand plans whose practice is seen as impossibly flawed..

..Conservative commentators such as Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh commonly argue that conservative politicians, particularly Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, have been attacked by media as being "incompetent" - this can be understood as an accusation of intellectual snobbery by the media. O'Reilly in particular is well known for having a hostile attitude towards what he calls the "Ivy League Elite." The word "intellectual" itself has been used as an insult by many on the right.

Just think of the polemics against Al 'Braniac' Gore and John 'Patrician' Kerry in the last two Presidential elections and you get an idea of how desperately the conservative movement wants to turn America against anyone who might actually be competent to turn the country back onto a path of recovery from their disastrously stupid policies.

VIDEO: Bill Maher - Liberals Have to Take the Word 'Elite' Back

Passing on the tag, I can easily select Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy, as standing head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Truly erudite. I also find Fade at House of the Rising Sons to get my intellectual juices going on a regular basis, as does Jolly Roger's crew at Reconstitution. I'm going to break the unwritten rule and give the nod to Station Agent at Ice Station Tango, whose contributions help make this blog so thought-provoking. Hope Springs a Turtle's Deep Confusion also stands in the warm glow from Diogenes' lantern.

Thinking Blogger

HERE IT IS FOLKS

---

Welcome, unruly mob, to unrulymob.blogspot.com. If everyone accepts the name, this will be the new home of Les Enragés. Take off your trousers and make yourselves at home. I hope you like what I've done to the place. I took the liberty of cutting and pasting from sans' own template to provide a familiar look for everyone, and to give links to sans' favourite causes, band of brothers, net neutrality, etc. So far my limited knowledge of HTML (actually I think XHTML is being used here) hasn't caused any major crashes. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. On my to-do list: registering the blog with haloscan, technorati, and that cool mapstat thingabob. In terms of formatting, I've already done more here than on my own blog that is now 6 months old. But as I say, I only copied and pasted from sans' code, so the effort was minimal.

Comment Policy

... Such As It Is.

Here's the deal.

Ultimately this IS our blog, and we can do what we want. Any comment is subject to editing or deletion for any reason whatsoever. †(see below)

If you think that our deleting or editing your comment is censorship, get your own blog and post whatever you like. We are under no obligation to disseminate your bile, vitriol, spew, or whatever else you may wish to post.

Commercial spam will of course be deleted forthwith. We also will not tolerate copy/pasting of entire articles into our threads. That's plagiarism, and shows a profound disrespect for the author of the article and the legitimate (in that they interact with the other commenters) users of our comments interface.

Rule of thumb. If you come here to post YOUR screed, but are demonstrably not reading the blog, nor the comments of others, you are not welcome.

We don't mind off-topic comments as a rule. In fact, I personally love it when readers share LINKS (with a brief description and/or excerpt) regarding something that caught their eye while browsing around. It saves me and the other mobsters time, and we might even find material for a post in there. You can pretty much consider any thread an open thread around here. We do.

What we don't like - no make that really, really detest, it pisses us off - and what may earn you a deletion or even banning if you persist, is ad hominem attacks, whether they be directed against individuals or identifiable groups. Absolutely forbidden.

In case you don't know what ad hominem means, it is Latin for 'against the person.' In other words, it's perfectly OK to dispute someone's argument or position, even their 'facts' if you find them questionable. That is fair discourse, and we promise you will never be edited, deleted or banned for disagreement, so long as you limit yourself to civil debate. Besides, if you have a valid point to make, with arguments and/or facts to back it up, there is no need for juvenile name calling. You would only be making yourself look foolish.

You are allowed to criticize other commenters for behavior (like for instance making ad hominem attacks) that you find objectionable. If we agree with you, we'll deal with the situation. Just be aware that we don't have site monitors or anything like that, nor are we ever likely to.

Disagreement is a healthy and necessary thing in a free society. You may have noticed that the unruly mob is inclusive, not ideologically homogeneous on any axis - political, religious, whatever. So we won't assume that you hate any of us just because we don't march in lockstep on whatever issue. Please return the sentiment. And we sincerely hope you appreciate that this is a place where you don't have to 'go along to get along.'


A huge hat-tip to NosyBear Demon for this graphic guide to elevating the discourse. If you stick to techniques shown near the top of the pyramid you'll be doing yourself and the rest of us a big favor. Yourself mostly because you won't come across looking like an asshat (heh heh.)The rest of us because when someone relies on the lower techniques it isn't just offensive by itself, but it precludes you actually stating an opinion of your own that can be argued against. Trying to argue with such has aptly been described as like nailing jelly to a wall. You may also find this helpful:

The Argument Clinic

Furthermore, since this is after all an unruly mob, and each of our members has their own ideas of how things should be, be advised that the rules may be different depending on the author of the post. That is part of the deal between us as bloggers. So where my posts will allow pretty much any kind of language you want to use, others may not. †You may have curse words edited out of your comments some times, but not others.

Unruly enough for you?

And finally, please don't feed the trolls. It only encourages them.