Slashdot Mirror
McCain Asks Supporters To Campaign On Blogs
Vote McCain in 2000! writes "McCain is not the stranger to technology some think him to be. McCain is now asking supporters to stump for him on blogs. Republican Web 2.0 consultant David All was effluent with praise for this outreach, calling it 'smart' and 'unique.' McCain's blogger outreach section has a handy list of political blogs which might be interested in hearing about McCain, such as the DailyKos, Crooks and Liars, and Think Progress. You can even report your posts to the campaign and 'receive points for your success,' though the page doesn't say what exactly the points are good for." Slashdot is not on their suggested blogs list. Can't imagine why.
I don't know who this "John McCain" is today, but he's definitely not that man I supported in 2000. I never thought I would see a John McCain who backed Bush, supported unprovoked preemptive wars, wanted to cut taxes at a time when the country is $9 *TRILLION* in debt, and sucked up to the religious right. But above all else, I NEVER NEVER NEVER thought I would see a man who was a torture victim and POW stand up and support that very torture by HIS OWN COUNTRY.
I was obviously naive to believe in him in 2000, to believe he was anything more than just another hyper-ambitious Washington scumbag who would sacrifice anything to win. I won't ever make that mistake again.
I guess he wants to hear from supporters. But this FORMER supporter wanted to chime in too.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It depends on how many disaffected Hillary voters still lurk there. DKos has been none too kind to Hillary supporters, and the general tone there towards them is one of incredible condescension at best, and mouth-frothing vitriol at worst. Most Hillary supporters have left the site, but it's worth putting forth a modicum of effort to find them there, nonetheless.
I think it's a smart move: get moderate Hillary supporters to believe that McCain wants their vote more than Obama does. You saw shades of this in the praise McCain heaped on Hillary in the weeks running up to her exit. It could also be enough to give him the election in November.
Every single negative stereotype you can think of about Democrats/liberals is exemplified by some of the comments on that site. Pulling out words like "racist" or "homophobe" in the middle of a conversation because someone has a principled disagreement with you. I asked once upon a time why that was any better than Republicans who pull out words like "cut and run" if you disagree with them -- needless to say that didn't win me many friends and I got about 30 replies explaining why it was "different" when Democrats do it as opposed to Republicans.
I consider myself a staunch Democrat and a liberal/progressive in most areas and that site still seems to extreme even for me. Half of the people that contribute there seem more interested in punishing the Republicans for the last seven years then they do in moving forward. They all seem to be extremely pro-Obama yet none of them pay anymore than lip service to the part of his message about disagreeing without being disagreeable and ending the partisan rancor in Washington.
I'm particularly concerned with the O'Reillyization of our political discourse. The manufactured anger. The one-sided reporting. Automatically assuming the absolute worst intentions of your opponents instead of assuming that they just have a principled disagreement with you. I flirted with Dailykos for about two weeks before my head started to hurt and I couldn't take it any longer. Ditto for Keith Olbermann. Tried watching him -- eventually came to the conclusion that he is little better than a left-wing version of Bill O'Reilly.
I would love to see a site where people on the left, right and center could come together to discuss the issues in a calm and principled manner. Hell for that matter, I'd love to see some real journalism that didn't slant to one side or the other. Closest thing I can come up with is the Newshour on PBS.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
No, I have to admit it was trollish (not flamebait, though--I was actually hoping for a chuckle or two). Heck, I'll gladly accept the karma burn for it.
The sad and sorry thing is that I am a registered Republican, and I will probably not be voting for McCain, I definitely will not be campaigning for him, and I certainly will not encourage others to support him. Back in 2000 McCain was a person whom I could respect--one who stood up for his principles. Today it looks like those principles have been prostituted on the altar of political expediency and "electability."
If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.
My fiance is a 3rd grade special ed teacher, and many of her friends are teachers in public schools as well.
In addition to that, many of the problems in public schools also go back to what and HOW the teachers are allowed to teach. Did you know that in certain counties, if a teacher does not teach the curriculum as dictated by county law, they can be fired? It doesn't matter if the kids understand what is being taught or not...teachers can be FIRED if it isn't taught in a specific manner.
Trust me, I used to think exactly that same way that you do. Now that I am able to see what my fiance has to deal with, I assure you that the problem is not incompetent teachers.
After talking to close to 100 teachers over the past two years, I gotta say...a LOT of the problem lies in the tools they are provided, not their proficiency in using them.
You can't be expected to build a skyscraper using wet paper bags and staples.
Living With a Nerd
It's amazing how much he's changed since then, isn't it? As a registered Democrat, I could actually respect the McCain of 2000. Now he's been voting against his own reform bills, supporting torture, supporting telco amnesty for spying on Americans, and pretty much everything else you could think of.
By the way -- the summary article got something wrong:
McCain is not the stranger to technology some think him to be
No, the McCain *campaign* is not a stranger to technology. McCain most definitely is a stranger to technology. When asked whether he was a Mac or PC person, he responded:
"Neither, I'm an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance I can get."
That's right. A president who, this day in age, doesn't know how to use a computer. Makes his policies on tech issues make a lot more sense, though. Back in 1999, running for the White House, this was remotely excusable. Today, it's just sad. A year ago, I set up a older woman who has brain damage with a Linux desktop and net access and she uses it just fine.
"Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
What slam? That was 100% true. It took her a while to get used to things (scroll bars were a big challenge for her), but she does just fine now.
Go on, explain to me how someone who doesn't know how to use a computer is expected to remotely understand the issues at hand. At least Senator Ted "Tubes" Stevens, the butt of many jokes on this site, uses a computer.
"Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
I agree that he probably hasn't changed as much as I'd thought.
In 2000, I registered Republican specifically so I could vote for him in the primary. Bush was just scary back then. (Turns out, I underestimated how scary).
I was part of the effort to encourage him to run again in 2004. He declined to do so, and instead threw his full support behind Bush and started supporting all of his policies, including support of continued torture of suspected criminals, which he was very loudly against up until that point.
He's no longer the man we knew in 2000. But, I'm willing to concede that that's most likely because we never really knew him, rather than because he's actually changed.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
No, McCain moved from being 'sort of' a conservative (or at least as close as one gets in the Senate and still remain electable) to a Bush yes-man and neo-con shill.
I can list a dozen ways he's shifted toward the neocons (off the top of my head: nation-building, torture, abortion, tax cuts for the wealthy in wartime, warrantless wiretapping, campaign finance reform) -- can you list some ways he's shifted to the left?
You guys need to get your story straight. It was, actually, a preference. McCain implied he felt that Iraq was just like Japan and Germany, countries that we've "occupied" (in his terms) for more than half a decade. The sheer ridiculousness of either implying either country is "occupied" (we have troops stationed in each, but not in an occupying sense), or that Iraq is anything like those two is what makes McCain's comments all the more ridiculous. Ironically, the right tends to complain we're misrepresenting him by pointing out he was making that comparison.
"Dude, McCain said he wants to eat babies"
"How dare the you on the left misrepresent McCain like that! All he said is that if the Chinese eat babies, then he'd like to eat one too, as he heard they're tasty and delicious."
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Says a lot about his attitude, though, doesn't it? I hope, for all our sakes, that the quote in question was completely facetious. Otherwise people are supporting a candidate who doesn't consider it worthwhile to sit down and learn how to check his email.
I think it's an interesting contrast that Barack Obama knew that a bubble sort is a bad way to sort a million 32-bit integers. Although I think it's necessary, I'd hate to see a debate on technology between the two candidates.
On second thought, maybe I'd love to see one. They could have Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens moderate!
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.