I still follow @Shoq

I have no intention of defending @Shoq's voicemail to his former girlfriend. It was full of vitriol in language and tone which is indefensible. I know because @Shoq acknowledges he was wrong in this post and this post.

This sordid tale has gotten ugly. The pound of flesh has been extracted, @Shoq's anonymity has been stripped and many have abandoned him. @Shoq has acknowledged his mistakes. He has apologized to the one person he is obliged to apologize to. If she chooses to not accept his apology, that is her right. If she chooses to continue heap scorn and derision on him online, that is her right. If others decide to stop following him on Twitter, that is their right. I will not be one of those people.

I've followed the Twitter feed of @Shoq and read his blog for quite awhile and will continue to do so. I believe he's a valuable member of the Progressive/Liberal community and will continue to be so. He introduced me to insightful and unique voices I would never have found without his introduction. Some of people will have decided to stop following @Shoq, but I hope they don't. I hope they consider what he's written in the past. I hope they consider the kind words of encouragement and the introducions he's made. Consider how many people on Twitter are read, RT'd and replied to as a direct result of @Shoq. How many blogs did he link to are now daily reading? Weigh the totality of the experience with him, he's earned it many times over.

We're Liberal, we're Progressives, we believe in 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th chances. I hope you give @Shoq the same. I expect no more for me and will give no less to others.

mccain's ego gets a helping hand from his base

This is a screenshot of NBCNews.com at 3pm Pacific (8/29)

NBCNews.com 3pm Pacific 8/29

NBCNews.com 3pm Pacific 8/29

Reading the NBCNews.com headline you would think John McCain & Condoleezza were both the featured speakers tonight at the Republican Convention. Now look at the actual schedule.

RNC Speaker Schedule 8/29

RNC Speaker Schedule 8/29

John McCain isn't even speaking in primetime! Look at the roster of speakers, foreign policy isn't the focus of the night's schedule. McCain's speaking slot is between a professional skier making remarks with the daughter of the govenor of Virginia and the Attorney General Florida with the Attorney General of Georgia. Hardly a prestigious spot for McCain. The Romney campaign threw McCain a bone by giving him a spot, and a bad spot too!

The press has granted McCain an underserved Paul Ryan like foreign policy wonk reputation and NBC News in particular has a fawning relationship with McCain, they're showing McCain far more deference and respect than Romney and the RNC has shown him, but then again the press is much more McCain's base than either Romney or the RNC.

So much for the liberal media.

Why fox wins the meme wars

Why do Fox News viewers cling to their facts despite all evidence to the contrary? How can watching Fox News lead to so may ill-informed viewers? The answer is elementary, actually elementary school.
In elementary school repetition and rote memorization is used to teach young children basic facts (flash cards, math tables etc), Fox News uses the same technique. Fox News decides on an angle, a meme and spends days driving their point home. Every show, every host will play the same video or sound bite with each host making the same point (albeit with their own twist) until the viewer has absorbed the issue with the facts Fox News has decided upon. It's not journalism and goes far beyond advocacy, it's propaganda.

pandering to the bigot vote

In the past few days we've seen more evidence of Mitt Romney's and the Republican Party's character, and it's not pretty. There was the joke told in Michigan. The appeal to 'Birthers' was obvious and Romney's only excuse was 'the crowd loved it'.
A few days after the Michigan 'joke', the head of the RNC Reince Priebus was confronted by MSNBC's Chris Matthews regarding the 'joke' and other tactics used by Romney, Priebus and many others in the Republican party to drive home the idea of Pres Obama being 'foreign'.
I don't believe Romney, Ryan, Preibus or the vast majority of Republican voters are racist. I do believe Romney, Ryan, Preibus, the Republican leadership and many of their biggest booster (see Fox News) excuse and pander to racist/bigoted politicians, organization and voters. And to my mind that is more onerous than actually being a racist.
If I see a person wearing Klan garb, sporting a swastika outwardly proclaiming their bigotry then I know what to expect from that person. I'm also familiar enough with coded language and 'dog whistles' used by pols and influencers trying to disguise their bigotry. Those people, as much as I abhor them, I know how to deal with. They are the true believers.
Then there's the panderers, the ones who are well aware of the absurdness and wrongfulness of all forms of bigotry and yet, they use the coded words, the 'dog whistles', those are the people I have a special contempt for. They are the ones who send red meat to the crowd, and when confronted throw up their hands or shrug their shoulders and say 'It was just a joke' or 'but the crowd loved it'. They are also the ones who are willing to throw away another person's rights and say 'It's just politics' without any sense of shame.
How do those pols get away with this? The answer is in the Matthews video, watch and listen to the reactions of the others on the stage. Brokaw, the befuddled NBC News 'elder statesman' goes with both sides do it. Scarborough tries to laugh off the confrontation and his ever hapless co-host Mika, was, as ever hapless.
This is what the panderers count on, a press corps so wedded to false equivalency they allow pols to use thinly veiled bigotry as a political weapon without repercussion.

The Mitt Aberation

This nomination by Republican Party of Mitt Romney is an aberration. A history of Republican nominees since Reagan:

MCain: Long time Republican loyalist and reliable conservative.  There were only 2 issues McCain strayed from the current party line: Campaign finance and Immigration

George W Bush: Scion of a family steeped in Republican party politics since his grandfather was a US Senator. Reliable conservartive who also strayed from current party line on 2 issues: Immigration (like McCain) and Education (most conservatives wanted the Dept of Education abolished) 

Bob Dole: US Senate Republican leader for 11 of his 27 years in the US Senate. Reliable conservative , but not considered an ideologue . Party loyalist

George H W Bush: Never considered an ideologue, but a staunch party loyalist. Bush served as a Congressman, Director of CIA, head of the RNC before serving as Ronald Reagan's Vice President

Since 1988 each one of these men have had 2 things in common:

1 ) Long time Party loyalist

2 ) Reagan loyalist.

Mitt Romney is neither.

When Romney ran for the Senate in 1994 and  governor of Massachusetts in 2000 he made a point of explaining to voters that he wasn't a Republican party loyalist, much less a Reagan loyalist.  Until 2004, Mitt Romney was a gay rights, pro-choice, health care for everybody, climate change is real, Republican. In other words, everything the current Republican Party opposes, he supported. 

Mitt Romney will lose this election and it will cause havoc within the Republican party. Social conservatives will blame Establishment Republicans. Establishment Republicans will be spilt because while Romney has been part of the establishment wing, the party loyalist didn't consider him 'one of them'. Social conservatives will have to contend with a TeaParty faction who are more interested in small government and the budget than social issues. House Republicans will blame the Republican Senate leadership. Leadership fights will be the order of the day; Senate Republicans will be split between McConnell & Demint. House Republicans will blame Boehner and the only question is; are they myopic enough to trust Cantor?

All of this is not necessarily good news for the country or Democrats. Republican, especially this new breed is entrenched in local, state and federal offices and when a leadership vacuum presents itself 'moderation' never win the day. It will get nastier.