Whoever you are Andy Axel, you hit it on the head again.

It's about the same on the national level. Only 14 Senators can be found to try to overide the veto of the war funding bill even though the will of the people is evident. I wrote Dean, Pelosi and Reid after that embarrasment and said after 40 years of supporting Democrats, my donations and probably my vote just started going elsewhere. Of course, I got not even an acknowledgement of my letters.
James Carville nailed it the other night on C-Span. He said he had good news for both Republicans and Democrats. For the D's: The American people want to vote Democratic. For the R's : The Democrats are perfectly capable of talking the American people out of it.

We get the John Fords and Ward Crutchfields and Dave Cooleys and Doug Henrys and Jerry Coopers and Jimmy Naifehs working on our account. Big whoop.

Well said. A very salient, if depressing point.

I'm still somewhere between outrage and sadness over this whole deal. Obviously, there's a lot tied up in this, and I'm trying my best to keep my feelings about Brittney's professional decision separate from this thing we do.

A lot has been bubbling up in my own personal and professional life, and I'd like to do this community a courtesy that we won't be getting from the Smug Soldiers in JG's rank & file.

By way of an example: "Democommie" showed up over there and outlined his rationale (or, rather, his rationalization). I still don't agree with what he did there, and I'm still heartsick over this outcome. I have a long post that I had been considering sticking up on NiT, but they're well up on 340+ comments and the horse is dead, in repose, and will start to turn fallow soon.

Still, blogging is just a tactic. And in some ways, I think it's actually a distraction from the real work that needs to be done in this Republic as a whole. I still believe that you can only put the truth out there, and then to trust that the outcome will be favorable. Many times, it's not. Many times, it feels like the deck is hopelessly stacked against progress.

I am, however, sick to tears of rage of being blamed, time and again, for the crap state of affairs by people who should goddamned well know better. Brittney was unfairly targeted because JG could use her employment status as leverage, but she was also unfairly called to account for generations of racism and unfairly called to account for printing someone else's words in a manner summarily judged to be unfit. Later, she didn't apologize correctly enough, or sincerely enough, or whatever enough a vaffanculo. The shit people were slinging her way was breathtakingly ungrounded, much of it vile, and it was far out of proportion to any sin that she was alleged to have committed.

I believe this was an outgrowth of an incipient set of myopic political heuristics that perpetuate the myth that The South is the wellspring of this society's troubles, and is therefore expendable politically. I watched this spin out of control on DKos last year as dedicated progressive citizens of TN were chided, lambasted, and called every name in the book for supporting Harold Ford Jr. and his stupid, doomed candidacy. Then, in the wake of that, we're to blame for not being progressive enough for the progressives, even though there's no infrastructure to support that cause, but we won't get that infrastructure because we don't win, so we continue to lose out on progressive causes.

(And the prescription from Democommie at NiT? "Go make [more progressives]." Yeah. It's just that easy, huh. [slaps forehead] Gee, I've been doing this the hard way! Say, I believe I'll go make nuclear fusion while I'm at it. Shall I solve world hunger on my way home today, too?)

And so it goes.

Thanks for promoting this to the front page, Randy. I look forward to seeing what thoughts this whole episode has brought up for you.

So Andy Axel and all the rest of you, if you're unhappy with her decision, take it up with her, rather than her those who critiqued her to keep her accountable.

Well, I will. That is, I plan to.

All the same, there is indeed a wider context to these events, and I invite you to learn about it. (In this case, the wider context was Egalia's observation that "I think there's some kind of awful lesson in the fact that the final straw came from the left"). That's truer than n00bs to this community realize, and it has much larger implications in 3D reality.

The Tennessee blogging community isn't just about people and their jobs, it's about passions and politics as well, and there are a lot of voices to add to that chorus.

And I will still feel free to critique people who say ungrounded things about people that they don't know. I will absolutely critique unfair treatment from people who can't see past their petty assumptions. If you don't like my opinions? I invite you to engage responsibly or to find your browser's back button.

(some late edits for clarity.)

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I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

(blump) See above.

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I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that NIT has taken a turn to the right in the short time since Brittney's departure?

Also, some blogs that came out strong in her support seem to no longer be showing up on the aggregator, including Michael Silence.

Nice work, PatriotBoy!