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Week of May 18, 2008 - May 24, 2008

Hillary's Seventy-Seven Percenters Please Speak Out


I recently posted a goodbye to the crazies in the Hillary Clinton camp but would like to see if my main thesis that it is a small slice of her supporters is correct.

For my Twenty-Three Percent theory to pan out, it means that Seventy-Seven percent of Hillary's supporters need to be reasonable and rational.  I have seen evidence around here by people I would have thought to be intractable previously.

I think the same thing about Barack's people and even McCain's people (though the percentages probably differ.)  Every candidate will have those lusty fools who can't seem to lay down their arms.  I will admit to having been one of them on occasion, though less so when I started using my own name.  That tends to make one more cognizant of their words.  Internet time is a long time to live down things you have written that are stored in a database somewhere.

Really, my only question is this:  Are the polls right?  Are most of Hillary's millions of supporters willing to vote for Barack should be become the nominee?

If that is the case, I want to ask you a favor.  Can you post more often to counter the dipshits among you?  Can you call those dipshits out if they continue to derail our efforts to move forward as a unified party?

I see more and more Obama supporters calling out our own nutjobs.  We can make it a joint effort to clean things up around here.

Seventy-Seven Percenters unite!

Goodbye Twenty-Three Percenters


Remember how frustrating it has been over the last eight years to speak to obstinate Baby Bush supporters, the twenty-three percent of Americans who still approve of the guy?  Hillary has her own twenty percent crowd as well that is driving me insane. 

They are quite easy to spot and they are always the same people with the same tired attacks.  They post the kind of stuff that instantly makes you utter epithets to an empty room.  Since speaking to some "Hillary" supporters is like pounding yourself in the head with a hammer, there comes a day when you realize that it  only feels good only when you stop. 

This is me stopping. 

I done responding to idiotic blogs and comments.  Most are either willfully (painfully) ignorant or purposely designed to stir up shit or are the product of stupidity so profound that no efforts on my part would ever make a bit of difference. 

I asked for an "ignore" button which would have made it easier to manage such stupidity wholesale.  Since I can't get an automatic tool, I will to do it manually.  I may not always resist the urge to correct bullshit, at least on my own blog posts, but I think I can resist commenting if someone else has already debunked it.

The main reason I need to not comment to certain threads is that I find it increasingly difficult to be civil with these people.  I would love nothing better than to unleash both barrels, but understand that does nothing for the long-term goals of seeing Barack elected and succeed as president. 

I am beyond done trying to ignore their crap or take the high road or mend bridges with morons.  That is Obama's gig.  I am a filmmaker and a writer - I don't have the same constraints.  In fact, I would submit my job description actually requires the exact opposite of restraint.  It would be a lot more fun too.

My mother gave me the admonition about having nothing nice to say, so this should explain why I will choose to say nothing at all to some people on this site moving forward. 

A Chorus of Cynics


"We have been told that we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics.  They will only grow louder and more dissonant" - Barack Obama, January 8, 2008
So it was then and so it still is as we move into the general election.  The hue and cry of the status quo as it dies a slow public death by a thousand cuts can be seen all around us. 

The volume will increase.  The rancor will swell.  The wing-nuts will come forth in their hundreds of thousands.  The Limbaugh crowd will explode in fits of blubbery rage.  The primary campaign we just waged against an establishment democrat will be mirrored by the coming battle with an establishment republican, but with much less civility amongst remaining die-hards of all stripes.

How can anything the Chorus of Cynics trots out between now and November be different from what we have already seen?  Will these aggressive, Old School tactics that somehow failed Hillary become more useful in the hands of neocons?  Can John McCain really catch up to the organization Barack has built in every single state?  Will he have the resources to compete in places republicans haven't had to worry about for a generation?  Can a demoralized republican party hope to compete with the enthusiasm and turn-out seen so far for democrats in the primary?

It's hard for me to worry too much about the republicans given the successful campaign Barack ran against a formidable democratic challenger.

Cult Members Speak Out


After having been accused for the umpteenth time of being some sort of drooling, Obama-worshiping idiot who can't examine the historical record and make an informed decision, I wanted to throw the bullshit flag on that nonsense as well.  This should have been added to the Obama MythBusting post, but it was the blog that generated comments speaking exactly to what I was talking about.  The irony of someone calling me intellectually dishonest and incapable of understanding nuance on a blog about intellectual dishonesty and lack of understanding of nuance in response to comments perfectly illustrating my point was too delicious to pass up.

Just because you are a cynical prick doesn't mean the rest of us have to be as well.  Just because we can wax rhetorical about what a great guy Barack is, doesn't mean we haven't done the in-depth homework necessary to form that opinion.  Just because we don't buy into yesterday's political framework, doesn't mean we are all ready to drink koolaid and meet our maker. 

I will be the first to admit that admiration will lead to at least a small amount of prejudice toward the guy.,  That is understandable.  But this cynical, sarcastic, world-weary bullshit is a downer.  I hate it when my little brother pulls the same crap.  I am certainly not going to like it any better from a stranger. 

OK.  I get it.  You are super smart and have even read a couple of books.  You aren't going to be fooled by a politician.  No sir.  They are all the same.  No difference between Barack and Hillary, except in the size of their rallies and fund-raising efforts and number of votes and number of states and number of delegate won.  You aren't impressed.  We are all a bunch of Pollyanna zombies without the ability to see clearly and will inevitably be disappointed by Barack because the guy isn't a saint, notwithstanding that we never claimed he was.

I am here to say bullshit on that, too. 

Barack's supporters aren't a bunch of uniformed twits with suffering hero-worship.  We are republicans, democrats and independents from across a wide swath of this country.  We have advanced degrees and no degrees.  We are from every geographic region and have a diverse series of stories.  Whatever one-dimensial slice that you decide to find offensive on this site is an Internet blink.  As Gladwell suggest, some blinks need to be measured against existing prejudice to determine their veracity.

Flame on!
« May 11, 2008 - May 17, 2008 | Home | May 25, 2008 - May 31, 2008 »

jason everett miller

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  • Website: www.jasoneverettmiller.com
  • Location Washington DC
  • Party Republican (Bull Moose 2.0)
  • Politics Progressive conservative. I believe we need governing policies that are based in common sense and not dogma. An evolution of society and not a revolution that seeks to tear everything down and start from scratch. We don't have enough time for that nonsense.

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  • Favorite Blogs TPM. Much easier to get everything in one place than visiting a million blogs every day. Who has time for that?
  • Favorite Books Too many to list. Reading The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. Just finished the Squandering of America by Robert Kuttner. Probably the best explanations of our issues and some possible solutions for them.
  • Favorite Quotes "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense

    "It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things." - Teddy Roosevelt

Bio

I started my professional life as a union carpenter in Reno before joining the United States Navy in 1991 as an assistant ship's journalist and a deck seaman. I covered high-profile events around the globe, from Hurricane Andrew disaster in 1992 to the discovery of USS Yorktown off of Midway Island with Bob Ballard in 1998. My final tour of duty at Combat Camera Group Pacific was as a field producer in support of a worldwide mission of military documentary production.

I left the Navy in 2001 and moved across the country to start my first business with my long-time best friend Mikah Sellers.  We started a specialized communications firm in Washington DC called Hancuff Miller. After a short but successful partnership, we both decided to pursue other opportunities following the Dot.com Bomb. I spent the next several years as a freelance multimedia designer, web developer and screenwriter. I also wrote five feature-length scripts during this time, earning a bachelors degree in graphics and multimedia design from Capella University and a Masters in Producing for Film & Video at American University.

In 2006, I gathered together my educational background, technical tools and business acumen to start my second company, Metamorphosis Media, with Marcus Scott. The company completed a number of projects for non-profit clients such as Academy of Hope, Mosaica and the Conservation Fund. It was at Metamorphosis that I discovered the enormous benefit that technology and story-telling could provide to the non-profit, charity and NGO communities. I maintain a relationship with Metamorphosis as a senior consultant with the firm, but no longer support their day-to-day operations.

I live with my wife and two dogs in Washington DC.  My extracurricular activities include filmmaking, screenwriting and blogging.

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