Our e-mail address is thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com and that's where you can send your whines about your hurt feelings over what I'm writing in this. Do I sound unsympathetic?
I am. Ty had a great idea and wrote a great "Ty's Corner" last month. All it took was one ridiculous e-mail to sour him on the idea (which I'll be using from time to time in Jim's World and which he can grab back at any time). See he wrote about peace and the state of the anti-war movement culminating with this point:
One of the most depressing things in my inbox may be "Seeds of Peace." Excuse me, "Highlights: Seeds of Peace." And why is that depressing? Because it comes not from an anti-war or peace organization but from the US State Department.
Did Ty attack "Seeds of Peace"? No, he just noted it was a State Department e-mail title. Turns out the e-mail, which Ty didn't read and didn't pass as though he had read, was about an organization entitled Seeds of Peace. And they're actually Seeds of Conspiracy.
Seeds of Conspiracy?
I don't know what else to call the whack jobs after reading their e-mail to Ty where they accused him of implying that they were this and they were that and how dare he and he might need to know that although they receive government funding they get other funding too and they are not a puppet of the government and how dare Ty . . .
On and on it went.
Ty never even noted the organization. Didn't even know there was an organization. He made the point that 'peace' groups were everywhere but working on peace and that it was the US State Dept. that was concerned with peace and using peace in an e-mail title.
For that, he got this crank e-mail from the organization whining and griping and bitching and moaning and acting like they'd gone off their meds.
I'm not Ty. I don't give a damn if you want to act the fool. For example, some idiot won't stop e-mailing about "On boycotts and tea" from May. He misses that aspects of that article were tongue-in-cheek. That's fine. If you want to take it literally, do so. But he thinks he can bully me (he's written repeatedly) into endorsing Arizona Tea and slamming Peace Tea. And he forever thinks he's found some new article that will convince me. For example, it's a corporation product! Uh-huh. Our article noted Peace Tea on Facebook and Peace Tea on Twitter. Doesn't that tell you there's a big business marketing plan? Or are you really that stupid?
Stupid? More and more that's become CODESTINK. But checking the inbox, for a change they do have something worth saying:
I am the mother of an Iraq vet who endured two horrific and lengthy tours in Iraq. I have just written a letter of support to Pvt. Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old intelligence analyst suspected of passing videos and documents to Wikileaks. Manning is now in pre-trial confinement in Quantico, VA, facing decades in prison and, if Congressman Mike Rogers has his way, the death penalty. I encourage you to write a letter to this brave young man and CODEPINK will deliver it to him during a rally on Sunday in Quantico, near Washington DC. To submit a letter to be delivered please email it to us!
In the midst of all the grief my family has endured and the sorrow I feel for the Afghans and Iraqis who have died, I am grateful that someone out there was courageous enough to bring the powerful and dreadful truths about these wars into the light.
Admiral Mullen said that those responsible for the leaks have blood on their hands. But no one could possibly have more blood on their hands than the Bush/Cheney regime and now the Obama administration--the blood of our troops, the tears of their families, the legacy of the innocents killed and maimed in these immoral wars.
With these Wikileaks horrors revealed, it will not be so easy for politicians to convince us that these wars are just, that they are worth bankrupting our nation, or that we can achieve peace by more killing. My hope is that the national discussion that has emerged from the videos and documents will hasten the day when our troops come home. For that, the whistleblowers deserve our deepest thanks.
That e-mail was written by Cynthia Benjamin who appears to have the sort of common sense the group used to have in abundance. (Notice how she notes Bradley Manning is "alleged" and doesn't do the prosecution's job and attempt to convict him.) MoveOn, by contrast, appears still eager to wallow in a permanent state of uselessness. They're latest 'action' was done better by the Free Press and are we really supposed to ignore the fact that the 'mighty' WalkOn.org couldn't even keep Fox News out of the front row at White House press briefings? (Strangely, they sent out no "We lost" e-mail on that campaign.)
True Majority ranks somewhere on my list of The Useless next to WalkOn.org. However, in their latest e-mail they call out Harry Reid in the first sentence. Which I applaud. Harry Reid, for those not following the latest nonsense from the Senate Majority Leader, has been staging one faux 'action' after another and then blaming Republicans. He's all about the spin. True Majority calls him out and, for that reason, we'll note part of their e-mail:
Wednesday, we announced a new campaign to end tax giveaways to oil companies. We're ready to take the fight all the way to the doors of Congress if need be. Donations are rolling in and we're on our way to meeting our goal.
Can you help keep up the momentum? Chip in $30 to help us meet our goal!
Your donations will enable us to:
- Hire a new organizer to target various districts of members of Congress
- Show how much money YOUR member of Congress took from BP and other dirty energy companies this election year
- Take the campaign all the way from your town to the steps of the White House and Capitol Hill
We can't afford to give up.
If you have money and True Majority seems like a cause for you, great. But I'm not pressuring anyone. I'm not digging in anybody's pockets. If you feel the need, it's on you. The Democratic Party deserves nothing but scorn, by contrast. Last week, there was a major equality victory (see "Judge Vaughn Walker," "Not a dream," "Marriage equality," and "A huge step forward"). Proposition 8 was found to be in conflict with the Constitution and tossed aside. We should now have marriage equality in California thanks to Judge Vaughn Walker's historic ruling. So when Friday rolls around and the Democratic Party wants to send this site their dopey e-mail claiming they'd done so much for equality and discrimination and mentioning Selma (do they really think people don't realize Republicans led on the issue of Civil Rights as well?) but not mentioning the historic verdict this week, they're a joke. They're a joke and they need to stop whoring for money. My party disgusts me. And the most laughable line in the whole damn e-mail is this one: "Two years ago, this movement -- led by Barack Obama -- brought millions of people into the political process for the first time." The Democratic Party is not a movement, it is a political party. Either it's incredibly stupid or it thinks we are.
DGA just needs to pack it in. That's not only because their e-mails are always tired (most recently, they obsessed over Karl Rove -- what year do they think this is?) but also because of their 'chair.' For perspective, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- working to elect Democrats to the Senate -- is run by Senator Robert Menendez. Whether you like Menendez or not (I like him), it makes sense. The DSCC's choice of chair makes sense. Now let's turn to the DGA. That's the Democratic Governor's Association. They supposedly work to get Democrats elected governors of state. So who runs it?
Nathan Daschle. If you're raking your brain trying to figure out what state Nate's governor of, stop. He's not a governor. He's never held elected office. How did he get his job? How did Christine Pelosi pass for a 'pundit'? Nepotisim.
The always sour-noted 'commentator' Christine Pelosi is the daughter of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while Nate is the son of disgraceful money man and one-time US Senator Tom Daschle. (You can't blame greedy lobbyist Linda Daschle on Nate. Nate's mother Laurie, by all accounts a wonderful person, was kicked to the curb when Tom set eyes on Linda.)
It's really amazing that the Democratic Party wants you to believe they're there for you but the same party is forever staffing top positions with their own relatives. Maybe we need to put it in the Party plank: Nepotisim is not a Democratic Party value?