It's hard to come by these days, most people aren't perfect but many these days have forgot a basic human value: Integrity.

About the Bush-Webb exchange, I couldn't be prouder of my Senator-Elect. He's going to serve Virginia & America proud as a separate & co-equal branch of government.

A true conservative Webb, in the respect that he will actually uphold and honor the constitution of the United States.

By:
*Support Our Troops Always
*Working For Those In The Bottom
*Being That Voice In The Halls Of Power
*Standing Up For The Average American

Jim Webb is by far the most honorable person to be serving in the United States Senate.

No disrespect to any other, in my opinion none of them can compare to him.

How about where he says "there's no question that Waldo revealed his political bias by removing GCD"?

Waldo says he was offended by the image in question (a terrorist propaganda photo of a beheaded American), and I would presume that if a liberal blogger posted something similar (e.g., an Iraqi child mangled by a U.S. bomb or something like that), Waldo would remove THAT blog from his aggregator as well.  At least I hope he'd be consistent on this...

And I just personally congratulated Ward, bc the piece was exceptional and enlightening, whether or not you agree with every word.

And I am so glad to see your name on the front page again, Lowell.

I haven't seen you around here much recently either.  Jaime doesn't love us anymore...boohoo!!! :)

But, let's face it; that took a lot out of us.  The holidays were a welcome distraction.

Oh, and we are all superstars in NJ, I got tons of random hugs and honks from my Webb bumperstickers.  :)

After the nastiness of 2006 (actually, 2005 was pretty nasty as well, come to think of it), I needed a long break, and still haven't gotten my full "mojo" back for this blogging thang.  Will I ever?  I dunno, but we'll see what 2007 brings, both on the personal/job front, as well in terms of my involvement (or lack thereof) in the netroots.

Jaime, I was on the Garden State Parkway in a lot of traffic in late November.  Somebody started honking me, and I turned to give the other driver a cold stare.  But instead of honking because he was angry at traffic, he was grinning ear to ear and giving me an enthusiastic thumbs up and pointing toward my bumper.  That's when I realized it was my Virginia license plate and my Webb bumper sticker. 

Can you believe, it really came down to Virginia and we did it, and Jersey gets it.

Though I agree with much of what you've written here, I think that the disagreements that you highlight are all the more important.  Yes, you and I believe that Senator-elect Webb behaved reasonably in his encounter with President Bush, while Ward Smyth believes that he did not.  Yes, you and I believe that the majority of Muslims are surely peace-loving, regular folks like you and me, while Ward Smyth believes otherwise.  These and other contrasts between you (and me) and Ward are stark, and show that we're miles apart in some areas of politics.

And yet, as both you and Ward point out, there's this enormous area on which we're able to agree.  Even people with as different political views as you and Ward are able to enthusiastically agree on some of the fundamentals of fair play, personal freedoms, and our duties to the greater good over our political parties.

That, I think, is a powerful statement.

n/t

I see in his diary that he views this as what was an internet squabble and not a hill he wants to die on. That's pretty much how I feel. There's no hard line on it, but it looks like people who were extremely active during the recent campaign and/ or have children were less likely to go to the mat on this. Gender's another factor.

There's no election happening right now, Virgil's not going anywhere so no harm done. I don't follow conservative blogs as a rule, but I do know a number of conservatives with integrity. And many liberals with not so much.

Even if GGD didn't set out originally to disrupt the Virgil Goode threads and cross threads, GGD's supporters recognized opportunity and immediately adapted to the situation and a disruption definitely ensued. I'm more troubled by the fact that left leaning bloggers played their enabling parts and the script unfolded rather predictably.

Like it or not, admit it or not, it's a simple fact that a handful of belligerent right bloggers hijacked the framing and flow at least temporarily, and they were able to do so rather easily. Several bloggers on the left took the bait, and that's a tactical concern.

Going forward, would a variant on this activity at a critical point in an election cycle matter?  That's primarily I care about, because otherwise writing passionately about a blogspat is primarily a matter of personal taste.

In my view, integrity takes a backseat to bigotry, and that brings us full circle back to Virgil and his letter.

...a big distraction, except that I DO believe it's highly revealing of the character (or lack thereof) of certain right-wing bloggers.  Still, you're right, we need to get back to the real issue here, which is Virgil Goode's anti-Muslim prejudice, and the deafening silence from elected Republicans in Virginia (with the exception, to some extent, of John Warner).  Again, does this mean they approve of Goode's blatant bigotry, are they just a bunch of cowards, or both?

I think your bringing the RK site traffic back up single handily! I told you we all missed you!!! =)

but I have to say, it is disappointing to me that Ward seemingly refuses to post my complimentary comments to him on his site.  I'm not going to cry censorship or anything, but it is disappointing nonetheless.  I guess if you crossed him before (which I guess I did) you are not welcome to compliment him, and I must say; I really hope that is not the case.

So, maybe he will read it here, bc it is important to me that he knows I respect his feelings on this issue (which I hope is laid to rest by 1/1/07):  Thanks Ward.  Good work, very nice piece. I think we can all learn from what you write here, and I for one thank you for it. We don't agree on everything, but we can all do better at working together on different teams, yet the same field.

5 plus hours later, and Ward still won't publish my comments.  Anyone know why?  Seems a bit counterproductive.  All I did was say right on.

that they agree with his bigotry. And I base that on face-to-face conversations with Rush listeners who are irrationally fearful of things like Muslim (gay, feminist, liberal) hordes taking over the country.

If I really thought they were cowards or lacked character, I'd say so.  But w/o sufficient information, misguided and out of control are more descriptive.

In this situation they just couldn't see the forest for the trees. They responded nimbly and as a little team, but went too far. What's more, there was no payoff, and no real potential for payoff.

Instead of looking at them as autonomous agents, it makes some sense to look at their behavior as a manifestion of the break-up of the national lie we've been living for several years, sort of like the George Will piece about Webb and civility.

go together at a primal, biological basis?  If that's the case, then we should expect the most fearful members of society would also tend to be the most bigoted/xenophobic/rigid in terms of group identity. I'd also expect them to continually go "too far," as their "fight or flight" reptilian brain stem kicks in, without sufficient countervailing force from the higher brain functions.  What do you think?

.. the biological basis that is, and arguing *for* prejudice then one could say it's natural. But it's almost as bad as relieving a sexual urge in Sears because it's natural.  That would be hard-wired but most people wouldn't act on it, and we have different expectations.

What I think is that we are all prejudiced.  We all make generalizations and some of them are wrong.  Whether we were taught them, concluded them, or if they are our primitive brainstem, what we do with them and how we work on them is what counts.

It's an ongoing process. And we have a congressman who is making it worse instead of better. And those bloggers went with it. In all of that ranting and raving there was also a homophobic thread or two.

So all of that expressed hostility can be traced back to Virgil Goode.