This Portal Is Under attack: Why Pelosi should read this.

I read Bloggi’s post (This Portal Is Under Attack:
Why NowPublic needs to shield itself) from which the above caption was inspired
and I had to sit for a while to reflect on it. It just wasn’t the things Bloggi
had to say but the way it impacted on me. I was quite upset that I let the
neoconservative taunting get to me. But there was nothing I could do as our
global condition is an issue I am most impassioned about. From American foreign
affairs to the environment, the Middle East,
the drug wars, terrorism, AIDS, religion, welfare, existence… Lord, I feel
endangered, no scratch that, I am endangered. It is quite disillusioning when
people can’t see the direction in which they walk. It’s like you are sitting
there and just waiting for the big bang to happen. It’s ominous and I often
wonder why the American people just can’t see this.

We seem so resigned
and helpless because, unwittingly, the power of our collective response has
been frittered away by weak representatives bowing to government pressures and
coercion. That premium yield that is a true benchmark of democracy has become
ever elusive and far-flung. In Bloggi’s opinion there is a pattern to critical
portals that make them susceptible to abusive and disrespectful spamming. The
reference was to NowPublic and others like it but this malignant tendency goes
way beyond portals. Bloggi said;

“The bad news, of course, is that any cyber community,
and I would count NowPublic.com amongst them, is what you could call a delicate
ecology. So long as contributions are voluntary and the name of the game is
encouragement over hard moderation by punishment, the very thin tissue holding
the community together is that of mutual respect.

Now, respect comes in a bunch of different
falvors:

• It
  is the respect that pays reverence to the assumption that on the other end
  of this virtual red thread joining me to the world and the other members
  of this community, intelligent human beings are to be found. Ground rule
  number one therefore should be a certain stringency in argumentation,
  logical de- or induction, or at least quoting a source for what is not own
  first-hand experience.
• On
  the other hand, respect is shown in taking the other's argumentation
  seriously, stopping to think for a moment over her argumentation and then
  laying out one's reasons for disagreeing, if applicable.

Recent threads about Speaker Pelosi's visit
to the Middle East, in the meantime, have
shown strong violations of these principles. Everything began when a number of
posters and postings demanded Mrs. Pelosi be jailed upon return to the United
States for overstepping some obscure law, obviously banning private US-citizens
from implementing their own foreign policy, speaking on behalf of the USA.

When I came across this posting, that
appeared an outcry against ground rule number one. It seemed to me a complete
contempt for the intelligence of readers on the other end of the red therad.

If such agrumentation had the merit of giving
me an insightful picture of the mindset of a rat-catcher, I found it deplorable
that the techniques used here (i.e. simplification of facts as a basis for a
call for drastic and excessive action with the side effect of making the target
of such propaganda worthy of contempt) resemble that which has been the
techniques of former communist regimes and the mechanics as it is being used as
we speak in neo-communist parties in Germany to choke all streams of free thought
that slightly differ from the ones indoctrinated on behalf of the top-down
chain of command. In fact, it is the aim of such activity to kill the opponent,
stopping short only of physical and biological destruction (which is reserved
for foreigners at the receiving end of unfriendly fire abroad).”

For me the implication was inescapable and my
realization dawned from the fact that I was somewhat carried away by these
disrespectful and abusive spammers that I almost got suckered into that
cesspool of derogatory mud. The realization was that every time I got lured
towards this darkening pit, I lost focus, diminished my argument and veered
away from my thought thread. And not just that, to persist in that
rabble-rousing is to become the fuel that cakes us into that derogatory mud,
which in turn pollutes content for the portal. It was a rude awakening but I am
glad, at least, that I woke up to that fact.

But opinions have to be aired and comments made. I
have never been one to cave in to verbal bullying and until George came along,
I used to be quite relaxed but firm about my response to them. I quite admit
that of recent (especially after 9/11, Lebanon,
7/7 and now Iraq)
it is all uphill trying to contain myself. But the truth still has to be spoken
by all well meaning people who look forward to a more harmonious global
habitat.

There is a glaring pattern to all of this and it
manifests itself best in the Bush administration’s response to serious and
weighty issues which tend to range from the comical to the absurd. I simply did
not believe my ears, listening to the things so-called world leaders have to
say and had said. When you send 100,000 troops into battle, whoever does, puts
them in harm’s way and only him can manage that decision and be responsible for
it. It was George Bush that sent American kids into battle and only him can and
should be accountable for that crisis. Not Congress, Pelosi, Iran
or even Osama. It was, in the very final analysis, his call. And as such, Mr.
Bush should have sorted out all his contingencies to put their remedies into a
zipper bag. He ought to have made doubly sure he could sustain the cost of a
war he saw fit to deploy troops on the ground for. Not to so do was to place
those lives in serious jeopardy. He ought to have cared for his troops as if he
was amongst them. And what is this chicken dance with Congress? The message
from Congress is crystal clear; cut your coat according to your size. The
American people have said NO to the war in Iraq and we can’t keep doling out
their money on it. We need to find a way out of this mess, and in doing so,
Congress has been pretty nice about it by refusing to cut off funding for that
war absolutely.

But how dare Pelosi go to Syria? I could not for the life of
me believe I heard correctly: George Bush had actually dusted up some old
ordinance to clobber Pelosi with! Looking back to the Clinton/Lewinsky era
today, is like digging for gold and finding it! To put it briefly, there is a
common denominator that runs through the White House to fracture political
order and internal social cohesion. Yet, there is a purpose to all of this; to
divert focus and mainstream flow, frustrate probity and to intimidate. It is
this bad leadership examples, which the Bush administration has shown and led,
that now mutates to the kind of disrespectful and abusive spamming that we have
witnessed by some on NowPublic. And the aim is the same, to wit; muddy up
useful discourse that their impact may become diminished or lost completely to
the target audience. Bloggi’s observations are useful lessons I think Pelosi
and discerning members of Congress can imbibe and put to really good use, that
is to say, how not to get drowned in verbal mud.