Pearl-clutching Obama=Bush Professional Leftists

[MannyGoldstein]

Many DUers are upset over Obama's latest episode of "Spy on Everyone". And a many DUers are upset at we who are upset at Obama.

That happens.

But can we cut out the trivialization of one-another? In the past few minutes, I've seen stuff accusing the Lefter-leaning among us (e.g., me) of being the "professional Left", of "pearl clutching", and of saying "Obama=Bush".

This is bullshit.

If you don't agree with someone, argue on the merits. If you can, that is.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Expect every alert possible. Nt.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Ya think?

It's worth it.

We can be tough, but we should never resort to personal attacks. We're Democrats because we believe in facts, not taunts.

[HiPointDem]

25. 'never resort to personal attacks' = good luck with that one.

[MannyGoldstein]

27. Got it.

[MannyGoldstein]

35. And the results are in...

At Thu Jun 6, 2013, 05:11 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Pearl-clutching Obama=Bush Professional Leftists
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022961310

REASON FOR ALERT:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

ALERTER'S COMMENTS:

Disruptive. No whining about DU.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Thu Jun 6, 2013, 05:15 PM, and the Jury voted 0-6 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: people have fucking opinions. Let's hear them.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Its fine, silly alert.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: I do not see anything wrong with the post

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[rhett o rick]

47. Now wait for it. You will find this in ATA. The Bullies wont believe the jury

results and beg Skinner to spank you.

[L0oniX]

67. Jeeze the stupid alert clowns were quick. They must be trolling DU for your posts.

[n2doc]

68. Manny the AlertMagnet(tm) n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

79. That kind of alert is often sent by someone who can't argue a point on its merits

Many years ago, when your most humble hare was a moderator on what was then called the Foreign Affairs forum, when we would go for weeks without a post on a subject other than the Israel/Palestine conflict, he would occasionally get an alert from one particular member without comment, like what was offensive about the post was self evident.

Those who are wondering what it was like before the jury system and there was instead an all-powerful, arrogant, tyrannical asshole making such decisions with little fear of consequences, this all-powerful, arrogant, tyrannical asshole, who liked to err on the side of keeping discussion open, routinely took no action on those alerts.

[immoderate]

3. IBTL

--imm

[CakeGrrl]

4. I don't know why anyone thinks DU posters constitute the "Professional Left".

That was always about bloggers and pundits. Oh well, since when has misinformation stopped anyone in the blogosphere?

[jimlup]

7. No no you are too young to remember when

Ho Chi Min used to send us checks

[Squinch]

11. I thought that was for the Girl Scout Cookies.

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. .

Okay... that was very funny.

[Squinch]

17. .

So was yours!

Ah! Oh, wait! I thought you wrote the Ho Chi Min line. But anyway, thanks for your comment.

[zeemike]

24. I remember.

But I spent mine on some good Maui Wowie...

[Kurovski]

48. And that was very funny!

But all I got was bags of moldy rice. You were always Min's favorite.

[LWolf]

5. +1,000,000 nt

[Autumn]

6. I didn't like the "Spy on Everyone" bullshit under that fuckerBush and I don't like it now.

I do occasionally wear my pearls, but I never fucking clutch them. I am not a leftist, professional or otherwise. Bush and Obama are NOT the same... However Obama is continuing some of his shitty fucking policies. I am a Democrat, a Liberal Democrat. I don't like what the man I voted for is doing, I'm going to say so. Don't like it? That's just too fucking bad, don't expect my heart to bleed over it.

[theaocp]

16. Could not agree more,

though I don't wear pearls. My same thoughts from your keyboard. Beautiful.

[A Simple Game]

87. No Bush and President Obama aren't the same. Bush was a puppet* that didn't

know any better, President Obama is a Constitutional Scholar and should know better.

*Ok, maybe Bush wasn't entirely a puppet, but he was and is not a Constitutional Scholar either.

[blackspade]

91. +1000

[thucythucy]

97. You will have to pry these pearls from my cold dead hands. Nt.

[Matariki]

100. +1

I don't see living in a democracy as a two team sport

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. What I am seeing here is bad

it is a reflection of the 2000's with Bush... except that we are far noiser and one of the two owners of this site is a with us trouble makers...

What is troubling is this blind acceptance of what amounts to police state actions, in the name of security.

[zeemike]

26. Yep

And that is far more dangerous.

[markpkessinger]

49. Couldn't have said it better! +1 n/t

[kickysnana]

50. +1 n/t

[vi5]

51. But here, it's not in the name of security.

If it were in the name of security, then there wouldn't have been a peep from most of these people under Bush and they would have been supporting it.

What this current blind acceptance is in the name of is not security, it's tribalism and partisanship. And above all else it is wretched and deplorable hypocrisy. What's even more loathsome is the fact that so many on here are admitting point blank that they are o.k. with it because they trust dems and Obama (ha!) with this power but not Republicans.

[nadinbrzezinski]

63. And that is why it is even more troublesome

[heaven05]

72. yep

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. I love you Manny, really I do. You still have the boundless optimism I lost a decade ago. n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

19. Sometimes.

Sometimes not.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Manny,you are so correct. When I see people using name calling and snarky

catch phrases I know this is because they are trying to sell a product they don't know how to sell, so they say that you, me, my two Senators, Al Gore and Bernie Sanders have 'their hair on fire'. They say 'chill'. They say basically nothing. They got nothing. Chill, hair on fire, 80/20!

[morningfog]

12. What do you expect from those who care only about how criticism will

impact Obama's popularity?

[MannyGoldstein]

13. You're making an assumption there... nm

[morningfog]

15. One well founded and backed up by posting history for many.

[MannyGoldstein]

18. I'm often accused of being a knee-jerk Obama hater

So I'm sensitive to any accusations of being a knee-jerk anything. It may be true (hopefully not in my case), but...

[Skittles]

95. that's a great response, Manny

yes INDEED

[awoke_in_2003]

20. We know you don't clutch pearls, Manny...

You are more a diamond kind of guy

[MannyGoldstein]

22. You're partially correct

Diamond and lumps of coal are both made of carbon.

[uppityperson]

21. k&r and thank you.

[SidDithers]

23. Your entire "Third-Way Manny" act is a trivialization. Now you want serious discussion.

That's rich.

Sid

[MannyGoldstein]

28. TWM is satire, rather than tossing of insults

Which is different stuff.

But I do understand your point.

[L0oniX]

69. Damn it all Manny ...you're pissing off the assholes again...

...and I like it.

[one_voice]

29. Well that's nice Manny...

but I don't see you calling 'bullshit' on the insults/trivialization aka name calling lobbed at those 'defending' the administration.

Borgs, cheerleaders, etc. you know the drill.

What? No love for them?

[alcibiades_mystery]

36. Manny is very concerned about name-calling...of his own side

The other side are, you know, Obamabot hypocrites! So it's not really name-calling, because "they" really, in fact are fascist hypocrites who will defend anything at all and not just people who happen to disagree with Manny and his Recc-ing Crew. That's the important difference: Manny truly is Of the Righteous, while those he opposes truly are Evil and Stupid. That's why Manny is only concerned about name-calling in one direction!



Some people can't see themselves. That's all there is to it.

[MannyGoldstein]

37. Can you be my mirror, please?

Serve up some examples of my name calling.

I look forward to the humiliation.

[Sheepshank]

62. You're gonna need a bigger mirror, I think.

for the all encompassing "we" in your OP, you are suddenly down to "me"? Your collective cheer group are not pristine even though they are willing jumping (yet again) onto the Manny bandwagon.

And a many DUers are upset at we who are upset at Obama.

That happens.

But can we cut out the trivialization of one-another? In the past few minutes, I've seen stuff accusing the Lefter-leaning among us (e.g., me) of being the "professional Left", of "pearl clutching", and of saying "Obama=Bush".

quit the martyr complex and admit there are shit talkers on your team.

[blackspade]

93. Fail.

[Sheepshank]

99. how so?

[WillyT]

30. Oh, Manny, Manny, Manny... They Will NEVER Admit To The Merits... Or Defeat...

To them... the Constitution IS a fucking piece of paper.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

75. If Manny wasn't being disingenuous in his OP, he'd call you out right here

Because this is a prime example of why Manny gets so much blowback.

Let's see I can make you understand via an analogy. Presumably you are in favor of the government having some sort of reasonable restrictions on the kinds of "arms" the people have a right to bear. Nuclear weapons, if nothing else.

Does that mean "To you.... the Constitution IS a fucking piece of paper" ?

I would hazard a guess that the answer is no. You'd probably state that some Constitutional principles run up against either each other or reality, and stick to your position. You might even think that equating gun-control to fascism is "pearl-clutching", and be insulted when people pretend you hate the Constitution because you don't agree with their extremist interpretation of it.

That's what it's like to be on the other side of this argument. And people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. We should all applaud the new non-name-calling Manny!

[MannyGoldstein]

33. New?

Do you have some examples of the old, name-calling Manny?

BTW, good use of hyphens a_m! Not many people know how to use 'em these days.

[riqster]

60. Those, and semicolons.

No, not the kind Reagan had.

[ucrdem]

32. I've been trying to figure out that title for an hour.

I give up. Sorry Manny, good luck, but this one's a hider.

[HangOnKids]

70. I'm sure he's crushed.

[leftstreet]

34. Bush couldn't have gotten away with what Obama has

So to even suggest Obama = Bush...well it just makes me wanna clutch my pearls

[Buzz Clik]

39. Bush initiated ALL of this and totally got away with it.

[leftstreet]

42. Bush got away with mandated for-profit healthcare?

Guess I missed that

[Buzz Clik]

45. Ah. We're going all the way back to where we made shit up.

Not playing. Do carry on.

[leftstreet]

46. I recognize your words as English, but they make no sense n/t

[SunSeeker]

73. No, Bush got away with letting 40k Americans die each year due to no coverage. nt

[jberryhill]

76. The NSA has been collecting telecommunication traffic data for a lot longer than Bush

The NSA has been doing traffic analysis on telecom data since the beginning of direct-dial long distance.

[Buzz Clik]

81. Yeah, but they needed warrants.

[jberryhill]

83. No, the NSA did not need warrants

Since none of the information they collected was used for law enforcement purposes.

NSA Field Station F63 has been collecting telephone routing information on satellite networks since at least as early as 1981.

[Raine1967]

89. That's really interesting. I wasn't aware.

Is there a place I could read more about that?

TIA.
Raine

[jberryhill]

90. $3.94

Published in 1982.

http://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Palace-National-Intelligence-Organization/dp/0140067485

[Raine1967]

92. Thanks!

I really appreciate this.

[Buzz Clik]

38. Manny, you old pearl clutcher! Who's paying you to post this shit? KKKarl Rove?

[MannyGoldstein]

40. Speaking of clutching...

is your avatar clutching... um... nah, never mind.

[Buzz Clik]

41. No idea what she's clutching. We'd have to ask Pablo. But, about getting paid...

... I'm still expecting a lot of checks to be coming in from Monsanto and Halliburton. When they do, I'll be fired from my job -- conflict of interest and all that. It sucks, but at least I'm getting paid handsomely to post here at DU!

[Phlem]

43. I hear ya buddy.

it's getting a bit crazy around here.

-p

[jsr]

44. Manny, a little data collection never hurts anyone.

People who are not adulterers and terrorists have nothing to worry about.

I trust the President on this.

[orpupilofnature57]

52. No argument, which is heartbreaking .

[Solly Mack]

53. Thank you

[Fumesucker]

54. I don't think I've heard of them, I enjoy new bands got a Youtube link?

[tridim]

55. I don't think you're a professional anything, you're just wrong 100% of the time.

Poor, poor Manny. Always wrong, never admits it.

[MannyGoldstein]

57. Thank you in advance for listing a few of these many times

when I've been wrong. I'll appreciate the feedback, it will help me to do a better job in the future.

Thank you!

Manny

[DisgustipatedinCA]

74. You're an extremely valuable resource if you're wrong 100% of the time

You'd be just as reliable as an atomic clock. All we need to do is feed you yes/no questions and go with the opposite answer.

[Generic Other]

84. The results of your trial suggest you have never been wrong

Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT and said: Personal smarm - hide this rat bastard.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT and said: I've never noticed this poster before but this is clearly nothing other than a personal attack and thus should be hidden.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Manny is always the first to admit when he's wrong. Personally. I haven't known him to be wrong. I feel certain he would relish the opportunity to defend himself against this trivial post.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given

[nashville_brook]

56. it's the fact that Obama in fact is 'different' from Bush that makes this so outrageous...

A constitutional law professor and law review editor is behaving exactly the same as a dry drunk beard for Dick Cheney.

Revolting.

[whistler162]

58. Obviously not since you created this thread!

[marmar]

59. "argue on the merits"

They can't. Thus the name-calling.

[Rex]

61. It is as I said ten years ago

the very policies the GOP was cheering on under the BFEE, they are now cursing and pretending like they are new and somehow the fault of Obama.

Little do they realize the govt hit the Trifecta on 2001. All those super special, extra powers granted by the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the various parts of the Patriot Act.

Sure we got back HC, but still have the draconian Patriot Act II AND the DHS (which I am sure doesn't stand for Domestic Headquarters for Spying). Which like the DEA, will NEVER GO AWAY.

THIS is why we should always be very careful about what powers the govt decides it needs at the time...hah I kid, way too late for that kinda stuff.

Just remember, if you wrote it in an email or said it on a cell phone - it is in their datacenter somewhere.

[malthaussen]

64. Hell, I don't even like pearls.

It does seem pretty opportunistic, not to say short-sighted, to blame Mr Obama for exercising powers that were granted a long time ago. The people whom we should excoriate are the spineless cretins who passed the Patriot act and related nonsense in the flurry of jingoism that swept our country after 9/11. I cannot express enough my contempt for the elected representatives who sold our birthright and our principles for a mess of pottage.

-- Mal

[Bobbie Jo]

65. "merits"

LOL!

Folks who come here and do nothing but dump a laundry list of "concerns" on this president day in, day out to the exclusion of little else, has had a cumulative effect on their credibility when it comes to honest discussion about ANYTHING Obama.

Perhaps such concerns would carry more weight if they were posted by members who didn't have an established record of crapping on this president at every. single. turn.

Sorry....you earned this one fair and square.

[Dustlawyer]

66. I ill go further by laying out real truth, Democrats in Washington take the campaign money

Just the same as Republicans. D.C. Is awash in cash but it all has strings attached. To become P.O.T.U.S. one must make promises to people with $$$, Obama sadly, is no different! Lets take the cash out of the system and publically fund elections! Our politicians are all bought and have been for awhile. We have to stop being distracted by all of the battles caused by a corrupt political system and attack their ability to corrupt it in the 1st place!

[heaven05]

71. Manny

Last edited Sat Jun 8, 2013, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)

I am beginning to see your points. Still have a way to go but your calls have been right, in a lot of cases. Gitmo, drones, now NSA, man, what is going to happen to this democrazy. Obama=Clinton=Bush Sr=Reagan. I don't care if people won't see the progression or lack of it. Big money has ruined politics for the 'small' people, me.

[pkdu]

77. "If you can, that is..."

Couldn't resist?

[WeekendWarrior]

78. Why is it bullshit?

It's a characterization. It may or may not be true about you, but it's certainly true of others.

Colorful or expressive language is part of communication. Let people communicate and express their opinion however they see fit. You're free to disagree with them.

[gulliver]

80. The boy who cried wolf probably cried "ad hominem" next.

The point I think is that you can't just keep being wrong over and over and still ask that your views be addressed on their alleged merits. Pear clutch often enough and that record becomes a premise for everything you say.

The premise supports ignoring your argument outright. It's not left-leaning that disqualifes your argument. It is being so consistently wrong.

Just wanted to clarify that. It's unfair of people to keep returning to the well of presumed credibility. That spoils it for those who don't abuse it.

[DeSwiss]

85. I agree with you Manny.....

...but I don't argue points anymore. Things are pretty fucking obvious for anyone not presently in a coma to have to argue about how things presently lie. It has to do with how one approaches life. The degree to which they'll allow themselves to view life through the filters they've acquired over a lifetime, from others. Or if they'll take it plain, unadulterated and raw. I prefer the latter as much as possible.

For me it was an abrupt awakening. In 2009, Death rang my doorbell. I peeked out and saw what the deal was and pretended that I wasn't home. He rang and rang, but eventually left. As he did so he said over his shoulder: ''I know you're in there.''

Since then I've come to realize that Life is too short for arguments.....

K&R

[East Coast Pirate]

86. So you're saying you're an amature leftist?

[AnnieK401]

88. I'd love to see Elizabeth Warren as POTUS

as opposed to say Hillary (although I will vote for her over any Republican you could name). Just don't see it happening.

[DirkGently]

94. They've moved on to "poutrage" & dismissing the "M$M media."

Directly from the rightwing dumb-it-down & make it a blurb playbook.

Which means they're scared.

Good.

[burnodo]

98. I love it how people around here accuse members...

of "falling for the media narrative" like we're all new to the game

[chervilant]

96. WTF?!?

Why -- all of a sudden -- am I seeing this "pearl-clutching" meme? Over and over, this little bon mot of condescension... (Neither clever nor original, methinks.)