Nothing new can be said about the Israel/Palestine/Lebanon War.

[benburch]

I think it is time for discussion of this matter to END here on DU.

Everything that can be said HAS been said.

Nobody who is not now convinced of one point of view or the other is going to be convinced, and the pointless argument is BAD for our efforts to take back America in the 101st Congress.

Not only should discussion in GD and LBN be ended, but the IP forum should be turned off until this matter is resolved, or some further escalation on the scale of the use of WMDs or the entry of Egypt or Syria into the war should occur.

I call upon the DU admins to end discussion of this matter immediately.

[Redstone]

1. It is kind of pointless. Our opinions are NOT going to change anything.

Redstone

[QuestionAll...]

6. well then...

there then should be no more Coulter talk (no opinions are changed on those threads either)
and election reform (seems kind of pointless too - same old same old)
and who has been disconvinced here that * is an ahole (not many opinions are changing on it)

:sarcasm:

I have learned much here about the I/P conflict from the allowed threads here on the war in Lebanon. Stuff I'd Never hear from Wolf Blister or those other useless tits on MSM.

[Redstone]

7. Thank you so much for the nice reply.

Redstone

[QuestionAll...]

2. lol!

and who elected you chimperor of du?

hahahah.

[benburch]

4. Nobody.

But I can make an observation and a request just like you can.

[QuestionAll...]

9. I believe this request has been tried a couple few times

and the general vote is 1 to 3 or so to keep the dialogue going as is.

[Redstone]

13. So you really DID miss the OP's point entirely, didn't you?

May I ask what your purpose is here? Do you intend to contribute anything to the discourse, or just offer intelligent, thoughtful observations like "hahahah?"

Just curious.

Redstone

[Rex]

15. What are you the Emperor of GD? Why are you supporting 'The Man'?

:sarcasm:

[benburch]

18. I'm "The Man" now!

:rofl:

[Rex]

21. Sweet. Can I call you the White Shadow?

:rofl:

[benburch]

26. Ooohh... I like that!

[QuestionAll...]

19. maybe it's a funny quirk I have...

but someone telling me to End Discussion of a subject just on their say so makes me a bit bristly.
It would be a lot easier to hide threads if you don't want to participate or look at the titles than to expect everyone else to abide by your own likes or dislikes in subjects.

I've hidden countless Coulter threads - would not cross my mind to make a new post to tell everyone else here Not to post coulter threads or send them somewhere else...
That little X sure is a handy tool.

[Rex]

3. Just move this to the I/P forum or make a new one.

We can't quell the arguments, maybe move them to a proper forum for debate. Ben's right, we need to focus on the soon to be elections. We must get Dem control of both house and senate.

[joemurphy]

5. Argument is how positions get to be formulated.

We shouldn't discuss major events of the day (maybe even ad nauseam) because you think it might be divisive? So Dems should just be quiet about Lebanon and say nothing about it?

If the Moderators do what you ask, I submit you'll have a pretty lame Democratic Underground as a result.

[Rex]

10. Nonsense, there are plenty of other forums on DU.

Hey, I still think we should be able to post 911 stuff in GD, but they finally moved it and I understand why.

[joemurphy]

16. Oh, OK, so we shouldn't discuss the Israeli matter.

Perhaps we should do the same with Iraq, the Downing Street Memo, the illegal wiretapping, immigration, the economy. They've all been done to death.

Let's see, what do we talk about? Well, how are your wife and kids Rex?

[Rex]

20. I'm not saying anything about banning or censoring discussion

but people seem to just assume that. How bout all new info still get posted, but the endless flame wars between the pro-israeli vs pro-lebanon groups does nothing but bring divisiveness to DU. Yet, all I say is move it to the proper forum if it is already well known information.

I await for another knee jerk response. No where did I say we should ban talk. :eyes:

[joemurphy]

24. Generally, when I post something, I either explicitly or tacitly

invite a response. But no one HAS to respond. Indeed, no one even needs to read what I post. Personally, I prefer posting to the General Discussion Forums because the feedback is usually quick and qualitatively better.

I'd hate to think that if I want to say something it has to be relegated to some forum somewhere where it might or might not fit. The original post was a simple request that all discussion of the Israeli-Hezbollah confrontation end on the dubious claim that it was "bad" for Democrats.

No one has to read or respond to an Israeli-Hezbollah post here if they don't want to. There is a blocking ability too. I don't like any rule that requires pigeon-holing posts.

[Rex]

25. I don't agree with the OP totally, but if GD is THE only forum then

that's kinda sad. DU has a lot of other good forums and yeah no one has to reply to a thread, but they usually do if it is the I/P flame threads. So do you think freepers should be able to post here without any rules?

[joemurphy]

28. I was involved in a post around a year ago.

I had thrown together this big opus on "Who Are the Republicans" and a lot of people commented on it. One was this dumb Freeper. He was actually pretty stupid, but albeit civil and polite. He managed to get a few posts up disagreeing with some of the things I said. We dialogued a little and then, suddenly, *poof* he was banned, all of his postings were deleted, and there were all these funny gaps in the message line.

I like free speech. I like dialogue. I wouldn't mind Freepers if they were civil and the discussion was on point. Unfortunately, most Freepers aren't that way. I guess my position would be that Freepers could post if they stayed on point and expressed their views in a civil fashion. That would require more work from the moderators, I suppose.

[asthmaticeog]

8. You're absolutely right.

Rational adults should be prohibited from discussing current events.

Ben Burch for President! :patriot:

[arwalden]

14. Ooph!!

:rofl:

[benburch]

35. ...

:popcorn:

[Misunderestimator]

11. Nothing new can be said about the Iraq War.

Nothing new can be said about Abortion.
Nothing new can be said about Gay Marriage.
Nothing new can be said about George Bush.
Nothing new can be said about Afghanistan.

We should just end all discussion of anything. :wtf:

[arwalden]

31. I Never Thought Of It That Way...

... as they say: Silence is Golden, eh? :silly:

[hfojvt]

34. there are not generally 100 threads a day being started on those topics

I always get tired of the issue du jour. It is like GD is LBN instead of "General" discussion - it follows whatever is the topic of the week on the MSM like a trained dog on a leash.

But I guess the people get to decide which threads they read and respond to and the content of GD's front page is decided democratically, and I voted with my feet by going to the lounge. More's the pity that I am too lazy to walk further, eh?

[mom cat]

12. I understand your frustration, but would you also ban posts like

this one:
tocqueville (1000+ posts) Sat Jul-29-06 01:14 AM
Original message
Breaking : Hezbollah accepts "EUs peace plan"
Hezbollah politicians back peace package By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago
...................................

It starts out with an immediate cease-fire. Following that would come:

• the release of Lebanese and Israeli prisoners; Israeli withdrawal behind the border; the return of Lebanese displaced by the fighting.

• moves to resolve the status of Chebaa Farms, a small piece of land held by Israel and claimed by Lebanon. The proposal calls for the U.N. Security Council to commit to putting the area under U.N. control until a final demarcation of the border.

• the provision by Israel of maps of minefields laid during its 18-year occupation of the south.

• "the spreading of Lebanese government authority over the entire country," meaning the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, with the strengthening and increasing of the small, lightly armed U.N. peacekeeping force currently there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060729/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mide...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1759337

Frankly, I have learned a lot in the past few days that has broadened my understanding for all sides of this debate. If we move towards censorship, will we become more like the Republicans. I sure hope not and I know that is not what you want.

[benburch]

23. I am TOTALLY frustrated with this.

This is exactly the sort of distraction the GOP needs us to be wasting time on 100 days from the election.

We can argue this issue here until we are blue in the face and we all hate each other and still not save one life over there.

But if we spend our precious heartbeats ORGANIZING, we can take the House and Senate back in November, and that MIGHT save a few lives.

[mom cat]

27. But will silencing this debate here lead to us really moving

forward together, or just putting on a phoney unity act? The more aggregious posts need to be locked, but a vast majority of those on this board want peace, and this is a crucial issue in the attempt to stop the PNAC agenda.

[blues90]

36. I agree

It seems to me if we spent 1/100th of the energy on something we could all agree on such as a way to secure the elections we would have the solution by now . I don't know much about the reasons behind the killing in Israel and Lebanon other than the US is involved in it and that all killing is not a solution no matter who it involves . But we should put all efforts we can into getting the criminals in our US goverment out .

[arwalden]

17. What ELSE Should We Stop Talking About?

<< I call upon the DU admins to end discussion of this matter immediately. >>

:rofl:

[Generator]

22. Personally I've been riveted reading these threads

Now, Reagan's funeral days were the worst. ( I had to live through eight shitty years of it followed by a week of it on DU) Followed by Schiavo screaming death watch, and the Pope funeral days. Those I could have lived without.

Occasionally I even learn something on these ME threads. In my opinion those topics above were the WORST time wasters and worst times at DU since I've been here. Absoulutely pointless.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

29. ...

:popcorn:

[Emit]

30. benburch, why should the IP forum be turned off ?

I understand the other part of your post, although I'm not sure I necessarily agree. But, what is the point of having the IP forum turned off?

[QuestionAll...]

32. something new in the news today... Qana. n/t

[Make7]

33. Perhaps you should start by not starting more threads yourself.

Nothing new can be said about the Israel/Palestine/Lebanon War.
benburch, Fri Jul-28-06 06:15 PM

"Everything that can be said HAS been said."

Really?

Israel just lost me.
benburch, Sun Jul-30-06 09:14 AM

I thought everything had been said already? Stop discussing it.

- Make7

[A-Schwarzenegger]

37. That should shut em up!

I know when I'm upset, trying to control everybody around me always calms me down.