dr.e

I think you mean van der Galien and STECK but you see, they left ONLY because they couldn't censor comments in their favor… c'est la vie.
The dutch boy would really like you to come over and visit his site though… he even seems to be trying to drum up business so I'm sure he'd appreciate your input.

Ah yes… Those were the days.

Dear Casual Observer, No, we're not swayed about what we cover and what we write by people who read and dont comment. I was offering the big picture. Sorry if I didnt state it clearly enough. Many people who read do not comment. Some write to us to say, in general, they like TMV.

Not sure about meeting commenters on the street, but my best hunch is most people would treat others respectfully.

Passed my c-c here in Co, courses taught by a fine nra cert. guy who is sharp war vet and funny as heck; he's also a volunteer to c-c at his church. Maybe peeps will 'set their dander up' for me too now?

I hope that made you smile

Nonetheless, it's getting late on Sunday and I am trying to finish up my calculation for foreign tax credits….did you know “war profits” qualify for the foreign tax credit? That should set your dander up for the rest of the evening.

Let's agree to disagree.

Hey archangel, what's this nonsense?

@@Most of the email is encouragement to continue to cover culture, politics, international and opinion pieces from the points of view of writers here at TMV.@@

Wait a dang minute, here, moderator. So, you're admitting that you let yourself be swayed by lily-livered emailers who don't have the stones to put their views out into the forum??

I think those of us who put our necks on the line day in and day out publicly should be accorded a more weighted vote. I mean…c'mon….isn't a pseudonym enough protection for the little fearful liberal darlings from us big, bad (fiscal) conservatives? Geez, I hate to see how they'd react if they met me on the same side of the street in real life!

The masthead of TMV states the premises which include but are not limited to politicking. There are literally thousands here daily who do not comment, who may or may not read the comments, but do read across all articles…

Their purposes for reading are diverse. We hear from many who read but never comment, by email. Most of the email is encouragement to continue to cover culture, politics, international and opinion pieces from the points of view of writers here at TMV.

I think the thread here was about 'lack of sense' regarding various people of any political or geographic locale. Sorry to side track.

Still note Jazz can drive and take pix w/camera phone out the window at same time.

Thanks

Well, C.O., although I was not a contributing writer at TMV when Jason and Michael were here, I was a regular reader, and if memory serves me correctly, Jason at least (I'm not sure about Michael) was constantly complaining about the lack of ideological balance. In Jason's view, as I recall it from the time, TMV had an extreme leftist ideological bias. Indeed, he continued to attack TMV for 'only allowing one point of view' for quite some time after he ended his association with this blog.

That is part of why I believe the viewpoint imbalance you speak of exists mostly in the minds of the people who make the accusation.

For one, I keep dreaming that Gandelman might bring back the PoliGazette staff and we actually might regain the balance of viewpoint there once was. You mention Adnesik and Edaburn, but they are not as active in their posts as were van der Galien and Arvack. Plus, they don't even get listed in the editor roll………so only half-credit to TMV for them and zero for guest posts. (By the way, who actually wants guest posts? I'll vote to make an exception for Polimom becasue she participates in her guest posts.)

For two, I feel a loyalty to my longstanding fellow non-liberals, Austin Roth and CStanley…… even the pontificating DLS. You don't desert your unit just because the enemy outnumbers you.

For three, when things start annoying you, I savor it.

As DaGoat says, this is a glorified internet chat group amongst some people who follow the political landscape. We're not here to determine the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

I'd have to echo mhlradio here. By and large you find a higher level of intelligence and thoughtfulness here than the extremist sites on the left and right. In a way that makes the thoughtless extremist stuff you find here more obvious.

And don't take things so seriously that you are incredibly p***ed off, it's just a comment board.

I did not realize that to be the tone of what Jazz said…. “He gratuitously besmerched the entirety of the South and expects the South to let him off the hook by merely saying “this time is not about you”.

One of the things I thought when I read Jazz's words, was growing up in the backwoods with a huge amount of people who were not just a stereotype you saw in Deliverance… that the northeast was the nest of the old Italian and Jewish mafia who, too, had limited ways of seeing the world, and little education and big desire to strut and do 'uncooperatives' in… low ed., but cunning as heck. That went through my mind… that low education means nothing about how insightful, crafty, wise, intelligent, loving, kind, dastardly a person might be. Just my two cents worth.

Also on another note Casualobserer, thank you for your service. Especially. I just came across your notation about it yesterday as I was reading comments. Only re-upping in life daily now. Good.

dr.e

Never said it was. I don't think anyone is making the claim that The Moderate Voice represents the electorate. And if they did, they would be fools.

The columnists and readers of The Moderate Voice (IMHO) generally represent a more intelligent, more reasoned, more thoughtful subset of the overall electorate. For the more knee-jerk, idiot-class politerati, there are other sites for that type of discourse (like Redstate, or Dailykos, or Free Republic).

Therefore, when I am saying that the broad spectrum of liberal and conservative voices you find on The Moderate Voice are in near universal agreement concerning everyone's favorite failed vice presidential candidate, then by inference I am essentially saying that the better-informed, better-reasoned subset of the larger electorate has a near universal agreement on the former beauty queen. Just because you cite a poll showing that the low-info low-education public might have a different opinion does not negate my statement.

Nice try, though. Better luck next time.

PS Some more light reading on Sarah Palin and the Rise of Idiot America: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/16…

What I find amusing (when I'm done feeling incredibly p****d off) is that TMV's many conservative/right-wing regulars obviously find this blog valuable and worth their time to read and engage with — both in concept and delivery. Either they enjoy and value spending as much time on TMV as they do, or they are masochists. Of course, I don't discount the latter possibility, but I don't want to assume it absent compelling evidence.

It seems to me that those of TMV's readers who read and comment on a regular basis, and spend much or all of their time here bitterly criticizing TMV's content and how badly they think it lives up to TMV's concept, are akin to married couples who stay together while picking apart and criticizing the very qualities they once perceived as attractive. If a reader — any generic reader — thought TMV was false advertising and didn't live up to what it said it was about, why would they keep coming here?

As far as the site goes, most of the regular contributors lean to the left. Some are leaning so much they're practically horizontal. There are some right-leaning contributors that generally seem to make an effort to take a balanced view, like Jazz, Polimom, Adesnik, etc. To me that's the biggest difference – there are no militant conservatives here to offset the militant liberals, but frankly I'm glad militant conservative columnists aren't here because they just make conservatism look bad.

The example of that is Michael Reagan, whose columns here I believe are just reposts of his syndicated columns. He is so slanted I rarely read his stuff.

I'll stay out of the mudslinging here, but holding up Michael Reagan as some sort of balancing act is laughable. If his posts are meant to bring any kind of balance, then that means that the left represented here is pretty far out there. If I may make a humble request, is it at all possible to replace Michael Reagan's screeds with someone who can actually think and deliver good points that can be discussed, rather than ridiculed?

Since Jazz set the bar for this to be a thread of sarcastic condescension, allow me to follow suit……

See, the thing to remember about setting out to make zinging gotcha posts, radio, is these only really zing when you present irrefutable facts to the contrary. Unfortunately, my friend, you come up way short on that score.

You see, it is very easy for one to go to the “unrefutable per Joe Gandelman” Gallup polling organization and determine that Sarah Palin is running a favorable/unfavorable ratio of 43/45 in this very month of July. Taking the latest US Census Bureau estimate of 217.8 million adults in the US, that gives us a statistically implied 93,654,000 adults that have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin.

Now, for your conclusion to hold up under scrutiny, that would mean there are 93,654,000 conservatives a little bit right of leaning right and a little bit left of reactionary.

Here are your choices……….you can admit your tendency to wild-ass hyperbole got the better of you or your liberal political allies are in danger of getting their asses handed to them in the coming elections.

That said, I give Jazz props as being pretty much an equal opportunity political antagonist here.

Dr e., I believe you aspire to being an accomplished linguist. With all due respect to you, you seem to not pick up on jwest's point. What Jazz did with the caveat about this not being a photo of a Southern redneck, is simply a variation of “damning with faint praise”. He gratuitously besmerched the entirety of the South and expects the South to let him off the hook by merely saying “this time is not about you”.

As you may well know, one of the alltime most effective jury manipulation techniques is the “do not think of this” instruction. “Do not visualize the color blue!”

While I'm not sure I'm going to give Jazz credit for being that deviously intelligent, the fact remains is that is how it came across to those of us trained to have to recognize when it is being used.

You're right – the collective opinion about Palin on this site from hardcore leftists, staunch neocons, middle-of-the-road moderates, left-leaning liberals, right-leaning conservatives, libertarians, reactionaries, and every other political persuasion under the Sun **is** universal.

It is extremely rare when practically everyone across a very broad spectrum of political opinions from the far left to the far right comes to an agreement on an issue or subject — maybe that should tell you something. Hint, hint.

Does anyone believe that? Come on guy get real.

Also, I ask politely that you please read TMV's rules for commenters. They are clear and straightforward. Click on “Comments Policy” on the masthead.

Thanks,
dr.e
Assistant Editor and Columnist for The Moderate Voice