Citizen Tom

What goes around comes around.  At least, it should.  See here.

H/T to Fishersville Mike.

From On High defines the problem of BIG GOVERNMENT.

For Your Morning Contemplation

One of the favorite tactics of the folks involved in politics is name calling.  It is easy.  It is cheap, and it is quite often effective.

What is particularly ridiculous about the whole thing is both sides do it.  Then both sides accuse each other of negative campaigning.   Blogs, in particular, engage in this behavior.

What is the problem?  Instead of discussing issues, we spend a bunch of time defending ourselves.  Of course, such a defense is hopeless.  How can you prove something is not true?   What is worse is that not one of us is perfect.  We all have done things we later regret.  Seeing the futility — not wanting to expose themselves or their families, the best of our people often choose to stay out of politics.

What can we do about this absurd name calling?  We can police ourselves.  We can point out when it is going on, and we can suggest the author of such a post is in the wrong.

Here is an example.  A poster at ANTI-BVBL gets carried away, and she starts attacking the Prince William County VA Tea Party.  Supposedly, this event will involve a hate group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).  How do we know FAIR is a hate group?  Well, a supposedly authoritative nonprofit group, the Southern Law Poverty Center (SLPC) says FAIR is a hate group.   The SPLC put out reports (See here for an example.  Here FAIR defends itself.).  That, dear friends is all it takes to prove something to some people, a few nasty words.  Hence it must so, and so anyone associated with the Prince William County VA Tea Party must be hateful too.

Anyway, ANTI-BVBL is usually better than this.  So I left my comments, and others did the same.  Please ask the poster to focus on the issues and to drop the name calling.

The Cartoons

Yes, sirree!  It is the new hip.  It is the generosity of the filthy rich.  It is a way for huge comglomerates to unload their health care costs, and it is another attraction for illegal immigrants to sneak into the good ole US of A.  What is it?  It’s government-run healthcare!  And what does it mean?  Check out this post at Two Conservatives.

The Cartoons

Occasionally, mostly just to amuse myself, I review one of our local blogs.  This is one of those times, and the subject of the review is The Operative Word.

Why review The Operative Word?

When I was checking for the latest on the controversy over former RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick, I stumbled on this post, Bolling Smart, McDonnell Not So Much.   Theoperative appears to like Bill Bolling, but he has little use for McDonnell.  At the same time, he referred to Republicans in the third person.

I too like Bill Bolling.  Since the post is well written, I was curious, but suspicious.   By itself, that post does not indicate the political views of the blogger.   When I read something, before I take it seriously, I want to know something about the biases of the person giving me information.  So decided to be an operative myself and investigate further.

What had theoperative written that might say something more definitive about his views?

How does the The Operative Word describe itself?

The Operative Word is a blog written from a Democratic perspective in Loudoun County, Virginia.  Send emails and tips to theoperativeword@gmail.com (from here).

Apparently, we have another Democrat blogger.  The line with the email address suggests pretensions towards journalism.

Another post provides a bit of bravado or cheek.  Take your pick.

I’m also in the market for any other good stories, since The Operative Word has obviously replaced Too Conservative as the home for all good political conversation in Loudoun.  (from here)

I expect The Operative Word probably has a ways to go before it catches up with the not so Conservative Too Conservative in audience share, but here is a thought.  Audience share is not everything.  For example, the following screen capture shows some websites that have been highly unpopular with President Barack  Obama’s appointees here of late.

What about the blog’s name?  Why The Operative Word?  The blogger calls himself “theoperative.”

operative
adj 1: being in force or having or exerting force; “operative regulations”; “the major tendencies operative in the
American political system” [ant: inoperative]
2: of or relating to a surgical operation; “operative surgery”
3: relating to or requiring or amenable to treatment by surgery especially as opposed to medicine; “a surgical appendix”;
“a surgical procedure”; “operative dentistry” [syn: surgical] [ant: medical]
4: effective; producing a desired effect; “the operative word” [syn: key]
5: (of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing; “in running (or working) order”; “a functional set of brakes” [syn: running, functional, working]
n 1: a person secretly employed in espionage for a government [syn: secret agent, intelligence officer, intelligence agent]
2: someone who can be employed as a detective to collect information [syn: private detective, PI, private eye, private investigator, shamus, sherlock]

The adjective suggest competence and central importance.  The noun suggests someone who carefully and slyly collects information.   As blog titles go, The Operative Word is not a bad choice.

From there it went downhill

The latest post on The Operative Word is on the notorious head of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh (here).  As usual, Limbaugh is tweaking the Liberals, and it goes right over their heads.  theoperative thinks Limbaugh is serious.

At that point, I decided to check out what else theoperative had to say about Bob McDonnell.  After a bit of reading, I decided that with respect to the Republican Party, theoperative considers himself to be a particularly nasty type of operative.

provocateur
Pronunciation [pruh-vok-uh-tur, -toor; Fr. praw-vaw-ka-tœr]
–noun, plural -teurs
1. a person who provokes trouble, causes dissension, or the like; agitator.
2. (italics) French. agent provocateur.

Here theoperative crows over Terry McAuliffe’s fund raising and wonders whether Bob Marshall is secretly undermining McDonnell.

In this post, theoperative points us at this website, The Real Bob McDonnell.  theoperative complains McDonnell’s website (here) is skimpy on the issues.  Supposedly, The Real Bob McDonnell makes up for this deficit of information.  Who is the real Bob McDonnell?  Heaven forbid!  He is a Conservative.

In some circles, being a Conservative is a grave crime.  After all, according to the latest government report (see here), we Conservatives are all potential bomb-throwing terrorists.

For further grins, I went and looked at the issues pages for each of the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial candidates.  Here is a detailed analysis of the issues pages on each website.

• Terry McAuliffe -  vaguely promises to spend lots of money we do not have on all the standard sacred cows of the Democratic Party.
• Brian Moran – vaguely promises to spend lots of money we do not have on all the standard sacred cows of the Democratic Party.
• Creigh Deeds -  vaguely promises to spend lots of money we do not have on all the standard sacred cows of the Democratic Party.

Each of the candidates above apparently thinks spending lots of money is the solution to Virginia’s woes.  They compete to be the governor who spends the most money — we don’t have.

Another post supposedly has McDonnell writing off Northern Virginia.

Here theoperative again crows over Terry McAuliffe’s fund raising abilities.  This is curiosity.  Democrats now think the ability to raise lots of campaign funds is wonderful.   Unfortunately, they are totally unwilling to examine too closely the source of those funds (see here).

That is not the only contradiction.  Supposedly, the Democratic Party opposes negative campaigning.  Given that Terry McAuliffe is theoperative’s chosen one (here), we should expect lots of posts explaining why we need to support McAuliffe.  Nonetheless, theoperative has more posts talking down Bob McDonnell.   As strange as it may seem, even though we have three Democrats contesting their party’s nomination, The Operative Word has more to say about Bob McDonnell.

Although the The Operative Word is a relatively new website (September 2008), the author has been busy.  Unfortunately, the material tends to focus more on misrepresenting Republicans than advocating Democratic Party candidates and their policies.  Nonetheless, if you are curious about what Democrats are thinking, The Operative Word is worth visiting.

The Cartoons