Saturday, February 23, 2013

Banned!

Griffon and I were banned from the liberal/progressive website Common Dreams for nothing more than accusing them of being the liberal gatekkeepers on what is "progressive" speech. Common Dreams allows dissent but controls what is permissible dissent and what is unsanctioned dissent. Criticizing the Democratic Party is allowed. Suggesting that the Democratic Party is bad or evil or advocating that people vote for other than the Democrat-Republican duopoly is subject for banishment. Sure, the following conversation may be off topic and grounds for the ban but, as Griffon points out below, it's an unequal application of the rules. And worse, we were banned in complete secrecy, without a reason or notification and no process for redress. It's highly analogous to the president's terrorist kill list. Common Dreams —for shame!

Griffon:
The obama voters are worse than the bush faithful in their dedicated and brainless cognitive dissonance. It matters little how many outrages, atrocities and extraConstitutional obscenities are racked up by Captain Quisling; the obama apologists will parade forth, fingers lodged deeply in ears (with little to present obstruction); determinedly drowning out all intruding reality.
(This short post led to my banning from Rawstory; despite the fact that when their apparently obama-defending thread-monitor saw fit to delete it without warning or excuse, it was the highest-"Liked" comment, 50+ and going, on the thread. I repost it here on CD, confident that it will meet a fairer reception.)

Kokanee1:
re: I repost it here on CD, confident that it will meet a fairer reception.Well, all I can say is good luck with that. I suggest you sign up for a new account, access RS through the tor browser (torproject.org) and keep getting the truth out.

Griffon:
"Well, all I can say is good luck with that."

Well, at least so far CD hasn't just arbitrarily pulled it the way Rawstory's obama-bot threadmon did.

Rawstory is, to put it mildly, inconsistent with their application of the rules. obama supporters, regardless of antisolcial and rude behavior, skate freely while critics, however well-sourced, get censored.

It follows Raw's apparent policy of downplaying obama's atrocities by hyper-coverage of republican idiocy, even though obama is the president now. Maddow does the same thing, as does Americablog.

Criticism and justified disgust over obama and his supporters will not be tolerated for long.

The behavior is part of a column I once considered writing called "The Judas Blogs;" concerning the about-face and scathing hypocrisy that self-styled "left" blogs and left moderate outlets took after bush left office, but obama continue d the same obscene policies from the prior administration.

The "lefty" blogs writhe and ban for being called on obama's atrocities when these same blogs gladly promoted withering criticism of identical policies and behavior by bush. 

Kokanee1:
Griffon

Who was the moderator, if you don't mind me asking? Were you given a warning or an explanation? I think they may have a new moderator as they've been pretty liberal with the comments they have allowed in the past. I was involved in a sub-thread (about 6 posts) that went completely up in smoke without an explanation of any kind.

I've had problems with CD as well. They keep a tight ship on external links. I get "comment awaiting moderation" and then it completely disappears --which explains the notation for the following link:

mosquitoclouddotnet/self-kettling-on-gatekeeper-sites

Griffon:
"Who was the moderator, if you don't mind me asking?"

I've no idea.

"Were you given a warning or an explanation?"

None and none. It was infuriating to have my comments just disappear for no reason, particularly while obama defenders were just posting ad hom without sourcing or addressing any points or administration policy, just accusations of being a republican/libertarian/etc.

"I think they may have a new moderator as they've been pretty liberal with the comments they have allowed in the past."

I think the glaring fact that it was the highest-rated thread-post when it was deleted makes it all the more obvious what the intent of the monitor was. Considering my comment history there, Rawstory should have known better, particularly pulling such deceit during a heated political discussion.

I've only ever had the one profile and am not interested in creating others just so Rawstory's indulgence in amateur hour can continue to stifle discussion and justified outrage over the decline of the US and obama's extraConstitutional murder.

Rawstory has gone the way of 'establishment' MSNBC where they actively and passively discourage dissent and exposure of obama's war crimes by bloating themselves with republican antics and crowding out the real, ongoing crimes of this administration.

I've always posted, sourced and linked my claims and conclusions, yet obama supporters of Rawstory need only post idiocy and ad hom without fear of suspension.

This is apparently what Rawstory prizes; party submissives. 

Griffon (On a different CD thread: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/20-4#comment-808618774):
K, CD (or someone) just apparently deleted your posts to me regarding the Raw flap on the obama kill list thread.

Dunno what the deal was but the comments are gone, (mine doubtless to follow soon, I'd wager.)

Kokanee1: Government harassment. Arbitrary detention and release. Where have we seen this before? Anyone? Instead of corporations accountable to the government and the government accountable to the people, we have the the people accountable to the government and the government accountable to the corporations.  

 Kokanee1:
I rest my case.

Griffon:
It's a disgrace.

Perhaps it's some intra-blog understanding that they don't allow tales and criticism of their fellow blogs, but this bullsh*t and cowardly behavior of arbitrarily deleting posts without explanation and aimed at posting veterans is dictatorial horsesh*t.

You were right, unfortunately.

Kokanee1:
Unfucking believable!

Griffon:
I posted a question at the top of the thread as to why the posts were deleted.

Perhaps it's a moderating service hired by blogs and they do double duty at Raw...

Kokanee1:
Actually, I think it was me as I'm probably on their watch list. I dissed'em and snuck in a link (which I hope you took a look at.) 

Griffon1:
Why are they so afraid of simple discussion?

The link proved very informative, thanks. Obviously too informative for CD to leave up.

Informed people are apparently becoming a real threat to the "lefty" (read democratic-party-submissive) blogs.

Kokanee1 (On a third thread: http://www.alternet.org/comments/glenn-greenwald-how-can-anyone-still-believe-america-greatest-country-earth#comment-808897178)
I've been banned from CD. ;)

Griffon:
You're kidding; why?

What possible reason could CD have for banning you without explanation or warning? What are they so afraid of?

Kokanee1:
My mistake. Just couldn't log in to CD for an hour and a half...

Griffon:
Now I can't post a response on CD all of a sudden. Apparently someone doesn't like where this discussion is going and wants to silence us both.

Additionally, they didn't like my referring to them as "Oz" when insisting on a response to your deletion. All my posts on CD have been wiped. All of them.
There's much more going on here than coincidence, particularly given the innocuousness of the discussion you and I were having.

Kokanee1:
Jeebus! That's what was happening to me. Before we get too excited, they may be having problems.

Griffon:
Doubtful.

The posts from 3 days ago are still here (for now), but the recent discussion we had is gone. I'll certainly apologize if they are having issues, but the timing is compelling, to say the least.
 
Word must be getting around at the DNC or something.
 
Kokanee1:
Yeah, I seem to be working fine there now. I was able to post the CD's comment policy on CD (to you) but it's been deleted too. Sheesh!

Griffon:
Something stinks to high heaven amongst these self-styled "liberal/progressive" blogs.

Apparently we, the commenters and news bringers/expanders aren't entitled to know why our efforts are unilaterally demoted to oblivion. If we get too 'uppity' we are, without explanation, barred from participation.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Kokanee1:
Okay, it's official. I'm banned from CD:
You do not have permission to post on this thread.
Good riddance!

Griffon:
Wow.

I can't help but conclude there is a connection with my treatment at Raw. obama critics and any who question the autocratic authority of a blog must pay the ultimate price of the digital smite.

Such a way to encourage defense of our democracy; promote fear and obedience.

Kokanee1:
Agreed, it's really deplorable. But if what you wrote was good enough to get you banned from RS then it was certainly good enough to get you banned from CD. And I'm truly sorry if I had any part in drawing the moderator's attention. As this sub-thread is grossly off-topic, you'd better skedaddle. ;)

Griffon:
"But if what you wrote was good enough to get you banned from RS then it was certainly good enough to get you banned from CD."

The nagging part of that conclusion is that there are far worse behaviors and profiles that routinely and aggressively violate the so-called "rules" but are never, ever disciplined. It's as if being sourced, informed and presenting a cogent position (and responding in-kind to any ad hom vacuity) is now rendered punishable.

"And I'm truly sorry if I had any part in drawing the moderator's attention."

Nah. Actually, it's better to know now the unmistakable trend these illiberally "liberal" blogs are taking. Sides are being chosen, apparently.
 
Kokanee1:
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." At least we have transparency and accountability in government and there are check and balances on unlimited power wielded by the president.
Oh wait...


 Common Dreams Comment Policy:

Any commenter who ignores our policies may be banned permanently and without notice.
We may delete any comment that contains:
  • Slander, personal attacks or abusive, hateful, offensive, or racist language or material.
  • Spam or links to spam (repeated attempts to redirect readers to another website are considered spam).
  • Comments off-topic to the article.
  • All capital letters.
  • Intentionally inflammatory rhetoric.
  • Links to inappropriate or unrelated content.
  • Identical, repetitive comments posted on multiple articles.
  • Excessively long URLs
  • Graphics
  • Personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers, emails, etc.
  • Blatantly promotional content.
  • Reproduced copyrighted articles from other sources: provide a link only.
  • More than 1,000 words. Text continued to another post to bypass the 1000-word limit will be deleted.
-- When a comment is deleted for violation of these policies any underlying 'children' in the thread of comments are also automatically deleted. When an account is deleted all past comments are automatically deleted.
-- Common Dreams will delete the account and ban the IP address of any commenter (person) found using multiple aliases under multiple e-mail addresses in a deceptive manner.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Silenced

Silenced - A new documentary from Oscar nominee James Spione by Morninglight Films

Telling the truth becomes a dangerous act when four federal whistleblowers reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror:

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Superpower

This documentary is private. Watch it while you can:
Link: Superpower. The password is barbarasteegmuller.