all Marc Antony on Russert’s ass, because the guy was a hack of the first (and worst) order.

One does fell sorry for his family — one always feels sorry for the survivors — but that does not, and should not, mean that we ignore the fact that Russert represented the worst of “Village” journalism, and that his death does not represent a “public” loss, but merely a private one.

All the networks will all about what TEH AWESOMEST journalist he was. All the previous, self-exonerating discussion about sexism and misogyny will disappear very quickly, only to be replaced with “how can we be as good as he was?” kinda talk from the pundits.

I’m glad I stopped watching these guys months ago.

Not at all. I believe in karma. While I’m sure his immediate family and friends are feeling the pain of loss, it is a good reminder for those who foment hate for hate’s sake that life is short.

We get to make our own monuments for others to remembers us by. He could have done so much better than he did.

& i won’t even look at MSNBC tonight—ugh!

The media loves nothing better than to talk about themselves—always.

; >

http://www.correntewire.com/an_opportuni…

Digby, on the Plame stuff/Moyers— Why Didn’t They Call Me? — “… BILL MOYERS: Critics point to September eight, 2002 and to your show in particular, as the classic case of how the press and the government became inseparable.

…
TIM RUSSERT: What my concern was, is that there were concerns expressed by other government officials. And to this day, I wish my phone had rung, or I had access to them.”

But lest you think that Russert is some sort of prima donna who waits for the phone to ring, he later said:

“TIM RUSSERT: I— look, I’m a blue-collar guy from Buffalo. I know who my sources are. I work ’em very hard. It’s the mid-level people that tell you the truth. Now- …”

mephistopheles came calling today to collect on his bargain.

but be not dismayed

you journalists and fans,

mr. russert died with his boots on;

the boots he use to walk all over whatever public official his corporate bosses wanted him to trash.

his professional friends, the media who were terrified of countering him, will inquire in his honor -

did timmy get more coverage than princess di?

more than prez reagan?

more than mlk?

more than jfk?

this was a man who was loved and respected by his peers,

until today.

they will miss him greatly,

until tomorrow.

What’s with the freaky formatting? Seriously.

like so many have, i just wrote a long explanation and lost it with some awkward finger movement.

this shorter answer will have to suffice.

i write in this “style” because

this is how i FEEL like addressing the world;

this is how my brain FEELS word should be written on weblogs.

otherwise, i have no explanation.

i you can stand the effort, go back for all the four years i have been commenting on internet weblogs, and check.

you will see this IS my style.

it is not an affectation for corrente;

it is how i FEEL like commenting.

why?

i don’t know why.

the explanation i have given previously, is that i feel like someone who has worn wing-tips or work boots for my entire working life,

and then suddenly finds he can wear sandals

which feel so light and pleasing.

there is also the matter that, for me, that presenting info is like presenting an equation:

a and b but also c.

i use conjunctions for short cuts so i don’t have to waste time writing.

but i do acknowledge some of this “style” is in need of tightening up. i’m thinking about that.

but if i do that, i have to slow WAY down in my writing.

they’ve been grooming him for ages.

(or they could give Matthews a coronary by giving it to Olbermann!)

and since this is my blog, i can freely say, “fuck him and good riddance.” i would say some other nasty stuff but i’m a good mood today.

he, along with the vast majority of the SCLM, had BLOOD ON HIS HANDS. he had power, he had influence, he had the ability to determine how our taxdollars got spent, to a degree that was much, much greater than we ever did. and what did he do with it? among other things, support, endorse, and LIE for the Worst President Ever and his illegal, immoral, completely unnecessary war of choice. innocent children, men and women, american soldiers are dead, maimed, their lives destroyed, and for what?

so people like Timmeh could play their sick, sinful game of gotcha and advance in the Village social set.

i wish i believed in hell. times like this, i really do. i’m glad he’s gone. i hope the person who replaces him is somewhat better, even as i expect that person to be worse. my hatred for the SCLM and people like russert knows no bounds. good riddance, you lying nazi scumsucking murderer. i’m glad you’re gone.

i don’t really care, but just so you know: you’re getting on the Last Nerve of some people with your writing “style.” try to change it, or you may find that you won’t be posting it here at all. it’s not so hard not to click the return key after every sentence. not at all.

its quite clear to me that i have gotten on some folks “last nerve” here,

almost exclusively the power elite here.

i’ve done so entirely because of the content of my comments, not because of my “style” of presenting the english language.

and because i do not play the “stoking game’ with that power elite that is so necessary to thrive in a social collectivity like this,

your criticizing my “style” is merely setting up a pretext, chicago dyke, for getting rid of someone whose viewpoints you dislike.

that’s abundantly clear from human behavior the world, yours included.

that’s the way life is.

if i comment here, fine.

if i don’t comment here, fine.

but using my style as a pretext to get rid of me would reflect very poorly on you, chicago dyke, and on corrente,

not on me.

just be honest enough with yourself to say you don’t like what i write and leave it at that.

I understand that your choices are conscious. However, I find your comments very, very hard to read, because my eyes can’t grab enough of the comment at one time.

I feel I’m walking up a set of stairs where the treads are randomly spaced or the wrong height, and so I’m constantly stumbling and feeling uncomfortable. Most of the time, I don’t even get to your content, and I’m sure that’s not what you want!

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Power elite…. Yeah, there’s a group of people who have worked very hard here for many years, and one thing they pay a lot of attention to is their writing style. What I’m telling you is that I don’t have any issues with your content, but that’s because I find your style unreadable, so I never get to the content in the first place. That’s all.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

this is a useful critique i can appreciate and relate to.

my “stye” of presenting words on elcetronic “paper” is not a conscious choice, as i was explaining to french doc. it is oblivious behavior.

it’s just the way the words come out, very much like a conversation.

that is not to say it is a good style or an immutable one; it is not.

nor that it is not irritating; you are not the first to note that.

it’s just to say it is an essentlly impulsive, impatient stle of putting ideas/words on electronic paper.

as it stands now, my way of setting down words is actually devoid of planning or effort at writing.

i agree it can be improved greatly (actually, that i can develop a writing style to go along with my spray of words).

thus the value of your patient critique.

the “edit” function is your friend. Use it. All of us can use some “second look” on our posts / comments. :-)

You can’t play tennis without a net!

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Sarah asks:

Is it wrong of me to hope the VRWC can’t find somebody more sympathetic to their agenda?

Yes.

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

and it would read like blank verse (the visual style it most resembles) except there is no scansion or flow. Sentences with punctuation and capitalization, along with paragraphs filled with sentences on a related topic, help readers focus on the thoughts, not the presentation.

If you want to write poetry, put your back into it.

If you want to write prose, help us out and let us value your ideas over your style.

The to and from of the comments about your writing style reminds me of an issue I had when I first moved to SC from NYC metro area.

I would come home and complain to my husband that I couldn’t understand what anybody was saying. Also a transplant, he immediately offered advice, which he had learned through his own personal experience during his first few months here, thus sparing me a longer break-in period.

He said I was trying too hard, that the speaking style in the South [no judgment here] was more like music, lyrical — that I should just relax. I thought he was whacked at first, but though I didn’t really understand his insight, it gradually made sense and I began to understand what was being said — or at least communicated [which is, to me, the goal].

When at first you were being criticized for your loose style and challenged to shape up or ship out, I went back to read what you wrote. With those criticisms in mind it became harder to read/comprehend. But not so much that I wasn’t able to see that if I relaxed, I perceived your style to be more poetical, and not so difficult at all to understand what you meant to say.

Also I have no claims here, with no expectational standards of sweet nobodies looking over my shoulder whispering in my ear — wadda they gonna think of my blog.

So I wanted to say thanks for the poetry.

If you must go or are driven off to post elsewhere, I’ll miss you, but please leave a forwarding address where you can occasionally be found. What you have to say is of value to me.

To the owners of the blog, I’d agree that sometimes it’s important to be concise and have a precise style lest readers misunderstand the intent of the words littering the playing field, wantonly abandoned in the comments secton like just so much chicken scratch or used tea leaves and other detritus found thrown under buses.

But variety here keeps it lively, whether in the form of videos, or less than perfectly focussed yet colorful photos of the results of the labor of precious hands, or links to the world’s exotic intelligance, or — as in your case — poetry.

I, in fact, get tense when the owners are ass kicking non trolls, but then I remember to relax, this is their property and I’m just a visitor here.

i use — instead of separations, but she simply writes conversationally—in nuggets.

we all think differently, and have to figure out ways to express our thoughts in a fitting style.

(I don’t think in simple, clear sentences, but in pieces of ideas—and as soon as i put them down, i realize there are side issues and important points not included in what i just put down—therefore i use dashes. Orion puts her thoughts down clearly in bite-size pieces.)

I know the days of Edward R. Murrow have come and gone, but I was seriously hoping we wouldn’t get another ex-politico trampling through our national discourse.

We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

the ’preview’ function is your friend. Much like you overuse the return key, I overuse the comma. I do it because I type my words as I think them and when I pause to consider what comes next, I insert a comma. The pauses make sense if you were interested in knowing the tempo of my thought process, but not so much if you are trying to comprehend the points I’m making. After I write something, I go back and remove the extraneous commas and make sure my words make sense (or try to do so). Maybe you should do something similar with your hard returns.

to lambert

i feel bound to say that your analogy with the stairs was the best possible way you could gotten your point about “idiosyncratic indenting” across. it was a superb way to communicate a difficult idea.

who have offered your advice, personal experience, and critique.

i am most appreciative.

i consider the advice entirely well-intended and, more to the point, well-merited on my part. even more than your sound advice, i appreciate the evident kindness and respect.

with regard to the comments of whaleshaman and amberglow,

i think the text of “tolerance of differences” which underlies both of their comments, is deserving of equal-status with the very sound critiques of “everyday presentation of ideas”.

there may be more than one path to heaven or to first-rate literary/political commentary.

obviously, this latter comment will be viewed as self-serving. it is, but is not that only.