Yea, but not half as bad as a Muslim convetion I went to several years ago where the speakers were designated to eat in a different area than the regular attendees.....

"With amber waves of grain, from sea to shining sea. Children, if you want a career writing for the corporate media, read Glenn Greenwald as often as you can. Few do it better than he, hand over heart, moist eyes fixed on Old Glory. Sniff."

Read Dennis Perrin regularly, at the Huffington Post.

Dennis went into this with his eyes open and his mind made up.
What did he expect, it was a convention of people who hold the same outlook.
An outlook he fundamentally disagrees with.
If I thought hard core Trekers are a bunch of dopes, would I be surprised by what I unearthed at Voyager-Con '07?
He could have saved himself the hassle of travel, stayed in Michigan downloading more "Fridays" clips from Youtube.
Rested and inspired, he could have churned out a few inches of lib-bashing prose in time for breakfast, and enjoyed a nice sunrise.

I think it was Tiny Revolution, via Tom Tomorrow that directed me to Mr. Perrin's essay on losing his NYC lifestyle.
I was intrigued enough to look for more.
I abused my empolyer's trust by hitting "Red State Son" every day.
The guy is a first rate wordsmith.
(here comes the "but")
BUT, he has an PETA-like joy in alienating potential allies.
If I want to be spit on every day, every hour,
every minute, it's just a matter of turning on the radio.
Randomly.
Call, "bullshit" he's ready with,
"Boy, why are you so full of hate?
Hatey-hate-hate."
After the Digby slam, he wrote, "If you don't like what I have to say, don't read my stuff."
I agreed with his point and took his advice.
My loss, perhaps, but my cable carries Fox, and there are several Full-Gospel megachurches in walking distance.

Well, "fluttbucker," you can disparage me all you like, but I won't sit still when you make fun of "Fridays"!

What is it with these godawful joke names? Why don't you show your real face?

As for YKos, my mind was mostly made up, but not completely. I wanted to see, in person, what these people were like, and wanted to see if they were open to my views as well. Many weren't, but some were. I made a few new friends and won over several more new readers. In that sense, it was a success. Also, the audience for our panel was very interested in and responsive (not always favorably)to foreign policy critiques that weren't in much evidence elsewhere at the convention. So that was another positive outcome.

My problem with Dems and libs are stated openly on my site. It's not hate -- it's my opinion, an opinion you do not share. Wow. What a world.

Thanks, Dennis, for taking the time to stop by. Glad to see that DKos "speaker" badge didn't go to your head.

One question: What's your beef with Glenn Greenwald? The piece you link to, after all, was pointing out the Democrats' complicity in war and wiretapping, a point you've made yourself many times. No, he doesn't go to the root of the problem, but we all have different levels of understanding, and Glenn seems to be coming along nicely. Another year or two of this shit, and he might even become a Marxist.

Is it that he gets all dewey-eyed about the Constitution? Not much harm in that. Appealing to an idea of what America should be rather than what it actually is has served many movements, from civil rights to gay rights, quite well. Myself, I try to strike a balance between cynicism and idealism - yes, the country is fucked up, but at its core, there are some good ideals, if we actually lived up to them, and appealing to those ideals seems to be one way of getting folks up off the couch and doing something.

Dennis- you have become my new favorite Blog!

I posted a question for you over at Huffington, I loved your brake down...

Thanks again!

I spent most of my working life involved in a union and they can be cursed by the same "Animal Farm" mentality of some being more equal. I think it's human nature, not a particularly good part of it, but something to be recognized and dealt with.

Went and read Perrin's whole piece, printed at Huffing, and have tagged his blog on my daily rotation. Good stuff.

Dennis, why the joke name?
Because I'm Little People.
I don't speak in front of groups, don't have a blog.
By-the-fingernails job, mortgage, pretensions of bourgois gentility, no union protection if I take a hit for the revolution.
No desire to get spammed by any organized group I might piss off.
So for On Line comments, I become the mighty mighty fluttbucker.
The cowards way out?
Of course.
But it's a rare alternative to "Sit down and shut the fuck up."

SteveB:

I've answered your queries at my site. Go see.

Fluttbucker:

Slamming someone like me puts your whole existence at risk, thus the mask? Unless you're in a really socially delicate situation, I don't see it. I'm Little People, too. Whatever. Do what you must.

Dennis Perrin's blog is one of the best. (Itty Bitty Uprising, too.) Love the critiques. I've had the same experience as Dennis, getting flamed or banned at pro-Democratic Party sites like Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Americablog etc. for comments that point out the complicity of Democrats for many of America's ongoing crimes against humanity. These days I don't have much time to post, but I give daily thanks for the few commentaries that go beyond the mindless repetitive bleating of "Republicans bad--Democrats good!"

So thanks, guys. Keep it up.

I've thought about the way Mr. Perrin manages to consistently piss people off, and this is about the best I can figure it:

Dennis isn't spitting on you, Mr. bucker, he's spitting at the Democrats. All you have to do is get out from in front of them.

I love reading a different perspective on DailyKos. Thanks Jonathan and Dennis.

I've enjoyed reading Dennis since his post about speaking at a town hall meeting in TarryTown, NY.

I might be deficient, but I've never read Dennis's posts as attacks on liberals or the progressive establishment (Shouldn't that be an oxymoron anyway?). I can't see where that comes from. What I've read is his take on varying issues. How is that dangerous to progressivism? If anything it feels healthy.

Running around with a bunch of people drooling over blue badges sounds dreadful. I'm for anyone that speaks against the evolution of our own version of Crimestop.