tdaxp

Shrum, R. 2007. Kerry's regrets about John Edwards. Time. May 30, 2007. Available online: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1626498-2,00.html.

I can't imagine a more personal attack than this:

Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again. When they did, Kerry tried to get a better personal feel for his potential number two; as rivals for national office since 2000, shortly after Edwards had entered the Senate, the two men hadn't spent a lot of time together. Kerry also wanted a specific reassurance. He asked Edwards for a commitment that if he was chosen and the ticket lost, Edwards wouldn't run against him in 2008. Edwards agreed "absolutely," as Kerry recalled him saying. If Kerry had shared this at the time, I would have told him what I did later: it was naive to think he could rely on a promise like that. Unlike Joe Lieberman, who'd been plucked from relative obscurity by Gore, Edwards had made his own mark in the primaries. He was ambitious—and if he saw his chance the next time, he was likely to go for it.

Depending on who is lying, either John Kerry, John Edwards, or Bob Shrum seems to be one of the worst human beings in the world.

"Republican Party Vice Chair needs a lesson in flag etiquette," by Seth Hahn, Clean Cut Kid, 20 May 2005, http://www.cleancutkid.com/2005/05/20/republican-party-vice-chair-needs-a-lesson-in-flag-etiquette/.

Far too often, we confuse agreement with virtue. People say that Osama bin Laden and Abu Zarqawi are stupid, or foolish, or cowardly. In fact they are smart, wise, and brave. Politcally, I have heard men such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore called dumb when both are intelligently acting on a dream for the future.

No matter who you are, your long-time enemy is probably smart. If he was stupid he would have failed by now. Zarqawi does know better, Limbaugh does know better, Moore does know better, Hu Jintao does know better.

However, an enemy can be stupid. Enemy actions can be stupid. Serious thinkers have argued that the anti-Iraqi insurgents are losers. Just losing isn't a sign of stupidity -- it can be a sign of weakness or growth. But losing combined with counter-productive attacks can be.

An enemy that loses and isolates himself may be acting stupidly.

I apologize for the long prologue. I don't share Collounsbury's penchant for pithiness. I try to be polite. I thought over my original comment and this post, and I am now convinced.

Seth Hahn's attack is stupid. Just stupid.

I was driving through Rapid City today and remembered a house with obscene amounts of Republican propaganda plastered over the front yard and on the vehicles in the driveway during the election. The house is very nice, in a nice neighborhood, neatly trimmed lawn, perfectly manicured hedges, flags draped just outside the door…

Whoah. Wait a minute. That flag is improperly displayed. It is hung vertically with the union in the observer’s upper right. But subsection (i) of U.S. Code 4.1.7 quite clearly and in plain English says:

When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag’s own right, that is, to the observer’s left.

Basically, the stars always go in the upper left.

But it gets much, much more interesting than a rabid Republican not knowing how to display a flag.

It turns out that this particular rabid Republican is Elli Schwiesow, Vice Chair of the South Dakota Republican Party and Immediate Past President of the South Dakota Federation of Republican Women.

Elli, it’s pretty hard to be a higher up in the party claiming to respect and revere the flag when you won’t even take the time to learn how to properly display it in front of your own house.

If you know Elli, feel free to send her in the direction of this website. I’d be happy to discuss correct American flag position and manner of display with her any time. In fact, I will personally correct her mistake and hang it correctly for her. This is something I can do because I respect the flag enough to take the time to learn the rules for its display.

Mrs./Ms. Schwiesow, I’m sure our veterans appreciate your slap in the face!

The post tries to be a 4GPS1/Node Takedown/Politics-of-personal-destruction attack/. I just makes Seth look petty.

It's a self-inflicted moral Isolation [PISRR] attack.

Moving out of Iowa, I cut myself. That was stupid. Most self-inflicted wounds are.

"James Dobson," Clean Cut Kid, 2 May 2005, http://www.cleancutkid.com/2005/05/02/nuclear-option/.

I've written before on the proper use of the politics of personal destruction (4GPS1 Node Takedown). It serves the same purpose that assassinations do in 4GWS1: harm the enemy network by removing important members while building up renown.

Given that, what to make of CCK's stab at personal destruction

Sometimes I don’t know why I even bother with these ridiculous organizations — this one in particular is Focus on the Family, run by James Dobson — that are funded and managed by extremist zealots. But it comes down to my faith. I am sick and tired of these groups taking my religion and distorting it to an unrecognizable pile of crap. I am tired of groups like Focus on the Family and people like James Dobson and Jerry Falwell using Christianity to forward a political agenda that is in so many ways un-Christian. I drive me so crazy that these people think they have a monopoly on Christian behavior when often their own behavior can easily be viewed as just the opposite.

...

James Dobson believes in the use of beatings as discipline on children as young as 18 months. Dobson has used the discipline he used with his dog to illustrate the “correct” way to discipline a child.

Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy.

What is CCK trying to accomplish? Clearly its not reporting the truth, as his post is full of distortions. If it's node takedown, then he fatally dilutes the effort by criticizing the entire bureaucracy (the point is to alienate the node from his subnet, not glue them together). Maybe it's just to scare fellow liberals into line, but that's 2G politics and foolish besides: there are more Republicans than Democrats in South Dakota, so attackign the GOP through nonideological massess plays to the Republicans' strengths.

My guess: CCK doesn't know what he is doing.

Clumsy.