Aloha ahiahi kakou. Many of you are partying at NN11 in Minneapolis, but I am here in New Jersey. I arrived home from Hawai'i on the red-eye on Wednesday morning. We had a good field season. We managed to sort out the stratigraphy, and we had a lot of good press, but the season was too short. I will spend most of the rest of the summer chained to my computer. Publish or perish and all that. But that is not my real FP tonight.
WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
Please follow me below the squiggle.
I have been here at the Great Orange Satan for quite a while. I started lurking after the 2004 election and signed up for an account in July of 2005. I had worked for Kerry with Moveon.org in Southeast Pennsylvania. While we did manage to carry the state, we lost the election, and I was depressed. I started reading the political blogs, and I found DKos through a link from Atrios.
Like many other long-timers here, I came for the politics but stayed for the community. I supported the Act Blue candidates, and I cheered when we re-took the congress in 2006 and elected President Obama in 2008. I joined the IGTNT team in 2007 because I was so saddened by the loss of life in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been part of all the Feeding America blogathons, and I have guest hosted many of the community diary series, from Dawn Chorus Bird Song to Mojo Friday to the old Frugal Fridays series. I was the first guest host of WYFP in the post-ElizabethD era. Back in the day, we would get as many as 600 comments in WYFP.
I have also seen a number of occasions when this community was split. I was not here for Dean vs. Kerry, but I did survive the pie fights, ErrinF, and the 2008 primary wars. However, I don't think that I have seen the community quite as fragmented as it is now in my 6 years here. I know that a lot of folks here are disappointed in President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. I am an old-fashioned New York liberal, and I wish that the taxes for the wealthiest Americans had not been extended. I wish that we were out (and I mean out) of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Other folks have different concerns.
However, I am willing to bet that most of us here agree more than we disagree. If we met in person, most of us would probably like each other. Unfortunately, we have reached the stage where if someone posts a diary saying "Obama likes ice cream", someone else will post a diary saying that "Obama hates ice cream (and WI diary farmers)". I don't think that any of this will help us elect progressive candidates in 2012. So my question for all of you tonight is how do we rebuild our community so that we can work together to elect effective Democratic candidates in 2012? To borrow one Kossack's handle, it's the Supreme Court, stupid. I want more Sonia Sotomayors on the court and fewer RATS. Our reproductive rights hang in the balance.
That's one of my FPs for tonight. What's your FP? Sabrina, Stormy, and I are here to listen: