Is the blogosphere isn’t that important in the great scheme of things, maybe it just feels that way to the likes of us?

But at least we’re discussing it now. The idea is out in the open, it can live or die as concensus sees fit. But surely a big open market for ideas is *what we want*, isn’t it?

Loser, anything you may have read into "I don’t which is harder to stomach" is a projection of your own assumptions, and has nothing to do with my grammar. As to the statement on Juan Cole, he most plainly IS stating things which are unreasonable. He does everything but flatly accuse the two brothers of taking money from the CIA to ‘subvert’ Iraqis to democracy (why in the world that would be a sin in the first place is the topic of another discussion), without anything more substantial than blogger referrer links in Texas and an onimous "neocons have deep pockets" line to back up his ideas. Making such statements without a shred of real evidence is the height of irresponsibility, although I’m sure his "Americana Translation Project" tipjar is a bit fuller, and his blogad buyers are happy with the hit-count, ethics be damned.

It’s no conspiracy theory at all that they also sponsored right wing intellectuals and journalists across Europe. In Italy, some people in the media have even come out and admitted plainly to having taken funds directly from the CIA during the cold war. I wouldn’t know how that would translate today in the blog world, it’s not a crazy idea. However, I think there’s no need for money to be involved. Some yankophiles, all over the world, really *are* that fanatical themselves. The more they are outside the mainstream, the more they’ll be excited at seeing themselves as some kind of voice in the wilderness (though pretending they really speak for the "good people" of their country). See those French bloggers hailed by the right wingers. They don’t get paid. They just do it out of sheer love for the new empire.

RE my name – this is called ‘self deprecation’ – that is to say, you don’t necessarily have to point it out. In fact doing so could make you seem like a *really* condecending prick.

Finally, may I ask which part of the following sentence you find so offensive (read it a few times if in doubt), just so we know whether it’s the original post you’re raging at, or whether you’re just howling at the moon:

"Juan Cole may be wrong, but he’s saying nothing unreasonable."

I have a lot of time for the health professionals that are standing as candidates in the pro-democracy party that was spawned from Iraq the Model, and fail to understand why there is a willingness to smear these individuals who are only doing what we would hopefully be brave enough to do in similar circumstances.

If their enthusiasm for democracy is to be confused with support for America, then where does that put yourself John?

There needs to be a separation of ideas here, or the people we would ordinarily support will be damaged by our own pet prejudices that we carry with us – which in our democracy are fair enough, but applied to Iraq are meaningless and trivial, or perhaps deadly given the fact that these sorts of allegations might lead to a 55 year old female Pharmacist standing for election being shot or beheaded for being a CIA stooge.

But since you seem like such a nice, open minded guy, I’ll assume from now on that it was a grammatical slip rather than a Freudian one.

Of course it is. Riverbend was the victim of a copycat site RiverSbend, that was an obvious attempt to detract from her opposed point of view. CIA? MI6? Maybe….or maybe just an IT guy in his pajamas with some spare time and a sense of purpose. Speculation is just that, and is precisely what Mr. Cole is doing.

"Don’t even *think* of asking questions… Lefties are not qualified to ask questions because they are, as a people, hard to stomach, fucking apologist lefties."

No, they are hard to stomach because they frequently ask only questions that rather selflishly soothe their own egoes. The possibility that these might be two brothers that genuinely feel saved from oppression and have a desire to help create a democratic nation is dismissed out of hand, and with no evidence stonger than some server in Abilene reffering http://www.-url‘s to blogger so potential visitors don’t get a 404.

"…which is exactly the sort of justification Fascists like Saddam use to rubbish their opponents, crush dissent, ultimately to kill and to torture."

That’s a pathetic excuse for a strawman, and absolutely disconnected from reality. Please grow up.

"Priceless. I’d suggest probably the torture and executions."

Brilliant. Yet it’s A-OK if such exists, as long as it’s not on your tube every day, eh? "Go ahead and rape the next door neighbor, just please close the curtains. I won’t say a word." Like I said, fucking pathetic.

"Well, if it falls on the side of ‘pathetic fucking apologists’ being harder to stomach than ‘torture and executions’, it does imply that torturing and executing the ‘pathetic fucking apologists’ would be just about palatable. "

Damn, you really are clueless. There is just SOOOO many cases and examples of this sort of thing recently. I heard Barbara Streisand was tarred and feathered, Howard Dean was locked in the stocks, Margaret Hassan was kidnapped and executed…..oh wait, that did happen.

Really dude, you should take a year or so off from the conspiracy theories and let your brain dry out. Take a vacation, read some Cicero, think beyond the moment and your immediate surroundings, open the curtains. Ignoring problems does not make them go away.

Well, if it falls on the side of ‘pathetic fucking apologists’ being harder to stomach than ‘torture and executions’, it does imply that torturing and executing the ‘pathetic fucking apologists’ would be just about palatable.

Priceless. I’d suggest probably the torture and executions.