Motley Moose – Archive

Seems Moose are chatty tonight, here is another Open Thread/Open House to welcome our visitors and friends (both new and old).

As I was walking around town this weekend–on September 11th, no less–I came across the following by celebrated poet Langston Hughes.

Whether or not it is useful to view the present through the literary prism of our past is debateable, but I provide this for our mutual edification:

Let America Be America Again

By Langston Hughes

In April of this year three researchers at the University of Tulsa – Mason Rice, Robert Miller1 and Sujeet Shenoi- published a paper in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection entitled: “May the US government monitor private critical infrastructure assets to combat foreign cyberspace threats?”

The paper was brought up yesterday on the SCADASEC mailing list and some intelligent commentary has ensued. While the paper is primarily a treatise on the legal aspects of the title topic, it intrinsically and often explicitly touches on several foundational issues associated with the “how?” of securing critical infrastructure on a national scale.

Crossposted from Infosec Island

I originally wrote this almost a year ago… but since we’ve got a bunch of new peeps and I am very lazy this moment, I thought I would repost it.

Many of you are aware of the rather large group of Kossacks who have decided to abstain from the GOS for a week.

I want us to roll out the purple carpet, hide polish the silver, and put on our Sunday best (yes, fog, that means pants too) to welcome any boycotters who decide to stop by for a visit.

Whether it is for a week’s vacation, or as a permanent home, I want to give a heartfelt “Welcome, make yourselves at home” to those seeking a respite from the flamewars.

I am having mild withdrawal symptoms. I need to write and don’t know where to put it anymore. Don’t know where the kind of things I write will be welcome and where they won’t be welcome. Fact is I usually not sure of what I want to write till I’m done writing it.  But you all strike me as a pretty friendly bunch, even if I am pretty scared of that moose on the rules page.

I’ve been writing since the early 40’s, when I’d hide under the cellar door with my Red Chief writing tablet and a pencil stub sharpened with a knife. Writing has been my survival tool, my best and most faithful companion, and the main joy of these 71 years. My idea of a delightful death is to simply conk out with my head resting on this keyboard.

I used to write a about lot of things I was sure I knew more about than anyone else. I was so very smart: surely it was my duty to share my awesome insights and wisdom with the world. Then I finally sobered up.

It was a harsh awakening. Made only worse by the passing of years. Then more years. And somehow I ended up 70 years old, in solid possession of enough hard earned, healthy humility to realize I really don’t “know” a hell of a lot about anything for sure.  

I can only know what small portion of reality I’ve seen so far with these limited eyes, have experienced from within this skin, and have perceived with a mind that is constantly evolving.

Which means I am a rotten political analyst, and the worst debater on earth. I’m way past being able to see things simply as black and white, right or wrong, good and bad, higher or lower or better or worse.

So I exchanged my white horse for a three wheeled electric scooter, and  my armor for a set of comfy sweats. I still have my lance sitting by the door, in case I get invaded by any of the super holy republicans in this place that really REALLY want to save my sorry ass.

I guess I’m just more of a storyteller type now. I love surfing the web till something grabs the hungry muse, then I let her have her way with it. Sometimes it’s a story, or a memory, or some poetry, or just the observations of a wondering mind.

There. I feel better now for having written something in fresher air!  

For those new to the Moose you might not know but, in the three years it’s been on four legs, we’ve developed a set of self-moderating guidelines that mean we generally forebear talking at length about other progressive blogs, and I don’t think there has been one diary on them.

There’s are several good reasons for this: it’s generally bad to talk behind other people’s backs, and also dangerous, as slagging off someone here can come back and bite you at other places. Generally meta discussions are also tediously dull to the uninitiated, the blog equivalent of psephology. At worst, meta is like gerrymandering, changing the rules or the boundaries in order to game a result. At best, it is like talking about electoral mechanisms and voting machines. Dull, dull, dull and usually irrelevant.

I say ‘usually’ because of course gerrymandering districts is a huge slow problem in US politics, leading to the polarisation we see now, and electoral voting mechanisms were rather important in Florida in 2000.

In terms of the left blogosphere, I think the story below is important, and can’t really be ignored. But I’m open to being convinced otherwise, and will delete this diary if it causes too much offence. I’ve stripped out the links in my diary too, for obvious reasons if you read the piece, though I have left one in which precipitated this boycott. If you agree with the boycott, please try not to log in when you read the link.

I don’t know how this will resolve itself. The worst thing that can happen (for you guys) is that I’ll devote all my blogging energies to the Moose from now on. Whatever happens, last night, as dozens of diaries were published with the ‘boycott’ tag and hundreds of previously silent commenters came forward to voice support, was a tremendous moment for me of the power of solidarity. You don’t feel scared that you’ll be punished for speaking out with so many others there to support you. You also don’t care if you will be banished, because all the other great people seem to have down tools too.

So have at it. Please feel free to ignore this diary and its contents. I won’t make a comment if no-one else does. I definitely won’t FP this either.

UPDATE TODAY: Bkos diary is up for 15 minutes before deletion. It consists of this

And then in the comments this statement

As the Black Kos managing editor, I have decided to support this boycott.  I felt it was important and necessary to state why we are doing so, in my own words. During the past several months the atmosphere at Daily Kos has become poisoned to the point where there is no longer any meaningful discourse occurring.  What was needed was for cooler heads to prevail, and for a more civil tone to be established. Instead, the poisonous atmosphere was allowed to fester and grow until I saw a number of tough sanctions handed out. In my opinion the distribution of these sanctions were neither fair nor even handed. It had a disproportionate effect on members of this community.  This unfair distribution is what lead to the calls for the boycott that we support. Justice requires fairness and equity. My criticism of Markos’ decision is based on his tardiness in stepping up and dealing with this situation, until he was forced to use a crude instrument, rather than any personal animosity, ill will, or accusations against him. Waiting as long as he did allowed the rhetoric to get overheated.  But when finally responding in anger, Markos labeled many of these people with personal epithets that are close to slander. Daily Kos is his blog in more ways than one.

Black Kos has always strived to be an area for civil discourse on issues that not only directly affect race, but also on its intersections. The intersections of race and gender, of race and sexuality, and yes- race and politics.  We have also strived to be Black Kos and not Obama Kos. For example, during the long drawn out Democratic primary we didn’t endorse then Senator Obama until nearly the end, and welcomed Hillary supporters, but we also recognized the historic nature of his run. But history and the Democratic Party also carries a number of heavy ugly stains. Race has divided this party and it’s allies. Race has in the past divided labor movements. Race has divided elections. Race has divided each feminist wave. And yes folks race has divided this blog.

We hope that in our absence people will take time to do some self examination and ask “why are we all here?” I’m here to build a movement. But any movement large enough to be capable of making changes in a country as large and diverse as ours requires being in a coalition that makes you uncomfortable. But your willingness to be able to learn to navigate in a group large enough to make you uncomfortable, is directly related to your commitment to that coalition.

State your case and opinions with passion, express your frustrations with vigor, but always do so with respect.  The internet is a medium for communication, but the greatest fallacy in any communication is that communication has in fact occurred. We hope that our in our absence folks ponder that fact.

David aka dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor

This week’s testimony by News International’s former lawyers and executives turned into a bit of a damp squib (executives and lawyers boring? How’s that?). But with the start of the Leveson Inquiry, and further arrests by the three police teams now investigatiing phone hacking, computer hacking and corruption of police officials, there’s no danger this schadenfreudefestschrift is going to go away.

So let me take this relative calm to explore British Prime Minister’s  David Cameron’s disastrous decision to employ Andy Coulson, as his main media strategist.

It’s a fascinating tale, that gives a brilliant insight into what Gordon Brown described as the ‘criminal-media nexus‘ which explains the rise of Newscorp as the most powerful global media force.

We remember the blue skies and the warm temperature

We remember thinking it would be a beautiful day

We remember it all being shattered

We remember where we were when we heard and we saw

We remember those who rushed in when everyone else was running out

We remember the unspeakable toll

We remember the smoke and the ashes

We remember the fliers

We remember the photographs

We remember the bereaved loved ones

We remember the hole in our skyline that will never go away

We remember the pain of our city

We remember when everyone was a New Yorker

We remember when life started going back to normal

We remember those for whom life will never be normal again

We remember that beautiful Tuesday morning

We will never forget

There will be no shortage of television specials, newspaper editorials and conversations around hallowed grounds this weekend asking the question: “Where were you?”

The shared sorrow of national tragedy has a way of unifying, as it did after that fateful day in September 2001: we remember the innocent men, women and children who did not deserve such a premature fate; we remember the heroes who ran into unbelievable danger to help people they didn’t even know; we remember the heroes who were never able to run back out.

And while it may be pertinent to look back on where we were, it is equally important to look forward to where we are going.