Do Bee and Van work for a campaign? How do they have this much time to reply to a First Read post???

Folks look at the record - Clinton and Obama have almost the exact voting record in the senate. Why would people suggest that there is a difference? ACTIONS my friends speak louder than words.

And Obama's actions don't show a "New" way of Washington...

And to be critical of Clinton's vote on Iran (and to suggest she is letting Bush start another War) is sort of strange since he couldn't even have the JUDGEMENT to go and vote against it... If it was such an important vote - why didn't he vote or better yet show some leadership to build a group to oppose it. See it's about actions not just words...

Keep hoping folks that some magical candidate is going to come and CHANGE washington... Washington is the way it is because it is a complete reflection of the American Public...

FDR, Hunt Valley, MD---please you were in no way a supporter of Obama to start out with. Your argument is not valid, McClurkin is NOT anti-gay, he simply says what he been through in life how he has changed and how change is possible, never bashes any gay person, so please. John Tanner came right out and said that black women die anyway, what the hell? And Tanner is in a position where his racist thoughts WILL undoubtedly affect his decision making when it comes to voters. McClurkin's feelings only affect McClurkin!!!!

Dear "Sigmund", thanks very much for your concern over my mental health, doing just fine thanks. My point about people being distracted from the truly germaine issues is proved by reading through this thread, so much bickering about truly irrelevant trivia. With regards to the current administration's errosions of our freedoms, the facts are there for rational thinking people.

j thinks people who call in to seamy are smart enough to cross the street.  NOT! j hardly ever crosses the street unless his mom is there to help him.
All of seany calls are screened , only the stupid may apply.

Van:  It is what it is.  The Clintons will only reap what they have sown.  All the happy talk won't erase past errant behavior.  We'll see how Iowa and subsequent primary events play out.  I feel that Iowa will be a big surprise for you and NH with its 45% independents, will hand your candidate a death knell.  South Carolina, I expect, will then help to fell the Clinton inevitability propaganda.

Who knows?  Maybe all of the polls you cite, will bear you out and make you a happy guy but it will leave many of us disgusted and disenfranchised.  

And Jerry, I don't know why you complain so much, she just one of your team.
Obama '08

Here, here Michael, Los Angles....You are so on the mark! Hard to get any action, the teams MUST win.
The Washington World is just another ballgame!
Who has the best batter, the star pitcher, who can run with the ball and carry the team.  No I in team!

Hillary will win and its gonna be a LANDSLIDE!! Just watch.

Countdown to Iowa: 71 days
Countdown to New Hampshire: 76 days

"In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, little has changed. Clinton attracts 46% support and continues to enjoy a commanding lead over Barack Obama, who earns the vote from 19%. John Edwards attracts 15%. Delaware Senator Joe Biden is supported by 4% and no other candidate attracts more than 3% support from Likely Democratic Primary Voters (see recent daily numbers). A Rasmussen Reports analysis this week noted that the only bad numbers for Clinton these days can be found on the calendar."

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/daily_presidential_tracking_poll__1

NINETEEN percent.


Van

I have been expecting your poll number for the day. Anything else?

OK IT'S TRUE...hillaryclinton.com

All of the leading candidates have to contend with the media's delight in catching perceived glitches in their campaigns. The MSM would rather focus on these "mistakes" rather than focus on candidates' positions on the important issues and the actions they intend to take if elected.

Currently, Barack Obama may be the target of the worst of this scrutiny, perhaps because of his (perceived) inexperience. On the other hand, it seems that the Obama campaign's lack of foresight and planning may be leading to too many incidents (such as the McClurkin controversy or Obama's failure to participate in the AARP debate) that become a distraction from the candidate's essential messages.  

Question for Clinton supporters?

1) I'm not accepting any PAC money. Your husband never took PAC $ when he ran in '92 & '96. Why are'nt you doing the same thing?

2)If youdon't like Bush's war, why did you tell the NYT on March 14th that you would keep American Soldier in Iraq when you're POTUS? How long do you plan on keeping the troops in Iraq?

3)Your healthcare proposal will leave alone those who are happy with their current insurance. But if you provide health benefits for close to 50 million new people, you generate huge new demand for medical care without any increase in the supply of doctors, nurses or and prices will go through the roof. Won’t that force you to institute cost controls by limiting the care those now on health insurance can receive?

4)After all the bad experiences with Johnnie Chung and Charlie Trie and their campaign donations in '96, why were you not more careful in vetting the donations generated by Norman Hsu? Didn’t you learn your lesson back then?

5)When you found that you had to return almost $1,000,000 to donors bundled by Hsu, you said you would be more vigilant in examining the backgrounds of donors. Why didn’t you come to that conclusion before the Hsu scandal?

6) What experience do you have that makes you qualified to be POTUS? Being FLOTUS doesn't count. After all, what do you have ot brag about during those years? A health care policy? Losing control of Congress? Writing a book? TRavelingthe world at taxpayer expense? being a carpetbagger to the people of New york?

7)What is more important-defeating the right wing machine or defeating Al qaeda

jERRY YOU SHOULD LOVE WHAT bUSH HAS DONE FOR YOU AND YOUR PUCKER FRIENDS AFTER 8 YEARS HE LEFT YOU WITH NO REPLACEMENT AND A WAR WITH NO END ONLY PROGRESS A PARTY IN SHAMBLES YOU WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM,HAVE A NICE DAY.

Doesn't Teflon cause cancer?

**** N E W S  A L E R T **** Bush signs disaster legeslation, for his own administration.No veto planned at this time. Please stay tuned for further information. That is all for now, we return you to your regurlarly scheduled day.

Van-thank for posting the polls. But the reason why i think they are not really accurate it is among likely democratic caucus goers, and I think that Obama will ignite people who haven't previous participated in caucuses to come out. I know many of my friends and family members have taken the day off on that day and none of them have participated in the past. So while I appreciate your posts of the poll, it really doesn't mean anything. Obama attracts a younger audience, and when they really have it on their mind to do something, they do it!! I think they will come out and it will make a HUGE difference!!!

Gee Van, I guess your citings are put up to make the pitiful anti-Hillary Democrats real happy that she is apparently steam-rolling her way to the Democratic nomination.  Watch it!  You just
re-enforce what disgusts us anti-Hillary people the most; we just hate how her propaganda machine (and complicit news media and the hopeful Republicans) implies that the race is over before the votes have been cast.  

Once again, I laugh at your idol worship of these aggregate polls.  The whole nominating process was not meant to be structured as a single point in time, so that lesser known candidates might have a means to gather some strength (although, again the Hillary machine has tried to re-structure the process so that her early weakness wouldn't lead to a snowballing of strength of any of the opposition candidates).  

Your inevitability citings will disgust many of us if they turn out to be true because it means that the process is all a pre-determined sham; a real negation of the democratic process.
 
If you're right, it would be another nail in the coffin of an open election; in the election stealing tradition of GWB - where might makes right, where once again, power brokers call the shots.  God, I hope you're wrong, if for no other reason than it would restore my faith in the process.
Obama '08

WHY IS IT THAT EVERYTIME OBAMA IS CALLED OUT FOR DOING SOMETHING WRONG OR THE APPEARANCE OF SOMETHING WAS DONE WRONG THAT HILLARY NAME IS EVOKED. HILLARY HAS HER OWN PROBLEMS TRUE BUT WHEN OBAMA HAS HIS LET IT BE HIS PROBLEM

So, Giuliani hired a Catholic priest after the priest was accused of sexually molesting teen age boys. Can the GOP be that stupid .. I guess so just look at GWB. Maybe the GOP should start a Craig/Foley ticket. Besides isn't their big platform "No child left behind"

So sorry Jerry you must feel the pain of not one but two stations in philly picking up air america dont you hate ,well of course you do,how libs just wont go away and repuckers just keep fing things like Iraq up.

Here is an intresting perspective regarding the Netroot making noise about Obama's stand on Mcclukin.
-----------------------------------------------------

I've also been constantly amazed at the "liberal" blogosphere's treatment of Obama. They endorse Edwards, a Dixiecrat whose voting record earned him the high mark of 32% from environmental defense groups to Obama's 100%; Edwards, whose experience and legislation in domestic and foreign policy isn't half of Obama's, who was a civil rights/constitutional law expert and attorney and elected to the state then U.S. Senate. (Edwards: lawyer, Senator one term, no major legislation, voted for Iraq War.) Now it's Dodd they're calling the go-to guy??!!

The liberal blogosphere is making itself more irrelevant this campaign season instead of more influential. Many are playing the old political games, forming PACs, which Obama won't take a dime from, and 527s, which Obama discourages all supporters from joining so there aren't smear ads put out against opponents "on his behalf" - don't do him any favors, says he.

Plain and simple: They don't fund or control Obama, Obama does not seek their undying favor, they are not the center of his political universe. Believe it or not, there are millions of people still without computers and/or internet access in the U.S., and many who have access never, ever visit a "liberal" political blog or read online news from MSM beyond the sports and weather and local news.

"Liberal" bloggers don't reach out to the elderly, or to people of color, and they still speak about the LGBT population as if it's one monolithic population - all white! It's not! Black, Asian, Latino LGBT folks deal with homophobes in the family every day, just as much as poor white LGBT folks do. If they're religious they go to intolerant churches, synogogues or mosques just for the fellowship of fellow believers, despite the vitriol they are subjected to. When there are enough of them, they form their own places of worship and tolerance.

Obama's church is one of those denominations that is open and accepting of all worshippers, gay or straight, black or white or Latino or Asian or Native American. Here in the California Bay Area, there is a church from Obama's denomination that is led by a black lesbian pastor, and has the only transgender gospel choir in the nation!

Tolerance increases with education, which increases with money or some lucky opportunities, that's just a fact.

Obama will address liberals' issues better and more honestly and directly than anyone, beholden to no one. They just don't seem to want a black man to be president - it's beyond me. I've never seen primarily white liberals (who predominate in those blogs) ignore such a stellar civil rights activist and attorney, constitutional law professor [qualified for the Supreme Court], grassroots activist, black candidate with a legislative, never mind environmental record like Obama's - not that we've ever had a candidate like that before.

Many of the "liberal" bloggers don't even stick to their professed liberal values. They say they'll vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination - as if she weren't the #1 recipient of lobbyist/PAC/527 dollars, and as if nominations drop into anyone's lap!

They don't work for a candidate in any way but blogging. Going door-to-door, doing outreach, volunteering, addressing the hundreds of issues all different people care about, face-to-face, that's really working for a candidate.

I think lots of these bloggers would freak out at walking out among different people with different values and beliefs to register voters and promote their candidate. That's why Dean lost; they thought they could just break away from their monitors at the last minute and yell their message out to people with very different lifestyles and win!

It's what I'm most grateful for with Obama - after reading his Audacity of Hope, I don't compartmentalize people by physical/ideological/religious identities anymore. I don't police what others should think, feel anymore. I'll have a discussion with anyone now and almost always find some common ground. I've made more progress getting "traditional" opposition to see my side than I ever made by rejecting, ridiculing and insulting people for their beliefs, and I see them as human beings again, not as categories.

Another poster here spoke the truth; it's like the bloggers are getting to be more and more like MSM; forment conflict with incendiary headlines to increase readership. The liberal blogosphere dumbs down readers/viewers/listeners just like MSM, it promotes rancor and shouting matches like MSM, and does nothing to get our democracy functioning to solve real problems.

By VCubed

Folks,

Washingpost blog is more interesting. I think i am going to shift my allegiance

and why do I care about Philly?????

After all.........

According to Reuters

Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in the United States, a survey of visitors and residents showed on Friday. The city of more than 1.5 million people was also found to be among the least stylish, least active, least friendly and least worldly, according to the “America’s Favourite Cities” survey by Travel & Leisure magazine and CNN Headline News.

like I said....
Why do i care about Philly?

Ok Jerry:
(1)  Senator Clinton worked with Senator Schumer to secure $21.4 billion in funding to assist clean up and recovery, to provide health tracking for first responders and volunteers at Ground Zero, and to create grants for redevelopment.
(2) In 2005, Clinton issued two studies that examined the disbursement of federal homeland security funds to local communities and first responders.
(3) Clinton has used her membership on the Armed Services Committee to take a strong position in favor of U.S. military action in Afghanistan –– with the additional benefit that it greatly improved the lives of women in that country, who had suffered terribly under the rule of the Taliban
(4) Senator Clinton also became a national advocate for retaining and improving health and other benefits for veterans.
(5) Clinton has pressed for education, labor, and technology infrastructure programs to assist economic development in upstate New York and similar regions. For example, in 2003, Clinton solicited offshoring firm Tata Consultancy Services to set up shop in economically beleaguered Buffalo, New York.  
(6) In 2004, Clinton co-founded and became the co-chair of the U.S. Senate India Caucus with the encouragement and aid of the USINPAC Political Action Committee.
(7) In 2005, Clinton co-sponsored with Senator Lindsey Graham the AMTAC proposal regarding incentives and rewards for completely domestic American manufacturing companies

P.S.  75% of all divorces in America are filed by the woman.  (I don’t have the data, but I’d bet money that 75% of those women are democrats - more likely to have an independent source of income)

Why Jerry you shouldn't be such a slave to stlye and fashion ..there are more important things to worry about....

Bee promises, promises you sound like a politician. Go with hope, peace and levity. Washington post blog?  I thought it was the Times? So many blogs, so little time!
Mmmm a promise or a threat? Is your work here complete, time to blow up some other blog?

its sad to read statements on here, to see how americans see politics, so many countries in the world has had female leaders but that will never happen in AMERICA. You guys tell other countries in the world about eqaulity but half of it u do not practice,I think that hillary is brave to take a chance and run for president i do not see any other woman stepping up do u? What does it matter she is still married to her husband or did u forget better or for worst and besides, she has nothing to be ashamed of it was monica who need the money, she new he was married( see how women stab each other). Americans are silly, we the rest of the world listen to whats going on and here in europe they laugh at u guys, come on now, people on here saying she stayed married to run for president come on. No wonder bush is president i understand your thinking now, see where the country is going , the us dollar is worth nothing now and u thinking about peoples personal lives to run a country. look who u had for president, the man could not even speak properly but you guys voted him in twice! ok then. Wake up America maybe she might be just wat u need, stop living in the past, and all these men talking shit if i was the wives, girlfriends wat ever they would be gone( its a shame that they can not be men and say it that they would not vote for her because she is a woman). Welcome to America. Wake up people.

Bee:
You always write well but this last post was moving.  Obama really is a personification of what this country is about.  He makes us realize that all humans should be encouraged to manifest the greatness that is in them and from that contribution we will all benefit.  Need I restate the obvious?  Not since JFK has there been such an inspirational candidate for the presidency.
Obama '08

I am sick of both redumblicans and ditzocrats.  I am a fiscally conservative, socially liberal individual, so i used to like Rudy, until he started catering more to the far right.  And i don't like any of the democrates since most of them would like to steer this country closer to a socialist economy.  I live in the USA, if i wanted to live in a more socialist economy i would move to Canadia.

Just the facts.....

Let's take these in order.....

1.  Where is the link for this story?  I googled and found nothing.
2,3,4.  She couldn't do it by herself?
5.    Were those earmarks like the $1 million earmark for the hippie billionaire?
6.  Senate India caucus....I see where the Clinton's and India and INFOUSA all mixes in nicely.....
7.  That is funny....

In other words, she has not had any legislation or her own work signed into law.......

Gotta do better then that.......

Now, take all this info and educate Sean hannity so he doesn't get the "because she's a woman" dribble...

Based on Just the Facts, Hillary Clinton does about one thing a year.  

I'm sure the list wasn't complete, but this was just a superficial cheap shot.

Notice how van can not give a civil response?  How he always insults those who question him?

Notice how van demands "proof" of others, but ignores those who demand proof of him?

Notice how HP is his only friend?  Hmmm

Poor Mitt, he can't get a break, that's the why the political ball rolls for the politically convenient candidate.

Notice how van hardly ever gives another poster a compliment?

Notice that van only reads posts with his name in them or posts criticizing Clinton?

Notice that van is paranoid?

We'll be watching.

Watcher, What a friend I have in Jesus!
Mark used to be his friend but all of a sudden Van was FOS. We left the love fest of the FOD.
It has been a bumpy journey , to what end I can only ponder.
Yea though I walk through the election of '08 I will fear much evil, it is everywhere.

Yes.  We will.  We are.

(5) Clinton has pressed for education, labor, and technology infrastructure programs to assist economic development in upstate New York and similar regions.

Hillary did the same thing for education when the hubbie was the gov in Arkansas.  She took Arkansas from 40th in nation in education to 48th.  You really have to work hard to generate that big of a move.

HP, Friend to the Friendless.  Good man.

Jerry you are sometimes too funny!!

Jerry wrote..

"Let's take these in order.....

1.  Where is the link for this story?  I googled and found nothing.
2,3,4.  She couldn't do it by herself?
5.    Were those earmarks like the $1 million earmark for the hippie billionaire?
6.  Senate India caucus....I see where the Clinton's and India and INFOUSA all mixes in nicely.....
7.  That is funny....

In other words, she has not had any legislation or her own work signed into law....... ""

Shawn,Norway:
You are correct in implying that our society is backwards, still puritanical, a bit provincial, but we are trying.  And, most importantly, we don't want to mark milestones for symbolic reasons alone.  I am a feminist (I have 4 daughters and encourage all of them to accomplish whatever they can - as I do my 2 sons) but I will not vote for a candidate just to break a mold.  Hillary is unacceptable because of her unprincipled politics and because her forays in foreign policy promise to continue what this administration has pursued for the last 5 years (you guys in 'old Europe' [I wonder if Rumsfeld considers Norway part of 'old Europe'] haven't much approved of that foreign policy, have you?).  I will vote for a candidate, man or woman, who will lead this country in a direction that I consider to best help us solve our problems and help us to be part of the solution of the world's problems, as well.  From my standpoint that is Barack Obama and not Hillary Clinton.
Obama '08

Notice how van can not give a civil response?  How he always insults those who question him?

Notice how van demands "proof" of others, but ignores those who demand proof of him?

Notice how HP is his only friend?  Hmmm

watcher (Sent Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:39 PM)

Notice how van hardly ever gives another poster a compliment?

Notice that van only reads posts with his name in them or posts criticizing Clinton?

Notice that van is paranoid?

We'll be watching.

watcher 2 (Sent Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:48 PM)


Remember what I said Mark. I'm giving you a pass on this because it is so sad that I feel bad for you.
No one else is on here making personal attacks, only you. Please stop. I don't want you to feel any more humiliated than you already must be.

Van

Watcher 4, GOOD WOMAN! You should be watching better than that.

It'd be great if the MSM would instead spend their time looking into Clinton's minimum wage donors, or the huge flaws in her policies (as well as the policies of the other front-runners). Illegal immigration is a huge issue and it's the spot were the front-runners are weakest (possible exception: Fred Thompson), yet the MSM refuses to take those candidates to task for the huge glaring gaps in their policies.

Please do real reporting, not celebrity reporting.

We are indeed humiliated.  Thanks for the pass.

Notice how van comes racing to the bait?

Elizabeth, Mark and Zuma: I have been posting here several times a week for the past few months. Having read a lot of blogs of one stripe or another, I was never before interested in entering the conversation because of the tone or the general lack of thoughtful observation. The worst cases for me were the liberal blogs. When I found First Read, I read a whole range of opinion with people who seemed free from lockstep reactions. More often than not, after reading your posts and then reading through the discussions, I felt I had been better informed than anything I had encountered in the Mainline Media. First Read was not perfect, nor would it have been interesting if it were. And I am aware that it does not exist for my taste alone. Nonetheless, it was an intelligent blog with a few rules which kept conversations honest and clean. A few days ago, I was shocked at what I saw. There seemed to have been an invasion of aliens to the site. The tone had changed drastically for the worse and the quality of discourse had practically disappeared. The few beleaguered regulars left posting tried to have conversations around the loud newcomers who seemed all over the blog. One in particular. These folks seemed to have nothing special to say, but either were so egocentric as to believe that their wisdom had not been posted before better, or they were truly engaged in a "hijacking" as does occur on other sites from time to time, right around the time of some significant political or geopolitical event. Huma came onto the discussion board yesterday in a mild police action which was past due. I do not know what you can do about the deterioration of the quality and civility of your blog discussions. My own reaction was at first to ignore it. When I saw you were letting it go, possibly for the purpose of hyping the site, I joined in the brawl. It turned into a blog bar fight. I have never liked bullies, never liked loud-mouths and have found it almost impossible to stay in a room with fair-weather patriots, mouthy chickenhawks, who have no clue how foolish they appear to others, but nonetheless dominate the conversation with their "opinions." This is all to say that the blog has lost its appeal for me and at least one other free-thinking and intelligent friend. We are just weary of the harassment and the prevailing arrogance and ignorance (including some of our own reactionary posts) of the recent past few days. You are about to lose something of value (not just us in particular) and something many have appreciated: a forum for those with ideas, concerns, and expressions which may not fall directly into some ideological category. A blog for reasoned and even lighthearted exchange of opinion. A blog for free-thinkers, right left, and center. One final word before signing off for awhile: The predictable knee-jerk reaction (which has seldom been in such evidence here) to anyone who takes his ball and goes home is often about "sour grapes" or invites a childish diatribe about "free speech." We had free speech here. That was the joy of it. There is no law against bullying on the blogs and Americans still have the freedom of expression as a right. There is no law against passing gas either, but one doesn't have to stay in the room with those who pass it egregiously. There are other rooms. This was a good one. I hope you'll regain some control. My one regret is that I got drawn into some rather tacky exchanges with people who seemed gleeful in trashing the site. Cheers to all!
Mark Thieme (Sent Friday, January 12, 2007 11:50 AM)


So, this nut has a history of doing this kind of thing long before I got here.

I warned you Mark. This is just sad on your part and I really wish for everyone's sake that you would just stop.

Van

HP, many apologies. In spite of van's paranoia that anyone who notices his failures must be Mark Thieme, there is no Mark Thieme and never has been.  We are a blogging group who take turns using that moniker and others.
I am new here and did not intend to be rude.

I just watch and every time van blows off somebody or acts the fool, we take turns calling him on it.  Kind of like the trash heap, you know?
Again, my apology.

Ok Jerry:  (1) - (7) [not necessarily in order]
amtacdc.org/Policy%20Issues/Pages/toecongressmustintervene
usindiafriendship.net/congress1/senatecaucus/members
sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Political_action_committee
tata.com/tcs/releases/20030310
answers.com/topic/hillary-rodham-clinton
spider.mc.yu.edu/news/articles/article.cfm?id=101051
www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,185643,00
encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556529/Hillary_Clinton
opinionjournal.com/wsj/?id=90000397
csmonitor.com/2003/0310/p01s01-uspo

Sean Hannity is not worth commenting on, let alone watching [I’m sure a sentiment I share w/ many, incl Mrs. Hannity, who surely tuned him out years ago for the sake of her sanity]

Watcher 4 kind of gave us away, so we have decided to go ahead and come clean.  Besides, the game here is getting a little out of control.  We actually never intended to be the cause of anyone's meltdown.
Our fearless leader (not Mark Thieme) invented that name about a year ago with Samuel Clemens in mind. (Mark Twain/Mark Thieme... marking time)
It started as a group of five people, 2 women and 3 men who worked in the same campaign, but soon it spread to other campaigns as well.  Once we had more than 50, but due to the increasing intensity of the campaign, we have lost some members.
Diverse group. Some young, some old, only 5 white males! Some are veterans, some are not.  We have almost as many women as men and even 2 Republicans who claim they won't vote that way in 2008.
Our original intent was to choose some interesting blogs and have some good clean fun.
Soon, though, we found ourselves in the most horrendous and vile shouting matches most of us had actually witnessed up close.
Our idea had been to inject some of the reality of campaigning into the dialog.  But we soon found out, that as Thomas Merton famously said, "Most humans can't stand much reality."
We found ourselves being punched out by weekend warriors, both political and military.  Our veterans were incensed, our political operatives laughed at first, but then Mark Thieme suited up.
The Thieme character was flawed from the beginning.  We keep a diary of faux pas which we were never called on.  One time Thieme has kids, other times he is single, and so on.  It was always according to who was blogging.
Last night there were howls of laughter as van reuter pompously announces that he can't find Mark Thieme on Google!  Really?
The truth about Thieme is that he has become a man of many incarnations, as van has pointed out.  We voted yesterday to kill him, (Mark Thieme, not van) and so we did.  So van won't have Mark Thieme to kick around any more.
We regrouped and voted to bug van like he had harassed so many on First Read with his trash heap and hot air attacks.
One reason we stayed on is that some here know van from other times and places and do not like him.  Apparently the guy knows how to make enemies.  Also we have 3 designated smoke detectors and they all honed in on him.  All in all, probably unfair.
That is what we meant when we hinted that we have an unfair advantage over whoever we go up against.  We know them better than they know us.  (Hey Google, right van?)
So we'll be watching, but at least using new names.  Most likely we'll spend more time in other places for awhile until van cools down.
By the way, we were surprised that no one noticed we were multiple personalities except in name calling and bashing.  There are hundreds of groups just like this all around the globe.  We, being high-minded and morally pure, do want to offer sincere apologies to anyone who took us seriously.  HP was catching on, but van was far behind... and that's where we will leave him for now.
It has been fun and we have met some great folks here. Thanks to all.

Peace,

The Mark Thiemes

there is no Mark Thieme and never has been.  We are a blogging group who take turns using that moniker and others.
I am new here and did not intend to be rude.

So, now you're a GROUP? And YOU'RE new here?

So you've been LYING to everyone? The farewell in January was a GROUP effort? The October 8th farewell too?
Do yourself and everyone who knows you a favor and get help.
There are people who you have corresponded with here, even offered to go to dinner with who must feel betrayed by this sad pretense. I hope that they forgive you. I have. There's no reason or purpose to my enabling your illness.


Van

There is a minority opinion that needs to be expressed.  Some of us thought we were taking advantage at times, and especially with van.  There was never the least malice toward him and many times we tried to pull out, but he kept chasing us.  About the time we would move on, we'd get a report that he was still blasting away with that purple prose of self-righteous pomposity.  We'd get pulled in again becuase it was too  much to pass  up.
As we said, there was never real animosity, but a lot of humor.  Since there were so many of us, no one took anything personally and soon it became this big inside joke. This humor was at van's expense and also was deleterious to the primary purposes of the board.
As we "move forward" we will have to calibrate the value of inside humor to the net detriment of others.
We also want to add out thanks to everyone here who put up with us.  We know some of you had fun too and some appreciated the insights we brought from the campaign field... for the rest, we'll do you a favor and regroup.  Thanks

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