Grain of Salt

POSTED BY JHW22

I take great pride in posting comments at politics blogs and sites. I try to be honest and thoughtful. I sign my name to all my comments to hold myself accountable -- well just my first name because I don't want any stalkers. But I respect the premise of the comment.

But after years of commenting at all kinds of sites, I've learned that not all comments are written by people with integrity and/or facts. There are an abundance of comments that make declarative statements without any quotes or links (not that I would follow links in a comment anyway). And it seems the more definitive -- yet lacking in support -- the comment, the more people adopt that comment as fact. I see this happen mostly on right-wing sites and or places that like to stir the pot rather than have a true discussion.

So over time, I've started limiting my reading to a few select sites and if I am in a grouchy mood I avoid the comments altogether. For the most part, however, I tend to read the comments only at sites I am familiar with and feel confident that the comments are written by people who know what they are talking about, or when the comments can be easily cross-referenced.

Perhaps that is why I was shocked and awed when I saw several job postings at a freelance website for commenters. Yes, some people get paid to comment.















And others get paid to re-write articles: have you ever noticed how right-wing blogs will have all of the same "information" but written differently and rarely with any links? It appears that several people get the scoop which gives the effect that it must be right.

Sarah Palin's Facebook Scrub

Not too long ago, I joined Sarah Palin's Facebook page just to comment on her page. It took about 30 seconds before I was banned from commenting. I thought that was pretty efficient, even for Team Palin, but as I scrolled down the thousands of comments, I realized that not one of them was even close to controverisal or disagreeable, and that almost all of them were a tribute to the Mama Grizzly.

My thoughts have been confirmed.

There are a host of benign posts deleted from supporters who simply disagreed with the person Palin chose to endorse in a particular note. A typical one addressed her endorsement of Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire for U.S. Senate: "I can't believe Sarah endorsed Ayotte. Ayotte is not a Momma Grizzley, she's just another progressive in Rep. clothing. The 912 group I belong to and some of the other groups in the state are disappointed by this endorsement."

This caused a little stir among the commenters. "Why are the few comments expressing disagreement with this endorsement being deleted?" wrote one. " Just because some of us disagree with the endorsement doesn't mean that we don't follow Sarah Palin." Alfred Petross wrote, "I just wish you would listen to me as a resident of the 3rd Congressional District. All I am doing is voicing my opinion and my posts keep getting deleted...." (These comments were then deleted.) "Having my posts deleted were extremely disappointing," says Petross, who went on to post his letter to Palin on his Facebook page, "because I was under the impression that Sarah Palin was in fact a political activist who was all about hearing the opinions and voices of the constituents of the United States."

Oh, poor, deluded Alfred Petross. He doesn't realize that Sarah Palin is all about Sarah Palin. Are so many people really that naive? Sarah doesn't care about opinions other than her own.  She doesn't care about the voices of constituents. Sarah is about advancing Sarah's agenda.  How people don't see through her thin veneer is beyond me.

The Wingnuts Are Coming, But We Have Hope - UPDATED

"I'm a California doctor who must choose between my faith and my job."

Seriously? What doctor will be unable to do his or her job because of gay marriage?

Maggie Gallagher, President of the National Organization for Marriage insists that their latest "gay marriage will make us all gay" commercial is "based on real incidents." Looks like it's a little too scripted for my taste. And badly scripted at that.



Once again, these people cannot separate legal, state sanctioned marriage and a religious marriage ceremony. This has nothing to do with their faith. By the way, does the state require a marriage license or is just the religious ceremony okay? Yeah, that's what I thought.

(H/T GottaLaff, TPC)


UPDATE (4/11/09 10am): The NOM pussies have pulled the audition videos from YouTube claiming copyright infringement! HA! It's too late, bigots. It's out there. Everyone knows it's out there. I'm leaving it up just to see that sad, sad notice when pushing play.

I'm also glad the rubes are having an "open and honest" dialogue on their blog by rejecting probably 95% of comments they disagree with during their moderation. I knew it would happen, so I wrote a very respectful comment asking to please provide me with the information or guide me to something on the NOM website to verify the claim that a California doctor had to choose between his faith and his job because of gay marriage. I got no answer and my comment was never published. What a surprise.

The sad part for them (but good for us) is that everyone else knows it as well so the commenting generally stopped before it even started. Pretty sad to get a total of 14 comments over 5 posts for a group that claims to be two million strong for marriage.