column
Subject: column
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 10/20/09, 00:26
To: "BushwickBK.com" <jeremy.sapienza@gmail.com>

Notes from Bushwick

Nothing happened in Bushwick this week. Or, if it did, it didn't happen to me. But I'm of the understanding that other neighborhood residents are fond of attending music events and artistic gatherings, sharing meals at restaurants, and other such wholesome things, and I'd like to facilitate all of this because I am a being of pure energy which radiates harmonic love throughout the multiverse. So, if you're organizing any sort of thingamajig or what-have-you, playing a show at an area venue, or otherwise preparing to do something nifty, send me an e-mail. Artists, cooks, musicians, amateur filmmakers, guy who sells all DVDs for two dollars while also being willing to provide two free DVDs to those who purchase five at regular price, hookers - I want to hear from you. If you're thinking about robbing and murdering an elderly pawnbroker, ostensibly to do great works with the resulting score but in fact simply to prove to yourself that you stand outside of history as a man of ideas, I'd like to chat. Promote your projects; advance your radical political beliefs; present to me your fair young body; share your cooking tips. Hell, feed me phony news tips and general disinformation. At any rate, I've decided to do a weekly profile piece, and if I don't get any bites then I'm just going to start running around the neighborhood with a notepad, bothering you at inopportune times. I MUST HAVE INFORMATION I FEED ON IT END TRANSMISSION

Notes from the Outside World

The conservative end of the blogosphere has always outshone its opposite counterpart with respect to flamboyance of sentiment. It's true that you can go check out Daily Kos on most any given day and find a few recommended posts of dubious logical worth - user diaries too often fall under the general categories of Stories About People The Diarist Knows Who Have Lost Their Jobs or Rambling Demands For the Public Option, and of these, way too damned many end with angry/triumphant/offended rhetorical flourishes expressed in bold and all caps. But as an entity, Daily Kos works - hundreds of regular contributors continue to do an incalculable amount of exposing, advocating, fundraising, muckraking, organizing, and all those other things that a political movement needs done, and the vast majority of the official content in particular is reasonably expressed and thoroughly sourced. 

The conservative equivalent of Daily Kos would be RedState.com, which has far fewer users but nonetheless makes up for its logistical shortfalls by way of an absolutely mind-blowing failure of collective self-awareness. For instance, this user diary was posted last week to general acclaim and endless upvoting:


Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.

Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a radio personality.

Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a NFL owner denied

Tonight, Rush is us. And we are him.


Tonight Rush became the metaphor for all of us… every man woman and child in this great nation of ours.



A quick reminder - based on the number of recommendations made by users, this is one of the best-received pieces that Red State has ever run. But I'm interrupting:


The enemy of this great nation, the enemy of you and me, Rush’s enemy… those on the left, inside and outside of this nation abhor success… and when faced with it will destroy it… by any and all means possible.

We all have our dreams in life… such as they might be. Rush dreamed of being an owner in the NFL.

Tonight the left proved that they will stop at nothing to end our dreams. Our dreams of success and happiness devastate their need to dominate and control you and me… and well everything and everyone.



Even beyond Red State, the piece was heavily forwarded, quoted, cited, praised and promoted by some great number of our fellow citizens.



Chrysler bondholders

GM dealers

Bankers and stockbrokers

Small business owners

Medical Doctors

Oppressed people wanting freedom around the world


The left can not and will not allow anyone to realize their dreams

Tonight a light went out… a dream died… it died from political correctness

Tonight we are under withering fire, we on the right those in the middle,

Tonight our values are under withering fire, those thoughts ideas and dreams that made this great nation are under withering fire

Will your light of your dreams be next?

Will my dreams be next?



Inevitably, the article ends with the old poem that begins, "First they came for the communists..." And it does so without a hint of irony or even the sense that such a thing as irony exists. 

Anyway, there you have it. Our nation must be cleansed by fire. END TRANSMISSION LOL