Wampum

Eric:
You have something important to say, but I'm not getting it.
Could you please, in plain English, supply background, history and context for your posts?
Thanks.
(Sorry to sound so crabby, but it's quite frustrating.

There are a couple of things in that post.
1. Freedom and/or democracy are really made up of small things, like the right of transport workers to hold 60 minute strikes. Without cops and lawyers and manditory back-to-work orders and eventual arbitrations. Without high drama.

2. Freedom and/or democracy really amount to big things, like whether the science budget is 3% of GDP or a lot, lot less, and whether "science", as practiced by a state, is a fantastic vision, a la GWB's "Mars or Bust", or "jobs, jobs, jobs" with a modicum of community consensus about broad areas of research, the Sauvons la recherche collective program. These are very different things.

Then there are the really little things, like the observation that blogs are used for political campaigns in the current cycle in France, and the hermetic character of the six aloof left list lords that seem to have run up a political dotcom bubble of their own, and may have no way "down" but "bust".

Oh. My bags. Now lost luggage really is obscure, except that the TSA ("Terror Sustains this Administration") goes highly non-linear when a passenger and his or her baggage are even momentarily parted, so in theory my laundry is more dangerous than even a full cup of detergent and bleach can ... neutralize.

I'll find out tomorrow how much fun Customs and The White Shirts had with toys for children with autism and French curriculum materials, CM through CE2 (trans: grades K-3).

My Roman Holiday post was much simpler. Perle and his gang know less about Europe than ... random European children ages 7 to 10. He's at least 20 years "en retard".

If I understand your entry you're trying to get a response from MoveOn? I did get MoveOn.org to respond to me once (regarding a dividend I did not recv for a donation); it took two tries.

I sent my emails to moveon-help@list.moveon.org

I've gotten moveon to respond to me...though it might have something to do with knowing someone who works for them :-)

Two examples of using the medium well for a political end stand out to my eyes: MoveOn's original petition drive, and the Sauvons la recherche collective's petition drive that is current.

I want to use one well.

We here at Wampum discussed taking the issue I discussed in my piece on Oliphant to Dems who didn't attach much importance to Federal Indian Law issues, Deaniacs at that moment in time, which has passed, because there is an intersection of core interests.

Rehnquist's fabrication in Oliphant is profoundly bad for Tribes, I only scratched the surface in my post on the subject, and of course, it isn't going away any time soon, though Rehnquist is old, and Rehnquist must die.

Rehnquist's role in the appointment of Bush is profoundly bad for both big-D-democrats and little-d-democrats. If left "above politics", the Rehnquist Court could again play an activist role in the next attempt at regime-change, and possibly with an even larger freedom to create "law". This too isn't going away any time soon, though Rehnquist is old, and Rehnquist must die.

I don't want MO.O's fame or fortune, I simply want non-NDNz to grok the basic facts of Oliphant et seq., and NDNz to grok the fact that we can work with the Party and ... to put it simply, take down Rehnquist, and with him, DeLay's bourgois mobs. And then I'd like to see it -- a petition -- go as far as those two concurrent lines of hope and necessity can carry it.

Any assistance appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Eric, you have interesting and important ideas. You express them in ways that require the reader to re-read, think through the many allusions and roundabout phrasings, and effect a sort of translation into straightforward "shorter Eric" language to understand.

For the reader who has the required time for it, background to grasp the allusions, etc., this can be an entertaining exercise. And on your blog, that's as it should be; it's entirely up to readers and potential readers to choose to read or not.

But a tactical proposal to busy political staff is entirely different. When you write to MoveOn about the petition etc. idea, your letter will benefit hugely from "shorter and more direct Eric" editing suggestions from friends and allies. Clearly, you have many of those close at hand. Best wishes for success!

Thanks for the suggestion, but I fear it is beyond my abilities, or rather, writing to be read would put an end to my writing.

I've overcome the dyslexia, of the thousands of letter sequences I couldn't construct as a child, only a few remain.

I thought of something yesterday evening that I'll experiment with.

MO.O isn't going to reply.

According to style (one of Lorinda Cherry's Bell Labs tools that made it into Unix), my "Trivial Pursuits" piece has a Fog index of 14. Brad DeLong's piece o the Bumiller he-said/she-said in the NYT has an index of 15.6, so by some measure his writing is "harder" than mine.