Confession time: I visit Blogs for Bush fairly regularly to see how the opposition is cheering itself on and trying to recruit new folks. A few of us lefties and centrists join in the conversation for various reasons. My reason is to "pollute" it with my attempts to set the record straight so that uncommitted lurkers don't get completely misled.
It's becoming a great example of the presidency they support. More and more often, comments are being deleted for one or more of the following reasons: offensive, off topic, trolling, and nonsensical.
Comments sometimes merit deletion, of course. But deleting comments for "trolling" or being "nonsensical"?
For example, in a "terrorism" thread one of the site owners wrote
Anyways, there is no war problem not amenable to solution by military means. The reason terrorism is difficult to beat is because of lack of will on the part of the powers fighting it. There is no one sufficiently fanatical enough to survive being killed - and as we kill the enemy faster than he replaces himself, so we'll win the war...
I objected that this likely would be counterproductive, that trying to kill all the terrorists would inevitably kill more innocents, which would result in more recruitment of terrorists, and so on.
My comment, and several others, were later replaced by "deleted: [nonsensical]". Which, of course, they weren't.
I don't know much about blogs, to be honest, but I have always thought that deleting posts is a pretty drastic move related for truly offensive or repetitive statements. Supporters of Bush deny favoring an authoritarian regime, but their actions belie their words.
So, in my own small way I hereby hope to shed a wee bit of sunlight in the hope of shaming Blogs for Bush and, by implication, the Bush administration. Not that more was needed...
