Got Tuition, a project sponsored by the National Education Association to raise awareness of college affordability and related issues, is live-blogging from the Big Tent in Denver -- and sharing cool "got tuition?" t-shirts as well. (To order your own t-shirts for the college students in your life, or to honor your own loan repayments, click here.) In addition to talking to other bloggers about their college debt circumstances, Got Tuition is posting photos and video clips from the Big Tent.

I am new, but I guess I am not "new new" and yes *Since some might say, as I re-read this "God, it sounds like a shrink wrote this" I am an Experimental psychologist, but not a clinical or counseling one. And yes the handle B.F. Skinner comes from my years of education of the first B.F. during my days of training.

Usually I post a humor diary on Friday, but I opted for this instead. Sigh.

The purpose of this diary is my suggestion, for whatever it is worth, if anything, as an observer, on controversial topics, based on an incident yesterday. We all know that no two people will agree on everything.

Shoot, just because you are a progressive and someone else calls themselves a progressive does not mean much on INDIVIDUAL specific topics all the times.

I have seen people almost come to Internet-based blows over some disagreements on here, and these are people on the same side of the political spectrum for the most part.

That being said there seems to be an increase as of late of people (?) who come to cause trouble.

<More after the break>

I'll keep this simple.

Obama is blowing it.

Faced with sinking polls and highly effective attacks from Mclame, he pretends all's well and no sweat.

In San Fransisco he promised donors he'd win.

Our guy is living in a bubble and doesn't even know it.

All his latest ads are ineffective.  He's always playing defense.  It makes him look weak and wimpy.

The Cone of Silence and the cross in the sand are neck and neck in the diary derby. The Cone of Silence seems to be pulling away, and I am proposing a subtle change in the beloved Kos to the Daily C.o.S.
Why . . . follow me, now . . .

So here's the link to the AP story about how Obama's issued a "rebuttal" to Jerome Corsi's pack of lies about him.

Now that's good, to get that rebuttal out fast, and "fight the smears." But it's not enough. I think that smears will weaken Obama's poll position, as they've worked to weaken the position of Dem candidates in past elections.

It's a fact--as opposed to campaigning on substantive issues that really matter, a smear campaign works--not every time, but too much of the time. Even if--as with Corsi's book and McCain's recent ads--the smears are patently false, transparent, juvenile, or hypocritical. (continued)

    This wasn't the old Kos.

    In a dingy Austin hotel, eating delicious hot tortilla soup, the blogger stroked his Taxi Driver-style mohawk and screamed, "Ow! I pricked myself!" Wiping off the blood on his Sid Vicious t-shirt, he then reflected on what mission drove him here...

   It all started with the the shock, awe, and torrents of tears at YearlyKos 2007 when Gina Cooper announced that YK would now be known as NN, i.e., "NETROOTS NATION". How people wept! Their Internet god was being dissed!
    After that day, Kos wondered to himself as he stubbed out cigarette butts in his palm, "Are they gonna call it 'YearlyGina' the next year? ...Maybe they'll call it 'Kosapalooza' sometime if I'm really nice?"

    Then it got worse. He received a mail--snail mail--saying the "NN" organizing committee decided to really show him who's boss by burning his childhood sled. The sled with the Internet connection years before its time.

    The K crumpled the sheet of dead tree and screamed, "Oh hell, I'll just kill everybody. That'll show 'em!!"

    (mo mayhem)

Once again, the great wheel groans and the edge of darkness moves across the continent. As the somber American night settles, I place my hands on the monitor and sense your anxious voices crackling down the mojo line. Oh yes, I hear you out there in the dark American night...and I still have my suspicions about you.

... our nation is falling apart and the Republicans are laughing their asses off watching you fall for their diversionary tactics.

You who are having a conniption over the FISA bill are allowing the right-wing to distract you from more meaningful issues, not the least of which is getting Barack Obama elected and preventing McCain's Bush Term III.

But let's take a little overview of some of those other issues you are neglecting while you fetishize over the FISA bill:

Let's assume you have a job. You are offered a better job with better pay. You get the offer letter and accept the job. Then, just after being hired, your employer decides to cut your pay because your employers put something in the fine print you didn't see. Would you stick around?

That is EXACTLY what is happening to you Senator Obama RIGHT NOW. You are getting the shaft. As a brother, this should come as no shock in America. People like Markos have promised not to donate to your campaign and are leading many others to do so.

He lead the fight against FISA.  He lead the fight against the war in Iraq.  He was the only senator wise enough, brave enough and tough enough to stand against the Patriot Act.  He leads the fight on habeas. More than two years ago Feingold introduced a resolution to censure President Bush for authorizing the no-warrant domestic surveillance program. He's been fearless ongay marriage.  The list can go on and on, but you already know who he is and what he's stood for as a progressive leader.

This is my first dairy on DailyKos, and I did NOT plan on spending it bitching out my new compatriots, but damnit all to hell, this is unnecessary.

Unlike the Obama jihadists ( as opposed to sincere logical Obama supporters ) who have commandeered DailyKos constantly trolling for anyone who is critical of Obama in any way, KOS has made a wise decision withholding his $2300 donation to the Obama general election fund. ITS TIME FOR OBAMA TO WAKE UP before he turns himself into just another Political Con Artist on his way to the Presidency.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about life lately and the world in which I find myself.

As you can tell from my handle, and/or previous diaries I've written (If you've read any) I am an experimental psychologist by trade but I have always loved politics.. discussions, debates and learning from all sides from all people.

But it hit me the other day. Where did this interest come from? How come I got bitten by the political bug, and others did not?

>More after the break<</p>

Meet the Press, August 12, 2007:

MR. MOULITSAS:  ... I do agree with Harold the, that we, we do need to work together, and I hope you’ll be at next year’s YearlyKos conference...

REP. FORD:  I hope you’ll come to ours, too.

MR. MOULITSAS:  ...nicknamed -- it’s going to be called Netroots Nation, but, but what we need...

MR. GREGORY:  Would either of you go...

MR. MOULITSAS:  Yeah.

REP. FORD:  I would go.

MR. GREGORY:  ...to each other’s conventions?

MR. MOULITSAS:  I would, I would go.

REP. FORD:  I—I’d—I’ll make clear that I will be there next year.

Now:

Whose Movement?

Since its inception, one of the primary goals of the Netroots has been to examine the future of our movement.

Who are our leaders? Where should we build infrastructure?

And after last year's YearlyKos Convention, Markos went on Meet The Press to debate that very topic with Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Now, the two are meeting again at Netroots Nation for a lunchtime keynote discussion about party infrastructure.

This won't just be any keynote. This will be a chance for you to hear a casual discussion between the current chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council and a Netroots favorite. Then, you'll have a chance to ask questions of your own.

The noon session will be moderated by Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of Democracy for America.

The session's scheduled for lunch on Friday, July 18.  Will you be there?

You people sure know how to stay mad at each other.  You're like a cockney family of ten only with fewer jellied eels.*

Let's do a quick sit rep:

McCain and Obama are in roughly a dead heat, with a slight edge to Obama. The political climate is overwhelmingly favoring Democrats but McCain has a cash advantage. Republicans can't win on the issues but they have proved in the past that they can win using smears.

So what do do next?  I know, let's beat the crap out of each other! That'll be productive.

I'm not sure what to make of Bob Herbert's column today in the NYTs. He's clearly been monitoring the blog world, particularly, the Daily Kos, and he uncritically accepts the view that Obama is lurching to the right and pandering to evangelicals and gun nuts.  He uncritically accepts the view that Obama has forsaken his base while seeking the embrace of the right by caving on FISA and 'refining' his views on troop withdrawals from Iraq.

He is an example of how the MSM now sees events in the blog world as news - not just opinion. This means that there is a pretty good chance the Daily Kos (in particular) will play a role in this campaign that the Swift Boaters played in the 2004 campaign.  Except in 2004 the Swift Boaters were interested in taking down their opponent.  The Daily Kos stands to become a key means for taking down the candidate it claims to support.

Suddenly I am besieged with questions from family and friends.  What is happening to Obama?  Why is he doing this and that and that?  Did I read the article in The Nation, Surveillance Protest Group Tops Obama Website .  Then today's Huffington Post Obama's Faith-Based Plan by Jim Wallis.  Well folks, I'm more than a bit confused.  maybe you can help me understand?  Look below and I'll explain myself and also tell you what I think is happening.  Then I hope you will try to straighten me out.

    I'm sorry if what I am about to write here offends anyone personally, as that is certainly not my intent, but I have to chime in on this ongoing debate about whether or not to criticize Barack Obama over his recent apparent turn to the center. I should say first that I am at best a casual observer of the twists and turns of this debate, as I tend to be with most of these divisions among online communities that I belong to, so I am almost definitely going to be retreading over well-worn territory, and for all I know, I may well be so late to the party that this division is no longer as big a thing as it seems. That being said, the issues at hand (FISA and telecom immunity, gun control, etc) are as important to me as I'm sure they are to all of you, and I just need to get this off my chest before my head explodes.