DU needs a new forum just for lurking legislators!

[Atman]

I just read the "If Dems don't filibuster, they are sending us a clear signal" post. It makes a lot of sense. We assume that "they" are reading DU. We all know "they" do, to some extent. Staffers, scribes, whatever. But, we frequently make some very pointed observations and just assume that someone in power is listening.

I wish there was a way that that "If Dems Don't Filibuster..." thread could be in a place where our lurking lawmakers could actually get a chance to see it before it got buried on DU page 3. A lot of posts fly through here, and some brilliant stuff gets wasted. Skinner, think about it. Maybe only the mods could move messages to this forum. Maybe all posts, once highlighted in such a forum, could be automatically e-mailed to our every congressman. But dammit, every one of these bastards should know how we feel about this. It IS important, and I while I enjoy our little club, what are we doing to ensure that "they" are hearing us?

[napi21]

1. What make you think legislators or staffers are reading DU?

I HOPE you're right! They'd get a good sense of where many people in this Country are! Free poll, so to speak.

But why do you think any of them ever bother to come here?

[shraby]

3. Senator Feingold said he has staffers reading

the blogs. I know he (one of his staff) posts to dailykos, and I think he has posted to huffpo, and Conyers posts to dailykos and huffpo..and I think to here.
John Kerry's stepson and his wife Elizabeth has posted here. Anyone remember who else has?

[Midlodemocrat]

19. John Conyers signed up not that long ago.

[Sydnie]

23. ummm John Kerry is not married to Elizabeth

He is married to Teresa. John Edwards is married to Elizabeth. Otherwise, you are correct. Elizabeth has posted here and says she reads it. Kerry's stepson, Chris Heinz, has posted here. John Conyers Jr. has posted here.

I beleive that some do read it. If not them, then their staff. Only way to get them to read us more often? Mention DU when you write to them. Often. They will get the message.

[shraby]

28. I had written John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth

and corrected it to Kerry's stepson and forgot to correct the "his wife". A big whoopsie for me.

[yurbud]

26. Feingold staffer, out yourself!

[leftstreet]

2. That's actually a great idea

I've seen many "suggestions for our leaders" - type threads here with some excellent ideas. But you're right, unless the readers are on the DU at the right time - some of the great ideas are buried.

[Tsiyu]

4. do as I do

when there is an issue like this wade back a few pages and kick the threads to the top periodically.

It takes a village to grow a thread!:P

Thanks for your vote of confidence, BTW;)

[notadmblnd]

5. mail it to them

send them an e-mail and insert the post with the link attached

[JNelson6563]

6. You're kidding right?

I marvel at how important some DUers think DU is in the real world.

Friend, there is so much nonsense and bullshit to wade through on DU these days, no one as busy as legislators or their staffers would have time to wade through it all to find the good stuff. I'd be surprised if there was anyone of note who was more than an occassional visitor.

Julie

[NorthELiberal]

7. "I marvel at how important some DUers think DU is in the real world."

So do I. It's almost as if DUer's think every Democratic leader should pay homage to DU.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NorthELiberal]

9. A low post count......

....doesn't mean I'm new or haven't followed DU for a long time............

I feel the way I do for many reasons.

The point I am trying to make is if Democratic leaders follow the "consensus" here....... it will probably hurt them as much as it would it help (Many democrats I know in real life are a little puzzled by the Che Guevara avatars, among other things)........... DUer's have a very strong tendency to trash everone on the Democratic side (and I mean trash them, not just criticize)........ The Clintons, Joe Biden, Paul Hackett, Bill Maher, John Kerry many times...... the list goes on.

How the general "consensus" here came to be, I am not sure.... there are probably many reasons, but I often wonder how much the banning of quite a few moderate Democrats has to do with it.

[Atman]

10. Who said anything about following the consensus here?

What a smug, assholish thing to say.

I said there are frequently some very good ideas posted here, by some very talented people. Not everything, all the time. But I have some very brilliant ideas come across this board, only to get disappeared into oblivion in an hour. We're always bitching about getting our reps to DO SOMETHING. What a crazy notion it would be to send along some of the best ideas to them and their staffers. It might spark an idean in THEM, it might not.

But I see your point. They shouldn't listen to their constituents at all. We don't send them enough corporate cash. Why should we waste our representative's time telling them how they could better represent us.

[NorthELiberal]

12. Dude...... you gotta calm down a little........ unless you have

a problem with someone making valid points......... I was replying to other people, not to you..... so there are reasonable posters here with a good idea every once in while....... congratulations..... there are also a ton of people waiting to hit the alert button whenever they think someone makeas a brief comment that sound "trollish" to them.

[Atman]

13. I have no need to "calm down."

I started the thread, and you were merely agreeing with the OP about how silly you thought it was. You can call that "replying to other people," but hey, I'm still here "listening," you know.

I'm not even sure you read my original post. It sure as hell doesn't sound like it, for the "valid points" you say were made I don't think were valid at all. Sure there is a lot of crap that gets posted. That was the entire point of my post, which you smugly dismissed out of hand because you apparently don't have any idea what I was suggesting. I was not suggesting just letting anybody post shit, or hit the "alert" button. Nothing even close, but still you managed to climb up on your high horse and piss your wisdom down on us.

And I'm quite calm, actually! Thanks for your concern.

[NorthELiberal]

22. What was it exactly that bothered you about what I said?

You don't like the comment I made about Che avatars? Are you saying my observation they are there (the avatars) is not valid? Are you blind? (I am for getting corporate cash of the system also, but I wouldn't use Che as my model.... or even remotely hint it........ I don't believe in ..........shooting in the streets anyone who manages to make a profit...... or grabbing other people's assets in a wholesale way.)

Or was it what I said about moderates being banned? Do you want me to name a few?...... as soon as I post them my reply is going to be deleted..... so what's the point.?

You don't think their are a quite a number of anti-Bill Maher posts on DU? They pop up after almost every show, do a search, you have a star next to your name, you can use the search function.

And when it comes to Biden, Hillary, threads bashing John Kerry,etc., c'mon man, your saying they don't exist? Dude, you 've been here long enough. If some of the purges that are called for here actually come to pass I am not exactly sure what would be left of the Democratic party.

If the criticisms don't apply to you, then relax and maybe you won't have such a hard time with other people being objective. I have posted things on DU and although I was "listening" in my thread I didn't consider every comment aimed directly at me. Threads often progress further than what was originally intended (by the poster) into a wider broader discussion.......

[Catrina]

25. So, because one person has an avatar you find objectionable

the whole idea of telling our representatives what we think, becomes invalid?

As for this you say you don't support 'shooting in the streets anyone who manages to make a profit' as if all 80,000 DU members and who knows how many lurkers, are of the opinion that this is a good idea? Maybe you like George Bush's idea better, 'shoot in the streets anyone whose country is oil rich so that HIS buddies can make a profit'?


Your point that ordinary people are delusional if they think their representatives gave a damn about what they think (and most people who post here ARE ordinary people, btw) might have been well taken, had not chosen to paint with a broad brush everyone who posts here as some kind of rabid revolutionary, an erroneous charge to say the least, in order to MAKE your point.

I happen to agree with you. Our government cares not one bit what we think, which is why I also agree with the OP. They ought to care, and anyway we can get their attention, considering we hired them, and pay their salaries, I'm willing to consider ~ your dismissive attitude suggests either that you're willing to accept being ignored by your employees, or you revere the so much, you don't expect them to work for you. Or maybe I misread you.

As for 'bashing' Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, or Bill Maher? If disagreeing with the positions they hold is 'bashing' then so be it. We're supposed to do that, especially when the decisions they make affect OUR lives and those of our children, don't you think? Bill Maher is an entertainer. He chose to be a public figure, I'm sure, considering the money he makes, he understands that every once in a while, someone will criticize him.

And you must have missed the posts that listed the representatives who actually have posted here. So, while you may dismiss the suggestion made by the OP, others may disagree with you. DU has been mentioned on several radio shows over the past week, eg. I heard about it after doing a search on for information on a topic I was interested in and found it to be a fountain of information, which is why I am still here. To learn, to understand and to find out what thousands of people across the country are thinking.

I think you should relax. You're entitled to your opinion, even if you are wrong ~ and if the Bush administration considers boards like DU worthy of spying on, which they apparently do, that sort of makes you wrong, doesn't it? I guess we're more important than you thought ~ :-)

To the OP, I think it's a great idea ~ Barbara Boxer didn't think the people who post here were not worth listening to, as I recall. The power of numbers is an amazing thing ~ and DU reaches large numbers of people, as do other boards. Combined they may very well reach more than the media at this point in time. Rupert Murdoch believes his newspapers are failing because of boards like this. And he should know. So, I would not be so quick to dismiss an idea until its been tried.

[NorthELiberal]

29. One person? AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Only one person has Che as their avatar?

"As for this you say you don't support 'shooting in the streets anyone who manages to make a profit' as if all 80,000 DU members and who knows how many lurkers, are of the opinion that this is a good idea? Maybe you like George Bush's idea better, 'shoot in the streets anyone whose country is oil rich so that HIS buddies can make a profit'?"

You pulling what I said out of context........ Che and his buddies did shoot people who made a profit in the streets without a trial........ and no it wasn't just the very wealthy(there were many minor farm owners)..... but hey..... let's be fair just because someone has him as an avatar, we don't really expect them to realize he full meaning of what it represents to many people, right?......... nooooooooooo, after all who would care if someone has a Nazi swastika as their avatar....... or a hooded KKK figure...... we would just ignore the meaning of those symbols, right?

As for the 80,000 number.......ahem...... we all know how how that came to be don't we? or do I really need to explain it. (Don't get me wrong, I am not here to bash DU........ but being a Democrat doesn't mean I have to take everything at face value does it? especially when people are throwing the figure at me to imply I am using a broad brush.)

I didn't vote for Bush, as a matter of fact I campaigned for Democratic candidates and protested at quite a few anti-bush protests........... but since I may have a view that goes against some kind of unspoken consensus here...... I must automatically be pro-bush.


"Your point that ordinary people are delusional if they think their representatives gave a damn about what they think (and most people who post here ARE ordinary people, btw) might have been well taken, had not chosen to paint with a broad brush everyone who posts here as some kind of rabid revolutionary, an erroneous charge to say the least, in order to MAKE your point."


I wasn't talking about ordinary people at all......... many "ordinary" democrats I know in real life would be quite shocked if they went on to DU and the saw the amount of posts that are anti-religous, vehemently anti-all types of business, anti-hillary, anti-biden, anti-maher, totally anti-military, etc (while at the same being pro-you know who ________ ......fill in the blanks..)..... the list goes on...... I am not throwing every poster here into that category but they do seem to make the majority of the most vocal ones.

Your post simply twists what I said......... I never said people shouldn't question their representatives. I was basically saying that a lot of what goes here is not representative of the Democratic party as a whole........ and I was questioning/wondering why that was and seconding JNelson6563's original comment in reply#6.

[NorthELiberal]

30. BY THE WAY........... IF THERE ARE ANY LURKING LEGISLATORS OUT THERE......

AND YOU ARE READING THIS POST..........

MOST DEMOCRATS IN REAL LIFE THINK FIDEL CASTRO IS SCUM....... LET'S HAVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PUT TOGETHER A PEACEFUL ANTI-CASTRO PLATFORM FOR THE 1.3 MILLION CUBAN AMERICANS IN FLORIDA.... I DON'T WANT TO PUT THE DETAILS AND SOME IDEAS OUT ON AN OPEN FORUM..... THEREFORE I WILL EMAIL THEM TO YOU SOON.

[annabanana]

31. maybe..

more "ordinary" democrats agree than you perceive...

maybe the ones you know "in real life"...
.....ought to listen to a little more AAR

maybe...
they ought to inform themselves

just maybe, I'm sayin'

[NorthELiberal]

34. Maybe they are informed......

Maybe they are just realists and realize not everything can accomplished overnight...... Maybe they take things a step at a time and focus on practical solutions....... when it comes to radical solutions they may like some of those as well.... when they fall on the benevolent side of the spectrum.

[annabanana]

36. or maybe not

who knows

[stepnw1f]

20. It's His Thread... So Expect Him to "Butt in" (nt)

[Atman]

11. Hey, no shit!

Wasn't that pretty clearly the point of my post, friend? There is so much for them to wade through, THEY WON'T. So perhaps a special "best of" which isn't open to general posting. I marvel as how some DUers think they're gods who have a right to tell everyone else how stupid they are.

[JNelson6563]

17. Mea Culpa

I got the impression you thought many legilators and staffers read here (requiring much wading through the lounge material posted in GD these days).

Frankly I think the proposed/pending split of the GD forums might help to accomplish what you were suggesting. Establishing an area for serious political discussion only.

I wasn't trying to infer you or anyone else was stupid, I have certainly seen many instances of DUers believing DU has some important presence in the RW political realm. Thought that was what was happening here. As I said, mea culpa.

Julie

[Atman]

18. Sorry for jumping on you

I ended posting here last night with a guy who was insisting a pic he posted was of a massive storm surge overtaking Bay St. Louis, MS (here...don't click if you're on dial-up! Huge pics attached -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x94470 )

Despite my years of living on the ocean, and even a re-posting of his pic diagramming where there was seawall over which water was spilling,and not a big wave or surge, the guy just spent his time insulting me, genuinely upset that I would question the legitimacy of his photo because -- I am not making this up -- a nun took it.. Then he signed off with one last smarmy insult.

Then I wake up to this!

I appreciate your mea culpa...you didn't have to do that. Please accept my apology in return for my initial wise-ass response!

[JNelson6563]

21. It's all good

And well, if a nun took the picture, surely it's legit! Oy.

Cheers! :toast:

[Nobody]

14. Interns, perhaps?

I was stuffing some envelopes at Paul Wellstone's campaign HQ, and one of the interns brought up a thread he saw on DU. I can't recall the thread or the topic. We generally discussed a variety of political and non-political topics while stuffing envelopes, doing data entry, or whatever else needed to be done.

It may happen. Legislators do need to keep their pulse on the minds of the people, so a member of their research staff (or interns) might be assigned to keep an eye on the blogs and message boards. Research staff are assigned to keep an eye on the opposition and what they're up to. Very much like the DUers who wander over to That Other Place occasionally (or regularly depending on intestinal fortitude).

[insane_cratic_gal]

15. Isn't there one already?

Over in General Discussion Politics.

I'd be where I would go and look, although GD seems more active.

[Atman]

16. For that matter, perhaps they need look no further than the Greatest page

There is the star rating system now. Maybe after X number of posts, or a personal rec from Skinner and Earl, they'd get highlighted in a special Legistlative Action section or something. Maybe it isn't needed at all. But I just hate it when good ideas get lost. They may not listen to 90% of the stuff, but if someone posts that one big idea that gets a bill rolling or helps out the American people in some way, it would be worth it. IMHO.

[Matariki]

24. isn't that what the 'greatest' section is for?

it seems kinda presumptuous in a self-conscious sort of way to have a whole forum directed at legislators who *might* be lurking.

[6th Borough]

27. This is not the only Democratic affiliated website...

just saying...it's a large pond, and we are all minnows.

[NorthELiberal]

32. ATT: JOE BIDEN STAFFERS....... IF YOU ARE HERE LURKING.......

DON'T BE DISCOURAGED BY WHAT YOU READ ON DU........ ALTHOUGH OLD JOE MAY MAKE A MISTAKE EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE.... HE'S IS STILL A BIG ASSET TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY....... AND MANY REAL LIFE DEMOCRATS LIKE HIS STYLE...... HE BRINGS LEVEL HEADED BALANCE TO THE PARTY...... THE OPINIONS YOU FIND HERE ABOUT JOE ARE NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTATIVE OF WHAT MOST PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE FEEL TOWARDS HIM.

[annabanana]

33. oh, and tell him

thanks for that great bankruptcy reform legislation..

[NorthELiberal]

35. I didn't say he was perfect........

....... but he still has plenty of potential.

[annabanana]

37. potential, sure..

p.s. why were you shouting?

[NorthELiberal]

38. Not everyone reads long threads.........

so if staffers are really here lurking, I want them to easily find the message........ and possibly being a minority voice (on here)...... I wanted this time to be heard above the crowd....

[yurbud]

39. people in real life don't know him, and those that do know him are

embarassed by him.

He likes to think it makes him look tough on defense by backing Bush's war in Iraq, but in reality, it makes him look weak on the truth and like a coward when the truth requires you to take an unpopular stand.

I would however support him as a model for the AFTER photos of hair transplants.