Actually, Twitter is an extremely useful organizing tool. I often find out about world events in real time through Twitter from people who are actually on the ground during some event. It’s how a lot of people find out/spread the word about events like the unrest in Ferguson. I also find that it’s an excellent way to stay informed because users often share links to articles and images.
Another wonderful thing about Twitter is that it sparks activism. You can follow a hashtag like #Ferguson and see what others are saying about subject. Like a lot of others, before the election and on Election Day I plan to be on #BlackTwitter pleading for folks to vote.
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Shut up, you are not helping.
what a dumbass. he has no business being in congress. i hope he loses.
Well, he does have a point to some extent: Republicans do terrorize the middle class and anyone else who is not Christian, heterosexual, male and white.
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Hint: If it takes 1000 words to explain your tweet . . . . . maybe you shouldn’t tweet. That was DUMB! Don’t be a REP.
Not helping whom? As I understand it, he is a Democratic candidate running against an incumbent, white Republican in a single Congressional district in Alabama.
Mr. Smith: probably isn’t as well known by the voters as his incumbent opponent; doesn’t have the same opportunitys for news-making and photo-ops in the local media as the incumbent does; lacks the franking privilege to send campaign mailers to every district voter that the incumbent enjoys; probably isn’t as well-funded as his Republican opponent. Unless he can upset the usual political dynamics of his situation, Mr. Smith will lose his race.
His tweet comparing House Republicans to ISIS was opportunistic of the recent journalist beheadings, tacky to polite feelings – but effective attention-grabbing! It certainly grabbed ours in TPM Land. He used it as a click-bait headline for his Facebook campaign article. (We TPMers are not unfamiliar with the successful tactic.) His opinion of the House Republican effect on American society should be read by everyone in his district before November’s election. If Mr. Smith had the privilege of reaching every voter with free campaign mailings like his opponent, perhaps he wouldn’t have gone the free Twitter/Facebook route.
Another poster observed, that if you’re “clarifying”, you’re losing. But the hard truth is that Mr. Smith is currently losing his race with the incumbent Republican. His ISIS “clarification” was a cost-effective way to get his campaign message out; he wasn’t apologizing or walking back some egregious faux pas.
In the campaign to retake the House, I say by any means necessary, as long as they are legal and ethical. Eventual House victory for Democrats will be won by numerous victorys in currently GOP-held districts around the country.
Mr. Smith is helping himself to help all of us.
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Yes he is. What did he say in his clarification that is incorrect
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I don’t. I hope he kicks ass. When democrats do stand up, we complain, and when they don’t we complain. So I’d rather have one that speaks up and out especially when he’s telling the fucking truth
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I am not saying that the republican party is beheading people in the streets, obviously. Here in America, because we are a civilized democracy, we do not use violence against each other as a means of control.
Kidnapping and beheading people is pretty much the lowest of the low. Even Mr. Smith acknowledges that the GOP doesn’t do this. It’s not that he’s saying things that are incorrect so much as he’s making light of some pretty tragic recent events with his initial comparison, which can’t just be explained away. Unethical scum that the GOP may be, they’re not worse than ISIS/ISIL.
The fact that he had to clarify means he was wrong in the first place and he knew it. Clarifying nukes him look no politically brighter.
He is exactly right and he’s got my vote. Republicans do more damage to the nation than ISIL ever did, on the issue of climate change alone. Keep on fighting Mr. Smith!
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Agreed. I read about all the vitriol espoused by Toxic news, I see republican leaders outright lie when in front of the cameras and I can’t quite believe how they are getting away with this stuff. Especially when so many quote the lies as though it were fact.
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I do believe that spelling was on purpose. Have you never seen baggers’ signage?
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What??
I guess we just don’t recognize terrorism unless we’re shown a video.
We’re so concerned about the Yazidis being isolated on a mountain with no food or water, yet we aren’t talking about air strikes on the Detroit Water Authority.
Countless thousands have died quietly because of lack of health care because of an obstructionist political system. I’m quite certain they’re just as dead as the poor victims in this international chess match that’s getting all the press. Likewise, I’m quite certain the victims of the staunch advocates for gun rights are just as dead, you know, watering the tree of liberty and all that.
But in a sense I agree with the critics. This isn’t just about Republicans. Our foray into Iraq that begat this blowback was by bi-partisan consensus, as seemingly is this coming foray. From The Nation, published December, 2013, just a handful of examples, but unfortunately for the American consumer, no video:
December 29, 2001,Paktia Province, Afghanistan (more than 100 revelers die in a village in Eastern Afghanistan after an attack by B-52 and B-1B bombers)
May 17, 2002, Khost Province, Afghanistan (at least ten Afghans in a wedding celebration die when US helicopters and planes attack a village)
July 1, 2002, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan (at least thirty, and possibly forty, celebrants die when attacked by a B-52 bomber and an AC-130 helicopter)
May 20, 2004, Mukaradeeb, Iraq (at least forty-two dead, including “27 members of the family hosting the wedding ceremony, their wedding guests, and even the band of musicians hired to play at the ceremony” in an attack by American jets)
July 6, 2008, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan (at least forty-seven dead, thirty-nine of them women and children, including the bride, among a party escorting that bride to the groom’s house—from a missile attack by jet aircraft)
August 2008, Laghman Province, Afghanistan (sixteen killed, including twelve members of the family hosting the wedding, in an attack by “American bombers”)
June 8, 2012, Logar Province, Afghanistan (eighteen killed, half of them children, when Taliban fighters take shelter amid a wedding party. This was perhaps the only case among the eight wedding incidents in which the United States offered an apology).
But hey, how dare we even entertain the idea that we’re the same as terrorists? Not all lives are equal!
Denying poor Americans water isn’t the same as denying Yazidis water in a country with oil resources. Killing Muslims isn’t the same as beheading Americans. Saudi Arabia is said to have beheaded one person a day in August, but hey, that’s “justice” not terrorism, after all, they have oil too.
And when we do the killing, why, it’s all about USA! USA! USA! Kill those ISIL! We created 'em with the vacuum we left, it’s our responsibility to kill 'em all! Kill! Kill! Kill! C’mon, Richard Pearle, strap on that suicide vest and get over there!
Yeah, that’s a mistake. Any time you have to use 1,117 characters to explain your original 140 characters, you’re having a bad day.