Grey Parker is one of those bloggers you stumble upon when someone in your stream says "you gotta read this."  I did that some months ago, and ever since, I eagerly snap at his posts like a Venus Fly Trap that just got lucky.  Today, Grey decided to respond to the execrable new Tokyo Rose of right wing propaganda, Dana Loesch, the oh-so hot and sassy queen of fabrication and faux-facts, who @CNN had the unmitigated corporatist's gall to make a "contributor."  As if we hadn't had enough of these pugnacious media sociopaths, such as her bilious boss, Andrew Breitbart, this gussied-up raconteur of packaged hate aimed at anyone but the elites who butter her daily bread has all the charm and grace of a hand grenade tossed into an infant care ward. 

Despicable Dana (DD), as I call her, had posted the following within one of her more scurrilous screeds over at bigJournalism.com (a site so misnamed that still makes me throw up a little in my mouth each and every time I see it),

"I loathe when American conservatives define themselves as “right wing” anything, even in jest — just as I loathe when the liberal press uses it as identification for American conservatives — because it is an inaccurate use of the term."

Spotting yet another professional hit job on the truth, worthy of anything Jonah Goldberg, the Right's minister of mawkish meanderings about whatever fake histories appealed to him on any given day might have contrived, Grey proceeds to educate DD on her grotesque misunderstandings and misrepresentations of history, as well as her felonious overreliance and misuse of Wikipedia.  Thankless job of evisceration that it was, Parker works his words like a righteous saber, leaving little more than entrails and eye shadow on the floor.

Enjoy reading it: Here You Go, Dishonest Coward 

For posts such as that…

…I have added Grey to my growing list of writers who demonstrate great understanding and insight when explaining the history and precedents of what brought America to this increasingly sad and sinking ship of state where fallacies get more attention than facts, and the fancy-faced, canard-spewing carnival barkers like Loesch get rich by advancing any misinformation that benefits the very worst class of elites the world has seen in modern times.  

Fairly soon now, I hope to deploy this small army of articulators in a unique way, well before the 2012 election, with this attenuating hope that there is still enough respect for truth left in America that basic facts can still have a bit more influence than complete and utter falsehoods. An inventor by trade, I didn't actually want to spend my creative time finding and popularizing new ways of correcting the lies and distortions in the Right's public narratives, but it's been increasingly clear that someone has to do it. When the time comes, I sure hope Grey will join me.  My gut says he will, but to even my surprise, I'm wrong  a lot :)

And now this:

I know it's been a long while since my last post. I just have too many projects and too little time. But as important and real as that excuse is, another is that I've really come to enjoy tweeting the thoughts and ideas of other people saying what I might have wanted to say, but who say it far better than I would have.  We all have our talents and passions. At this time, I am content that one of mine is promoting those whose stable of skills at informing and truth telling are a good deal deeper than my own.

The Problem

As you may have heard from my whining over the past few days, there is some kind of major fail with Twitter's API that is causing massive freezing and hangs in Tweetdeck Desktop for SOME users. 

The problem is NOT just affecting Tweetdeck. Hootsuite has different symptoms (slow posts, etc), but it's all related. Many clients are probably affected, but again, it's probably random symptoms on random accounts so it's hard to pin down what is happening to whom. Software is just like that sometimes. It sucks,I know. We just have to deal with it. At least until the next Rapture solves this crap for all of us :)

Why some are punished and others are not is something only Twitter engineers, or your god of choice can explain to you. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that answer, but it really doesn't matter.

What does matter is that you can help them fix this problem sooner by sending them "debugging logs" which are stored on your computer.  The more of you who do this, the faster the problem may be fixed:

Here's how to help

It's really much easier than it looks. Just read slowly… and breathe.. for the love of dog… breathe :)

 

Where do I find the log file & How do I enable debug logging in TweetDeck?

From time to time you may be asked to provide a log file when troubleshooting a problem with us here at TweetDeck.

Your log file is named "tweetdeck-app.log" and can be found in the following folder:

  • Mac OS X:  Places/(your username)/Library/Preferences/TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]/Local Store
  • Windows XP:  C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]\Local Store
  • Windows Vista:  C:\users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]\Local Store
  • Linux:  /home/(your username)/.appdata/TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]/Local Store

Please note that some of the folders may be hidden.

Email it to the address you will have been given and we will be able to have a clearer picture of what is going on.

Debug Logging

If you are asked by TweetDeck Support to enable debug logging, here's what you need to do:

1. Find the file debug.xml in the following location:

Mac OS X:  Places > Home Directory (ie your username) > Library/Preferences/TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]/Local Store

Windows XP:  C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]\Local Store

Windows Vista & Windows 7:  C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]\Local Store

Linux:   ~/.appdata/TweetDeckFast.FFF[random letter and numbers]\Local Store

Please note that some of the folders may be hidden.

2. Edit the file using a basic text editor (eg Notepad, NOT Microsoft Word or suchlike)

3. The file should look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<debug>  

    <enabled>false</enabled>

</debug>

4. Change the word "false" to "true" so that it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<debug>  

    <enabled>true</enabled>

</debug>

5. Save the file, overwriting the original.

6. Restart your TweetDeck (and run it until the problem has occurred a few times).  Now when you send your debug information to TweetDeck Support, we will have much more detail than normal. 

Power users: If you want to be really nice, delete or empty the actual log file first before running Tweetdeck. This will give them a nice clean log, but it's not vital to do this.

7. Attach the log file ( tweetdeck-app.log ) to an email and send it to:   community@tweetdeck.com.

Please note, once you have been informed by TweetDeck Support that we no longer need any more logging, you should perform this operation again, but change the "true" back to "false". Detailed debug logging will slow down the operation of your TweetDeck so should not be left in place when not required.

8. Finally, use the Retweet button below to pass this on as far as it can travel. (This is very important.)

That's all there is to it. You're done! And thanks. This will be a huge help to the developers at Tweetdeck and Twitter.

 

Today, my very good friend Angelo Carusone, (a.k.a. @stopbeck), campaign director at Media Matters and currently working on the DropFox effort at Media Matters for America, announced that Orbitz, the travel agency powerhouse, and a significant Fox News sponsor, has agreed to review all of their advertising on Fox News, a clear signal that big changes may be coming soon.

Alternet broke the details of the story today, and Media Matters has a statement and some additional information on their DropFox site. While DropFox's first campaign against Orbitz was mocked by many Fox apologists, it's presence all over the Internet in the past few weeks was startling to Orbitz, as well as many long-time watchers of progressive activism efforts on the Internet.

This Orbitz review is just the first very big win in a long effort to hold Fox News accountable for the brazen and reckless political operation which they have been conducting, often over airwaves licensed to them by the taxpayers. Carusone's  @stopbeck effort had already succeeded in starving Glenn Beck of advertisers after a protracted, two year battle which Beck often openly mocked, both on the is radio show, and on Twitter. But that guerilla effort, conducted mostly by Carusone alone, with only the help of Twitter and other social media, finally forced Fox News to drop Beck from their lineup earlier his year.

While you may think this DropFox effort seems like a run-of-the mill petition campaign, it has been anything but that by a wide margin. With Media Matters and its many allies, and the brilliant tactics of Carusone and the DropFox team, it seems to be organizing a coalition of diverse interest groups and constituencies – all with a common distaste for what Fox News has been doing to their individual interests as well as our society. It appears that together, and without much fanfare, they have launched a coherent, coordinated and well-implemented pressure coalition that actually works. And one that might be a prototype for many more like it.

Perhaps the most unique thing about the effort is that it is not designed to embarrass or punish advertisers into not advertising on Fox. Rather, it seeks to educate them about how much it is hurting their brand in and among the many consumer communities (LGBT, environmentalists, Latinos, etc.).  It's the ultimate expression of free market principles. There are many places to advertise. Why do it where it hurts the brand that a company works so hard to build and protect?

Clearly the strategy is starting to prove itself. And with a few more outcomes's like this, it will soon demonstrate that Progressives have more power than many have thought when it comes to influencing the corporate forces which have so dominated our public discourse and politics for years. Stay tuned…