I stop by Ed Cone's blog every now and then to see what's happening in Greensboro. In response to a comment I made today about the Vermin, Ed asked why I "stoop" to name-calling. My wife often asks me the same question, so I decided they both deserve an answer:

Why I'm a mean old name-caller.

Name-calling hasn't always been my style - I used to be profoundly reasonable. But then the neocon cabal came into power. It started with the Hunting of the President (Clinton) and culminated in the Swiftboating of John Kerry. And got even worse from there.

And all the while, the reasonable people on the left steered clear of hitting back hard. They zipped their lips and tried to make logical arguments that would persuade the muddled middle to think things through. It didn't work. The muddled middle slid farther and farther to the right, while a natural tendency toward political correctness emasculated the left. Without the neocon "killer instinct," the left languished, the right flourished. And the mainstream media ignored the intellectual progressives.

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When I started blogging earlier this year, it became clear that even the mainsteram media in North Carolina were part of the problem, firmly under the spell of the free-market fundamentalists at the John Locke Foundation. Ted Vaden at the N&O described his John Locke Foundation as a "multi-million-dollare opinion manufacturer" - and all that money was buying a lot of influence. Almost no one except for Chris Fitzsimons at NC Policy Watch was calling bullshit on JLF, and his gentle style seemed too tame by far.

I decided to join the fight and found I was armed with a pea shooter in the middle of heavy artillery. Nobody paid attention to my criticism of Pope and Company. Then I got pissed.

My first naming opportunity emerged spontaneously. Following the trail of Art Pope's money in the run up to the primaries, it became clear that Pope was pulling lots of strings. And thus the Puppetmaster was born. John Hood soon became the Stagemanager, and all the little flunkies generating opinions for JLF became known as Puppets. The nicknames came in handy as I dissected their organization, and they soon caught on among my friends here at BlueNC. Why? Because they were accurate descriptors of the individuals and organizations involved.

From there, the trend toward accuracy in naming continued. Up Chuck Taylor. Flipper Hayes. Vermin Robinson. AWOL George. Chairman Marcussssssss. Names chosen to evoke negative reactions to individuals who shill for the Party of Greed.

Some have called this practice childish, others say it just alienates independents. Neither of those criticisms bothers me one bit. I don't pretend to represent the mainstream anymore. My job is to attack and ridicule people who are destroying democracy, to stir up the base, to make thoughtful people on the left seem all the more reasonable by comparison.

I hope I don't have to keep this up forever, because I don't much like it. But keep it up I will until balance has been restored. I am not prepared to "play nice" with criminals and profiteers who have quite nearly destroyed this country. My practice of name-calling is nothing compared to the obscenity of their beliefs and actions.