Warren Nash blames the county for his hemorrhoids ... and the GREEN MOUSE presents NAWBANY WEEK IN REVIEW.

Most of us spent the holiday weekend watching the COVID deniers merrily clustering together, which would be encouraging from a herd-thinning standpoint if it weren't hazardous for the rest of us.

By week's end yet another police atrocity against non-white Americans occurred, this time the murder of a black man in Minneapolis. This act of state-sanctioned violence prompted the usual defense of property rights and obliviousness to human life, both emanating from the very same three-percenters and their "penis proxies."

Here's a useful article that helps explain this cognitive dissonance, and you can be sure that it won't be linked at the city's web site any time soon.

When intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.

Consequently, it's been a slow news week in New Albany apart from another instance of Jeff Gahan taking credit for someone else's investment: Here come the tax abatements for Northwest Ordinance Distilling.

We were forced to make do with other forms of entertainment, which the city's worst-ever former mayor provided at Facebook.

Warren, is it supposed to rain today? THE COUNTY GUVMINT DUNNIT!

Okay, but Warren, which pair is better, the original Duke boys or those one-season replacements? IT'S ALL THE COUNTY'S FAULT!

Um, okay. Do you have a nice recipe for barbecued bologna? MAKE COUNTY GUVMINT PAY FOR IT!

Admittedly it was a bit much for me to see Warren Nash state publicly that he doesn't block others on social media. Commendable, although he's conveniently forgetting the bigger issue of his beloved DemoDisneyDixiecrats, their flimsy respect for dialogue, and their equally squalid habit of squelching perceived dissent.

The full thread is here, and if you're interested in the gory details of the perennial party gutlessness, of which Warren is a functional and participating component ...

The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

Can you even imagine Warren Nash, Adam Dickey or Jeff Gahan tending a stall at the marketplace of ideas?

Empty shelves ... or empty selves?

---

There were a few headlines of note this week.

Pints&union is taking a staycation this week, returning Tuesday 9 June.

In a nutshell, all the factors combining to make Pints&union an intimate, personable pub prior to COVID now militate against viable reopening strategies, not to mention our belief that the reopening is premature to begin with.

For at least so long as the state of Indiana maintains a relaxation of regulations for the greater good of pandemic recovery, there is an answer outside, beyond the doorways of ALL small independent businesses, not only food and drink.

It's time right now for City Hall to use our public spaces for COVID recovery.

Can City Hall conceive of such a thing without commissioning months of expensive studies from donor engineering and design firms?

In closing, Memorial Day 2020 likely will be remembered locally as the day we lost Lee Kelly, a true legend and sporting icon.

I turned my column space over to "not me" precisely because Matt's 2013 newspaper piece honoring Lee's retirement from teaching made for the finest of eulogies, in the sense that hundreds of thousands of daily interactions with thousands of students over a period of 40 years are the truest measure of Lee's substantial legacy. 

ON THE AVENUES: The late, great Lee Kelly -- by Matt Nash.

Have you been wondering about Harvest Homecoming in a time of social distancing? So has the Green Mouse. Maybe next week he'll put a cork in that bottle and start asking questions.

Jackie Green on the ghettoization of independent candidates for Louisville mayor: "A form of media censorship — not censorship OF, but censorship BY the media.”

Before stealing a glance at the exclusion of independent candidates from the final Louisville mayoral debate, I'm turning to Jeff Gillenwater to articulate the crux of it.

I’ve spent decades now watching more thoughtful, compassionate people attempt to run for office under the Democratic banner in local, state, and national races. Over and over and over quite consistently, party officials at all levels have intervened, using the full force of their financial and political clout to defeat those candidates, to weaken those voices, and to make sure that their discourse and concerns, no matter how well documented and supported by evidence, do not become the center of policy debate, do not become a legitimate choice that voters can make. The idea that the Democratic Party in this country is an eager and effective agent or vehicle of significant social change simply isn’t true. When you donate to the party, you’re supporting the silencing and defeat of more thoughtful, compassionate voices. There’s no way around that so, if you’re going to do it, you need to own it and call it what it is.

It needed to be said. Now, let's look at yet another way media reinforces the two-party duopoly.

Independent candidates won’t share stage with Fischer, Leet in final mayoral debate, by Joe Sonka (Insider Louisville)

Independent mayoral candidates Jackie Green and Chris Thieneman say they were surprised and disappointed to learn last week that they will not be allowed to participate in the final televised mayoral debate next week, as only Mayor Greg Fischer and Councilwoman Angela Leet have been invited to participate in the live broadcast.

Pat Murrell, the president of the League of Women Voters of Louisville, told Insider Louisville last week that while all nine candidates for mayor were invited to its candidate forum to be broadcast on WAVE3-TV on Oct. 16, organizers recently decided to split the forum into two: one aired live on television and WFPL at 7 p.m., with the second one at 8:15 p.m., which will only be livestreamed on wave3.com and archived online on wave3.com and wfpl.org.

Only Fischer and Leet will participate in the forum that is broadcast live, while the independent candidates will participate in the second forum.

Dear local Democrats: It's been almost four years since you censored me on social media. Can I donate my way back to good graces?

Although on second thought, if I were to pursue elected office in 2019 as a (Social) Democrat, as opposed to a DemoDisneyDixiecrat, it's hard to imagine a better sales pitch than "Vote for the Man Adam Banned."

Still, if the central committee's apparatchiks are reading today, not to mention the imaginary "committee that manages the site," shouldn't there at least be an appeals process, or a sentence reduction procedure -- maybe a cash-stuffed envelope of an appeal for clemency to Big Daddy G?

I'd love to clear my name and get this dialogue back on track. Meanwhile, following is the fourth annual reprint of one of the most-read ON THE AVENUES columns in blog history from December 4, 2014.

---

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options. Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint.

In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

UPDATE: Chronicling the Adamite barnacles, Democratic muzzling and the terrifying shame of rejection ... three years later.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
-- Hannah Arendt

We're approaching the third anniversary of my ceremonial blacklisting on social media by the Floyd County Democratic Party, which is to say, by the social committee -- which is to say, by the party's chairman "Oily" Adam Dickey.

ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

It matters little whether the "terms of use" comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “social media committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

We already know that Dickey's Democrats will go to almost any length to insulate (inDisneylate?) themselves from dialectics, dialogue and dissonance, a safety mechanism presumably borne of herculean daily efforts to synchronize lower-case "democracy" with even lower-base Gahan Cult of Personality.

Bromides are spouted and mind-numbing catechisms nurtured, even as Gahan channels his inner Trump and bulldozes public housing units, burying with them any remaining "democratic" principles. How Dickey keeps a straight face amid the bonfire is anyone's guess, though another thought of Arendt's might explain it.

What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.

Perhaps the effort required to sustain hypocrisy of this magnitude is so exhausting that conversation genuinely is impossible, although they never seem to tire of talking about themselves. Maybe I shouldn't complain. In the absence of interaction, I'm being allowed to write their history for them -- and I'm delighted to undertake this task. Censorship may be vile, but it can be liberating, too. 

Cue the saintly LBJ ...

It’s probably better to have him (J. Edgar Hoover) inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.

HH Parade 3: It's #HisNA, so Democrats downsize the float, but jack up their hypocrisy.

My, how the formerly dominant elites have downsized.

The GOP had its usual monster truck hauling a veritable reviewing stand, although in fairness, the Democrats mobilized quite a few supporters to walk the route.

(Harvest Homecoming's parade committee does not allow political candidates to walk, and that's unmitigated stunted horizons bullshit, but we'll save it for another day.)

Meanwhile, it's a question to which we'll be returning often these next 12 months, as stated with typical precision by Jeff Gillenwater.

So (Dan) Canon won’t separate himself from or stand up to the likes of Dickey and Gahan in the local party structure but we’re supposed to believe he’s going to challenge DNC heavies at the national level?

As such, behold the mysterious unity of the hypocrisy trinity.

Exactly what was coursing though the heroic party of the downtrodden's (sic) minds (sic redux) as they passed the public housing putsch protesters? 

Canon: I'm with you -- you deserve justice!

Gahan: Um, not so fast newbie.

Dickey: We have the best social media ever. 

Hmm.

What Gillenwater said.

By the way, something like four years later, Adam & the Faux Democrats are as yet censoring me on social media. Evidently it's a sentence with no appeal and no end -- much like our daily lives enduring Adam's inanity.

They exude gestures of social justice ... so long as free speech isn't part of the bargain, and hypocrisy of this degree simply cannot be alchemized overnight in a laboratory.

Rather, it's as instinctive as the bacteria in their guts.

Earlier: HH Parade 2: A peaceful public housing putsch protest steps all over Deaf Gahan's narcissistic buzz -- and heads surely will roll.

From October:

NAHA and Pleasant Ridge? They're lookalikes, and it's only a matter of time until Jeff Gahan is exposed to the same scrutiny as Bob Hall.

So far, it seems that Adam Dickey is protecting his municipal meal ticket, but the party chairman's only hope for Democratic "progress" in the 9th district as a whole is Dan Canon. But our fair Boy Wonder can't defy gravity forever.

From September:

The Putsch Man Cometh: Jeff Gahan waxes delusional about being a public housing "advocate," then cheerfully explains why he should be summarily deposed in 2019.

Tell it to Gahan, and tell me, Adam Dickey: How is it that a regressive like Jeff Gahan and a progressive like Dan Canon can somehow co-exist in your hypocritical, tottering party tent?

How many masters can you personally serve before the whole rotten edifice comes crashing down around your slickly ambitious earlobes?

From May:

ON THE AVENUES: Would a Canon candidacy compromise Deaf Gahan's and Mr. Dizznee's shizz show? A boy can dream.

Jeff Gahan owns the attack on public housing as mayor, and Adam Dickey owns it as party chairman. Gahan’s purge isn't about poverty; it's about property. If Dan Canon runs for office, Gahan’s and Dickey’s hypocrisy is going to look like it came straight out of Francoist Spain.

ON THE AVENUES: Dear Mr. Dizznee: Can you hear me now?

ON THE AVENUES: Dear Mr. Dizznee: Can you hear me now?

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

---

27 April 2017

Dear Adam,

We haven’t had a genuine heart-to-heart chat for a long time.

What’s that?

Okay, okay. Actually we’ve never had one, and maybe the crazy dream I had last night helps to explain why.

You were right there in the dream, all buttoned down and ambitious like usual, accessing your devices. Your hair wasn’t short like it is now. It was long and unruly like Ludwig van Beethoven’s, and I kept making interpretive gestures with my hands because I figured you couldn’t hear me.

Of course, you can’t hear me, but it’s nothing to do with your hair, and the world’s best hearing aids probably wouldn’t.

Except maybe I’m thinking of Deaf Gahan instead.

In the dream, you approached me and began describing the importance of an upcoming Democratic Party meeting. Seeing as I’m invariably polite and well-mannered, I didn’t bother waiting until you were finished to make an incisive comment.

“You realize that I don’t like you very much at all.”

Not a beat was skipped.

“And I don’t like you much, either.”

There was a pervasive and refreshing feeling, not unlike air freshener. It was as though I’d been cleansed, but before I could walk toward the pulsating Bud Light over yonder, consciousness returned. With it came the feeling I get most mournings, that of being stuck inside of Nawbany with the Bamberg blues again.

Make no mistake, Adam. This wasn’t a nightmare, just a documentary film in my head. It provides a mature basis for the future of our relationship. Consequently, perhaps it’s time for us to review my banishment from the Floyd County Democratic Party’s social media feeds.

C'mon, you miss me -- don’t you?

It’s been three years since you lubed the muzzle and convicted me in absentia of violating double secret protocols. Let’s put it behind us. Today I’m asking that you restore these inelegantly severed communications immediately, prior to the 2019 primary, when I’ll likely be running as a Democrat(ic Socialist).

And those things people say about you not sticking to a party chairman’s impartiality during primary season? They’re just jealous of your unctuousness.

As a side note, does anyone know how much Bernie charges for campaign appearances?

The Bored of Works might temporarily close Spring Street, with the rally at 11th, so close to my councilman’s house that he’d still escape cognitive dissonance via his back door, and into the alley.

Everything’s on the table, you know.

---

Seriously, your being seen as a vindictive and punitive censor in this scenario might further damage the party – and it’s already taking on serious seawater at precisely the time when you might be leading the principled opposition to Trumpolini.

Except that it’s complicated, isn’t it? Just because we’re not close at all doesn’t mean the sickening irony’s not out to get you, so if you please, allow me to ice down my stiletto and carve the turkey.

Even the elderly heating and air guy who calls the your shots for you knows deep down that the party is in a perilous position. Gahan’s unforced errors are mounting, and Dear Leader’s well along his inevitable transition to millstone-like liability.

Deaf’s vote share fell 12% in 2015, and now he’s breathlessly alienating the ever slimmer 4% standing between a glorious third term and an ignominious loss to Mark Seabrook, Al Knable, or the ghost of Thomas Dewey.

Sorry to say it, Adam, but Advanced Disney Appreciation didn’t really prepare you for the current reality, did it?

You’re selflessly toiling out on the street, trashing Trumpism and preparing for your own quixotic anti-Clere house quest, while over on the other side of town, your local superdupermayoralstar is busy cementing his reputation as the Eastwick Drive version of Daddy Trumpbucks, albeit it with half the money – but give Gahan enough paving projects and the funding gap is sure to narrow.

The hypocrisy keeps getting deeper, the metaphorical sewage is rising, and pretty soon coffee break will be over, and it’ll be back to standing on your head, counting the recent catastrophes.

The Lorch city council attorney beheading?

Ridiculously botched.

The Summit Springs capitulation and appeasement?

It’s an object of widespread and unremitting public derision and loathing.

A sewer rate increase?

About as helpful as the cup of decaf coffee mentioned above.

One by one, the voters of the 4% are dripping down your rusty commode’s edge – and this was before Gahan’s decision to split his own party with an inept “Make Public Housing Great Again” campaign, thus fully Trumping the Donald.

Were you the one advising him to come out of the bunker and pretend to pretend leading for once? It must have terrified you when those veteran Democrats – a Bill Cochran award winner among them – finally stopped chugging the Kool-Aid and started asking unanswerable questions.

(By the way, I’ll give you credit for the way you helped Gahan pack the New Albany Housing Authority’s board with scentless sycophants. It was startlingly artistic in a Nixonian throwback sort of way, and akin to a date rape drug for former veneer salesmen.)

However, the rebellion of the Democratic elders isn’t what I noticed during the roll-out of the public housing putsch. Rather, it was the revulsion of ordinary New Albanians, as accompanied by the clueless silence of the Gahan Youth.

And Adam, about your farm system … oy vey.

There are plenty of banjo hitters and 150-lb offensive lineman, but not very much  in the way of star quality. Who’s going to replace Bob Caesar some sweet day when he takes his talents to West Palm Beach (or Holiday World)?

Never mind. I’ll just call the animal shelter myself to see which mutts are up for adoption.

It wasn’t that your prospective big leaguers were averting their eyes from the horror. It’s that they didn’t even grasp it, and had no idea that the bilge spewing from Gahan in their own backyard contradicted so much of their party's platform and history.

Did you so much as try to use it as a teaching moment, or is the cancer too far along? Concurrently, the single best statement of principle during Gahan’s war on the working poor came from a young New Albanian by the name of Nick Vaughn.

He’s not one of yours, is he?

Ye Gods, chairman: When it's the Republicans talking sense about poverty while a Democrat dances a jig atop the bleached bones of affordable housing, there's not enough whiskey in Bardstown to help get you through the night.

I could go on and on, and likely will.

In the interim, just one last question.

How’s that non-transparent authoritarian censorship mode been working for you these past few election cycles?

Sweet dreams, Beethoven.

“Ode to Joy” may not be coming to Floyd County Democratic Party playlists any time soon, although there is so very much entertainment to be gained from comic opera.

Your friend,

The Rajah

---

Recent columns:

April 20: ON THE AVENUES: The Weekly Wad? It was a modest start.

April 13: ON THE AVENUES: Ain't it funny how we all seem to look the same?

April 6: ON THE AVENUES: On swill and tornadoes, circa '75.

March 30: ON THE AVENUES: Our great and noble leader is here to stay, so let's break out the țuică and make a joyful noise.

ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

ON THE AVENUES: In 2014 as in 2015, then 2016, now 2017 ... yes, it's the "Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel."

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Column reruns are inevitable, although I try to keep them to a minimum. It comes down to time – time enough to write, and writing well enough to be coherent. If I can’t clear the bar, there’s always next time. 

So it must be this week, and now here's the prelude to this week’s encore, because until something changes, it’s a point worth repeating yearly if necessary.

With considerable trepidation last Saturday morning, I went over to the 40/8 Voiture off State Street to observe a Floyd County Democratic Party “chat” with John Zody, Indiana’s state party chairman. The topic was the state party’s future prospects at a time when unmitigated catastrophe has created fresh new opportunities. Given that our local party has absorbed three consecutive catastrophes without changing a thing, I’m skeptical overall, and yet eternally curious, so I went.

Roughly 40 other persons attended the chat, perhaps half of them residents of Floyd County, with the remainder hailing from nearby counties in Southern Indiana. Ballparking it, there probably were more women than men, and perhaps a dozen attendees were younger than 45. All were white save one – maybe two. I was impressed with their sincerity, and Zody seems like a pleasant enough chap, if consumed with the usual anodyne managerial boilerplate.

Surprisingly, a few intrepid souls even dared to speak aloud Bernie Sanders’ name, albeit with eyes nervously darting around the room lest their non-centrist wayward skulls be thwacked with fireplace pokers handed down from Clinton Corporate HQ.

My favorite comment during the meeting came when a sharply dressed gentleman blithely asserted that these many worries and fears are misplaced. After all, hadn’t the Democratic Party just won the popular vote (albeit marginally) in a presidential election the party concurrently lost (in fact, rather convincingly) in the Electoral College?

Talk about delusional whistling past the graveyard. Never mind literally hundreds of Democratic losses downballot, or the inconvenient fact that even had Hillary Clinton somehow “won,” Republicans still would hold almost every other significant elected office outside California and Massachusetts.

Local party chairman Adam Dickey was praised for his efforts. “Adam’s done all he can do,” said one admirer, and of course I agree for entirely different reasons. Dickey also was praised for his communication skills … hence today’s reminder that wishing won’t necessarily make it so.

The column originally was written in December, 2014, and was repeated in 2015. The party’s local losses mount as its voting bloc dwindles; what’s left of the former Democratic machine grows more undemocratic by the minute; and naturally I’m still prohibited from “communicating” with the party on social media.

It’s never too late to start all over again, but I’m not sure what passes for local Democratic Party “leadership” could punch its way through a wet beer label. Let's take a look back at December, 2014.

It feels a lot like right now.

---

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options.

Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street, the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint. In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

---

Recent columns:

February 9: ON THE AVENUES: I'd stop drinking, but I'm no quitter.

February 2: ON THE AVENUES: A luxury-obsessed Jeff Gahan has packed a board and now seeks to break the New Albany Housing Authority. Can we impeach him yet?

January 26: ON THE AVENUES: Jeff Gahan and Adam Dickey are Trumping the Donald when it comes to breathtaking moral turpitude. Have they no shame?

January 19: ON THE AVENUES: Mezcal for what ails you.

Commentary worth repeating: Gahan's "balanced budget" claims are bogus.

(By Jeff Gillenwater)

Jeff Gahan says he's balanced the budget but the truth is he's significantly increased the budget, nearly doubling it. He says he's gotten us out of debt because former Mayor England's sewer rate increases - rate increases Gahan argued against - have paid off some sewer bonds but he doesn't mention his own borrowing, which has left us with increased not decreased debt levels.

Worth noting is that much of that debt is going toward paying off multimillion dollar projects that were awarded sans public bidding processes and, at least in some cases, have led to campaign kickbacks.

Now that we've taken on 20 years of debt to pay for them, Gahan says parks are a priority for quality of life but did not mention them at all when running for office. We're also now finding out about his administration taking options on Uptown area real estate and pursuing eminent domain actions on riverfront property but he's again not mentioning any of it in his campaign-- just like he didn't mention spending a million dollars on the golf course to the redevelopment commission or city council before he did it.

If anyone points these facts out too often, they're banished from campaign and party social media spaces. If people value transparency and honesty at all, they can't support this. If they do support it, they've really no right to complain in future about any political deceit. They will have chosen to tie their own blindfolds.

The really telling part is that, as Gahan and Floyd County Democrats block social media access to more and more people, they never actually deny what those people have said.

They can't.

They just don't want people to know about it. The truth makes them look bad so secrecy and lies begets more secrecy and lies. If incumbent and new Democratic council candidates won't speak up against such misleading tactics now, there's no reason to think they will if elected.

It's damning for the whole party.

It makes perfect sense that the Floyd County Democrats would hire Comical Ali.

You'll remember Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf as Comical Ali (or Baghdad Bob).

He is best known for his grandiose and grossly unrealistic propaganda broadcasts before and during the war, extolling the invincibility of the Iraqi Army and the permanence of Saddam's rule.

Meanwhile in New Albany ...

ON THE AVENUES ENCORE: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

Hash it #gahanhypocrisy: A mayor who doesn't bother attending council meetings criticizes KZ for poor attendance.

ON THE AVENUES: No more fear, Jeff.

ON THE AVENUES ENCORE: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

This column was published on December 4, 2014, and in recent days, it has once again become topical, so let's have a second look. 

Our local Democrats are having a free speech problem, aren't they? And yet it doesn't prevent their pompous piety as it pertains to "human rights," requiring frequent recourse to the irony sickness bag.   

---

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options. Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint.

In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

A feather knocks us over as Democrats belatedly shuffle, mumble and pander about oppression.

Given that the Floyd County Democratic Party has been censoring me on social media since December, 2014, it's true that I only rarely visit the party's propaganda hive at Facebook.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

Consequently, I definitely missed this post late last night.

Let's review.

Weeks of silence pass, and at the very last opportunity to indicate the presence of a pulse, however faint, Adam Dickey waits until a brand new autonomous organization steps up to what might have been the Democratic Party's bully pulpit, and then -- only then -- oozes a tepid late-night statement of solidarity with the oppressed ... who have been waiting in vain for weeks on end for Adam's tea leaves to magically align.

And does not so much as mention Dan Coffey's name.

That's passionate, raw courage, isn't it?

In the narrowest of possible interpretations, then yes -- the local Democratic Party has not been silent about Coffey's anti-LGBT slurs, which were captured and documented on film.

But with leaders like these, who needs enemies?

Previously: 

June 11: ON THE AVENUES: This is Dan Coffey, New Albany’s quintessential Democrat.

June 4: ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

ON THE AVENUES: The Adamite Chronicles: Have muzzle, will drivel.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality.
― Hannah Arendt

One month ago, the Floyd County Democratic Party suffered an epochal beating in county (midterm) elections. In the aftermath of the electoral carnage, the party’s relatively youthful and web-savvy "reformist" core paused to take stock of future options. Surveying the rapidly shifting political terrain with a collective eye trained on the future, these characteristically near-sighted operatives took a bold and innovative step to reboot the tottering, leaky and spluttering local party machine.

They gazed into the mirror, and blocked me on the Democratic Party’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On that very day, as the untrammeled heavy truck traffic thundered past my Spring Street residence on a one-way arterial street the very existence of which contradicts the party’s incessant claims to care about topics like revitalization, quality of life, public safety and other nagging reminders of its perennial impotence, I conducted my own survey of the political landscape … threw back my head … and laughed, loud and long.

Surely this bit of childishness represents the acme, the pinnacle -- the very highlight -- of my career as a pestiferous gadfly.

I haven’t stopped laughing since then. At precisely this pivotal moment of inexorably changing mathematics, when the Floyd County Democratic Party might have initiated an honest dialogue with its long-neglected left wing – as inhabited by genuine non-Dixiecratic Democrats and a formerly reliable but rapidly disillusioned cohort of left-leaning fellow travelers – for succor, it has chosen instead to espouse censorship and express its abiding hostility to ideas.

We hardly need Adam Dickey as chairman for that, do we? After all, while Ted Heavrin may be out of office, it isn’t like he’s dead or anything.

---

Granted, social media is only one aspect of the local political scene, but censoring Facebook and Twitter suggests delicious irony given the party’s recent giddiness over its generational shift. Instead, it’s “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” though arguably worse. The upper echelons of the party, as seamlessly interwoven with its last, fading bastions of strength in City Hall, now openly offers themselves to the world as New Albany’s native version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

In the movie, (Robert) De Niro plays Mario Trantino, an Italian bicycle racer that gets involved in a Brooklyn gang war. Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) operates his gang under the auspices of mob boss Baccala (Lionel Stander). Trying to get out from under the boss' thumb means killing Baccala, but Kid Sally's gang proves unequal to the task and backfiring schemes make funerals an everyday occurrence. When Kid Sally's sister (Leigh Taylor-Young) starts dating Mario, who is then in the middle of pulling a scam on Baccala, Kid Sally sees his chance at last.

However, even an inept, cartoonish mafia is by no means the best comparison. Rather, what we have here is a willful failure to communicate, as embraced by functionaries who see their bland bureaucratic banality as a symbol of new age organizational prowess.

Here, reprinted in its excruciatingly mundane entirety, is my correspondence with Adam.

Roger
I'm going to ask you a direct question: Is the Floyd County Democratic Party acting to censor me on social media, and if so, what is the reason for it? I will publish the answer or non-answer at the blog no one reads. Thanks.

Adam
Roger, thank you for your inquiry. FCDP encourages public activism as part of the Democratic process and strongly supports an individual's first amendment rights to express their political viewpoint.

In regard to the administration of our social media sites, we invite thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on those sites. We strive to manage a positive online space where individuals can feel free to express themselves. Accordingly, when we created the social media sites, we also established a social media policy. For reference, that policy is posted on our Facebook site under "Notes."

FCDP Social Media Policy

Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana invites thoughtful, respectful and constructive dialogue on our Facebook page. We strive to manage a positive online space where our constituents can feel free to express themselves. We understand that some conversations around articles, blog posts, events, videos, organizational initiatives and other content on this page or linked to this page can create strong opinions which can lead to debates and passionate responses.

For that reason, when comments or posts descend into derogatory remarks, personal attacks, inappropriate content or confusing streams of irrelevant content, we reserve the right to remove comments on our pages and potentially move the conversations offline (either onto e-mail or discussions via phone). We want to see your comments and posts that:

• Are "on topic" and that respond to the content in our posts
• Are responses to comments left by other readers
• Are reasonably brief and to the point
• Have a positive/constructive tone
• Are open to being contradicted by other readers
• Might disagree with the content in the article or post, but never insult the writer of the article or blog post, or other commenters

We will immediately delete, without notice, comments and posts, that:

• Are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or contain racially, ethnically or similarly objectionable content
• Are personal attacks, including name-calling or celebrations of another person's misfortune
• Are injurious to the reputations or privacy of the Floyd County Democratic Party’s officers, volunteers, candidates and elected officials
• Are false statements or unrelated to the Floyd County Democratic Party’s programs and mission
• Contain advertising or spam
• Are incomprehensible or do not contribute to reasonable dialogue
• Are disruptive, including personal conversations better suited for private messaging
• Violate any of Facebook's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct

Violations of Floyd County Democratic Party – Indiana’s Facebook community rules will cause a commenter to be blocked from making future posts or comments on the Facebook page.

I hope this addresses your concern. Thank you again for your inquiry. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the social media policy.

Roger
Impressive. Can you clarify the human element of the policy, i.e., has it been applied by committee, or is there a sole social media arbiter?

Adam
There is a committee that manages the site.

Roger
Final question: Can you specify my offense? Thanks.

Adam
The decision was reflective on a pattern of violations that covered most of the examples listed under the second set of bullets.

---

It matters little whether the terms of use comprise cribbed boilerplate, or were written by the “committee” itself, although when I inquired of another party insider, the reply I received speaks volumes:

There isn't a social media committee.

Damn. Mr. Disney really has it in for me, eh?

---

Following the midterm election, William Greider appraised the Democratic Party as a whole, nationwide.

How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul, by William Greider (The Nation)

... The tattered authenticity of the party matters more now because both the country and the world face dangers and disorders that demand a fundamental reordering of the global economic system. This requires bold action, at a time when neither party is confronting the threatening situation. The Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the business-finance machine; the Democrats are rented.

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party.

I’ve been a fellow traveler for a very long time, always examining the bill of ballot fare as presented by both local political parties. With a recurring feeling of nausea, I’ve held my nose and voted mostly Democratic. Occasionally I’ve expressed active support for a Democratic aspirant, and almost without exception, the outcome has been disgust, disappointment, self-flagellation and yet another evening of commode hugging.

No more.

I cannot and will not support censors, and you should not, either.

Censorship as practiced by the likes of Chairman Adam plainly reveals a fundamental intolerance, and it intolerance is the local goal, I might as well follow the sage advice of Abraham Lincoln and opt for the unalloyed variety as practiced by the Republicans.

Or, conversely, we all might choose to approach politics in New Albany as principled, progressive independents, because in the end, it isn’t the word “progressive” that sets us apart from this planet’s petty Chairman Adams -- although our local Dixiecratic backsliders most assuredly are not progressive in any remotely coherent sense.

Rather, it’s the word “principled.”

Censors aren’t.

One Fine Day in the Park with Adam ... and a Football.

Inspired by FDR, the Floyd County Democratic Party squelches free expression on social media.

Local Democrats courageously prepare for 2015 by censoring Roger on social media.

ON THE AVENUES: Really, the word “progressive” embarrasses you? That’s okay, because political cowardice disgusts me.