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It’s pretty funny being here at Yearly Kos. Many Big Media Bores have shown up to write about — themselves. David Ehrenstein alerts us this morning to the presence of Ad Nags , who — like his fellow NYTimser MoDo — seems obsessed (on the front page of the Times no less) with the notion that bloggers may be angling to take their place in the cocktail weenie line:
They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment. Indeed, the convention, the first of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit as the Iowa State Fair.
All I can say is that the conference, for us, has been virtually free of contact with "political establishment." There’s lots of scurrying in the corners with the white boy bloggers who have a small fraction of our traffic, but politicians and their aides could seem to give fuck-all about the gals and the gays. We’ve really enjoyed the freedom to spend the time with our readers with little interference from all that hubub — blissfully, nobody has yet tried to "triangulate" me. Our FDL breakfast this morning was great — we got to hang out with people like Zennurse, BobbyG, Mommybrain, RBG, BarbaraB, Swopa, Skippy and others — right now I’ve got Ian Walsh plunking himself down in the chair next to me, Mike Stark is talking with Bob Geiger, Siun is making everyone comfortable and there’s not a politician or aid in sight.
I guess they’re all off pestering Ad Nags. Can I say how very happy I am he showed up to draw all the flies?
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FITZ
ROOTZZZZZZZ
YKos is a BLAST
Fitz? Fitz (for once?)
Sirota is talking about networking in the states to help our d. legislators replicate good legislation. Sounds like something we can talk about in the Roots Project.
Is that Duke Cunningham’s lava lamp?
I sincerely hope you all are having fun out there, and figure out ways so the “we, the people” can take over our government.
Keep up the good work!
Mostly a lurker, very occasional a poster.
Sirota:
Rather than fighting the media, we need to build up our own media. Progressive media is both the net roots AND the progressive magazines. We need more investment in investigative research, in substantive reporting. Critical.
big shout-out to Siun!
I’m sitting next to RevDeb and Matt O. Sirota’s laying down some good shyte. Talking about building and funding progressive infrastructure.
So Jane, what rich liberal bugger is gonna send us a fat check? Matt O. is cute, but tragically straight. Otherwise, maybe he could get us a sugar daddy.
Pach 8 — Yes Matt is straight but quite thoughtful, he stopped this morning to buy post cards for Valley Girl and got everyone to sign them. It was very sweet.
While it is never my intention to derail a thread I think this topic is worthy of a little discussion. I posted this on another blog to get some opinions from both sides of the spectrum.
A couple of weeks ago there was a small uproar about some toothless legislation that declared English to be the national language. Generally speaking I think alot of people thought that this was a useless law, some said it was about heritage.
At the time I didn’t see many people arguing for the law on the grounds of practicality, though there were a few. I planned to bring up that part of the argument but decided to wait until and example of the practical need for such a law popped up in the news. Here it is:
Geno’s famous cheesesteak shop faces threats of legal action for not servicing spanish speaking customers. It’s a short AP article but for those who don’t want to bother, here is the relevant paragraph:
This is a threat to small businesses who often can’t afford to have a bi-lingual staff. As I’m sure some of you know, when taken to court you can win your case and still loose big. With legal fees and time lost from work, defending yourself sucessfully in court can still be devastating. Thus the practical purpose of an english national language. If that silly law can protect small business owners from these types frivolous of lawsuits then I think it was a great idea.
Big hello to all- I’ve been reading and reading the threads, but not commenting much.
Matt O!
Thanks for the postcards, it’s great to know what’s going on.
Matt is sweetie, and Valley Girl is a hidden hero of this site, moderating comments, watching over the site. . . It really takes a team to make something like this run, and we all do it because the community really inspires us. 130 people got up for a 7:30 AM breakfast in Vegas to be together with the FDL family this morning. That’s literally awesome.
blissfully, nobody has yet tried to “triangulate” me
anybody angling to do that would be obtuse, and would probably suffer an acute response. I saw so, lees.
And the view from the Penthouse was fabulous. All that was missing were the cocktail weenies . . . though the thought of them for breakfast, well, not so much.
lhp, (or anyone else for that matter)
if you haven’t seen it yet – a little brunch nosh from everyone’s favorite curmudgeon Cafferty (h/t C & L)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..html#a8654
and Valley Girl wherever you are, caught a pic of
yourour Matt O yesterday – so adorable AND earnest !I don’t think I’m the only one who’s turned off by the gratuitous MSM bashing. It looks childish and seem to foreshadow more humility by triumphant YKOSSies.
I so wish that I could be there to meet and great all the people behind the screennames. Even though I don’t post that much in the comments, I read all the time. Isn’t there another convention of sorts coming up here in DC soon for progressives?
Thanks to all the FDLers for updates and comments!
(EPU’d repost)
Why Democrats Lose — By Robert Parry
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/060706.html
At dinner a few weeks ago, a well-placed Republican political operative was oozing confidence about GOP prospects in the November elections, not because the voters were enamored of George W. Bush but because the Democrats and liberals had done so little to improve their ability to reach the public with their message.
By contrast, he described to me a highly sophisticated Republican system for pouncing on Democratic “bad votes” and verbal gaffes and distributing the information instantaneously to a network of pro-Republican media outlets that now operates down to the state, district and local levels. …
In the June 6 special election, Republicans reported a last-minute surge of support after conservative media outlets trumpeted a verbal blunder by Democrat Francine Busby, propelling Republican lobbyist Brian Bilbray to victory by about four percentage points. …
In explaining Busby’s defeat in this bellwether special election, national Democratic consultants will likely point to failures of Busby as a candidate or the fact that the Republican Congressional Committee pumped more than $4.5 million into the district.
But the one point the Democratic consultants almost never mention is the giant media advantage that Republicans have created from years of investing in media outlets – from newspapers, magazines and books to cable television, talk radio and the Internet. …
Jane- I said this before in an earlier comment, but the Plame panel- you, RH, all the panel members were stellar. So complimentary in their perspectives. Murray Waas is such a mensch. He’s been toiling in obscurity for way too long.
That’s a first. We’re used to right wing concern trolls, but establishment media concern trolls?
Have only caught two disjoint video fragments from the panel. Is there a linked video somewhere or a known scheduled rebroadcast on CSPAN?
Thanks
I can’t begin to tell everyone how wonderful it is to be hanging out with people whose screen names and writings have been such a constant in our lives but until now had no face were all at a distance.
We are an amazing group of people and I am so grateful to be a part of it. Pach, Christie and Jane have been so gracious and available to us all. There is truly the feeling that we are all in this together and an important part of a REAL movement.
Hard to put that in a cogent statement while listening to Jerome and Markos speak. But thanks to everyone for providing this space, this medium, this community.
Second the sentiments of RevDeb 23.
I am humbled to be in the presence of the FDL’ers here.
Sitting in a sessio with zennurse at the moment. She’ll be leaing for California shortly.
:(
I’m still so jazzed ovber yesterday’s Plame panel. Wow.
VG – if you’re still on, I need to scoot for a bit.
Am still in my bathrobe, and household is falling down around my ears!
Anne- I’m here. My household has already fallen.
No doubt they’ve not tried to triangulate because you’re a rectangular guy.
Sirota quoting Bill Bennet:
“Conservatives see the Repubs as a means to an end.
Liberals see the Dems as and end.”
That’s why we lose. applause and nods of recognition.
ouch.
Poor MoDo. Now she has to stand behind the velvet ropes with the rest of us.
No matter how you try to spin it, it’s not a bad thing that the political establishment is listening to the blogosphere and taking it seriously.
That means we have political power (yay!). Sorry, David.
To me, the blogosphere represents DOCUMENTED, ACCOUNTABLE COMMUNICATION. Can’t say the same for the MSM.
today’s SF Chronicle blurb on YKos:
I think there’s something to that quote. I’m not bad-mouthing at all, but the convention seems to serve to crystallize a movement, which will defuse some of the angst and energy that has served to create the momentum that has brought them/us to this point. From now on, people like Lieberman won’t have to worry that opposition from the left is coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, they can now put their finger on it.
“I’m still so jazzed ovber yesterday’s Plame panel. Wow.”
Is was amazing! I watched it TWICE on C-SPAN!
mommybrain 27 – who you callin’ a square? :~)
Para…
It’s pretty obvious that the MSM is being targeted both at YKOS and on some of the blogs, I just think it’s sometimes unwarranted, sometimes goes to far, and often seems childish.
I probably should have expected any critical comment to be defined as trollish behavior here, I’ll have to go back and check that KOS Police troll definition list again.
Lakoff is so fine.
He says we need to carry our morality into our conversations with wingers, show them we are moral people and this will go a long way toward bringing the country together.
This just in.
There is a surprisingly low demand for books by lesbians who embrace the Republican agenda of gay bashing.
Who would have known.
(Snip)
“Despite saturation media coverage when it was published a month ago, Mary Cheney’s book Now It’s My Turn has tanked at bookstores. Published by a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, the memoir has sold fewer than 6,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen Bookscan.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail.asp?id=32039
-GSD
From an earlier post, Barbara Boxer:
“You believe in America, its promise, its principles and in values like fairness, truth-telling, accountability, opportunity and investment in our communities.”
Can I just take a moment during this great weekend to suggest that ‘freedom’ needs to be on that list? No value is more central to our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and I believe that respect for — indeed, reverence for — individual freedom has to be central to the Democratic Party’s message.
So did anyone attend Mark Warner’s “Blogosphere at the Stratosphere” event?
Jane,
Your opening yesterday, or as much of it as I have caught, was quintessential. Your timing, use of silence was certified “stand-up-comic,” good. “But we love him anyway,” is my latest favorite punchline.
Really appreciate you, Christy, and Pach continuing to check in.
Actually jerry is right. We should just roll over and go back to sleep while the MSM continues to deal out lies and spin and acts as a shill for the administration. No need to point that out.
The typo-laden Ad Nags spoof blog (drawing the flies) is a riot – worth a gander.
Don’t miss the comments by Bill keller, Judy Kneepads, et al.
punaise, 14:”Is that Duke Cunningham’s lava lamp?”
No, it is the cauldron of the three witches — Coulter, Malkin, and … you pick the third…so many to choose from.
Second thought, there is a question whether Coulter truly qualifies as a witch. Gender thing, ya know (wink wink).
Warlock?
Jane, don’t get pissed. I asked A.J., Jerry McNerney’s campaign manager, to find you there and introduce himself. He’s a good guy, only 27 and he just pulled off a miracle by absolutely slaughtering the DCCC-hack in California’s 11th congressional district, one of the biggest wins for a progressive, grassroots candidate all year. I told him to be sure and meet Christy and Pach too.
Punaise, don’t be obtuse, I called you a longish square.
How do you talk to beligerant right wingers? They are baiters – they try to get us to act as juveniley as they do. Do not react with anger, it plays into their stereotype of us. It’s deliberate. Not easy to do.
Get together socially to learn to talk about progressive values. When you are drinking with friends and especially with people with whom you have disagreements, buy a pitcher of beer! Nothing like sharing to live your values. THEY buy a bottle of beer – I want what I want and I’m not sharing – but a pitcher is symbolic of our values.
The misogyny of the right has it’s roots in strict-father morality (one of Lakoff’s books,interesting read). (Lakoff is putting together a national network to help us frame). If you want to reach wingers , be what you want to see in them (caring); ask about the women in their lives to see their softer side.
Fifty three percent of unwanted pregnancies come from people whohave had no sex ed. Conservatives are killing babies with their politics – infant mortality rate way up. Do you think the gov. should decide what your moral values should be?
End of panel. See ya soon.
PS Dan Froomkin is sooooo nice.
Jerry, it’s not about targetting, as in some sort of enemies list. It’s about getting them to do their jobs. I just posted a comment on Chris Cilizza’s WaPo blog, suggesting that the convention was about much more than which politicians showed up. He wrote a “People magazine” piece. I pointed out that the Plame panel had a really informative discussion on the case and the role of the press. Yet, his post was all about what Richardson had to say, Clark, Vilsack, whatever.
When the Plame panel goes up on C-SPAN, go listen. As Froomkin said, “Investigative journalism: What a concept.”
ck- Yeah- there is a media advantage. Part of it is incumbency- part of it is corporate ideology. Still- that has nothing to do with the Busby mispeak. She did that to herself and it was appropriately reported here. It was a bad gaffe at the worst possible moment.
(sure there are explanations- and sure it was blown out of proportion- but that’s politics- when you make a mistake- someone makes you pay).
Watching C-Span cover the “framing” panel: Lakoff is firing on all cylinders. How to reframe hot-button issues, how to talk with dittoheads, the need to reclaim as progressive issues like “life”, “freedom”.
C-Span just announced they would re-broadcast Joe Wilson’s comments from YKos on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
Is this blog hosted in Bahgdad or something? It’s only up like 14 hours a day.
Hey everyone, let’s not get bent out of shape.
punaise @14…gah!
heh heh, from the Ad Nags “comments”:
Freshly EPU’d:
Well well well, a friend just sent me the LexNex of MoDo’s column for today. Without busting copyright entirely, here’s most of it:
HEADLINE: Bloggers Double Down
BYLINE: By MAUREEN DOWD
DATELINE: Las Vegas
If I had to be relegated to the Dustbin of History, I’m glad it was in Vegas.
I, Old Media, came here to attend a New Media convention of progressive political bloggers aiming for a technological revolution that would dispatch mainstream media to the tumbrels. It was the journalistic equivalent of mingling with your own pod replicant in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
“Bloggers meet mainstream media,” crowed one young man, as he had a friend take a picture of us together at the Riviera Hotel. His friend chimed in: “Where the rubber meets the road.”
Old media and new circled each other “like kids at a seventh-grade dance,” said Jennifer Palmieri, a Democratic operative.
(snip)
John Laesch, who is running to unseat Denny Hastert in Illinois, was ubiquitous, even kneeling before one blogger in the hall, seeking a “Netroots” endorsement.
Technology has enabled the not-meek to inherit the earth, and Democrats and others who refuse to drink the cyber-Kool-Aid will, Mr. Moulitsas said, go into the old “dustbin of history.”
The fast-talking former Army artillery scout with the boyish demeanor and dark brown buggy eyes is no one to take lightly. Some may think the Internet messiah who put Mr. Dean on the map in 2003 is “a fame hound, a loudmouthed
nerd at the back of the room,” as The Washington Monthly wrote. But others, including adoring conventioneers who called the scene at the debut YearlyKos gathering “magic” and “a rock concert,” see him the way Ana Marie Cox, nee Wonkette, described him this week in Time.com: “He’s the left’s own Kurt Cobain and Che Guevara rolled into one.”
I tracked down the cult leader, wading through a sea of Kossacks, who were sitting on the floor in the hall with their laptops or at tables where they blogged, BlackBerried, texted and cellphoned — sometimes contacting someone only a few feet away. They were paler and more earnest than your typical Vegas visitors, but the mood was like a masquerade. This was the first time many of the bloggers had met, and they delighted in discovering whether their online companions were, as one woman told me, male, female, black, white, old, young or “in a wheelchair.”
Mr. Moulitsas assured me he didn’t see himself as a journalist, only a Democratic activist. “I don’t plan on doing any original reporting — screw that. I need people like you,” he said, agreeing that since he still often had to pivot off the reporting of the inadequate mainstream media to form his inflammatory opinions, our relationship was, by necessity, “symbiotic.”
As I wandered around workshops, I began to wonder if the outsiders just wanted to get in. One was devoted to training bloggers, who had heretofore not given much thought to grooming and glossy presentation, on how to be TV pundits
and avoid the stereotype of nutty radical kids.
Mr. Moulitsas said he had a media coach who taught him how to stand, dress, speak, breathe and even get up from his chair. Another workshop coached Kossacks on how to talk back to Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. “One of my favorite points,” the workshop leader said, “is that the French were right.”
Even as Old Media is cowed by New Media, New Media is trying to become, rather than upend, Old Media. Ms. Cox has left her Wonkette gig to be a novelist and Time essayist. Mr. Moulitsas and Mr. Armstrong wrote a book called “Crashing the Gate,” and hit “Meet the Press” and the book tour circuit. Mr. Armstrong left his liberal blog to become a senior adviser to Mr. Warner. What could be more mainstream than that?
Were the revolutionaries simply eager to be co-opted? Mr. Moulitsas grinned. “Traditionally it was hard to get your job,” he said. “Now regular
people can score your job.”
Fine. I’ll be at the Cleopatra slot machine pondering a career in blogging, which will set me up to get back into mainstream media someday.
Here is a link to some YearlyKos pics….
http://www.flickr.com/search/?…..amp;m=tags
Is it true Byron York is call for tax breaks for the dreadful?
What watertiger said at 9:52.
Sounds to me as though MoDo has been
swallowedbitten by the “green monster?”Hey MoDo, check your
damnego, at the door. Remember, the other side still has control of both Houses, the Oval Office, and if Justice Steven’s 87-year-old health fades, the SC. Remember MoDo, there’s no “I” in TEAM.Who is MoDO?
mommybrain 45, wrecked angle, fair enough.
(actually, trapezoid is a better fit).
where’s Evil Parallel Universe when you need her (?) – she could straighten this out.
Maureen Dowd, NYT
Thanks Punaise!
Interesting read about the NH GOP operative that served time for the phone jamming scam.
Notice he talks about the “win at all cost” strategy of Republicans.
http://www.rawstory.com/showar…..cs?mode=PF
-GSD
rw, I’ve got a big hunka her column today in moderation — coming right up, I hope.
punaise at 10:16
LMAO.
D. Mason, 10 “A couple of weeks ago there was a small uproar about some toothless legislation that declared English to be the national language.”
I am not sure how such a legislation could be “toothless” but I am sure that it flies in the face of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, and that means freedom to speak in any language, including ASL (American Sign Language).
Not to mention that if we were to hew to a tradition of speaking a “national” language, there would be nearly 500 of them, since at the time of the arrival of the Puritans, there were as many as 500 Native American tribes, each with their own language or dialect.
How do you say “bullshit” in Choctaw or Apache?
Think about it: if it came to the Supreme Court, what are the ancestral tongues of the people there? How are they going to uphold a law like that without denying their own heritage?
The stupidity of the conservatives has no bounds.
Thanks for the picks, ccmask.
I loved the last one, of the sign,
“NSA, working without warrants since 2003.”
Read up on the Mark Warner event downstairs. It strikes me how boring, bland and predictable the politicians appear in direct contrast with the bloggers at YKos. I’m really hoping we can tug that rope and pull them further towards the light side!
Yeah, John that was my fav too.
rwcole –
I probably should have ended the Robert Parry excerpt with a different paragraph. I take it for granted that we are at a tremendous disadvantage media-wise — but what is killing us the Beltway Dems timidity and self serving consultants driving us into the ground.
What Does The Democratic Party Stand For?
Until we can answer that question with a series of short sharp soundbites that persuade folks to support us, the Democrats will continue to lose.
As for the Busby loss, Brad Friedman is not convinced she did lose — except in the Diebold vote counting software. ES&S just got nailed flipping an election in Iowa, and who’s to say it didn’t happen in the CA-50?
http://www.bradblog.com/
Personally, I think Busby did lose, and it was because of low turnout — not the gaffe. If she was going to win, she needed a much higher percentage of Democrats and Independents to go to the polls; that didn’t happen, and she lost.
I think all of those robo-calls you were getting are the reason why she lost — I’ll bet Democrats and Independents received different calls from Republicans, and many more calls to boot. The calls were not intended to persuade — they were designed to suppress turnout and make Democratic phone banking ineffective. I’d say it worked.
Still haven’t seen the CSPAN tape of our panel, if anyone gets a link to a stream or knows when they’ll be rerunning in it would be nice to know.
tryggth @ 22 -
C Span will pre broadcast Plame Panel
Sunday 3:30 pm EST
Re: What does the Dem Party stand for?
Maybe they should bill themselves as PROBLEM-SOLVERS. They could actually address problems such as health care, energy policy, national security, hurricane preparation etc., while the Repukes are busy making up IMAGINARY problems (gay marriage, flag burning, terror, etc.). to distract people from the real ones.
crap, Re Broadcast Plame Panel tomorrow at 3:30
and although I started watching intermittently,
the ‘framing panel’ should be Porgressive 101 -
lotsa good stuff
more live reports from the field: (Damn, I wish someone more thoughful, like Mary, could be doing this. We are thinking about y’all.)
Raw Story panel (of 1)on investigative journalism.
What’s the guy’s name, the founder of Raw Story? I missed his intro.
Anyone can do investigative journalism. Just start calling people, make sure you know what you’re talking about. They will often talk to you and give you information. There’s a lot reporters know that they don’t report (oh, well, everyone knows that! It’s old/not news. ie Mehlman’s orientation.)
Google searches work amazingly well. You can find all kinds of stuff on google. Corporate media not as willing anymore to fund (expensive) investigative journalism.
Very important to show your knowledge when calling around to get information. Ask “Well, who else knows about this issue?” and you will often get referrals.
Double sourcing is very important – we’ve learned our lesson. Drudge often makes shit up.
Getting your story out: email around to bloggers, make sure you have a good subject headline to get their attention.
More in a minute. Or should I stop?
Jane,
“Still haven’t seen the CSPAN tape of our panel, if anyone gets a link to a stream or knows when they’ll be rerunning in it would be nice to know.”
Sunday, 3:30 ET. That will make the 4th airing by my count!
I’m attending a navel gazing blogosphere panel, but it doesn’t suck. It’s moderated by Chris Bowers and includes cool people. But I’m finding I’m really mentally wiped. Should find a time to rest.
Thanks for the pics at #53 ccmask! The one of “girls meet boys” on p. 3 is HIL-arious! :)
Don’t stop mommybrain!
Thank you, Pach, Jane, and Christy and everyone for doing everything you are to bring the convention to us shut-ins. We’re all so proud of you. The panel yesterday was outstanding. So refreshing to hear these people speak without Mary Matalin or Ol’ 60 Grit cutting them off and interrupting them to spew some half-retarded talking point.
I’ve actually been really surprised at how favorable the MSM coverage has been. The guys at Red State must be chewing the scenery about now.
If you’re down past 53, run back up there for the MoDo excerpt. Meanwhile, I gotta bolt for gawf and then Greek food. Y’all have fun, and I’ll cashew later . . .
Orangejumpsuit said:
I will start my reply to you by knocking down this strawman. All the law does is state that english is our national language and that the government shall not be required to provide services in another language. There is no assault on people who speak another language. It sets an official standard for the government. That’s also why I refered to it as toothless.
What do tribal languages have to do with our national language? The united States was never part of any Native American tribe. We took their land, for better or for worse, and we are not tied to them linguistically. We never were.
My point, which you chose to miss, was that non-english speaking people should not be able to use the courts to force bi-lingualism in small businesses. It should be those establishments choice to offer services in another language or not. English is the prevailing language in this country and business owners should not be required by abuse of law to hire multi-lingual employees. Agree or disagree?
ck- I think Busby lost because she was a poor candidate and ran a poor campaign. I think the race was winnable- but with a fourteen point registration disadvantage- it required a very good campaign to win it. Hackett, for example, would have won the race.
I keep having nightmares of Francine doing her “I’m a soccer mom from Cardiff- send me to Washington to clean up the place” speech. Gives me the cold shivers.
She actually HAS some business experience and refused to run on it. Stupid.
Candidates need to understand the growing attachment that people have to their jobs and to their employers. They admire CEOs and upper management. They want candidates who are somewhat in that mode- powerful, articulate, and knowledgable.
Francine deliberately chose to “power down”- that’s OK if you are say- Bill Clinton- it’s not OK if you are someone no one knows.
With all the apparent misperceptions on the part of the MSM and other sundry onlookers, I wouldn’t be surprised if Joementum showed up, begging for votes. :)
Wish I could have gone, but poverty demands will power. It would have been a lot of fun to snicker and point at Byron York in person. :)
Re: overall diversity of blogosphere:
This is a problem that starts way below the blogs. The percentage of people who own computers at all is disproportionately white. A problem exacerbated of course by the class-war policies of this administration.
I’m sitting in the Privacy Rights in the Conservative Era forum at the moment. Gonna go to Christy’s pannel next at 11:20 (in Royale 1).
I’m also gonna attend the Net Neutrality session at 2:45 pm.
Everyone needs to read the Lessig OpEd in the WaPo on ‘net neutrality:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..tml?sub=AR
The Bushies and their crony Suits wanna turn the internet into a gated community.
Fab MoDo article up at #53–
“It was the journalistic equivalent of mingling with your own pod replicant in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.’”
ROFL!
In the C-Span yKos panel this morning, someone cited Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer –
Issues Divide Us — Values Unite Us.
This is one of the most profound insights anyone has ever offered.
Issues are about process and legislation and specificity — all of which induce MEGO in voters, and create attack opportunities for the other side. The GOP rose to power on Frank Luntz list of words, that were emotionally charged but content free.
What Do Democrats Stand For?
Hope — Opportunity — and Fairness.
Republicans have destroyed the American Dream — Democrats want to give everyone the opportunity to succeed.
Republicans give us Lies –
Democrats give us Hope . . .
Snip from Lessig:
“Congress is about to cast a historic vote on the future of the Internet. It will decide whether the Internet remains a free and open technology fostering innovation, economic growth and democratic communication, or instead becomes the property of cable and phone companies that can put toll booths at every on-ramp and exit on the information superhighway.
At the center of the debate is the most important public policy you’ve probably never heard of: “network neutrality.” Net neutrality means simply that all like Internet content must be treated alike and move at the same speed over the network. The owners of the Internet’s wires cannot discriminate. This is the simple but brilliant “end-to-end” design of the Internet that has made it such a powerful force for economic and social good: All of the intelligence and control is held by producers and users, not the networks that connect them…”
“…these gatekeepers would determine who gets premium treatment and who doesn’t.
Their idea is to stand between the content provider and the consumer, demanding a toll to guarantee quality delivery. It’s what Timothy Wu, an Internet policy expert at Columbia University, calls “the Tony Soprano business model”: By extorting protection money from every Web site — from the smallest blogger to Google — network owners would earn huge profits. Meanwhile, they could slow or even block the Web sites and services of their competitors or those who refuse to pay up. They’d like Congress to “trust them” to behave.
Without net neutrality, the Internet would start to look like cable TV. A handful of massive companies would control access and distribution of content, deciding what you get to see and how much it costs…”
IMPORTANCE.CANNOT.BE.OVERSTATED
punaise says: “anybody angling to do that would be obtuse, and would probably suffer an acute response.”
June 10th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Especially if adjacent to you? (g)
Oscarsmom 89:
But Modo’s wrong …. Going to a Tony Snow press briefing is the journalistic equivalent of mingling w/ yr own replicant from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
OT, World Cup, just in:
Trinidad & Tobago 0, Sweden 0
bit of an “upset”
SP, CPA – you’re so complementary
While Busby had her problems as a candidate, I think that article by Robert Parry (post#19) is right on. Progressives need a rapid response ‘war room’ system to counter republican spin and talking points. Every candidate makes gaffes, but the republican machine amplifies and spreads dem gaffes like wildfire. The gaffe doesn’t even have to be real – the usual suspects (Drudge, Rush, the National Review, Fox News) will sometimes make stuff up and push it to the MSM.
Candidates need to aggressively counter the republican spin with the help of a rapid response democratic media team that links to the blogs, and will push to the MSM. Fighting back is the only thing that works. It worked for Clinton, after all.
Doesn’t anyone read important stuff like “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”? Sheesh. Of course adnags is right, at least in the large.
The revolutionaries of today are the conservatives of tomorrow. That’s the way it goes.
The conservative-leaning press of today was the wacky liberals of the 60s.
As for the blogosphere you can see the congealing of power-centers now. That’s the way it goes. In a few years – or decades (who knows?) – we’ll be tracing the conservative-resistant-to-change blogosphere (or whatever’s around then) to the Jane Hampshers, the Atrios’, the Kos’ – all liberal and loosey-goosey – of today.
But the romantic idea of “oh no no no, we’ll NEVER become like THEM – that’s what we hate the MOST” – that idea is patently asinine. It’s just a matter of time.
Look at the continuing separation of the blogosphere “power brokers” and the unwashed masses. Who are these “power brokers”? They’re at yearlykos.
I’m not bitching at anyone for this phenomenon – just reporting it.
You can view the plame panel online by going to this C-SPAN link:
http://www.c-span.org/VideoArc…..=Issue,MP;
It’s currently the first one listed.
Looks like unless someboy TIVO’d it, I’ll never see the Plame panel.
What MaryAnn says –
Clinton won in 1992 because of his War Room — they shot down smears before they could gel in the public consciousness. That is the way to short circuit the GOP-MSM Axis of Propaganda.
The other factor in Busby’s loss — timid campaigning, using the tried and true failed strategies of the Beltway Consultants.
Memo to the DC Democrats — “Culture of Corruption” is a sure fire message to LOSE the election.
Mr. Lakoff nailed it and taught me so much! Reframing is essential– I am thinking a gazillion thoughts now. Listen and reframe. The added benefit is my anger dissipates to a more reasonable level when I try it. Even works for issues that mean the most to me– like the wars.
The DINO’s ought to try it and then come out swinging– I want to see them with some fire in their bellies!
Jane –
In one of yesterday’s threads, someone said they Tivo’d the panel discussion, and would NEVER erase it. Not sure who it was — but there can’t be more than several hundred comments since then.
Well crap,CSPAN had to stop coverage of the convention because of technical SNAFUs.Looks like I actually have to go do something else today now,lol.
So, are any of the Democrats at YKos discussing this?
Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition
because, after all, establishing permanent forward bases in Iraq was among the real reasons our troops are dying there today.
At the very end of the article, the tiniest glimmer of hope:
That both the mainstream media and the Democrats have been unwilling to discuss this issue openly for so many years is appalling. The deep desire by this administration for forward bases in Iraq has been well-known since at least September of 2000, two years prior to the start of the Iraq war.
The issue, and how it is decided, will have far more impact on US/Middle East relations, the price of oil, and long term stability in the region, and the future deaths of our children, than will the death of the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Yet al-Zarqawi is front page news for days, while this issue… well, if we’re lucky, it’s page 20, bottom of the fold.
Just where are the Democrats on this?
punaise says
June 10th, 2006 at 10:55 am
There may be some more angles to explore…
After the dems. lost in ‘04, Dems. were instructed to be more christian. I find the Bradblog Busby/Bilbray election in doubt interesting. I also find intesting the huge Armando contributor for Kos works for a lawfirm that represents WalMart. Seems as if this type of person never wants to mention election fraud as part of the problem. LIKE DEMOCRACY. What is it with you guys? Who are you working for?
Jane,
I thought I read some earlier threads, Thursday, that some were making DVD’s.
Also I changed my mind, again. My latest favorite line in your opening was, “crack ombudsman.”
I’ve been able to watch a lot of the speeches and panels thanks to the great coverage by CSPAN, LinkTV, and AirAmerica Radio (which actually includes a video feed). Biggest disappointments – the camera remained on the panel when Pach asked his question and no coverage of the FDL breakfast!
By the way, someone asked about oilfieldguy in a previous thread… He is just like his online persona, except with a perfect Okie drawl. This blog attracts fine people.
More RAw Story on investigating:
Ask specific questions, not general fishing questions. Cultivate sources.
Be absolutely sure before you publish. Double source, at least.
Rove/Leopold and Rather – were they set-ups? Black-ops? Absolutely. RS got a document that purported to be about Iran’s nuclear program – RS decided it was suspect and declined to run it. He thinks the document is being passed around Congress right now, he doesn’t think they’re aware it’s fake.
Sydney Blumenthal wrote that Daddy Bush and/or his peeps (Scowcroft etc) is trying to get Rummy thrown overboard. That’s why Bush decided to declare his Decider status.
Man, I have to pee so bad but all the panels are going long and I don’t want to miss anything and the bathrooms are miles away.
You can watch the Cspan coverage of the YearlyKos here. The Plame segment plays first on the one date 06/09/06. Watch it whenever you want to.
http://www.c-span.org/search/b…..ge1=Submit
Also, I have the CIA Leak panel on DVR. If not available elsewhere, I could provide my copy. Just thought I’s offer. You can contact me at the email addr I use to post with.
Jane, it was so cool to see you on that panel –
You had a librarian/schoolmarm-ish demeanor, with a bit of leather boots and riding crop attitude. It was great!!!
Thanks Rob. Jane, the top link Rob points too is sort of mislabeled – but it is the panel.
I’ll see if I download it and host it somewhere.
Anyone who has the ability to make DVD’s of the Plame panel, some of us who were here would love a copy as a keepsake. My spouse is a wonderful guy but he couldn’t work a VCR if his life depended on it.
Please please please.
Blessings to anyone who can do this.
I’m at revdeb at macdotcom if you can send me an e-mail I would be ever so grateful.
Thanks
Way to come to the “technological rescue” psyche/soul and tryggth. Thanks.
I don’t know, John. I loved Jane’s imitation of evil plotting with her hands and voice when she was talking about W. and Cheney. Seeing Jane’s snark in action was priceless. I also loved Christy’s slow and measured snarky lecture when she spoke about a reg-u-lar grand jury to The Note.
Hello, Pups, I wish i had blogged this workshop from the beginning – but will try to catch up – ‘Whose Freedom – What Progressives and Comservatives Mean by “Freedom” and “Liberty” and Why It Matters for Elections.
Biconceptuals – two notions of freedom in this country derived from family upbringing – our first taste of governance – Strict Father and Nurturing Person.
Strict Father – Protects his family from the evil out there, works to feed them, children are bad and need to be taught to be good with punishment, and he, with discipline (being moral – conquering passion ) in the free market, will prosper. So those who don’t prosper have brought it upon themselves by being immoral. Any govt program to help out is immoral.
Bad Apple – causation – conservs individ action/initiative/responsibility individ punishment. Liberals systemic and complex causation.
Nurturing figure – protecting. Empathy business model.
Conservative Populism – Liberty – Liberty is Freedom from Opression – Liberals are oppressing them. 1. Direct vs. Complex – conservs identify masculine feminine roles. Snowmobiling in Yellowstone argument – if we argue protecting the environment, they argue they are being oppressed – its a matter of liberty to do what they want. Economic Liberty – no zoning, MeMeMe vs US
Religion – God is Strict Father vs God is Nurturing Person. Essence – woman’s essence is to bear children – if have abortion, she has defiled her essence. You are most free if you follow the church dogma. Most free if tuned to churches concept of nature. Evangelicals required to spread the ‘truth’ and freedom of speech protects that and government sould protect that or you are oppressed.
Foreign Policy – free market in a country – some will get rich and therefore want democracy as a dictator would take their money away, and the separation of powers, civilian-led military will maintain this. Therefore, we have liberated Iraq,
We have to convince conservatives they are being oppressed – they can’t eat the fish the have caught (true in 48 of the 50 states.
Q – The mentallly ill – cant control their passions, so are bad and need to be punished. How can we use their words to frame this?
http://www.rockbridgeinstitute.org
cdj @ June 10th, 2006 at 10:57 am
There’s more contempt than sense in your comment, and let me be the first to tell you that the contempt is unjustified. “All liberal and loosey-goosey,” “The conservative-leaning press of today was the wacky liberals of the 60s,” etc., is, at best a revelation of what you don’t know, and at worst, ad-hominem nonsense.
I was a liberal in the sixties, albeit by my lights not a particularly wacky one; I remain one today, for what seem to me to be very sound reasons, which I’d be happy to elaborate on if you have the time and inclination. As for “loosey-goosey,” what can that mean, except that you find our expressions of regard and affection for one another embarrassing? If so, isn’t that more your problem than ours?
Power comes and goes, it’s true — that’s the nature of the political process. What you’re willing to do to get it, and what you do with it when you have it are the real issues facing us today.
Re getting more involved: meta at 194 in the Vegas Baby thread, “now I’m thinking I need to become a full-time political activist…”
Meta, you already ARE a full-time political activist, you are just moonlighting at that 9-5 gig.
Charlie Cook, Zogby, and Carville all have pieces up speaking about what dems need to do to win this year. All are worth a read.
Zogby emphasizes the importance of whose issues dominate the discussion. Carville gets pretty specific on tested messages that work. Cook is pretty general but interesting nonetheless.
Dems have a couple of more months to decide what they are going to run on. Carville says that it’s better for dems to nationalize the race.
All agree that the dems issues- social security, health care, education, and the economy in general are hot topics for dems. Zogby says that dems need to find a way to take advantage of Iraq fatigue. Carville agrees but cautions against a “get out now” message. Immigration, “values”, taxes, and terrorism are gooper issues- if the discussion moves in that direction, dems lose.
I think that people pretty much know what dems stand for- and they pretty much like it. It’s a case of competing priorities.
I’m at the political blogging panel. Stoler, Atrios, Christy and a few others. Nice to “sit” for a while.
Breaking….
Three Gitmo detainees have committed suicide…CNN
So I’m now sitting in the panel discussion on abortion and wouldn’t you know it there is a troll here from the Weekly Standard RECORDING the session.
He says he’s “here to learn” that will be the day!
John Casper – Emptywheel is sitting next to me (Christy’s panel is just beginning). She wants tips on how to bet on football while she’s here. Can you enlighten her?
That Weekly Standard troll was standing at the back of the room making ridiculous comments about how they were offending him. WATB.
He wouldn’t introduce himself in the circle but I stated that if he was recording this he at owed us the courtesy of letting us know who he is. It was good to find out before talking.
wet look hair smug face, jeans and suit jacket. I hate trolls.
So it seems that the center of the political universe is in Las Vegas…well, at least for a few days. This should show the power of the blogs. A collection of hundreds of bloggers gathering together. Impressive!
Does Emptywheel want to bet on soccer, or American football?
Steve Gilliard is following the World Cup — for American football, the point spread normalizes team quality, and you bet against the spread.
Blogger eithic panel – Christy, Atrios, Matt Stoller,
New models for journalism
Jay Rosen up first.
Angry at MSM. 49 reasons why, look for a post on this in the next few days. “Watchdog press has lost the house”. Anger from the right creates anger from the left.They built into their party attacks on the press. Dems did not.
cdj
Don’t really understand what you are saying.
What’s a “conservative”? Reactionary defender of the status quo? In that event- all successful revolutionaries DO become conservatives–Lenin vs. Stalin?
If, on the other hand, you think of conservative positions as linked to certain current issues- they will blow away in the wind within a relatively short period of time- and the ongoing dialectic will harness new meat to grind.
afternoon. quickly, 124, on football. Tell that gal that she’s foolish to make ANY bets on football right now. It’s plain dumb.
During the regular NFL season, make an intelligent choice of who she thinks wins the game outright. Forget the spread. Just make your pick. 75% of the time the game winner covers the spread.
Ghostman
One must assume soccer- since there won’t be any football to bet on for sometime- although there are probably long odds bets available on the Super Bowl available.
Speaking of anger at the MSM– check this out re: the lack of coverage of RFK Jr’s article in Rolling Stone:
>>>>>>>>>>>
For those who read it with a more balanced view, there is plenty to fuel outrage about imperfections and potential for manipulation of the electoral system.
It’s too early to tell whether it will become big news in the same delayed manner the British intelligence memo did. But the titans of the news industry still have things to learn about how news becomes news in the present-day media landscape. Editors will always have responsibility for filtering, and helping readers understand the importance and credibility of news reports.
But nowadays, the American discourse is rightfully in hands other than ours.
http://www.rawstory.com/showar…..ing09.html
I grew up in a neoconservative household,I didn’t know it at the time,but that is precisely the path my parents took.Between Amway and the megachurches I saw alot of shit go down during my childhood til I was kicked out of the house at 17.(family values being first and foremost,don’tcha know)
I may have been young,but I knew that what was going on was WRONG.There were meetings at my house where the adults planned political moves;taking over the school board,throwing money into smear campaigns.This was the 1970’s and the tools of technology hadn’t yet come into wide general use,but that didn’t stop this movement from gathering strength.I even met Rich DeVos once,I was a kid,but I remember him,and he gave me the creeps.My kid radar pegged him as a big greedy phony,turns out I was right about that one.
I’ve been a Liberal for that reason all my adult life.There isn’t enough money or power in the world that could make me sell my soul and go to that dark place conservatives have gone to today.People with integrity don’t sell out for a profit,if someone does that,they didn’t have a solid foundation in the first place.
I’m sure many lefties from back in the day decided money meant more to them than principle and many became today’s conservatives,but I don’t buy that ALL of them did,or will.If we remain Progressive as a movement,I think those folks can be weeded out fairly easily.This doesn’t mean a vow of poverty to be credible either.It boils down to what people do,rather than what they say.
One can argue that we are in a period of “inversion” currently.
According to this view, the liberals WON in the sixties and seventies- and are now defending the ground they gained- while the “conservatives” are making an assault to take it back- counter revolutionaries.
Many conservatives have this model in mind- and thus are constantly “tinkering” with history to make it fit the model.
the Daou is up, with these points:
Has anybody else noticed that the CSPAN link to Kos went down and they substituted other programming?
-sofistic
“Is it true Byron York is call for tax breaks for the dreadful?”
No, he was calling for a tax break for dreadlocks (his next look doncha know.)
MoDo can’t feature any of us not aspiring to be her. But I’ve yet to meet anyone in Greater Blogistan who wants to fuck Michael Douglas.
I hope someone makes all the conferences available for download. Even with Air America’s feed, I can only watch one at a time.
link to Daou
What does it say about the administration’s ethos when 3 men commit suicide at Gitmo? This speaks of the utter hopelessness that these deceased prisoners experienced.
I am ashamed, again.
sofistic– they had “technical” problems. General Hayden, yoo- hoo!
ck- American football.
Political journalism is in crisis, and that’s a good thing. We have an opportunity to help it renew itself.
Paul form Media Matters – Be careful, our sense of community that comes from our blogofamilies and here at YKOS may make us think change is easy and swift – not.
Top news source for AMericans today is the fetid swamp that is local television news, where politics is almost completely absent. We need to learn from the right about how to corral media. Hatred of the “liberal press” is integrated through the party from top to bottom.
REpublicans hate reporters. Dems want them to like them.
they say they want authenticity but what they really want is a good portral of authenticity. Good acting. We need to change the way we deal with the media. (Being right is not enough: what progressives must learn from the Right’s success – his book).
Atrios is next. Back in a moment
I have trouble understanding the purported “battle” between the blogs and the MSM. In fact- they do very different things. 99% of the news originates in one or another of the MSM outlets. I see no way that this will change. What the blogs do is “process” that output- critique it- analyze it- sort through it- compare it to one another- etc.
The few blogs that are actually trying to report the news are underfunded and not very successful. It takes a lot of cash to have reporters in every important world capital. Let’s call off the war.
David E:
Priceless, and just what she deserves — a bit of her own back.
1,177 DAYS AND THE KILLING GOES ON AND ON AND…
I really hate ta throw anything out there that might distract from the fun and frolic in the bread, circus and Super Bowl weekend in Vegas but some interestin’ shit is comin down the colon which is the beltway political establishment… Jack Murtha announced he will be a candidate for majority leader behind Speaker Pelosi if the Dems take the House back in November. This is big stuff, the battle against the Republicrats and DINOs for the soul of the Democratic Party is takin’ shape. Pelosi and Murtha have aimed a sharp stake right at the heart of the Rahm Emmunuel-Steny Hoyer-DLC nexis in the House and,at least on the Congressional side, it seems that Pelosi has declared her allegiance to the Dean-DNC side of things. This is important for activists in the blogisphere because Nancy is gunna need the Blogswarm’s support startin right now if she’s gunna succeed.
Now I have no illusions about Grmapa Jack Murtha’s politics…he represents an old and, I hope, dyin’ breed of Reagan Democrat out of the Scoop Jackson gene-pool. But he is perfect to rally anti-bodies against the malignancy of the Emmanuel-Hoyer-Schumer-Lieberman-Clinton tumor in the Democratic Party.
YOU GO JACK…WE GOTCHER BACK!!
Now back to the regularly scheduled self-congratulating social stroakin’ in Las Vegas.
KEEP THE FAITH AND COME BACK READY TA FIGHT!!
Damn, been out all morning canvassing voters, missed this bit that mommybrain and zennurse were hanging with Jane this morning! Agh!!
Now I really feel left out!!
Enjoy yourselves to the hilt, soak up every bit of knowledge you can glean, FireDoggers, while you’re there in Sin City. Because when you get back we have very, VERY serious work to do. Canvassing this morning was NOT fun; it was grim work, output was not going the direction it should at this point in the season. We are going to need a full court press when you get back; bring your game home with you.
And now back to Voter ID and opposition research work out in flyover country…
Norske– I agree completely– we gotcher back, Jack!
Atrios – Putting reporters with their veneer of neutrality on with raging pundits who have no middle is nuts. Tdese journos then perpetuate the CW narrative cuz they feel they can’t give opinions.
How do the narratives get created? They’re perpetuated and reinforced in the roundtable circlejerks on TV. It’s true because enough people say it’s true. ATrios thinks it’s time for them to shed the fiction of objectivity. Let them have opinions (online).
Christy’s up now.
Rayne- what are you hearing- I’m very interested!
Angry old broad, you must be from western MI, no? Amway and self-righteous christianity abounded there growing up as a kid, couldn’t wait to get the hell out. My evangelical mom made that easy as she kicked me out shortly after graduating from HS.
Unlike you, I was not estranged and things are ok today. It sure helped that my dad knew something was up with my mom and she finally got diagnosed for manic depression/bi-polar disorder way back in the days when they didn’t even have prozac yet. Needless to say it, and lithium, probably saved her life. (Smug younger me: “gee mom, modern medicine NOT god came to your rescue.”) We’ve gone round the merry-go-round for decades. Nothing like a mentally ill evangelical, let me tell you! And guess which family member still votes GOP? :(
New thread – Howie Klein
D. Mason,84
I apologize to the extent that I did not read up on this proposed bill (passed in the Senate)before responding to your remarks. I now have read not the bill itself but a report in the Times. At issue is an amendment to the immgration bill that designates English as the national language.
As to this amendment being “toothless” it may be so if you just read the strict interpretation of the amendment, but it is far from toothless in that it is part of the right-wing campaign to disenfranchise immigrants (legal and otherwise) who happen to be Hispanic.
All you have to do is is look at the sponsors of the amendment, two of the worst bigots in the Senate, Republicans Lamar Alexander and James Inhofe.
Democrat Senator Reid has this to say:
I don’t want to get in a pissing contest on this. Just to let you know that I find Sen. Reid’s position more in tune with the spirit of American liberty and the guarantees of the Constitution.
A full airing of this issue would take pages. Otherwise this is way OT and I will stop here.
Is EPU in Vegas? I seem to be filling in for him quite nicely.
Yep Rayne I agree, been on the phone with some peeps this week, going to a progressive picnic in E. Lansing tomorrow. We need to roll up our sleeves.
Lots of groups online and offline are all building new sites and tools to organize us all even more, including me which is why I haven’t been commenting.
I see lots of cool things coming very soon from what I’m reading and hearing, and this convention will be a huge new inspiration for all of us whether there attending or here holding down the place. Glad I’ve got the live streaming thru Air America to catch these panels.
Christy’s turn:
(Rayne, Emptywheel wishes you were here, too).
When we push back at the MSM, we aren’t asking them to turn into a left wing pravda, we want truth, accountability and real analysis, not fake balance. (Snarkily put, though).
Journos get pressure from editors and publishers to be “balanced”. Balance like this: This guy stole a paper clip from his office in 1989; this guy took bribes from 8 defense contractors and ran his grandmother over with a car. See, they’re both bad.
Jane does a great job of calling people on teh carpet. She talks about the WaPo affair where they said Abramoff gave equally to both parties,and how we went after (she called us “fantastic” our readers are fantastic) (PS I don’t think she likes being called on typos, guys).
Matt Bai – oooh, an actual reporter on the panel. On the blackboard at J-school:”Give me one side of the3 story, now give me the other side of the story. Now you’ve been fair to everyone but the readers.”
Generational thing goin on. Older journos are lecturing at the rostrum; newer generation thinks of it more as a conversation with readers.
Institutional failure: Larger stereotyping about failures of MSM are inaccurate. Personal attacks on intelligence, morality, etc. are not worthy of the blogosphere.
We hate the meme about us (blogging in PJs in the basement, angry); they hate our meme about them (no weenies at my cocktail parties).
Some of us do spectacular work. There are some bad journos, I know you feel we’re not doing our jobs. Don’t tar us all with same brush.
Q’sfrom audience:
What can we do to get the older generation of journos to see us?
Bottom line. Let ‘em know with your dollars.
Batteries low, gotta go before I lose it all. see ya after athe battery refresh. Christy is beautiful inside and out.
Re Jerry being called an Old Media Concern troll.
If he is, I am too.
Bashing the MSM doesn’t help you here.
Learning to be, and being, a gracious winner does.
Garrison Keiler is SOOO right; everything you need to know, you learned in kindergarten. Including goos sportsmanship.
At a time when they could have stubbornly engaged in a stand off with the blogs, some have exercises some intellectual curiosity and made the first move.
They came to you. They came to find who you are and what you are made of.
You want the world to take you seriuosly? Take yourselves seriuosly and behave like the thoughful, kind, considerate souls I see on this site every day.
Behaving sophomoricaly and sticking your toungue out at Byron York or Maureen Dowd won’t convince them of your/our worth.
THIS IS A TEACHING MOMENT
They came to learn about us. Teach them how good we are/can be.
TALK TO THEM educate them about our values, our culture, OUR CHARM.
Who knows, maybe you will win over some new allies????
Darlings, we have so many big tasks ahead of us, we need all th help and resources we can get. Turning off people who have resources, and had the brains to accumulate those resources will not do our cause(s) nearly as much good as winning fans and new friends.
I think it took a lot of guts for Byron York to show up in a place where he expected everybody to hate him, insult him, make fun of him. has he behaved badly and is he deserving of a smack in the face with a cold day old fish? Yeah. So what?
Doing that won’t make him behave any better, it will ONLY REINFORCE his negative view of us and convince him that he is in the right.
However, if some of you–you know, maybe the really reallycharming, witty fun ones (well that describes everyone of you, so just draw straws) were to lets say, buy Byron a Beer and have an earnest talk, and then someone else were to sit down over coffee, and so and so on. Poor Byron’s bladder will get quite a workout, but maybe so will his brain.
MoDo is often on the right side of a lot of issues. She is an intelligent woman. Isn’t she someone we want to invite to sit at our table?
Was the point of al this work to get to Yearly Kos so that now you have the kewl kids table?
You have such an opportunity to determine who the MSM sees us, how they report on us, whether they want to JOIN us in trying to hold our government accountable when it does something it should not.
As many of you know, I spend a lot of time doing pro bono work for fair elections. Whenever i run a traiing session for lawyers that i ‘m going to send uot into the field on ELection Day to do battle, I always tell them the same thing;
This is a charm offensive.
you will accomplish more if you can convince people to cooperate with you than if you force them to do something
I say F Byron York.
lhp,
Deep in the EPU zone, I agree with you generally; help them to see what they’re missing about us. On the other hand, giving them back what they dish out isn’t all that bad. I’m thinking of Ms. Dowd in particular. She’s in the business of satire, which is fine — none of us are so pure and unbloated as to not need a pinprick now and then. That said, she, and many of her counterparts in privileged positions often seem to think we exist merely to be made fun of. Maureen stands on a cloud next to God, so to speak, and puts the misguided little people in their places, individually or in groups. Ha ha, isn’t she clever?
Well, yes she is, in fact. So are we, in fact — we just lack her grand megaphone. Except, that when we don’t, she can’t really expect to escape being the butt of our cleverness as well. Sauce for the goose, etc. Not bad as an object lesson, especially if it encourages her to remember that she’s part of the same human race that bred all of us.
ETSSN @ 55, that was brilliant!
Jane, to see the Plame Panel, go to C-span, check page two of all videos, and click on the YearlyKos link. My access was:
http://www.c-span.org/videoarc…..veDays=100
Hope this works. I’m looking at it now. It’s great!
Diebold Lobbyist Donates $10,000 to Blackwell Campaign
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/14783837.htm
…And Ohio slowly circles down the bathtub drain….
looseheadprop says “Teach them how good we are/can be.”
June 10th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I agree. When we see someone on television making shocking comments that disseminate nothing with any substance (thinking perhaps that outrageous behavior or comments on the air are the best ways to maintain or improve ratings), what can be done to convince mainstream networks that their ratings would improve if they would broadcast instead some informative and unbiased (to the extent that’s possible) political commentaries that leave their viewers better informed after they watched the show? That may be one way to teach them how good we are or can be, no matter what our political beliefs are.
Stubbier, yet perhaps deeper, MoDo:
Bloggers – they’d never freeze us out, would they….I mean, we made them what they are today…didn’t we?
It seems to me that you all have a large enough number of ‘MSM Wretches Without Ink, Inc.’ there at Yearly Kos to carry out a pretty sophisticated case-controlled double-blind-test in the run up to this falls elections.
It would be quite easy really. Just split ‘em into four groups. Shut out one group completely, tell one group your gonna shut ‘em out completely but then don’t, leave one group alone completely, and then tell the fourth group that the movement can’t move forward without their support.
After that assign four FDL regulars to mind each Wretch without telling the minders which group their Wretch is in and ask them to monitor said Wretch’s coverage of Left Blogistan for the following 90 days, scoring each piece them from 0 (ie. less fair than Byron York) to 7 (ie. as fair as Dan Froomkin).
I think the mean scores ( /-S.D.s) for each group would be quite revealing.
And even better still, it would be kinghell fun to mess with the collective minds of the Wretches from the Left side of the great divide for a change.
.
SIDELINE – I posted this a few days ago… but it is still going on in the responses at Yahoo.
CONCERNING DEATH OF A TERRORIST etc.
What concerns me is that when I add a comment on the storyline about this event, I see that some very extreme opinions are saying now that “liberals” and or “democrats” are actually sad that we killed this terrorist. That is more than slightly offensive to me. But now that I have seen it over and over again, and just now heard it voiced by a caller to Ed Shultz on Air America, this looks like the latest “political line”. Who would promote such a silly idea ? What might their purpose be ? The caller said that liberals and democrats were afraid to admit that they were sad about the death of this terrorist, since it serves to support Bush. Every American supports our troops. I for one do not like the direction we are headed in, as it looks more and more like socialism and less and less like democracy. But as a Democrat%u2026 what the heck.. as an American, I am glad to see them take down a cold blooded murderer. I only wish we cared as much about our Constitution. Still.. watch for this new “front” of attacks against free thinking Americans.
JUST A FRIENDLY “Heads UP !”
Screw peace with the MSM, I say!
They THRIVE on drama, and conflict creates drama.
The more they can paint this as a war between the blogs and the MSM, the more press we’ll get. Sounds good to me! :)
Ross K
Laughing, a lot. What a great idea.
JLW from your typepad to a DNC talking point–Please
My first reaction when I read MoDo’s snippy O-Ed in the NYT this morning was that MSM reportes are running scared. They know that the bloggers are their direct competition. They know that the bloggers cover stories that interest the public and never show up in the main newspapers. They know that the bloggers do not have to kowtow to some corporate master, and therefore are free to report and analyze whatever they want.
Watch for the MSM reporters to get shriller and nastier. The bloggers have exposed them as frauds.
Good work Jane and Christy!
DA–
They also know that bloggers are beholden to no kingmaking publisher/producer/editor/sugardaddy/mommy and thus will always beat hacks to the real story.
And that is what really scares them.
It is also why I am so impressed with Froomkin. Just by showing up at yesterday’s panel he’s proven that he will go where his story is, regardless.
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t’anks lhp, sorry about the craptacular syntax in the thing.
I know there’s a new thread and I’m EPU’d in this. Thanks William and rw. But I had to respond. I got pissed off when the right wing did this in the ’80’s and the silly notion is still going on.
cdj:
Bullshit!
That’s a false meme. All the “wacky liberals” I knew in the ’60’s are still here and NEVER turned into Yuppies, NEVER turned conservative. NOT. EVER. Hell, they weren’t even “Hippies” then, though they were portrayed that way. They were just people who stood up for what they believed in. The media did the rest.
The truth is there were a lot of people in the “liberal” movement who were hangers-on and wannabes and those who wanted to shock Mom & Dad. Those are the ones who turned. Not to mention the millions of baby boomers who never espoused anything at all. But put “Boomer” as a qualifier when describing someone and the picture gets painted as “ex-druggie”, “ex-hippie”, “ex-liberal” ad nauseum. Like we had no solid values or causes…hmmm…sounds like something a Republican might say.
“But the romantic idea of “oh no no no, we’ll NEVER become like THEM – that’s what we hate the MOST” – that idea is patently asinine. It’s just a matter of time.”
Who the hell are you talking to? Some children? Last I looked only a small percentage of us were under 40. No one here is even thinking about “never becoming like them”. We grew up a long time ago. Hell. We don’t even hate them. That’s not our style. The idea is patently asinine as you so aptly stated because it’s totally inappropriate for the group you’re addressing.
Audrey:
Excellent, and Ditto. Thus it always is. What matters is remaining steadfast and determined. Willing to change when being authentic and altruistic requires it, but not selling out to the latest fad.
It bothers me that the pols are ignoring the women and the gays. More marginalization.
Harry Reid made the talking point quite obvious. It’s just absurd to lump the word “liberal” together with some odd concept of “terrorist hugger”. It might be prudent to see what they are trying to do… before they actually do it. (Not that the words mean much these days.) Actually we might be saying the same thing in different ways.
Ok, I think Jane Hamsher is great…but, nobody talks more about themselves than bloggers do…and I love blogging and bloggers (most of them anyway). In fact, to name the most egregious example, Daily Kos is becoming more and more a cult of personality. At Daily Kos there is a structure in place where Kos is Lord of the Feudal Kingdom surrounded by high priests who do his bidding. Everyone else is just a serf. So, for all the reasons to fault corporate media…and there are so many. In fact, I think they have gone from being enablers to collaborators in this fiasco known as the Bush administration. Still, the idea that the media showed up at Yearly Kos to write about themselves is laughable given the narcissistic coverage of blogs to this event. Again, I hate the msm for what they have done to this country and think blogs, in general, offer one of the few venues for the public. But really, let’s face facts here.
Jeesh.
The first annual “pat ourselves on the back” seminar has resulted in bloggers thinking they’re more relavant than they really are. Most of the people who read blogs are other bloggers. Because most of this stuff is reactionary knee-jerkers.
bo!
jane, it was absolutely stellar to see you again, and the breakfast was great. actually spending time w/you and christy and the fdl’ers was much better than listening to dean. seriously.
and i’m not blowing smoke up your cute little heiny, but your plame panel was far and away the highlight of the whole experience for me.
(tho the south in politics panel with muddog vs. tom schaler was more, uh, colorful, and i learns a sh*tload of stuff from net neutrality, and it was great to meet dave johnson at progressive infrastructure and glenn greenwald at privacy rights.)
we should do this quarterly!!!
give kobe my best!
“The caller said that liberals and democrats were afraid to admit that they were sad about the death of this terrorist, since it serves to support Bush.”
But of course it does not serve to support Bush. First of all, now he will have to find someone else to be the devil on the other side. Secondly, if “Al Quaeda in Iraq” starts to fall apart, then the actual resistance to the occupation will probably be strengthened. There will be the problem of putting a lid on the sectarian killing that Abu Musad and his crew incited. But Zarqawi & Co were never much help at all to those Sunnis whose primary focus is resisting the occupation rather than inciting a sectarian war.
I’ll just be glad when this crass backward looking wastefull and ill-advised lurch into meatspace is over and we get back to some reality.
Sirota, Sunday op-ed in Washington Post – Democrats: Find your true center. Great Read and talk about framing. He claimed the center for us, and then documented in in the Washington Post. Great read.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..2000.html
Curious, did anyone talk about the Loose Change 911 documentary at the convention? This is the one (on http://www.loosechange911.org) that presents the evidence and arguement that no plane hit the pentagon (only a 16′ hole was created), or crashed in Pennsylvania (No debris was at the site), and that there is no way in the world that it is possible that burning jet fuel could have brought down the WTC?
You guys should bring this story to the Dem Pres hopefuls….
BOEHLERTING ALONE, YOU FOOL NO ONE.
WORKING UP THE NERVE TO ACCEPT EMAIL ANY TIME SOON?
The NY Times piece was predictably riddled with sarcasm and negativity.You really don’t have to strain to read between the lines.The idea that the Left-blogoshere somehow compares to rightwing hate radio is disgusting.It immediately brings to mind the recent Coulter comments and the right’s insistence on comparing her to Moore or Frankin.These two don’t need to crawl in the mud to sell books-and the idea that Swiftboat Annie prefers to be compared to Twain should illustrate once and for all time that she’s completely and utterly out of her satanic mind.
Leisure Guy was right!