Wired is censored today. So is TBogg’s mini-site. The Google doodle is blacked out. And part of Daily Kos. And a lead story at The Huffington Post. And even right here. Sites like Wikipedia and Reddit and I Can Haz Cheezburger and Raw Story and Informed Comment and thousands more are completely dark today, not providing any content. It’s part of the largest online strike in history.

If people cannot see the change in their lives, you’re not going to convince them it’s there. The simple fact that enthusiasm is so low is prima facie evidence that the President and other federal Democrats are complete failures at pursuing the agenda of their base.

The honor for closing speaker tonight goes to progressive favorite Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-MN). His remarks will be preceded by words from Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), and State Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). Cenk Uygur hosts. With music from Outernationals and Jill Sobule.

In January of 1996 he filled out the IMPACT questionnaire, and it appears to be in his own writing, and uses the first-person “I” throughout. While the IMPACT questions were a bit more complicated, Obama did say he would oppose any attempts to outlaw same-gender marriage, by supporting a resolution stating “the state should not interfere with same-gender couples who chose [sic] to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of civil marriage.”

I wish I had taken an earlier flight to Las Vegas Tuesday for Netroots Nation 2010 so I could join the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) demonstration in front of the Statue of Liberty that adorns New York New York’s exterior, where recently discharged Lt. Dan Choi was arrested with seven other protesters.

Anyone interested in how progressives are using the Internet as a vehicle for political and social action should pick up Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke’s accessible, provocative book, Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (The New Press, 2010). Their micro-analysis of networked progressive activism forms a topographical map of the loosely affiliated groups and individuals who have emerged as a movement in a rapidly changing media environment. Using this map, readers can sort their way through the thicket of interrelated legacy publications, websites, blogs and social networking sites that constitute the hubs and highways of the progressive movement and understand how progressives have been using new media to push back against the political status quo. Especially for those who are engaged in the process, having the opportunity to understand how their efforts are reinforced and influenced by the contributions of those in other portions of the far-flung blogosphere gives purpose and definition to the broader workings of an often ill-defined entity.

Chris Matthews, surely you don’t mean me? Of course, I do blog, and yes, I do get most of my news and information from blogs. Mostly because of pundits like you – who may or may not eat cheetos, but who surrendered their journalistic integrity a long, long time ago.

But Chris, if you’re laughing at me, the joke’s on you.

For members of the Firedoglake community, I expect Matthew Kerbel’s Netroots:Online Progressives and the Transformation of American Politics will prove to be equal parts familiar and insightful. The familiarity comes from the rich descriptive account he provides of the netroots community itself. Unlike many of his contemporary academics, Kerbel has clearly done the legwork of getting to know progressive blogging communities like FDL, DailyKos, OpenLeft, and others. In offering a detailed account of the goals, values, and achievements of this community, Kerbel portrays the netroots as it is, rather than perpetuating the easy stereotypes so often provided by defensive political pundits and the like.

Beneath its ambitious title, this is a modest book. Greg Mitchell does not undertake a grand investigation into the multiple factors that came together to bring about the historic Obama triumph. That synthesis awaits deeper inquiry and analysis.

The veteran editor, author, liberal blogger, and self-described political junkie Mitchell provides a readable, entertaining, and perceptive month-by-month diary of – and reflection on – the 2008 presidential campaign as seen through both the “mainstream” (corporate) media and the ever-more politically significant eyes of “new,” that is Web-based media, where progressives (Mitchell argues) hold the day.

We can talk ourselves into damned near anything. We listen for the truth. Sometimes it seems like we assume the theatre’s already on fire, and we can find our way out by shouting directions to everyone else. The blogosphere’s given power to our voices. But we need to listen, too.