As part of the Nerdcore Rising project, filmmaker/overall nerd (and Laughing Liberally comic) Negin Farsad is producing a popular series of weekly youtube portraits of nerd culture. This week's entry? A tender look at blogger nerd culture, including some familiar faces. (Hint: There's some guy named Markos in this video.) The interviews start at 0:58 - enjoy!
If you work for Hillary Clinton and your candidate's ahead in the polls, your job is to avoid unpleasant surprises - even if it means planting questions in the audience. Last week, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, a 19-year-old college student, attended a campaign event in Iowa - where a Hillary staffer asked if she wanted to ask a question. When Muriel told them what question she wanted to ask, they said "no" and gave her a typed query - one that would not make news, and allow Clinton to repeat her campaign talking points. I got to ask Hillary a tough question at the Yearly Kos Convention in August - but Clinton has done her best to avoid such unscripted moments, as her "inevitable" nomination rolls along. After Muriel got some media attention, the Hillary camp asked her to stop talking to the press. Kind of reminds me how two Clinton staffers confronted me after my exchange with the Senator. Hillary's campaign is running a tight ship, but planting questions to control the message speaks volumes about a candidate we simply can't trust.
No matter how much Americans say they want us out of Iraq and no matter how divorced from reality the political discourse gets in Washington, you can always count on Beltway pundits to warn Democrats not to get "too liberal." These elites want nothing more than to have Hillary Clinton be the party's presidential nominee to squelch those "rabid bloggers," because she's the kind of Democrat that makes them feel comfortable. In yesterday's New York Times, right-wing columnist David Brooks gloated about Hillary's current lead in the polls - because it vindicates his thinking that the netroots don't represent America. As Clinton courts Democratic primary voters with progressive rhetoric, keep in mind who in the media is cheering her on - because they're not the type of people that liberals should be taking their cues from.
I wrote this for today's Beyond Chron, San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily.
In the presidential campaign, we've heard a lot about "experience" (a plus for Hillary Clinton), "change" (Barack Obama's strongest point), and "electability" (which helps John Edwards.) But one factor that has yet to play a role is "trust." It is one thing to hear what a candidate has to say, but how can progressives know who will stick to their guns when the right-wing noise machine attacks - and who will capitulate, triangulate and take our support for granted? If "trust" becomes a major concern for Democratic primary voters, Hillary Clinton could be in trouble. And while a candidate can tout their resume to boost "experience," their platform to project "change," and good poll numbers to push "electability," there isn't much they can do about the fact that voters don't trust them. Especially when you've been in the public eye for 15 years.
On May 20th, the day after I announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, from and for, Massachusetts, I was told that I had to take a serious look at "the blogs". Of course, not knowing anything about a blog, my first reaction was to ask, "Are you sure?" I had no idea what a blog was and I wondered why I had to even think about going to such a place.
Well, I have always loved adventure, so I agreed to take a look into the world of blogging. One of my first posts was on http://www.bluemassg... entitled "My Candidacy for the U.S. Senate" http://www.bluemassg...
After a short time, I came to realize that blogging was a whole lot more than just a group of people reading and writing. In the area of politics, blogging contained an under the radar community of political activists. In July, I heard about a convention being held in Chicago and had a desire to learn more. I signed up and went to Chicago, not knowing exactly what to expect.
Last week, I attended the Yearly Kos Convention in Chicago and soon realized "Netroots" is a progressive movement intent on changing politics as usual and using the internet to effectuate non-violent change. The "netroots" bloggers of today are very similar to the generation, of which I belong, who protested on the streets in the 1960's and 1970's.
Howard Dean spoke at YKOS Convention and talked about how this new generation isn't as confrontational as our generation was. I respectfully disagree with this statement in many respects. First, this new generation is not all about new. I met people like Dave Johnson http://www.blogger.c... who was a political activist during "our" generation and who has taken the same passion and commitment to social justice into the world of blogging. I appeared on blog talk radio with Dave and James Boyce, another well known blogger. http://www.blogtalkr...
I also spent some time with Matt Stoller http://mattstoller.c... , whose light aura, clear intelligence, and self assured and modest demeanor, left me no doubt that he has all of the makings of becoming a great leader for our country. Matt is showing the courage to work in areas outside the comfort zone that comes with being around people with similar political belief systems. He is working to develop common connections and alliances where others can not see or will not look. For instance, in the area of keeping the internet free from further regulation, Matt has teamed up with many groups outside the "liberal" framework. It is this fearless and unbiased searching for commonality of purpose that will someday unite us all again as Americans. Matt is leading via "Netroots".
Although not an endorsement, Matt Stoller wrote about our time together in the Open Left Blog in an article entitled "A Good O'Reilly in Massachusetts" http://www.openleft....
In many ways, "netroots" really is confrontational and does hold politicians accountable. In the 1960's and 70's large numbers of people just showing up for a demonstration was a statement. At YKOS more than 1,500 people showed up and these attendees represented tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people who read and write in political blogs every day.
The disbursement of information is a powerful tool and the people who attended the YKOS Convention represent a growing political movement. Howard Dean talked about campaigns as dialogue and listening, not just for listening for the sake of getting elected, but in a way that actually integrates the ideas of constituents into the policies and positions of candidates.
On the other hand, the holding back of information is deceptive and undemocratic. Our leaders need to be held accountable. The results of "Netroots" has been the opening up of campaigns and candidates to questions outside of the traditional media and Washington beltway mentality. "Netroots" demands that Candidates and Politicians enter into real and meaningful dialogue.
Immediate and Specific Application of Honest and Open Dialogue
Upon my return from Chicago, I read that my opponent, Senator John Kerry, was AWOL relative to one of the most important votes of this Senate term--the FISA vote http://156.33.195.33...
My first reaction was that, for a U.S. Senator to miss such an important vote, there had to have been a family crisis or a medical emergency. To my astonishment, Senator Kerry's spokesperson said he left the Senate to go on a charity bike ride http://video1.washin...
As the facts have come out, this statement by a spokesperson may not have been the entire truth. The charity bike ride was the next day-August 4th! Senator Kerry was present in the U.S. Senate in the morning of August 3rd at 9:38 am when he voted to approve a U.S. District Court Judge http://156.33.195.33... .
However, there seems to be no record of Mr. Kerry being in the Senate after this morning vote was taken although 2 more votes were recorded on August 3rd http://156.33.195.33...
I recently sent Senator Kerry a letter http://edoreilly.com... calling upon him to tell his employers, the people of Massachusetts, what time he left work on August 3rd, whether he entered into any of the debate on the FISA bill, and exactly where he was at 9:16 pm when the FISA vote was taken at his place of employment, the United States Senate.
Riding or Posing?
Until a response from John Kerry, himself, to the contrary, the truth may be that Senator Kerry was not really riding at the time of this vote, as stated by his spokesperson. Senator Kerry may actually have been posing at a gathering the night before the race. To think that a U.S. Senator could be AWOL for one of the most important votes of this session because of the lure of sound bites and photo ops is almost beyond belief.
Most Americans can not leave their jobs at their leisure. When I was a corrections officer, it would have been unthinkable for me to just leave my post in a guard tower to get my picture taken for even a well known, worthwhile and important charity event. When I was a firefighter, it would have been unconscionable for me not to respond to a medical emergency or a fire because I wanted to bask in the lights of cameras. Is not our Constitution of equal merit?
Senator Kerry's spokesperson said he would have returned to Washington if needed. Does the U.S. Senate not debate and exert the power of persuasion over fellow Senators within the U.S. Senate Chamber? Isn't the job of a United States Senator more than a perfunctory activity?
The FISA vote was an extremely close vote where one vote would have made a difference. If Senator Kerry is a leader, as he self proclaims, he had a duty to at least stay and try to persuade just one fellow Democrat to stand up for our Constitution. The bottom line is that by not voting, Senator Kerry subverted the very nature of the democratic process.
Furthermore, by being AWOL on the FISA legislation, Senator Kerry has given up all future credibility to lead any fight against this Imperialistic Presidency. Leaders lead by example.
In 2002, Senator Kerry, over the objections of Senator Robert Byrd and the insistence of Senator Kennedy, voted to give the Executive Branch unbridled power to wage war in Iraq which has left us in the present situation. Last week, Senator Kerry gave the Executive Branch unbridled power to electronically eavesdrop without a warrant on the citizens of the United States.
As with Iraq, Congress is going to have a difficult time undoing the damage done, as this op-ed in Saturday's New York Times so succinctly states: http://www.nytimes.c...
Senator Kerry has insisted that he is leading the fight in Washington. When it came to the FISA vote and standing up for our Constitutional Rights, there is no doubt Senator Kerry was leading the flight from Washington.
In the tradition of "netroots", perhaps Senator Kerry could speak for himself rather than through a spokesperson on the FISA vote. How can the principles of "netroots" and open dialogue occur through spokespeople? The people of Massachusetts and this country want honest and open dialogue in order to insure the integrity of the democratic process. After all, when it comes to photo ops and sound bites, has Senator Kerry ever had difficulty standing front and center?
Ed O'Reilly
Democratic Candidate for the U.S. Senate from, and for, Massachusetts http://www.edoreilly...
August 19, 2007 - Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa (ABC) 8PM
August 27-28, 2007 - Cancer Forum, Cedar Rapids, IA (MSNBC & Live Streaming)
September 26, 2007 - Hanover, New Hampshire
October 30, 2007 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 15, 2007 - Las Vegas, Nevada
December 10, 2007 - Los Angeles, California
January 6, 2008 - Johnson County, Iowa
January 15, 2008 - Las Vegas, Nevada
January 31, 2008 - California
I am going to be on the Tony Trupiano show from 2-2:30 pm today, eastern. Tune in and check it out.
I was on the Sam Seder Show last weekend, which Air America dubbed one of their "three favorite Yearly Kos interviews." Cool! Also, Matt will be on Sam's show this Sunday. Tough act to follow. :)
The Official 2007 Yearly Kos feedback survey is now online.
A powerful new Republican candidate has announced he is running for President: None of the Above! I believe this candidate has already achieved first-tier status.
Back with more content after the interview. Consider this a quick open thread.
Of all the conversations in which I was involved in Yearly Kos, it struck me how frequently I ended up in discussions centering on the demographics and diversity of the progressive, political blogosphere. On Open Left, Jenifer has raised many of these discussions in a series of posts over the last week, which you can read here, here and here. I would like to continue these discussions, and so, in the extended entry, here are some thoughts on the many different ways in which I saw this issue raised:
Dean's speech addressed some of the major issues to the blogging community such as Electronic Voting and the safety of the ballot as well as addressing the value of the YouTube debates and brining voters into the debate process for the 2008 Presidential candidates.
But one thing he addressed that did not receive a huge amount of applause and I'm sure turned a few heads was his admission that he has been meeting with and discussing issues with some of the major pastors of mega churches across the country.
Today at Yearly Kos I am moderating the "blog theory" panel (actually titled "Evolution and Integration of the Blogosphere") just as I did last year. This is always one of my favorite parts of Yearly Kos, because it gives me a public forum to ask the huge, meta questions about the blogosphere that I enjoy so much. As part of bringing you a complete Yearly Kos multi-media experience, here are the three questions I will be posing at the panel:
1. In terms of traffic, the top fifty or so national progressive blogs that focus on politics has remained almost identical for the past two years. Instead of starting their own blogs, many new writers in this area will instead become occasional contributors to the Huffington Post, or diarists on Dailykos. Even beyond those two "mega-blogs," most-larger national blogs now feature multiple regular contributors. Further, not only are fewer new large blogs being founded, and not only are many new writers instead joining established communities instead of starting their own, but the top fifty or so progressive blogs receive over 95% of the total traffic for all progressive blogs. Given all of this, do you think it is fair to say that that a blogosphere "establishment" has formed, at least in terms of URLs, if not in terms of people?
2. The term "blog" originally referred to a personal log of an individual's thoughts published online. Now, however, it is used to refer to a wide range of websites that do either some, or all, of the following: investigative journalism, live reports from major political events, on the ground reports from campaigns in all fifty states, professional-grade election analysis, heavy-duty fundraising, whip counts on major legislative campaigns, the commissioning of independent polls, interviews of prominent political figures, the lobbying of elected officials, comprehensive analysis of government documents, dishing out inside gossip, running for public and party office, writing books, recruiting candidates, and many forms of non-financial direct activism. Given all of this, here is my question: it is still accurate to refer to websites that engage in such activities as "blogs," or have they instead become something else entirely?
3. Traffic in the national progressive blogosphere has stagnated since reaching a peak in September-October of 2005. Simultaneously, the persistent problem of demographic and cultural diversity in the progressive blogosphere continues unabated. It still skews heavily male, white, upper income and highly educated. What do you think can be done to reach out to more communities than those already served by the progressive blogosphere? Also, in a related question, considering the huge growth of online video and social networking sites, has blogging actually become somewhat old fashioned?
I'm sure the expert panel of Atrios, Amanda Marcotte, Amanda Terkel, Tracy Russo, Ali Saivino and Matt Stoller will provide some deep insight into these questions, but I am just as interested in keeping this discussion going here on Open Left. What do you think of these questions, or what are other major issues facing the blogosphere that I did not list here?
After the repeated attacks on bloggers that we've seen on FoxNews shown to us on BraveNewFilms and what they've spent the week leading up to YearlyKos talking about on O'Reily (which I've been subject to by some nutbar who changes the station at my gym).
I've also been watching something else going on all week. Something very contradictory the "Liberal Bloggers" and "Liberal Media" accusations that Bill and his buddies at Fox seem to throw around so freely.
The following are remarks I delivered at a Yearly Kos panel, Connecting Major Donors to the Netroots, at 8am central time earlier today--Chris
What is the blogosphere? Why does it deserve financial support from the progressive donor community? The best way I can answer both of those questions with one sentence is as follows:
The progressive blogosphere has become the primary "new media" outlet for the working class of the progressive activist universe.
Now, in this context, "working class activist" does not refer to progressive activists with low incomes, who lack a college education, or who work in blue-collar industries. Instead, it refers to part-time grassroots activists who are not political professionals. While the vast majority of the readers of the blogosphere are highly political engaged by the standards of the average American, the action they take tends to be grassroots, and it is not connected to their career and employment. They are "working class" activists because they work for a living in other fields, and conduct political activism in their free time. As such, individually they do not have much political influence. However, galvanized together with the other two to four million daily readers of the progressive blogosphere, not to mention the four to eight million occasional readers, they are a force to be reckoned with.
Without the progressive blogosphere, the majority of the country's small donating, door knocking, elected official contacting, campaign envelop stuffing, bumper sticker displaying, primary voting, letter to the editor writing, political rally attending, friends, family and co-worker persuading progressives would be less politically engaged and less agitated into action than they otherwise would be. With two to four million readers in its daily audience, 95% of whom are not political professional but almost all of whom do conduct several of the political actions described above on a regular basis, the progressive blogosphere is a main source of the oil--or since we are progressives, bio-diesel--that keeps the grassroots activist engine of the progressive movement running in high gear.
This afternoon, I am heading out to Chicago for Yearly Kos. I managed to completely fail in improving on my schedule from last year, as I have once again signed up for four panels and a caucus. I always find it difficult to say no to other progressive activists.
Before I head out, there are two important announcements I wanted to make.
First, the Open Left caucus, which will take place from 4:30-6:00 pm central time tomorrow, will proudly feature a special, live session of Democracy for America's Night School. The presentation is called Building An Open Progressive Community, and will discuss engaging local blogospheres, building local progressive social scenes, and participating in the "silent revolution" where grassroots progressives are running for local Democratic Party office around the country. Speakers include Katrina Baker of Living Liberally, several local bloggers from around the country, and myself. If you will be attending Yearly Kos, you can watch us this edition of Night school live. If you are not attending the conference, you can still tune in through a conference call. Night School starts at 5:30 pm, central time, and will last one hour. I look forward to hearing you on the call, or seeing you at the caucus!
Second, unfortunately we will not be able to announce the winners of the BlogPac Infrastructure Contest at the Open Left caucus, as planned. I apologize for this. I was simply not prepared for the volume of submissions we received--105!--most of which came in during the final day of the contest last week. One week is simply not enough time to give the entries the thorough selection process they deserve. There are so many worthy entries (I want to fund a lot more than just five), and all of the judges are facing such a time crunch with travel to Yearly Kos, that we will have to announce the winners next week instead (I will give a more specific time soon). I feel bad about this, but on the bright we will be unable to meet our original, self-imposed deadline because there were so many strong entries. There is a ton of smart, grassroots energy out there in the progressive movement, and despite this delay BlogPac will continue our mission of getting those ideas and that energy the resources needed to take flight.
We will still be producing content during the conference, so keep checking the website. Hopefully, I will see you in Chicago!
A good number of you are probably going to be getting on a plane pretty soon, heading out to Yearly Kos. Or, if you're not traveling to Kos, there remains a decent chance you have some sort of outing, be it a major vacation or a quick trip to the beach, still planned for the summer - some sort of substantial voyage by plane, train or automobile to be made in the next few weeks. You need something to read to pass the time between departure and arrival - short but still substantive, breezy without being braindead, something that takes the duration of a medium-size flight to finish but perhaps lingers with you longer than the time it takes to get to the luggage carousel.
In fact, for all of the media attention lavished on Terry McAuliffe's DNC-leadership memoir What A Party! a few months back, Dean's book is by a considerable distance the more unorthodox and potentially newsmaking of the two. (When was the last time you read a major-party chairman speak warmly about the democratic possibilities of instant-runoff voting?) But that's perhaps to be expected, given that McAuliffe was speaking from the august perch of a former DNC Chairman at the time of publication, whereas Dean's political memoir-slash-handbook for saving democracy was published a mere six weeks before election 2004, at a time no one would have predicted he'd ever be DNC Chairman, much less within less than a year. All of which makes Dean's book somewhat of an oddity, historically speaking - it's hard to think of another book written by a future major party chairman where the author so explicitly outlines their view of how the party should function at a time they had no expectations to be personally forced to deliver on such reforms. As such, we have a unique opportunity to judge Dean's behavior as DNC Chairman; we can use the criteria of successful party leadership he employed back when he was merely opining on what he might do if he magically had the position. As we approach the first Yearly Kos more than halfway through Dean's term as Chairman, it certainly helps us take inventory of that leadership.
STATE BLOGS
