From a distant vantage point on a blog far, far away, an epic traveler through cyberspace who likes to mock and ridicule "purists" posted a story about a land where cynicism and hypocrisy are completely unknown, a land where for some bizarre reason, idealism is honored and respected . . .
Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.
With immense satisfaction, that blogger informed "purists" that they don't live in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land, he told them they need to grow the fuck up.
I have news for Tbogg. We grew up long ago. We know where we live.
In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn't have enough money to buy food. In households with children, this number rose to 24 percent, as the hunger rate among U.S. citizens has now reached an all-time high. Over 50 million people need to use food stamps to eat, and a stunning 50 percent of U.S. children will use food stamps to eat at some point in their childhoods. Approximately 20,000 people are added to this total every day.
1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings since the economic crisis began and $13 trillion in the value of their homes. Personal debt has risen from 65 percent of income in 1980 to 125 percent today. Over five million U.S. families have already lost their homes, in total 13 million U.S. families are expected to lose their home by 2014.
And what are these Americans being told? Keep drinking that Two-Party-System Kool Aid, that's what they're being told. By the politicians. By the corporate media. By the "progressive" leaders of the Netroots. That's their solution. Keep drinking that Two-Party-System Kool Aid.
If Dr. King hadn't been assassinated for speaking truth to power, if he was here today, if he was at the Lincoln Memorial again, looking out at that corporate capital of deceit and corruption, what would he say, what would he ask us to do?
He'd ask us to overcome our fear, he'd call for mass protests and civil disobedience, he'd explain why it's necessary, just as he did in 1968 . . .
If you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you would die for it, then you are not fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day some great crisis arises and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause, but you refuse to take a stand because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. Or you're afraid that you will lose your job, or that you will be criticized, or that you will lose your popularity. So you refuse to take a stand. Well you may go on and live until you're 90, but you are just as dead at 38 as you will be at 90. And when you take your last breath, it will only be the belated announcement of the earlier death of your spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.
Can you understand that, "leaders" of the Netroots? Can you understand that, Markos Moulitsas? Can you understand that, Obamacrats? Tap your TR trigger fingers on the lid of that coffin you call a blog if you do. Can you understand that, MoveOn.org? Can you understand that, Josh Marshall? John Amato? Digby? Jane Hamsher? If you do, explain it to TBogg, that Mighty Slayer of "Purists." How about you, Madame Proprietor of the Huff and Puff Post? Can you understand that? Can any of you understand that???
None of you have called for mass protests or civil disobedience. In the streets of Washington D.C. or anywhere else. You refuse to because you're afraid. Well go ahead, keep on blogging until you're 90, it won't matter, you're just as dead right now as you will be then.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.
Welcome to Netroots Nation . . .
Enjoy your stay.
I have some news for those nonstop typers. Typing isn't standing up for right, truth, justice, or anything else. It's just typing.
Eleven months after President Obama took office, many Progressives are feeling understandably shortchanged. We were led to believe that finally a candidate with authentic liberal credentials had a legitimate shot at the White House, and so we embraced pragmatism when the most liberal candidates dropped out of the race. To be sure, there were several voices screaming out that Obama, if elected, would be far more indebted to the center then he ever would be to the left. These were loudest in the blogosphere, by far, and a few of them have recently exercised the cathartic, but ultimately hollow right to say I-told-you-so. This song and dance has historical antecedents that stretch back decades, but it would be best if there were no need to repeat the process once more.
I think we may have put the cart before the horse. I think we might have assumed that reform could be accomplished purely by political means, instead of reform being reached by grassroots mobilization that forced government's hand. Recently we have become aware, once more, that the American political system is not designed for sweeping change. The rules of the Senate were instituted to ensure that those with sober contemplation, not rash passion, ultimately won in the end. We can lament this fact and rightly decry it as anti-democratic and elitist, but the truth of the matter is that this is how the system works. I don't think that the President failed us nearly as much as the system did. In mentioning this, I'd much rather focus on going forward than licking our wounds.
I understand why we placed our trust in Barack Obama. We recognized the destruction wrought by eight years of neoconservative rule and with it the disconcerting notion that government predicated on evil can level its opponents and eviscerate easily. That it is much more difficult to build up rather than ruin is perhaps the toughest lesson of all. But with it comes the realization that established precedent is nearly impossible to reverse when passed. We may be unhappy with the scope of the bill, but we would be wise to celebrate that if someday Republican rule returns, it will be difficult for them to dismantle that which will be signed into law shortly. We should not accept this as any final word on the matter, but neither should we refuse to note how an eighteen-round fisticuff with the American mentality ultimately turned out in the end. This country was forced to confront some of the most massive fault lines that lie deceptively harmless most of the time, until seismic tremors threaten to shake us apart.
Any worthy social movement promising transformative change begins among an oft-quoted small group of thoughtful, committed citizens. The Civil Rights Movement, Women's Rights, and our latest struggle for LGBT marriage equality fomented and were codified from well outside the Beltway. Though ultimately legislation was proposed and passed by means of the Legislative branch, the energy and forward momentum swept up a million unsung heroes whose names may be lost to history or relegated to obscure footnotes, but whose bravery and achievements cannot be understated.
While it is touching that during the Presidential Election we temporarily shelved our skepticism as a result of being star-struck, we should not have failed to recognize that leadership comes from everywhere and every corner, not just the occupant of the White House. We focused our entire attention and hung our hopes upon the success or failure of one person, and while it is true that one person can change the world, his or her leadership ability must be augmented by other leaders. These inspirational individuals are frequently not pulled from the ranks of public service. Their occupations vary, just as those who desire change pull from all walks of life and all vocations. It is more leaders and more passion that we need.
Dr. King may have been the towering giant of the Civil Rights Movement, but Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, Fred Shuttlesworth, and many others less well-known filled out the inner circle that produced progress on a scale that is still difficult to fully comprehend. Along with the notable names are a million others who are the pride of their city or town, but little more than strangers in other places. I hardly need note that none of the public figures I have outlined were members of the House or the Senate. Reformers are rarely beholden to the political game because it requires a kind of willingness to bend to the prevailing will and howling winds of popular sentiment, else one find oneself out of power. So long as this is the case, real reform measures will be stymied or watered down during the process of deliberation.
I almost need not mention that Congress is meant to work for us, but that it only pays attention to our concerns when we articulate them with force, clarity, and with united purpose. When we are united behind a cause, not a personality, and especially not a party, then the sky is the limit. Making our dreams a reality requires more than one election cycle and we ought to really contemplate why it took a once-in-a-generation candidate to patch up the variety of competing interests and disconnected factions of the Democratic party to achieve a sweeping victory.
Instead of cursing our fate and gnashing our teeth out of betrayal, we should re-organize, but this time around the issues that our elected representatives either will not touch, or will whittle away to ineffectual mush. We have before us a fantastic opportunity to change our priorities and establish successful strategies. Legend has it that right before they put the rope around his neck, the labor leader Joe Hill stated, "Don't Mourn! Organize!" Liberalism is alive and well and if we learn from this experiment we will not have failed. The new birth of freedom long promised is ours for the taking, provided we grasp hold of it. We will live to fight another day.
So I'm ask of all of you, would it benefit the liberal blogosphere to have some kind of a platform to unite around? I'll keep it brief, since this should be more of a discussion than a lecture.
I've been doing some deep thinking, and was going to post three essays today featuring my deep thoughts about the economic crisis, the banking crisis, and the global warming crisis, but the deeper I thought about these deep issues and the deep impact they are having, the deeper I sank into deep crisis fatigue. So I took a deep break, and realized that except for Norm Coleman and possibly John Cornyn, no one has ever had deeper thoughts about deep issues than Jack Handey . . .
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
I hope that after I die, people will say of me: "That guy sure owed me a lot of money."
If you're a young Mafia gangster out on your first date, I bet it's real embarrassing if someone tries to kill you.
If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."
I have the deepest respect for Jack Handey, but I think it's more likely God is crying because of all the crap Evangelical Christianists do. They should listen to Jack Handey. We all should, after all, he tried to warn us about Wall Street bankers. When they die, we'll say, "Those guys sure owe us a lot of money." And long after they're dead, our great grandchildren will say, "Those guys still owe us a lot of money." Jack Handey's deep thoughts encompass more issues than one might think at first glance. Take Daily Kos, for example. It's like ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
(After being offline, I am still catching up with the fallout from yesterday's meta thread, and haven't had time to write. So I shall promote this....another wonderful fallout/ripple of this often conflict filled creative endeavor in which we are all involved. - promoted by buhdydharma )
Blogging is conducted through cyberspace here in the 21st Century, we type on keyboards, we read each other's words on computer screens. The technology enabling us to engage in this form of communication is new, but what we're doing when we blog isn't new, it's as old as civilization--we're talking to one another just as people did thousands of years ago, we're sharing our thoughts, communicating about what matters, reaching for the kind of future we hope to see. We don't want history to keep repeating itself, there's been too much war, too much killing, too much misery.
As global war and genocide took the lives of 50 million people only three generations ago, a young girl expressed her hopes for the future in a diary. Anne Frank didn't know her words would be ultimately be read by millions of people, but they have been and will be for as long as human civilization exists. The most brutal and inhuman regime ever to darken the pages of history killed her in Bergen-Belsen, but it could not silence her.
This afternoon, newly minted Senator-Elect Energy Smart Jeff Merkley (D-OR) took the time to reach out to the netroots with a blogger conference call. "The Netroots were critical to my election ... It is 40 years since an incumbent lost in Oregon and only the second time in 100 years that a Republican incumbent lost ... the Netroots put the campaign over the top."
But, more important than any plaudits for bloggers ("Netroots Nation was one of the best things that I did during the campaign.") and promises to remain engage for the future, was Merkley's evaluation as to the election's mandate and visions for moving forward.
We have a very strong mandate for a progressive agenda. We have had two cycles in a row with winning six [at least] seats in the Senate.
Bush claimed a mandate when he didn't even win the popular vote.
We absolutely have a mandate and we should not be shy in anyway in claiming it.
If not now, when? Our people need us, our planet needs us ...
Nancy Pelosi's Table reports that the Netroots Council of Elders is asking people to submit questions for Pelosi's "open" Q&A at Netroots Nation 2008 in Austin.
Please submits some questions for Pelosi to anwer at Netroots Nation.
Ask The Speaker! Welcome to the Netroots Nation question submission page for the Saturday morning (July 19, 9:00am) keynote session "Ask The Speaker." The event empowers citizens to engage America's current House Speaker in substantive discussion about current issues, the legislative process, and how citizens can participate in their government. Instead of simply giving a speech at a podium, Speaker Pelosi will be taking your questions and interacting with convention attendees. The 9 a.m. keynote will be moderated by Gina Cooper, Netroots Nation's Executive Director, and Jeffrey Feldman, author and blogger. But it all begins right now, right here, when you submit your questions and vote on questions submitted by others.
Go there Now and submit your own question or uprate others such as "Why is Impeachment Off the Table".
One of the reasons I have a hard time getting enthused about either of the Democratic candidates is that I find both of their Iraq withdrawal plans lacking. I am enthused about ending the Bush era, and I'm enthused about preventing the election of another Republican who doesn't even seem to realize we have a problem in Iraq, but neither of the Democrats offers a plan that I consider to be complete.
Reading such is usually particularly galling to Obama supporters, because he gave such a pretty speech in 2002, and is therefore supposed to be vastly superior to Clinton, on Iraq. Some of the more deranged Obama supporters even go so far as to try to pin the war on Clinton, as if her having voted no on the AUMF would have changed anything other than her present political fortunes. It was a terrible vote, but she is demonized for it even by many of the same people who now lionize John Kerry, because he supports Obama, and despite his having made the same terrible vote made by Clinton. And, of course, most of these Obama supporters ignore the reality that despite the very pretty speech, when Obama was not in the position of actually having to vote on the resolution, his voting record has been nearly identical to Clinton's, since he has been in the position of having to vote. That's one of the reasons I find this particular argument for Obama and against Clinton to be, at best, specious. But the main reason is their withdrawal plans. I have said it many times: what happened in 2002 and 2003 is now irrelevant; the only thing that matters is what begins to happen in 2009. Which candidate will do the best job of most expeditiously getting us out of Iraq? And that doesn't even begin to address the question of reparations, which isn't even a topic of discussion.
Naomi Klein recently published what I consider to be the best book on politics in at least a generation. I've mentioned it in previous posts, and I will undoubtedly do so again. Many times. It should be required reading for anyone who claims to be politically informed. So, I also want everyone to click over to Huffington Post, and read her new article, with Jeremy Scahill:
Sixty-four per cent of Americans tell pollsters they oppose the war, but you'd never know it from the thin turnout at recent anniversary rallies and vigils.
When asked why they aren't expressing their anti-war opinions through the anti-war movement, many say they have simply lost faith in the power of protest. They marched against the war before it began, marched on the first, second and third anniversaries. And yet five years on, U.S. leaders are still shrugging: "So?"
There is no question that the Bush administration has proven impervious to public pressure. That's why it's time for the anti-war movement to change tactics. We should direct our energy where it can still have an impact: the leading Democratic contenders.
Because Klein and Scahill also understand that although both Democratic candidates are much more honest and realistic than John McCain, when discussing Iraq, neither is coming close to being honest and realistic enough.
Over the past 2 days, we've been pretty busy over at the European Tribune, launching a petition against the possible nomination of Tony Blair as Chairman of the European Council (or, as the job is likely to be known by the lazy media, "President of Europe").
His name has been floated by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the campaign to support him seems to have picked up strength lately. As this is a prospect that fills us with dread, some eurotribbers have decided to take action and to launch a petition to make clear that citizens across Europe are opposed to such an idea.
This is where the amazing power of blog communities comes into play: thanks to uncoordinated volunteer effort, transparently happening over various threads on ET, a text was drafted, edited, translated into 11 other languages and a website (Stop Blair!) was set up literally overnight (thanks to linca). The effort was somehow picked up by a first paper (as it were, the Financial Times, my favourite source of material to comment upon on ET) and is now getting 50-100 signatures per hour.
The full text of the petition is below. And you can help!
Problem: How do I take a bunch of feeds* and put them all through one system so that they will appear in chronological order and display the source and time of the post?
The speed of this aggregator** is incredibly fast and I can control the output in any number of ways. All of the steps are outlined on the page linked above. Basically you insert some code into the header of a new HTML*** page, add the code snippet to the body of the new page, save it, upload it to your server and in the same folder upload an image and a javascript****.
So with 10 minutes of work I can now display any news headlines I like. And If I want to build new pages with different sources all I have to do is make a new page and plug in the new feeds, the script doesn't change, which means it can be referenced repeatedly for different queries.
Recently NewsCorpse decided to start posting on Docudharma.com. NewsCorpse runs a site by the same name http://newscorpse.com/ and I've been a fan for a while. The site combines amazing original graphics with hard hitting important stories. So I took the opportunity to request an interview and this is the result:
Thanks for your reply and invitation to get in touch. I'm a back-end developer mostly and am interested in who links to what and why...recently I signed Docudharma up on Blogburst and that system has been placing our headlines onto sites like the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reuters etc.
I saw your headlines from another Wall Street Journal story and when I did it reminded me of other times I saw your news on Google News and places reserved, usually, for News Sources not mere blogs.
Until we registered on Blogburst I thought it was nearly impossible to get linked from the top dogs. You were able to do it much earlier than most. Until recently I was just submitting links anywhere possible, hoping that would raise the site's rankings. Once I got into news feeds I realized there is a lot of hidden potential on the development side.
You appear to understand the concept of a blog/website as a dot com....I am just getting to that point now so here are some questions (below the fold):
While searching for information and sites related to Science I stumbled across the International Society for The Systems Sciences. In July they'll be holding a conference on the following topic which I found very intriguing:
Location: University of Wisconsin, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, Madison, Wisconsin
The title for this conference borrows from Gregory Bateson's definition of information as "a difference that makes a difference." The question for systems researchers and practitioners is, "what difference are we making?"
What difference are we making and is our information and our information system a difference that makes a difference?
We need to start from a very basic perspective...you at a computer, connected occasionally to Docudharma.com, producing content which is presented to the group, the readers of the site and readers in other places via the news feeds, blog comments, directories and community sharing sites.
Well it was an interesting evening piecing together the bare bones of an alternative news source. First I found a host that uses wind and solar power to run their servers, then picked out a domain with a little help from the people on Kos. The registration took a little longer than usual simply because it was a Holiday. I was emailed my confirmation letter with all of my passwords and login information.
If you are signing up with a host for the first time be sure to save your confirmation emails and print them out, you may need them in the future. Then read all of the helpful information about how their system works. Most will have an online file manager, script installation system, database management, email system, and a few other tools in their control panels.
Technorati Profile A while ago a user came on and started discussing how the netroots needed to help the Veterans more. I agreed and offered my assistance. I researched hosts, explained domains, hosts, Content Management Systems etc. I set up the Content Management System, designed the logo, Linked to blogs and alternative news sources, fed newsfeeds through javascripts in order to display them as headlines on the side bar, researched PTSD, Health, International resources for inclusion in the site, arranged for a cartoonist and a Gear Shop to be installed, created a back room for administrators along with advice on how to post images and youtube videos, explained copyright violations and how to avoid them and I did all this for free.
Now the owner, a Veteran, has decided that I am not worthy of his particular project. I did all of the above in a week's time. I have been on computers since the age of 11. I understand HTML, javascript and Content Management systems, I understand search engines and ranking techniques and have just recently understood how to utilize newsfeeds in new ways as yet undiscovered by the majority of bloggers and websites.
So God dammit I tried. To any Veteran that feels these skills would be helpful to their own projects please contact me at thefuture at inbox.com. I would very much like to help someone that would like to be helped.
Admittedly I did not apply the philosophy below to my own local elections this year. But this is the method I followed to help a Progressive Democrat win in Western New York. The candidate had been posting some things on a site I ran and I noticed his campaign site needed help.
1. Make sure your coding is correct so that the search engines will be able to index your site properly. Your site should be ready to go before you announce, if not make it a priority ASAP as media articles referring to you will sometimes include links to your site and you don't want it to look like a mess. Yes a blog is a must. An events calendar is also very helpful as people feel welcome to join in the fun right away.
2. Post photos of the candidate interacting with people at local events. At the same time begin advertising the site in every conceivable location, if the site is broken down into issues register those sections of the site with indexes that are related to the topic, register news feeds with aggregate sites and search for local engines and link lists.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
This afternoon, newly minted Senator-Elect 
