Mother Jones article on poliltical bloggers

It hit the news stands a couple days ago, but now the Mother Jones article for which Maryscott O'Connor of My Left Wing was interviewed a while back appears in the online edition of the magazine: "This is what happens when you crash the gates. All of a sudden, you're not just a pajama-clad kid in his parents' basement; once you've demonstrated your power and influence, people start demanding accountability and transparency. They want to know, for instance, that you aren't pushing a candidate MERELY because you (or your friends) have been paid by that candidate to do so." Read the rest here.

Children of a Lesser Blog

Hat tip to durrati, over in the My Left Wing version, for finding this picture for me The title of this post is based on a comment by Madscientist in Maryscott O'Connor's essay A Lesser Blogger: Or, You Don't Count--he noted that personally, he didn't find it all that bad to be "children of a lesser blog". I liked the turn of a phrase, so I decided to use it--in a tongue in cheek way--as the title of this post. I certainly do not consider My Left Wing to be a "lesser" blog. And I'm proud of the dedication and independent spirit that is displayed by we, the many, who are not "top tier" bloggers. Maryscott's essay was written in response to a Media Matters piece by Eric Boehlert, entitled Wash. Post still blind to liberal blogger successes. Mr. Boehlert does make some valid points--for example, comparing how often the Post quotes or mentions by name, liberal versus conservative bloggers. But things go downhill when he starts in on his hymn (How Great Thou Art) to Markos/Daily Kos... To this day, the Washington Post has never profiled Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of The Daily Kos, the most popular and influential political weblog in the world. The Post didn't even review last year's influential Crashing the Gate, the hardcover progressive manifesto that Kos co-wrote with fellow blogging pioneer Jerome Armstrong. ...and hit bottom with his sneeringly dismissive description of the Post's front page profile of Maryscott O'Connor. The piece certainly had its negative aspects, but I think Boehlert mischaracterizes it. And a big part of his point seems to be that the newspaper profiled a "lesser known" liberal blogger rather than the well known, but not at all liberal Markos Moulitsas. You can contact Media Matters through this link. (Adapted from the Media Matters recommendations for contacting the media) Please be polite and professional. Express your specific concerns regarding Eric Boehlert's commentary, and be sure to indicate exactly what you would like Media Matters to do differently in the future. I've been on Media Matters' mailing list for some time now. I believe they do good work, and I share their action items and alerts as time permits. Even if I'm a *much* lesser known blogger, I believe that doing whatever little bit we can do *matters*. Finding out that Duncan Black (aka Atrios, the founder of Blogroll Amnesty Day) was a Senior Fellow at Media Matters gave me pause, but I thought it was unfair to let that one thing bias me against the organization. But Boehlert's piece was another clue that this media watchdog organization endorses and upholds the unspoken (well, among the "cool kids" it's unspoken...) caste system among bloggers. And, I'm sorry, but that's just not cool. I'm not too excited about the notion of crowning *new* royalty to replace the high and mighty media people once they are de-throned. I'm much more interested in building *geniune* people power--that benefits *all* the people.

Interview with (fired U.S. Attorney) David Iglesias

From My Left Wing: Jeff Huber: We have the privilege today of speaking with Mr. David Iglesias, who is famously known for a number of things, one of which is [that] during his time as a Navy JAG lawyer, he was the real life model for the Tom Cruise character in the movie A Few Good Men. More recently, and perhaps more famously, he has been caught up in what some folks are calling "AttorneyGate". He is one of the eight U.S. Attorneys fired by the Bush Administration in 2006, for supposedly performance related issues, that it turns out, appears to most of us to have actually been a politically motivated issues. Click here for the rest.

Markos, you're fired

I guess it all depends on what you consider to be "obscene". I'm not overly fond of "f-bombs", and tend to use them sparingly, if at all. But I'm less fond of hypocrisy, double standards, and community rules that are applied idiosyncratically. Today, Maryscott O'Connor posted a response to the Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on so-called "Partial Birth Abortions". It was filled with righteous outrage, and, yes, there was that f-word in the title. As discussed in the post I just linked, and in this follow-up, there is no stated *rule* at Daily Kos that profanity in diary titles is forbidden, only that it is "strongly discouraged". Markos changed the title of Maryscott's diary and removed it from the recommended list, even though well over 200 community members had recommended it. Just enforcing the rules he's set for his blog? Hardly. Or at least, hardly in any sort of consistent, unbiased manner. Stormbear found plenty of evidence of diaries with that same offending word that were posted in the past year. But I don't need to delve into all of that, as a number of people already have that covered. I will say that, in my humble opinion, this is a pretty clear example of some misplaced priorities. "Naughty words" in diary titles are a big deal, but death and rape threats against a females tech blogger can be dismissed as not worthy of your serious consideration? Not worthy of *any* effort on your part to discuss what positive steps you *would* be willing to support? Now, to me, *that* is pretty darn obscene. This all came on the heels of Don Imus being fired for his racist, sexist remarks, and somebody (sorry, I can't remember who, or where) said it was too bad we couldn't fire Markos. Guess that *would* be hard to do, since we never actually "hired" him. But, be that as it may, I've seen him and his site quoted by lazy reporters as "the view from the left". So, even though I never consented to "hiring" him as our spokesperson, I hereby announce that I am (symbolically) firing him. Representatives of the media, and Democrats seeking to do legitimate "netroots outreach", kindly take notice.

Two Wolves

Image from St. Martha and Mary Parish web site Some of you may have seen me write about my "bad wolf" in the past, but I can't remember the last time I actually shared the parable or teaching tale of the two wolves. Home again after school a grandson tells of his anger at a schoolmate who has taken his lunch from him. His grandfather replies, "Sit down, my boy. I, too, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But, hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. I have struggled with these feelings many times. "It is as if there are two wolves inside me: one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. "But the other wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights with everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. "It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit." The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?" The grandfather solemnly replied, "The one I feed." The reason I'm thinking about this story again is that there are a number of people out there in the "tubes" who seem to view the internet a great big all-you-can-eat buffet for their bad wolf. Booman wrote about this phenomenon in Don't Let the Paparazzi Get You Down. I haven't had much to say about it, beyond the occasional "mean people suck" (in the comments of the Booman post). I haven't been sure if there was anything helpful I could say. But I've watched as Maryscott checked in during the Rant of the Day or Open Thread at My Left Wing, reporting on the latest hideous thing that was being said about her on another blog. I've wanted to scream "Stop! Please stop doing this to yourself!" But I've refrained--first of all, because there are plenty of people already offering that service, and secondly, because I know it can't be easy to let people talk trash about you in public without trying to refute what they are saying. So my plan was that I was just going to tune out that sort of vitriol as much as possible, and try to focus my energies in a positive direction. But then I saw the twisted delight some posters took in browbeating Maryscott for not responding perfectly to a suicide note that was posted by her friend on the front page of My Left Wing. But the point is that she did respond, and, together with some mutual friends, helped to save a man's life. And at this point I feel like I have to say *something*. So, here goes... I will reconstruct this story to the best of my ability, piecing together the information I have gleaned from several diaries. A blogger who goes by the blog name beagleandtabby posted an essay entitled which began with the words "this is a suicide note", noting that he would be dead by the time anyone read his words. He apparently posted it directly to the front page. Maryscott and others immediately setting about trying to contact beagleandtabby as well as emergency services. I can't imagine what it would be like check my blog one morning and see something like that. My best guess is that there would be a rush of emotions, panic, fear for the worst, but also feeling compelled to do something, anything to try to avert the outcome. Even though, for all I knew, the deed had already been done. Speaking for myself, I know that I don't do very well when I'm in panic mode. I get physically clumsy and I find it hard to think clearly. I believe that Maryscott handled a difficult situation competently and compassionately. She took the alarming, heartwrenching post off the front page, but left it viewable in the community essays. But she changed the title so that people who knew the poster would recognize that the essay was indeed a cry for help (rather than philosophical musings about "life" in general, which one might plan to read "later".) She also posted at Daily Kos, because some of the people beagleandtabby mentioned by name in his letter were regulars there, and she wanted to get the necessary information to anyone who might possibly be able to help. This was a true crisis situation. Thankfully, Maryscott was eventually able to report: I called his father. His father called the police for details. The police had found him in time. He is the hospital, alive. That's the good news. The bad news, you can see by reading some of the updates Maryscott has added to her "He's alive" post, a number of posters from DKos have attacked her, calling her an "emotional vampire" for leaving the suicide note up, even though. But, as she goes on to explain, IF I HAD NOT, I would not have got his last known address, which the police used to track him to where he was eventually found. The police could do NOTHING with the cell phone numbers we had. IT WAS THE LAST KNOWN ADDRESS THAT SAVED HIM. I saw the hateful comments that were posted at My Left Wing after Maryscott shared that her friend was indeed alive. Someone who had never posted at MLW before apparently signed up for an account for the express purpose of browbeating Maryscott over the way in which she responded to this crisis. I was livid. I planned to go to my computer and rate every single one of those comments as "Worthless Troll Douchebaggery", but the poster had already been banned (and those comments deleted) by the time I got home. I'm glad the poster was banned, but after such an emotionally exhausting day, Maryscott should never have been subjected to that kind of abuse. Of course, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that a life was saved, and beagleandtabby's father wrote: Words on a screen are senseless right now, but I would like to thank Maryscott for the 911 no matter what come in the days ahead. I have no plan or ideas. I only ask that those of you who know him and love him find a way to support him. In an update to the "He is alive" essay, Maryscott has reported that she has spoken to beagleandtabby. He has asked that his original post be taken down, and she has done so. She had taken down the diary at Kos earlier, because of the awful comments some people made. I've since discovered that, while the diary is gone, those comments are not. I only saw a couple of those comments, but I saw some very well fed "bad wolves". They were feasting. Think of the caricatures of Henry VIII ripping into a turkey drumstick with gusto. It was pretty disturbing. Sometimes it can be hard to look away from a grisly scene of destruction. But sometimes it becomes vital that we force ourselves to do just that. Because the more you get sucked in, the harder it can be to pull yourself away. Okay, only speaking for myself--*I* can have a hard time tearing myself away. And then I really enjoy seeing someone with a black belt in snark artfully taking down an obnoxious S.O.B. Ah, Schadenfreude--the breakfast (and lunch, and dinner) of bad wolf champions. But again and again, I have to remind myself--that's not the wolf I want to feed. And another thing--going back to that story. About that good wolf... ...one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. He or she is still a wolf. Still fights when it is right to do so, and in the right way. It's okay to be angry. We *should* be angry about the injustices in the world, and that anger should move us to positive action. "Good wolf anger" is a lot more likely to have that kind of positive outcome. I know this on some level, but occasionally it slips my mind. So from time to time, I'll have to remind myself, "Make sure you're feeding the right wolf."