Tom Watson

Fundraiser: Crashing Our Gate

Anyone who blogs DMI's benefit reception honoring Markos Moulitsas with the 2006 Drum Major for Justice Award (coming up next week in New YorkCity) gets in free. There, I've said it.

And to me, it's the ultimate compliment the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy can pay to the netroots community on the left, so deftly led by DailyKos - progressive activists who crash the gates of power in Washington and in state capitals and in lobbyists offices are vital to a real, honest, open discussion of public policy in the United States.

That's why a who's who of more than 30 progressive bloggers big and small - and, yeah it's an even playing field here, folks - have come together to form a virtual committee honoring Markos for his work in changing politics in this country. Some of 'em will be present on June 22 at Lotus to honor Markos, jazz great Wynton Marsalis, and labor activist Anna Burger at DMI's annual benefit - and some 'em are just happy to lend a hand online, posting links, banner ads, and tags to sell a few tickets or just spread the word.

This is the update committee - if you'd like to join (and get in free!) just drop a note to Elana Levin and get all the information and code you'll need. The more the merrier.

Co-Chairs:

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake
Steve Gilliard of The News Blog
Lance Mannion
Ezra Klein
Tom Watson

Committee:

Emboldened
The Astounding Trickster
The Sawpit
Blue Wren
Brouhaha
Jessica Valenti of Feministing.com
Nathan Newman
Liza Sabater, publisher of culturekitchen and The Daily Gotham
Sean-Paul Kelley of The Agonist
Democracy in Action
jspot
Flaming Grasshopper
WFP Blog
Michael Berube
Blue Girl in a Red State
Michael Stickings' The Reaction
By Neddie Jingo
JD Lasica
Digby's Hullabaloo
The American Street
Jude Nagurney Camwell
Peter Daou
Arianna Huffington
Black Sky Theory
Brendan Tween
Phronesisaical
[Your blog here!]

Fresh off of YearlyKos (and don't I wish I'd been there), the progressive netroots movement is on fire - but I think it means more than simply realigning one of the major parties in time for this year's election. I think it means a new, more open, more transparent way of conducting ourselves in the public arena - and when I say "ourselves," I do not mean the elected officials, candidates, party staff, consultants, and lobbyists. I mean everyone who wants a voice. Because if everyone who wants a voice has a voice, progressivism in American politics can't lose. And policy will matter.

I'll wrap with this quote from Markos today - we hope to see you next week:

We've had to crash the gate precisely because the insular DC bubble boys refused to acknowledge that we are the American mainstream. There is so much passion, talent, and ideas outside of Washington, yet it has been shut out of the political and media establishments. The more the DC elite acknowledge and embrace the movement, the less "gate crashing" will be needed.

NOTE: Details on the benefit are here. Hint: you can buy tickets or make a contribution right on our handy website.

Tags: HonoringKos | Drum Major | Drum Major Institute | DMI | Kos | DailyKos

The Real Thing?

Photo: Beltran, originally uploaded to Flickr by ferruggiaro.

Between now and the All-Star break, we'll find out if these streaking New York Mets are for real. They certainly look the part. This weekend's destruction of the Diamondbacks was nearly convincing: especially the defeat of the NL's leading pitcher Brandon Webb. The Mets now have the best record in the league and a 6.5 game lead in the East. Their everyday lineup is deep and balanced. They look like they can play with anyone. Over the next few weeks, we'll find out if this is truly a 100-win juggernaut out at Shea - they'll face the second place Phils, the first-place Reds, the Yankees and Red Sox, and the Blue Jays. If they maintain their lead, the'll breeze to a divisional title - their first since 1988. Their leader? Wright, Reyes, and Delgado are all terrific but this year's blockbuster player is Carlos Beltran. Despite missing two weeks, Beltran has 17 homers, 49 runs batted in, 12 steals, a .297 average and .406 on base percentage. He's third in the league with a 1.028 OPS. The Mets have a strong bench, a great running game (they lead MLB in steals), good defense, and a terrific pen. The starting pitching is strong at the top but weak on the bottom, although this Cuban kid Soler looks like a keeper. Another front-line starter would really close the loop. But this is Beltran's team - and this just might be this team's year.

UPDATE: Fred slags the Times for paying the surging Mets little heed, while focusing too much coverage on the sagging Yanks. And Lance says don't bring up '88. Good point. Mike Sciosca may be reading.

Tags: Mets, Carlos Beltran

Comment of the Week

I'm borrowing a technique I've seen on a bunch of blogs, and elevating a comment to front page status - hopefully, each week. Now, which to choose.....hmmm.....let's see. Think I'll go with this one:

Tom, Thanks for being first to comment on my Blog. Hope you're a Who fan because you get a free CD. You can always sell it to help a pet charity. Your Blog is fascinating and I will come back. Pete Townshend

So, no fair - Tom K., Bruce, Tony Alva, Steve-o, Ralph, Fitz, Brendog, Slappy and the rest will have to wait. And a rather suspect choice of weeks to open this little featurette? Yes, rather. But what the hell: it's been a long, tough slog of a week in other non-blogging aspects and I need a little shot of The Punk Meets the Godfather. I want to revel in the glory for a few more moments. Fred convinced me, actually. Knee-deep in a major Townshend jag (as am I), he noted:

When your idols become your readers, well that's just super cool.

Yeah, it is. And that's why Pete is my initial Comment of the Week.

UPDATE: Getting lots of email from really smart people, terrific writers all, reduced to basically saying "cool, man." I feel the same way - and, incidentally, haven't heard that much usage of that phrase since about 1979. I also like PowerPop's take on it - rings true to me:

You know that great scene in Annie Hall, when Woody and Diane are behind the guy in the movie line who's spewing complete nonsense about Marshall MacLuhan, so Woody steps out of the screen and brings MacLuhan in to say he's wrong, wrong, wrong?

How many times in your life have you wished for that opportunity?

It's now yours.

Cool, man.

Tags: Pete Townshend

Poor Accoulteration

Does the blinking skyscraper of a ranting, hate-spewing guttersnipe change what a blog actually says - what it means, why its author drags himself to the dusty keyboard every morning after tea?

That's the question I'm asking today after visiting the voluble online journal of John Cole - one of my only Republican faves - and receiving a slimy gob of digital spit in the face: a massive advertisement for aging Ann Coulter's latest anti-American tract. Johnny, we hardly knew ye. Is the twenty bucks worth it, man? Can't you see what this dirty Pajamas Media game is doing to you, to us, to the pact you've had with your readers?

More to the point: how will Steelers fans react to this deal with the aging she-devil? Mr. C., you must realize how bad this looks - if not, watch the video here, my friend. Or just enjoy this wonderful quote  from your proud advertiser, from the very book you're promoting, about 9/11 widows:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much."

Now maybe this is just a script, and you don't know what ads will appear where - you don't know that hate-speech is being sold on your site. But Roger L. Simon knows. Oh, Roger L. Simon knows all too well. And if he put that ad there without running it by you first, John me buck-o, he went way beyond any borders of decency - and does not deserve your patronage.

UPDATE: This just in: David Corn has not - repeat not - resigned from PM in horrified disgust at his network's sale of the above content. David, you're helping Ann Coulter.

UPDATE II: Mr. Rick Moran, who runs the self-titled Right Wing Nut House blog, says he sleeps very well at night despite getting paid to promote a hate-filled book he professes to detest. Interesting indeed.On reading my "meaningless, insufferable drivel," he claims that "ignorant, self important comments like yours acts just like a sedative." Happy to oblige Rick old man. And you took the ad down!

UPDATE III: Mr. Moran implies that I have "shit for brains" and claims he has no sway over what appears on his own site. "I have absolutely no control on what ads are placed on my site. None. Zero. Zilch," he writes in the comments here. Strangely, on his blog, he states: "The answer is, yes I could request that the ad be taken off this site." So to sum up, the ad is down but the blog-owner didn't request it, and has no power to request it, though he admits he could request it, and the ad would be taken down. Like voting for the resolution before voting against it. The horror.

UPDATE IV: John Cole responds: "Apparently can ask to have the ad removed, but I am not going to- I would run an ad for Code Pink or Michael Moore or whoever. Unlike Charles barkley, I would draw the line at the KKK and groups like that, but I really don’t think the Coulter ad is a big deal. I haven;t even seen the damned thing yet, so I have no idea how frequently it procs, but I am betting not too often." I respectfully disagree here.

Technorati tags: John Cole | Pajamas Media | Ann Coulter | Roger Simon | David Corn

The Man Who Hears Music

No sooner had I thought to myself "it's too bad Pete Townshend now only posts to his regular, old rock star web site - no more two-way communications with a core group of bloggers" than the landscape changed. This morning, Pete's reopened his Boy Who Heard Music site on Blogspot, probably in reaction to the outpouring of intense discussion that erupted earlier this week over the origins of Won't Get Fooled Again.

Wait, a rock anthem released in 1971, fully 35 years ago. A lanky 60ish rock geezer clutching maniacally to a pitted Telecaster. Uh, cutting edge of the Fab New Media Explosion?

Yeah man.

Townshend gets it. After a lifetime at the very cushioned pinnacle of big media - and there is no more cushioned environment than that of the mega rock star (just read the riders) - Pete is making music and other in closer collaboration with those who consume it than ever before...or at least since his days at Ealing. Earlier this week, I posted on the National Review's insane list of 50 most conservative rock songs, giving my own semi-humorous choices, but more importantly, touching off a nice little debate among regular readers - which centered, not surprisingly, on the No. 1 on the Right Wing Hit Parade. Multiply this blog by about three dozen other blogs with similar conversation and the news of the ongoing debate reached old man Townshend's ears toot-sweet:

Won't Get Fooled Again has been listed in the UK Independent Newspaper as the number one song with - as I understand it - the political message most often misunderstood - in this case the message is said to be 'conservative', a word that may mean different things in the UK and USA.

Of course the song has no party-allied political message at all. It is not precisely a song that decries revolution - it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets - but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.

The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause.

Has the world changed? When, in the past, could a group of writers essentially ping a rock star and get a thoughtful response in a matter of hours? I'll tell you when - never. But tag a bunch of posts with Pete Townshend, get the feeds fired up, and word gets passed up the big media food chain pretty quickly - or rather, pretty directly. The point is: there is no food chain now - no Under-Secertaries of A&R and Communications to keep us away from them.

This is something that Old Blue Eyes - always an artist before a rock star, really - understands quite well. In this post, he talks about live webcasting of music (which he and Roger Daltrey plan to do when The Who go on tour this summer) and how it changes the who, what, and when factors of media production and consumption.

...if you wish to address a Live audience, in real time, intimately, and free of interference from petty government regulation, broadcast restrictions, or even internet controls – Live webcasting is the future for you. On In The Attic we can smoke, swear, attack hypocrites, even be hypocrites. We can have fun and be funny. The most important thing is that we can play Live music when the whim takes us. No one can argue that you are a true performer if you can appear Live and do your thing. No tricks. No ‘auto-tune’. No computer fiddling. No puffed up personality stunts effected by extreme video editing (of the style that made Keith Moon – for example – appear insanely funny every moment of his life when in fact he was often depressed, serious and incisive). The beauty of Live webcasting is that it does not preclude the inclusion of small films, or even pre-recorded music; the Live presentation element makes it all hang together.

The circle here? Imagine logging on each day to a report from Robert Fisk on the ground in Baghdad and being able to send him a Blog comment that let him know you were with him as he exploded with frustration over what was going on around him. Imagine being logged on, and knowing there was probably less that a two or three second time delay, and witnessing a truck being blown up, or a group of police-volunteers being attacked. Such news could be relayed on Robert Fisk’s terms, and not his editor’s. Imagine knowing that you were in a small elite of subscribers who were seeing what was happening first hand, and had a duty to help spread the word. Journalism as we know it will be unravelled by Live webcasting – sadly (perhaps) it seems Rupert Murdoch is the only person on the planet who can see this ahead of time and is buying up web companies like candy. He is – like me – rather old to be so prescient. But there it is – I predicted music downloading in 1985 at a lecture at the RCA and most people walked out.

Sometimes it pays to watch the icons - especially those who prefer life off the pedestal. Oh, and something else. You may recall that Townshend supported the invasion of Iraq, and Britain's involvement. Well, he's changed his position a bit - and painfully - with an openness and honesty that's missing in Whitehall and Washington:

At first, personally knowing one of his torture victims, I wanted Sadam Hussein removed at any price. I also wanted to send a message to the Islamic world (again, a place full of many of my friends) that the West was run by dangerous men with powerful weapons and our going into Iraq to ‘tidy up’ was a better option for sending that message than dropping nuclear warheads on Afghanistan or Pakistan which has such deep and tenuous links with Britain. It is too easy to sanction war when you don’t know what is actually happening to the soldiers and civilians in the conflict, and pretty much all British newspapers have kept everyone abreast of the true horrors. The Independent through Robert Fisk has been a leader in speaking of the reality of the conflict in Iraq, and the real ‘price’ of removing Sadam. I won’t go back on my initial support for the invasion, but I feel blooded and humbled, deeply, deeply ashamed at the way things have turned out.

UPDATE: Pete's serious about video - the very first Who rehearsals are already up in QT. Oh yeah, PT welcomes TW here. And comments here. New world? Yeah... [He also hit Blue Girl and Mannion].

Technorati tags: Pete Townshend | Who | The Who

Paging Harry Truman

My friend Brendan - who runs the Hell Yeah! blog - is always telling me that a big portion of the right's motivation for the disastrous adventure in Iraq is business: and not just keeping the world safe for capitalism, either. Direct business. Big business. In short, profiteering.

Brendan argues that while Marines face trial for murder after more than three years of sitting duck duty, while the death toll nears 2,500, while insurgency melds into anarchy, the cash registers ring.

I was skeptical, but not very. And now I'm not - thanks to an ongoing series over at the wonderblog FireDogLake. In his original April post Merchants of Misery” and the “Do-Less-Than-Nothing” Congress FDL writer Matt O. remembers another backlash against profiteers:

Ironically, we intersect with another statement from the former president. Truman dubbed the 1948 Congress as the "Do-Nothing Congress" because they were in session for only 108 days. But I think the current collection of suits has them beat with only 97 days in session. It’s the "Do-Less-Than-Nothing" Congress and while they chase 12 million undocumented workers all over the country in the House and go off on gay-bashing tirades on the Senate floor, they are ignoring a major issue - war profiteering.

Later this year, director Robert Greenwald will release the film Irag for Sale: the War Profiteers. But FDL is already on top of this. Today, Matt fires off another well-researched installment on "security and logistics" startup Custer Battles (sadly apt for this war) and tales of "gangland-style payments." From FDL: In March, the company was ordered by a jury to pay $10 million "in damages and penalties for defrauding the government on its work in Iraq." Alan Grayson, an attorney for the whistleblowers said:

"Companies like Custer Battles go there with the idea of
stuffing their pockets with cash. This jury of eight people heard the
evidence and were repelled by it."

Clearly, we need another Truman Committee - thought we're not likely to get one without a big sweep in  November. As Matt sums up (read his whole series):

Rapacious corporations profit off of the death and misery of an
ill-fated plan for war and are protected by their enablers in the power
structure. Their cost-cutting actions put our armed forces at greater
risk, inflame tensions with the locals for piss poor work (of which
many use imported labor), and thus, undermine our efforts. All while
ripping off the American taxpayers. I can’t think of anything more
treasonous than that.

Me either. Here's a preview of the Greenwald project via YouTube:

Technorati Tags: Irag, Bush, Truman, Rumsfeld, Custer Battles, Halliburton

Holy Grail Tail

Congrats to the Blue Girl for hitting a big old milestone of bandwidth transferral, but I laughed till I cried at her explanation. Seems there's another Blue Girl, and she's not from a red state - indeed she's from a different state all-together, two-dimensional and - shall we say - always on the go. So she asks the anime porn surfers (who worship a super-heroine who uses sex as a weapon - imagine?) to stay awhile:

Well, animated porn is pretty darned popular, seeing that I've recently hit such a monumental hit count.  So, to all you out there with that crazy little cartoon fetish -- thanks for visiting blue girl!

To this I add my own little tale. Last week, I took a shot at the poor thriller (but full-fledged commercial empire) of Dan Brown and his Mary Magdelene tale. Well, turns out my headline, "The Da Vinci Load" is a big, new - uh - thriller from Hustler Studios. In this chase for a very different grail, researchers discover that "Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa using his own sperm." Cue the clicking stampede to this humble blog, which turns up before the equally modest Hustler site in Google, when search is enabled for the peculiar gesso technique. Talk about gross traffic numbers. As Blue Girl says: "But hey!  I'll take it."

Technorati Tags: Blue Girl, anime porn, DaVinci Load

These Little Town Blues

So Mr. Chertoff and his Homeland Security goons want to cut funding for anti-terrorism efforts in New York. The nerve. Five years ago, we lost more Americans here than have been killed in the Iraq war - to date, sadly. Reports ABC News's The Blotter:

The formula did not consider as landmarks or icons: The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists. It also left off notable landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History. The form ignored that New York City is the capital of the world financial markets and merely stated the city had four significant bank assets.

No landmarks? Well, that's easily answered: the list above will do - though it doesn't include Pete's Tavern, the Algonquin, the Oyster Bar, Fraunces Tavern, the Olde Town, or McSorley's.

But icons? Did they not notice Ms. Katie Couric and her courageous farewell to the peacock? Isn't Dave an icon, and Conan, and Jon? We've got icons by the dozen: geez, you trip over them on Fifth Avenue some days. Look, there's Woody, and Belafonte, and DeNiro. There goes rhymin' Simon. Cuomos, Kennedys, Careys, Clintons and Koch. Jeter, Namath, Willis, Mex, Whitey and Yogi.

Icons?! We got your stinkin' icons, Mr. Thin Man Wannabe G-Man (speaking of New York icons). I saw John Updike on line for the bank last week. Lou Reed was reading the Post on the 4 Train not long ago. He nodded at me. Gore Vidal poured himself from a cab on Seventh Avenue.

Keep this up and we're gonna go all Eddie Hayes on your scrawny Let New Orleans Drown Homeland Security neck, pallie. Sean Combs may be knockin'. Imus is listening. Trump is getting jiggy. Or maybe Tom Verlaine.

Helloooo Homeland pup - this is the homeland. Seinfeld? Little clan known as The Rockefellers? James Freaking Gandolfini? Marv??!!

Yeah, go buy s'more Segways for downtown Omaha, chump. You're an icon of failure, a monument to political disgrace and historic ignominy.

 

UPDATE: Homeland Security claims New York screwed up the paperwork and that NYPD drills are stupid. Hmm. So we're incompetent. Hmm. Bush-Cheney-Chertoff vs. Bloomberg (whom I didn't even support, truth be told). A battle of competency. Of managers. Let's see. Yes. Whom would you choose? [insert hummed Jeopardy music here]. Such a tough choice. I wonder....

Technorati tags: homeland security | Chertoff

The Morals That They Worship

When I first heard [via the prolific Lance and Blue Girl] that the National Review's John J. Miller had taken it upon himself to compile a list of top conservative ditties, I expected a discography of Wagner by way of Pat Boone, with the near-certain inclusion of Paper Roses by the versatile Anita Bryant. Alas, it was not to be. There, in the number one spot on the 50-song right-wing hit parade, was the classic rock anthem of classic rock anthems, Won't Get Fooled Again.

Oh yeah, they went there. Discredited and hypocritical movement. Disgraced administration. Flailing strategy. Aligned with The Who's classic rant against political revolution. And the rest of the list - Sympathy for the Devil (for its rampant anti-Leninism), Sweet Home Alabama (pro-red state values and George Wallace), I Fought the War (and the pro-law enforcement community won), Rock the Casbah (most requested anti-Islamofascist song by British Army radio), The Battle of Evermore ("The tyrant’s face is red.” Get it?), and ever onward. Play that funky music, white Buckley boy. Tongue sadly slapping loosely around the conservative lips and jaw, nowhere near the inside of writer's cheek, you realize Mr. Miller is actually serious. I guess irony really is dead in the post 9-11 world.

So, onto my own carefully-considered Top Ten list of conservative classics - skipping the many dozens of blatant attacks on the good right (your Dylan, your Neil Young, your Joni, your Bruce, your Steve Earle, your Pearl Jam - all too obvious) and focusing heavily on classics from a certain grouping on my iTunes playlist (certainly betraying my own rock vintage in the bargain).

• Anarchy in the UK - "I am an anti-christ, don't know what i want but I know how to get it." Nailed it.
• Gloria - Patti Smith - "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." (Bush-Cheney branch of conservative politics).
• Pills - New York Dolls - Rush Limbaugh tribute.
• Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin - (otherwise known as Administration Breakdown).
• Search and Destroy - Iggy Pop - "I'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm, I'm a runaway son of the nuclear a-bomb." Tribute to Rumsfeld?
• Johnny Ryall - Beastie Boys - The GOP view of the downsized lower classes
• Big Tears - Elvis Costello - "Standing in the shadow, turning wives to widows..." Big tears mean nothing, fellas. Ask Rummy.
• Endless Night - Graham Parker - "If I could only find a switch that turns on the endless night."
• Death or Glory - The Clash - "Every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world."
• Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads - The one we're on.

Alright, that wasn't particularly well-considered - I slapped it together in nine minutes. The aptly-named Jon Swift - the most genuine conservative now publishing a blog - did a much better job. But it was fun.  And just for your patience, a special bonus track has been appended to this conservative playlist - by far the most recent track in the list: 16 Military Wives by the Decemberists, who write this:

Sixteen military wives
Thirty-two softly focused brightly colored eyes
Staring at the natural tan
of thirty-two gently clenching wrinkled little hands
Seventeen company men
Out of which only twelve will make it back again
Sergeant sends a letter to five
Military wives, whose tears drip down through ten little eyes
Cheer them on to their rivals
Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so
It's so!

UPDATE: Pete Townshend laughs at the National Review ranking, and tells the story behind Won't Get Fooled Again. Fascinating read. Check it out, Tom K.

Technorati tags: Pete Townshend | Who | conservatism

What Kos Knows

When Markos Moulitsas accepts the 2006 Drum Major for Justice Award next month in New York City, he'll be doing so on behalf of a massive network of committed activists who are changing progressive politics day by day, post by post, link by link, comment by comment.

On June 22, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a progressive think tank on whose board I'm privileged to sit, will honor Markos and Anna Burger (Change to Win Labor Federation) for their commitment to American principles of government, activism, and democracy. To put it bluntly, DailyKos has long been an inspiration on the left - it's inspired legions of progressive bloggers to stop whining, pick up their keyboards, and create a movement. Indeed, DMI's own thriving policy blog - DMIBlog - is a direct response to the political activism of DailyKos.

So Kos deserves the honor, and he and the NetRoots movement he's helped to breathe life into deserve the support of progressive bloggers. To that end, we've started putting together a committee of bloggers to honor Markos. I'm pleased to say that the co-chairs of this blogging committee are a quartet of incredibly prominent, scarily committed, and genetically prolific bloggers: Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Steve Gilliard of The News Blog, Lance Mannion, and Ezra Klein. That's an all-star group representing thousands of daily words and many thousands of daily readers.

Want to join 'em?

We're looking for bloggers to spread the word, to join the committee to honor Kos, and to raise a little money for a vital progressive think tank - a small but ferocious and smart organization that is really outthinking the right (you know, those well-funded conservative institutes). Please add you blog to our committee. What's required? Just a post urging people to support the benefit - no contribution is required - that's entirely up to you. Every blogger who joins will be recognized with a link. There are a few ways to get involved.

- Create a post and include the Techorati tag HonoringKos.
- Go to Word of Blog and pick up this tile, and put it on your blog.
- Trackback this post
- Drop me a line.
- Send a note to Elana Levin, who runs the DMIBlog, and she'll get you hooked up with banners, text, whatever you need.

Finally, we'd love to see as many bloggers as possible at the benefit - there will be lots of interesting special guests and presenters. The reception (with light food but no boring sit-down rubber chicken) will be held at Lotus / 409 West 14th Street, New York City. All the details are here. So please join us!

Blogger Host Committee
[in near-constant formation]

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake
Steve Gilliard of The News Blog
Lance Mannion
Ezra Klein
Emboldened
The Astounding Trickster
The Sawpit
Blue Wren
Brouhaha
Jessica Valenti of Feministing.com
Nathan Newman
Liza Sabater, publisher of culturekitchen and The Daily Gotham
Sean-Paul Kelley of The Agonist
Democracy in Action
jspot
Flaming Grasshopper
WFP Blog
Michael Berube
Blue Girl in a Red State
Michael Stickings' The Reaction
By Neddie Jingo
JD Lasica
Digby's Hullabaloo
The American Street
Jude Nagurney Camwell
Peter Daou
Arianna Huffington
Black Sky Theory
Brendan Tween
Phronesisaical

Technorati Tags: HonoringKos | Drum Major | Drum Major Institute | DMI | Kos | DailyKos

Der Fling des Nibelungen

To see William "Billy" Wagner break into small, ineffective pieces this afternoon was a painful baseball tragic opera - and one scary as shit sign for this so-far, so-good Mets season. Is Wagner going the way of other talents who, exposed to New York's pressure, fail to grasp the ring? Are we destined to see a baseball God destroyed? And why oh why is Willie Randolph always falling into safe choices that betray the very evidence of his quite experienced Brooklyn eyes. Duaner Sanchez was well-rested and rolling. But no, Willie goes all Enter Sandman, playing it like October. And Wagner can't find the plate. Extra innings, blown win for the amazing Pedro, gift win for the hated Yankees. Makes you think of a Ring cycle alright - maybe Royce Ring, a lefty with good stuff. Meantime, pass das Rheingold - hops, barley, corn and water clear. UPDATE: Mets won the rubber match, and Wagner got the save - but Mannion is still worried.

A DaVinci Load

Dan Brown's spectacularly successful The DaVinci Code isn't anti-Catholic. It's anti-English. As in the language. While the Church can easily survive a silly pop thriller, I'm not sure the millions who've read the Code can stomach the assault on their literary minds. A.O. Scott nailed it today in his brilliant Times review of the new Tom Hanks vehicle, which is out to universal non-acclaim:

To their credit the director and his screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman (who collaborated with Mr. Howard on "Cinderella Man" and "A Beautiful Mind"), have streamlined Mr. Brown's story and refrained from trying to capture his, um, prose style. "Almost inconceivably, the gun into which she was now staring was clutched in the pale hand of an enormous albino with long white hair." Such language — note the exquisite "almost" and the fastidious tucking of the "which" after the preposition — can live only on the page.

To be fair, though, Mr. Goldsman conjures up some pretty ripe dialogue all on his own. "Your God does not forgive murderers," Audrey Tautou hisses to Paul Bettany (who play a less than enormous, short-haired albino). "He burns them!"

The hilarious "controversy" over the Code's alleged attack on the Church just sells tickets, to a movie that almost by definition has to be better than a dreadful book (I mean, can Hanks and Ron Howard fail to create a not unpleasant two hours)? As the Sawpit says: no one has a monopoly on Jesus. And as Gandalf, er, Ian McKellen told The Today Show this morning: how come there's no disclaimer in the front of the Bible? Different stories, different people, different truths. Or to quote Variety: Catholic League Ballistic. Ticket Sales Soar.

Book, meanwhile, remains a poorly-written, fact-challenged bit of fluffery.

So tonight there's Chris Matthews doing HardBall live from the Lexington Avenue headquarters of Opus Dei, doing his best Larry King imitation - "So Father, the Pope, great man, dead yesterday, already on his way to heaven? Or already there?"

Technorati Tags: davinci code | dan brown | Da Vinci Code

The YouTube Senator

Since many of the posts on this little missiva digitalis are political in nature, it seems natural to assume that its creator is political in nature. Sort of. I like to spout a lot about politics (as is evident). I occasionally like to rant (ditto). This happens a lot. My involvement in electoral politics, however, is more sporadic - I don't always put my money or time where my fat yap is.

This year, I'm attempting to be a little less hypocritical. I'm making a few contributions - small, as a blogger's gift must always be - to a few candidates I happen to like. And because y'all have shared so many of your political ideas (however insane) with me over the run of this blog, I've decided to share. So slap away in the comments, but here goes.

All of my giving so far is aimed at U.S. Senate races, and every penny goes to Democrats (yes, that's a shocker). What might be surprising are the varied political fillings inside those big Democratic donuts: some are centrists, even by other's standards (I'm 100% certain they would all describe themselves as in the middle). In no particular order, here's who's getting those hard-earned Watson bucks:

- Bob Casey, PA
- Claire McCaskill, MO
- Sherrod Brown, OH
- James Webb, VA
- Ned Lamont, CT

Ah yes, you say - the last two are interesting: primary choices, Dem vs. Dem. Well, Webb is an outspoken anti-war candidate with a strong miliary background and he's no chickenhawk. His kid is in Iraq. I want him on Capitol Hill when the votes come down on the sons and daughters of other Americans, period.

Lamont...well, it's just a great story all the way around. First, of course, he's running against Joe Lieberman in a pretty safe Democratic state. But Lieberman, since he ran for Vice-President, has become a flaming Republican in Democratic clothing all around. A strng primary challenge therefore can accomplish eithe rof two things: snap his head around like a fender-bender on the Merritt and get his vote back in the Democratic column, or replace him with a more progressive candidate.

Secondly, Lamont is the first YouTube candidate. His campaign has - quite amazingly - used social video networking and distribution to get their candidate's ideas across. Lamont videos find their way all over the web, and the campaign employs tagging and feeds to keep supporters and the politically curious informed. Check out Lamont's YouTube page, and you'll see "NetRoots" in action. (Lamont knows media: he's a cable TV entrepreneur). It also happens to be working: Lamont is going to make the ballot and received endorsements as diverse as NOW and former Senator Lowell Weicker.

Thirdly, the guy has an interesting background. A lifelong liberal Democrat, Lamont comes from one of the most prominent banking families in the US. The grandfather was Thomas W. Lamont, basically JP Morgan’s right hand man. Ned’s Uncle was Corliss Lamont, a leading humanist philosopher in the 1930S through the 1980s or so. He is perhaps best known as a civil libertarian. During the McCarthy period, when the ACLU refused to stand up to the McCarthyites, Corliss Lamont, at the time their Chairman, resigned and formed the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. This group defended many of the working class and middle class people (many of them Jewish) who were getting victimized in that period. In the current conservative climate, the very real injustices of that period (and their lessons for today) have been forgotten. Ironically, one of Carliss Lamont's supporters was Senator Prescott Bush, a liberal Republican from Greenwich. Yeah, that Bush family.

Finally, he's a Democrat with a rare pursuasion - he just speaks up and lets people judge. Here's a snippet from a Wall Street Journal profile:

Mr. Lamont criticizes Democrats--and not just Joe Lieberman--for timidity. "I think we should have been a lot bolder as a party during [the 2004] campaign, and probably the previous campaigns. Come out and say what you believe. . . . The Republicans are really good at talking about the principles that they believe in. And be bold. If you think preschool should be a right for all 4-year-olds . . . go out there and say it, and give people something to believe in."

It's not enough, he says, to be anti-Bush, although he certainly is that. "This administration may be leading the country in the wrong direction . . . but there's also a sense that the Democrats aren't standing tall and being constructive and offering real alternatives, and [voters] want the Democrats to stand up and offer real alternatives."

I'm on a committee for a Lamont fundraiser here in Manhattan next week, hosted by Richard Edelman (who is, by the way, a great blogger) - if you're interested in attending or giving, let me know.

This may well be a Democratic year, possibly in both Houses. New Gingrich may be right: the best slogan the Dems can trot out could be "Had Enough?" But in turning Congress, I'd also like to see it improve. And for that, we need some meat with our potatoes.

UPDATE: Amazingly, Lamont has already forced a primary, taking 243 votes to Lieberman's 513 at the state convention. That was a huge surprise. Natch, Jane has the details. More from FDL: " Lieberman 1014, Lamont 497.  That puts Ned at roughly 33%, WILDLY in excess of what they anticipated."

UDPATE II: And from MyDD: "Ned Lamont is CRUSHING Joe Lieberman.  Lieberman's expensive tent and lavish support and paid armies of staffers weren't enough.  His side is incredibly dejected - their crowd of thunderstick cheerers, who cheered whenever a town went lopsided for Joe, have disbanded and are chatting.  The Lieberman supporters aren't even dejected, they are bored."

UPDATE III: As Bruce notes in comments, attendees to the Lamont fundraiser  in NYC are most  welcome!

Date: May 23rd, 6 PM -- 8 PM

Place: Edelman PR Headquarters, 1500 Broadway (between 43rd and 44th Street), 26th floor

To rsvp, call Paige Savage or Anne Blossom at Edelman PR, (212) 704-8121. or email paige.savage@edelman.com 

Bring your checkbooks!

Technorati Tags: Senate | Democrats | sherrod brown | oh-sen | 2006 | bob casey | Rick Santorum | claire mccaskill | ned lamont | james webb | YouTube | Edelman

The Georgia Colossus

As President Bush's approval ratings continue to slide, the chattering conventions adopt resolutions comparing his slipping numbers with the lowest of the low: the ultimate Mendoza-line President, Richard Nixon. But right-leaning observers - those who are disgusted by Bush's failure but loyal to their politics - raise another colossal Oval Office flop time and again, when publicly wringing their hands about the slow destruction of their beloved party.

George W. Bush, they'll tell you, is getting perilously close to Jimmy Carter territory.

He should be so lucky.

For all the easy list comparisons of failure and malaise, Jimmy Carter is acres of fertile territory past George W. Bush as President of the U.S. It's not close, just on the basis of Carter's permanent introduction of human rights as an important factor in American foreign policy. Sure, there was the sweater, Iran hostages, oil prices, the stupid Olympic boycott - a litany of disasters, no doubt, and not easily balanced by Camp David, the Carter Doctrine of an open Persian Gulf, and his dual stance of Salt II with a human rights stick for the USSR.

Still and all it's a much shorter list, with fewer dead bodies, than Bush's - and human rights trumps all, in my book. (As does a post-Presidency career of a truly great man- and a burr in the saddle of every President after him). Even Reagan continued that human rights doctrine (on a very selective basis - along with every President after him - but it became part of the national debate permanently).

So yeah, don't lift Bush by comparing him with Jimmy - he wilts in the side-by-side.

Technorati Tags: jimmy carter | Politics | George W. Bush

Prosumers on March II

We had about 100 people out last night in the rain for NYSIA's panel on DIY Media Technology, and overall, it was a terrific, wide-ranging discussion. After my opening remarks (more in a second), we started out with a demo by Pat Cummings, CEO of iGuitar, which is developing USB-wired guitars for plug-and-play recordings. Fred blogged about this a while ago, asking whether his many guitar-playing buddies might adapt to the USB guitar - answer, hell yeah. The demo had the crowd at JPMorgan Chase buzzing, as Pat played a bunch of licks and chords directly into Apple's terrific Garage Band program - and using internal controllers on the guitar and the software - also performed on "piano, harp, organ, and bass" - yeah, software instrument models for the keyboard-challenged.

Clearly, the ultimate prosumer tool and a great lead-off for the panel - led by Chervokas, and featuring Don Loeb, veep for biz dev at FeedBurner, Charlie Matheson, media and entertainment software specialist for IBM, and Chris O'Brien, founder of the pre-beta video network company MotionBox, which operates out of NYSIA's (totally full) incubator space at 55 Broad. Jason, who runs one of the best podcasts extant and is what I'd call an "uber-prosumer," had the topic nailed and led the panelists through a discussion that included every-fragmenting audiences, advertising models, youth culture, and distribution models.

Here are some of the notes I used for the introduction, which was aimed at setting the stage for a wide-ranging discussion (audience questions were great, as well) - see if you agree:

More than a decade ago, I helped put a panel discussion together for the Columbia School of Journalism that examined the future role of the “gatekeeper” – in journalism specifically, in media more generally. The panel included some of the bigger lights in media: all of whom have, shall we say, moved on to other careers. Except one – Barry Diller. At that time, Diller was a movie studio guy who greenlighted mega projects and billion-dollar entertainment deals - but he had a different vision of the future (this after he’d stepped from his chauffer-driven, cream-colored Bentley outside the school). Diller thought gatekeepers were done – that in the future, users would create and distribute content over ever-faster networks using better software tools.

He was right – the rare mogul to see that clearly.

Alvin Toffler had been there 15 years earlier of course – when he identified a coming shift in consumer consumption – from pure, lemming-like buying of packaged goods to the actual creation of things – including media – he called these future consumers “prosumers” – the people who produced and consumed. I listened to Toffler speak two weeks ago in L.A. and he’s not resting on his FutureShock laurels. Hardly. Now Toffler has a new vision for his “prosumer” vision – now a quarter century down the road, and brought to palpable fruition by the Internet. That vision is of a vast, partially hidden economy – one that doesn’t included currency, or accounting – but one that he believes rivals the trillions of the world’s monied economy.

Another 25 years may or may not prove Toffler right, but Barry Diller and those like him aren’t waiting around. That unmonied economy – people who Do It Themselves – is moving to the fore, on the back of ever-more-open software standards.

At the same conference in LA, there was Edgar Bronfman, head of Warner Records, talking about easing up on digital rights management and attacking his own industry for being short-sighted, for slighting prosumers. And of course, Bronfman is a prosumer himself, a songwriter with a home studio (though of course, it’s pretty damned high-end), a mogul who just might use some of the gear we’re going to see demonstrated in a minute.

Blogs are all around us – open sharing of information by DIY publishers. David Sifry says his search engine now tracks 37.3 million blogs. People creating content for other people, with little or no money changing hands in most cases. Prosumers are building wikis the size of vast encyclopedia. They are creating virtual stores and video games inside a virtual landscape on Second Life. Google Earth is run by and for DIY types, who create their own geographic overlays. Video mashups are all the rage, despite what some would see as their quasi-legality. Flickr users build tricked-up photo maps. Even the big consumer companies are experimenting with allowing users to create advertisements.

In New York, especially over the past decade since the advent of the commercial Internet, we talk a lot about media technology without ever really defining it. The problem is, I think, one of separation. We approach the question with the notion that media and technology are separate things—separate disciplines, separate industries. But in fact, media — movies, television, video games, books, magazines, recorded music — can't exist without technology. Media is nothing more than the commercial exploitation of the creative arts. And the process of turning a creative work into a commercial media product is entirely dependent on technology. As Jason said to me last week, A Grateful Dead concert isn't necessarily media. But a CD  recording of that concert IS.

Prosumerism is a big movement, and a change that goes beyond blogs and RSS - which are terrific, generally lightweight software that rely on tecnhique and strategy as much as millions of lines of code in a tightly-controlled working group in a software lab. This goes past the PC - Tehnologies not talked about as prosumer – yet I believe will be at heart of DIY in future – voice recognition and gps.

Investment follows innovation and acceptance (and sometimes, profits). So why are two Web 1.0 old guys here tonight? Because it’s happening again – what happened in New York in 1994 and 1995 and 1996 . Innovation (and I hope, not an overvaluation bubble).

Technorati Tags: prosumer | toffler | web 2.0 | feedburner | NYSIA