Leave it to Blogger

America's favorite Sunday morning Sitcom.

Starring Cokie as June, David Gergen as Ward,

and Markos Moulitsas as "the Blogger."

For further clarification, see here, here and here.

Tweaking Heads

I have seen the future, and it is CAVUTO

Sweet Sixt-ee (Votes)

"Staying up late, telling talking points stories, doing makeovers , having procedural votes pillow fights, and obstructing the will of the people giggling . . . all add up to one fun sleepover night with friends!"

Gitmo-Intestinal Tract

Advice and Contempt

Delibbyrating is hard work:

"Before commuting the prison sentence ... President Bush and a small circle of advisers delved deeply into the evidence in the case ... people familiar with the deliberations said. "

Party Like it's 1789

People who live in echo chambers tend to develop tin ears.

For months the Libby enablers have bounced their fabrications off the MSM walls and so successfully shut off any contrary polling or debate that they actually believed there was a groundswell of Free Scooter mania in the public at large. And now the Coconspirator-in-Chief has joined their triumphalist ranks

Only now do we begin to hear cable news references to the 70% of Americans who oppose a pardon and the bipartisan belief in equal treatment under law. Suddenly the sweet soliloquies the Washington establishment has been singing to itself can be heard for how they resonate with the American people -- one gigantic false and stomach-turning note.

The genius of the American ruling class has always been its ability to disguise itself. We are all created equal with an equal right to a piece of the American dream with credit cards and justice for all. Whenever these beliefs have come into question, the elites have responded with a New Deal, Great Society, New Morning in America, leaving us content with our participation while they continue about their business behind closed doors.

But this lawless and contemptuous action is so naked in its assertion of the special privileges of the elite, of its right to get away with everything and not suffer the consequences the rest of us must face, that it threatens to undo a couple centuries' worth of PR on behalf of the American way. Americans will tolerate the elite so long as they don't act like one. I don't think the American people will tolerate this declaration of independence for all the president's perps and the arrogant class of sycophants and careerists who made them possible.

Journamal House

Completely agree with Atrios on this. The punditocrisy and their cable news cronies are incredibly unhip! It's part and parcel of their career-abetting instinct to keep slinging the stale storylines and hackneyed images that show their seriousness. Hipness requires at least the illusion of freshness.

Which is why using the 'Kewl Kidz' moniker to refer to these caricatures has never seemed right to me. It captures their clubbiness, but not their banality, and vests them with an undue power. Rather than Heathers/Mean Girls, the proper analogy is Animal House/Revenge of the Nerds. In the college comedy genre, a straight-laced coalition of bullies, elitists, legacy brats, and slavish pledges, sporting J Crew and feigning high seriousness, always tries to wipe out the Dirty Fucking Hippies, who are clearly having Way More Fun! And The Dirty Fucking Hippies always win.....

The Phenomenology of D'Oh

You blog with the dialectic you have not the one Jonah wishes for. TBogg deploys the cunning of reason. Brilliant!

Gilliard

I never met or corresponded with Steve Gilliard, but my timid forays into the world of online expression occasionally strayed across his blazing trail to cyber-immortality.

Steve was a mainstay of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, an early new media organization and mailinglist whose endless flame wars could crash any server within minutes of subscribing. In this primordial stew of future web entrepreneurs, e-pportunists, and net slaves, Steve was the one person who could always spot the bullshit. He instinctively knew which trends and technologies promised liberation, which just rewired business as usual. And he was more than happy to share this knowledge!

Fierce, impassioned, overflowing with words on every topic, he was a major force in the debates that roiled the list. Though I usually agreed with him, I didn't join the fray. Conditioned to a passive spectatorship by the media I'd grown up with, I watched the discussion without any sense of belonging to it. The virtual world was still something that appeared on a screen, not a place that I too could inhabit.

Steve was not only passionate, but prescient. Dotcommunism joined the other gods that failed, and soon the Bush era was upon us. In the catastrophes that followed, those of us who still looked to the screens for our reality saw only our powerlessness. But others turned away from the media's flat panels to build new means of communication and interaction. I came late to this arena, but when I finally pushed off beyond sporadic Salon links to the high Blogosphere -- there was Steve again! The same unmistakable voice, still setting off reverberations throughout the virtual universe.

It gave me a feeling of continuity and connection to find him here. The blogosphere no longer seemed like a disembodied place, the virgin birthling of the internet and the political void. Through Steve it took on a history that reached beyond the passions of the moment to shared sensibilities and struggles with which I had always identified. His presence made me feel welcome, among friends, people who like Steve felt compelled to respond with righteous indignation against a world bent on their surrender.

Steve's voice is tragically gone, but I can think of no greater tribute to his memory than to try to follow his example.