Lindsay Graham’s Handrubsave

Via TPM:

Netroots and Politics

Within Henry Farrell’s review of two new books about the netroots, there is some excellent analysis:

The netroots are neither genteel nor interested in nuance. They want to aggressively confront a right that they see as dangerous and an establishment that they see as at best semi-corrupt. Their combativeness can be a problem. The fights over Hillary Clinton’s candidacy were so bitter because members of the netroots used debating tactics against each other that they had previously reserved for external enemies. But they also potentially provide a model for a politics that can actually engage citizens. As political scientists such as Theda Skocpol and Nancy Rosenblum have argued, vigorous political contention mobilizes people and gets them involved in civil society.

The netroots may help to create a more participatory American politics. If they do succeed, however, it will be the result of their long-term effects in building political movements, not their short-term effects in an election like that of 2008, when they were not especially consequential.

The important overall point I think he makes is there is no absolute answer to whether or not the netroots “matter” in politics. It’s not a “good” or “bad” thing, and it’s likely still too early to really tell how significant the last few years of the active blogosphere have been. Political change is a very slow thing…

The whole piece is well worth reading.

Greatest. Quote. Ever.

“The world is literally her oyster.”

- Meg Stapleton, spokesperson for Sarah Palin

link

IA

Brilliant:

“Equal protection under the Iowa Constitution is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike. Since territorial times, Iowa has given meaning to this constitutional provision, striking blows to slavery and segregation, and recognizing women’s rights. The court found the issue of same-sex marriage comes to it with the same importance as the landmark cases of the past.”

Socialist Looter President Cuts Down Corporatist Banker

Today, at a Business Roundtable conference:

MR. PARSONS: So take it down to our industry, the banking business. At its core, it’s a very simple business: It takes funds from depositors and other providers of funding, and then it makes those funds available in the credit markets. And that’s how businesses grow, when people buy homes, and send their kids to college, buy cars, and all that sort of stuff.

THE PRESIDENT: Can I just say, Dick, it hasn’t been that simple lately. (Laughter.) But I get your theory, though.

Ka-POW!

The chains of the proletarians are slipping away!

Blago’s Closer

Here’s Blagojevich’s closing argument, in a tag cloud:

Make if it what you will…

A Fountain of Idiocy

Photo of the day, from Rachel Maddow:

Blagojevich is really the gift that keeps on giving.

[edit - That's not the photo from the other day...searching for it...]

A Political Blogger’s Reading List

A professor asked me to put together a reading list related to blogs and politics, for his upcoming course at the New School. I’ve divided up the list into sections, and have added some comments on why I think each post/reference is important. As you’ll see, the main focus is on Daily Kos, as it’s scope, size, and influence (both online and off), at least for me, really make that site the center of what’s happening in the political blogosphere today.

50 State Strategy

An addendum, of sorts, to the previous post on how Obama won. Apparently, the 50 State Strategy is over:

Right now, the strategy means handing over large grants to state parties from the DNC, and also paying for local organizers in the state. It was effective both as an organizing strategy (see the DNC memo on the subject) and as a political strategy for Howard Dean, as state parties hold large numbers of votes in the DNC and like receiving lots of money and free organizers from the DNC.

This was a program for which the netroots fought hard the past several years. Now that it seems to be over, I hope that our opinion of the fifty-state strategy doesn’t take the same route as our opinion of the utility of appearing on Fox News, including telecom immunity in FISA, or elevating Rahm Emanuel to positions of extreme power. It isn’t right just because Obama did it, although I fear many people will say so.

I think this strategy made both good sense and political sense, and it’s strange to think the Dems would leave all that work behind. But this is something Emanuel fought Dean on, and now the former is Obama’s chief of staff, so, from that perspective, it very well could be true.

11.4.2008

Yes. We. Can.