The next time a Netroots supported candidate compares bloggers to right-wing radio, well…there better not be a next time. State Senator Rick Noreiga has received over $58,000 in contributions through ActBlue for his 2008 senate race against John Cornyn. This is our reward:
“We’ve seen talk radio become an organizing tool for the die-hard right, while liberals are credited with turning the blogosphere into a political weapon. Each of those media has a targeted demographic group and works them into an ideological lather,” Noriega said.
“This, I believe, is damaging to the political culture in this country.”
Noriega spokesman James Aldrete said Noriega was not criticizing all politically active blogs, just those that engage in the “politics of division.” Aldrete said Noriega believes talk radio and some bloggers would rather keep the country divided than find solutions to problems.
Don’t triangulate with the Netroots. Just say that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and other radio/teevee hosts are liars and scum.
There are no left-wing bloggers of note that want to keep this country divided. And the only ideological lather I want people to have is over ending this war and reestablishing the rule of law in this country. Every blogger I know feels the same way. We might want certain policies enacted. We might oppose certain bills. But the psychic trauma that gave rise to the Netroots wasn’t over minor policy differences. It was over the Bush administration’s warmongering, corruption, and lawbreaking…and the media and the Democrats’ inability to report it and stop it.
Now that we’re organized and the Democrats control Congress, we do have policies that we are interested in pursuing. In my experience, the Netroots community is solidly pro-choice, strongly for taking action on global warming, for single-payer health care, and staunchly pro-civil liberties. The Netroors seems nearly uniformly pro-gay marriage, and has a strong lean against the death penalty. But individuals do vary. These are not the issues that galvanized us and brought us together. At most, the Bushies’ assault on these values and principles served as the background noise…a kind of constant fodder for outrage.
It was the election of 2000 that started things. And it was the run-up to the war that snapped things into place. Then it was torture, warrantless surveillance, poor media coverage, and the predicted catastrophe in Iraq that kept us going…getting more and more organized and more and more motivated.
That is why you will find that the Netroots only uniformly insists on three things: get out of Iraq, restore civil liberties, and hold the Republicans accountable for what they have done.
That’s not a call for division. That’s a call for a restoration. We want our country back.
Bravo! I think the difference lies in who is getting paid to do what they do, and what is it that they are paid to do?
Controversy is just about the only show in town and if one doesn’t work they’ll just find another. Unity and organization are antithetical to the bushies.
Look, I wrote to someone yesterday pointing out that the blog world needs to get “written in stone” promises NOT to bite the folks that are feeding them!Your posting is a job well done!There shald have been no reanson for a Noriega Spokesperson to have to come out and say ANYTHING!
So, once again, the sphere is getting screwed.!WAKE UP!
Howie Klein sure knows how to pick ’em eh?
Carney, McNerney, Noriega.
There’s a pattern here: potential candidates who will say anything to get our money, after which they turn around and stab us in the back, either with their votes or their rhetoric.
“our money”. I should say “your money”, as I refuse to give anything anymore. I’m not a fucking ATM.
there ya go Brendan, I knew ya had it in ya. NOT A BLOODY DIME!
He’s been summoned to FDL to have a “chat” with us and explain himself. Might be worth joining in on the conversation.
hey deb!
give me a call when you get settled and come on down to DL.
As for Noriega’s chat, McNerney did the same thing. First he made a dumb comment about the war. then he came to FDL and insisted he’d been misunderstood and that he was committed to ending the war. then he went to the LA Times and repeated the same rhetoric that got him in trouble with FDL and Blue America to begin with. Totally insincere.
I’m not buying it. I think some of these so-called Blue America candidates realize that if they can bullshit a substantial enough number of voters/funders to actually attain public office, it won’t matter what they actually do thereafter. It’s difficult to get rid of incumbents, including Representatives.
So yeah, noriega may come to bow and scrape and eat his words, but i think I have an idea of his real true thoughts regarding blogs.
people call you either a “panderer” or a “whore”
So, which is it?
I don’t believe in “dial-a-principle” myself. Consistency can be over-blown, but self-contradiction is not a valuable trait in a pol.
I do understand the concern. My own reaction after reading the article in question (for which I was interviewed as on of the early members of the Draft Rick Noriega movement) was, shall I say, very pointed and sharp.
My take on the article itself is at Texas Kaos, but more to this point, please see Rick’s actual statement before you jump to a conclusion that he did any more than make a stupid mistake.
And the only ideological lather I want people to have is over ending this war and reestablishing the rule of law in this country.
Aye, there’s the rub, innit?
That ‘reestablishing the rule of law’ thing?
Clearly divisive. Nothing could be more divisive.
Rule of Law? Anachronistic clap-trap.
Ending war?
Nonsense. The country’s been on a war-footing for 65 years, and it’s worked wonders.
Why do you hate Murka?
seems to be espousing views much closer to the “netroots” than to either the Bush administration, “moderate” republicans or the democratic leadership and presidential candidates.
I think that is what is getting the establishment in such a tizzy. They can’t impose their frames effortlessly anymore and the netroots has been developing a fairly consistent oppositional frame that could wreak havoc if it broke out and was heard regularly by Joe and Jane Citizen.
But he’s a soldier! That must be a good thing.
Sheesh.
Can we please stop playing into right-wing frames, and if not, can we at least stop being surprised when, inevitably, they blow up in our faces the way they’re designed to do?
I should have added, “don’t let things get worse.”
So I got this letter from Paul Newman over the weekend asking for $ for a campaign by DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) called the Media Response Project where they’ll raise $3,7 million by Sept 30…idea is when GOP runs ads, smear campaigns or try to block anyone questioning their actions, the DSCC will hold their feet to the fire with the goal of getting more Dems into Congress to assure a solid majority. Anyone heard of this group?
The DSCC is headed up by Harry Reid and has people like James Carville on board(I think but am not sure that the DSCC is Blue Dog Dems) and are also in opposition to the DNC basically. This sounds like a good idea but unless they teamed up with Dean also on this project I wouldn’t give them any money-I’d use my money elsewhere.
Who gives a shit! Not A Dime! Let the dems show balls and the money can then flow. Otherwise, Not a Dime!
I was just answering the question and speaking rhetorically about giving money. I happen to be in the minority who no longer considers myself a dem and won’t be voting dem unless maybe Kucinich gets the nomination-and that happening is about zero to none.
Thanks for the info. I only give $ to blogs now but the idea that Paul Newman would go on board with a group that was going the use the media to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire made the letter worth the read. Didn’t say anywhere just how they planned on doing it just that they were determined to get good Dems in Congress.
for Barbara Ann. was it because she was a woman and didnt have combat boots?