Well said Jesse. And the Mets won yesterday, thought I heard Steve tell Babe Ruth to go fuck himself.
i thin kwhen envokeign the name of steve, one must remember what steve would or wouldn't actualy do..im referancign the last incarnation of this statment. Steve would very often post a full artical with no commentary...sometimes even jsut a link. he was a great guy, he was a very inteligant man....but he wasn't perfect (as obviusly shown by him not allways agreeing with me 100%) lets not deify the guy.
Good post Jesse and you're right.
BTW I know in the wake of his death there was talk about publishing his work in a book.
Is that still on?
well said Jesse. I miss him very much.
I honor all of you GNB writers very much.
I don't know what happened with the book. I know there was solid publishing interest, but I heard nothing more after that.
I do hope it happens - if ever anyone deserved a shelf of well-read books with his name on it, it's Gilly...
moonglum, I don't think anyone's deifying him but I think there is also nothing wrong with guarding against "OMG! WWSD?" arguments that frankly no one here could answer.
That said I don't think there is anything wrong with citing a specific reference (hopefully with a link) of something that Steve wrote like you would do for any author.
I think Jesse wrote very well about the highly charged emotional aspects of remembering Steve that can creep in an sully the factual citation Steve's arguments that we all remember.
Indeed, Jesse.
The times I think of Steve or mention him on some blogs, notably here, is when I think "Damn, Steve was so fucking right from the beginning on this", "Damn, I wished he would've lived to see that" and "Damn, Steve would have had a lot to say about this". I never make any comparison between you and anyone here, all of you having been already really good commenters and/or bloggers when the News Blog and Steve were around; there's no point in that.
Thanks to you all, to Jen, to his family, and good luck to all of you. We may still need a good dose of it.
I miss Steve, which is why I read Group News Blog every day. I know I will find here, others who enjoyed and admired Steve's writing. I really miss those wonderful threads Steve would set up for us so disparate folks from all over the world could watch the World Cup "together". THAT was fun. But most of all, I loved his passion and impatience with BS. In all of you, I find that. Thank you and a great big hug of gratitude from me.
First off, great post Jesse. If I ever cross paths with any of the fine writers here, I'll buy you a drink.
I don't think Steve would have been comfortable with any deifying or WWSGD? He'd call us on our bullshit, tell us to get over ourselves, post an article on beer can chicken, spice rub, quirky NY politics, election predictions 
, military history and tell us to get off our asses to get stuff done.
It may not be the way that Steve would do it, but so many bloggers have taken his influence and fused them with other styles plus their own. The crew here, Driftglass (who sadly is calling it quits from blogging http://www.groupnewsblog.net/200...-retiring.html)
, along with other liberal bloggers have grown his passion from a small acorn into a mighty oak tree.
He was one of the few in those dark days to light the torch of "Fighting Liberal". Jen was a trusty confidant and true friend in those early days - who we owe a great debt of thanks. From Steve's failing hands he threw the torch to us to hold it high.
So it's not better, or worse. "We Fight On"...I think is the way he would have wanted it.
So let's not mope about...November is still 7 months away and much still needs to be done to clean the Potomac Cesspool.
RIP Steve and FTFY!
I felt sad when I saw that picture, I never met the man and only knew him from his writings and comments
The only thing about Steve that I don't see reflected in most political blogs is that some of the mainstream netrooters have become arms for one candidate or another. I remember that Steve was not into popularity contests since it prevented him for calling them on their shit but of course he had to be called out himself a few times.
WWSD?
Steve is Steve and we miss him. Jesse is Jesse and he's giving it all he's got. That's all that is necessary.
Fuck the fucking Yankees.
There's a level where I agree with Jesse's post and one where I take some issue. That is to say, there's not much point in asking whether Gilly would've phrased things a certain way, or liked one candidate or another, or any number of issues of personal style and approach. Trying to imitate Steve in that respect is pointless, and does no service to anyone. The most painful times are when you wish you could hear what Steve would say about a given news item, but it's not much good to try to guess.
That being said, this blog obviously owes a great deal to Steve, and there is a legacy to carry on. With only one exception that I know of, I think the GNB crew have done that very well.
The exception is a thread I saw last year about Scientology, where posters were implored to not use the "cult" word. I'd been away for a while after Steve died, and this was one of the first things I saw when I came back. I just about wrote this place off. I gave it another try a few months later, and so far so good. I'm willing to chalk that one up to a lapse.
I read GNB everyday, same as I did with Steve, but I'll never expect you to replace him or be like him.
Jesse,
Although I didn't know him personally,
Steve would have been proud of what you (and Sara, HS, LM, tlg, and Evan) have done here at the GNB. Thank all of you for carrying the ball forward.
Jesse- that's not how Steve would do it. He'd call them out personally on the front page or in the comments.
You guys keep doing what you're doing, cause we're still here reading and commenting!
RIP Steve.
Let's Go Mets!
FTFY! 
Jesse;
I'm sorry to hear you must be getting such flak, especially this late in the day.
If there's only one thing I know about Steve, it's that he'd tell you "It's your words. Say what you want to say."
Keep saying, all of you, Hubris, LM and Sara too, what you want to say.
That's the best tribute to Steve, who never held back.
It's almost easier for those of us who didn't know Steve, because we haven't got a clue what he would think or say -- only what we think he would think or say.
But I think you GroupNewsers sell yourselves short. One of the reasons I visit this blog every day is because I get the same kind of great writing and useful information; and sheer passion, that I used to get from the News Blog.
No, you're not Steve...you're LM and Jesse and Hubris and Sara. And that's more than good enough.
Goddammit, you made me cry again.
hey where the hell is sara anyway...too busy on her paying gig???
priotites, you got to get some priorities.
We got two presidental canadates with deep domininist ties...i would love to see her take on it.
This one's for Steve: Man U. just beat Roma 2-0 away in the Champions League! They shouldn't have too much of a problem in the next leg at Old Trafford.
Sara is on an extended vacation.
We miss her, but are generous with our understanding that she was always at best, on loan to us before moving up to the Show.
I always enjoyed engaging Steve in late night tussles over whatever.
And I guess it does get tedious with folks doing the 'Steve would have....' rumba but you guys can handle it.
Of course, Steve would have put his boot up Kos's ass for so totlally screwing the Obama situation at DailyObama to the point where the site is now useless for the progressive agenda.
Just remember one thing. Steve was never more right than when he said:
Fight Back!
.
Steve's site was always the first blog I looked at every morning back in the day when I was working out of a home office and had internet time. Steve and Billmon. And Steve's blog was the only one I ever donated to.
There was just simply no one else on the planet who would go from military history to the English Premier League to NYC politics to black culture to cooking while stopping at Entertainment Weekly. I liked that he wrote about whatever he damn well wanted to.
What I also liked about the site (and this one) was that it had achieved critical mass but was not too large. For me there is a sweet spot for blog comments. If the audience is too small, all you hear is the echo of your own voice. But when sites grow too large like Atrios, Kos, and Political Animal, commenting becomes no fun because your voice is just lost in the torrent.
And, of course, the best thing about Steve's site (other than Steve himself) was the community. Some of the best writing I've ever seen was in his comment threads. Especially by Lower Manhattanite. His post about black kids writing family trees in middle school still gets me. Especially as I now teach HS and about 1/4 of my students are black.
As for WWSD? He would do whatever the hell he wanted to do. But one thing's for certain. He wouldn't be trying to imitate anyone else.
Yes, I really miss Steve, his posts, his charming insanity and his pet peeves
{the Yankees, Republican African American politicians, whiners, you know the list}, but most of all I wish so often that he could be with us now for so many reasons.
But the Blog is still here, the moderate sized commenting cavalcade still shows up, the posts are admirable, and the cover charge is lower than ever.
But, yes, I REALLY miss Steve, all the same.
I miss the man, & I never even got to know of his work until after he was gone. His writing is a goldmine for anybody with an open mind that can read.
He'll stand ever taller with the passage of time - that amazing voice still lives on the Web even if its creator is absent, & it's the voice of the better side of America.
Jesse, why in ever would you feel like you needed or wanted to post a thread on this topic?
Most of us have intelligent minds, and know what the differences are.
And I'm pretty sure we've made our opinions clear, too! *G*
You looking for new hits to the blog, are ya?
In case I didn't make myself clear, Jesse, NO one has the right to invoke Gilley.
To quote him? OH YEAH!
To invoke him?
Only in complete abject and bowed reverence.
So quote him, or get off the pot.
Yer stinkin up the joint.
See, this is why you have a problem, because you're too easy.
Came here because of Steve.
Stay here because of you and all the other writers on this blog.
Thank you, all of you.
“You'll never write as good as Steve does,”
That's not an insult -- to you or anyone else -- it's a statement of fact. Nobody in the blogoshere cut through the crap better than Steve. NOBODY. He was to the blogoshere what Mike Royko was to print journalism: simply the best.
THAT's why we all miss him. I'm glad to know that he was great to Jen, his family, etc. but there are plenty of people who are great to their loved ones; they'll never write as good as Steve either. (And "as good" actually fits Steve's brilliantly informal style better than "as well.")
I never met Steve but I get the idea that he was more of a down-and-dirty, shoe-leather guy from the way he wrote. He wasn't looking for groupies or for people to kiss the image of his feet on an icon.
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