MaxSpeak, You Listen!
Hey, I'm not even allowed to post at dkos anymore. You might be interested in this:
http://alansmithee.5u.com/banned...ned/
Banned.html
I was also banned from the Booman Tribune for talking about the same things. Now I find that the Booman Tribune has been dropped from the blogroll as well, probably for talking about AIPAC the same way that I was. Apparently, there is a just and loving God who dispenses appropriate justice in our lifetimes...
Max,
for those of us who are not part of the blogroll fraternity/sorority, can we get a few sentences that gives us some idea of what this is supposed to be about?
Max, looks like your dismissal from the Kos blogroll was the beginning of these monumental changes. You vanguardist!
I'm not at all convinced by the party line over at Kos concerning the purging of the blogroll. If you want to highlight and help build new, small blogs, then just put them at the top of the page or in their own section. You don't need to actually remove links of other, older blogs, even if you don't read them anymore - plenty of other people do.
Despite what they ("they") say, removing a blog from the blogroll is a rejection or repudiation of at least some aspect of the site and/or its owner.
Dean: I'm not Max but here's my two cents.
One, Max was banned from the DKOS logroll a long time ago. He was banned because he's an independent voice who criticizes dems when they roll over, for example, on the war, or probably a number of other disappointing things they're going to do. Now, its true, Max is also aligned with Glenn Reynold's paj media group, which is slightly evil...on the other hand, it hasn't changed Max's content any as far as I can see although he probably doesn't call Glenn a dick as much which is likely.
Two, the recent purges from the DKos blogroll--which means a loss of money and prestige--seem to be happening to people just like Max: they criticise the Dems and they're independent. My Left Wing and the Booman Tribune fit that criteria and probably the others if I take a look...
Three, it probably means that DKos is moving further to the right and seems to be in the pocket of the DNC. These are exactly the kinds of purges that the DNC establishment would have asked for...
One more cent: I might also note that we're seeing Chomsky's Propaganda Model extended to the blogosphere. This is why the Corporate Media sucks. One day, probably soon, it will be Anna Nicole coverage 24/7 over at the left hand side of Daily Kos...
Philip is mostly on target.
I've gotten bored with Reynolds. Whenever I bonked him, I'd always get some comments asking me why I bothered. My new kick is zooming Pajamas directly, which I've done several times in my association with them. As I've said before, they take criticism much better than Kos. They ignore it and send me another check. Yeah.
Pajamas is not slightly evil. They are totally evil. But so what? They pay me to run ads. I'd take an ad for Archer Daniels Midland too. Who gives a damn. They're not the Nazi party. They're just neo-cons with a handful of noxious loons in the mix. This is America. We have to live with these people. They aren't going away.
I would not say Kos has visibly moved to the right in terms of message. The netroots still have the luxury of reveling in Bush/GOP negativity, since the Dems don't have actual power yet so are not much responsible for anything bad (though we've already seen a few unfortunate events, noted here and by that other reactionary Marc Cooper). What we are seeing is an ideological cleansing of the "netroots," the better to smoothe over relations with Democrats who are afraid of what Joe Klein might say.
Kos fits the opportunist profile closely. He just hasn't had a chance to sell out, since nobody's buyin yet. Ideologically loose (sliming labor in his earlier days, likes Mark Warner and Russ Feingold both), conceptually full of shit ("libertarian Democrat"), in the profession of angling for work in political campaigns . . . It couldn't be more obvious. (Stoller and Bowers seem more serious politically.)
We started our blogs around the same time, when the right-wing sites were huge and left were nearly non-existent. We used to work together, starting Stand Down/NoWarBlog together, on his server. His site got huge and mine just got more cranky, no disrespect intended to my fine co-bloggers here. Now he's cutting loose people he doesn't need. It's an old story.
My policy has been to try and follow the InstaPundit model, in the following sense. He actively promotes other blogs, the biggest and smallest, not just be linking but by plugging them in entries. I thought a "very few enemies on the left" policy was best, so I also put everybody in my blogroll on a reciprocal basis. (I draw the line at Maoist/Stalinist nut groups, porn, and conspiracy theorists.) I don't have Reynolds' energy as far as reading all that stuff and mentioning it. But basic solidarity considerations indicate to me a policy of mutual support wherever possible.
If I thought Kos' policy was necessary, if I thought he thought it was necessary, I wouldn't condemn it. But I think it's gratuitous and a display of bad faith. We're better off sticking together and giving the other side hell.
I keep thinking of the Second International, of which all this is a miniature cartoon Internet version. Staunchly anti-war and anti-imperialist, those who forget their history . . .
Thanks Phillip and Max,
for the record, i'm 100 percent for MaxSpeak getting support from the Pajama people (I told Max this before he made the decision). He has been totally upfront on the funding and I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find any time it has had any effect on his blogging.
I'm with you, but why all the hating? If you can leave a douche like Reynolds alone, you can leave off Kos a bit, and quit calling him brain dead for a week or two. Don't matter if you're right. Lay into Delong for his Foley bashing a little harder instead -- get all the center-right hating you.
Of course, we baby leftists love you, and the 60s stuff too.
That was a hell of a pleonastic sendoff over I don't know what. It's some sort of community right? Where one guy owns everything. He drops old friends from the autodial and bans whoever becomes too embarassing. Not so much a cult as a nudist colony.
Speaking of delinking, I notice that Atrios cleared out his blogroll and initially left you (and many others) off. He said he would be putting back the ones he found valuable. For several days it hung in the balance, but now I see he's put you back.
For me, the line gets drawn like this: it's one thing to question the effectiveness of street protests (an open question), and even for a young 'un to do a little ignorant whining about always hearing about the exploits of us old farts - but it's quite another to delink and go all sectarian in a lickspittle attempt to curry favor with the DLC, the DNC or whoever. And that's what Kos is doing. Screw him.
He'll find it won't work.
Kos in his mid 30's, Max and most of the regulars here are what 50+? I'm 34 myself so perhaps its easier to understand whats going on with Kos (and to be more forgiving). My politics evolved pretty much like his have. Mid teens to early 20's Reagan Republican (except for alot of social issues) in the 1980's, early 20's to late 20's disgusted by the completion of the far right takeover of the Republicans in the 1990's (impressed by Clinton despite his faults), and now in my 30's in the 2000's definitely liking the Democrats (though yes they seem too centrist/corporatist). Based on past trends and my own dislike of the establishment Democratic apparatus I'll probably turn disgusted with them as well while I slide even more to the left.
The basis for some of this friction seems to be somewhat age based. You guys have had alot longer to form your mindset, hell I (and mayhap Kos) will probably end up thinking much like you do given time. In your mid-30's you can still change a bit. Give us a break, we grew up with Reagan, post Vietnam, conservative controlled/influenced media. We were taught that the dirty hippies and welfare caused all of America's problems ... I think we're doing okay under the circumstances 
That said I'm certainly no rabid fan of Dailykos, I like to skim their front page while I have absolutely no interest in participating in any of their community stuff. He was certainly right in pointing out certain individuals and "cliques" there as a big turn off to many folks.
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