Top politicians pay homage to king of bloggers (Markos Moulitsas)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1794901,00.html

For many, they are the nerds of US politics: laptop warriors, with brains full of statistics, no social life and devoting too much time to arcane policy details. But last week the political blogger - someone who runs an online journal - emerged into the mainstream and shed the stereotype in the glare and glitz of a Las Vegas casino. At their helm was former soldier Markos Moulitsas. At the age of 34, Moulitsas has progressed from private policy nerd to one of the best- known public voices in Democratic politics, described last week on Time.com as 'the left's own Kurt Cobain and Che Guevara rolled into one'.

Thousands of bloggers gathered last week in the Riviera to exchange ideas, debate and plot their steady takeover of journalism and political debate from newspapers, magazines and television.

Anyone who thinks blogging is over-rated should have looked at the guest list of power players who followed the blogging herd to Las Vegas to woo and be wooed by these latest additions to the political scene. Reporters and columnists from all the main newspapers showed up, as did Democratic strategists. Even potential Democrat candidates for the 2008 presidential election pitched up to network and sell their political wares to the online community. Although the event was meant to appeal to all parties, its guest list was overwhelmingly liberal.

Mark Warner, a former Democratic governor of Virginia, was there. So was Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. Former Democrat presidential candidate General Wesley Clark was there, too, as was Bill Richardson, the Democratic governor of New Mexico.

As much as it is homage to what blogs have created and nurtured.

to make Markos into something he's not. Trying to make Kos the "King of Bloggers" is ludicrous. And, I'm sure he knows exactly what's up with that...

The MSM can't wait to get their hooks into the Blogger movement and distort it to their own image of what it is or should be in their eyes.

It's all about "business."

It's not DailyKos which gets the media's attention in the Blogosphere, it's the Euston Manifesto, a document conceived by bloggers and which caused a lot of fuss in the British blogosphere when it was released. It claims to be left wing although it's more about taking on the far left in particular over the Middle East. Personally, it's not the best political thing I've read in a while and most of the media commentators other then Nick Cohen who have commented on it have been able to find fault with it without too much bother.

http://www.eustonmanifesto.org/joomla/

But just like everything else, blogs will be sucked up by the mainstream, then lose whatever effect they might have. Exactly like the spirit of the 60's. So have fun with the blogs while they're hitting The Man where it hurts. They'll be The Man eventually.

I admit I don't hang around on Conservative blogs but there must is a Conservative wing of the Blogosphere too! I'm quite sure that sooner or later freeper blogs will start getting media attention. Just give it time.

The take that Democratic Politicians were lining up to "use" Bloggers.

I resent that slant a lot.

As this worse than usual RW article on the KOS gathering shows:
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/pruden061306.asp

so I wrote the author this response yesterday....