Who Are the Real Gate Crashers?

In 2006, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Jerome Armstrong of MyDD published Crashing The Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics. Ostensibly, they advocated for taking over the Democratic Party from inside the beltway K-Street corporate elitists who perpetually sell out their constituents for the almighty dollar. To the extent that ordinary citizens through the blogosphere or progressive “netroots” are more plugged into politics and empowered to become activists is all to the good.

Personally, I was an activist before I became a blogger and didn’t need an account with Daily Kos to become one. If the blogosphere ceased to exist tomorrow I would remain involved. I’m sure that’s true for many of us. That said, liberal bloggers have amplified the voice and impact of core progressive values in the ongoing debate-taking place.

Whether this amplified voice has the leverage to facilitate transformational progressive change inside the corridors of power remains to be determined. I hope so. Certainly retaking the congress as well as numerous statehouses in 2006 was an important step and the “netroots” were important to that effort.

I have my doubts though about the long term and believe “crashing the gate” of a political party is not an elixir for our democracy. Indeed, history is replete with examples of “gate crashers” or “revolutionaries” dethroning the previous order only to become corrupted themselves. As Orwell’s classic Animal Farm illustrated, it didn’t take long for the pigs to resemble Farmer Jones. The real gate to be crashed is as information brokers, fact-checkers and investigative reporters free of corporate influence and dedicated to preserving accountability on the citizenry’s behalf.

The foundation for any democratic civil society is truth. Without it a civil society can’t remain civil because the absence of truth translates into a loss of faith in the laws and institutions designed to promote opportunity and justice. Once a citizenry loses faith, either anarchy or oppression isn’t far away. Hence, the importance of a free, independent press doggedly pursuing truth wherever it leads. Truth seekers are gatekeepers of integrity that preserve democracy’s machinery.

For example, Carl Bernstein and his partner Bob Woodward, before he became co-opted by the very insiders he used to expose, relentlessly pursued President Richard Nixon’s diabolical efforts to subvert the Constitution. In so doing they helped preserve our democracy’s checks and balances. Congress initiated impeachment proceedings against Nixon and he resigned. The system worked.

We’re dependent upon truth seekers to scrutinize the fine print and actions of those in power on our behalf. Since we have our own lives, families and jobs to look after -effectively seeking truth ourselves is a Herculean challenge. Most of us don’t have the resources, ability to travel on demand or cultivate sources among the powerful.

Sadly, our country is at best ill served by the so-called free press. When I watched Bill Moyers report how the press covered the lead-up to the Iraq War, I was thunderstruck by their lame justifications for not doing their job. Walter Pincus, a national security reporter for the Washington Post actually admitted to Moyers that since the Reagan Administration,

“We stopped truth squading every sort of press conference, or truth squading. And we left it then-- to the democrats. In other words, it's up to the democrats to catch people, not us.”

And there was this classic exchange between Moyers and Tim Russert from Meet the Press:

BILL MOYERS: What do you make of the fact that of the 414 Iraq stories broadcast on NBC, ABC and CBS nightly news, from September 2002 until February 2003, almost all the stories could be traced back to sources from the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department?

TIM RUSSERT: It's important that you have a-- an oppos-- opposition party. That's our system of government.

BILL MOYERS: So, it's not news unless there's somebody-

TIM RUSSERT: No, no, no. I didn't say that. But it's important to have an opposition party, your opposit-- opposing views.

How the hell does any reporter justify allowing a political party to interpret the truth? Political parties are not about truth. Political parties are self-serving entities dedicated to obtaining and maintaining power. Since the Democrats were spineless and didn’t provide an alternative dialogue, Pincus and Russert believe they should be excused from doing their jobs? Ridiculous. Yes, Republicans were feculent and irresponsible while Democrats were feckless and cowardly. All the more reason for the press to do their job and relentlessly pursue the truth.

I’m a loyal Democrat and support my party as a means to advance progressive causes I believe in. And Democrats such as Henry Waxman are doing a splendid job of investigating the Bush Administration’s malfeasance now that they have the majority. It was also oversight by the Democratic controlled Senate Judiciary Committee that resulted in former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s dramatic testimony.

Nevertheless, I don’t want the press to solely cede ground to Democrats about holding the Bush White House accountable. Nor do I want the press to curry favor with powerful Democrats and refrain from reporting on their transgressions.

Of course reporters such as Pincus and Russert merely reflect the will of their corporate bosses who curry favor from the powerful. Some reporters remain dedicated to their craft. James Risen of the New York Times, who first reported about the Bush Administration’s domestic surveillance program in violation of the FISA framework is a fine example. However, the New York Times management didn’t allow the story to surface prior to the 2004 election.

As I see it, the real gate being crashed is what people like Josh Marshall are doing at Talking Points Memo. It was reporting done for that blog that broke the bough on how the dismissal of US Attorney’s were covered and exposed Attorney General Gonazales as a liar. And citizen contributors to Firedoglake were so effective as information repositories for the Scooter Libby trial that even mainstream press reporters relied on them for real time facts. Epluribus Media has also become an effective vehicle for citizen journalism.

Another example on a smaller scale is a good friend of mine who used to work for Kaiser Permanente, a health organization that claims to be a non-profit. She was a whistle blower and they responded by personally trying to destroy her. So she transformed her Corporate Ethics blog into a repository of information regarding Kaiser’s harmful activities against their patients. Kaiser Thrive Permanente Exposed is another weblog devoted to serving the public by exhaustively covering Kaiser in a manner that the corporate media has resisted.

As the blogosphere continues to mature, it is the gate crashing of citizen journalists that has me the most excited. Hopefully citizen journalism from the “reality based community” will become more adept at keeping the corporate media, corporations and politicians honest.

My optimism however is tempered by two concerns. One is that the powerful elites among the corporations, mainstream press and politicians will pass laws that undermine the effectiveness of online citizen journalism. My second fear is that citizen journalists will at some point resemble Farmer Jones.
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ADDENDUM: Sixty Minutes exposed Kaiser Permanente's despicable treatment of homeless patients in their broadcast this evening. Click here to learn about their coverage. It wasn't so long ago that the print and broadcast media simply reinforced Kaiser's propaganda. Credit goes to the friend I referenced above as well as Kaiser Thrive Permanente Exposed for pushing the mainstream media to finally understand what Kaiser is truly about.

Tell theTruth: Are You A Liar?

So when did you first realize our country was led by liars? Was there a particular incident, campaign or speech resulting in an epiphany? Did a cynical role model let you know our country’s decision makers could not be trusted to tell the truth?

For me it was at the age of fifteen in 1984. I was watching television when a campaign commercial for Mary Mochary, who challenged New Jersey incumbent Senator Bill Bradley, was aired. On screen appeared President Ronald Reagan sitting behind his desk at the oval office. I’ve tried to find a transcript or even footage of this commercial online but haven’t had any luck. So, I’m relying on memory.

As I remember it Reagan said, “I’m not the sort of fellow to tell another person how to vote, but I support Mary Mochary.” It was something like that. And Reagan had this self-effacing aw shucks expression when he said it. I later learned Reagan aired similarly scripted commercials on behalf of other Republican candidates that year.

It just amazed me how an American president, arguably the most political persona in the world could say with a straight face, “I’m not the sort of fellow to tell another person how to vote.” At fifteen I was politically aware. I knew Reagan was a former governor of California and had previously campaigned for president before defeating Jimmy Carter in 1980. Hence, this was somebody who told people who to vote for quite often.

The lie itself was harmless. It wasn’t about arms for hostages, the Contras or the phony war on drugs. Nevertheless, the memory stands out as the moment when I internalized how politicians would even shamelessly lie about small things. And we therefore had to listen to their words with critical ears because if they could lie about something small, a big lie was just around the corner.

Three years later, I was disillusioned when California Senator Alan Cranston was exposed as one of the infamous Keating Five. In the summer of ’86, I sent Cranston $100 which at seventeen wasn’t peanuts. Cranston was in a tough reelection fight and I admired his stance on nuclear disarmament. So in 1987, when I watched Senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire who sat on the Senate Ethics Committee roughly question Cranston in public, I was devastated. I had believed in him.

In 1992 I supported Paul Tsongas for president. I disagreed with his economic positions but believed Tsongas was the most honest candidate seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination that year. Sadly, Tsongas wasn’t honest about his recovery from cancer and he died in 1997.

You get older and learn life isn’t always so black and white. None of us are pure and the best of us have moral lapses. And in a world of nuance, lies become easy to rationalize. Many of us lie in our personal and professional lives. We lie to our boss as our boss lies to us. We tell “white lies” to our family and friends. In the movie “The Departed,” Vera Farmiga’s character admitted she lied to keep things on an “even keel.” And she proceeded to live a lie while cheating on Matt Damon. Later she dumped Matt Damon upon learning about his lies. More often than not the “even keel” Farmiga’s character refers to are lies to preserve a self-serving image we’ve constructed.

In America our politicians and military leadership have lied for all kinds of reasons. In 1960, President Eisenhower was caught in a lie following the Gary Powers U2 spy plane incident. Embarrassing but Americans didn’t hold it against Eisenhower. It was the Cold War and the public believed their president had his heart in the right place about protecting our national security.

John Kennedy partly won the presidency in 1960 by lying about a “missile gap” with the Soviet Union that didn’t exist. President Lyndon Johnson lied about the pretext for war in Vietnam while his Pentagon misinformed the public about our "success." President Nixon lied about Vietnam as well as not being a crook and President Clinton practiced in front of mirror before telling the world, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”

One person’s shit is another’s ice cream and some lies are considered necessary. Americans were largely in the dark about FDR’s polio and he lied about his true intentions during World War Two. He promised to keep America out and manipulated behind the scenes as best he could to put us in the conflict. Yet FDR’s place in history is secure. The Axis Powers had to be defeated to ensure our survival and a different president might have appeased Hitler. Hence we don’t judge FDR harshly for misleading about his health or war plans. FDR’s lies are deemed good lies.

Americans don't judge Clinton overly harshly either. Many of us are guilty of similar offenses and would’ve lied to protect our marriages, families and reputations. His testimony about the word “is” will always remain the butt of jokes but most Americans would gladly take him back. A friend recently confided to me that his marriage ended when his wife caught him in the act while he cheated on her. Unable to come up with a convincing lie he said, “honey it’s not what it looks like.” I don’t judge him harshly for it. Nor am I judgmental about Clinton or Vera Farmiga’s character. They didn’t lie maliciously. For them lies were shields against human frailty.

So, one could say that lies are simply part of the human condition and our leaders reflect this reality. Nonetheless, from my vantage point, a culture of destructive lying has become dangerously pervasive in recent years. This decade, corporations such as Enron shamelessly lied to their shareholders and dutiful employees, Jayson Blair hoodwinked the New York Times and Dick Cheney stood before the Republican Party National Convention in 2000 and promised the country a “stiff dose of the truth.”

Ironically, the same President Bush who promised a restoration of honor and integrity has become synonymous with lies – too many to summarize here. His Attorney General can’t keep track of his own lies. Former CIA director George Tenet has written a memoir whining about his “slam dunk” lie being taken out of context. And there are the shameful lies from the Pentagon about Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch. If that's not bad enough, the Bush Administration is pathologically devoted to covering up evidence about global warming. From Kartina to Iraq, how many people have died because of all these lies? And how many more deaths are to come?

Recently, my Dad sagely observed to me in a telephone conversation, “None of this is new. I’ve seen all this stuff before. All politicians are full of it. They’ll always be full of it. That’s life.” Perhaps. And when it comes to life and politics, my Dad, like many Dads is a human oracle of experience and wisdom. But I remain optimistic because within this morass of deceit, a counter-culture of truth is emerging.

As our institutions and the mainstream media fail to deliver the truth, a hunger for reality is expressing itself among the people. Hence, we have the ascendancy of blogs. It’s undisciplined and irreverent out here. One has to be a discriminating consumer among thoughtful bloggers and those who are simply rhetorical bomb throwers. But there are golden nuggets of truth among ordinary people challenging elites about their destructive lies, disinformation and exploitation.

One of my favorite blogs may not be known to you and belongs to a dear personal friend, Kaiser Permanente – Corporate Ethics. My friend was an employee of Kaiser who lost her job because she’s an honest person. Her story is a long and complicated one and best learned from reading her blog. Her life is hard and she is unable to post as frequently as she’d like. Nonetheless, her site has become a repository for exposing the lies and cover-ups of Kaiser Permanente.

Not surprisingly, Kaiser mobilized their legal and PR machine to personally destroy her. But she perseveres as a courageous beacon of light against their greed culture of lies and malfeasance. More than once I observed to her that Kaiser reminds me of the Bush Administration. And as she put it to me once, “That’s because the people inside the Bush Administration come from corporate cultures such as Kaiser where truth can be tossed away like a can of tuna fish.” As only she could put it. It’s largely because of her inspiration I joined the blogosphere fray.

And there are the bloggers we know about such as JoshMarshall of Talking Points Memo, who pushed the story of the unscrupulous dismissal of the U.S. Attorneys. Marshall’s success at emphasizing a story the mainstream media initially ignored, illustrate how the façade of deceit so dutifully served and enabled by inside the beltway pundits such as David Broder, Joe Klein and David Brooks is finally cracking.

And I’m a part of it too in my own way. Of course I’m not the sort of fellow to tell another person how to vote.
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ADDENDUM: My thanks to Mike Finnigan for including me in his most recent blogroundup on Crooks and Liars.

ILJ's One Year Anniversary

Anniversaries are personal touchstones. They allow us to reflect upon where we’ve been, where we are and what comes next. It happens that November 20th is the one-year anniversary of the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

A year ago I emerged from self-imposed apathy about politics and current events. I worked my butt off for the Kerry campaign in 2004. Kerry didn’t inspire me but I believed our national honor could only be salvaged by Bush’s defeat.

So I took bus trips to Pennsylvania and canvassed. I brushed off my telemarketing skills from the ‘90s and phone banked every night after work – even though I hated telemarketing and swore to myself I would never do it again.

The early excitement over exit polls turned to ashes in the mouths of progressive activists in November 2004. There was also the lingering suspicion that Kerry really won but the election was fixed. I angrily told people I thought what happened in the Ukraine also happened here. Nobody seemed to care. Worse I was forced to acknowledge that even if the election had been fixed – Bush enjoyed enough support to make manipulating the results possible. The same also had to be said about 2000.

My country had turned into a train wreck and if Americans were too dumb to change course I wasn’t about to invest anymore time and energy. Right or wrong that’s how I felt.

Then Hurricane Katrina happened. The callous rot of Bush’s rule was exposed and apathy was not an option. Too many of my fellow citizens in the Gulf Coast were condemned to death because they were black, poor or both. Katrina renewed debate about our direction and I wanted in.

My only familiarity with blogs was through a close personal friend. I suppose you could describe her as my blog guru. Her Corporate Ethics blog, is dedicated to exposing the corruption and crimes of Kaiser Permanente. More than a blog her site has become an information repository for standing up against an evil corporate giant.

My friend had been a Kaiser employee, was familiar with their dark underside and personally suffered because of them. I suggest reading her site to learn about her personal story. I read her blog regularly and was intrigued.

Occasionally I posted comments anonymously – when people attacked her I took it personally and still do. Among her accomplishments was a state agency in California fining Kaiser over $200,000 for exposing Medical Record Numbers of their patients on their website.

My friend has little money and since losing her job at Kaiser she’s scrapped together a living with freelance work. And yet she was making a difference and giving voice to people who had suffered at Kaiser’s hands. Her blog also intrigued me because I saw parallels between them and the Bush Administration. Out of control crony capitalism, a compliant press parroting Kaiser’s propaganda and regulatory agencies that mostly overlooked their crimes against the public. Even if she weren’t my friend her blog would’ve fascinated me. There was nobility to it and a sense of empowerment from reading it. She was fighting back.

I wanted to do the same and after Katrina my passion for the progressive cause returned. My original plan was to write about various topics in advance, investigate the world of blogging and get started in January 2006 with the material I had put together. I wanted my first post to be about civil liberties and promote the concept of liberals taking a more aggressive stand and ply libertarians away from the Republican Party.

But in November 2005 John Murtha rocked the political world and called for a redeployment of our forces in Iraq. It seemed the whole world was engaged about the merits of his position and I was on the sidelines. So, ready or not I had to jump in.

And I felt reinvigorated. How wonderful to discover a whole community of progressive bloggers standing up for peace, economic empowerment and social justice. Their vitality gave me hope as I sensed the path of renewal through the netroots.

Whenever reading about bloggers in the mainstream press I’m amazed at how we’re portrayed: “dangerous,” “extreme” and with subversive values. Recently at a Barnes & Noble I spoke with someone at the history section. Somehow the topic of liberal bloggers came up and I admitted I was one. Her response to me was, “oh you’re one of those people.” I had to laugh.

Yes I’m one of “those people” whatever that means. And who are we? True enough the blogosphere has characters I would rather not be associated with – inevitable considering its size. For the most part bloggers resemble your neighbors down the street.

If you take a look at my left sidebar, underneath “Friends of ILJ” you’ll notice Joe Irvin’s Blog. Joe was the first blog to link me. An editor of a small city newspaper for 35 years, Joe served in the U.S. Army and raised two children with his wife. Yes, I see why people might fear someone like that. Decent people with sense are dangerous.

There is also Deirdre Helfferich of Ester Republic – the second blog to link me. Deirdre is an Alaskan Green Party activist and she promotes clean government, clean air and clean energy. Yes, Deirdre is terrifying and must be stopped. Anyone who supports conservation and developing alternative sources of energy must be a terrorist. Tap her phones now!

The ubiquitous Jay Lassiter of Lassiter Space is also “one of those people.” A front pager at Blue New Jersey and Democratic Party and human rights activist who helped push Robert Menendez across the finish line in his Senate race. Jay believes gays should enjoy equal rights including marriage. His father served in Vietnam and Jay is committed to bringing our troops home as soon as possible. Jay has the temerity to believe our troops shouldn’t die in an immoral and ill-conceived war. Yes he must be stopped too.

Another “one of those people” is Bill Kavanagh of Big Bill’s Diamond Blog. Bill is a Massachusetts born New Yorker and obviously an elitist with his intelligent and cogent observations. Who the hell does he think he is? Somebody slap the cuffs on him please for his recent post about police abuse on the UCLA campus.

I look forward to the return of Bob Higgins of Worldwide Sawdust. Right now his link is dead but I understand he’ll return with his own community blog soon. Bob is a war veteran against the Iraq War from Ohio. His combination of poignancy and humor make him a very dangerous man. Bob is also “one of those people” you see. Everyday I check to see if his link is working again and can’t wait to receive an Email that he’s back in business.

If you were to put the bloggers underneath my “Friends of ILJ,” “Intrepid Voices” and members of the “Community Blogs” I list in a hotel ballroom the conversation would be lively. I suspect we would agree 90% of the time and incessantly debate over the 10% we disagreed about. That’s what progressives do. The give and take is our strength. We don’t fear debate. Debating ideas is fuel for true progressives.

Collectively, the voice of progressive blogs has become a critical mass striving for reformation and justice. We helped drive the debate and voter turnout during the recent mid-term election won by Democrats. Many bloggers such as myself either raised money, canvassed or phone banked on behalf of progressive candidates. It seems all the intellectual ideas and innovation about global warming, world peace, social justice and promoting an economy that empowers people is on our side. With progressives ascending and taking power on both the federal and state level our voice will be even more amplified.

I’m proud to be a part of it.
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ADDENDUM: Special thanks to Nanette of the fabulous community blog Man Eegee for including me in their weekly roundup every Sunday. I'm proud to be an Eegian!