The BlogTalkRadio Blog

Tomorrow on Heading Left’s Blog Talk Radio Show, my co-host James Boyce and I will have Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan on as our guests. Those two are best known for their recent short tenure as campaign bloggers for John Edwards’ presidential campaign.

Amanda recently wrote about her experience on Salon.com.

My main concern about the relationship between my personal blog and the campaign blog was that I wouldn’t have enough time to keep my personal blog updated as frequently as the readers had come to expect, a problem I solved by inviting other bloggers to join. I thought some about content concerns, but my opinion had always been that bloggers who work for campaigns should feel free to have personal blogs, so long as they disclosed their employment to their personal blog readers and refrained from using their personal blogs to bash other candidates.

“Reasonable people,” I thought, “can tell the difference between a personal blog post and those I’ll write for the campaign.” What I naively failed to understand was that there is no relationship between what reasonable people think and what will be used in a partisan bout of mud-slinging.

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What I also failed to understand was how much McEwan and I would stick out. I was aware that I didn’t exactly fit the image people have of bloggers who join campaigns — the stereotype being 30-something nerdy young white men who wear khakis and obsess over crafting their Act Blue lists. I wasn’t aware that not fitting the image would attract so much negative attention. In fact, I mostly saw this all as a baby step in the direction of diversity, since McEwan and I differed from the stereotype mostly by being female and by being outspoken feminists.

MyDD’s Matt Stoller had this response (Matt blogged for NJ Governor Jon Corzine in that campaign):

Since journalists are now snooping around and trying to marginalize the left-wing blogosphere by pretending we’re a bunch of undisciplined crazies, I figured I’d write a quick guide on how to be a good campaign blogger and/or netroots specialist.  Despite what a lot of journalists seem to think, Amanda and Melissa are not in fact the only bloggers that have worked for campaigns.  Matt Gross and Zephyr Teachout worked for Dean, Kerry had his crew of bloggers, and starting in the 2004 cycle and dramatically accelerating through 2006, there were probably close to a hundred candidates who had bloggers on staff.  I worked for Simon Rosenberg for DNC Chair, and Jon Corzine for Governor in 2005.  The same smears were tried on many campaign bloggers (including me), and they didn’t work.  Peter Daou has worked for Hillary Clinton for a little less than a year, and he’s under tremendous scrutiny, but that hasn’t cost Hillary Clinton anything.  Joe Rospars, who got his start as a blogger, is the ‘New Media Director’ for Barack Obama.  I mean even Joe Lieberman had bloggers on staff, including Dan Gerstein.

I think this is because the field of ‘campaign blogger’ or ‘internet director’ or ‘netroots coordinator’, or whatever you want to call them, is a professional position at this point.  Presidential campaigns especially, but any campaign really, are not the place for personal expression.  They are not the place to be free of constraints.  They are a place where you move carefully, ethically and deliberately to channel information to benefit your candidate, and ideally, keep yourself out of the picture.  In that vein, being a campaign blogger is not so different than being any other member of staff.

Myself, coming from the perspective of someone who worked on campaigns before there was such a thing as a blog, I have a few things to say on the topic and am looking forward to the show.

This whole kerfluffle was baffling and infuriating to me. From the beginning I never understood why Amanda wanted to leave Pandagon to blog for Edwards nor why the Edwards campaign wanted Amanda as their blogger.

Amanda leaving Pandagon to blog for Edwards is a bit like the late Molly Ivins giving up writing her column to do press for Hillary — a big waste! Amanda writes pointed, opinionated, viciously satirical and clearly controversial commentary. Anyone with any familiarity with her writing would know that she would need to be defanged if not muzzled entirely in the role of campaign blogger.

My worry was that she would kind of fade away into the kind of boring “the candidate was at (insert boring early state event here) and his message of blah blah blah really resonated with the fine voters of Des Moines/Manchester/Las Vegas/Charleston” stuff that campaign bloggers have to write and Pandagon would limp along without her.

Instead she became the story and a lightening rod for criticism and outright thuggery from the right wing. The progressive blogosphere circled the wagons and everyone came out looking bad.

Amanda and I are IRL (”in real life”) friends from Austin, TX so I’m looking forward to having a no-bs conversation with her on Monday at 11am EST. Call (646)652-4803 and share your take of the whole thing with Amanda, Melissa, James Boyce and I.

Those that know me, know that I generally don’t toot my own horn, so in today’s post I decided to grab a few recent posts that have been buzzing around the blogosphere.

The headline above came from the blog, The DragonFlyEye.Net Blog

The post written by, Thomas Kelnap goes on to say:
“But man, oh, man! Did I ever have a good time tonight! I’ve probably been keeping the wife awake and I’m sure I’ll hear about it in the morning, but it was worth it to do some discovering”

Or how about this recent post from Zaadz.com Oldude59’s blog. The blogger goes on to say:

“Predictably, the BlogTalkRadio business model is ad-supported. Display space on the site will be sold, but more innovatively, radio advertising targeted to the audience of each show will be inserted into broadcasts, which of course is where Chris Anderson rears his ugly long tail. Levy said: “On one level I don’t care how many people are listening to a show; it can be 10 or it can be 10,000, there’s still money.” So for someone like me that is trying to build a market with little cash to invest – “thank god”. It puts me in the mode to create content and build an audience for the clinic, both its online patients as well as those near the clinic site”

I couldn’t be happier about the grass roots buzz around Blogtalkradio.

Finally, I would like to share a portion of an email sent to BTR Program Director Amy Domestico by Scott Kesterson on Friday after our weekly broadcast called The Words of War. As many of you know, Scott is the only US embedded reporter in Afghanistan and is doing some incredible work. Scott calls into BTR “live” from the front lines.

My father, at the age of 70, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in December 2000. As we all do when confronted with a devastating illness of a loved one, I read and reread the statistics. It didn’t look good for my Dad. A man of his age, with a stage 4 tumor the size of a grapefruit in his spleen, which had metastasized to his bone marrow and liver, had maybe a 20% chance of living another year.

You see my father was never sick a day in his life. Both of his parents lived until their early nineties. This wasn’t supposed to happen to him, to our family.He bravely took his medicine and suffered through the many side effects of chemotherapy. His positive outlook never wavered. Not once, not for one minute. Eighteen months later, the lymphoma came back and this time he had no choice but to attempt a bone marrow transplant. Once again, he endured tremendous pain and discomfort. Miraculously he went into remission once again, however this time he lost the use of his kidneys. His positive outlook never wavered. Not once, not for one minute.

In March 2006, I received yet another call. However, this was one was different. My Mom and Dad were in Florida trying to enjoy their winter in sun and warmth like do so many other seniors in their 70’s. I needed to fly down immediately and I did. I landed at West Palm Beach airport and received a call from the Nephrologist who was treating my Dad.

“Alan,” he said, “I am sorry to say that your dad has significant tumor activity throughout his abdomen, chest and elsewhere.” Now I experienced fear. How was I going to tell the news to my Mom who was sitting next to me while driving on I-95 to the hospital? Why does she need to hear these same words for the third time? Why do all of us need to hear these words again?

So next, we were in Hackensack, New Jersey and my Dad underwent high dose chemotherapy for yet a third time. This man, who was first diagnosed with Lymphoma five years ago, who lost his kidney function and had to suffer through dialysis three times a week, was once again confronted with his mortality.

I said, “We’re going to get through this, I just know it.” I knew better, however. I suggested to my father that we set up a blog. He said, “a blog? What’s a blog?” I went on to explain that a blog is like a diary online, a place where people can express themselves and share ideas, information, and stories with others. He loved the idea of helping others with Lymphoma or other cancers.

I told him that our blog would be a place where he could reach out and link with others who have cancer. I explained to him that it was also a place where our family and friends can see how he was doing and wish him well. It has been an incredible tool.

On May 15th of this year, I received a call from his Oncologist telling us that he couldn’t help my father any longer. May 15th is my birthday. My mom, sister, and I had to tell him- our father, husband and hero- that we couldn’t help him anymore.

The doctor sat by his bed and was quite clear. “Maurice,” he said “we tried but we can’t help you anymore. I also suggest that you stop dialysis so you don’t have added discomfort.”

My father looked at him, and then looked at us, and said, “I understand. I am ok with this. My family has suffered enough.”

Can you imagine? My father, just told he had three or four days to live, was comforted that his family no longer had to suffer. I am speechless.

My father died three days later. I will never forget how brave and fearless he was. In his last days, he told me that we now have an ending to his blog. I told him that his blog will never die. In fact, his blog turned into BlogTalkRadio.

The week before he died, my father told me, “I have found that the will to live is greater than the will not to live. In all of my years of living with this disease, I very rarely gave up hope. I believe that this is one of the reasons I am still alive. A few days ago, I felt so sick that I thought I might not make it. But ultimately, the will to live suppressed any negative thoughts. The will to live would never leave my mind

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Scott Kesterson “live” on Blogtalkradio. Scott, who is the only US embed in Afghanistan called into his The Words of War.

By reading the abundance of press in recent days, it seemed like the Taliban were gearing up for a “bloody” spring offensive. Rather than get our information through traditional media outlets, why not speak directly with the a photo journalist on the ground. Scott called the reported figure of 10,000 Taliban troops wildly overstated. He seemed disturbed that the major media outlets were falling for the Taliban’s propaganda campaign “hook, line and sinker”.

While we were chatting away about NATO’s poor handling of the campaign, Mick Fealty, called in from Northern Ireland. Mick’s blog, Slugger O’toole is the number one blog in Northern Ireland. Mick also happens to be a featured host on Blogtalkradio. So here we are, all on the line, streaming live for the world to hear. I am in NJ, Scott is in Afghanistan and Mick is in Northern Ireland.

The archived show can be heard here.

If you ask me, I think this is pretty cool.

The Thin Veil of Hate

He lay on the ground with bullet wounds near his heart. There was nothing that could be done as his life became defined by minutes. He was Taliban, and moments before he had ambushed an Afghan soldier killing him with a shot to the head that removed part of that soldier’s skull. Now a victim himself, this Taliban fighter lay at my feet, choking out a dull moan of pain as his breath slowed. A shaved head, a trimmed beard, dressed in brown Afghan pants and top, he turned to his side to die.

Hate is shown in the eyes. A life focus that drives their every move. It consumes them, and becomes a part of a belief system that they erect. In itself, hate becomes a religion, tied to promises of redemption and reward through killing and dying for a professed righteousness in cause. It is not Muslim, though they claim it to be. It matters not, for hate is rooted in a belief structure that seethes from the bowels of frustration, emptiness, jealously, and want. It is a vile emotion that provides no middle ground, only life as they see it, or release through death.

As he lay there on the ground I watched his eyes dart back and forth; the visual groping that seeks answers to all of the promises that were made. In these last few moments, his eyes spoke the prayers of the Koran, asked Allah for his blessing, and reached for the sight of the promised seventy-seven virgins. All he saw was blue sky, green grass, and the hand of an American medic pulling back after trying to stay his death. I watched as he exhaled, then turned his head to the side as if to vomit, only to find a dry mouth and coagulated phlegm.

As the seconds ticked on, and his life drew to a close, the veil of promise and hate began to recede. His desire for life returned, as he now searched desperately to live; his eyes hopelessly seeking help from the very people he lived to destroy. He was beyond the reach of the medic now. He was slipping away to the greater mystery of our existence: death. He was in the final moments of discovery, in which the truth of all that he had lived for and now died for would be revealed. He would soon know the variety of the promise’s made, as his eyes revealed the most most powerful emotion stored within his soul- he revealed fear.

As the body of the dead Afghan soldier was carried down from the mountain, this Taliban who lived for the destruction of all things western, all things infidel, died. Abandoned in the fight by his comrades, his final darting glances of desperation revealed the ultimate truth: he was now alone.

Today at 11 am est Alan Levy will be on the air live with Scott Kesterson as Scott calls in live from the front lines of Afghanistan. In a new location since Alan and Scott last called in Oshay, Afghanistan, in the Uruzgon Province which is home base for the time being, spring offensive is just about to get underway as the Taliban are massing and in Scott’s words just this morning to me, they are coming in from Pakistan, building defenses, setting in for a bloody fight… they claim to have 10,000 soldiers.

Click here to listen

Also at 11 am on Heading Left, former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 2008. James Boyce and Nate Wilcox from Heading Left will discuss with Senator Gravel his campaign and all he has to offer this great country.

Click here to listen

So far today, I have co-hosted my show, “Heading Left” with Nate Wilcox. Our guests were Senator John Kerry and Chris Bowers from www.mydd.com. You can listen in to our conversation here.

We also have had some people write some very nice posts about what we are doing here - giving literally everyone in the world the chance to host their own show. Here’s one.  We appreciate all of your support. And remember: today is a great day for you to join the conversation.