Bloggers may make for an effective bogeyman for the administration:  people misunderstood enough to be marginalized. But bloggers aren't the biggest problem for Rahm Emanuel's strategy of passing something...anything, in fact they aren't even the biggest problem online.

If anything, progressive blogs have been overly accommodating by creating a discussion-heavy atmosphere over the disagreements between Democrats. The administration should be relived that bloggers opposing the bill have largely taken such an approach. Because the bloggers opposing the bill have by and large shown far more of a willingness to get their hands dirty and fight with every tool available. From fundraising to message to organizing, I can't imagine anyone would rather go into a political fight with the bloggers supporting anything than the bloggers fighting to make the bill better. I mean, Fred Hiatt didn't bring on Ezra Klein because of all he'd done to elect Democrats.

But bloggers aren't the main problem, not even online.

If there is anything keeping up at night administration online folks like Macon Phillips and Jesse Lee, it is email...

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Normally I wouldn't post a diary this short or personal, but since the diary list has been slow lately, I don't feel like I'm pushing anything off the list.

I'm going to launch a second personal blog so that I can separate the political out from the religious and personal. Any suggestions as to what I should name it? Green Dog Democrat, my desired name, is sadly taken.

My only real criteria is that it gets me higher on alphabetical lists than "The Wayward Episcopalian" ever did!

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Frontpaged by Texas Nate. Lowell is my co-author on Netroots Rising and one of the best regional bloggers in the country. Its exciting to see him back in action in Virginia.

Back in January 2005, when I started a little blog called "Raising Kaine," people scoffed at the concept that Virginia would ever turn Democratic "blue," let alone anytime soon. Well, four years later, Virginia Democrats now control both U.S. Senate seats, 6 out of 11 House of Representatives seats, the State Senate, and of course the governor's mansion. We're closing in on the House of Delegates -- currently controlled by the most right-wing, flat-earth Republicans imaginable -- as well. That's starting to sound pretty "blue" to me! :)

Today, our top goal should be to keep Virginia moving in the "blue" direction, from its current purplish cast.  We need to keep working on building the progressive netroots in Virginia, so that we can not only expand our Democratic gains of the past few years, but ultimately to elect BETTER (e.g., more progressive) Democrats.

Personally, I consider myself a Progressive in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Paine, Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, RFK, and Jim Webb even more than I consider myself a Democrat. As such, I believe in expanding opportunities to all, utilizing government as a tool to promote the general welfare and the common good, protecting the environment for ourselves and for future generations, and expanding the rights promised in our Constitution and Bill of Rights to all Americans.  That's what I'm fighting for in Virginia, and that's why I've started a new blog called Blue Virginia.

But wait, you might be asking, whatever happened to your old blog, RK?  Well, after four years of "raising Kaine/cain" (and drafting James Webb, working to defeat George "Felix Macacawitz" Allen, and working my butt off to help Barack Obama win Virginia, etc.), we decided to call it a day - "Mission Accomplished," in other words, at the end of December 2008. Personally, I decided I wanted to do something different, possibly get back to what I was doing prior to March 2006; working on international energy, energy-related environmental, and energy security issues for the federal government (now under new, and much better, management!).  Running RK was taking up a huge amount of time, and I wanted to focus my energies on my job hunt. Also, to be honest, I was feeling really burned out of blogging and needed a break. I certainly didn't want to get sucked right back into another intense primary race, which is what Virginia's in the midst of right now on the Democratic side (for Governor and Lieutenant Governor).  Even so, I was never totally happy about shutting down RK, or about going "cold turkey" from blogging.

So now, after a 3-month break - and no government job yet (we'll see what happens on that front...) - I'm feeling energized again about politics and have decided to jump back into blogging with Blue Virginia.

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Update [2008-10-26 21:59:2 by January 20]: This is a little awkward. From the comments, I get the feeling that some people think I'm pointing out another loony anti-Obama site. Not the case at all. This is lovely British sarcasm. Perhaps it's not clear from the excerpt I've posted here, but Burkeman is most definitely mocking the anti-Obama loony conspiracy theorists.

As much as I've enjoyed MyDD, The Motley Moose, other essential blogs, (and a few crazies) throughout this wild & increasingly wonderful election, Oliver Burkeman's Blog at The Guardian has really stood out as reliably sane and entertaining.  The following is his latest entry, I recommend you check it out for yourselves: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/oliverbu rkemanblog

The truth about Barack Obama's "trip" to "visit" his "sick""grandmother" in "Hawai'i"

The Mainstream Media has been suppressing this, but when you pay close attention (and read The Corner) there's something pretty suspicious about Barack Obama's decision to visit his allegedly sick alleged grandmother in Hawai'i at this crucial point in the campaign. Think about it: Obama claims to have been born in Hawai'i, as his birth certificate says, and thus it would seem to follow that he might have family there, including an ailing grandmother in her mid-80s, and that he might want to visit her if she were ill. But wouldn't it make much more sense if he was actually a secret Muslim, born elsewhere, who faked his birth certificate, and that he devised the whole grandmother thing as a cover story in order to race to Hawai'i in a panic in order to insert a more convincing fake birth certificate into the state archives, or to intercept Fox News "Obama expert" and Islamophobic anti-Semite Andy Martin, who's currently in Hawai'i, and to stop Martin talking to his grandmother, who might otherwise inadvertently expose the whole "Obama is an American citizen" story as the lie that it is?

I am sure you will agree that this version of events makes much more sense.

Why, Rush Limbaugh, Jerome Corsi and Michael Savage all believe it: what more proof do you want?

And don't forget about the lawsuit filed by Philadelphia attorney Philip Berg earlier this year, claiming that Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and thus isn't eligible to be president. The Obama campaign, evidently shamed by the truth, ignored the lawsuit, which technically means that they have agreed to Berg's claim, according to an unbiased legal interpretation provided by one Philip Berg.

The evidence is hiding in plain sight, people. Hiding in plain sight. Wake up!

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Every Friday, I take a moment and head over to NewsLadder and see what everyone thinks is the top story at that moment in time. With over 20 NewsLadders now feeding into the core ladder, the story might be from Sustain NewsLadder or Iraq NewsLadder or the Immigration NewsLadder.

However, not surprisingly, right now the top story is from the John McCain NewsLadder, one of our NewsLadders that was developed in conjunction with The Media Consortium.

The top story right now, as voted up by readers, their clicks and their comments is:

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