Traditional emphasizes that blogs are new. Mainstream implies that bloggers are weird -- the teenager-typing-away-in-his-parents'-bas ement effect. Establishment media implies that blogs are trying to take over their role, which I don't think we are.

Calling "it" the Corporate Media is the best way to differentiate the blogs. Blogs aren't run by money; they're run by people. There's no marketocracy here, it's all meritocracy.

but there is a serious point to be made there as well. John Kerry really was portrayed that way, and so was Al in 2004. We need people to decide there are more important issues to deal with, and hopefully with Jim Webb at the top of the ticket that will be a bit easier.

And P.S. I would like to say that Al, and everyone working on his campaign (at least all the full-timers) has great respect for gay rights. I am most proud of Al because in 2004, he could have equivocated on gay rights, but he refused -- and he lost votes for it. He was willing to lose for what he believed in, and now he is capable of winning for what he believes in. I apologize for the misunderstanding, but rest assured Al is not ashamed of his beliefs, nor is he using right wing buzzwords to describe others fighting the good fight.

At UVA there are 4500 students who self-identify as "Liberal" or "Very Liberal" on facebook. We're going to get every single one to register in this district and vote for Al. An extra 3,500 votes or so is nothing to shake a stick at.

Another interesting fact I read: if someone votes for the same party three times in a row, they will almost never vote for the other party. Let's get these guys young.

Duke Cunningham, Virgil Goode, and Jerry Lewis all come from the esteemed Appropriations Committee.

I remember in 2000, hearing that Virgil was caucusing with the GOP for a spot on the Appropriations Committee. Is this what he had in mind?

A lot of the content on RaisingKaine's frontpage is promoted from the diaries. Go have a look. I think Lowell once said the goal was to have half the content written by mortals -- I mean users.

Right on, Chris. The VA-05 is a great example of what you're talking about. Virgil Goode (R-MZM) got 65% of the vote as a Democrat, and independent, and a Republican. There's no way it's ideology getting him elected.

I was down in southside VA Wednesday with Al, on his big kickoff tour. We were set up outside a Food Lion handing out flyers and shaking hands. At first, I'd offer people flyers by saying, "Can I give you some information about Al Weed? He's a Democrat running for Congress." And it worked ok on some people, but the bubba-types (remember the group identified in the psycographic polling project?) didn't want to hear it.

So I started to say, "Can I give you some information about Al Weed? He's a former green beret and a farmer running for congress." Not one of them turned me down. TurnerBroadcasting is right, at least for the VA-05, in saying that the Democratic brand isn't working. Here's an example of an issue in terms of policy and identity: Renewable energy and switchgrass, which can be grown in this district.

If you start talking about new kinds of cars that will reduce the oil-trade-deficit, people turn off their ears. If you tell them that tobacco farmers need a new crop, and they can keep their farms in business by growing switchgrass, they listen, and they like what they hear. Start talking about how switchgrass can change them and they'll vote for the other guy; start talking about how switchgrass can let them to stay as they are, and they'll listen.

The problem is that a game of identity politics will always be skewed towards the status quo. People don't want to hear that their identity is bad, or wrong, or needs improving. It seems the only way to do it is to tell them "you're not changing your identity, you're preserving it." Bill Clinton said it better: "There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America"

I commented on this last time; just wanted to set the record straight. To be clear, this is straight from the mouth of the candidate, to me, his netroots coordinator, to you. If you need to confirm you can email aweed at alweedforcongress.com

Al pretty much started the wine-growing business in Virginia -- I say "pretty much" because Jefferson used to do it, but it lapsed for a few generations or so -- and, as a regular citizen, fought for legislation to give small wineries the opportunity to succeed and flourish here.

The small businesses that grow wine in Virginia and sell it both locally and globally couldn't operate if they were being extorted by every single ISP for priority bandwidth. Free markets don't work without free information.