Right On The Right

I demand more rights! I demand more pay! I demand... who am I talking to? That's the simplest way to describe the idiocy coming out of the nutroots today. Tom Blumer says he's missing the punch line. I think I am too:

CHICAGO — Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

The effort is an extension of the blogosphere’s growing power and presence, especially within the political realm, and for many, evokes memories of the early labor organization of freelance writers in the early 1980s.Organizers hope a bloggers’ labor group will not only showcase the growing professionalism of the Web-based writers, but also the importance of their roles in candidates’ campaigns.

“I think people have just gotten to the point where people outside the blogosphere understand the value of what it is that we do on the progressive side,” said Susie Madrak, the author of Suburban Guerilla, who is active in the union campaign. “And I think they feel a little more entitled to ask for something now.”

Tom asks what employer they plan on going after, and my thoughts immediately jumped to Markos Moulitsas. Tom's did also. The thought of thousands of diarists staging a walk-out, or log-out, or something, is pretty appealing. I'm starting to like the idea. In all seriousness though, bloggers are their own bosses, or depending upon how they run their sites, the readers may be in charge. Bloggers don't need to unionize to demand more of themselves, and they certainly shouldn't demand more of their readers. Running on ads and donations is the safe bet, not unionizing.

Charles from Little Green Footballs exposes a ridiculous musical act that is apparently playing in Scotland some time soon. A video from the lunacy:

I just read a pretty interesting story over at Little Green Footballs which shows how idiotic some leftists are. He links to a site which exposed a Columbia Journalism Review article. Here's a nice excerpt from that article, and note the sarcasm:

How dare a college grad and engaged citizen volunteer to join the Army to fight for his country! (Which is something that most of the brave souls who inhabit the milblog community prefers to leave to others.

This is implying that milbloggers are chickenhawks, leaving the fighting to others while sitting behind their computers. We've heard this talking point before used against Conservatives, but not milbloggers. Why not milbloggers? Well, let's look at the Milblogging community:

Milblogging indexes a wide variety of military blogs including webblogs written by: military spouses, military veterans, military personnel (who are in the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard), civilian contractors, reporters, military parents, civilians, and other groups. Many of the military blogs listed on Milblogging are written by troops deployed to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Charles suggests that the Associated Press puts out a guide to blog terminology, because these idiots are really embarassing themselves. Milbloggers are chickenhawks? HA!

When John Bambenek decided to take on Daily Kos and their FEC status, he got criticism from a lot of sides. Wild Bill from Passionate America went as far as to say that they were throwing a Conservative under the bus. I wouldn't go that far. Either way, John is responding to his critics:

The argument is that political speech should be free of the FEC all together, so I shouldn't be filing complaints. Let me get this straight, because you're free to blog we should ignore the myriad people who do have to register with the FEC and are subjected to their onerous rules? Free speech is vindicated as long as bloggers can post their half-baked unthinking diatribes to the web, even though hundreds and thousands of others who actually do have intelligent contributions are silenced by the FEC?

Could this be the start of a movement to dismantle the FEC and open up free debate and free fundraising for candidates? I would like to think so. Don't bash John because you hate the FEC. Bash the FEC because you hate the FEC.

Remember the whole debacle where the idiots at Daily Kos removed Sheehan from their lives because she had the liberal cojones to run against Speaker Pelosi? They said they made it clear their goal is to "elect Democrats." That prompted some action from John Bambenek:

Today I filed an Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Kos Media, LLC., better known as DailyKos.com. I allege that they operate as a political committee and are therefore subject to FEC rules.

I first thought of this complaint during the Cindy Sheehan debacle over at Daily Kos, where Cindy pledged to run as an independent against Nancy Pelosi, and the Daily Kos basically turned on her. While some conservatives took great delight in this, I really didn't care because it's politics as usual. The right has thrown their fair share of people under the bus for not drinking the Kool-aid too.

However, the statement that the DailyKos was about electing Democrats stuck with me. I always assumed it was a standard left-wing group blog spouting the latest and greatest in left-wing diatribe. However, the statement that the blog exists to get Democrats elected is repeated in various places around the site, including statements by Kos himself.

Federal Election Commission rules apply for organizations that spend or contribute an equivalent of $1,000 per year in trying to influence elections for federal office. DailyKos is owned by Kos Media, a company, which makes it fit the definition of an organization. It surely spends at least $1,000 per year in hosting and based on what they charge (and get) for advertising, their support of candidates is certainly worth over $1,000 per year. Lastly, their self-identified purpose is to influence elections in the Democrats favor. They fit the criteria.

What's going to be the final outcome of this? That'll depend upon the Federal Election Commission and their rulings on Daily Kos. To throw in my opinion, I think it would be devastatingly harmful to the blogosphere if the FEC targeted Kos for what they write. Considering all the idiotic campaign finance laws however, Kos might need reining in on what they spend. The Part-Time Pundit takes on Kos...