In case you hadn't noticed, there's a war on. I'm not talking about the one that's currently killing thousands of people in Iraq. I'm not talking about the one supposedly being fought against terrorism that seems to be doing nothing but wasting money and finding new ways to scare and inconvenience all of us right now.
I'm talking about the very real ideological war being waged against the very idea of liberalism.
A few days ago, one of the writers from the Raw Story Web site posted a controversial diary that despite all of its back and forth flaming, made an initial good point. It's time we all started to recognize these "news stories" on Dean, on Kos, on Tubbs-Jones and Conyers, etc ad infinitum for what they are, attacks from the political right of the country in a war to eliminate our point of view. This is not news, this is an attack in an ideological war where currently the heavy weapons (complete control of all branches of government, open, immediate and free access to virtually all Americans through their media surrogates, financial backing from the majority of corporations and wealth holders) all belong to the right.
What is the last best weapon left to the grassroots left? Why the internet of course.
It should be obvious to all of us that attacks like the recent one on Kos are to be expected. We should not be surprised. We should be prepared. I think there will be many more of these attempts to attack the integrity of bloggers from the left, and ultimately regulations will be pursued by the current Congress to place restrictions on internet usage.
To all you mainstream television media reporters out there trolling this blog now for hot tips.. You know what? We're on to you.
Do you think we haven't noticed how you've collaborated with the right in the war on us over the last several years, from Whitewater to Gore bashing to Kerry bashing?
Do you think we haven't noticed how you've loaded up your cable television programs with rabid right wing partisans like Miller, Scarborough, Buchanan and Carlson?.
Do you think we haven't noticed how there is no rabid liberal partisan with their own show since Donahue was cancelled?
Do you think we haven't noticed how all your discussion "panels" include only liberals whose most extreme opinions only fall slightly left of center, or in many cases, no truly liberal opinion at all?
Do you think we haven't noticed how you ran with the administration's pre-war arguments without any critical questioning?
Do you think we haven't noticed the zeal with which you reported on the "Shock and Awe" campaign?
Do you think we haven't noticed the zeal with which you broadcast the "Dean scream" HUNDREDS of times, and how you continue to try to define the man with that one moment?
Do you think we haven't noticed the zeal with which you blasted false reports of WMD "finds" week after week, only to have them discredited in the back pages of newspapers days or weeks later, with no subsequent correction from you?
Do you think we haven't noticed the zeal with which you covered the "toppling of Saddam's statue", later proven to be a staged event attended by no more than a few dozen people, who may or may not have been actual Iraqi citizens?
Do you think we didn't notice how you didn't cover this part of the "story"?
Do you think we haven't noticed the zeal with which you covered heavily propagandized version of the Jessica Lynch story?
Do you think we haven't noticed the pandering to religious conservatives with extreme anti-progress points of view?
Do you think we haven't noticed how you happily gave dozens of hours of free airtime to the Swift Boat liars and their advertisements?
Do you think we haven't noticed how you've reduced your coverage of the war in Iraq now that's its obvious that the administration cheerleading will not hold up in the light of common sense?
Do you think we haven't noticed the zeal with which you piled on the "Rathergate" battle, quickly echoing anything on right wing blogs such as Powerline while ignoring the extensive counter-arguments on the left?
Do you think we haven't noticed how you've lost the will to critically question anything our current government is doing?
Do you think we haven't noticed how you wasted literally thousands of man hours of resources covering the minutae of a California murder trial, while giving tacit approval to an administration's actions that are virtually guaranteeing that another 9/11 will be visited upon us, whether it be within the next year or 10 years?
Well we've noticed. And thousands upon thousands of us are turning to the internet to search for news we can trust, because we can no longer trust you. In this ideological war, you have exposed yourselves as fighters for one side. You have chosen to dismiss the 58,000,000 of us on the other side. We've noticed.