The original title of this diary, in my mind, was "TTFN" - Ta Ta For Now. It wasn't going to be a GBCW - but it was definitely going to be a diary that communicated my intention to back slowly away from Daily Kos for an unspecified period of time to get my head right.
It's ironic that I was even framing this TTFN diary in my mind last night and as I drove to the office this morning - because it was only days ago that I sent an off-blog email to dengre lamenting his GBFN (Goodbye for now) diary. In an impassioned but surprisingly (for me) brief note, I implored dengre to reconsider and highlighted the need for calmer, seasoned diarists to stick with posting and commenting. Little did I know that just days later I would find myself on the precipice of the same sentiment.
The tipping point? Last night. Today? A different approach. Much more over the fold.
I started reading Daily Kos in 2004. I joined right after Kerry lost, and started wading into the pool very early in 2005 - UID 37061 (man - that seemed astronomically high at the time!). I have to say - I was quite awestruck by the quality of work I saw produced here at Daily Kos. It opened a whole new world and outlet for me, and encouraged me to realize that I could actually participate. I learned HTML. I learned how to do exhaustive research online and really reference my arguments and sources. I posted my first diary on February 19, 2005 - and it really sucked. Today, 340 diaries, 13,000+ comments and almost five years later, I have a better idea of what it means to participate here at Daily Kos. I know better how to participate - but, more importantly, I know better what it means to participate and why it matters.
As I was contemplating my TTFN diary, I started thinking about the diaries and research that were meaningful to me over the past five years. The first I remember was SusanG's series of diaries on Valerie Plame, Jeff Gannon, and the outing of a covert CIA agent. The work by SusanG alone spanned months and was, for me, the high water mark of how to develop a story, dig stuff up, uncover information that people wanted to remain covered, and motivate a community to get the word out. For those who weren't here at the time or for those who just want to remember, here they are:
Plame leaked by fake news source?
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Part II
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Overview: Part IV
Plame Leak/Fake News, Summary/Process: Part V
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Part VI
Plame Diaries - Roll Call, Newbies Welcome: Part VII
Plame Diaries - Where We Stand: Part VIII
Plame & PropaGannon: Dots Connect: Part IX
Plame & PropaGannon: Part X
Plame & PropaGannon: Scotty! 'Fess Up!: Part XI
Plame & Propagannon: The Tangled Web: Part XII
Plame & Propagannon: Keeping the Focus: Part XV
Plame & Propagannon: Gannon Revealed?
Plame & Propagannon: Joe Wilson Speaks Out
Plame & Propagannon: We've Only Just Begun
Plame & Propagannon: Dana Milbank Talks to Us
Plame & PropaG: Gannon was GOPUSA Officer/Director
Plame & PropaG: NO Military Service for Gannon/Guckert
J.D. Guckert/Jeff Gannon: These Are Your Lives!
Those who were here will remember that, in part, ePluribus Media arose out of this effort. SusanG handed this off to ePluribus Media and they continued it from there and under their own dKos ID. I was actually really proud to have helped ePluribus Media with their Gannon research - but I digress.
Another paragon of research and writing that I'll never forget was emptywheel's series of diaries on Judy Miller, Plame, Scooter Libby, etc.
Is this Judy Miller's missing article ... ?
What Judy Miller did as an embed in Iraq, Part I
What Judy Miller did as an embed, Part two
What Judy Miller Did as an Embed, Part Three
What Judy Miller Did as an Embed, Part Four
What Judy Miller Did as an Embed, Part Five
What Ahmed Chalabi Did While Judy Was Embedded
What Judy Miller Did as an Embed, Conclusion
Plame Affair: Those Eight Pages
The January 24 Document
The (July 7) INR Memo
The INR Memos Were Part of the Niger Forgery Cover-Up
Scooter Libby Reads the News
Anatomy of a White House Smear (Includes excellent links to all other work done to that point)
Did Novak Get Away with It?
Plame Was in Charge of Finding WMDs in Iraq
Novak Changes His Story--a Fourth Time
What Did Novak Meet with Libby About?
Opening Our Fitzmas Presents
How Novak and Libby Tried to Hide Their Conversation
The Scooter Libby Trial, Part One--The Cooper Charge
The Scooter Libby Trial: The Russert Charges
Did Libby Leak the CIA Report on Wilson's Trip to Novak?
Libby Update and Documents
The Libby Trial: Collective Forgetting in the Office of the Vice President
Libby's Approximate Date
What Wasn't In Tenet's Statement: The January 24 Document
Dick's Talking Points
The Libby Defense Rests (Almost)
Libby's Evolving Defense Claims
Libby Trial: Madness! Madness! Madness!
Libby's Missing Document
Libby Trial: Two New Jury Questions
Libby's Lawyer Is Afraid of Bloggers
If you wanted to understand - I mean really understand Judy Miller, Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, and the outing of a covert CIA agent, you didn't go to The Washington Post - you didn't pick up The New York Times. You came to Daily Kos over a period of July 2005 to late spring of 2007 to follow the full story. emptywheel drove the media in that time, folks. She did. The reporting she did here exemplified the power of citizen journalism. It gave power back to us in this community - because we were so beyond getting FUCKED at that point. Being able to read and comment on emptywheel's narrative-driving research and writing gave us back a sense of what we could accomplish.
I'd be remiss as well if I didn't include dengre's excellent series of diaries on the Abramoff scandal:
There are ZERO Democrats who took Abramoff money.
210 Congressmen tied to Abramoff [Updated]
Abramoff: what's next and how you can help bring down the GOP
Get Ready for More Shocking Abramoff Scandal News
WOW! New troubles for DeLay, Abramoff, Buckham and the gang
Massive Abramoff document dump = BIG Trouble for the GOP
Day 4: Abramoff Doc Dump = BIG trouble for the GOP
21 Candidates tied to Abramoff = GOP troubles. UPDATED
The Abramoff 53 = BIG GOP Trouble. And you can Help!
The Abramoff 64 + 34 Competitive Races = BIG GOP Trouble
PA-Sen: Rick Santorum makes it the Abramoff 65. UPDATED with Images
McCain and the Great Abramoff Cover-Up
Abramoff and other scandals forced the WH to action...
Griles/Abramoff plea: DoJ Staff sends Bush a message...
UPDATE. Smoking gun: the Senate has the documents...
Dengre's last diary, sadly: Goodbye for now. It’s time to walk away... (Update).
There are so many other subjects and diarists who contributed to understanding, action, and compassion here at Daily Kos. Reading these diaries and comments, I learned things. I was moved. I honed my arguments. I left my computer and went out and DID SOMETHING.
But today? And the past few months? Meh. I pulled those three collections of diaries - all intricately sourced around incredibly complicated issues - as a representation of what I have always thought made this community so incredibly invaluable. YMMV, but anyone who's been here longer than the past couple of months knows that we have - often - dug our teeth into an issue and refused to let go. We have - often - driven the media narrative and spurred the traditional media to action with what was researched, compiled, and published here. We are not the Democratic Party - we are only a small percentage of Democrats/Progressives/Liberals that exist in the world. It's important that we are realistic about our effect - but it's also important to realize that we DO (or at least have) had an effect. It's been my privilege to be a part in whatever capacity.
So back to my planned TTFN diary... I've clearly decided not to say TTFN. Not just yet. Because in trying to write that particular diary, I pulled together all of the diaries and diarists you see listed above and I realized - I'm not done yet. Not quite yet. Because I do still fundamentally believe that this site - the people on it, its spirit - can return to producing content of the caliber of the very, infinitesimally small excerpt of the collected body of work at Daily Kos that I have provided.
That's why last night was so difficult. If you want to undertake to write a diary on the historical rightness/wrongness of any kind of spending freeze and research and source that diary, I'm all for it. If you want to analyze the current HCR reform legislation and research and source it and present it to the community with your analysis pro or con, I'm all for that, too. But to just shrilly scream with no facts to back you up - well, that's just not OK. I'm not speaking of my personal impression, here. I'm speaking about the myriad examples of
- What is good writing
- What is good research
- What is good reporting
- What is good information that moves people to action
- What is good for our common goals (and folks, we have WAY more in common on issues than we have issues on which we differ)
that can be found by taking a walk down dKos memory lane.
::--::
Possible headlines related to pre-2009 Daily Kos:
Liberal blog breaks White House Press Room scandal
Bloggers push Downing Street Memo into the light
Progressive blog drives Plame scandal
Bloggers detail facts around warrantless wiretapping
Daily Kos uncovers details related to Abramoff scandal
Possible headlines related to post-2009 Daily Kos:
Bloggers mirror disarray for Democrats
Bloggers abandon Democrats amid crushed expectations
Etc. and so forth. I've made those up, of course - but the first set are really instructive. They point back to a body of research and work that really set us apart from the rest of the political blogosphere and enabled us - all of us - to put our stake in the ground and to put people at least on notice. I'm not trying to overblow our influence (because I think that unwise) - but we should recognize that we have had influence.
I don't have an issue if you dislike a policy or program or mantra that a particular Democrat - the President included - seems to embrace. I DO have a problem with over-the-top knee-jerk diaries that literally contain no information and commit themselves to either pure speculation or serve as a mirror of the diarist's personal feelings without any evidence to back up the inevitable assertions that are put forward as fact.
We can't decide how we are going to right the ship if we're all so busy shouting at each other and speculating. We can't be effective where it matters - which is outside of this blog, damnit - if our information is based on PHOG (Prophecy, Hearsay, Opinion & Guesswork).
We've always held ourselves, historically, to a higher standard than what seems to be standard fare these days. What happened? Can we not have our opinions but also apply some rigor to asserting those opinions?
I don't know. It's not TTFN for me - but I'm sad to see where we are, especially in light of where we were.
That's all I have to say, I guess.