I don’t know why my friend Michael Bouldin from the Daily Gotham website/blog, chose to lock down his comment section, after an out of the ordinary column entitled The tormented egos of blogdom, on 8th June, 2008. Too many lattes in the in the dog days of June, I guess. Or could it be that sitting in the sun too long -in some overly pretentious Park Slope sidewalk café- shifts your thinking cap somewhat? Well, for whatever the reason, the bourgeois Bouldin isn’t exactly known for shying away from lively threads, so it was -to say the least- a bit surprising, to see him immediately close up shop; and after hanging me out there to dry like that. But I have been thinking about that column ever since, because it raised for me the spectre of MB agonizing over the central question here: why the fuck do I blog?

Bouldin paid me a compliment of sorts when he was refreshingly honest about his knowledge (or lack) of black politics, as it plays out in the hood. He even went further when he said that he knows much more than the average white boy cares to know about the politics of the black communities; and that he got that knowledge frown Chris Owens and myself. Herein lies one of the big political problems of this naked city: the average white person doesn’t give a damn about the problems of the average black person in this naked city. It starts with the mayor and goes all the way down the totem pole.

Look, let’s hold that for another column (maybe); let’s just try to answer the central question here. It would be easy for anyone of you to say: it’s your ego stupid; but I won’t let you off the hook that easily or so cheaply. And the reason I won’t is because it is much more complicated that that. At least for me.

Okay, I know I've been picking on self-appointed machine loyalty enforcer Gatemouth rather often recently, but his newest offenses do deserve some comment.

The more obvious observation about the flood the man whom Pete Sikora describes as toxic released this weekend is this: if one posts material under a given alias, such as Gatemouth, and then decides to post more or less the same material under a different alias, presumably to have some safe harbor from a powerful United States Senator dissed therein, it's known as sockpuppetry. This is generally frowned upon as dishonest. Further, if one nonetheless essays to do this, it's wise to not use the exact same formatting that characterizes one's usual cut-and-pasted-from-Word-Perfect effluvia, because that's kind of a dead giveaway. One could go further and note that it's also considered bad form, when one obviously would like to remain anonymous, as evidenced by posting under an unacknowledged handle, to publish other people's private emails, email addresses, and phone numbers. That's just not done, in part because it invites spam, but in larger part because it's thuggish.

Going further, there's also a (signed and attributed) piece, which really takes several cakes. The length of this effort provides an effective safeguard against its being read. That said, somewhere in the bog is this:

So I just cruised on over to Room Eight, which I very rarely do, and found this bit of piffle. My apologies if this isn't, shall we say, timely. The subject is the state blog credential to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, which for this state, to everyone's astonishment, went to that blog.

Under the heading of Room Eight Envy, we find this:

The DNC [Ed. note: Actually, it was the DNCC, which is a different animal] earlier this month unveiled its 55 picks. Predictably, complaints from the feisty independent blogosphere started to emerge, the most high profile of which came from the progressive blogfathers themselves, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas and OpenLeft co-founder Matt Stoller.

The piece is a teaser for this article in Wired (to which I contributed a number of emails, so I'm somewhat surprised it came out as it did), which deals with the controversy over state blog credentials at the DNCC.

So I just have to point out that envy isn't really what's being felt on the subject. Surprise, consternation, amusement, sure. Envy? No, not really, or not at all.

I'd further suggest that, honestly, this type of rhetoric isn't going to further the kind of era of good feelings some of us have been trying to foster over the entire mess. Something that looks like a sharp stick in the eye or even, heavens forfend, gloating, isn't all that helpful. Because, you know, that would tend to piss people off royally.

It's a funny thing, this blogging business. You post stuff, and miraculously enough, people read it.

There are several ways to approach this enterprise. One can blog because one has something to say about a subject under-served elsewhere; that's why Rock Hackshaw writes, I suppose. There aren't many ways to know as much about black politics in Brooklyn as whichever paths have led him to his mastery of the subject. What I know about black politics, and I know more than the average white boy is interested in knowing, I learned from Rock and Chris Owens.

Then, there are those who write because they enjoy the medium itself, the texture and feeling of posting what would otherwise be one's private thoughts to the world at large. That's in large measure what Liza does. She's one of the pioneers of the medium, after all. I'll add another observation: if you want to know what shape this medium is going to take in the near future, you can do worse than cribbing from the Blatinosphere, because they're leading the way in technology, always have. It's not all about opinionated white boys on the bleeding edge, quite the contrary.

Then, there are the activists, people such as myself. I do this because I think it's important to have a place where you can come to read about Progressive politics in a way that relates to where you are where and how you live. This because, frankly, for such a blue state, New York is astonishingly lame in terms of leading the way on Progressive values and initiatives in our government. There are many reasons for this, chief among the complacency that sets in when you win elections in some parts of the state, without much effort, by astonishing margins. This complacency, I'd argue, the laziness that comes from winning without deserving a win or having articulated why you should win, is why the heavily Democratic parts of this state have such abysmal voter turnout ratios, and why there is a grinding sense of powerlessness in so many communities. It's really no wonder that New York is the most dysfunctional state in the union, is it? Here's a hint: the race of two unknowns against Sheldon Silver, one of the most powerful men in this state's history, is going to be decided by roughly as many voters as fit in a rush hour subway train. Isn't that at least slightly embarrassing, for everyone who's a citizen of this state? Isn't it cause for reflection that a former Senate minority leader finds himself in a heavily contested primary against a twenty-eight year old, brilliant as the latter may be? What does that say about our political system? How badly are we served by our representatives for that to happen?

With the Roger Stone story slowly wrapping up (hint: more to come), it's time for the Festivus-like Airing of Grievances. Today's edition concerns our friends at the MSM blogs; and let me start out with the observation that y'all are lame.

Yes, Daily Politics, I'm looking at you. You too, Capitol Confidential. No, not you, Azi. Hi, Jay. Hi, Liz. Hi, whatshisname.

Let's recap: over the last few weeks, Daily Gotham and The Albany Project uncovered an entire sleaze campaign against Governor Spitzer being run by someone employed by Joe Bruno. Now, ordinarily, you'd think that would be a big deal - real blogs, like Open Left and Digby, certainly did.

Y'all ran stories, complete with frigging video, of a frigging barbecue hosted by a republican state senator somewhere, presumably on the mistaken impression that anyone but yourselves gives a flying fuck. We owned you on that story - owned. You, meanwhile, continued to print the lamest imaginable denials about this from people who were lying to you, whom you had to have known were lying to you.

Lameness.

Of course, this isn't new, and goes to the very heart of the general lameness of MSM blogs: most of them completely ignore actual, real blogs, preferring instead to pretend-play that they're bloggers. That's why they usually only feature content from, gasp!, other MSM - the same tired process stories that actual real people are so sick and tired of. Why is it, do you think, that "journalist" has become such a dirty word? It's not because people don't like or want carefully researched stories about their government - it's because people are tired of the steaming bullshit you and yours pass off as news. It's because people are tired of being fed the lame-ass stenography you think matters.

Ooooh, a barbecue! How awesome!

Time for me to start harping on one of my pet peeves. No, not site load times; given that we have roughly fifty seven ways of creating content, and every possible feature that nobody ever uses, of course the site loads slowly. That's one thing. My cross to bear.

No, what I'm talking about is this: every day, we get, collectively and individually as editors, solicitations and requests. Candidates want plugs for their candidacy. Fundraisers want publicity for their events. Organizations want plugs for their most recent report, event, fundraiser, personnel announcement.

Fine. So buy an ad. Seriously. We support what you're doing; that's what Progressive blogs do. We do more than that, certainly; the ad campaign for Craig Johnson, back in the day, was produced by The Daily Gotham. The banners you see currently, promoting the Brodsky Bill, also come from us. All 100% pro bono.