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7/25/2006 4:14:19 PM

Fear Of The Progressive Blog Planet

 In the midst of the successful launch of YearlyKos, it is of great significance that Markos Moulitsas was the first blogger ever to be called over to the couch that is Tim Russert’s Meet The Press. And Markos beat the chicken hawks, say, at Powerline to the honor because he could withstand the scrutiny of the Russert Inquisition that which Tom DeLay wisely chose to take a pass on.

 There’s a very good reason the Lefty blogsphere has become the bane of the Right’s existence from, yes, Joe Liberman, Bill O’Reilly and future Viagra spokesman Rush Limbaugh. The Right blogs speak hypocrisy in defense of the Bush administration and the Congressional Republicans. Yet, the newfound power of Liberal and Progressive blogs is the result of successfully speaking truth to power.

 The present offensive against the New York Times, for example, will play out typically, as the sound and fury of the Conservative bloviation will fail to outdistance the substantive facts and hypocritical complicity of the Bush administration itself in exposing the SWIFT program. The Right blogs and Conservative talk shows are screaming that the Times violated the Espionage Act (they didn’t), should be prosecuted for printing classified material (they can’t), and should be locked up, or better still, gassed.

 Yet, the Lefty blogs are now detailing how former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill led a group of reporters across Europe to show off the Bush administration’s success in tracking and cutting off terrorist funding. And Richard Clarke and Roger Cressy are opining in the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times on how stupid the terrorists would be not to know the SWIFT program already exists.

 The Right bloggers will soon run out of scathing, manufactured indignations where solid evidence of wrongdoing by the New York Times would otherwise perpetuate their electronic evisceration. Lurkers are fleeing from the Right bloggers for the same reason formerly staunch right wing viewers are now fleeing Fox News Channel. Chris Matthews and the rest of the inside Beltway pundits will continue to gullibly regurgitate Karl Rove’s manipulation of the news cycle as though George Bush actually has a 60% percent approval rating. In contrast, it has become apparent the only substantive facts to be found are on such reliable web portals as The Progress Report, Crooks & Liars and TPMuckraker.

 The reason George Bush and the Republicans have lost nearly all credibility with the American people can only be explained by the source with which such devastating evidence was delivered. The continued complicity of the mainstream news media may have slowed the process, yet those unflinching images from Iraq alone could not have turned the nation against this administration.

 Those of us occupying the Lefty blogsphere are owed partial credit for what accountability has been exacted on Bush and the GOP. And the proof is as simple as just being mentioned along with the rest of the Liberal Bias Media.

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