Netroots Rising

I'd be a poor book-blurber indeed if I didn't take the opportunity to urge you to check out Netroots Rising by Lowell Field and Nate Wilcox now that it's available for pre-order. Field's one of the main movers behind the RaisingKaine blog and community that's done so much to help push Virginia in a progressive direction over the past few years, and Wilcox has extensive experience at the intersection of politics and new media. The book takes you through several case studies of races in which innovative forms of online activism seem to have given one side or another a decisive edge and the bottom-up perspective is a useful corrective to the sometimes airy mass of speculation you sometimes get on this topic.

Comments

"Gripping" has never struck me as an Yglesias-typical word. Perhaps if it were "Grippng," but even then, not so much.

Posted by jhupp | December 11, 2007 1:42 PM

Small point: despite his enthusiasm for a good field effort, it's actually "Lowell Feld."

Posted by SDM | December 11, 2007 1:51 PM

Having seen a few posts at RaisingKaine, I'm not entirely impressed (latest example: raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11726)

I wonder if the book covers the occasionaly barely-coherent rants at BrainFireDogLakeFireBrain, as well as the fact that the netroots make occasional "mistakes": the PAC run by that site and three others is now indirectly linked to a foreign government at the same time as the PAC is pushing an agenda favorable to that foreign government.

Posted by TLB | December 11, 2007 2:44 PM

"Indirectly linked", eh? And now that TLB has mentioned them in his blog, he's indirectly linked as well. Can the cooties ever be eliminated?

Posted by KCinDC | December 11, 2007 4:07 PM

For those who want a more specific link, CrooksAndLiars, BrainFireDogLakeFireBrain, Digggby, and HowieKlein have joined with a group headed by the guy who wrote this letter to VicenteFox. In the letter, he pats himself on the back for organizing some of last year's ImmigrationMarches, discusses the "sympathy and protection of the authorities" (all Democrats), and says not giving amnesty might result in CivilDisobedience.

He also serves on an advisory committee to the PresidentOfMexico, and he spoke at their WhiteHouse (LosPinos) after the first march he organized. Oh, and he's also on an Illinois state committee (appointed by, you guessed it, a Democrat).

(On a related note, an IL state senator also serves on that committee even as he supposedly represents U.S. interests).

Now, I realize that many Democrats won't see any problems with all that. So, all I ask is that you make those connections and his statements and actions as public as possible. After all, no one's going to object to such connections, statements, and actions, so why not shout them from the rooftops?

Oddly enough, however, when I pointed this out at HowieKlein's site he deleted both comments. Why would he do that when he should be proud of his brand new, (indirect) international link?

Posted by TLB | December 11, 2007 5:34 PM