so there’s this thing about Americans and politicians. they aren’t just “leaders” and “legislators,” they are also the transforming and formed figures know as “celebrities.” and with that title comes many things. including entourages, sycophants, followers, critics, wannabes and admirers. politicians are like little traveling circuses with a certain kind of macabre bent. all the interesting people are on exhibit.

including planners, and advisors. who I must thank, for their organizational skills and landscape analysis allowed me to get close to a lot of soon to be even more famous politicians. they said a lot, and I’m glad I got to hear it unfiltered. better still, I got to meet lots of my electronic friends and colleagues. ahem, is that too strong a word? well, drinking buddies probably isn’t good for the cause.

anyway, I was told lots of interesting things. “when a moderate talks about education to progressives, that’s to mask their less appealing positions on things like abortion, Joe or the war.” true, but education is one of the pillars we’re currently losing, so if it’s a choice between jeb! and nothing more than better educational policy in this country for four years, I’ll take it. I learned that we’re much, much more energetic than the veneer of blogging presents; real people doing really politically savvy things are blogging, and using blogs to enhance other things they do. the movement from consultants to the masses is happening now; I’d encourage all of you to do some heavy blogging or at least commenting in the next week or two, you may get interesting results from the political standpoint.

lots of perspectives exist in the blogosphere, and the press is just starting to take note. I am pretty sure most of them were there, I kept talking to people with cameras but I didn’t really ask who they were. you know me and the TV people. anyhoo- I hear the coverage isn’t that bad for the SCLM, so if you’re into that stuff go check some out. I don’t expect a correct or complete picture of the event to be found there, but I’m glad they came and got to hear some fire breathing up close.

which there was. I’ll get to this in detail alter but: you should all 1- get your fat asses moving on net neutrality 2- read more blogs, and watch less TV, especially if you care about the precise alignments of both the blogosphere and its intersection with politics. there’s way more truthiness than you’d expect, no snark intended. 3- go join the DFA or ACLU or PFAW or some similar org, or at least give them money and 4- never worry about being part of this community again. it’s here, it’s now, it’s going to shoot like a star and then crash in the media and continue the whole time just making more and more of a difference. try to remember money is still key; access and influence still lie in the hands of those with more, even in our community. but also don’t despair over that fact. lots of little people together can and are forming minipacs of a sort and getting a say. we’re supposed to think in terms of “new politics” and dynamic interdisciplinary concepts in analytics and demographics. and quilting.

for those interested in intrablog celebrity tracking, lots of people were there. skippy, atrios, stoller, the tpm crew, the fdl girls, practically every regular blogger from kos, john av, bowers, terrance, the list goes on and on. it was actually hard to find time to talk with everyone and everyone was talking with each other. i expect a lot of cross pollination from this. also, the volunteers were great, really great. I’m very, very impressed with their efforts, it felt pro. as I heard, “we basically ran a shadow democratic convention this weekend.” there will be a documentary on Sundance about it next year, I talked with the filmmakers. nice people. thank you to everyone who made such a wonderful weekend possible, and hello to all our new readers and friends. oh- Lambert: git on a post on the horizontal concept, it’s time to go public with that. I talked it up, I think you should write on it now.

except for a family tragedy I’d be writing all day; I came home to very bad news. so I’m going to take a little time off and unplug for a while, but I’ll be back soon with more.

generally a “good show” for our team, we’ll see how the next few episodes pan out. fwiw, we’ve got Joss W-grade talent in the world of the political “networks,” let’s hope we’re appreciated a little more than he is.