June 30, 2008
netroots rising

a friend shot me an email today with a link to nate's comment that he featured me in his and lowell's new book, netroots rising.

first off, a public thanks to nate for doing that. i had no idea, probably because my political inbox is clogged with untold amounts of spam. it's hard to sift the wheat/chaffe at the moment, but nate, if you shot me an email about it, really sorry i missed it.

anyway, i'm guessing that folks might pop in here thanks to the book, and since i'm not really actively blogging here anymore i felt it would be fair to post a quick "why". put simply, life interfered. i had a real hard year in 07 and it got me down bigtime. i also went back to college. silly me for waiting this long, but i'd love to be degreed before i'm 40. i worked on obama's campaign when it was here in texas, then dipped back out after the primary. i had to get back to my life.

back when i started this blog on 9-11-01 i needed an outlet to vent my frustration. i still hadn't recovered from the stolen election of 2000, and i felt helpless to change our government. i'd been a semi-involved volunteer back in the 90s. i spent a cycle registering voters in austin back in 92, but frankly, i didn't stay as committed in the 90s as i should have. i was demoralised by the ridiculous impeachment... i think i spent a full two years being outraged over it. then came the stolen election. and 9-11. and the rise of the chimperor and his cadre of liars and crooks. the lies, oh the lies they told to drag us into a war with a country that never attacked us and had no WMDs... motherfuckers.

so i started writing publicly on 9-11. i found other bloggers like markos and steve and duncan and jeralyn and digby and jerome and billmon and i realised i was not alone anymore. there were others who felt like me, who were outraged, who were "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore". they became my friends and compatriots (and i still miss the fuck out of steve, who was a great mentor and friend to me, RIP brother). we became a community. and then jerome and aziz allowed me to join the great group blog, dean nation. i like to think we blazed a few trails. first meetups, first "add a penny for the internet", first comment on a blog by a candidate and a campaign manager, etc etc. it was... surreal.

but i'm never one to claim credit. this blog here is largely unsuccessful mainly because i am a horrible self promoter. i am not one to beg for hits, link-whore, or shout "hey i did that first" etc etc... i just suck at that. it doesn't feel right when i try to toot my own horn. i am just humble like that (no, really). so i would like to thank nate for whatever he has written about me in the book (go buy it!). if it leads people here, great, i'm glad... go read the archives, people. lots of good stuff in there.

and maybe when life starts to slow down again, when i'm done with school, or when we move out of texas (6 months and counting, thank GODDESS), i'll be back to write here. and if not, no matter. there are others who are now carrying the torch, and i couldn't be more proud of them than i am right now.