Update: See Kos on the Colbert Report at One Good Move.
The founders of Daily Kos and MyDD -- Markos Moulistas Zuniga and Jerome Armstrong -- are coming to Nashville to promote their book: Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics
(linked to Amazon.com).Check here to see the many other cities on the book tour (and links to reviews).
You are invited to join local progressives and the Nashville chapter of Drinking Liberally to welcome the bloggers to Nashville on Thursday, April 27th, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at:
Mafiaoza's
2400 12th Avenue South
Nashville, TN
The liberal bloggers will be signing books in Nashville the night before progressives from across the state will come together in Nashville to strategize about moving this state in the left direction. Of course, I'm talking about the Compass III Conference.
From the sound of the reviews, reading this book might help us in the little project of painting this state blue.
What they're saying:
Charlie Cook, National Journal:
The chances were close to zero that a 52-year-old white guy who is a registered independent and who has spent pretty much the last 33 years living and working inside the Capital Beltway would agree with all or most of what the two most prominent liberal Democratic bloggers in America, one 34, the other 41, would write in their scathing attack on Washington and the political establishment.
In fact, I winced a great deal while reading "Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots and the Rise of People-Powered Politics." I often disagreed with the characterizations and interpretations by the book's authors, Jerome Armstrong, founder of MyDD.com and Internet strategist for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, and Markos Moulitas Zuniga, better known for his blog, Daily Kos, which gets over 1 million unique visitors a day. . . That said, it is one of the two best books I've read in years about the Democratic Party, its myriad problems and challenges.
Jules Siegel, Alternet:
The main theme of "Crashing the Gate" is not ideology, but winning. Democrats mainly lose on the ground, not the issues, the authors observe. For the past 40 years, conservative Republicans have been training and supporting an astoundingly effective cadre of killer bee operatives. Meanwhile, the Democratic leadership has been doing its best to imitate Republicans on the issues, while ignoring their ferociously effective political marketing techniques on the ground.
Many will disagree with one or another of the prescriptions in "Crashing the Gate" for curing the Democratic rot, but this book could be the most important political work of 2006. Although the language is blunt, the aggressive self-confidence a bit obnoxious at times, the overall enthusiasm and just plain political good sense offer Democrats a tantalizing glimpse of hope in a very gloomy time.
Gen. JC Christian, Patriot, Jesus General:
[S]o I sat down and listened to Kos and Jerome discuss their book, Crashing the Gate. What I heard from them scared me even more than the cookie-bearing grandmother. They have a better grasp of the current state of Democratic politics than anyone else I've heard or seen. Heck, my Inner Frenchman spent thousands of dollars on his masters degree in political management and years working on campaigns and gained more insight from reading Crashing the Gate than from both the education and experience combined. If the French read this book and take it to heart, we're through, Our Leader's America will fall. Who will the owners in Our Leader's Ownership Society own then? Who will tell me what to do?
Afterward, I approached Kos and Jerome and asked them to sign my copy of their book. My hope was that they might write something to discredit themselves, perhaps an admission that they thought betraying CIA operatives was a bad thing or something like that. Unfortunately, they simply tried to recruit me into their Democrat lifestyle, writing that they needed me on their side. I was so dumbfounded, I couldn't think of a response and only smiled and nodded dumbly.
Crashing the Gate Democrats Progressive Conference Nashville Tennessee Compass III Conference Drinking Liberally Colbert Report Video
