I see the “progressive” begging class

Perhaps…this is positive? OWS is reviving the populist left and that can’t be bad.

Most big blogs and organizations like MoveOn exist to beg, nothing more, nothing less.

The stone , cold truth. …oh and to promise to fight “next time” if you send money now

All I can say is, “Good luck, because they’re going to need it.”

While I fully expect to see erstwhile “Veal Pen” operations try to capitalize and thusly co-opt the movement, I don’t see them succeeding. MoveOn in particular operates solely to support the Democratic Party. Given the level of disdain for incumbents of both parties, I just don’t see how such orgs can gain any real traction.

In the end, they will be on the outside of the movement, sniping from the pseudo-left. We’re already seeing it with BS criticisms like, “Where are the demands?” and, “The messaging is so muddled.”

MoveOn’s leadership is so deeply entwined with the party apparat, I don’t see them breaking free of it. As such, they have no credibility.

Where are the signs saying “Obama is part of the problem” I’d be more believing if there was some mention of Wall Street’s guy in the WH…..MoveOn is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dem party as are the unions…. If they are coming around OWS , they expect this thing to help the Dem party…and it is helping them already by aiming the anger solely at bankers.
When I hear OWS is beyond politics, it reminds me of how we were told Obama was beyond race….not really .

Name the website, John Sears. No fair not sharing. As far as the good thing, Jack Crow, I think he meant that OWS has arrived at a certain stage of relevance now that the fundraising locusts have descended.

I don’t think it’s such a big deal that the signs haven’t singled out Obama, yet. The whole thing is a glaring indictment of his failure of leadership. Those are many of the same people who were so excited by Obama 3 years ago. Do you see any pro-Obama signs in those pictures? He’s made himself irrelevant (at best) to his former non-elite base. He may start courting them soon, but I think it’s too late for him. His betrayals and the parties betrayals are just too massive and pervasive.

They are the real reason behind this movement. We gave the Dems majorities and a mandate for change 3 years ago, and instead we got reinforcement of the status quo, plus a superkommittee intent on destroying what’s left of New Deal. How are the Democrats going to seek acceptance of this movement now that the dirty work of the superkommittee will be coming out soon.

If you insist, Guest: http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/11/the-spirit-of-madison-fdls-founding-membership/

(I misremembered, it was the ‘Spirit of Madison’, but otherwise here’s a good example of shameless carpetbagging and co-option)

Dayen’s coverage of the Capitol protests was pathetic. He would frequently repeat, without any verification, right wing talking points and lies, get his facts wrong and never update or correct. It drove me nuts. And yes, when there was a real sincere effort to channel money to feed and shelter and support actual protesters readily available online, as I mentioned in the comments there, hawking stupid branded tote-bags instead while touting yourselves as examples of a movement you had nothing to do with save, as you note, one extremely brief stopover visit to take a few bad photos is exploitative.

FDL’s doing it again right now with the Occupy Wall Street protests, btw. Somehow every major lefty on the ground event becomes a fundraising email from them in my inbox.

John, you’re full of it. FDL has consistently stayed on track with progressive values. They have received a lot of flack from Obama democrats and neoliberals for not supporting the Dems blindly. The only person on that website spewing right wing talking points is Tbogg, and no one gives a fuck what that dog pornographer thinks.

I do remember David Dayen wrote a questionable piece about OWS when it first started, but it was quickly shouted down by FDL members.

Well, Parah, you either can’t read or are trying to put words in my mouth so I have little time for you.

I said they had nothing to do with the *movement* which Dayen was trying to fundraise off of, NOT that he never wrote anything about it. To the contrary, and you seem to have missed this, I said that he did write on it, badly.

And yes, compared to people who slept in the Capitol for weeks (not me, though I spent a few nights including the last one before the police got violent), compared to the organizers, the unions, the students, dropping in for some blogging from one of our many comfortable coffee shops is a stopover. FDL was not one of the organizations on the ground, and should not have tried to cash in.

Dayen was fairly snide and condescending to the capitol protesters, frequently talking them down, stating the inevitability of the Walker victory. He throughout would present press releases as facts (like the one where he confused the Capitol being ordered re-opened with it actually, err, being re-opened) and left erroneous information up and not-updated. His original post about the Capitol being reopened early on March 1st is STILL UP and still wrong after all this time, though he made later entries reflecting reality.

As for the people who were actually involved, and could have used the money (and definitely were more deserving), the SEIU, the TAA, AFSCME, the People’s Microphone group, or the locals who were taking money to feed protesters like Ian’s Pizza, Willy Street Co-Op, Gotham Bagels, etc… all of whom I saw in the Capitol myself, working day-in, day-out to keep things going.

But they didn’t have tote bags. *rolls eyes*

I’m not even going to get into the childish ad-hominems or straw men. I never said FDL should or should not be paid for their blogging, then or now. I was at the time quite unhappy that, instead of directing online readers with money to donate to any of the above groups, who would have actually used it to help the protests, he chose to flog FDL wares. That was crass. Likewise, the emails I get to this day asking for money on absolutely every issue that comes up are crass. Even Moveon is less pushy.

And no, I don’t read FDL any more. I quit after that fundraising post and found it an easy habit to break.