Billiken Man

Though rare, every medium has its first moment of being well done. With apologies to the late late Fred Allen, I turn his phrase about something new that has taken place at the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial. Along with the 100 reporters given entrance to cover the trial proceedings, this time around seats were set aside for 5 to 10 bloggers. The best of this new breed is the team from Firedoglake.com, led  by the wonderfully attractive and currently cancerous again, Jane Hamsher, creator of Firedoglake and organizer of its trial team.

With an irreverence not possible on NBC, the bloggers from Firedoglake.com call VP Dick Cheney, "Shooter". And doesn't that just sum up the worst VP in US history very nicely. Score another point for bloggers, as they, in most cases,  have no corporate sponsor to faint when their blogger goes "all Dixie Chick" on some evil-doer. Another great thing about the bloggers at the Libby trial is that their live reporting doesn't have to wait for the hour or the half hour, they're live as the action's popping and we can hear that Tim Russert is sweating up a storm at the same moment his bosses do.

But the main thing that grooves my hoover is that blogging has shown that brilliance, intelligence and the ability to use past knowledge retained shows the bloggers at the Libby trial are often 2 or 3 steps ahead of the professional talking heads we've been trusting all these years to give us our daily news. No longer do the professionals get to filter the facts they give to us like so much grain thru a goose.

Some professionals cooked the books when they presented us with George W. Bush back in the late 90s. Anyone within a hundred feet of him back then must have known what a walking joke is was. Yet the traditional media stood by as an election was stolen, a stooge for Cheney was made the most powerful man in the world. And what about the past 7 years of misery? Where was the professional media? How about that war for oil? We should ask not only where were the Democrats, but also were the hell was the media? What did they not tell us then what we all know now and which Firedoglake.com summed up so concisely  in these words today, "The Republican Party and the Bush Administration are two peas in a greedy little malignant pod."  Hell will freeze over the day such comes from the mouth of Katie Couric!

Warwick Sabin is blazing new trails in Arkansas with his video camera. Sure his camera work is jumpy and blurry, but we've come to put too much importance in the delivery and next to no importance in the accuracy and content of what's being delivered. Way too much style, way little substance. It's high school all over again with everything run by the beautiful and physically gifted and how is that working out for us these days?

Blogging is not a cure for cancer, though we may hear about the cure from a blogger first. But I'm willing to predict if we make it out of our current mess inflicted upon us by the "greedy little malignant pod", it will be with the help of  a posse of nerds with laptops.

Hail! Hail! The American blogger! Long may they blog!