* Update (8/21) * What does BFW have to do with Glenn Reynolds and with 9/11? Veteran blogger Ed provides context and depth for an event that was years in the making.
.
Yesterday evening the few, the proud right-leaning Bay Area bloggers (and those from a little beyond) responded to the call put out by Ed, Nina, and Cinn to meet and greet at Blog Fest West in "the Anbar Province of American politics," Nancy Pelosi's C.D. in San Francisco (CA-8). The last purely social event I'd attended there, a New Year's Eve party last December, had been less than meaningful: shortly before the stroke of midnight I asked fellow revellers for a moment of silence for recently deceased Gerald Ford, but ... strange to say ... everyone ignored it.... So this weekend I looked to Blog Fest West as a way to say goodbye, yet again, to all that liberal mojo.
The affable event afforded a few dozen of California's more linearly critical thinkers an occasion to match a face to a url, to swap stories old and new, and to float ideas and visions. The fleshy forms of over 20 web sites attended, with all told over 40 present. True to form, when bloggers gather in person, despite tasty food and tempting drink the appetite for conversation proves strongest. (Click here for a roll call, including links to other blogposts about BFW.)
It was fortifying personally to meet other survivors of 60s-derived radicalism; a true, NY metropolitan area post-9/11 patriot; a refugee from post-Soviet eastern Europe (who's a legal immigrant); and the LA-based brains behind Pajamas Media.
* * *
In one segment of Fahrenheit 9/11 Michael Moore shows footage of a seemingly harmless little group plopped on couches and munching homemade cookies as they plan their next "antiwar" demonstration. With his snotty tenor voiceover Moore mocks legislation that empowers the feds to gather information on individuals and groups that have determined to try to reverse the American government's anti-terror policies.
To rip a page out of Moore's (or is it Karl Rove's?) playbook, Blog Fest West, by its mere existence, mocks the proposed reimposition of the "Fairness Doctrine" -- which would crush fruitful competition generated by the free marketplace of ideas in American media. Count me in, Mike, with these red meat wingnuts who are obviously (isn't it obvious?) the mainstream enablers of imminent Christian theocracy in America. IT can't happen here -- can it?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(above, left) PJM CEO Roger Simon joins BFW impresarios Cinn, Nina, and Ed in indoctrinating attendees with blind hatred. Says Nina: If you can't stand the hate, get out of the blogosphere!
(above, right) Diversity of opinion über alles - Bwahahahaha!
(below, left) Grim, fanatic conspiracists swallow right-wing propaganda hook, line, and sinker: Cinnamon's evil clone monitors the scene; the tall guy is ready to rumble; Mickey Kaus breaks ranks to mug for the camera; and lookie there, Karl Rove did show up after all! [pic doctored to protect the guilty]
(below, right) The Fedora Has Landed: Cinnamon delights as Roger picks a raffle winner. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Dang, really , REALLY wish I had been there. Sigh... distance, money and business kept me in TEXAS... maybe I'll see you some other time amigo.
Posted by: GM Roper | August 20, 2007 at 08:27 PM
Wish you were there, too. Still, George, you helped us pull it off, in your own special way.
Posted by: JMK | August 21, 2007 at 01:26 AM
Great post, J. And thanks for all your help with BFW. A good time was had by all!
Posted by: Cinnamon | August 21, 2007 at 01:15 PM
We're on the map, thanks to your (plural) initiative.
Posted by: JMK | August 21, 2007 at 02:54 PM