Governor Schweitzer is here at the Big Tent, hot off his fantastic speech from last night.  He's receiving a rock star reception as he makes the rounds.  A few moments ago, he decided to "knight" Markos with a bolo tie:

I'm a big fan of Diane Rehm's NPR show.  I still find it amazing that she is able to have well reasoned, non-inflammatory debates from people on all different sides of issues in this day and age.  It is a night and day difference from the hardball type discussion you get in the evening.  I can typically catch half an episode on my way into work, and it makes my commute fly by.

And I was pleasantly surprised to hear Markos on Diane's show this morning, discussing the Democratic Convention, Biden, etc.  It was good to hear him coming around to Biden as VP (seriously though, was there any question he wouldn't?) and scolding the media for the lopsided coverage in the last month.  Good job man!  I hope you does more shows in the future ;-)

The show should be available for download here in about an hour:
http://wamu.org/...

(psst. keep this on the down-low. i think someone kidnapped our very own markos and replaced him with someone who is doing the i-so-so-told-you-so jig right there on the front page:)

We really, really don't want to pick someone who plugs a supposed gap in Obama's armor. You pick Wes Clark, and people won't see "phew, national security is covered!". Nope, they'll see, "Obama is trying to compensate for his lack of national security creds!" And whether it's Sam Nunn, or Joe Biden, or anyone else who supposedly patches up a weakness, the end result would be what Gore had to endure in 2000 -- "He picked Joe Lieberman to compensate for Gore's 'Bill Clinton' problem."

Yesterday our great orange leader Markos asked to know more about Obama's being quoted in the Wall Street Journal as supporting Single Payer national health coverage. Here's what Obama actually said at the New Mexico event:

"If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system," Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall style meeting on the economy.

[snip]

But Obama repeated that he rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system. "Given that a lot of people work for insurance companies, a lot of people work for HMOs. You’ve got a whole system of institutions that have been set up," he said at a roundtable discussion with women Monday morning after a voter asked, "Why not single payer?"

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga’s "Taking On The System" is the playbook that state bloggers, community activists and Democratic activists should read to not only take on the system, but to replace it with a better one.

As someone who joined Daily Kos in the summer of 2004, many of the stories Markos – or kos as he’s known on the site – recounts are familiar. The success of our neighboring Virginia state blog in recruiting and pushing Jim Webb – now Senator Webb, of course – is a well-known story to those of us residing in blogtopia.

What kos does well throughout the 275 pages is to show how to influence the gatekeepers, shape narratives about the opposition candidate and the candidate (or cause) you support, and use creativity and truth telling to counter the right.

You’re going to be seeing a lot of Markos, hearing a lot from Markos and reading a lot about Markos in the next few weeks as Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era hits the stores.

Here’s hoping he gets enough publicity that we all become thoroughly sick of him.

But here’s the real secret about Taking on the System: It’s not about Markos, or even blogging, at all. It’s about you. About us. About people who find each other, who collaborate and share, and who trade war stories and strategies and inspiration in the furtherance of  a goal that's bigger than any one of us.

It’s the story of people who join together as co-creators, people who make things happen, and the methods they use to change their slice of the world. It’s a book about people who refuse to stay in their place, or to shut up, or accept no for an answer.

In short, it's about finding your passion and your niche and acting upon it.

What Markos has done in Taking on the System is celebrate the democratization of media and culture – something that we live every day at Daily Kos – by telling the stories of unlikely real-life heroes who are blazing trails in collaborative self-determination.  From the grassroots activists who recruited Jim Webb (and flipped the Senate in the process), to the African-American activists and bloggers who wouldn’t rest until a nation’s attention was drawn to blatant injustice in Jena, Louisiana, Taking on the System is a collection  of case studies on how everyday Americans can better their world by reinventing protest and redefining conventional narrative. Along the way, Markos draws lessons from personalities as disparate as Graeme Frost and Cindy Sheehan, Carol Shea-Porter and Fiona Apple, all of whom have in different ways used their resources and creativity to challenge conventional wisdom to change, bypass or convert the gatekeepers – or,  in some cases, to make them irrelevant altogether.

Under ordinary circumstances, I’d give a straightforward review of the book, but I’ve had the privilege of reading every revision along the way, and I’ve come to adore this book the more I’ve read it. And it was a treat to watch Markos himself become inspired by the heroes he wrote about – people who, like him, often shot from obscurity to prominence, from feeling ineffective and powerless to daring to claim their own power and use it. As our community continues its journey together to reclaim the promise of democracy, I can think of no better practical guide or inspirational work than this salute to the father of modern organizers, Saul Alinsky.

This book is for you and about you, Kossacks, and for and about all of our allies in the new and unapologetic progressive movement—or, as Markos puts it in the acknowledgements, "everyone who gets off his or her ass to change the world."

(Come join Markos and other Bay Area Kossacks tonight at the official launch party, a benefit for Netroots Nation. Details on the where, when and how can be found in this morning's open thread).

(Cross posted from Narco News.)

The release date for Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era, by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (2008, Celebra) was moved up from early September to August 20 (that's today) – in the nick of time for the Democratic National Convention to be held next week in Denver. Howard Dean would do well to put a copy of that book on every delegate and candidate’s convention seat, as it is a roadmap for how to organize – on and off the Internet – to win political battles.

(Continued at the jump...)

I've got news that is going to shock you so hard your spleen will evaporate. It's going to make Michael Phelps's 8 gold medals look as stale as an 80's cereal commercial and eradicate the remaining follicles of Joe Biden's hair. You WILL REMEMBER where you were when you heard this window shattering, firmament shaking, oceanic tidal wave of an announcement. You will feel tingles all over your body like you haven't since the last time you slept sitting up on a greyhound bus. No... this is it folks.

A few weeks ago, Kos made a bit of a stink about some stances taken by Barack Obama that didn't sit well with him. As a result, he posted something of a diatribe about Obama not earning his donation and claimed he wouldn't donate $2,300 for the primary (and the subsequent $2,300 for the general election) until Obama earned it.

Time is running out. Primary donations are due. The deadline is September 1st, I believe. It seems petulant, self-centered, childish and downright foolish to withhold financial support from Obama at this late date if you can afford to give.

I heard rumors floating around inside my head that Kos might be a dark-horse candidate for the VP.

Articulate, attractive and alliterate, Kos would be a great choice as Obama's running mate.

Obama could accomplish three things in picking Kos as his VP

1. Showing strong commitment to progressive politics

2. (really) shoring up excitement amongst Latino voters

3. having a VP candidate that would devour the opposition as an attack dog.

So what is Netroots Nation about?  Is it just about the conference, and the thrill of once a year seeing a virtual community become physically manifest?  Is it about the panels?  the volunteer activities?  the drinking?  the late night poker games we may have forgotten to invite you to?  Is it all just a set-up that allows me to play Alex Trebek once a year?

Yes to all of that, of course, but there's also the substance -- it's about figuring out how to use technology to influence the public debate.  Each of us.  We have real power -- to promote candidates, to pressure candidates to pass legislation, to change hearts and minds and, ultimately, the world.

Through the annual Netroots Nation convention -- and starting this month, through a series of regional salons that will be held throughout all year long -- we want to strengthen our community, inspire action and serve as an incubator for ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.

Those same values are the basis for Markos Moulitsas Zúniga's forthcoming book (as in, "this week"), "Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era." **

[You may know him as "Kos".]

For our first Netroots Nation regional event, to be held this Wednesday night in San Francisco, we're doing something new: We're kicking off the release of Markos' book tour, and we want to give you a chance to be part of the experience. Markos isn't touring like he did last time around, but you can still get your signed copy of the book now.

Join our virtual host committee for a donation of $125 to Netroots Nation, and we'll send you a signed copy of "Taking on the System."

Obvs, Markos knows how it's done -- how to take grassroots energy, apply technology and make change happen. In this book, he shares practical guidelines on how grassroots movements can thrive in the age of global information.

Will you help us kick off the release of this important book and support the mission of Netroots Nation?  Or would you rather just harness the power of the Internet to learn about cakes gone badly and let Jerome Corsi dominate the bestseller list?  

[** Full disclosure: Yes, as most of you know, Markos is a client of mine.  No, he didn't ask me to write this.  But I am chairman of the board of directors of Netroots Nation.]

Update: As several commenters have pointed out, it's probably Joe Francis.  Who knew?

I did a double-take on the way back from the mailbox this evening.  If my eyes aren't playing tricks on me, there's Markos on the cover of the Plant Delights Nursery catalog.

In the illustration by cartoonist Jack Pittman -- under the title Plants Gone Wild -- Kos is sitting at a table drinking a beer with Eliot Spitzer and Bill Clinton.  They're surrounded by weird Hooters-esque plants. (I'll never look at clay pots in the same way.) Don Imus and the Rev. Wright (I think) are at another table in the background.  It's all 'Democrat' decay and corruption.

Lest you think this cover out of the ordinary, it's not much different from previous covers.  (There are links to the covers here.)  The proprietor of Plant Delights, Tony Avent, is a heckuva plantsman -- very progressive and innovative when it comes to bringing new ornamentals to the market.  But judging from his catalog covers, it's a pretty good bet he's not a registered democrat.

Soon to come from the GOP - why Saul Alinsky is evil.

Contessa Brewer of MSNBC is getting some kudos for spending her four minute interview with Swiftboater #1 Jerome Corsi essentially attacking his truthiness.  

In the middle of his slimespeak, Corsi dropped this little tidbit:

He was a Saul Alinsky organizer in Chicago. That's a very radical methodology that Barack Obama actually taught, and it involves redistribution of wealth, getting power to redistribute wealth.

It's a starred review, which is extremely coveted since it means "Highly Recommended":

Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era Markos Moulitsas Zúniga. Penguin/Celebra, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-451-22519-1

In this primer for activists in the digital age, Zúniga, founder of the influential lefty blog DailyKos, argues that if activists harness new technology such as blogs, podcasting and YouTube, they can "bypass the old-world gatekeepers to communicate to the masses" in order to bring about political change. Tidily organized into pithy directives, including mobilizing, reinventing the street protest and feeding the backlash, this informative and entertaining book—inspired by Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals—moves easily among the current campaign cycle, pop culture phenomena such as Stephen Colbert and the successes and failures of the progressive movement in America. Zúniga's pragmatic, inclusive tone takes the edge off his sometimes didactic insistence that "there's no reason anyone should whine or complain that they are being shut out of the system." It should be noted, however, that the book is targeted directly to other liberals and wastes no time with conciliatory measures toward the right. Anyone in his camp, however, will be rewarded by the read. (Sept.)

I didn't want this book to be boring. Anything but that. So I can think of no higher praise than for someone to say it was an "entertaining" read. And on that front, so far, so good.

The book is out August 20, just a little over two weeks. You can pre-order from Amazon here, and it's obviously available for pre-order in lots of other places.

I know it's considered gauche to pimp out your own blog, but I only registered it, what, a day ago, so it's not like you can read anything at samethreechords.blogspot.com, even though it's there and I am very good looking.

In Kos's otherwise great post yesterday about Joe Garcia and the South Florida Cuban exile community, I was a little bothered, as a proud Democrat, South Floridian, and Cuban American, by some of the wording. It's not you, it's me.

Thomas Frank in What's the Matter with Kansas:

Not long ago, Kansas would have responded to the current situation by making the bastards pay. This would have been a political certainty, as predictable as what happens when you touch a match to a puddle of gasoline. When business screwed the farmers and the workers - when it implemented monopoly strategies invasive beyond the Populists' furthest imaginings -- when it ripped off shareholders and casually tossed thousands out of work -- you could be damned sure about what would follow.

Not these days. Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right. Strip today's Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there's a good chance they'll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.

Why? Because Republicans have convinced people that government can't make a difference in their lives, can't solve their intractable problems, hence the only thing that matters are divisive social issues. The demands that government be ineffective has been a planned hallmark of the Bush administration. You don't put a horse lawyer in charge of FEMA if you expect the agency to actually be effective in its mission. So as far as conservative ideology was concerned, Katrina was a resounding success.

This ineffectiveness is centerpiece in conservative self-preservation. If government becomes more effective and works for people, then it could prove devastating to conservatives. William Kristol wrote a now-famous memo as conservatives geared up to fight Hillary Clinton's universal healthcare efforts in 1993:

Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to "kill" — not amend — the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party.

And just last year, National Review writers Ramesh Ponnuru and Richard Lowry echoed those sentiments:

[2008 Republican defeats] would probably also mean a national health-insurance program that would irrevocably expand government involvement in the economy and American life, and itself make voters less likely to turn toward conservatism in the future.

Down in Austin I did a short segment on MSNBC's Road to the White House where I was asked such tripe as "what would Obama die for" and "can Obama win without the left?" I did the interview from a remote studio -- just a room with a camera, several backdrops depending on the kind of interview, and a satellite uplink to the network. The networks pay these studios for the time guests are on.

There was one middle-aged woman working the operation that day, roughly 50 years old. The TV was on the background and I heard "Obama" and "Afghanistan" in the same sentence. I asked, "Oh, is Obama already in Afghanistan?" She shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't followed the news."

I stayed quiet, because ill and desperate for sleep, I thought I might squeeze a quick catnap before my segment came on. But the woman continued on her own. "I'm really disenchanted with McCain." Oh, I responded, was she an Obama person? "No, I don't like him either. I don't trust him. And my daughter, she hates him."

I inquired further, why? "Because he's not patriotic, with the flag pin and the pledge of allegiance and his wife!" So we determined that she wasn't going to vote, which was disappointing to American democracy, but good for us because she had been a reliable Republican voter. My interest piqued, I dug a little further: given how the economy was going, people losing their homes, the cost of gas through the roof, none of that was as important as a flag pin?

"Well, they can't do nothing about those things." Aha. The Frank theory, of course. Well, I responded, what about health care, are you happy with your health care? She lit up, "I know no one who is happy with their health care!" and then segued into a rant about the disgraceful state of the health care system.  Well, I responded, Democrats are working for universal healthcare, but Republicans have gotten in the way. But we'll be able to do it next year.

"Ain't no one who can fix that stuff," she sighed, slumping. That brief expression of fire and brimstone snuffed out in an instant. She was adamant that it was all hopeless. Fair enough. She didn't look like someone who'd had an easy life. Health care had touched a nerve, so who knows what sad story or stories she had to tell on that front. But Republicans had convinced her that government was powerless to do anything about it, so ... flag pins!

I had one last argument up my sleeve. Look, I get it, I told her, government hasn't given us many reasons to be confident of late. I can certainly empathize. But can we make a deal? If Democrats push through universal health care in the next four years, will you vote for Barack Obama in 2012?

She looked initially uncomfortable at the thought, but after a pause and a brief internal struggle, she softened and said, "Yeah, I will."

That, in a nutshell, is what Kristol and Ponnuru and Lowry and every conservative in this country fears the most.

Dear Markos,

While I am addressing this letter to you, it is also intended for John Amato, Arianna Huffington, Digby, John Aravosis and all the other powerhouse players in the Netroots Nation.

We have seen over the last few years the power and influence of the blogosphere grow exponentially. You, and others like you, have influenced the direction of political campaigns, made or broke candidates for high office, impacted public opinion, and even forced some mighty big corporations to come to heel. But now I am asking you to harness that power once again and direct it against a single person.

Is David Gregory an idiot????? Ask Markos what he thinks after he was subjected to stupid and ridiculous questions by Gregory on his show this afternoon. Markos held his own, but if it had been me, I would have been yelling at David Gregory!

RANT below!