There's a mighty wind ablowin
And its blowin you and me
                                From:  A Mighty Wind

These are the best of times on the Web. And I want to discuss what may be a change in the offing.

I first started playing on this new popular medium in October.  Four months later I am still learning and I think I will be learning till the day I drop dead on my keyboard.

The reason I am in awe of this new access to information is primarily because there are so many open doors. NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Newsweek, Time, US News & World Report; just to name a few. Even the magazines are turning into dailies. You really do not have to wait until Monday to read the Friday Edition of Newsweek or Time anymore.

Something happening in Alaska? Hell, Google Alaska News and you have access to news that is local in nature. Want to find out the latest in the missing Minnesota Senator; Google the Minneapolis Tribune or St. Paul Pioneer Press.

One problem. The Minneapolis Tribune is facing bankruptcy as are hundreds of newspapers in this country.

The obvious problem with all of this is that good solid reporting is supposedly harder to get.

In an Article in Politico, Michael Calderone noted that:

Blogs at both the Weekly Standard and the National Review are pointing to a "revolving door" that spins between the media and the Obama administration. And while Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, acknowledges that financial troubles may be forcing reporters out of newsrooms, he thinks it's worth noting where they're going.

The point is that reporters are having more and more trouble getting paid. So if they have a chance to work for the WH, steady work and steady pay and a nice blurb on a resume and the chance for a letter of rec, why not?

From the other direction, Chris Matthews was attacking the conservative moneyed class putting funds into propaganda fronts like the American Enterprise Institute or the Heritage Foundation to give payoffs to people like Rove or others.  They fund conservatives for doing nothing and then signing on to editorials at WSJ or National Review or other fascist outlets.

So we have newspapers and magazines in financial trouble. Even after all of the syndication that has taken place over the last fifty years, cutting the number of news outlets to a few in real terms.

We have 'real reporters' having trouble making a buck.

Television news has really cut back.  Up here, in the middle of nowhere, there is one station that supplies the news for three channels. Really leaving only two other local outlets to relay 'local news'.  Cable supplements four national news outlets with three more stations.I cannot overemphasize the importance of the two CSPAN channels I get.

Notice that Chris probably feels threatened by celebrities like Rove being called reporters or pundits. Because Chris is a celebrity and he likes his 5 million dollar salary but he also gets book deals and most probably speaking 'honorariums'.  Which brings you to the issue of what a celebrity is.

But I really wrote to get to a core value that is being lost in this country. Egalitarianism:

egalitarian >adjective in accordance with the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. >noun an egalitarian person.
-DERIVATIVES egalitarianism >noun.
-ORIGIN French égalitaire, from Latin aequalis 'equal'

Now I have to take a risk here so that I may give an example, mainly my own example. The risk is that I will lose all credibility-what little credibility I have around here.

I am in a housing project. I am on welfare. You only get on this program if you are disabled. I get 200 bucks a month. I pay 25% of that for rent. Basic cable costs $16.00. I found out last year that if I pay $20.00 more, I can have internet.

I get all the food I need with food stamps.  All my needs are met.

But imagine, a nobody like me gets to read Dr. Reich and comment on what he writes. I get so nervous I write my worst comments on his blog. Hahahahahahah.

But I get to read the WSJ, NYT, and all the magazines and all the newspapers I would ever care to read. Then there are all the sites like TPM. And there are as many of these web site reporters and pundits appearing on cable news as the so-called MSM  reporters(I love that acronym. TheraP had to tell me what it meant)

My situation makes people like Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnacle and many other conservative celebrities bristle.  The old men in their pajamas can write them up. And the write ups are published.

Now, maybe ten people or twenty people on a good day comment on my drivel. Maybe twice that number scan what I have opined.  But multiply my little write ups by a million.

Jughead goes nuts every morning knowing that a nobody can have access to the same news outlets he has, and give their opinion.  And some of those comments and posts (not including mine) are written by individuals that forgot more about language and communication than Jughead could learn in three lifetimes. He screams about liberal jackasses in pajamas questioning his expertise.

One night, not too long ago, one of my favorite emcees, Rachel Madow, got out from behind her desk. She was wearing pajama bottoms.  And they had the same design as the Pjs I was wearing.

I swear to God. (Crosses himself)

Oh, we are to believe that jughead has special sources. Bullshit. He gets his fax working papers from republican sources. But he uses w's style in that he talks,and he lectures, like he is communicating to third graders.  Slow speech. Repeats everything several times. His purpose is single. Get the conservative propaganda out there. Use simple devices like straw men to make it look like he cares about 'both sides' to an issue.

He loves to say things like:

President Obama is a great communicator and his speech in ...(fill in a date) ...given at (fill in a place)...truly grabbed me as a human being. He promised hope and a new era of bipartisanism.

But, I must say, I have given him every opportunity but he is no different than w. It is my way or the higway....(here fill in any goddamnable cliche you wish)

Oh, and he has got to conclude, as he does everyday, that he and Newt had murdered welfare queens and gotten this country into a fiscally responsible position, blah blah blah...

If you listen to him and others every day, you discover that he adds nothing to the discussion. Nothing you could not get in three or four conservative articles, opinions or blogs in about an hour.  And of course, we all know he has a staff.  And they just google for key words and......

Now not taking away from anyone else but here are some of the tidbits I can get from our small group at TPM.

A history of the labor movement in five or ten posts by Sleepin'Jeesus. With full sites and links. Not something off the top of his head. Not some BS from Jughead opining that FDR's New Deal never helped anyone.  But a real nice history that can lead one to research the issue on their own.

I can read a continuing saga about torture in this country by reading a post by TheraP. Again, with links and cites.

OldenGolden will sometimes do a short paragraph, provide a link and say: Hey what do you all think? Or he can do a long, long study and provide many links and cites.

I told Obey the other day that he is involved in an entirely new type of poetry. Link after link after link under headings is provided in what one would think is a short post.  But it is really a mosaic with all those red words that take you to articles, some of which you would not normally read.

Connecticut Man1 gives an argument that would knock any cable pundit on his ass, usually concerning a military issue.

MarQ or Donal, can take an argument in a post, and make a concise, well documented point in a short paragraph or a long diatribe depending upon their predelictions.

Quinn or Oleeb might comment on a short post. And their comment is longer and better documented than most posts. Or some long article in the NYT, for that matter.

I have learned more about economic issues surrounding health care from personal stories written by Miguelito or Bwakfat than anywhere else. And I am including the multitude of comments to their posts giving their personal stories on this issue.

Our Doctor friend supplements all this with his stories about patients who go without, about the cost of filling out meaningless forms and about his personal attempt to provide enough care to keep the poor guy or gal alive before he sends them out into a cruel and uncaring world.

There are medical doctors here, teachers, professors, therapists, poets and writers. There are people with four or five university degrees along with self taught thinkers who have read more than a majority of college professors in this country.

Going back to the dead horse I keep beating.  Jughead has initiated a new talking point recently.He wants all news on the web to cost money to the reader. He wants to take away the access that is here for all to see and read and experience.

Now the NYT and WSJ and other periodicals will 'block' certain articles, certain authors from general readership. But when they do this, readership goes down. I mean Frank Rich wishes to be read. Worthless people like me could not afford an extra ten bucks a month to fund even a couple of newspapers.

If information is blocked, an egalitarian web will be lost.  How can the lies jughead puts on the air or Rove puts in the WSJ, be confronted if the facts are not there for everyone.  If the articles are blocked so that context cannot be taken into account.

This will be interesting.  How will this play out?  There are so many interests at risk in this new Egalitarian Web.