Taking the Pulse of Moderate and Progressive Politics on the Web

Dave Johnson – djohnson@commonwealinstitute.org

This document is a summary of web-based resources for "taking the pulse" of moderate and progresive politics on the web. Those marked Must Read are key sources that I recommend.

My weblog: Seeing the Forest, http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/, has links to all of the following as well as many more interesting and informative sites.

News:

Must Read - BuzzFlash.com. The main "liberal" news site. BuzzFlash is the liberal equivalent of the right-wing "Drudge Report," http://www.drudgereport.com. BuzzFlash is located at http://www.buzzflash.com

Major article/commentary sites:

Common Dreams – http://www.commondreams.org

AlterNet: http://www.alternet.org

Smirking Chimp – in spite of (or because of) the name, this is widely read.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com

Democrats.com: http://www.democrats.com (This site is not from the Democratic Party.)

Democratic Underground: http://www.democraticunderground.com (Also not from the Democratic Party.)

Online Journal: http://www.onlinejournal.com/

WorkingForChange: http://www.workingforchange.com/

Key weblogs:

Weblogs are like online diaries or journals, with entries posted in reverse order. The top will have the most recent entry. As you scroll down the page you are moving backward in time. Weblogs typically have links to other weblogs that you can visit, and then your day gets used up…

A brief history of weblogs can be found at: http://newhome.weblogs.com/historyOfWeblogs

The main right-wing weblog is Instapundit: http://www.instapundit.com/.

Must Read Weblog named Eschaton, by "Atrios", the main moderate/progressive weblog. Atrios is credited with breaking the Trent Lott story, and forcing it into the mainstream media. http://atrios.blogspot.com/

Must Read Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com

Tom Tomorrow, author of This Modern World political cartoon. http://www.thismodernworld.com

Must Read Talking Points Memo: http://talkingpointsmemo.com

Altercation, Eric Alterman: http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp

TAPPED – from The American Prospect: http://www.prospect.org/weblog/

CURSOR – from Media Transparency: http://www.cursor.org

Politicians:

Howard Dean 2004 Call to Action Weblog – Howard Dean Campaign's official weblog: http://deancalltoaction.blogspot.com

Gary Hart, "Restoring the American Republic" – personal weblog. http://www.garyhartnews.com/hart/blog/

Focusing on the media:

Media Whores Online in spite of the name this site is widely read by media people:

http://www.mediawhoresonline.com

Take Back the Media: http://www.takebackthemedia.com/index.shtml

Humor

Bartcop: http://www.bartcop.com