Anne Applebaum -180 degrees wrong on Jon Stewart

Actually, it's more that, in a recent opining for the Washington Post, talking about Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, she's 180 degrees wrong about liberalism:
It’s bad enough that the only way to drum up enthusiasm for a “Rally to Restore Sanity” is to make it into a television comedian’s joke. But it’s far worse that the “moderates” in attendance will have been bused in by Arianna Huffington and organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This is how words, and then ideas, vanish from our political lexicon: Whatever connotations it once had, the word “moderate” has now come to mean “liberal” or even “left-wing” in American politics.
OK, I read her as saying that "moderates" are "closet liberals." The reality is that most "liberals" are really "subversive moderates."

The Obama online coup vs. real online activism

That’s a subhead, and a great one, about halfway down John Stauber’s column about moving beyond MoveOn, aka Team Obama Cheerleaders, and using the Internet for real progressive change.

The “coup”?

Arguably the most important key to the success of President Barack Obama was his use of the Internet and his ability to harness it for publicizing his campaign, among young voters especially.

Wouldn’t disagree a bit.

Of course, MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades did, and does, plenty of Obama flacking over at Kos, another reason not to read the Orange Monster, though you do get some Obama critiquing there on occasion.

Stauber looks at both MoveOn and Kos and has suggestions for REAL online progressive activism, the next stage.