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May 31, 2004

Transparency: Armed Liberal Comes Out

Armed Liberal

I’ve been working with a bunch of people on Spirit of America, including Jeff Jarvis. In New York last week, getting ready for Jim Hake’s trip to Iraq (he’s there now) we set out some principles we thought would help organize this as quickly and effectively as we’d like and is necessary.

One of them was 'absolute transparency'.

That put me in a bit of a bind, because as someone behind a pseudonym – or someone who has done a lot around these issues from behind a pseudonym, I wouldn’t be keeping that commitment.

So in talking to Dan Gillmor, for his column in today’s Mercury-News, I made a decision.

“Ollie-Ollie Oxen Free,” is how the kids put it.

My name is Marc Danziger, I live in the Los Angeles area, and I am the new C.O.O. for Spirit of America. We have BIG plans in store, and the blogosphere will play an important role.

More to come later....

Posted at May 31, 2004 06:34 AM | TrackBack | Email a Link to This Article!
Comments

I'm glad I can finally talk about this. Most of all, however, I'm very, very proud. To think that Jim's letter to us back in December has led to all this...

We may not be a #1 blog, but we seem to be awfully good at graduating our bloggers to serious jobs here at Winds of Change.NET - from "Neocon HQ," to collaborations with people from Howard Dean's campaign in order to support the troops.

As the slogan goes: "I'm lovin' it." Even if it does mean that I have to recruit new talent.

Posted by: Joe Katzman on May 31, 2004 04:28 AM

Congratulations and best wishes. Looking forward to those plans and hope they don't impinge on bloging too much.

Posted by: Richard Heddleson on May 31, 2004 04:56 AM

As I was waiting for Winds to open just now I thought - I miss AL. I didn't know how much it would be.

Posted by: JFarr on May 31, 2004 05:03 AM

A.L. : Wow! I always knew you were deatined to save the world! Great first step!!!! You rock!!!

Posted by: twisterella on May 31, 2004 05:28 AM

My hat is off to you Marc, for all you have done for America and the world. Removing the cloak of anomynity carries its risks, but you face them for a noble cause. Best Wishes on your task ahead.

Posted by: FH on May 31, 2004 06:13 AM

"Marc Danziger"? Right. Can we still call you "Armed"? BTW, you were missed at the Hollywood Blog Panel last night....

Posted by: Steve Smith on May 31, 2004 06:35 AM

Marc,

Funny enough, though you and I know each other via other channels, I've been a reader of your site for some time.

Good work!

Bill

Posted by: Bill Rini on May 31, 2004 06:58 AM

Jeepers creepers, Mrac!

Posted by: inkgrrl on May 31, 2004 07:44 AM

Now, that you have "come out," best to stay armed. . .

Congrats! :-D

Posted by: Lili on May 31, 2004 07:51 AM

Whether as A.L. or as Marc Danziger, write sensibly and passionately, and we'll man the peanut gallery. It was WoC posts that pried a small donation to Spirt of America from my cold clammy hands--so, glad to see how involved you are with the project. Best of luck!

Posted by: AMac on May 31, 2004 07:55 AM

Well, crap Marc, I guess I could have been more "buddy-buddy" in that email I sent you a couple weeks ago then if I'd known you were "A.L."

Posted by: Nathan Hamm on May 31, 2004 08:07 AM

Marc:

I hope it's the job of your dreams! Don't be a stranger.

Posted by: Dave Schuler on May 31, 2004 02:59 PM

Strangely enough, I saw Gillmor's piece before I saw your post.

Congratulations, and keep me informed on how I can help with Spirit of America.

Posted by: Patterico on May 31, 2004 05:13 PM

A.L. (can I still call you that?)-- Its occurred to me that you now have the power to fix Al-hurayrah (the 'kitten' network)-- If local SofA channels acquire viewers and carry Al-hurrah programming then the (watch Al-Hurrah!!!) meme will be enforced. But I still think they really need to change the name.:)

Posted by: twisterella on May 31, 2004 07:16 PM

I'd wish you all the best, Marc, and a certain special thanks. :-)

Posted by: Gary Farber on May 31, 2004 07:22 PM

Linked to this here.

Posted by: Gary Farber on May 31, 2004 07:38 PM

Marc,

Congratulations, Marc!

Incidentally, I just googled you out of curiousity- you weren't joking around when you were talking about motorcycles, were you? Dang.

Posted by: Ted Barlow on May 31, 2004 09:05 PM

Wow. One and the same.

Good luck with Spirit of America. It's a wonderful thing you are doing.

As always, I am willing to help out in any way I can.

Posted by: michele on May 31, 2004 09:26 PM

Congradulations, AL!

You ever need any help, be sure to give me a buzz!

Posted by: Dan Darling on May 31, 2004 09:55 PM

Congrats, Marc. Are you going to be staying on here as one of Joe's regular posters, or is this goodbye to WoC? Best of luck in either case. =)

Posted by: Sam Barnes on May 31, 2004 10:54 PM

You're probably getting sick of this, but since I know you as A.L. I'm happier with that name. Perhaps you could officially change your name to "Armed Liberal." As a side benefit, if you pronounce it right it sounds kind of like "Ahmed Al-Beral," which might help avoid drawing attention if you actually visit Iraq. That's assuming 'beral' doesn't mean something obscene in Arabic :-)

Best of luck to you, and I hope you keep posting here.

Posted by: Andrew Case on May 31, 2004 11:57 PM

I suppose it's pretty appropriate that when I google your name, the first thing that comes up is your LABiker.com profile.

Posted by: Anthony on June 1, 2004 01:16 AM

Well, sorry to have missed all this - we were on our annual (surprise!!) motorcycle trip through the Sierra, and we're just now home.

Thanks for the good wishes. I definitely want to blog here some more, Joe and others willing, but time will be kind of short for a month or so. Let's see what happens when I'm in front of the computer late at night...

...but don't forget to all drop by the www.spiritofamerica.net site and register - we'll start rolling out some volunteer activities and a cool new project in Iraq this week!

A.L. ("Marc")

Posted by: Armed Liberal on June 1, 2004 01:31 AM

Congratulations Marc! Wishing you lots of luck,

Glenn

Posted by: Glenn on June 1, 2004 01:33 AM

Well, I hope that, whate'er you do, you keep writing a bit. I really enjoy your work. And I'll support whatever your new project is to the extent that I can.

Posted by: A Steve on June 1, 2004 05:38 AM

Great news, Marc and best wishes.

Posted by: Robin Roberts on June 1, 2004 03:56 PM

Great Marc; I gave up my Tigger and OldTigger pseuds a while ago, too; mostly.

Can I suggest you try to get Skype (.com), for "free" peer to peer telephony, up to 4 people in conference calls? It works well.

I hope it's what YOU want to do, the most -- I came to Slovakia in 91 to "help change the world". It's a great feeling, (though I missed out on the dot.com bubble of Sili Valli).

Yes, transparency is great. Try to get Transparency International involved?

Good Luck.

Posted by: Tom Grey on June 1, 2004 04:34 PM

Wish you the best, Marc. We saw lots of bikers cruising near Mt. Lassen and Burney Falls this weekend. It was cool to see a few dozen people waving big American flags from a freeway overpass on the way home yesterday too. I'd be glad to give you a hand and help SoA (going to the site right now to register).

Posted by: d-rod on June 1, 2004 04:39 PM

Marc, I am so proud of you! I am so glad you're out there, backing up all your hard work with the exceptional presence you've had here in the blogosphere for so long. I can't wait to see what develops with SoA now that you're officially on board! I am so proud to be associated - in any capacity - with you and with SoA!

Posted by: Da Goddess on June 1, 2004 05:38 PM

Whether you go by the name "AL" or "Marc", your will always be "Ace" to me.

Phil

Posted by: Lord Whorfin on June 1, 2004 06:17 PM

That's awesome A.L. - you are very lucky to have a chance to change the world for the better, and in such an effective "boots on the ground" kind of way. Congratulations! I'll be promoting SoA on my blog, for sure.

Posted by: Jeff Brokaw on June 1, 2004 09:19 PM

"We may not be a #1 blog..."

Says who? You guys rule.

Congratulations, Marc, and best of luck to ya.

Posted by: Asparagirl on June 2, 2004 12:41 AM

Great! Roger L. Simon did some arm twisting (well not that hard) and your "Spirit of America" has a donation coming from me. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Samuel on June 2, 2004 07:45 PM

Congratulations, Marc! Thankfully, we can stop referring to you by your clunky pseudonym in the Nathan Hale discussions!

Posted by: Robert Tagorda on June 4, 2004 05:01 AM
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