Aggrandizing aggregation aggravations

At Capitol Talk -- a blog new to me -- there’s a post by Terry Carter about the never-ending effort by some to promote themselves by attacking a blogger whose top shelf status in the Virginia blogosphere makes them green with envy. Here is an excerpt of it:

“...Let’s get a few things straight here, first of all, the blog aggregator is OWNED by Waldo, it is maintained by Waldo, and it is a great service he provides to bloggers within the state of Virginia. The aggregator accepts blogs from BOTH sides of the political aisle, and is USED by both sides of the aisle. I’m sick and tired of visiting the aggregation site, and seeing post like this show up on what seems like a daily basis. If the juvenile right wing bloggers of Virginia have such a problem with everything Waldo does, obviously stemming from his decision to remove a conservative blog from his aggregator, they need to remove themselves from the VA Political Blogs aggregation system. PUT UP OR SHUT THE HELL UP!”

While I can sympathize with Carter’s frustration/irritation with the campaign that’s been underway for the last six weeks by a handful of bloggers obsessed with harassing Waldo Jaquith, I disagree with what seems to be Carter’s solution.

That’s because I’m glad Jaquith’s aggregator accepts/displays posts from both sides of the aisle. While I don’t miss the nose-out-of-joint Waldo-harassers from the so-called “Castle” blogging team -- who left his aggregator in a huff over a bogus freedom of speech angle -- it would be a shame if all the conservatives pulled out.

But that appears to be what the Castle bloggers would like to engineer. They left and they want to dupe others into following them. Having little constructive or persuasive to say about politics, they spend their time talking amongst themselves and patting one another on the back.

Yet, with good reason thinking Republican bloggers have distanced themselves from the Castle Kooks. So, the sulking Kooks attack Republicans, too, if they can’t pass the first-of-all-you-must-hate-Waldo purity test. It matters not how much any of them might agree with Republican-to-bone Shaun Kenney on real political concerns, so long as he won’t jump aboard their imaginary bandwagon.

But the discussion of real political concerns at Waldo’s eclectic aggregator goes on. And, the Kooks have a bully platform at Blognet News. Actually, I’d say they are featured at that aggregator, for whatever reasons. If it weren’t for Blognet News magnifying their reach I’d say they would have few, if any, readers outside of their own thin ranks for their steady flow of bile.

Still, in the long run, such loutish tactics -- which mimic the bloody fetus placard-waving, right-to-life abortion clinic harassers most of us have seen and cringed at -- probably say all most grownups need to know about the Castle Kooks to get their drift.

Here at SLANTblog I’m happy Virginia’s blogosphere has two aggregators that draw from both sides of the aisle. Because I enjoy honest lively debate, I hope we’ll see a third such aggregator and a fourth. That, rather than all the Democrats off to themselves, and all the Republicans the same.

If that does happen the Virginia blogosphere would then be as bad as Congress.

Update (9:50 p.m., same day):

For an overview of the most recent brouhaha in a series of ‘hahas in the saga of the Castle bloggers’ pathetic cry for help, click here for “As The Virginia Blogosphere Turns,” a revealing post by The Krehbiel Strikes Back.