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Friday Festival Of Blog Bits

Blogads released its annual survey of blog readership this week, and the results reaffirmed the conclusion of previous surveys in 2005 and 2004: Blog readers are among the most politically active Americans.

The survey is by no means scientific, as company founder Henry Copeland acknowledged in his recap of the results. This year's results also are somewhat politically skewed toward the Democratic Party, Copeland said, because some of the most influential Republican bloggers did not invite their readers to participate. "But, even without our white labcoats on," he said, "the results are important and fascinating. The blogs that participated ... are leaders in their fields."

Some highlights: Far more blog readers are male than female; the largest segment of the population is in the 41-50 age range, and they earn $60,000-$90,000 a year; 39 percent are college graduate, and an almost identical amount have advanced degrees; 30 percent contributed to a campaign in the last six months; 75 percent have contacted politicians in the last year; and 76 percent have signed a petition.

Chris Bowers at MyDD examined the survey results in detail. The Blogometer has a list of other blog entries about the survey.

The rest of this week's blog bits:

-- Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, blogged about his recent trip to Iraq.

-- The U.S. Public Interest Research Group used its blog to draw attention to a couple of pet legislative interests: a House telecom bill and a measure to implement free, electronic tax filings.

-- The Club For Growth noted that President Bush issued a veto threat over excess spending in an emergency appropriations bill now before Congress. But based on past experience, club blogger Andy Roth has his doubts that Bush will follow through with the threat. Roth also conducted another blog marathon yesterday, this time on pork-barrel spending.

-- Both MyDD and RedState tried to direct money and/or attention to two political candidates: Marcy Winograd, a Democrat who is challenging "pro-war incumbent Jane Harman" in California's Democratic primary; and Iraq war veteran Van Taylor, a Republican candidate in Texas. RedState raised $10,000 from 183 donors for Taylor in three days.

-- Swing State Project urged readers to tell the political action committee of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., which two House candidates -- one incumbent and one challenger -- that she should support financially. The online poll closes May 12. The effort is reminiscent of a similar poll taken by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., in December.

-- Speaking of Feingold, Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarter's labeled him "a lame comedian and a worse politician" over a new "parody" advertisement aired on television by the senator's PAC.

-- Hotline On Call reported that Sen. George Allen, R-Va., is advertisting his re-election effort on Instapundit.

-- The Stakeholder, the blog of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, chastised Republican aides on Capitol Hill for withdrawing their teams from a congressional softball league. The entry was in response to a Wall Street Journal article on the once-bipartisan league.

-- Michelle Malkin unveiled Hot Air, the conservative Internet broadcasting network she is heading.

Posted by | 09:54 AM