« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., at The Huffington Post:

[T]hese four principles I'm going to go to the mat to make real:

First, every American, and I mean everybody, must have health coverage by 2012.

Second, to get there, we start with kids first. They're born; they're enrolled in health care. They go to child care, they're enrolled. They go to school, they're enrolled. No "ifs," "ands," or "buts," every child gets health care -- automatically, immediately, every child in America gets health care now.

Third, we must and will control the skyrocketing premiums, co-pays, and exclusions that make a mockery of the insurance hard-working families pay for month after month. No longer will families be pushed into bankruptcy by medical bills they can't pay. No longer will sons and daughters have to choose between paying for a doctor's bill for one child or college tuition for another. It is time to finally guarantee that as healthcare costs are held down, Americans get the health care they need and deserve.

Fourth, and finally, instead of telling tens of millions to wait until they are sick enough to go to an emergency room, we must and will assure high quality and preventive care for every American.

Posted by Danny at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

Last month, MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong was the target of a major blog swarm over his past as a stock analyst and astrologist, as well as his present as a consultant in political technology. Armstrong briefly responded to critics in a comment at MyDD but was largely silent about the controversies.

This week's numerous criticisms of another blogger -- Patrick Hynes on the Republican side -- prompted Armstrong to say quite a bit more at MyDD in his own defense. Surprisingly, the entry has gone largely without comment in the blogosphere considering how much people had to say about Armstrong a few weeks ago.

Here are the highlights from Armstrong's post:

-- "In regards to the [stock] issues, given the agreement I made [with the Securities and Exchange Commission]], I can't, unfortunately, talk about the details of the case. What I can say is that it happened over six years ago, and it was a civil matter, which in the grand scheme of things places it quite low in regards to such matters. I was a newbie to the world of stock trading, and made some naive mistakes that I would not do again, but I sleep fine knowing what my state of mind was during the time."

-- "The whole astrology matter is really just a lark that I have to laugh at myself with along with the crowd. ... Writing the articles under a pen name associated to me the lack of seriousness with which I approached the matter of looking at politics through the astrological spectrum with, but to others I guess they thought I was hiding the matter."

-- "[F]or known bloggers that work on campaigns, I've not seen anything shady at all. This intersection isn't going away, and I hope more and more bloggers are able to work to influence how campaigns are run."

-- "I think we've reached the point where some sort of disclosure is the norm, which is fine with me. My only gripe is the seemingly dual standard that people make on bloggers in comparison to the talking heads, for example."

-- "[T]he blogger-criticism part of the blog world strikes me as totally against the spirit of what we are trying to do with the blogs. I hardly think that setting standards above what is done in other media outlets is something that's of vital importance."

-- "And just a note about '06. I might have the urge to start blogging here again after Labor Day to the election."

UPDATE: Bill Beutler, a former colleague of mine and the man who introduced the world to The Hotline's Blogometer, shared his expert observations about Armstrong at Blog P.I., a new blog that Bill started earlier this month in his work for New Media Strategies.

My favorite line of Bill's: "If I was a Democratic candidate for federal office, I’m not so sure I’d be eager to hire Jerome Armstrong."

Posted by Danny at 01:32 PM | Comments (1)

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., at The Huffington Post, speaking of last week's late-night House vote to raise the minimum wage by coupling it with a cut in the estate tax:

Saturday’s vote enables vulnerable Republican incumbents to spend their August break telling their constituents that they voted for a minimum-wage increase while allowing the rest of the Republican caucus to reassure their special-interest friends that the wage increase is not likely to become law. I’ve been in public life for over 30 years, and while this may not rank as the most craven and cynical act of political deception I’ve ever seen, it’s certainly up there.

Posted by Danny at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)

Word that Patrick Hynes is doing blog-related consulting work for AARP doesn't sit well with a former colleague of his at the Cato Institute.

Radley Balko, a policy analyst at Cato who blogs at The Agitator, questioned Hynes' integrity in working for AARP soon after leaving Cato, where he said Hynes' job "was to be the PR point guy for Cato's Social Security Choice campaign."

Balko complained that AARP is "probably the one group that did the most to derail President Bush's plans for private [retirement] accounts." "Perhaps one of the righty blogs defending Hynes' integrity can explain his representation of ... the group that wants to expand Medicare, kill private accounts and enact all sorts of other monstrous, big-government federal entitlements," Balko added.

Reached by telephone, Hynes said such criticism is irrelevant because he is "not even doing any policy work for AARP." He reiterated his previous description of the consulting work: "They have a blog, they want to make it a better blog, and I'm helping them do it."

UPDATE: Andrew Kline, the editorial-page editor for The Union Leader in New Hampshire, reported on a bad experience he had with Hynes. In that case, Hynes wrote a column for the newspaper about pending state legislation without noting that his company had a state client who supported the bill in question. Instead, Hynes listed his affiliation as being with an environmental group that did not exist. (Hat tip to Balko.)

UPDATE II: Here's a defense of Hynes, via Instapundit.

Posted by Danny at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

Editorial-page editor Brad Warthen of The State has been blogging in Columbia, S.C., for a little more than a year now and largely enjoying the experience. But the open-ended online forum he created has begun to deteriorate of late because of anonymous commenters. His column on the topic is worth a read.

According to Warthen, here's why the blogosphere exists:

Political parties, professional advocacy groups in Washington and closer to home, news directors who see themselves as entertainers, the blogosphere itself and, yes, the pliable 'mainstream media' have in a single generation dragged public discourse down to the point that it seems that a majority of us believe that public policy is about nothing deeper than scoring points with stupid, simplistic bumper-sticker quips. They make me want to hurl, and I am far from alone. Why do you think voter turnout and involvement is so pathetic?

And here's why it is in danger of becoming part of the problem:

My less mature correspondents are running off the serious, thoughtful people who came to the blog hoping for the very thing I would like that venue to be -- a place to exchange sincere, constructive ideas about the challenges facing South Carolina and the rest of the world. ... I’m trying to figure out how to make that space more hospitable to the most thoughtful respondents, a place where they are greeted with respectful dialogue rather than low-minded derision. I’m not talking hugs and kisses. I want the arguments lively, and no intellectual punches pulled. The childish stuff, however, needs to go.

I concur wholeheartedly with both of his points.

Posted by Danny at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

The Club For Growth is recruiting an army of Internet militiamen to do battle with the almighty Uncle Sam over how much pork the federal government should have in its diet.

Club blogger Andy Roth is the general of that army, and the blog is his weapon of choice. Earlier this week, Roth published a chart that indicates the votes of all 435 voting members of the House on special-interest earmarks in spending bills, a practice commonly known as pork-barrel spending. The chart scores the lawmakers based on their votes for or against 19 different earmarks. The data can be viewed by state, rank or last name.

Roth is using the chart to incite bloggers against pork. "If you are a blogger, find your local congressman and blog about him," Roth said. "We have the votes; we have the members on record. Now we just need to put some sunlight on the situation. ... Let's fill this list up by blogging about every House member from Honolulu to Maine and from North Dakota down to Texas!"

He is well on his way to doing just that. By last count, 43 blogs were on board covering 86 House members. One person in Ohio even created a blog specifically to watch pork-barrel spending close to home.

The club's effort began at about the same time that Roll Call ran an article on the group's Internet innovations. Matt Lewis of The Ballot Box praised the club and Roth in particular for their technological prowess.

"The club is the perfect example of what can happen when you marry traditional politics with modern technology," Lewis wrote, adding that Roth "is the template for what other organizations should seek out (if they want to get serious about changing America.)"

Posted by Danny at 12:10 PM | Comments (2)

Democratic voters in Connecticut go to the polls in less than two weeks to nominate a Senate candidate, and the closer the date gets, the more the blog activity increases.

A couple of events received prominent play this week: the visit of former President Bill Clinton to Connecticut on behalf of Sen. Joseph Lieberman and a confrontation between a blogger and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who also was in the state on Lieberman's behalf.

Firedoglake, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, The Moderate Voice and TalkLeft were among the blogs offering some thoughts (and more links) on the Clinton visit. And for some bizarre reason, Matt Stoller at MyDD thought it was an "embarrassment" for Lieberman that Clinton was late to the event. Apparently Stoller forgot all about "Clinton time."

Over at Human Events Online, meanwhile, Matt Lewis of The Ballot Box, called Clinton's visit his "second Sista Souljah moment."

"This is the kind of counter-intuitive political maneuver that endears regular folks to Bill. Hillary would never have thought to make this move," Lewis said in a reference to Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the former president's wife. "She would have hung old Joe out to dry. Not Bill. Not when there's a chance to work his magic."

Connecticut Bob and Firedoglake have the scoop (including footage posted at the YouTube video-sharing site) on what anti-Lieberman voters dubbed "the Boxer meltdown." The clash may help explain allegations that Lieberman is afraid of bloggers.

CBS's Public Eye also took a critical look at the development, but Connecticut Bob defended the encounter: "Politicians will ALWAYS need to appear in public in order to run successfully for reelection. Even Joe Lieberman, who has taken incredible pains to insulate himself from his constituents, has to make himself available to the public from time to time. And these are the opportunities for determined voters to show up and ask the questions that are so often answered via an impersonal form letter."

MSNBC, meanwhile, became the last mainstream media outlet to write about the race between Lieberman and businessman Ned Lamont, asking, "Why Are Bloggers Targeting Lieberman?" And a blogger at The Huffington Post tackled the issue of whether bloggers are being inconsistent in their opposistion to Lieberman but support for James Webb in Virginia.

Here are the rest of the blog bits from this week:

-- Peter Brown of Real Clear Politics and Mark Noonan of GOP Bloggers pondered a 2008 presidential run by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, with Lieberman as his running mate. "It is still farfetched -- but it isn't at all unthinkable," Noonan wrote.

I wonder if blogger Patrick Hynes would work toward the election of that pairing. If asked, I'm sure Bull Moose Marshall Wittmann would; he worked for McCain and is a big Lieberman booster now.

A McCain-Lieberman ticket might be just what Unity08 is looking for, too.

-- New Hampshire has a storied history in presidential politics. Now The Telegraph in Nashua will be telling it at NH Prime Cuts, one of two new blogs at the newspaper.

At TPMCafe, Josh Marshall has added another blog to his growing empire. It's called Election Central, and Marshal has the details at Talking Points Memo.

-- As Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters sees it, Democrat Coleen Rowley is not doing so well in her bid to unseat Rep. John Kline in Minnesota's 2nd District. "Rowley has turned into an embarrassment for all Minnesotans," Morrissey said.

-- Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell chatted with conservative bloggers. Other bloggers were part of a conference call with Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y.

-- Some bloggers aren't too thrilled with a compromise Senate bill on oversight of anti-terrorism surveillance. They are lobbying against the measure.

-- "Veto, Sign Or Do Nothing, Mr. President." That was the message sent by The QandO Blog after the latest news about President Bush using "signing statements" as an excuse not to enforce law.

-- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., blogged about judicial confirmations this week, a development that was worth noting at Confirm Them.

-- RedState Radio resurfaced after a long hiatus, scoring a timely interview with David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

Also at RedState, the directors of the site called for the defeat of Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan's Aug. 8 Republican primary. They called him a RINO, or Republican in name only. Schwarz' opponent is Tim Walberg.

-- ABC News interviewed Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos for a segment on "Nightline" and posted a full transcript online.

-- Blog war versus real war: "Blogging on the National Review (or ThinkProgress, for that matter) is not the equivalent of Churchill warning the world about Hitler. And blogging is not 'equally consequential' to the wars fought by members of the United States military, who put their lives at risk every day."

-- ABC News published a piece about citizen journalists covering war in the Middle East. The piece prompted a critical reply from Dan Gillmor at the Center for Citizen Media. And Bruce Kesler of Democracy Project shared his thoughts on milbloggers and veteran reporters after seeing an article in The Wall Street Journal.

-- The group blog Global Voices Online is one of seven finalists for a journalism award -- more evidence of the convergence between old and new media I have noted before. Plus Ezra Klein explains why journalists and bloggers need each other.

-- Ana Marie Cox, the foul-mouthed former Wonkette, has been named the Washington editor for Time.com. I'm scratching my head at that move. That's not exactly what I call smart convergence.

-- Jay Rosen of PressThink has a new project of his own in the citizen journalism arena. It's called NewAssignment.net. The idea earned high praise at BuzzMachine, the Center for Citizen Media, as well as from Craig Newmark, the founder of the craigslist online classifieds service.

"This is your chance: You’ve said you wonder why some stories are not getting covered," said BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis. "Well, now you can gather together and get them covered."

-- A few weeks before Rosen unveiled his plan, Leonard Witt penned some detailed thoughts on "reinventing journalism." He continues to blog about his ideas at the Public Journalism Network.

-- Another citizen media project focuses on the use of mobile telephones as a journalistic tool.

-- Credit Slips is a new group blog dedicated to credit and bankruptcy.

-- Balloon Juice discovered the Pittsburgh's blogging community and invited readers to share links to their own local blogging communities. Apparently there is also a policy wiki, a collaborative Internet forum, in the works in Washington state.

-- Talking Points Memo's Marshall had his car stolen from a garage in New York City. Anyone inside the Beltway who parks at garages owned by Central Parking might want to read about his ordeal with that company.

-- MyDD's Stoller had his nose broken in a basketball game. The injury inspired him to write about the past, present and hoped for future of "the progressive movement." I think he lost a bit too much blood in the accident.

Then again, who am I to say? I blogged about the politics of pennies last week.

Posted by Danny at 07:13 AM | Comments (0)

Blogger Patrick Hynes just called from the road after seeing my entry about the controversy surrounding his political consulting work. I asked about the apparent inconsistency of him criticizing other bloggers for not engaging in full disclosure about suspected business relationships when he himself had not disclosed an actual business relationship.

"For the record, you're right," Hynes said contritely.

He also agreed to disclose some other business relationships.

Straight Talk America, the political action committee of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is one of three clients Hynes has through his consulting company, New Media Strategics. The other two are the seniors' group AARP and a candidate for the New Hampshire Executive Council, an entity that works in conjunction with the governor to approve boards and commissions.

Hynes said he is auditing the Web communications of AARP. His work also entails advising the group about its blog and how to foster relations with bloggers.

He further noted that he is an employee of Calypso Communications, a New Hampshire-based public relations firm whose clients include the University System of New Hampshire and U.S. Cellular. Hynes said he is in business with one of Calypso's partners at New Media Strategics.

One thing is clear to me after talking with Hynes: He is on the mark when he boasts that he "understands how bloggers receive and process information. What energizes them and, just as [important], what turns them off."

He was as forthright and honest with me as any source I've ever interviewed, and he was not at all defensive even though I was asking pointed questions. That was definitely a new media approach to talking with a journalist/blogger.

UPDATE: Wonkette noted another irony in this whole story -- that Hynes criticized Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos for being a "paid shill" of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, even though Moulitsas disclosed that relationship. Moulitsas and his blog buddy, Duncan Black of Eschaton, shared a laugh over that revelation of hypocrisy.

Over at RedState, meanwhile, the blogger who posts under the pseudonym Machiavel inexplicably chastised National Journal's own Blogometer for allegedly ignoring the story -- twice -- and then leapt to the illogical conclusion that the entire mainstream media is biased against bloggers on the right.

I'm thinking Machiavel needs to expand his MSM diet beyond The Blogometer to include Beltway Blogroll, Hotline On Call, The Fix at washingtonpost.com and the rest of us mainstream losers.

UPDATE II: As the story spread yesterday, Hynes started taking a verbal beating in the comments section at Ankle Biting Pundits. I liked this sarcastic comment best: "I have the sincerest sympathy for a man who accuses another of doing something that he himself has been engaging in and who offers up a heartfelt apology after he gets caught."

There is also this post, purportedly from Jerome Armstrong of MyDD, speaking of himself and Moulitsas: "First of all, you blogethicists that demand disclosure are full of s---. Secondly, I’ve always disclosed who I’ve worked with and to my knowledge, so has Markos."

And over at Real Clear Politics, Ryan Sager offered this observation about a perceived hypocrisy of McCain's: "[I]sn't McCain the one always hyperventilating about 'circumvention' of campaign-finance laws. He and his pals even wanted to clamp down on the Internet recently to prevent bloggers from coordinating with campaigns. And now this is what his PAC is up to? Very odd. Or, really, entirely predictable."

UPDATE III: More thoughts from Lorie Byrd at Wizbang.

Posted by Danny at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)

I search the Congressional Record periodically to see how blogging is making its mark in legislative history. Today's search was a fruitful one. In addition to discovering last week's tribute about a blogger with cancer, I found a couple of blog nuggets within last month's flag-burning debate in the Senate.

Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, made the first reference to blogging when she urged passage of a constitutional amendment to prohibit burning of the American flag. She said she is all for free speech -- in appropriate forums.

"Write letters to the editor. Start a Web site," she said. "Create a blog. Organize. Leaflet. March. Chant. Speak out. Petition. Do any and all of these things, but do not burn our flag."

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., also mentioned blogs but in a less flattering context than Snowe. He criticized the push for a constitutional amendment that he said would further restrict "precious freedoms" of Americans and argued that the day's debate offered more proof "that the Constitution is being misused for partisan purposes."

"The Constitution is not a blog for venting political opinions, currying favor with voters or trying to bump up sagging poll numbers," Leahy said.

Posted by Danny at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

Earlier this month, I paid tribute on this blog to Grandpa Tumblebug. I just learned today that another family suffered a deep loss at the same time.

Mike Parman, a journalist at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., until he retired late last year because of pancreatic cancer, died July 1 at the age of 61. After being diagnosed, Parman started a blog to chronicle his fight against cancer.

His daughter posted the final blog entry. "I know how much this blog came to mean to him," Leah Parman Clark wrote. "Not only was he able to share hope and humor, strength and solace, but he received it."

I learned of Parman's blog work from last Friday's edition of the Congressional Record, which includes a tribute to Parman from Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. She praised his work at the blog.

"Mike's blog revealed a man facing mortality and the terrors of cancer with courage, compassion and good humor. ... Mike Parman's blog brought heartfelt responses from dozens of cancer patients and survivors because he not only expressed his own feelings but hit a universal chord."

That was a man who put the power of the blog to worthwhile use. Political bloggers could learn a thing or two from his work.

Posted by Danny at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at The Huffington Post:

[Americans have] suffered through weeks of debates over non-issues such as marriage, flag desecration, the estate tax and medical malpractice. Meanwhile, their real problems have only grown worse. We need a New Direction for America, and that is what Democrats offer. By changing course in Iraq, providing affordable health care, strengthening the middle class, and embracing science and medical research, the Democratic agenda will unite America and turn away from the divisive politics of the last six years.

Posted by Danny at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)

Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia faces the prospect of once again being tossed from Congress in a Democratic primary on Aug. 8, and her opponent in the run-off election, DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson, has taken his crusade to the blogosphere.

The two found themselves in a one-on-one battle after neither managed to win a majority in the July 18 primary. McKinney, who lost her 4th District seat four years ago only to reclaim it in 2004, won 47 percent of the vote in the first round. Johnson won 45 percent. A third candidate, John Coyne, won 8.5 percent.

Since the election, Johnson has become something of a staple in the blogosphere. To my knowledge, he is the first congressional challenger to post content at Congress Blog (an introductory entry on July 21 and a follow-up on Monday).

"I’m tremendously excited about the opportunity to use this unique medium to strengthen democracy by increasing open interaction between constituents and candidates," Johnson wrote, although he does not have a campaign blog of his own. "I hope to provide you with an inside view of this hotly-contested, high stakes runoff."

Johnson also is posting at Winds of Change, where he responded to questions after numerous visitors to the site commented on his initial entry there.

Marc Danziger, who goes by the handle "Armed Liberal" at Winds of Change, wholeheartedly endorsed Johnson by trying to raise $50,000 for him over two weeks via the blogosphere. "The organic rise of Johnson to challenge McKinney is an example of the self-correcting forces within the system, forces that we're potentially all part of. I'm happy to help them along," Danziger wrote.

Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice took note of the entries at Winds of Change. "These are fascinating posts -- worth the attention of readers of all persuasions -- because they show a candidate taking full advantage of Internet technology to directly spread his word and also (not a small matter) a candidate who's offering voters a different style of representation."

Johnson's activity is not restricted just to blogging, either. He currently is running an advertisement at Daily Kos to raise money for his campaign. "It's time to restore respect to progressivism," says the ad, which directs people to Johnson's campaign Web site.

McKinney, meanwhile, has a quasi-blog on her campaign site, but it's quite unimpressive. For starters, it doesn't even follow the reverse-chronological format of blogs. You have to scroll to the bottom of the single page of blog posts, which started in mid-April, to get to the latest entry from July 20.

Here is what you will find when you get there: "I will be pitted against a mostly unknown and unproven opponent, who will nonetheless have the unanimous backing of big national media and national money. The media and money behind my opponent will do their utmost to polarize the election along racial and party lines."

UPDATE: Johnson was back at Congress Blog today to talk about renewal of the Voting Rights Act.

UPDATE II: I just noticed that Johnson also has a fundraising blog pitch at Wizbang, which is not exactly Democratic territory. The tone of the appeal is quite different -- no mention of the word "progressive," for instance, and the image is a photo of McKinney with a red slash drawn through it.

"Hank will serve with humility and integrity, but he can't win without your contributions!" the ad says. "Help him seal the deal and boot Cynthia from Congress once and for all!"

UPDATE III: A new poll shows Johnson with a 46 percent to 21 percent lead over McKinney. A third of voters were undecided, and the margin of error in the poll was plus or minus 5 percent.

Posted by Danny at 04:34 PM | Comments (7)

The House yesterday overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed at MySpace and other online social networks that serve as forums for blogging and other activities. The vote was 410-15.

The bill, H.R. 5319, would require schools and libraries that receive special funding for communications services to ban youngsters from accessing such Web sites and chat rooms. The goal is to protect children from sexual predators who lurk on such sites.

"While these sites were designed to allow their users to share virtual profiles of themselves to friends and like-minded users," said bill sponsor Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., "the sites at most have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground."

He emphasized that children still would be able to use the sites at home and that the measure "is not designed to limit speech or infringe on the rights of law-abiding adults."

Other lawmakers, including Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, disagreed. "This bill will not delete online predators," he said. "Rather, it will delete legitimate Web content from schools and libraries." All 15 lawmakers who voted against the legislation were Democrats.

Technology Daily reported last week that the bill has become an issue in Fitzpatrick's congressional race. His Democratic opponent, Patrick Murphy, offered a competing plan that has been endorsed by a former assistant U.S. attorney and various law enforcers in the congressional district.

Earlier this month, Murphy blogged about the topic at MyDD. "It seems [Fitzpatrick] is involved in the typical Washington game of putting out nice sounding legislation that could make the problem worse, not better, and leaves the dangerous impression that he's actually doing something to protect children," he wrote.

Posted by Danny at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)

The Hill published its annual "50 Most Beautiful People On Capitol Hill" edition this week, and Rep. John McHugh of New York was among the lawmakers who made the cut.

Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, a Republican colleague of McHugh's, took note of the achievement at Congress Blog, which is published by The Hill.

"I support Rep. John McHugh’s selection ... even though he will now be more difficult to work with," McCotter said. "I would also like to register the complaint that not one of the 50, male or female, was bald."

At Extreme Mortman, Howard Mortman had this to say about the list of beautiful people: "The old joke about Playboy magazine -- I read it for the articles -- comes to mind. ... Funniest political/glamour write-ups I’ve ever seen."

Posted by Danny at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)

The House agenda for Thursday calls for action on a bill that would create a series of commissions to review and potentially kill federal agencies and programs after a certain time, but the debate began a day early at Congress Blog. A half-dozen Republican lawmakers have posted entries on the issue today. Here's a roundup:

-- Mike Conaway of Texas: "There is one goal that I would like to think all of my colleagues can agree upon: ensuring that federal agencies are held accountable to taxpayers. Periodically reviewing government agencies will result in more effective and efficient operations."

-- Scott Garrett of New Jersey.: "The federal bureaucracy is bloated with programs that duplicate one another, that fail to accomplish anything other than prolong their own perpetuity, and that outlive the problems and constituencies they were meant to serve. The indpendent commission established by the Government Efficiency Act will review federal programs and agencies and make sure they still have relevance to the people’s government."

-- Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania.: "The commission ... will review spending, but it will not have the power to automatically eliminate any program. This legislation is a good step forward in eliminating waste and making certain that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely."

-- Sue Myrick of North Carolina: The legislation "will create a commission that will review government agencies and programs, and weed out government waste, fraud and abuse. It is clear that we don’t have the tools or resources to look at every program and find where we are wasting money."

-- Todd Tiahart of Kansas, the bill's sponsor: "A commission recommendation on government efficiency would go through the regular committee process on an expedited schedule. Committees could amend the recommendation before it goes to the full body for a mandatory vote."

-- Ginny Brown Waite of Florida: " Congress must put unelected bureaucracies on notice that over-reaching and un-justified rulemakings can bring irreparable harm to the American economy and will not be tolerated in the future."

The measure also is a topic of discussion at Reg Watch, a blog of OMB Watch. Entries there include one on the opposition statement to the bill from Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.

"This bill would create partisan commissions empowered to propose eliminating or privatizing critical government programs. ... This bill is a back-door attack on important federal programs that support our most vulnerable citizens, including seniors, children and the disabled."

OMB Watch also published a list of other opponents to the legislation, as well as insight into behind-the-scenes maneuvering before floor action on the issue.

Posted by Danny at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

Republican blogger Patrick Hynes has insinuated various ethical lapses by leading Democratic bloggers Jerome Armstrong, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Matt Stoller. Now courtesy of a fellow Republican blogger, Jim Geraghty of National Review Online, Hynes has been forced to respond to ethical criticisms of himself.

Geraghty broke the news that Hynes has been on the payroll of Straight Talk America, the political action committee of GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for political consulting. Geraghty noted as an example that Hynes' firm, New Media Strategics, was paid $16,500 by the PAC on May 23.

The information apparently was not easy to confirm, however. Geraghty said he didn't get much straight talk from McCain's PAC in his intial contact with the executive director, and Hynes only publicly disclosed his relationship with McCain after Geraghty began pursuing the story.

Before making disclosures at both his company blog and his political blog, Ankle Biting Pundits, Hynes wrote favorably about McCain and critically of one of his potential 2008 presidential opponents, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Geragthy provided links to those entries.

"The error is in not informing readers," Geraghy wrote. "I think bloggers have an obligation to disclose their relationships to entities in which they have a financially compensated relationship or interest. There’s no reason to think that anything Hynes wrote is anything less than his unvarnished opinion; but his readers ought to be informed that McCain is not just his favorite presidential contender; he is, ultimately, a client."

In a note to Geraghty, Hynes agreed that he should have disclosed his relationship with McCain sooner. One reason Hynes said he didn't do so is that "I was not being paid 'to blog'."

He was being paid for his knowledge about the blogosphere, however, because that is precisely how he markets himself at New Media Strategics. The "about us" page dismisses "traditional public relations executives who have plenty of experience working with the old media but wouldn't know a blog from a vlog or a podcast," and it touts Hynes as an expert in using such tools to convey a message.

"Beyond 'commenting on other people's blogs,' President Patrick Hynes and his team design unique new media communications plans for each NMS client," the company site says. "Patrick Hynes is a blogger. He understands how bloggers receive and process information. What energizes them and, just as [important], what turns them off."

The controversy surrounding Hynes is even more interesting in light of some of the criticisms he has leveled against top bloggers on the left. He has been particularly critical of Stoller. At The Channel Changer, a blog of his focused on compeititon in the communications industry, Hynes has called Stoller a "suspected paid Google/MoveOn shill" in the battle for "network neutrality."

Hynes has not provided evidence of the alleged financial relationship but wrote this last month: "I have dug as far as it appears I am able to dig. Matt Stoller has ignored three e-mails from me, and I have commented on his net neutrality rants over at MyDD. But he evidently is following Kos' marching orders and the secret of who is actually paying for this spontaneous outpouring of emotion from the 'netroots' ... is safe."

Hynes has not yet responded to my request for comment about how his now-confirmed work for McCain is any different than the unproven insinuations that Armstrong, Moulitsas and Stoller have been paid for but not disclosed some of their blog-related activism on behalf of pet candidates or causes.

UPDATE: Mark Tapscott has added his voice to the criticism of Hynes: "It ought to be Rule One among politically active bloggers that the financial relationship should be acknowledged whenever you post on behalf of a candidate who is paying you. Better you disclose it first than somebody else at a less opportune moment, right?"

And Tim Chapman observed: "I think Hynes is handling the whole thing quite well. ... This just goes to show that on the right side of the blogosphere, credibility, transparency and full disclosure are cherished values." Like Tapscott, though, I have to wonder how cherished those values really are when the transparency and full disclosure come after bad publicity.

A reader at Ankle Biting Pundits made an astute point. "Unfortunately, this case is only a snowflake on the tip of an iceberg," the anonymous commenter wrote. "There are huge numbers of political operatives pretending to be average citizens posting blogs and comments under fake names."

Posted by Danny at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

True to its name, PolicyBeta went online today after several weeks in trial mode. The new blog is the work of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group who's work I know quite well in my role as the managing editor of Technology Daily.

The forum is "dedicated to expanding the dialogue about technology policy, civil liberties and preserving democratic values in the digital age," according to CDT's release. That should make it a popular stopping place for bloggers currently engaged in the debates over anti-terrorism surveillance, among other topics. The surveillance issue is addressed in a post dubbed "A Bad 'Compromise,'" which addresses a proposal pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Other topics addressed in recent weeks include "network neutrality" on high-speed Internet services, data breaches, secretly installed computer "spyware" and the Freedom of Information Act.

"PolicyBeta provides us an exciting opportunity, not just to discuss the developments we're observing but also to expand the dialogue on tech policy beyond the Beltway and into cyberspace," CDT Executive Director Leslie Harris said in the release.

The group hopes that journalists, technologists, academics and others will visit the blog regularly and engage in the debates raised there. Comments will be moderated.

Posted by Danny at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)

I've found some time over the past couple of weeks to make my occasional clicks through congressional Web sites in search of new blogs. By my count, there are a half-dozen new "blawgmakers" in Congress.

I've added links to the blogroll at the left, but here's a pullout list of the newcomers:
-- Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark.;
-- Rep. John Carter, R-Texas;
-- Rep. Bud Cramer Jr., D-Ala.;
-- Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga.;
-- Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y.;
-- And Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash.;

That's three Republicans and three Democrats, making the partisan growth rate for the congressional blogosphere equal.

As for the blog divide between the two chambers of Congress, the House has the clear advantage over the Senate. Maybe that's as it should be. The nation's founders, after all, designed the lower chamber as the one closer to the people, and the blogosphere is supposed to be all about people power.

Posted by Danny at 01:45 PM | Comments (1)

Each week, National Journal magazine polls its select team of political insiders about various questions. One of this week's questions focused on the Democratic primary between Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and his challenger, Ned Lamont.

The question: "What would be the smartest response for Democratic leaders if Sen. Joe Lieberman loses in the Connecticut primary to Ned Lamont?" The options were to actively back Lamont, actively back Lieberman, remain neutral, endorse Lamont but not actively back him, and endorse Lieberman but not actively back him. Among Republican insiders 43 percent opted for actively backing Lamont, compared with 61 percent for Democrats.

Democratic bloggers have worked hard to defeat Lieberman, and they have harshly chastised him for making backup plans to get on the fall ballot as an independent if Lamont defeats him. As a result, references to bloggers emerged in a few of the answers given by the NJ insiders. Here are those responses:

-- "The real question is whether the Democrats will continue to be frightened of MoveOn.org and the bloggers who will loudly claim credit for any Lieberman defeat." (Republican insider, actively back Lamont)

-- "On the one hand, they cannot anger their Jewish financial base; on the other hand, they cannot anger their anti-war grassroots base." (Republican insider, remain neutral)

-- "If Lamont wins, it is because of the bloggers and his own money. That will be a winning combination in the 21st century." (Democratic insider, actively back Lamont)

-- "We can't afford to be branded as the pacifist party. And that's what the netrooters want." (Democratic insider, actively back Lieberman)

Posted by Danny at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

I was just looking at the One America Committee Web site of former Democratic senator and presidential/vice-presidential candidate John Edwards and found this. It's a cool idea, one that other politicians would do well to mimick -- and one that I expect they will:

Through blogging, video blogging and podcasting, citizen journalists provide information and insights from many sources in addition to traditional media sources. We at the One America Committee embrace citizen journalism, and we encourage you to become a citizen journalist if you aren't one already.

We offer some perks to citizen journalists. If you fill out the form below, you can be added to our citizen journalist e-mail list, which receives regular updates and previews from the One America Committee. By filling out the form, you also become eligible for a position on our One America blogroll; we could feature your blog on our Web site. And, perhaps best of all, if you fill out the form below, we can invite you to blog at the senator's upcoming events in your area.

The real question is whether Edwards' campaign (and those of his competitors) will do more to treat citizen journalists on equal footing with us "real" journalists by granting interviews to bloggers, giving them access to the candidate and key staff, etc.

Posted by Danny at 08:10 AM | Comments (2)

The contributors to BlueOregon, a liberal political blog, have restated their mission and ethical principles in reaction to recent criticisms leveled by commenters at the site.

Kari Chisholm, one the of BlueOregon co-founders, also separately invited others to "steal" the principles. "Political blogging is an evolving thing, but that doesn't mean it has to be the Wild West," he wrote.

You can get the details at the site; here are the main points:

1) BlueOregon is unabashedly partisan.

2) It's a blog, not a newspaper.

3) When we have an affiliation, we say so.

4) No one gets paid.

5) Our writers are not anonymous.

6) You have the power. ... Demand facts, demand proof, demand sources, and demand details.

7) BlueOregon is a commons. ... We take very seriously one specific responsibility: to manage BlueOregon for the benefit of everyone who enjoys it.

8) Don't like the rules of the game here? Start your own blog.

Posted by Danny at 09:05 AM | Comments (4)

The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post dedicated a decent amount of ink to a forthcoming online forum called HotSoup. But Michael Turk, a former e-campaign director for the Republican National Committee who onced worked on a similar venture that failed, recently dumped rhetorical cold water on the idea.

"Having spent two years of my life on version 1.0 of this -- we called it grassroots.com and it receives a passing mention in one article -- I can tell you this thing will likely suck up a whole bunch of money, and ultimately flame out. It will die a death by a million pin pricks," he wrote at Personal Democracy Forum.

The core problem, Turk said, is the misguided appeal to the "marginalized middle," which he said simply has no political staying power. Turk cited blogs as an example.

"The people who flock to blogs are rabid conservatives and rabid liberals," he said. "There are very few successful, mainstream and moderate blogs or political discussion sites because nobody wants to believe the other guy could possibly be right."

So what will become of HotSoup, which is set to launch in October, just before the mid-term election?

"It will attract a good deal of interest," Turk said. "It may even attract some significant funding. ... It will, ultimately, become less like the McLaughlin Group (and even less like Crossfire) and end up looking like the political version of Jerry Springer with pundits stoking the fire."

Posted by Danny at 08:46 AM | Comments (1)

Below is some lighthearted fare for your weekend, courtesy of our intern David Herrera from this afternoon's edition of National Journal's Technology Daily. I've added to this version the clever ending David wrote that didn't make the cut for Tech Daily. The whole thing is a fun read.

By David Herrera

Guarded as they usually are by press secretaries or tightly regulated schedules, it is often tough to get true, candid glimpses into the lives of politicians.

That is why it might be refreshing to learn that even in the midst of a tough re-election campaign, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, likes "playing computer games, especially World of Warcraft," where he's become "a level-60 druid warlord." Or that Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., enjoys "talking about people in Chinese so they can't understand me," as well as adding to his 240-piece thimble collection.

And what is it that Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., loves? "Insulting the Republican Party."

Welcome to MySpace, the online social network where anybody with some free time and imagination can stoke their alter egos -- and poke a bit of fun at their elected representatives -- in one fell swoop.

Fake profiles have been on sites like MySpace for a while, but it can be nearly impossible for congressional staffers to monitor the networks for new parodies.

"Clearly it was not malicious," Brian Seitchik, a spokesman for DeWine's campaign, said of the fake profile about DeWine. "Someone was just trying to have some fun."

(No doubt someone was having quite the chuckle as they typed that DeWine has a passion for fantasy novels; the senator's actual literary preferences could not be confirmed.)

But DeWine's campaign took no chances and had MySpace remove the page. "There is clearly the possibility that someone could use this for malicious purposes," Seitchik said.

Not all impostors are out for cheap shots.

Bea Kallina, a volunteer for Maryland Senate hopeful Dennis Rasmussen, said her office had nothing to do with a Rasmussen page seemingly designed in support of his campaign. The page uses an image from Rasmussen's official Web site and, at first glance, looks like something he might have typed.

Several candidates indeed have created profiles on social networks -- or, usually, dispatched young aides to do it for them. But unless someone notices the fake profiles, politicians could be on the receiving end of nasty attacks for months.

Look no further than Rep. Barbara Cubin. The fake MySpace profile of her -- obviously written by a spelling-challenged critic -- features a smiling picture of the Wyoming Republican transposed onto an image of a burning cross. The "about me" section says Cubin "[likes] to vote with my party and tow the4 line."

"I sometimesa miss meetings and votes," it continues, "but i;m getting be4ttter all the time!!! LOL!!!"

Alison McGuire, Cubin's press secretary, said her office is investigating the situation.

Sometimes, however, official responses can be more direct. Rumors are swirling around the Beltway that DeWine, Kennedy and Rockefeller plan to seek their online attackers by assembling into a bipartisan, level-60, Chinese insult-throwing and thimble-shooting political machine.

The rumor could not be independently confirmed by press time.

Posted by Danny at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

Here is some blog news we noted this morning at National Journal's Technology Daily, where we start each weekday by summarizing and linking to tech-related stories in other publications:

A software contractor at the CIA whose Web log was a popular read among a select circle of people with top-secret security clearances has lost her job. The Washington Post reports that BAE Systems has fired Christine Axsmith and revoked her security badge.

Axsmith had used her blog to express her personal opinions on agency policies and several contentious issues, such as the torture of prisoners. A CIA spokesman did not comment on Axsmith's termination but said that "managers should be informed of online projects that use government resources" and that the agency "expects contractors to do the work they are paid to do."

BAE did not provide comment in the story. Axsmith had expected to be reprimanded but not fired.

In other news, AP reports on a blogger in France who has sued her employer for firing her.

Posted by Danny at 01:50 PM | Comments (1)

I collect coins. Rep. Jim Kolbe this week introduced a bill to eliminate the penny from circulation. You need to know those facts to understand this week's lead item.

A story about a bill to kill the penny isn't exactly front-page (or top-of-the-roundup) news, especially when Kolbe, R-Ariz., has introduced similar legislation before without success and when he will finish his congressional career in a few months.

But sometimes we bloggers just like to write about the things that matter to us -- a fact confirmed in a survey this week -- and coins matter to me. That's especially true of pennies. I have lots of them in my collection because they're cheap.

Pennies also apparently matter enough to my journalistic brethren for them to take note of Kolbe's bill. In addition to the items linked above, I've seen stories by CNN, Cox News Service and The Washington Times.

A Baltimore Sun columnist made the case against the penny, and another columnist in Akron, Ohio, shared his thoughts. One newspaper even editorialized against the coin that in 2009 will have borne the image of President Abraham Lincoln for 100 years.

Gallup says most Americans still think the penny is worth saving, but I wouldn't mourn too long if it were killed. Then maybe someday my penny-ante coin collection would have the chance of becoming worth more than a plugged nickel.

And on that note, here are your blog bits for the week:

-- Blogs are quickly proving themselves to be the best place to get breaking news, and the breaking news for the past week has been the war in the Middle East. The Truth Laid Bear is mapping bloggers there for the benefit of all.

-- Some Americablog readers didn't care much for what John Aravosis had to say about the conflict in the Middle East and applied monetary pressure to try to get him to publicly change his views. Aravosis' bold response: "We'd like to think that you come to Americablog to read an honest and smart analysis of what we believe is happening in the world, and not to simply have us parrot your beliefs or the beliefs of the highest bidder."

-- Terrorists struck commuter trains in India, and soon afterward, the Indian government began blocking its citizens' access to blogs, both from within and outside the country. Captain's Quarter's Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, The Moderate Voice and Wizbang were among the blogs to comment.

-- The Voting Rights Act went before the Senate this week. Here's what Tim Chapman had to say about it: "[A] heavy fog of political correctness that currently hovers over the Senate floor will no doubt ensure overwhelmning passage of the bill." The headline at the blog of the Democratic National Committee: "98-0: A Voting Rights Act Victory."

-- When liberal blogger Peter Daou got a campaign gig with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., his so-called friends took him to task. Robert Bluey of Human Events Online has done the opposite for some of his conservative friends, arguing that they are worthy of jobs like Daou's but with candidates on the right.

Jim Geraghty of National Review Online tackled the subject in a separate post late last month.

And according to The Blogometer right here within National Journal, Daou earned his keep with Clinton on two occasions this week.

-- MyDD reported that ActBlue, the preferred online fundraising tool of the netroots, has raised more money ($5.8 million) for Democratic candidates this election cycle than any other political action committee. Chris Bowers of MyDD also engaged in a back-and-forth about the netroots