« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
July 31, 2006CapitolLink: John Kerry's Healthcare Principles
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)
|
No Cato Love Lost For Patrick Hynes
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)
|
A Call To Porkbusting Arms
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)
|
More Disclosures From Patrick Hynes
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)
|
Bald Is Beautiful: Humor At Congress Blog
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)
|
Tech Think Tank Lauches Blog
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)
|
NJ Insiders On Lieberman, Lamont And Blogs
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)
|
An Attempt To Define Ethics In Blogging
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)
|
MySpace Mischief: Lawmaker Profiles In Parody
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 with Scott Winship of The Democratic Strategist.
-- The Club For Growth revamped its Web site, and club blogger Andy Roth wrote in an e-mail: "You'll notice that our PAC-endorsed candidates are now available to the public (this wasn't the case before). We plan on bundling for them from across the blogosphere. We promise to raise money like [Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos], but with a better track record!"
-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has been courting bloggers.
-- The political reporter for the newspaper in Norwich, Conn., dared to call political bloggers self-indulgent and promptly became their next target. He fired back with another rhetorical round.
-- The StarTribune in Minneapolis noted the growing influence of blogs and what it may mean for Gopher State polititics. And a columnist in Louisville, Ky., pointed political junkies in neighboring Indiana to some worthwhile blogs in the Hoosier State.
-- Howard Mortman of Extreme Mortman added First State Politics of Delaware to the list of blogs he has profiled in the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign.
-- Blogger Relations Blog, a product of the Issue Dynamics public affairs and Internet consulting firm, posted some guidance on how to lobby for getting blogs within organizations.
-- Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters will be blogging for the Heritage Foundation on spending-related matters. "My work will appear on Heritage's blog, and it will draw heavily on the experts at Heritage itself," he wrote.
-- An adjunct professor at the University of Arizona lost her job because of comments she posted to a blog. The Arizona Daily Star and The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., reported on the flap this week, days after most folks in the blogosphere had moved on to other controversies.
Posted by Danny at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
|
'Blogosphere Day' (Or, 'Ned Lamont Payday')
The Democratic netroots celebrated their third annual "Blogosphere Day" by trying to steer online contributions to Connecticut Democrat Ned Lamont in his bid to unseat fellow Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
The tradition started in the 2004 campaign when bloggers rallied behind Ginny Schrader, the Democratic opponent to Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania's 8th District last year. The online activists raised thousands of dollars for Schrader that day, but she ultimately lost the race by 12 percent.
The largesse fell to Ohio Democrat Paul Hackett last year in a special election. He, too, was defeated by now-Rep. Jean Schmidt, a Republican.
This year is the first where Democrats dedicated Blogosphere Day to defeating an incumbent of their own party -- and if the results of the latest poll hold true into the Aug. 8 primary, it would be the first where Blogosphere Day proved to be a barometer for electoral success.
The poll shows Lamont gaining the lead at 51 percent to 47 percent over Lieberman. Unfortunately for Lamont and his fans in the blogosphere, it also shows Lieberman soundly winning a three-way race in November if Lieberman loses the primary and runs as an independent. According to the poll, that tally would be 51 percent for Lieberman, 27 percent for Lamont and 7 percent for the Republican, Alan Schlesinger.
For more thoughts on Blogosphere Day from some of the folks behind it, visit Daily Kos, MyDD and Swing State Project.
There's also plenty more to read about the Lamont-Lieberman race on the blogs and in the mainstream media:
-- Bull Moose Marshall Wittmann blasted the bloggers out to get Lieberman and their "Liberalism Of Fools." "The Moose denounces the swiftboating of Joe," he wrote of the "nutroot blogosphere."
He specifally noted the "disinformation" spread by bloggers that Lieberman might run as a Republican, which Lieberman's staff unequivocally denied.
-- Firedoglake linked to a couple of articles in the Connecticut press as evidence that "Joe Lieberman has long suffered from a complete inability to comprehend what is happening to him on the blogs."
-- Duncan Black of Eshcaton wrote a column for the Los Angeles Times that said bloggers are not the only ones eager to oust Lieberman.
In celebration of Blogosphere Day, meanwhile, Black also made separate plugs on his blog for fellow Pennsylvanians Lois Murphy and Patrick Murphy.
-- Skippy The Bush Kangaroo interviewed Richard Hanley of the Quinnipac University communications school about blogs and the Lamont-Lieberman campaign. An excerpt: "[M]arginal voters [in the primary] may not be influenced by specific blogs and specific postings as they will by a wider variety of content."
-- A blogger at The Huffington Post complained that conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity has been bashing bloggers over their opposition to Lieberman, a regular guest on Hannity's show.
Posted by Danny at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
|
'The Internet's New Storytellers'
The Pew Internet and American Life Project released the results of a telephone survey of bloggers today. Here are some of the highlights:
-- Only 11 percent of bloggers charaterize themselves as political bloggers, a distant second to the 37 percent who focus on "my life and experiences." Entertainment and sports also ranked above general news and current events.
-- "[T]he American blogosphere is dominated by those who use their blogs as personal journals. Most bloggers do not think of what they do as journalism." The final tally: 34 percent call it journalism, 65 percent do not. What I want to know is what the remaining 1 percent call it. Maybe that wasn't fit for Pew print. (I call blogging Estate 4.5.)
-- More than half of bloggers are younger than 30 and live in suburban areas. At 39, that puts me in the minority, unfamiliar territory for a while male like me. But 60 percent of bloggers are white, so I'm still in the majority on that score. The blogging population is about evenly divided between men and women.
-- More than half of bloggers use pseudonyms. (I blog under my name but wrote a children's book under a pseudonym. Does that count?)
-- Only 27 percent of bloggers cite "to influence the way other people think" as a major reason" for their online writing, and 29 percent want "to motivate other people to action."
-- Four-fifths of bloggers have high-speed Internet connections at home. (I am among them.)
-- "Bloggers are major consumers of political news, and about half prefer sources without a particular political viewpoint."
Posted by Danny at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
|
The Porkbusters are on patrol again this week, both in Congress and in the blogosphere.
Blogger Mark Tapscott, whose full-time job is editorial-page editor of The Washington Examiner, was briefly in the congressional spotlight yesterday as he testified before a Senate subcommittee in favor of a bill to create a database on earmarked spending initiatives. He posted his testimony at Tapscott's Copy Desk.
"If the database allows users to search and filter spending information at such elementary levels as by state and by category of activity, every reporter covering basic beats like schools, crime, the environment and transportation will incorporate information from the database in their stories on a regular basis," Tapscott said. "With so much more information available about federal spending on these beats, there will soon be more reporting on the effectiveness of federal programs."
Citing the Porkbusters effort as "a glimpse of things to come," he added that the database could lead to even greater reporting at the citizen level. "I have no doubt there will be many, perhaps hundreds, of blogs created specifically to analyze and track federal spending within specific issue areas and industries. These blogs will be associated with private citizens, nonprofit advocacy groups and even consultants and executives with companies bidding for federal contracts."
Captain's Quarters covered the hearing remotely as it happened.
The topic of pork-barrel spending also was addressed in the editorial section that Tapscott runs at the Examiner. Mary Katharine Ham, a member of the "blog board of contributors" recently appointed by Tapscott to provide commentary from the blogosphere, asked and answered the question, "Why a war on pork?"
The subject also came up on the House floor this week, as lawmakers approved a bill to provide $1.5 billion for the Metro transit system in the Washington area. The Club For Growth dubbed the planned subsidy one of the largest-ever spending earmarks and made it a "key vote" for grading the fiscal conservatism of members of Congress.
"It is high time that this mature transit system has the incentive to be self-sufficient or be funded by local taxpayers who rely on the service, rather than once again relying on taxpayers from across the country to bail it out," club blogger Andy Roth wrote.
RedState also rallied against the bill, but the lobbying and the threat of a bad grade for supporting the bill did not convince enough lawmakers. The House passed the measure by a vote of 242-120.
Posted by Danny at 07:26 AM | Comments (0)
|
Blogs And The MSM: Lessons For Each Other?
As an established craftsman in the world of journalism both online and in print, Matt Welch knows a thing or two about blogs and the mainstream media -- and he thinks they can learn from each other.
Here's an excerpt from an interview Welch granted to Bloggasm:
Simon Owens: Are there too many popular bloggers out there who just don’t have the journalistic integrity needed in order to be a good journalist?Welch: That is a fascinating question. Linguistically. Take out the word “too,” and the answer has to be “yes.” Leave it in, and it’s a definite “no,” at least for me. I’m not in the business of telling people how they should behave with their blogs.
I reckon that most popular current-events bloggers don’t want to be considered “a good journalist,” even though they might consider their work superior to the product of the evil MSM. And I also think that there is a great deal of journalistic content produced every day by people with zero formal or practical training in journalism. These definitions are a great deal more fluid, and therefore irrelevant, than many people who fling them around seem to admit, in my experience.
That said, providing links-filled commentary and ranting is just a much different exercise than sending hundreds of people out into the world to attempt (and inevitably fail) to provide an objectiv-ish and fair accounting of what important stuff happened in the world yesterday. There are some broad journalistic values that I think your popular current-events bloggers could benefit from, but that river flows two directions, if you follow me. Particular in writing style, passion and sense of openness toward the rabble.
Posted by Danny at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)
|
Freelance writer and blogger Hampton Stephens is a key player behind a new publication on world affairs. The site, World Politics Watch, went online last week.
The features include news and commentary from partner organizations and other contributors, as well as a roundup from major publications.
Posted by Danny at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)
|
With the help of a congressional intern, Rep. Jack Kingston managed to make his defense of traditional marriage in two places at once today: on the House floor and in the blogosphere.
While the Georgia Republican managed the floor debate on legislation to amend the Constitution in favor "only of the union of a man and a woman," his intern live-blogged the debate at Jack's Blog.
The entry included these snippets from Kingston's opening remarks:
-- “Activist judges have erroded the intent of Congress.”
-- “No governmental entity shall be allowed to alter the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.”
-- “69 percent of Americans strongly agree that marriage should be defined as one man and one woman.”
-- “This is not a battle we have chosen to have, but one that the court has put on us.”
Posted by Danny at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)
|
A blogger in Iowa helpfully noted, in both a comment on the column below and in an e-mail to me, that lawmakers in Iowa overrode the veto of eminent domain legislation on Friday.
I wish I had clicked my way to Iowa's blogs before finishing my column on Saturday. To get more insight on that piece of my story, go to Political Forecast, Radio Iowa and State 29.
Pundit Review Radio, meanwhile, interviewed Tom Blumer of BizzyBlog about the Kelo decision a couple of weeks ago. Blumer was one of the sources in my story.
Posted by Danny at 01:11 PM | Comments (1)
|
On June 22, the Pacific Legal Foundation entered the blogosphere. The launch of the group's blog, PLF on Eminent Domain, was the perfect end to a year marked by keen public interest in a legal doctrine that guarantees governments the right to "take" private property for public use.
The year started June 23, 2005, when the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling in Kelo v. New London. The case pitted the city of New London, Conn., against homeowner Susette Kelo and her neighbors. The city used the power of eminent domain to condemn and then buy their properties in order to redevelop them, and the Supreme Court concluded that the seizure was constitutional.
The decision triggered a wave of public outrage that manifested itself in opinion polls, media commentary, legal analysis and online rants.
Kelo has been in the news again lately, as President Bush in June signed an executive order on eminent domain. Critics of the ruling also marked its anniversary with protests and continue to ponder their next steps to protect their private property. Blogs are part of that equation.
It took the Kelo decision to really get bloggers engaged on the issue. Eminent Domain Watch was created before then, but founder Alan Krigman said he never found either other blogs or conventional Web sites dedicated to eminent domain until Kelo.
"We started [in 2004] at the time that the Michigan Supreme Court reversed itself on the Poletown decision," Krigman said. "It was my intuition that this would start the dominoes falling. Had Kelo not been heard by the [Supreme Court], I believe the Michigan reversal would have triggered at least some action."
Kelo was heard, though, and the court's decision became a rallying cry for bloggers. The topic even grabbed the interest of at least one lawmaker, Republican Rep. Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois, who posted two blog entries at his congressional site.
"Judging by my e-mail and the reactions I've seen around the blogosphere," Instapundit Glenn Reynolds wrote at the time, "I think the political impact of this decision is going to be very large."
A year later, law professor Stephen Bainbridge, who blogs at ProfessorBainbridge, explained the anger of so many bloggers in an interview. "What could be a more quintessential example of how gross government power has become than the idea that the government can take your home away from you and then turn around and it give it to some real-estate developer just because the latter will pay higher taxes than you do?" he said. "Ever hear the expression 'your home is your castle'? Not anymore."
The outcry over Kelo prompted state legislative activity designed to counteract the ruling, but not all of the news has been good for activists who complain of eminent domain abuse. Most recently, Iowa Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack vetoed an eminent domain bill. He is still wrangling with state lawmakers over the issue in special session.
Eminent Domain Watch's Krigman does not believe bloggers have had any noticeable impact in the ongoing national debate. While he said "blogs have proven to be very effective in exposing issues that the press has missed," he argued that they do not "deserve all that much credit in this particular area."
One reason is that the mainstream media, with their much wider audiences, have been actively engaged. "An astonishing number of papers have editorialized about this issue," Krigman said.
But some bloggers remain vigilant, and their next battleground will be the campaign trail this fall. One measure, the Protect Our Homes initiative, will be on the November ballot in California, and it is considered stronger than a ballot measure approved in Oregon last year. Out of Control, a blog of the Reason Foundation, gave the California effort a plug last month.
Beyond ballot measures, Pejman Yousefzadeh, a lawyer and contributor at RedState, said the best way to make politicians think twice about abusing eminent domain is to make it personal by taking the case to voters. Blogs should be a part of that strategy, he said.
The Castle Coalition, an activist outlet started by the Institute for Justice after the Kelo decision, is doing its part to help. The tips in the coalition's "Eminent Domain Abuse Survival Guide" for grassroots activism include creating a Web site, and the guide mentions the free space at Blogger.com as one option.
"Increased journalistic coverage, increased blogospheric coverage and increased attention paid to the issue by the legal community -- including the legal punditry class -- will help elevate the issue in the public consciousness," Yousefzadeh wrote at TCS Daily. The key is to make "anti-eminent domain abuse forces as politically powerful as the developers and their related interest groups are."
That's exactly what groups like the Save Ardmore Coalition, which is focused on protecting private property in a Philadelphia suburb, hope to accomplish with their blog. "Blogs help get the word out -- fast," one member of the group said anonymously via e-mail. "Blogs are today what television was like when it first started: It brings the issue home with easy access and makes it personal."
Tom Blumer, who covered the New London case at BizzyBlog, said local activity in the blogosphere is precisely what can make a difference in the long run.
"If the blogs could do anything to try to keep momentum going," he said, "it would be to have individual bloggers take personal responsibility for reporting any and all meaningful developments in individual cases (and perhaps having a collective 'eminent domain alliance' blog for all related/cross-posted entries)."
Posted by Danny at 07:07 AM | Comments (8)
|
Sen. Frist Launches Group Medical Blog
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon before he became a politician, launched a new group medical blog on Monday.
The move came as the Senate is about to debate federal funding of stem-cell research, one of several policies that Frist hopes will be discussed at MedicalMatters. Other topics will include avian influenza, electronic medical records and health savings accounts.
"We will take a long-term look at some of the healthcare challenges facing the country and start an online discussion encouraging different points of view," Frist, R-Tenn., wrote in his introductory post. "I will blog regularly, as will 10-12 regular bloggers from a variety of healthcare-related fields. We will also encourage high-profile guest bloggers to join the discussion."
Frist noted the advantages that blogs have over the mainstream media in explaining why he decided to create the blog. He said blogs can devote more space to topics and "can re-examine topics with ease and issue corrections and clarifications with the click of a mouse. And many blogs involve readers by encouraging feedback."
The decision to create an open forum is a bold move by Frist and one that should be imitated by lawmakers in both parties. Maybe House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, could build a group blog on telecommunications law, for instance. Or Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, could do the same for homeland security issues.
The possibilities for niche policy communities built by policymakers themselves are endless, and they would immediately become must-read publications by anyone interested in specific issues.
Posted by Danny at 04:08 PM | Comments (2)
|
Conservative bloggers have been invited to an off-the-record "happy hour" with select lawmakers this evening at a private townhouse in Washington, according to an e-mail circulated from Capitol Hill on Friday and again today.
The Republican lawmakers who have been invited are Kevin Brady of Texas, Mark Kennedy of Minnesota and John Shimkus of Illinois.
Off-the-record sessions with lawmakers are perfectly acceptable in both journalism and blogging. But bloggers should be just as cautious as journalists of such attempts to woo them for the reasons I noted earlier this year in a column titled "The Courtship Of The Blogosphere."
Also keep in mind what folks like Rob Bluey of Right Angle and Tim Chapman wrote back in March about a chat with Senate Republicans. Remember, too, the warning that Steve Clemons of The Washington Note issued about blogger conference calls. And recall the outcry that surrounded the lavish party that former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, D-Va., threw last month at the YearlyKos convention.
Whether fair or not, credibility is hard to earn in the blogosphere but is easily lost.
Posted by Danny at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)
|
BillBlast: Renewing The Voting Rights Act
Tomorrow's House agenda calls for action on legislation to renew the Voting Rights Act. The issue has gained the attention of bloggers in the past and continues to do so. Lawmakers also are making their case to bloggers and in blog entries of their own. Here's a sampling of the activity in recent days:
-- Spencer Overton, a law professor at George Washington University and a guest blogger at MyDD this month, said the pending vote is a "critical moment" for the statute. "[I]n June 2006, a small group of Republican opponents attempted to stall renewal," he wrote. "These politicians don't receive many votes from people of color (indeed, most minority voters actively oppose many of these politicians), and for some reason, these politicians believe we no longer need important voting rights protections."
-- Tim Chapman of the Heritage Foundation reported on a meeting that Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, had with conservative bloggers yesterday. His goal was to get the bloggers to write about his amendment to end the federal mandate for multilingual balloting. The entry includes links to other commentary at AmSpec Blog, The Corner, Human Events Online and Townhall.
Chapman's conclusion: "No doubt GOP leadership wishes this issue would just go away. There are few other issues that lend themselves to demaguery as this one does. ... But one hopes that conservatives who see real problems with the extension as written find the courage to point them out boldly as King has done above."
-- Think Progress highlighted a comment by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga.: "Do we treat the British any differently because of the Stamp Act? If we’re going to do that, then let’s go back to the Indians and say they butchered Custer." Readers were not impressed. "I am soo tired about ill-informed and functionally illiterate House members saying stupid things," one of them wrote. "How do these people get elected?"
-- Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., at Congress Blog: "There are some members of Congress who say that the need has passed for protecting the rights of U.S. citizens to directly participate in the democratic process. They ignore the fact that the VRA was upheld last month by the Supreme Court, and that the VRA reversed a case of electoral discrimination in Kilmichael, Mississippi only 3 years ago."
-- Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., at Congress Blog: "The opponents of the Voting Rights Act say it needs to be updated, but they never address the over 1000 objections to discriminatory voting plans filed by the [Justice Department] since the last reauthorization in 1982. They never address the persistent evidence of discrimination ... that affect people in rural areas, the elderly, the disabled, ethnic and language minorities who are all citizens of this nation."
UPDATE: The House overwhelmingly passed the bill after just as resoundingly rejecting all Republican amendments.
Posted by Danny at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)
|
Mark Tapscott plays dual roles as editorial-page editor of The Washington Examiner and conservative blogger at Tapscott's Copy Desk. Next week, he'll also assume a third role for a brief time: congressional witness.
Tapscott has been invited to testify Tuesday before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee that is considering legislation to create a publicly accessible, searchable database of federal spending. Tapscott and other bloggers who are involved in the Porkbusters effort have rallied around the bill, which was authored by subcommittee Chairman Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
"The basic thrust of my testimony," Tapscott wrote at his blog, "will be to explain why I believe the existence of a comprehensive public database of federal spending will have a major impact on journalism, just as did the public availability of campaign finance databases."
Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters also expects Tapscott to talk about the more likely result that bloggers -- journalists of the citizen variety -- will seize on the database as a tool to cast some sunlight on the government.
"I predict that 10,000 blogs will be born just to focus on the spending habits of their own representatives," Morrissey wrote. "Constituents can use their computers to do their own research on the types of spending that their congressmen and senators sponsor. How many 'bridges to nowhere' will survive that kind of scrutiny? How many politicians will earmark money for federal highways that bring heavy traffic to property that they themselves own if they know that anyone can look it up at any time and make the connections?"
Posted by Danny at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
|
Last fall, Erick-Woods Erickson left his job as a lawyer in Georgia to become a full-time blogger for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association here in Washington. While commuting from Georgia, Erickson launched NRECA's blog, Amped Up, within a few weeks and kept it going until late last month.
That's when a new opportunity beckoned at RedState, where Erickson made a name for himself as a blogger and continued to serve on the board of directors while working at NRECA. He is still a full-time blogger, but now he's focused on conservative politics rather than on rural electricity. Erickson's new dual title is chief executive officer and managing editor of RedState.
Beltway Blogroll recently quizzed Erickson by e-mail about his brief tenure at NRECA, the future for the blog he created there, and the future he has planned for RedState. Here is a transcript of that interview:
BB: Tell me about your tenure at NRECA and its new blog, Amped Up. What is the mission of the blog, and how is it working out for the trade group, in light of your last post on June 28?
EE: NRECA was a great place to work and they're really blessed having a forward-thinking CEO. The people are committed to the mission of co-ops. Amped Up is designed as an outreach project to educate consumers about energy and the role cooperatives play in meeting America's energy needs.
BB: In that post, you mentioned "things that worked and things that did not work for us as an organization." Can you elaborate on the lessons you learned in that trial-and-error period?
EE: It was really fascinating, having come from the world of political blogging. Gaining trust and building bridges was essential to get posts moving rapidly. The need for speed in blogging is crucial, and learning who can deliver a credible, quick response to a question or sign off on a post is vital.
BB: Is there a timeline on when the new blog will be back? Will you be working on it as a consultant, or will NRECA have another full-time blogger?
EE: I don't know where NRECA will go with the blog, but I encouraged them to continue it. It is a worthwhile project, and I think the lessons we learned will help it go forward.
BB: Why did you decide to leave NRECA after such a short time working on the blog? Will you be staying in Washington?
EE:There were a couple of reasons. First, my training is as a lawyer, and I believe in giving honest, candid advice. My advice was that there were better people in the organization than me who knew more about the organization and industry who would be great at blogging. Combine that with my wife's reluctance to want to move full time to Washington and it was a natural decision.
I did not want to harm a worthy project. For the past eight months, I've been commuting from Georgia every week. To keep the project going, someone needs to be in Washington full time, and I wasn't going to subject my family to a move they had become reluctant to make.
BB: Tell me about the transition at RedState. What changes have been made in the leadership there? Who was the CEO, and why did the directors decide to make a change?
EE: Things have really fallen into place at RedState in a timely manner. Since we started RedState.com, Clayton Wagar served as CEO, and I served as [chief financial officer]. It has become apparent that RedState has strong growth potential, but we need someone to shepherd the site full time to realize our full potential.
When it became apparent that I'd be leaving NRECA, we decided it would be a good time to move forward with what we were thinking. Clayton and I reversed roles. He'll keep the books and manage the behind-the-scenes technology, and I'll shepherd the blogging and outreach.
BB: Tell me about your dual roles as CEO of RedState and managing editor of RedState.com. I'm the managing editor at Technology Daily, so I see that as a journalistic title. Are you going to be taking the site in that direction, trying to polish it as a more organized forum for citizen media?
EE: For liability purposes, RedState incorporated. Corporations have to have, at least in Georgia, a CEO, secretary and CFO. I'm the first two. Clayton is the latter.
For day-to-day purposes, it's being managing editor that will have the most impact. While at NRECA, I could not write politically. That meant that when I had free time to help out at RedState, when the front page was stagnant, I was not able to help. Now, in addition to providing posts, I'll be able to concentrate on the massive volume of e-mail we get, promoting diaries, etc.
I also want to get out into the country and cover the swing districts, the man on the street, etc. There is a lot of news out there I'd like to provide at RedState. Likewise, as we move closer to our redesign launch, growing the RedState community is vitally important. We offer a great product, and we have a great community. I want to get the readers more involved in what we do and how we do it.
BB: What are your plans for the site this election season and beyond? Are you aiming to make RedState part of a "GOProots" equivalent to the netroots?
EE: I think RedState is already positioned as the right's netroots equivalent. We've been in a state of transition between are we conservative or Republican. My personal rule is conservative first, then Republican.
I don't think we are out to pick fights against incumbents in primaries only to see ourselves shot in the foot like the left (see e.g., Joe Lieberman [D-Conn.]), but I do want to support conservatives in open primaries and Republicans in the general election. As a blog, we have a lot of flexibility.
BB: What are your thoughts on the restructuring to that end at Townhall.com? Will RedState and Townhall compete or perhaps coordinate their activities in some way?
EE: I think Townhall has a lot in common now with RedState. I think we could certainly be viewed as competitors, but blogs are collaberative and helpful to each other even when competing. I think the world of Hugh Hewitt and Mary Katharine Ham, and hope we can all work together to advance the conservative agenda.
At the end of the day, the ideas matter more that the people and the forum. For conservative activists, I think RedState is a natural home and growing community.
Posted by Danny at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
|
The Sunlight Network this week announced mini-grants of $1,000 to $5,000 for "innovative approaches to strengthening the relationship between members of Congress and the citizens they represent."
The grants are catered toward "engaged citizens." That sounds like bloggers to me. In fact, one of the examples given specifically mentions blogs.
Applicants are encouraged to send a one-page summary of their proposals and budgets for them to Zephyr Teachout, national director of the network. Her e-mail address is zteachout@sunlightfoundation.com.
Here are more blog bits to get you through the weekend:
-- Famed Des Moines, Iowa, political reporter David Yepsen now has a blog. According to Hotline on Call, he joins David Lightman and friends in Chicago, Jo Mannies and others in St. Louis, and Adam C. Smith and colleagues in St. Petersburg.
Howard Mortman also profiled Iowa Voice as part of his ongoing series about blogs and the 2008 presidential campaign.
-- Burnt Orange Report in Texas and SquareState in Colorado published an open letter that invites Mark Warner, a potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, to raise money for two "fighting Dems."
-- MyDD called attention to "netroots wins" on everything from minimum wage to the Democratic primary race between Sen. Joseph Lieberman and businessman Ned Lamont. Patrick Murphy, a Democratic congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, also used MyDD as a forum to chastise his opponent over legislation aimed at social-networking sites online and to tout his competing plan.
-- Duncan Black of Eschaton on the use of Internet campaign videos: "With YouTube and similar services, anyone can slap video online for free. While the video in question is an official campaign video, Lamont supporters have been putting up all kinds of campaign-related videos. It's all good."
-- Tom Firey at the Cato Institute offered his thoughts on the "libertarian Democrat" philosophy recently espoused by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos.
-- A blog called Sepia Mutiny lamented the "Deafening Silence In The Blogosphere," particularly among the top 100 political blogs, about recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. The blog also offered three potential news angles and concluded: "Recent events are rich in implications for American foreign and domestic policy. I don’t find it too hard to connect the dots."
The news has been found "blog-worthy" in at least one congressional office, however. Milpundit, a staffer for Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., commented on the bombings.
-- Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine said blog power has been exported to the United Kingdom, where Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is under fire.
-- China released Wu Hao, a blogger and documentary filmmaker who had been held in custody for more than five months.
-- The Truth Laid Bear pitched a plan to help bloggers continue posting even when under cyber attacks designed to cripple their sites. SourceForge quickly offered such a "distributed guarantee of service" tool.
-- Bloggers decided this was a good week for giving advice about blogging. You can read the tips at La Shawn Barber's Corner, The QandO Blog, Simon World and Sister Toldjah.
I also missed a few noteworthy developments while on leave for the funeral of Grandpa Tumblebug. Here are more links for you to peruse:
-- Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft is not too impressed with candidate blogs: "There's no persona, no sense of human being inside. They are all too predictable, as if three handlers vetted their blogposts to make sure no potential voter would be offended before posting them."
-- RedState announced its new board of directors, including the hiring of Erick-Woods Erickson as a full-time CEO and political blogger. Erickson promptly invited readers to tell him about small blogs worthy of following regularly.
-- MyDD blogger Jonathan Singer, who has been interviewing Democratic candidates across the country, is working as the campaign manager for Mike Caudle, a candidate for Oregon's House. Singer recently introduced Caudle to MyDD readers.
-- Steven Clift of DoWire identified some lessons for Campaigns Wikia, a new site created by the folks at the online collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. Another blogger pondered the potential electoral impact of the YouTube online video site this year.
-- Huffington Post blogger Marty Kaplan offered some advice to the Air Force on how to conduct its study of blogs.
-- I went to West Virginia University, but I'm still eager to read a new book by a professor from our downstate rival, Marshall University. The QandO Blog gave the book a plug earlier this month.
Posted by Danny at 08:35 AM | Comments (0)
|
ABC Subjects Itself To The Wrath Of Kos
From Jake Tapper at ABC News, on his way to interview Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos:
Reporting on a blogger like Kos is essential for anyone who purports to cover politics in the U.S. But it's also a lose-lose proposition on another level, since whatever we report will subject us to withering and ugly criticism, either for being too tough or too soft or even both. Of course that comes with the territory no matter what we report on, but reporting on a blogger all the more so.
Posted by Danny at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
|
The Progressive States Network, an organization run by blogger David Sirota, has joined the battle between a blogger and the state of Kentucky over an Internet filtering initiative that has banned state employee access to blogs and other Web sites.
Sirota was in Kentucky today to unveil draft legislation aimed at overturning the blog portion of the ban. The bill aims to protect the right of agencies to restrict the use of state computers but would require viewpoint-neutral rules and fair procedures. Sirota's network also is soliciting signatures for an online petition to Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who has been accused of instituting the blog ban to silence a political opponent, Mark Nickolas of Bluegrass Report.
"Fletcher's move, if left unchecked, could set a dangerous precedent of power-hungry politicians everywhere being allowed to censor their political opponents," Sirota wrote at The Huffington Post. He included in the entry the text of the speech he gave in Frankfort, Ky.
On Monday, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nickolas, who worked for now-Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., when Chandler ran against Fletcher in the 2003 governor's race.
Nickolas has won strong support from bloggers but has complained about the "arrogance" of traditional journalists who do not support his cause. Today, for instance, he blasted David Hawpe of the Louisville Courier-Journal for a column that defended the state's right to set rules for the use of state computers.
"This fellow has a First Amendment right to blog but not to have his blog available wherever he wants it," Hawpe wrote. "Since when does any publisher of information -- newspaper, magazine, broadcast outlet, Internet site or whatever -- have a First Amendment right to be heard inside a government office?"
Posted by Danny at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
|
A rabbi in New York has dropped one of his lawsuits aimed at identifying four anonymous bloggers who had written about his alleged sexual misconduct, according to Public Citizen, which is defending the bloggers.
Mordechai Tendler, the former leader of an Orthodox Jewish congregation in New Hempstead, N.Y., filed suits in California and Ohio. He dropped the claim in Ohio, and Public Citizen has asked the California court to reject Tendler's claim on the grounds that it would violate the bloggers's constitutional rights to free speech.
The blogs involved in the dispute -- The Committee for Rabbinic Integrity, Jewish Survivors of Sexual Violence Speak Out, Jewish Whistleblower and New Hempstead News -- stand accused of publishing information about Tendler's alleged relationships with women in the congregation who sought his counsel. New Hempstead News calls Tendler "the Pervert of New Hempstead."
"This just goes to show the importance of protecting anonymity because as soon as Tendler found out that we had filed a motion against him, he withdrew his petition," said Paul Alan Levy, the Public Citizen attorney who is defending the bloggers.
"He was never prepared to prove that the allegations against him were false; he only wanted his critics' names so that he could go after them. The First Amendment demands this kind of protection for citizens using their right to free speech."
Posted by Danny at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
|
Last month, I cited a California court decision in defense of bloggers as evidence that citizen media are beginning to win official recognition as protected media. Yesterday, News.com reported that the plaintiff in the case, Apple Computer, will not appeal the ruling.
That is good news for all bloggers, according to Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media.
"It’s too bad, in a way, that Apple didn’t take it to the state Supreme Court or even higher. ... A precedent from the highest court is always better than one from a lower court," he wrote. "But this is still a valuable precedent, and one we should all celebrate. The appeals panel understood that protecting journalism, not journalists, is the point."
Posted by Danny at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
|
Too Conservative, a blog in Virginia, broke the news that the oft-troubled Florida Senate campaign of Republican Rep. Katherine Harris was about to endure more turmoil. Hotline On Call, one of two blogs published by The Hotline here at National Journal, pushed the story forward later in the day.
I love seeing that kind of media convergence.
The news out of Florida, meanwhile, triggered this I-told-you-so comment at RedState: "Harris should have taken our advice and not run for this office. This is absurd, and she has become a political laughingstock."
UPDATE: The Herald in Bradenton, Fla., pushes the story even further ahead. The latest news: Five senior staffers quit the campaign, and the departing campaign manager said Harris "'treats people like garbage."
Posted by Danny at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)
|
For the better part of June, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and the community built around his blog, Daily Kos, were in the media glare. The publicity was a mix of good and bad, with the first burst surrounding the YearlyKos convention and the subsequent wave focused on criticisms of Moulitsas' role role in the netroots.
July already is looking like it will be another month of obsession with Kos. This week alone, critical columns have been published in the New York Magazine, The Examiner and The Boston Globe.
Another blogger, meanwhile, recounted his discouraging encounter with readers at Daily Kos after he raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest by political bloggers, including Moulitsas and his "blogfather," Jerome Armstrong.
"We Democrats [are] critical of precisely this type of rigid, censorious, know-it-all behavior on the part of conservatives?" Richard Silverstein wrote at Tikun Olam. "What is wrong with questioning our standards and behavior once in a while? Must one be labelled a 'concern troll' and political enemy for suggesting that political bloggers observe a code of ethics? What are the people at Daily Kos afraid of?"
His complaint caught the attention of Maryscott O'Connor of My Left Wing. She defended Silverstein's right to post the diary entry at the time and again when he complained of his treatment at Daily Kos.
"I can’t quite reconcile my vision of this community with this blind spot, this inability to even accept the presence of questions about their putative leader," O'Connor wrote.
That brings me to a prediction made by Silflay Hraka: 'Sometime in 2007, an enterprising Democratic presidential contender will Sista Souljah the Kossacks in order to position themsleves as "the centrist Democrat who can actually win an election.' My money's on Hillary."
I'm not sure any presidential contender will ever have the nerve to buck the blogosphere, on either side, but it's an interesting prediction.
UPDATE: The American Thinker called attention to more thoughts on the Daily Kos crowd from O'Connor (via Instapundit).
UPDATE II: Chris Bowers of MyDD dismissed the O'Connor-generated flap as a "sub-par flame war" and evidence of the media's unhealthy "obsession" with the netroots. Ironically, Bowers dedicated about 650 words to downplaying an outburst that he called insignificant. And ranting at MyDD wasn't enough; he cross-posted at Daily Kos.
Posted by Danny at 10:25 AM | Comments (3)
|
BillBlast: Net Gambling For Me But Not For Thee
Bloggers across the political spectrum took note of yesterday's overwhelming House vote to ban Internet gambling. Radley Balko of the Cato Institute penned one of the more telling observations.
Writing at Cato@Liberty, he noted that lawmakers rejected an amendment to kill an exemption for state lotteries online. "Which means that a good number of congressmen, most of them Republican, voted to ban Internet gambling sites operated by private citizens, but voted to allow them when operated by the government."
Posted by Danny at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
|
Rep. Jim McDermott was not too impressed with the latest proclamation about progress that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made from Iraq today after an impromptu visit there.
Iraq is a nation disintegrating into homicidal chaos," the Washington Democrat countered at The Huffington Post. "It is a country whose leaders acknowledge is on the brink of all-out civil war. But the president's Pentagon appointee, the man controlling the fate of 129,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, stands up and flat out misleads the troops who don't get to go home to the U.S. at the end of the day, like Rumsfeld does."
McDermott's advice to Rumsfeld: Stay in Iraq a while so he can offer "an honest assessment of the war and a roadmap to peace."
Posted by Danny at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
|
This time last year, Democratic bloggers turned their attention to a special election in Ohio's 2nd District, as they banked on Democrat Paul Hackett to wrest the seat from Republican hands in a major upset. Their hopes were dashed Aug. 2 when now-Rep. Jean Schmidt was narrowly elected.
Schmidt has remained on the netroots hit list ever since -- she caused an uproar last fall with her maiden speech on the House floor -- but Democratic chances of victory this fall looked slim when Hackett opted for an ill-fated Senate bid over a second House bid. Until today.
Now some bloggers have found new hope in the results of a poll commissioned by Schmidt's new Democratic rival, Victoria Wulsin. It puts Schmidt and Wulsin even at 44 percent of the vote, with 11 percent undecided. Wulsin touted the poll in a diary at Daily Kos, and the blog's owner, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, plugged a related entry from another author on the front page.
James L. at Swing State Project raised legitimate questions about the value of any campaign-commissioned polls and noted that the 4.9 percent margin of error is "high." But he added, "That said, if this poll is anywhere near the truth, I think I may be able to renew my faith in humanity (likely voters)."
David Schraub at The Moderate Voice expects more of the same, however. "Certainly, I'd shed no tears if Representative Schmidt was to be removed from office," he wrote. "But given the circumstances, I have to ask whether or not this is going to turn out any differently from Hackett's much-hyped run?"
Posted by Danny at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
|
By David Herrera
The Internet allows information to travel more quickly, but that does not necessarily mean anybody, including bloggers, can process legal rulings at lightspeed. So said David Savage of the Los Angeles Times during an all-star panel of Supreme Court reporters yesterday.
Savage said the Internet and rising popularity of blogs has put pressure on court reporters to publish information more quickly than even five years ago. Back then, he said, “I actually thought the job was a lot easier. It’s very easy [now] to write a quick story that’s wrong.”
Joan Biskupic, the Supreme Court reporter for USA Today, called the Internet “one-stop shopping for anybody that wants to read up on the court now.”
The comments came during a District of Columbia Bar Association roundtable on the view of the Supreme Court from the press gallery. The other speakers were Charles Lane of The Washington Post, Tony Mauro of American Lawyer Media and Legal Times, and Stuart Taylor of National Journal and Newsweek.
Lane noted that “every case has its little fan club out there in America, and often, someone has a blog to match. He highlighted SCOTUS Blog, a group blog whose contributors are lawyers, as one example of a “great, amazingly fast, and quite accurate blog.”
The fascinating question, he said, is who goes where for their information about what's happening in the court, be it traditional media, major blogs like SCOTUS Blog or the smaller ones. “Are we competing with ‘that guy’?" Lane said. "Or is it [that] only one narrow band of election law buffs just read that guy?”
David Herrera is an intern for National Journal's Technology Daily.
Posted by Danny at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)
|
'Red Cards' In The Blogosphere
French soccer superstar Zinedine Zidane ended his career in pathetic fashinon on Sunday, with a now-infamous head-butt of Italian player Marco Materazzi in the World Cup finale. Zidane received a "red card" penalty for the confrontation and was ejected from the game.
The ensuing debate overseas prompted Arianna Huffington to dream of "how great it would be if we had the political equivalent of a red card -- something we could flash for campaign fouls and astonishing acts of bad political behavior that would immediately remove the perpetrators from the political pitch."
If she were the referee, folks like Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, White House adviser Karl Rove and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth would be ejected from political life. "The problem is we'd need a political referee willing to step up and pull the red card out of his pocket, even for a political superstar and even in the 110th minute of a political final," Huffington wrote.
Her post got me to dreaming about red cards for the blogosphere.
As Joe Gandelman noted at The Moderate Voice today, bloggers have a penchant for overstepping the rhetorical bounds of common decency, particularly by launching personal attacks. "It's a form of intellectual hysteria which ends in an attempt to commit rhetorical murder," Gandelman said. "And it says something about the soul (or lack of it) of the person or persons doing it. Whether on the right or on the left."
Wouldn't it be nice to boot such people from the blogosphere so they don't ruin the game for the rest of us?
UPDATE: Huffington Post blogger Mo Rocca said the political game need more head-butts, not red cards. Not so in the blogosphere. It has enough head-butts already, thank you.
Posted by Danny at 04:00 PM | Comments (10)
|
There are plenty of candidate blogs online today, but the real innovation is more likely to come from actual bloggers who become candidates rather than candidates who add boring blogs to their Web sites.
A case in point: yesterday's "blograising night" by Brian Keeler, a state Senate candidate in New York who blogs as "NYBri" at Daily Kos. Bloggers were able to offer financial support for Keeler either by attending the fundraiser in person or virtually.
"[T]onight we want to raise a boatload of money before the July 11 filing deadline so he can fulfill the prediction that early money makes money," SusanG wrote at Daily Kos. "Let's take care of the netroots' own!"
Also available at Daily Kos: a list of races where people in that site's community are actively involved, either as candidates or volunteers, and an appeal from Georgia10 for people to join her in serving as election judges in their precincts.
"We may not be candidates this election, we may not have all the money in the world to donate, but we can be a vital part democracy on Election Day," Georgia10 wrote. "One day, Election Day. It is, I gaurantee you, a fun day's work, one rewarded with the realization that you are helping this great democracy thrive."
Posted by Danny at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
|
Few Washington insiders have more contempt for the blogosphere (or at least are as willing to openly voice it) than Bull Moose Marshall Wittmann. He took another poke at "progressive" bloggers today in a defense of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, currently Public Enemy No. 1 of the Democratic netroots.
"Long before many of the bloggers entered the world, Joe Lieberman defied evil and went to Mississippi to register African-American voters," Wittmann wrote in a post praising Rep. Joe Lewis, D-Ga., for publicly backing Lieberman. "Long before there was a silly blogging community which poses as daring and cutting edge, Joe was a member of a brave community of justice which made a real difference for America."
Wittmann also criticized politicians who, unlike Lewis, "seem to take their direction from puerile bloggers."
Posted by Danny at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)
|
Blogger Sues Kentucky Over Web Filtering
Mark Nickolas, the blogger at Bluegrass Report and at one time a top aide to the political rival or Kentucky's current governor, has sued Gov. Ernie Fletcher and other state officials over a new Internet-filtering policy that has prevented state employees from reading Bluegrass Report and other blogs.
"The state’s policy selectively classifies Web sites as blogs because those Web sites contain viewpoints and content of which the state disapproves," said the complaint, which Public Citizen filed on Nickolas' behalf. He identified himself as "a popular online journalist" and suggested that the state implemented the blog in retaliation for criticisms he leveled against Fletcher in a New York Times article.
Nickolas said his site offers a mix of "original reporting and political commentary with relevant clips from major media sources," adding that it "is on the media distribution lists of several state agencies and regularly receives news releases from these agencies." The complaint also noted his other media work, including appearances with other Kentucky journalists on a public television show.
"The state’s decision to censor Nickolas’ Web site on state computers infringes his rights under both the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution," the complaint said. The lawsuit further alleges that the blog ban is "inconsistently applied" because it allows access to sites like Drudge Report, AnnCoulter.com and blogs produced by mainstream media outlets.
The case is the latest in a string of controversies to draw attention to distinctions being made between old media and new, with Nickolas arguing that such distinctions are unwarranted and not made on a content-neutral basis. "The state has not provided any rational basis for distinguishing mainstream media websites such as newspaper and magazine sites from independent news sites that the state characterizes as blogs," the complaint said.
The suit requests that the state declare the blog ban unconstitutional, particularly as it applies to Bluegrass Report, and issue an injunction to lift the policy that blocks access to such Web sites.
Posted by Danny at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
|
RedState co-founder Josh Trevino has bowed out as the manager of the Online Integrity movement.
The new manager of the effort is liberal blogger Aziz Poonawaller, the founder of the Dean Nation blog that backed the 2004 presidential campaign of now-Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
The change in leadership came after Trevino acknowledged in an interview with Beltway Blogroll that his involvement in the project had led to ridicule from the left. He said liberal bloggers assumed the effort to be "a trick or a trap" because he was behind it.
"The OI project was accused of being a partisan tool, and in the ensuing reaction from both sides, that accusation became a self-fulfilling prophecy," according to a post at the blog of Online Integrity. "It is time to reboot OI. Joshua has graciously sundered all association with the project so as to free it of any encumbrance."
The site has been stripped of the blogroll indicating what blogs endorsed the effort. Bloggers now will be able to show their support by posting a logo. The Online Integrity blog further posted an entry on the fourth principle in its "statement of principles," the one that calls for not giving "positive publicity" or directing traffic to blogs that violate the other principles.
Online Integrity also hopes to expand its parameters beyond its original privacy-related principles. But a new Yahoo discussion group created to aid that aspect of the initiative has generated no activity, reaffirming that the quest for online integrity remains a challenge.
It's also worth noting that the blog closed comments both for the post about the new management and the one about the fourth principle.
Posted by Danny at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
|
This entry is bumped to the top of the blog every time new interview links are added. Click to the extended entry for the latest. Links to earlier blog interviews with lawmakers and candidates are available in a separate entry.
MyDD nabbed Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for an interview.
Sadly, one of the more politically astute Democratic blogs appears to have missed a great opportunity for grilling a party leader. You would never know how much tension there is between bloggers and the DCCC based on the interview.
This was the most pointed question in a rather soft interview: "Let's get to kind of a different angle. For all of your fundraising successes, your recruitment successes, the biggest complaint out of the progressive blogosphere relating to your tenure as DCCC chair has been your willingness to jump into internal primary battles, most notably supporting Tammy Duckworth over a grassroots' favorite, Christine Cegelis. How would you respond to this criticism?"
Click to the interview for Emanuel's answer ... and go to the extended entry for the latest interviews.
UPDATE, 7/10: While I was out on bereavement leave after the passing of Grandpa Tumblebug, MyDD posted an interview with Democratic Senate candidate Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
Mitch Harper of Fort Wayne Observed also e-mailed me two links to interviews he conducted with Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., earlier this year. One focused on immigration; the other was conducted on primary night in Indiana.
And I recently found an ePluribus Media interview with Charlie Brown, a Democratic House candidate in California.
UPDATE, 7/1: The Real Ugly American interviewed Raj Bhakta -- yes, that Raj, he of "The Apprentice" fame. He is running as a Republican for a U.S. House seat in Pennsylvania.
Plus MyDD interviewed Barbara Ann Radnofsky, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas.
UPDATE, 6/27: Right Wing News interviewed Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. And here are two links I forgot to post last week: 1) a Right Wing News interview with John Jacobs who lost his Republican primary challenge to Rep. Chris Cannon in Utah on Tuesday; and 2) a radio debate between Club For Growth blogger Andy Roth and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif.
UPDATE, 6/13: Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarter's asked six questions of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., this morning. The topics were immigration, spending earmarks and "conservative battle fatigue."
UPDATE, 6/11: A few bloggers have posted candidate and lawmaker interviews in the weeks since I began my vacation. Here's a recap, in case you missed them, too:
-- Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., met with Los Angeles area bloggers, and The Blogometer posted a roundup of commentary and links, and conservative blogger Hugh Hewitt posted some links, too.
-- Hewitt asked Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jeff Sessions of Alabama about two federal appeals court nominees.
-- Jonathan Singer of MyDD continued his series of Democratic candidate interviews. His latest subjects: Steve Filson of California, House; Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Senate; Mark Hull-Richter of California, a write-in candidate for the House (a diarist at Daily Kos also plugged his candidacy); and Colleen Rowley of Minnesota, House.
-- Right Wing News also interviewed Patrick Ruffini, the head of e-campaigns at the Republican National Committee. And although not a candidate, former Attorney General Edward Meese held a conference call with bloggers late last month.
UPDATE, 5/23: The trends of candidates and lawmakers granting interviews to bloggers is gaining steam. Here are three more, at three different blogs, to keep you busy: Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., at Hoosierplew and In the Agora; Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., at Right Wing News; and Jerry McNerney, a Democratic House candidate in California, at MyDD.
UPDATE, 5/21: Rep. Mark Green, a Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, chatted with bloggers after winning his party's endorsement. The American Mind has a written recap and audio.
UPDATE, 5/18: Several candidate interviews have been posted in the past week. The interviewees were:
-- House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, about the federal budget and the PorkBusters campaign against spending earmarks.
-- Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
-- Ned Lamont, the Democratic challenger to Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut.
-- Bill Perkins, a Democratic state Senate candidate in New York. The Working Families Party, which has endorsed Perkins, conducted the interview.
-- Joe Sestak, a Democratic House candidate in Pennsylvania and military veteran who is among this year's "fighting Dems."
UPDATE, 5/11: Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman isn't a candidate or a lawmaker, but he works hard on behalf of a whole bunch of them. The latest episode of The Glenn and Helen Show reveals his answers to questions "about polls, anger in the base, and issues like immigration, spending, taxes and judges."
"We pressed Mehlman pretty hard," Instapundit Glenn Reynolds wrote, "and I think it's fair to say that he realizes that action is more important than rhetoric if the GOP is to win back the base before November. Whether he and the White House can deliver on that, especially in the face of the Senate Republicans' foot-dragging, is another question."
Posted by Danny at 06:47 PM
|
Grandpa Tumblebug And The EPA
Two men are largely responsible for my passion about government and politics: my father, who was a city councilman for several years during my small-town youth; and my maternal grandfather, who never met a politician he liked.
I am in West Virginia this week to mourn the latter. My grandfather, Wayne Kerns, died during his sleep sometime Saturday night, a few weeks shy of his 80th birthday. Today, he will get some well-deserved time in the spotlight of the blogosphere.
My grandfather was a character, a truth borne out by the nicknames we had for each other. I called him Grandpa Tumblebug, which stuck after we shared a laugh about a dung beatle that eats and lays its eggs in manure. He called me Mugwump, the punchline to a corny joke about a bird that sits on a fence with its “mug” on one side and its “wump” on the other.
Grandpa Tumblebug loved to strike goofy poses for the camera, too. As he opened gifts every birthday and Christmas, he tried on all of his new clothes at once, layer by layer, and held up anything he couldn’t wear. And just for kicks sometimes, he removed his false teeth and flashed a gummy grin.
Grandpa was not all fun and games, though, and his serious side often manifested itself in an everyman’s passion for public affairs. Even the nickname he gave me has its roots in politics. Mugwump just happens to be the term for the politically independent folks who rebelled against their Republican Party in 1884.
Whether Grandpa was complaining to the state about the miserable, muddy condition of the dirt road that led to the old family farmhouse, or squawking about environmental regulations that not long ago ran the Kernses out of the oil and gas business in Tyler County, W.Va., he had a thing or two to say about government. Even in retirement, he occassionally attended city council meetings in my hometown.
Grandpa Tumblebug relished the role of citizen watchdog. He would have been a great blogger.
And so it is fitting today that I pay tribute to him here by publishing the lyrics to a song he always wanted Uncle Sam to hear. He wrote the tune years ago, when an environmental crackdown at the state and federal levels put the pinch on his family’s oil and gas business. Later, when his children bought him time in a nearby studio, Grandpa Tumblebug recorded the song.
The focus of his ire was the Environmental Protection Agency. Here are the lyrics to the song, “Ode to the EPA”:
When the EPA gets a hold on you,
they say, "Now, sir, this is what you're gonna do!"
And when you get it done, they say, "This is not enough."
Now we gotta change it, or they'll slap a fine on us.They closed up the steel mills, they shut down the mines;
now they’re working on oil and gas for a time.
If you wonder why the fall in our economic way,
you can put the blame completely on the EPA.
They tell us that Freon, which is heavier than air,
floats up to the ozone and makes a hole up there.
They try to tell us that the earth is warming up from this;
if it gets any warmer, we will all freeze to death.Now chlorine is a chemical, that’s used everywhere,
From the kitchen to industry and chemical warfare.
It purifies our water and makes it safe to use,
Now the EPA thinks that’s gotta go, too.The people of the USA should be aware
what the EPA is doing to our country fair
Now our jobs are gone and our factories are dead.
We have to buy our clothes from the Orient instead.
When our Congress set up the EPA,
they gave it the power to destroy USA.
What Hitler and Tojo couldn’t do across the tide,
now the EPA is doing inside.Chorus
They say, “You gotta change this, you gotta change that.
They make so many changes that I don’t know where I’m at.
They’re paddin’ up their bank accounts with our money
While they play a little game called their “job security.”
So rest in peace, Grandpa Tumblebug. Your message finally made its way to Washington.
UPDATE: You can listen to "Ode To The EPA" here.
Posted by Danny at 06:43 PM | Comments (5)
|
CapitolLink: Kerry's Pep Talk On 'Net Neutrality'
Sen. John Kerry clicked his way to Save the Internet yesterday for a guest post at the group's blog.
Save the Internet is leading the push for "network neutrality," a concept that demands equal treatment and pricing for similar types of high-speed Internet content, and Kerry, D-Mass., urged the coalition to keep fighting despite a defeat in the Senate Commerce Committee this week.
"This vote was a gift to cable and telephone companies, and a slap in the face of every Internet user and consumer," Kerry, D-Mass., wrote of the 11-11 rejection of a net neutrality amendment to a broader telecommunications bill. "It will not stand."
Kerry also decried the panel's rejection of language that would have required new video providers like the Bell telephone companies to offer service throughout the regions where they decide to build infrastructure. "Why are United States senators afraid to say that companies should be expected to foster growth by building out their broadband networks to increase access?" he said.
He closed with this admonition to the coalition, whose mission has been endorsed by hundreds of bloggers: "Now we need to fight to either fix it or kill it in the full Senate. ... But there will be a day of reckoning on this legislation soon, make no mistake about it, and we need you to get engaged -- pressure your Senators, follow the issue, demand net neutrality and build-out.
Posted by Danny at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
|
