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Friday Festival Of Blog Bits

Earmarks have been all the rage in Washington this week, as Congress cleared to President Bush a bill to create a federal spending database and the House also passed legislation that would mandate disclosure of earmark sponsors in tax and spending legislation.

Bloggers, whose grassroots lobbying helped push the database bill to the top of the agenda, have followed the story closely all week, both informing their readers of news developments and posting commentary.

The Blogometer here at National Journal posted a worthwhile roundup of one aspect of the "pork" debate between bloggers. It included a piece in defense of earmarks by Ezra Klein, though he later agreed with the Sunlight Foundation that the lack of transparency about such spending is a problem.

The action on the database measure, meanwhile, prompted Andy Roth at The Club For Growth to sing the praises of Senate bill sponsor Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and the sea change that he may well be furthering in "old-school" Senate politics.

The club also made the House debate on earmark reform a key vote for grading lawmakers and later called attention to how members of the Appropriations Committeee voted.

Georgia Republican Jack Kingston in particular is taking heat for his vote. Kingston sits on the Appropriations panel and is popular in the blogosphere. But he isn't so popular that bloggers on a no-pork diet won't blast him for betraying their cause. See what The Club For Growth, Instapundit and Georgia blogger Jason Pye, who had a MailTube run-in with Kingston earlier this year, have to say.

Over at the moderate blog GOPProgress, Liz Mair agreed with the view of appropriators that the new earmarks rules should be tougher on the tax-writing committee. But she added that it is "better to get a 75 percent solution than do nothing."

Now here are the rest of this week's blog bits:

-- The Center for Democracy and Technology launched a new Web site, NetDemocracyGuide.org, that advises bloggers and other about political advocacy online in light of this summer's Federal Election Commission ruling on the topic. Adam Bonin, a lawyer for some bloggers who testified on the issue before the FEC, urged Daily Kos readers to bookmark the site.

-- Aggravated by the decision of the National Republican Senatorial Committee to help Sen. Lincoln Chafee win the GOP nomination in Rhode Island on Tuesday, one writer at RedState called for the disbanding of the NRSC. Blog P.I. ridiculed the suggestion as "the dumbest thing I've ever seen" on the front page of the redesigned RedState, and the moderate blog GOPProgress defended the NRSC.

-- Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos said Democrats need to do a better job of imitating Republican success at building "negative value" campaign narratives. It sounds more like manipulating voters to me, regardless of who is doing it or how successful it is. Moulitsas also griped about the prospects of Democrats picking New York as the host city for the 2008 presidential convention.

-- The Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce in Virginia will host a debate between Republican Sen. George Allen and his Democratic challenger, James Webb. Some credentialed bloggers, including Howard Mortman of Extreme Mortman, will be there to report on the event.

-- A new ad from Webb makes him sound like a Republican ... and Daily Kos' Moulitsas thinks that's just swell. That attitude seems to conflict with the appeal of MyDD blogger Matt Stoller that Democratic candidates not be ashamed to mention their party affiliation in ads. "The brand can be a net positive this year," he wrote. "Please use it."

-- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., endorsed the blog-backed Rightroots effort to raise money for select GOP congressional candidates by placing blog ads that urge contributions to the cause. An ongoing fundraising challenge as part of Rightroots is the subject of a blog burst today.

-- The Sunlight Foundation launched the Punch Clock Campaign, offering a reward to bloggers and any other citizens who can convince their congressman to post their daily schedules on their Web sites. A contributor at GOPProgress called for a blog swarm to back the effort.

-- The Center for Citizen Media provided more details about its political transparency project. The effort, which just received a grant from the Sunlight Foundation, calls for the involvement of bloggers and others in one California congressional district.

-- PBS interviewed big-name bloggers Arianna Huffington and Andrew Sullivan about political blogs.

-- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., held a conference call with Democratic bloggers, and McJoan has a full report at Daily Kos.

-- Is political hacking becoming commonplace? Or are politicians just playing loose with the definition of hacking? Personal Democracy Forum tackled that issue by focusing on a complaint in California linked to comments recently made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Blogger Ezra Klein, meanwhile, penned a Los Angeles Times column about the California controversy.

-- MSNBC.com fired liberal blogger Eric Alterman, ending a decade-long relationship between them. But his Altercation blog quickly found a new home at Media Matters for America, where blogging will resume Monday.

-- Real Clear Politics announced a partnership with Fox News that will "utilize a tool for tracking the hottest chatter in the blogosphere."

-- Last week, I talked about the menu at Ruby Tuesday's. This week, I'll tackle the heady subject of kids' meals at McDonald's.

Our 6-year-old son, Anthony, was quite thrilled when Ronald and company decided to feature Hummers in the meals this summer. But environmental groups and bloggers were offended by the promotion of the gas-guzzling vehicles, challenged it and now want McDonald's to feature hybrid vehicles in future kids' meals.

I don't own a Hummer, and I don't want one, in part for the very reason that environmentalists hate them. But I also think it's a bit silly to protest the toys in kids' meals. So here's what I think: Hummer owners should unite for one day and conduct drive-through events at their local McDonald's restaurants.

Posted by Danny | 12:21 PM

Comments

Glover, watch the blogs , you are a traitor to America, Why dont you give your millions away insted of being a mouth piece to beg for others money, you and your "FRIEND HUGO" are both non Americans, thousands of people will not ever watch another Glover movie,
just look at the anti Glover approval on the web.

YOUR A DISCRACE GLOVER, AND YOUR A RACIST YOU AND YOUR BLACK CHURCH AND ALL THE NEW NAACP LEAGUE OF RACISTS, THANKS FOR SHOWING YOUR RACISM CONDONING McKINNYS RACIST ACTIONS, ALONG WITH BELEFONTE,YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO McKINNY, SHE WAS FIRED, HOPE FULLY THE PEOPLE WILL FIRE YOU.

fatcha | 09.23.06 07:07 PM

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