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Blog Bits

The Missouri blogosphere has won praise from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for breaking some of the biggest political stories in the state this year, and politicians aren't too thrilled by the development.

"Such coverage helps explain why potential Missouri candidates for 2008 are already grousing, mainly in private, about scrutiny they're facing on various blogs," the paper noted. "... Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, says Missouri politicians must accept the fact that activities or comments that once were ignored could now end up as fodder for the Internet for all the world to see."

-- In Utah, state lawmakers are blogging about policy and "changing how lawmakers communicate with the public," according to AP. New West compared the development with "that uneasy feeling you got in your guts the first time you heard you mom say, 'Not!' a’la 'Wayne's World'" and "the time your Grandma referred to one of her many antique rings as 'bling-bling'?"

-- Ezra Klein made the case for more such "blog wonkery" at the national level. "The blogs offer new opportunities for politicians seeking a name through policy," he said. "... Happily, it's an easier job than you might assume, and even the conversion of a few serious politicians would make an enormous difference."

-- Three out of five of the best political moments of 2006 chosen by Slate involved the Internet. Firedoglake, meanwhile, noted the netroots highlights of the year.

-- Democrat John Edwards entered the 2008 presidential race last week. As a result, he now has more than $300,000 extra in the bank via the ActBlue online fundraising group. As noted at Beltway Blogroll last week, ActBlue also has draft funds for potential Democratic candidates, but none of those funds are generating much interest yet.

-- Effective tomorrow, RedState will be a part of Eagle Publishing. "We believe that, with the resources of a committed and innovative company behind it, RedState can take the next leap forward at this critical time in our nation's history," RedState's directors recently announced. "This purchase allows for many things that the RedState model of the past two and a half years didn't - including more full-time staff, stronger support mechanisms and greater grassroots building.

-- David All, another conservative innovator in the new media space, has left his job as the "spokesblogger" to Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., and is now running his own consulting shop, The David All Group. "I strongly believe that our party needs to find and embrace modern, better ways to communicate with America to win back the majority, and I look forward to helping the team do just that," he said in an e-mail announcing the move.

-- Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani could use the advice of a new media expert like All. Giuliani now has a presidential exploratory committee for the 2008 presidential race and a Web site to go with it, but it's about as old media as you can get -- no blog, no podcasts, no video and really not much of anything.

-- Technology bloggers are talking about the approval of the merger between AT&T and BellSouth. Isen.blog has a roundup and asks: "What's the all-fired hurry? Why, all of a sudden is it so urgent for these elephants to dance? And why, especially, a stealth agreement released late on a holiday Friday afternoon when telecom reporters are home with loved ones? ... My fork says this one isn't done yet.'

-- The government of Pakistan reportedly is blocking blogs that originate from the free service offered by Google.

-- According to Think & Ask, the Foghound consultancy in Massachusetts counts this among its 10 marketing trends for 2007: "More people will tire of reading so many blogs, and will narrow down their daily reading and posting."

Posted by Danny | 11:44 AM

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