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Labels: bloggers, Election2008

Labels: bloggers

I propose to the Associated Press that it immediately begin linking to all its sources for stories, especially to members' original journalism because:

* This will support journalism at its source. As I've written here, it is vital that we link to original journalism so it can receive traffic, audience, branding, credit, conversation, and advertising.

* This will provide a better service to readers and clients, enabling them to find, read, and link to original reporting.

* This will be an act of transparency that everyone in journalism should be practicing. As they say in the math test, we should show our work. The AP can provide an example that other news organizations should follow.

This comes out of the ethic of the link and quote that I have learned from blogs. It says to our readers: Don't take my word for it, go see for yourself. And: Here's what the source said; I won't rephrase it but I will quote it directly so you can see for yourself.

Labels: APDD, Associated Press Deficit Disorder, bloggers

The FEC granted bloggers protection two years ago from regulations that potentially could have defined bloggers' linking to a campaign Web site or editorializing about a candidate a campaign contribution or expenditure. Hensarling's legislation would make those regulatory protections statutory.

Two years ago, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations that protected bloggers from being hampered by certain campaign finance laws. Under these regulations, bloggers cannot be considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate simply because they link to campaign websites or write about the positions of federal candidates. Additionally, blogs are treated as any other publication under the general media exemption from most campaign finance restrictions. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law.

But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute. As you may know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there’s no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Furthermore, the FEC is currently defunct because of vacancies and a lack of quorum. Therefore, we shouldn’t put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

Labels: bloggers, Congress, politics

Labels: bloggers

Labels: bloggers, Liberalism

Labels: Blog Talk Radio, bloggers

Labels: bloggers, Spring Blog Fest East

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

Labels: bloggers, blogs, NYT

Friends,

Rep. Jeb Hensarling introduced the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 (pdf file) today.

Will you join the Center for Competitive Politics in supporting this important bill?

The bill protects bloggers from dangerous campaign finance regulations by guarantees blogs the same protections granted to other forms of media under federal campaign finance laws.

The legislation also protects bloggers from ever being considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate by simply linking to campaign websites or writing about the positions of federal candidates.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations two years ago protecting bloggers from being hampered by these campaign finance laws. But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute.

As you know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there's no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Therefore, we shouldn't put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

Please let me know if you are interested in supporting the Blogger Protection Act of 2008.

If you do support the bill, we would appreciate if you are willing to sign onto this letter to Congress that the Center for Competitive Politics drafted in support of the bill.

Also, we would ask that you blog about this bill. And feel free to spread the word to fellow bloggers!

Labels: bloggers, Congress

Labels: bloggers, Spring Blog Fest East

a. it makes her chest look lumpy and asymmetrical
b. it makes her hips or derriere look big, lumpy and asymmetrical.

Labels: Blog Talk Radio, bloggers, podcasts, shoes

Yeah, I'm talking to those of you who have given some thought to attending the upcoming Spring BlogFest a/k/a Jersey Blogmeet on April 5th in Princeton, but who haven't yet taken the plunge.

I suspect that you're thinking runs something like the following, to which I will add my commentary, as a veteran of ten blogmeets in five different states:

Jeez, I won't know anyone there.
It may take you all of three minutes to know a dozen people. Bloggers are an exceedingly friendly bunch. After ten minutes, you'll find it hard to get a word in edgewise, because bloggers are not only friendly, they are also loquacious blabbermouths.

Princeton? I've heard of the school (Yeah, it's the one that lost the first intercollegiate football game to Rutgers), but getting there is a pain in the ass.
Car – easy. Princeton sits on Route 1. Trains: They run from various places in Jersey and from Philly and New York. Teresa is making the trek from Massachusetts and the Wiseass Jooette will be schlepping in from the New York Shithole Brooklyn. The Triumph Brewery (the site of the festivities) is walking distance from the station.

Labels: bloggers, Spring Blog Fest East

Labels: Blog Talk Radio, bloggers

Labels: bloggers, Laurie Kendrick

The correct way to deal with someone who doesn't treat you with appropriate respect and dignity is to put yourself above him: that is, to be perfectly, icily correct in all things, and never to say a word about his lapses from propriety. This is called self-respect. Not many persons have it, these days, despite all the "self-esteem" emphasis touted by our government-run schools.

Labels: bloggers

Labels: bloggers, entertainment, Spring Blog Fest East

Labels: bloggers, Spring Blog Fest East

Labels: bloggers, Spring Blog Fest East

A scuffle developed when residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish, Xinhua said.

When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes, Xinhua said. Wei was dead on arrival at a Tianmen hospital, the report said.

Qi Zhengjun, chief of the urban administration bureau in the city of Tianmen, lost his job over the incident, Xinhua reported Friday.

Local people attempted to stop a rubbish truck from dumping refuse at a site that they argued was too close to their village, state media reported.

Members of the Chinese municipal inspectors, known as the Chengguan, intervened.

A para-police force equipped with steel helmets and stab-proof vests, Chengguan personnel are often used by local officials as trouble-shooters.

The victim, Wei Wenhua, the manager of a construction company, was driving by and stopped to film the confrontation on his mobile phone.

When Mr Wei refused the Chengguan's demands to delete the footage, he was beaten to death on the spot, according to witnesses cited by Xinhua news agency.

Five villagers were also injured in the incident, of whom three remain in hospital, Xinhua reported.

Labels: bloggers, China, Communism

McCain expects a tough fight in Michigan which is "one of Governor Romney's home [states]." He is encouraged however by the support he's picked up from people like Frank Keating, Tom Ridge, and Joe Lieberman. For example, he believes that Ridge, as former head of the Homeland Security bureaucracy, adds credibility to his claim that he doesn't suupport amnesty, and thus helps deflect Romney's main line of attack.

On his plan for Michigan, McCain says he's going in again to get independents and Republicans. He says he does not know what Romney's message will be, but his will be lower taxes for Michigan and job retraining and education to take care of displaced workers. He says he wants to go to community colleges to meet local needs for jobs. McCain says the present federal policies were established in the fifties and don't work anymore. McCain also says we need to implement the new CAFE standards because they've become law.

In response to my question about the NH exit polling indicating he is the preferred choice as commander in chief and that Romney's ad were "unfair," he answered that he did not know if "unfair" was the right term but he was certain that "voters began to tire of negative advertising particularly since he did the same thing in Iowa." He mentioned that he did one TV response ad quoting local media. He also stressed that the "main reason I'm running is because I have the knowledge and the background necessary to lead this country in two wars and the transcendent struggle[against terrorism]." He reeled off the list of current crisis including Pakistan, Kenya and the Iranian harassment of US naval vessels as evidence of the importance of foreign policy credentials.

Me: What went right in 2000 that you need to have go right again this cycle?

McCain: In 2000, we had some momentum coming out of New Hampshire. The state has a lot of independent-minded voters. There is a strong national defense component there. One of our jobs here is to tell people my record on social issues, because social conservatives are a significant block of the electorate - home schoolers, very conservative voters. I think that also we've got enough money to buy a respectable amount of media and gotten the endorsement of the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. I think we're likely to get some others around the state.

And indeed, Michigan is considered one of Romney's hometowns, but I would note Boston was viewed as his hometown as well.

McCain seemed a bit more buoyant than in recent calls; clearly, he’s energized by pulling out an important win and giving his campaign new life. He’s sticking to his core issues and emphasizing and re-emphasizing them, which strikes me as a sound strategy.

What should the Republican message be? -- Trust and confidence, stop the wasteful spending, national security, reduce the federal government, and fix entitlement programs. It's change -- but it's change back to the principles for which Republicans should stand. The Democrats talk about change but offer no specifics. We need to talk specifically about change.

In any event, on today's conference call, NRO's Jim Geraghty asked McCain what kind of person he would consider for VP. While McCain obviously would not make any predictions, he did mention former Senator Phil Gramm -- and his economics expertise -- as the "kind of person" he would consider. Read into that what you will...

The fact remains that most Americans expect the same kind of behavior from their representatives they demand from each other. They expect them to find a way to get along, because neighbors who get along make for a better neighborhood. If the average American behaved like the average Congressperson, we'd be living behind walls and armed to the teeth, our only objective being to 'get' or eliminate those who disagree with us, at all costs, truth be damned.

Labels: bloggers, Election2008, John McCain, politics, Republicans

Bill Clinton voiced his abiding anger at the media's coverage of him and his wife in Durham, N.H., today, and suggested that media bias will force Clinton to go negative on Barack Obama.

He also expressed his frustration that his wife is perceived by voters as divisive through, he said, no fault of her own.

Labels: bloggers, Hillary Clinton, NJ, politics, Sudan

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Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi stringer who has taken many photographs for the Associated Press, some of which are in evident collaboration with Iraqi terrorists... has been held for 19 months in Iraq after being captured in the company of two terrorists. Now, the AP reports that new evidence has emerged against Hussein, on the basis of which a criminal case is likely to be pursued against him.

Actually, quite a bit is known about Bilal Hussein. Michelle Malkin presents a useful summary, with Hussein's "convenient" photos, and John Hinderaker at Powerline neatly asks, “How stupid does the Associated Press think we are?” Bob Owens provides further information about the legal process and AP grandstanding.

He had been sitting in Abu Ghraib for a month, and nobody realized that he was the AP photog who had snapped dozens of staged photos with al Qaeda fighters. The reader was in Abu Ghraib as an investigator working on an unrelated case when he saw Bilal Hussein and recognized him from the extensive coverage we had on The Jawa Report.

He reported it up the chain of command and within days Bilal Hussein was transferred to a different facility, NCIS got involved, and eventually a criminal investigation opened on him.

So, the blogosphere helped bring to light the outrages that the MSM considers standard operating procedure. Helping produce and disseminate terrorist propaganda is just showing "both sides of the story" to the MSM.

They call it journalistic ethics, we call it treason.

Labels: APDD, Associated Press Deficit Disorder, bloggers

Labels: bloggers, NJ

Labels: bloggers, John McCain

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award" with a link to the post that you wrote.

Labels: bloggers, friends, Friends I Haven't Met Yet